Why did Jonbenet's killer write a ransom note and leave body?

ninmyat wrote:
There is absolutely 0 reason to start to write a draft ransom note and then write the real thing and make it that ridiculously long.

If it was a premeditated kidnapping, ('hid in the house' theory) why the fuck wouldn't you bring a ransome note with you and why the hell would you start to draft one and then write one on paper found in the house.

If it was a burglary turned kidnapping, why would you start to draft a ransom note, and then write the real thing 4 pages long? You would scribble something like "I've taken your daughter, dont contact police, deposit money at this location at this time if you want to see her again." A panicked burglar does not sit and start writing about his 'organisation'.

A lot of people get bogged down in the details of the case, because it is a fascinating one and it is very interesting, but the ransom note is the most ridiculous thing ever and was totally written by one of the family in my opinion. They also completely over thought it - mentioning the fathers business, his bonus, writing 4 pages worth etc.

There's no way the family wasn't involved. As for which one did it, that is what is hard to prove.

docG wrote:

Questions

An intruder intending to express his anger or disdain for the Ramseys would have had no reason to write a meaningless ransom note. A kidnapper would not have left both the note and the body. If the parents were involved in this together, as so many assume, such a note might serve to throw the police off the track, but only if the body were found, days later, in some remote area. Or never found. With the body hidden in the house, where it is sure to be discovered, the note only creates problems for the Ramseys, the only ones who could "logically" have written it. If they were not planning on getting the body out of the house before the police came, then why would they write an obviously phony note?

Also, why was the note hand printed? Why not print it via computer? Or paste words together from newspapers? If the parents, or anyone at all close to the family, wrote it, they would be risking exposure for sure.

Answers

No intruder would have had anything to gain by writing the ransom note. No intruder would have any reason to write it. A kidnapper would have taken the child (or her body) with him. If something had gone wrong with his plan, he would have had no reason to leave a possibly incriminating note. Someone intending to frame John or Patsy would not have written the note in his own hand, as that would be evidence of an intruder. The conclusion is simple: there was no kidnapper. There was no intruder. The note must have been written by someone on the inside -- and it does indeed read like a staged kidnapping attempt.

btk wrote:
“I find the newspaper not wirting about the poem on Vain unamusing. A little paragraph would have enough. Iknow it not the media fault. The Police Cheif he keep things quiet, and doesn’t let the public know there a psycho running around lose strangling mostly women, there 7 in the ground; who will be next?

“How many do I have to Kill before I get a name in the paper or some national attention. Do the cop think that all those deaths are not related? Golly -gee, yes the M.O. is different in each, but look a pattern is developing. The victims are tie up-most have been women-phone cut- bring some bondage mater sadist tendencies-no struggle, outside the death spot-no wintness except the Vain’s Kids. They were very lucky; a phone call save them. I was go-ng to tape the boys and put plastics bag over there head like I did Joseph, and Shirley. And then hang the girl. God-oh God what a beautiful sexual relief that would been. Josephine,when I hung her really turn me on; her pleading for mercy then the rope took whole, she helpless; staring at me with wide terror fill eyes the rope getting tighter-tighter. You don’t understand these things because your not underthe influence of factor x). The same thing that made Son of Sam, Jack the Ripper, Havery Glatman, Boston Strangler, Dr. H.H. Holmes Panty Hose Strangler OF Florida, Hillside Strangler, Ted of the West Coast and many more infamous character kill. Which seem s senseless, but we cannot help it. There is no help, no cure, except death or being caught and put away. It a terrible nightmarebut, you see I don’t lose any sleep over it. After a thing like Fox I ccome home and go about life like anyone else. And I will be like that until the urge hit me again. It not continuous and I don;t have a lot of time. It take time to set a kill, one mistake and it all over. Since I about blew it on the phone-handwriting is out-letter guide is to long and typewriter can be traced too,.My short poem of death and maybe a drawing;later on real picture and maybe a tape of the sound will come your way. How will you know me. Before a murder or murders you will receive a copy of the initials B.T.K. , you keep that copy the original will show up some day on guess who?

“May you not be the unluck one!
P.S.
How about some name for me, its time: 7 down and many more to go. I like the following How about you?

“‘THE B.T.K. STRANGLER’, WICHITA STRANGLER’, ‘POETIC STRANGLER’, ‘THE BOND AGE STRANGLER’ OR PSYCHO’ THE WICHITA HANGMAN THE WICHITA EXECUTIONER, ‘THE GAROTE PHATHOM’, ‘THE ASPHIXIATER’.
B.T.K”

On a separate page, he writes:

“#5 You guess motive and victim.

