Back in 1998 Psychic Dorothy Allison drew a sketch (on the left) during an appearance on the Leeza Gibbons show of what she thought JonBenet Ramsey's killer looked like. The sketch was posted online and distributed via flyers. Now that John Mark Karr has been arrested for the murder of JonBenet,
some people are saying that the sketch looks an awful lot like him. Is this a case of a psychic making an accurate prediction?
First of all, the sketch looks vaguely similar, but not exactly like him. Her drawing would match up pretty well to any skinny, white guy. Second, although the guy has confessed, there seems to be some doubt about whether he's telling the truth, so he may not be the killer. Third, as the Amazing Randi always points out, only psychic's hits ever get counted. Never their misses. So how many completely bogus predictions did Dorothy Allison make? That needs to be considered in any evaluation of her ability as a psychic. However, in her favor, it seems that she really did produce this sketch in 1998. So this isn't a case of a
Tamara Rand style prediction.
Comments
Also, anyone checked the story that this picture was in fact drawn in '98?
I could have told you ten years ago that it was done by a white guy. Geesh... give me my Crayolas, I'll draw you a picture.
Subtler differencers can be found in the nose, I'm aware Karr's photo is an upshot up his nose appears to tip up more then the sketch which is more pointed down, the sketch's nose also appears slightly narrower. The eyes are close but not quite right Karr's eyes have almost the inverted shape of the sketch with the lower rim being rounded and the top rim being flatter. The ears don't stick out as much either.... although I'm sure all of those would be wiped away with a "well the visions are kinda fuzzy so it's never gonna be an exact match"
Overall it does look like him, but it's like a Freshmen Art Student's first portrait assignment and wouldn't even score a C.
on a related note there's a painting in the de Young Museum (Legion of Honor I guess it's also called) in San Fransico that I overhear people say looks just like Keanu Reeves (I personally think it looks kinda like Johnny Depp in 'Secret Window') but it was painted in the 18th Century... I guess that artist predicted what actor would go on to star in a triology of highly quotable genre films 200 years later and made a painting of them.
It's ironic that the tabloids pay people to make up wild stories and then they get this one handed to them on a silver platter. Now we'll all have to suffer the pain of seeing the headlines at the supermarket checkout.
When we first heard of the Oklahoma bombings and saw the picture of the guys face my entire family went "Oh shit, it's cousin Jimmy!!" because it looked EXACTLY like him. Considering that for a week we thought my dad's cousin was a mass murderer sort of proves how similar many faces are, and drawings make things worse, because you can draw lots of features based on an average perception of them.
Granted, she's dead now, and won't be claiming her prediction came true.
and maybe kinda like jesus
Has no-one else but me and TIME noted that he calims he drugged JonBenet, and the autopsy showed no drugs in her system?
Posted by gcason on Sat Aug 19, 2006 at 08:26 AM"
Am I good, or what? 😉
and sketch wouldn't be able to solve the case either!