I Don't Get Mad, I Get Even!!

From our resident author FleaStiff, A Speculation in Thirteen Parts:

An analysis of the intruder's psyche....

Part One: We introduce The Rule and the concept of temporal comparisons.

Part Two: We discuss how the Ramseys might come to the attention of a Rule Follower.

Part Three: We explore different styles in which The Rule may be implemented.

Part Four: We explore how The Rule relates to daughters and to crime scenes.

Part Five: We explore The Rule as it relates to finances and perversions.

Part Six: We posit that failure defines futility.

Part Seven: We meet the late Donald E. Westlake, Richard Stark and Parker.

Part Eight: We meet the late Eric Hoffer.

Part Nine: We embrace Hoffer's True Believer but wonder how Parker would.

Part Ten: We reject the most decisive forensic tool, dna, in its entirety.

Part Eleven: In seeking to classify the True Believers we focus on the Free Masons or is it the Rosicrucians.

Part Twelve: We stop focusing on supposedly nefarious groups and we wind up with freedom.

Part Thirteen: We finally discover the meaning of life and the real purpose of the ransom note.

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Part One:
We introduce The Rule and the concept of temporal comparisons.

There are many who follow this rule about getting even. They can be found in all walks of life, but I believe that they can most often be found in prisons and police stations. And by police stations, I mean on both sides of the bars. Its often a matter of time. If they have a rather short fuse, they get even at traffic lights and in bar rooms and probably come to the attention of the authorities fairly often even if most of their arguments are settled quietly in the parking lot. If they have a greater measure of self control, they probably take care of their problems in a more effective manner. They may take care of business quietly, but they take care of business efficiently. Its a question of self-control, anger management and deferral of gratification.

Part Two:
We discuss how the Ramseys might come to the attention of a Rule Follower.

Would such a person have been involved in the Jonbenet Ramsey killing? Why? If he had a beef of some sort, he would indeed settle it but it would be more likely settled directly with John Ramsey. Or at least we like to think so. It gives us a much greater measure of comfort to think a dispute will be settled man to man rather than involving wives and children. Its not, however, always the situation. Even if he were to get even by killing a little girl it is simply unlikely that anyone would want to do it in such a fashion as to leave a ransom note that was sure to be plastered all over the newspapers. An "I get even" type would hardly leave such a calling card. An "I get even" type does it with finesse. If he kills the six year old daughter as a way of getting even, he will do it as quietly as possible rather than splashing it all over the TV and the tabloids. The reason for this is quite simple. If he is an "I get even" type he has been that way for a long time and will continue to be that way. He bides his time and he gets even. He doesn't fly of the handle and lose all self control right at the moment of some perceived insult. He not only doesn't engage in a bar room brawl, he doesn't necessarilly take it out to the parking lot. He will wait for a time when he will be sure to win. A knife in a dark alley two years after the bar room insult is more his style. No one will remember the heated words in a bar room after two years have elapsed, not even the victim will be concerned about it as he is strolling through the alley.

Part Three:
We explore different styles in which The Rule may be implemented.

Of course there are a variety of ways to "get even". Causing economic loss is one way. It can range from burning down a man's home or his business to keying a car or puncturing an entire set of tires. An "I get even" type probably has no qualms about getting even with a female. And with a female there are any number of ways such as hiring someone to "entertain her" which assures that none of the "I get even" type's dna will be in that rape kit. A female can always be disfigured since that has such high impact value. Break a man's nose real bad and he just goes around town looking like an ex-boxer. Oh, he may not be happy about it, but he has a man's views on such things. Whereas, if you break a woman's nose its a major event for her. Anything that impairs her attractiveness usually has a profound psychological effect. Do a really thorough job on a woman's face and even decades later she may be spending her life living in a room with a thin layer of dust everywhere simply because she does not ever want there to be a shiny surface where she might catch a reflection of her face. In a situation wherein our "I get even" type hires someone else to rape a woman and gives instructions to use a knife on her, its rather clear that the man who actually mutilates her will never have to be specifically instructed to slice only one nipple and leave the other one intact. Both the man doing the hiring and the man executing the act of revenge already know that if you slice just one nipple, she will never stop comparing the real and the fake, no matter how good a job the plastic surgeons do. Cruelty is implicit in those who follow The Rule but they view it simply as being normal. The only law they know is payback!

