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Sunday, October 14, 2012

The "Experts" See Patsy - part 1:Cina Wong

[NB: 1-25-2013 - Yesterday I received a notice from "The Blogger Team" that this blog post was being temporarily removed due to a notification they had received regarding the supposedly unauthorized use of copyrighted material. I was told I could repost it once the material was removed, but given no information regarding exactly who filed the complaint. In my view all such materials are covered under the Fair Use provisions of the copyright laws, but that's not my call in this instance, so I have no choice but to comply.]

From the Boulder Daily Camera, Nov. 25, 1997: 
On a scale of "1 to 10" with "10" being a "probable" match to the ransom note found at the JonBenet Ramsey murder scene, one handwriting expert gave Patsy Ramsey an "8.5."
New York City Attorney Darnay Hoffman today plans to file in Boulder County District Court a preliminary handwriting analysis completed by expert Cina Wong. The handwriting analysis will be added to Hoffman's recently filed lawsuit against Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter.
Wong's analysis shows 32 points of comparison and similarities between seven samples of Patsy Ramseys handwriting and the ransom note. However, one page of the report was redacted in media copies, Hoffman noted, to prevent JonBenets mother from disguising her handwriting in the future.
"The relatively large number of distinctive similarities found in both the 'ransom note and exemplars allegedly written by Patsy Ramsey ... cannot be ignored," wrote Wong, a board certified document examiner from Norfolk, Va., hired by Hoffman. "Statistically, it can only be concluded that it is very likely the same hand wrote all the documents involved."
The most widely disseminated example of Wong's work is a letter by letter comparison of exemplars from the note, on the top row, and Patsy Ramsey's exemplars, on the bottom:


[Image removed due to possibility of copyright infringement.]

Many following the case have seen this display as proof positive Patsy wrote the note. Let's take a closer look, on a letter by letter basis. Fortunately, Websleuths forum contributor "cynic" recently posted clear blowups that are especially easy to evaluate and compare. I hope he (she?) doesn't mind my using them here:

[Image removed due to possibility of copyright infringement.]

Letter a: Well, the first pair are obviously completely different, with Patsy's version open and the other filled in, and their shapes are also very different, so on to the second. There is some similarity in that both are "manuscript" a's, i.e., each has a little "hat" on top. They do look somewhat similar; however, on closer inspection, we see that the "hat" on Patsy's "a" was formed from a line starting at the bottom and moving continuously to the top, whereas the "hat" on the ransom note "a" is attached to the upper portion of the lower oval. They may look somewhat alike, but were formed in a different manner. The third pair do resemble one another, yes, though Patsy's is much smaller.

The two pairs of "b"s are similar, though Patsy's second "b" has a curved vertical while its partner's is straight. The "C"s are similar, but hardly distinctive as this letter is so simple.

[Image removed due to possibility of copyright infringement.]

The following pair of "d"s are very interesting. At first glance they look distinctively similar, but on closer inspection we see that the ransom note "d" was formed with three separate strokes, a semi circle, a short line jutting out to the lower right of the semicircle, and a longer line jutting out to the upper right; Patsy's exemplar, on the other hand, was formed with two strokes, a semicircle and a single curved vertical line abutting it on the right. This difference is even clearer as seen in the following exhibit, where the lines are more clearly delineated:

[Image removed due to possibility of copyright infringement.]

I'm dwelling on this particular comparison because I see it as especially instructive. Based purely on the smaller display, as reproduced at the top of this post, it would be easy to see both letters as almost identical -- seen in more detail, however, the distinctive differences are apparent.

The following "d"s are similar, both looking like backward 6's. The third pair of "d"s don't look much alike, but seem to have been formed in a similar manner, as a circle with a curved vertical line through it.

The following pair of "e"s look completely different. However, the next pair are strikingly similar. The final pair look different, but appear to have been formed in the same way.

[Image removed due to possibility of copyright infringement.]

