This is quite a raw thread and there is really no way around it, i have to dismiss a hitman, because the shots would have been cleaner less messy with a hitman Ralph would have not put up any fight he would be dead very quickly,
the twins were still infants 1 shot each would have been enough, I'm sure the twins were shot 1st, i can see Sheila scratching Ralph fighting for the gun back, i do not see Jeremy been there on that night how would he know who was up and their location in the house.And that opened bible.
If this event was undertaken by JB or an accomplice (or both together) NB would be dead first, in effect taking out the person most capable of fighting back.
However as we do not know the sequence of deaths
perhaps NB was killed first.
In Shona's post on "Mike, whilst your on here" she suggests "
More likely (again IMO) that Ralph was hit when he opened the kitchen door, because of the outside dog barking. That disabled him long enough for the assailant to run upstairs, shoot the boys, shoot June, then return to Ralph and shoot him. All the time, Sheila was in her room, paralysed with fear. She was found last, dragged to her parent's room (hence the marks on her arm) and executed on the floor."
I'm not fully convinced of JB's guilt as it is clear that there are very questionable issues relating to the verdict, but I would like to play a little devils advocate and suggest the following - for discussion purposes only (and no doubt a few smites

)
In this scenario JB has left the Anschutz and Brno in an outbuilding with as many preloaded magazines as possible (this maybe three magazines carrying up to 25 bullets (and one bullet already in each rifles breach)
JB and an accomplice use the accomplices vehicle to park near whf.
They both approach the kitchen door of whf in overalls, and the dog outside is barking. NB gets out of bed, goes to the kitchen and opens the door. NB is shot (wounded), he staggers back into the kitchen and holds on to the work surface leaving the bloody finger prints, he tries moving back upstairs and smears blood on the hall wall, but is caught, dragged back into the kitchen, beaten and killed. The assailant suffers no significant marks.
Whilst one deals with NB the other rushes upstairs. June and SC are petrified. The boys remain asleep. One assailant moves quickly to shoot and kill June. An assailant then drags SC in to the main bedroom and shoots SC (in a preplanned attempt to make it look like a suicide in order to throw the police). The other or same assailant moves into the boys room and kills them.
Using ngb's reference as to how quick the shots could have been fired (Anschutz 3 rounds a second and the Brno bolt action 1 round a second) it would not have taken two people with a rifle each to kill all five pretty quickly (and this scenario does not involve a lot of loading whilst killing) .
The accomplice leaves by the kitchen door, JB, after lifting the phone off the handset, locks the kitchen door from the inside and leaves whf by a "self locking" window. They get back to the car change back into clean clothes. The accomplice drives JB back to near his home and JB slips back into Goldhanger. The accomplice takes the bloodied clothes away and burns them.
All this has happened I would say between 12 midnight and 1pm, leaving JB time to shower/compose himself before calling the police at c. 3.26am.
JB has no reason to disclose this scenario as it would do him no good, and the accomplice (having been done out of his pay due to JB's conviction) has gone abroad and tells no one.
Pargetter realising his Brno was at the farm on the night (and that this might implicate him) removes his gun as soon as possible and lies about its whereabouts on the night.
EP did not pursue this, as a two gun scenario would overcomplicate an already bungled and over
complicated situation, and set about
creating a scenario to convict JB for a crime, after being duped by the 4 murders and a suicide set up, they came to believe he was involved with.
As for the bible, as it had a bookmark in the relevant page the perpetrators simply opened it that point to rest on SC (just fluke that it was that page!!)
This is a discussion scenario only and one that I do not totally believe in because it seems every scenario has a hole or two in it, but I thought I would give it a go
I have my hands up so don't shoot
