The following article that appeared in the National Enquirer on April 3, 2001 was found on the Internet at the location below. The webmaster of this site does not know who was responsible for transcribing this article that is part of the post shown below but whoever it was, the webmaster wishes to say thank you.

http://www.crimenews2000.com

http://www.crimenews2000.com/cgi-bin/wwwthread/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=JonBenet&Number=61546&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5

JonBenet Ramsey Case Thread views: 192

Thor

10/20/02 12:53 PM
4/3/01 Natl. Enquirer interviews Rams [Post#: 61546 ]

I apologize if this has been posted before, but since Elle has not seen this, thought I'd post the article here.

THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER
April 3, 2001

RAMSEYS CHANGE THEIR STORY ABOUT MURDER NIGHT

By David Wright & Don Gentile

"John and Patsy Ramsey have changed the story they told cops about their daughter JonBenet's murder -- they now admit their son Burke was awake during that Christmas 1996 nightmare!

In an exclusive ENQUIRER interview, the nation's most infamous murder suspects say Burke was jolted awake by screams in their Boulder, Colo. home.

"Burke knew something horrible had happened. He heard us screaming. He heard Patsy ...a woman in terror," John confessed. "We thought he was asleep but he wasn't. Burke was awake.

"Burke was frightened. He had tears in his eyes. He knew something very, very wrong was going on."

Until being questioned by The ENQUIRER, the Ramseys had always insisted that Burke was still sleeping when police arrived at their home after Patsy's 911 call.

But now John has admitted to The ENQUIRER that Burke woke up before the 911 call was placed at 5:52 a.m. to summon police.

In the Ramsey's face-to-face, in-depth interview with The ENQUIRER:

* The Ramseys - who still staunchly proclaim their innocence - broke their silence about what Burke knows of the murder and revealed fears their son will explode emotionally from keeping "a lot inside."

* Even though it's almost inconceivable that John and Patsy wouldn't talk to Burke about the murder, they say they didn't find out Burke was awake the morning of the tragedy until he testified before a grand jury nearly two and a half years later!

* In chilling detail, the couple described the haunting nightmares and dreams they have about their murdered daughter.

* Patsy recently asked her dying mother to come back after her death and reveal JonBenet's murderer.

* John admits he saw the movie "Speed," which contains a key line found in the ransom note -- but claims he saw it on an airplane and didn't wear the headphones!

When the Ramseys arrived for the interview in Atlanta, oddly enough, Patsy gave an ENQUIRER reporter a hug -- then served up a dish of shamrock shaped St. Patrick's Day cookies.

In opening up about Burke for the first time, the Ramseys insisted they never once sat down with him to discuss the murder, but just said his sister "was gone...and was in heaven."

They also never told him they'd signed papers to make John's brother Burke's guardian if they were arrested.

The Ramseys were asked whether Burke, now 14, ever asked for details of JonBenet's death.

"He has never...we have never talked about anything," said Patsy, who wore a purple suit and white blouse.

John, looking weary in shirtsleeves, said they also never told Burke that they are suspects in the murder. But he revealed that an attorney he hired to represent Burke told the boy before he testified at a grand jury proceeding in May 1999.

"His attorney sat him down and said, 'Understand, they are suspicious of your parents. Do you have any questions?'"

Surprisingly, Burke said he didn't.

"He's a pretty quiet kid," said John.

John and Patsy worry that Burke is keeping things inside and they fear it will lead to an emotional blowup as an adult.

"Yeah, I worry, you betcha we do," John said with a sigh. "In fact that's one of the risks you have with a child with a traumatic experience like that.

"They keep a lot inside and they don't really start thinking about it until they get to be 40 years old and that's when it hurts."

Burke has been strangely quiet about his sister's murder, the Ramseys reveal. They say it wasn't until Burke's 1999 grand jury testimony that they found out he was awake before police arrived -- but was pretending to be asleep.

"Yeah, he testified to that. We thought he was asleep but he wasn't," said John, who had told police their son slept through the tragedy.

A source close to the case declared: "It's hard to believe that John and Patsy didn't find out until tow and a half years after the murder that Burke was awake.

"I know the reaction of the cops will be: 'Why didn't Burke tell them? Why couldn't he discuss his sister's death with them? Was it because Burke knew more than he dared to say about his parents' involvement?'

"Whatever the reason, John and Patsy have changed their story."

When asked when Burke woke up, John said it was after Patsy discovered the ransom note shortly after 5:30 a.m. Then he quickly changed his answer to say Burke woke up after the 911 call.