The first pair of "f"s look similar, though Patsy's was formed with a lighter touch. The following "f"s, this time in block format, look different, but were formed in the same way. I don't see much similarity between the first pair of "g"s, but the second pair both have a distinctive sharp angle at the bottom coupled with an unusually small "head" at the top, so the similarity there is striking.

[Image removed due to possibility of copyright infringement.]

The first pair of "h"s are almost identical, though Patsy's is smaller. The second pair also look quite similar. The following "i"s are also very similar, and also distinctive, both looking like miniature capital "L"s. The capital "I"s are also quite similar, with a distinctive little crook toward the top in both. The following "i"s also look similar, though hardly distinctive. The "J"s look somewhat similar but there are distinct differences as well. The "k"s are especially interesting as they're both formed in a very distinctive manner, a vertical line abutting against what looks like a sideways "v".

[Image removed due to possibility of copyright infringement.]

Both pairs of "L"s look very similar, but also very generic. Ditto with the "m"s. The first pair of "n"s are different, the second pair similar, but also generic. The third pair of "n"s share a point at the top but Patsy's begins with a down stroke that the other one lacks. The "O"s are quite similar and formed in a similar manner. The first pair of "p"s look quite different to me, though they're formed in a similar manner. The last pair of "p"s look very different to me and seem to have been formed differently as well.

[Image removed due to possibility of copyright infringement.]

Much attention has been paid to Patsy's odd formation of the letter "q," which looks almost like an "8". The ransom note "q" looks remarkably similar. That letter appears only once in the ransom note. And we have no way of knowing whether Patsy typically forms her "q"s like that or whether this is just a fluke. So it's hard to say without further evidence how significant this very distinctive similarity might be.

The following "r"s are very different, though the next two pairs are quite similar. The first "S"s look alike, but not the next two pairs. All the "t" pairs show strong similarities.

[Image removed due to possibility of copyright infringement.]

I don't see much similarity between the "u"s aside from what might be expected in any such comparison. Both "v"s look alike. I don't see much similarity between any of the "y"s, aside from the angles of the lower portions being similar. The "ze" combinations at the end show some similarity.

So. Let's add it up. Dissimilarities: 15. Similarities: 32. Of the similarities, 18 strike me as more or less generic (i.e., typical looking), while only 6 can be regarded as truly distinctive, i.e., based on relatively unusual letter formations. The rest seem somewhere in between, at least as far as I can tell, neither here nor there.

So. What do all these comparisons mean? I'll get into that in the next installment, so stay tuned . . .

6 comments:

  1. People have made this murder case much more complicated than it truly is and common sense is seldom used.
    Most experts agree that Patsy R's handwriting appears similar to the ransom note starting with the small cursive a.
    Very few people hand write the letter "a" looking like the strike of a keyboard.
    Ask yourself, do you?
    It's a very rare cursive style.
    The public raised a weary eye upon the family because people asked one question.
    If my child was kidnapped from my home what would I do?
    They answered.
    Our first action would be to look in every nook,cranny, attic, closet, exit point, garages, buildings, window, basement, cellars and vehicles.
    They thought.
    We know my home better than an intruder and better than the cops.
    They would scour the premises, out of fear and helplessness.
    Not hours later but immediately for the shear hope of finding ones child and with the determination to find out where/ how did they exit? and where/ how did the perpetrator enter?
    Common sense solves this crime, not complicated jargon, theories or hand writing analysis.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "People have made this murder case much more complicated than it truly is and common sense is seldom used."

      Agreed.

      "Most experts agree that Patsy R's handwriting appears similar to the ransom note starting with the small cursive a."

      If you read all the posts here under heading "The "Experts" See Patsy," you'll see how outrageously incompetent Darnay Hoffman's "experts" are. But you need to read carefully, not just skim. Cina Wong's list of "matches" may look convincing to you, but as I've demonstrated, many letter pairs on that list do NOT match. Others letters are formed in such a generic manner that the "matches" don't really mean much.

