Two groups of handwriting experts, one from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the other hired by the Ramsey family, have reached that conclusion, sources say.
However, the same two groups of experts differ on whether the girl's mother could have written the note. CBI document examiners have concluded that comparisons with samples provided by Patsy Ramsey do not provide enough evidence to confirm or deny her authorship of the three-page note, a source said.
Meanwhile, unidentified experts hired by the Ramsey family - described as "nationally known and respected" - have concluded there is a slight chance Patsy Ramsey wrote the note, but that it's "highly unlikely."
However, the family's experts are not working from the original note. Examinations conducted on photocopied samples may limit the reliability of any analysis, handwriting experts say.
The rambling three-page ransom note, written on a pad found inside the home and discovered on a back stairway, demanded $118,000 - equal to the amount of John Ramsey's bonus from Access Graphics, the Boulder company of which he is president - and alluded to international connections in the murder. The note was written in block letters, and investigators believe some words may have been deliberately misspelled in an effort at misdirection.
Investigators also found a "practice note," apparently written by the author on paper from the same pad.
Several people, including John and Patsy Ramsey, have provided numerous handwriting samples to investigators.
In addition to several handwriting samples from John and Patsy Ramsey that were "directed" by police and written on request following the murder, investigators also took an undetermined number of samples written prior to the crime from the Boulder home, a source said.
The family's experts are working from similar materials, the source said: copies of the "directed" samples written for police and writings obtained from the house that were penned prior to the murder.
Handwriting analysts maintain their skill is a useful tool in determining authorship. In recent years, however, the practice has been downgraded from a "science" to a "technical skill" by a Supreme Court ruling and has come under attack as an unreliable tool in some academic journals. Despite those hits on the profession, document examiners are frequently called upon to testify in court, and handwriting analysis still is widely accepted in the judicial community.
Experts in the field say they generally trust their colleagues.
"Normally a document examiner would be a reliable individual who reports what he sees," said Andrew Bradley, a 25-year handwriting analysis veteran for the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department who now owns a document examination firm in Denver.
But both Bradley and others in the field acknowledge there are "examiners for hire."
"I have testified in court many times, and my experience in this business is that I have come up against many hired guns," said Paula Sassi, a member of the American Association of Handwriting Analysts from San Diego. "There are people who will tweak the evidence in whatever way is beneficial to (their client's) case."
In the case of the Ramseys' experts, a source said they were prominent enough that they would be considered extremely reliable, even by CBI's document examiners. Even so, the family's experts have been working at a disadvantage, since they have never been given access to the original note. Working from a photocopy immediately limits the characteristics available for examination.
"You definitely have a problem working with copies," Bradley said. "You are looking at a picture, not the real thing, when you are looking at a copy. That eliminates the pressure pattern (from examination) ... some copying machines can distort, and the ink flow can be distorted."
Besides those things, document examiners look at slant of letters, the "movement" of the writing, spacing, the speed of the writing, the proportional relationship between letters, "terminal strokes" and other things, Bradley said.
Other factors apply.
Handwriting analysis is generally more useful in ruling out authors than definitively concluding authorship.
Looking at a single document is almost useless, experts say. For a reliable examination, analysts must compare the original document with samples provided by suspected authors. Gender cannot be reliably determined from handwriting analysis, and drug or alcohol use may alter the comparison significantly. According to a city spokesman, Patsy Ramsey has apparently been taking medication since her daughter's death.
"Drugs can affect the writing, but it doesn't affect everyone," Bradley said."But what you cannot do is just take a single piece of writing and determine if the person is on drugs."
Whatever the condition and context of handwriting samples, a writer's style usually is difficult to disguise, no matter how hard the writer tries, experts say, especially if the document is particularly long, as it is in the Ramsey case.
forget the hired experts - look at it yourself. you can even see from the exemplars that John obviously didn't write it, but Patsy? give me a break.