Part Four:
We explore how The Rule relates to daughters and to crime scenes.

Does killing a man's daughter affect him? Of course. Is it even more likely to affect the mother? Yes. So is it possible that despite a pseudo ransom note that is addressed to Mr. Ramsey the actual target was Mrs. Ramsey? Of course. It is possible. Yet absent identifying the killer and identifying his motive, I see no way of establishing from the crime scene evidence just what the priorities of any of the actors were. Some case sleuths have felt that an attendee at the church social function which took place at the Ramsey home may have been improperly offended by Patsy Ramsey's generosity in supplementing the woefully inadequate amount of food they had brought. Some case sleuths have even felt that Patsy's refusal to adopt a decorating style of Western Rustic was thought to be sufficient grounds for murdering her daughter. Yet we have no way to determine which parent, if either, was the primary motivating factor in the killer's mind. We may indeed have a situation where a pervert simply spied his prey and noted that the name on the door was Ramsey but had not interacted with either parent prior to the murder. All we really know is that those who adhere to The Rule don't object to getting even by killing little girls.

Part Five:
We explore The Rule as it relates to finances and perversions.

In the JonBenet murder, the killer did not have the slightest chance to gain financially. He may have garnered some entertainment for himself with the perversions, indeed the perversions may have been a major goal, but overall he sure left a messy situation that was sure to bring trouble down upon him. This was simply not a crime that can be described as getting even quietly. One need only look at the speed with which a whole slew of assignment editors dispatched reporters, tech crews and satellite trucks to realize that the JonBenet Ramsey murder was not someone's way of getting even quietly. It may have been his way of getting even, but most definitely there was nothing quiet about this murder. So who kills for fun but then remains in some quiescent state enjoying his "victory" yet remaining out of the headlines after his crime of the century masterpiece? A pervert from the neighborhood may be the sleuth's immediate thought when hearing of a crime involving some little girl but how would such a pervert have hoped to have survived a thorough investigation? Even if somehow a pervert evaded the attentions of the police how would he be able to remain in this quiescent state wherein there are no later child rapes much less child murders that he is connected to?

Part Six:
We posit that failure defines futility.

The tormented nights suffered by the parents would have lead to a suspect by now if one existed. In reliving decades of interaction the parents might have come up with a lengthy list but surely by now the end of that list has been reached. Every single solitary business transaction has been dredged up and examined for a potential grudge holder. Oh there may not be any formal paperwork on the issue down at the BPD's moribund war room, but that's what happened every sleepless night. All persons who were discharged have been identified and contacted by the police. With the BPD its been a matter of papering the file by going through the motions despite a desire that the parents be thought guilty of the crime, yet also the BPD probably felt that perhaps in addition to going through the motions they might actually dig up some additional dirt that could be fed to the tabloids if they contacted prior contacts who might be holding grudges.

So what do we have? We eliminate the man who readily flys off the handle because he has so many contacts with the police that he never even meets the Ramseys, he only meets with his probation officer and his few friends he met in jail. We eliminate the I Get Even type due to our belief that anyone of that sort has learned to be surgically precise rather than needlessly messy about things. Its not that the I Get Even type is averse to leaving a corpse lying around, its more that he is simply too smart to leave it lying around needlessly when concealment is so easy.

There are people whose primary requirement for a pleasant drive is the ability to utilize their middle finger. Of course many drivers utilize their middle finger and for them that ends the issue. The middle finger indicates that if you don't like the way I drive, you should stay off the sidewalk. It does not indicate that someday, perhaps even years from now, I'm going to track you down. Yet, I wonder if out there somewhere there are not a great many people who after having made use of their middle finger to indicate their feelings toward another motorist don't also note his identity and resolve to track him down someday.[...continued]