But then John changed his story again, calling The ENQUIRER as we went to press to say that Burke was awake BEFORE the 911 call. John told us:

"Burke recalled his mother screaming, 'Where's my baby?' and me saying, 'Calm down, calm down, we need to call the police.'"

John's admission that Burke was awake came after The ENQUIRER revealed to him and Patsy the details of our earlier exclusive report that Burke's voice is heard on an enhancement made of the 911 call. The youngster says, "What did you find?" and "What do you want me to do?"

John Ramsey tells his son, "We're not talking to you."

But Patsy still insists: "When I made that phone call, burke Ramsey was nowhere in the vicinity of the telephone."

Asked what goes through her mind when she recalls the events of JonBenet's death, Patsy gave a bizarre childlike answer.

"It kind of makes my heart go pitty-pat. I mean right now, I'm feeling like, gosh, this happened to my child."

During The ENQUIRER interview, Patsy admitted she considered and rejected the possibility that John was sexually abusing JonBenet. She openly admitted that during her struggle to defeat ovarian cancer between 1993 and 1994, John and Patsy's sex life suffered. She totally rejects the notion of John abusing JonBenet, but her reasoning is odd.

She said her mother "came to take care of the kids (when I had cancer). She slept in the other bed in JonBenet's room. I mean, if John was coming in to molest JonBenet, you know that's not going to happen 'cause Grandma was right there every night."

The Ramseys maintain that JonBenet's bed-wetting was not a problem.

"This bed-wetting is nonsense stuff...a red herring," said John.

Patsy added, her voice rising: "When children are really tired and they don't go potty before they go to bed, sometimes they have accidents."

But the close source declared: "The investigators will never buy Patsy's claim that JonBenet's bedwetting wasn't significant.

"Right after the murder, the Ramseys' housekeeper Linda Hoffmann-Pugh told police the bed- wetting was a big problem within the family."

In discussing the ransom note, the Ramseys were reminded of an ENQUIRER exclusive that revealed police believe it was written by a killer using their opposite hand.

Patsy, who is naturally right-handed, was asked if she can write with her left hand.

"Can I write with my left hand?" she said, pondering the question. A smile crossed her face and she replied: "I can-- but not very well."

She confirmed that to get a sample of her handwriting, police made her write the ransom note "every which way."

The ENQUIRER asked if her left-handed writing was legible.

"Oh, I don't know," she said, then changed her answer, saying it wasn't legible.

That contradicts a source close to the investigation who said her left-handed printing of the note was legible.

Both John and Patsy expressed a stunning ignorance about the most notable line in the ransom note, which reads, "Don't try to grow a brain, John."

Even though references to the line have appeared in published reports many times since JonBenet's murder, they said they were totally unaware that the words are nearly an exact repeat of a line from the movie "Speed."

"Oh, is that from that movie?" asked Patsy, her eyes opening wide.

John admitted he had seen the film but insisted there's no way he could have remembered the line.

"I watched part of 'Speed' on an airline one day -- without the headphones. All I see is this bus."

In the years since the murder, Patsy said she has been haunted by a recurring nightmare about that tragic Christmas night.

"I am in Boulder and walking the alleyways, the alleys behind our home -- and just searching and searching and searching. And you know I'll come upon a group of people standing there.

And I'll say be careful, be careful, there's someone around here that's killing people. I have that dream over and over.

"I kind of picture myself sitting up kind of toward the Flatirons (part of the Rocky Mountains overlooking Boulder) and just wondering in which house the murderer resides."

John also has recurring dreams involving JonBenet -- but not as a 6-year-old, her age at the time of her death.

"She's usually about 2 or 3 years old and I'm holding her," John said, describing the dreams as "very comforting. I wake up with a very close feeling."

Patsy revealed she talked about her daughter -- whom she called Jonnie B. -- in her last conversation with her mother Nedra Paugh, who died recently.

"You know you're going to be with Jonnie B. soon and you're gonna know everything soon," Patsy said she told Nedra. Then she added: "If anybody can come back and tell me, I know she will."

Patsy was the last person to see JonBenet alive, sleeping in her bed -- "zonked," as she put it.

She said she kissed her daughter and recited the prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep." But she can't remember if there was a blanket on the bed, or if it was the one JonBenet was wrapped in when her body was found in a windowless basement room the next day.