      And how do we know that Wong could not have found even more "matches" if she'd been given someone else's exemplars and told they were Patsy's. My guess is it wouldn't have mattered. She decided the "margin drift" in the note matched Patsy's margin drift, even though the margins in the note do NOT drift but are perfectly vertical. She was determined to find "matches" and so she found them.

      Very strong similarities with letters in the note have also been found for both Chris Wolf and John Ramsey.

      None of Darnay's people, including Wong, have ever offered any objective standards for determining what is a match and what is not. If you take a look at Cherokee's comparisons, you'll see that Patsy's writing style overall looks totally different from that of the note. It's only when he cherry picks, looking only for matches and ignoring everything else, that he comes up with anything at all.

      There are two different standard types of handwriting in English: cursive and manuscript. The "a" you're referring to is called "manuscript a" and it is often though not always used in manuscript style. Patsy used it both before AND after the investigation, so what Thomas and Kolar have written on this is simply incorrect. They saw what they wanted to see.

      The single document we have from John is too brief for us to determine whether he usually uses manuscript "a", but that's beside the point because the ransom note was deliberately designed to be deceptive, so even if he never used it before, he could certainly have used it in the note. I think it possible he could have been copying a computer font, Courier New, which uses that type of printed "a."

      "Our first action would be to look in every nook,cranny, attic, closet, exit point, garages, buildings, window, basement, cellars and vehicles."

      Yes, if your child is missing, you search the house. If you have reason to believe she's been kidnapped, you assume she's not in the house. That's one of the reasons John wrote the note, so she'd assume JonBenet wasn't in the house and wouldn't turn it upside down looking for her. Even the police didn't think to search the house for JonBenet. They too were deceived by the "ransom" note.

      I agree that hand writing analysis will never solve this crime. And I agree about common sense. But your opinion is not the same as common sense, it's just an opinion, like all the others, including those convinced all three Ramseys are innocent.

      Delete
  2. I enjoyed reading your blog.
    I know your theory is that John alone did this crime, but I believe Patsy was the driving force. Previous letters and notes written by her before the murder do have the cursive rare "a". The note is screaming: female.
    The note is dramatic, Patsy R relished drama.
    John was eliminated by handwriting experts immediately.

    Uncorrupted evidence would solve this child's murder.
    That evidence was disasterly compromised on day one.
    The why and how will never be answered.
    Gut feelings again.
    Mrs Ramsey always referred to her daughter as " that child ".
    It was chilling to hear her ( without tears ) say straight to a television camera,..... I loved "that" child.
    It was like she was removing herself from the victim, definitely not a mother's description of her lost child.
    After these public interviews, the shade of gray became clear to me but you can't convict on gut feelings or common sense.
    Unforunatiely this case will remain as cold as the grave her mother lies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I respect your gut feelings, but everyone following this case has gut feelings and not all are the same, nor do all point in the same direction. My own gut feeling when listening to the recording of Patsy's 911 call is that she couldn't possibly have been faking. Others like yourself have a gut feeling she was. So sorry, gut feelings in themselves are not enough. Not yours. Not mine.

      Delete
  3. Handwriting analysis is gonbledy goop. You state the first page of the ransom letter is less fluid because somebody was trying to disguise their handwriting. I believe the first page is different because the person writing is was on something, drugs or alcohol. You can keep trying to spin this story all you want to make some kind of sensational scandal, but there is evidence that somebody else did this outside the family. It's horrible what you people have done to this family.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Handwriting analysis is gonbledy goop. You state the first page of the ransom letter is less fluid because somebody was trying to disguise their handwriting. I believe the first page is different because the person writing is was on something, drugs or alcohol. You can keep trying to spin this story all you want to make some kind of sensational scandal, but there is evidence that somebody else did this outside the family. It's horrible what you people have done to this family.

    ReplyDelete