"in one scene Lithgow kills a guy in prison, and the newspaper frontpage is on his chest....the frontpage was on the wall in Lithgow's cell."

It is very briefly shown, but never the less the heart is drawn over Denzel and an "X" on the others who were later killed. The same thing was apparently drawn on the business magazine highlighting John Ramsay. The same thing with John Ramsay except that his buddies were not killed; his daughter was. The culprit acted by Lithgow wanted to destroy Denzel's life and career by framing him. The perp who killed JonBenet wanted to destroy John Ramsay's life and career. I would say the perp succeeded. John was essentially out of a job the next day and his daughter gone.

"Lithgow's (criminal career) was ruined by Denzel, and Lithgow has carried the vendetta for years."

That is what leads me to think that the perp who killed JonBenet was harboring for some time a hatred for John Ramsay and identified with the culprit acted by Lithgow.

"there's some weird scenes where it looks like Lithgow is going to kill the daughters---he carries them upstairs, past the pictures and magazine articles hung on he wall. Killing them would be revenge, but he doesn't kill them"

In the movie Ricochet, Lithgow videotaped a threat that he could kill Denzel's daughters. The perp who killed JonBenet carried out the threat. The heart drawn in JonBenet's hand clinches it. This might also connect to the movie: Nick of Time where the daughter's life was threatened if the father did not carry out his orders. Perhaps John Ramsay did not do something he was supposed to and it caused great heartache to the perp.

"then you add the other clues, such as the bonus."

Right on. That would make a logical business connection to the odd $118,000.00 ransom. I am looking at the people still under the umbrella of business problems with John Ramsay and I know of one who comes from the South, ie. Texas.

""Nick of Time" was shown as 7PM, right? If Lou Smit's theory is right, then he perp would have been in the house during that time---so how could that trigger the plan since he was already in the house? If it ran two hours, then that would have been close to the time the Ramseys came home. That would mean the perp watched it somewhere else, and came in after the Ramseys went to bed, wouldn't it?"

Good point. He might have seen the movie before and after sitting through half an hour of it again that night, he decided to take a drive and commit himself to action.

Maybe I am reading too much into these movies, but I think not. After Dirty Harry, the movie theme becomes self evident. The heart drawn around John Ramsay on the business article shows a motive.

There is another recurrent theme of sacrifice which I have not yet explored. It has been mentioned as a parallel by Janet McReynold, that JonBenet was a scapegoat for the sins of the global village. Of course the movie: Dirty Harry has the cross in it. I am learning there are lots of "coincidences" because we talk and develop our ideas from a common language of symbols.

Could be the perp was just on drugs, envious, and was a pedophile to boot. Still most likely, I think the perp wanted to get revenge. The intricate set-up of the note, magazine, etc. makes me think it was more prepared.