A Ransom Note Left at the JonBenét Ramsey Crime Scene Has Always Been a Source of Confusion

At the risk of being glib, if there was a Mount Rushmore of true crime stories then the murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey should be included. It would probably be situated between Jack the Ripper and The Zodiac, in terms of unsolved killings that continue to fascinate people to this day.

Unlike those other stories, JonBenét was the victim.

On Christmas day in 1996, her family awoke to find the pretty blonde child was not in her bed. After JonBenét was reported missing to police, it would take them seven hours to find her body.

Due to the shoddy investigative work of Boulder, Colo. police, no one thought to search the basement where she had been brutally murdered. Apart from the evidence at the actual crime scene, there was also a ransom note left for John and Patsy Ramsey, her parents. Here's what we know about it.

The ransom note was found on the staircase of the Ramsey family kitchen and was written using a black sharpie on a yellow legal pad that belonged to Patsy. According to The Daily Camera, extensive forensic testing done on the note told police nothing. There were no fingerprints or DNA. Although handwriting analysis suggested that Patsy could have written, ultimately it was inconclusive.

David Foster, a professor of linguistics at Vasser, was hired by the Boulder police to look at the note. He had previously linked the Unabomber Manifesto to Ted Kaczynski and also came to the conclusion that the ransom note wasn't written by Patsy.

Years later, former FBI profiler Jim Clemente deduced that it would have taken the author nearly 22 minutes to write the ransom note, per People. He believes the letter was staged and that the killer is JonBenét's brother Burke. He was never a suspect.

The ransom note is two-and-a-half pages long and is addressed to John. It claims to be written by a "group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction," who do not respect his business. At the time, John was the CEO of Access Graphics, a computer service company that had been acquired by Lockheed Martin in 1991.

For those who don't know, Lockheed Martin is best known for its robust military contracts.

The note goes on to say that JonBenét was alive, though police later learned that she had long been dead by the time her parents were reading the letter. It demanded that John withdraw $118,000 from an unspecified account, $100,000 of which should be in 100-dollar bills. The remaining $18,000 would be comprised of 20-dollar bills.

He was told to put the money in a brown paper bag, and then wait for a phone call between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.

John was informed that the two men allegedly watching over JonBenét did not like him so it would be unwise to provoke them. If he deviated from their instructions in any way, JonBenét would be killed and her remains would not be returned.

He was also told not to contact any member of law enforcement but ignored that demand. "You and your family are under constant scrutiny as well as the authorities," they wrote.

The letter ends with a firm suggestion from the authors. They told him not to underestimate them. "Use that good southern common sense of yours." That line was particularly baffling as John was from Lincoln, Neb.

Finally, the note was signed, "Victory! S.B.T.C." Law enforcement never cracked the signature code. Like JonBenét's murder, the ransom note remains a mystery.