Pressed for further details of that night, Patsy responded like a woman who has had lawyers in her life for too many years: "It was 4 1/2 years ago. I have not rehearsed or reread my previous statements."

In closing, Patsy said she "would love nothing more from The National ENQUIRER than to say "The ENQUIRER finds the killer.'" And if that happened, she added "I'll be your poster for for the rest of my life."

Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner would not comment on the Ramsey interview.

But in a gloomy assessment of where the case stands, he told The ENQUIRER: "there's really not much happening right now."

The Ramseys remain under an umbrella of suspicion.

Edited by Thor on 10/20/02 12:53 PM."

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Patsy Ramsey Deposition - December 11, 2001

The following is only a partion of the deposition by Patsy Ramsey that relates to both John and Patsy Ramsey's interview with the National Enquirer. Click the link above to read the complete deposition.

Page 155
21 MR. WOOD: That question went to
22 making inquiry of her as to why she and her
23 husband granted an interview to The National
24 Enquirer.
25 Since the last thing I want to do is

Page 156
1 to fight a motion battle over that, and because I
2 have been consistent throughout in my
3 representation of the Ramseys, as I think they
4 have been even before I was involved in terms of
5 trying to answer every question, if you will
6 agree that we are not waiving any right to the
7 question of relevancy in allowing her to answer
8 that question, I am going to let her answer it,
9 and effectively withdraw with that understanding
10 my objection and instruction. Is that okay?
11 MR. HOFFMAN: That is fine.
12 MR. WOOD: So with that agreement, if
13 you would like to ask her; and if, Patsy, you
14 would answer the question for him, please.
15 MR. HOFFMAN: I am going to formally
16 ask it.
17 Q. (By Mr. Hoffman) Mrs. Ramsey, I
18 showed you a document that was identified as
19 Plaintiff's Exhibit 13. I am going to show that
20 document to you again. Could you identify what
21 it is that that document purports to be?
22 A. They are copies from a tabloid
23 article, National Enquirer tabloid article.
24 Q. Would you characterize the statements
25 that you made in this article as being statements

Page 157
1 that were made in the course of an interview,
2 formal interview with The National Enquirer?
3 A. It was an interview in conjunction
4 with some litigation for Burke that we were
5 involved with.
6 Q. If it was --
7 MR. HOFFMAN: See, this is why it is
8 a tricky area because for litigation, I don't
9 want to go into what the litigation was about,
10 and, naturally, if she gave it for the purposes
11 of the litigation, then she is required to by
12 law.
13 MR. WOOD: No, it was not given as a
14 requirement of the litigation as a matter of law.
15 MR. HOFFMAN: Oh, okay.
16 MR. WOOD: But I think what she is
17 saying is that the issue about the interview came
18 up in connection with actually the resolution of
19 some of Burke's claims.
20 MR. HOFFMAN: Because I don't want to
21 get into it if this is part of the settlement.
22 If that is really what she is going to say, that
23 she agreed to this interview because it was part
24 of a settlement agreement --
25 MR. WOOD: I don't think that is

Page 158
1 what she said.
2 THE WITNESS: I agreed to the
3 interview because, I mean, we are not afraid to
4 face even our most vile opponent, of which I
5 consider The National Enquirer to be one of the
6 most vile.
7 And, you know, we have faced Steve
8 Thomas. We have faced The National Enquirer. We
9 have nothing to hide. And I am facing you
10 today, Mr. Hoffman.
11 I did not kill my daughter, I did
12 not write the ransom note, and I don't know who
13 did either of those things. And I am not afraid
14 to answer any questions from either you or from
15 them or from the police department or from anyone
16 else, for that matter. And that is why the
17 interview was taken.
18 MR. HOFFMAN: Okay.
19 Q. (By Mr. Hoffman) The only reason I
20 had asked it was in relation to a statement that
21 was made in the book about how disapproving you
22 were of the tabloids, and --
23 A. And to this day I disapprove of the
24 tabloids.
25 Q. And also, I believe Mr. Ramsey once

Page 159
1 stated that it was his intention to see that, if
2 anything came out of this case, it would be a
3 change in the way in which the media reported
4 certain news.
5 And I was just wondering why, after
6 these strong statements of principle, that you
7 basically were willing to give a tabloid an
8 interview. That is all, my only reason for
9 asking that.
10 A. Because we wanted to prove that we
11 have nothing to hide and that we can sufficiently
12 face our most vile opponent.
13 MR. HOFFMAN: Okay. Thank you very
14 much.

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