“#6 You found one Shirley Vain lying belly down on a unmade bed in northeast bedroom-hand tied behind back with black tape and cord. Feet & ankles with black tape &legs. Ankles tied to west head of the bed with small off white cord, wrap around legs, hands, arm, finally the neck, many times. A off white pla stic bag over her head loop on with a pink nitie was barefooted. She was sick use a glass of water and smoke I or Two cigarette-house a total mess- kids took some toys with them to the bathroom-bedagainst east bathroom door. Chose at random with some pre-planning. Motive Factor X.

“#7 One Nancy Fox-lying belly down on made bed in southwest bedroom-hands tied behind back with red panty hose-feet together with yellow nitie-semi-nude with pink sweather and bra small neckless-glasses on west dresser-panties below butt-many different than the hosery. She had a smoke and wbnt to the bathroom before the final act-very neat housekeeper& dresser-rifled pursein kitchen-empty paper bag – white coat in living-room- heat up to about 90 degrees, Christsmas tree lights on- nities and hose around the room- hose bag of orange color it and hosery on bed-driver licence gone-seminal stain on or in blue women wear. Chose at random with little pre-planning, Motive Factor “X”.

“#8 Next victim maybe: You will find her hanging with a wire noose-Hands behind back with black tape or cord -feet with tape or cord-gaged- then cord around the body to the neck -hooded maybe- possible seminal stain in anus-or on body. Will be chosen at random. Some pre-planning-Motive Factor’X’.”

There was a poem and sketch enclosed with this letter. The poem was entitled “Oh Death to Nancy” and was based on an old folk song called “Oh Death”. The crime scenes described are acknowledged by police to have been fairly accurate.

The third letter of the 1970s was sent to both a Wichita televsion station and to an intended victim who did not come home in time to meet what would have been certain death one evening in 1979. BTK returned some pilfered small items in this letter, to prove it was indeed he who had been in that house waiting for his victim to come home. He enclosed a sketch of what he would have liked to have done to this would-be victim, as well as a poem entitled “Oh Anna Why Didn’t You Appear”. (For the two poems and some other BTK writings, see The Letters of Dennis Rader.)

After this followed a 25 year silence during which there were no confirmed communications from BTK. He broke that silence in March 2004 when the first of eleven communications were issued, the final one of which led directly to his arrest.

If BTK had not been an ego-maniac he may never have been arrested. He had to let the world know that these crimes were exclusively his, saving police a lot of guesswork in linking these different crimes together. He would go on to be charged with three more murders in 1985, 1986 and 1991. He furnished his own crime scene photos of 1986 victim Vicki Wegerle in his 2004 series of communications, leaving no doubt that this was another BTK victim. Evidence was seized, probably from his own files, proving the other two murders after he was arrested.

The only reason we refer to Dennis Rader as BTK or the BTK Strangler is because he himself created the name and character back in 1974.

“The code words for me will be, Bind them, Torture them, Kill them…” he wrote prophetically back then. By 2004 he couldn’t contain his silence any longer. Apart from proving the Wegerle murder and that he was the same killer from the 1970s, BTK mostly furnished fake clues while transfixing Wichita and an increasingly larger audience in this latter series of letters and packages. He became obsessed with his own case, hearing and seeing BTK reports in the media, until finally he got so careless that the police were able to identify him beyond all doubt. This self-created madman who posed as a normal member of society for so many years will be spending his remaining years inside a maximum security prison, writing more letters.

Rader had a reasoning behind his killing. One of the unique aspects of Rader’s crime spree was his enormous ego; he kept in contact with the press in the 1970s in an effort to spread fear throughout Wichita. In an early letter, he blamed “Factor X” as the motivation behind his murders. Rader fancied himself as an aficionado of serial killers and said that everyone from Jack The Ripper to Ted Bundy to the Son of Sam had the same Factor X.

After his arrest, he narrowed down what Factor X was: a demon. In 2007, he described it being as something that “controls” his desire to kill. He’s even drawn it—depicting it in varying ways as a frog or as a more traditional-looking demon. It was Factor X that pushed him that fateful day, he claimed. “I knew somewhere along the line of eighth grade or freshman in high school that I had some abnormal tendencies at that point in time. But it exploded on January 15, 1974. That’s when the ball game exploded. You know, at some point in time, someone should have picked something up from me and identified it.”