June 1998 John Ramsey Interrogation by Lou Smit and Mike Kane (Patsy Birthday)

0054
21 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, yeah. We had this
22 Christmas party, usually a day or two before
23 Christmas primarily for our family, friends and
24 children. And we invite Santa Claus to come and
25 we'd have presents for all the kids. And Santa

0055
1 would give them out and hors d'oeuvres and we'd
2 start early and usually end early. And this year,
3 we decided, or that year of '96, we decided, well
4 we weren't going to do that because it was a lot
5 of effort and Patsy just had her 40th birthday
6 party and we were kind of partied out. We had a
7 big birthday party for Patsy.
8 LOU SMIT: When was her birthday?
9 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we had it, it was a
10 surprise party, it was in early December. He
11 birthday is not until the 29th of December, but we
12 had a surprise birthday party in early December.
13 So we kind of decided not to do the Christmas
14 party. I think we were going to ask a friend or
15 two over. (INAUDIBLE). The Santa Claus which
16 normally came called us and said she had got
17 Charles Kuralt here doing a documentary on me and
18 he's been kind of following me around and I'd like
19 him to come to your house, you know, for your
20 Christmas party because I think it's a nice one
21 and it's one of my favorites.
22 And Patsy kind of threw together a Christmas party
23 quickly because she thought that would be fun for
24 the kids. And Patsy is a born publicist, I guess.
25 She enjoys that kind of thing. And so we invited

0056
1 the regular crowd that always came and we put
2 together the Christmas party.

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(SNIP)

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0237
10 MIKE KANE: And how long were you intending
11 to stay in Charlevoix?
12 JOHN RAMSEY: When it comes to the days, I
13 don't remember. I believe we were leaving for this
14 Big Red Boat thing on Saturday morning, and we
15 were planning to come back on Friday from
16 Charlevoix.
17 MIKE KANE: Okay.
18 JOHN RAMSEY: and I think the 26th was
19 Tuesday or Wednesday. I don't remember.
20 LOU SMIT: Maybe we should look at a
21 calendar.
22 MIKE KANE: Yeah.
23 BRYAN MORGAN: There are records of the
24 Big Red Boat reservations.
25 JOHN RAMSEY: We had bought and paid for

0237
1 the tickets.
2 LOU SMIT: We'll nail it down.
3 BRYAN MORGAN: The 26th was a Thursday.
4 JOHN RAMSEY: Thursday.
5 MIKE KANE: So Wednesday was Christmas.
6 JOHN RAMSEY: Well that doesn't make sense,
7 then. Let's see. So the 26th was Thursday, so we
8 would have gone on Thursday morning. I don't think
9 we were going to stay one night. I'd have to look
10 and say when the Big Red Boat --
11 MIKE KANE: I guess Patsy's birthday was on
12 the --
13 JOHN RAMSEY: Her birthday was on the 29th.
14 I thought we were going to be there already. I
15 don't remember. But we can figure it out.
16 MIKE KANE: So you were going to fly back
17 to Jeffco?
18 JOHN RAMSEY: Right.
19 MIKE KANE: The day before you went to --
20 I guess you had to go to Florida to get there?
21 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah, we had to go to Orlando
22 to take a bus, from Orlando to Cape Canaveral and
23 take a bus.
24 MIKE KANE: So you would fly back in the
25 day before, fly out, I think you said TWA?

0238
1 JOHN RAMSEY: Right.
2 MIKE KANE: And you're leaving on the boat
3 that day or did you fly down and then you would
4 leave the next day?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: No, I think we were doing
6 this boom, boom, boom. Then we were going to be on
7 the boat that night.
8 MIKE KANE: And how long a trip was that
9 going to be?

June 1998 John Ramsey Interrogation by Lou Smit and Mike Kane (Patsy Birthday)

0238
10 JOHN RAMSEY: It was maybe four days. It
11 was over through New Year's Eve. I don't know if
12 we were came back New Year's day or the next day,
13 but it was a four-day trip.
14 MIKE KANE: And then would you come straight
15 back here?
16 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah.

---

(SNIP)

---

0295
16 MIKE KANE: And this year, in 1996, you
17 said you weren't going to have it. Was there a
18 discussion about having it and you decided --
19 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah, we talked about, you
20 know, should we have a Christmas party or should
21 we just have this big birthday party; and we were
22 going to leave town the next day; and the boat
23 trip. And we said, we won't really do that. I
24 think we were going to invite one or two couples
25 over with their kids and just have kind of a real

0296
1 small family thing. That was the extent of it.

---

(SNIP)

---

0299
20 MIKE KANE: Yesterday in the room we had
21 some confusion about when you were leaving. Well
22 we know it was the 26th that you were leaving for
23 Charlevoix. And we found out, I guess, that was a
24 Thursday, when you were going on the Big Red Boat.
25 Did you have an opportunity to talk about that?

0300
1 JOHN RAMSEY: Well we talked a little bit
2 about it last night, because I was amazed of how
3 poorly our memory of things like that. Patsy
4 didn't remember it either, but it's easy to figure
5 out, because we lot purchased the tickets through
6 our travel agent and so forth.
7 BRYAN MORGAN: I may be able to shorten
8 that because I know that I have seen the
9 reservations. So I would be glad to send you
10 copies.
11 MIKE KANE: Okay. That would clear that
12 right up. Great. Where did the idea of going on
13 the Big Red Boat, how did that come about?
14 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we actually that was
15 fairly well in advance. We had never been on a
16 cruise. Christmas is a tough time for us because I
17 think we lost Beth in January, and we liked to
18 kind of have things to do and planned.
19 So we thought, that would be fun thing to do, a
20 family thing. And we had never been on a cruise,
21 and going to the Big Red Boat and have fun with
22 the kids. So we just planned it and it was kind of
23 a first. Because I'd never done something like
24 that. And it was planned well in advance and we
25 got a package deal and it was TWA that was going

0301
1 through St. Louis, or something like that. Which I
2 was kind of nervous about, because I could see us
3 changing planes and missing planes. But it was a
4 cheap airfare.
5 MIKE KANE: You would rather have flown
6 yourself?
7 JOHN RAMSEY: Or rather flown nonstop to
8 Orlando or something from Denver. I just get very
9 nervous changing planes. But yeah, it was a trip
10 together. We had a very full, a very fun season
11 planned out.
12 MIKE KANE: Who made those arrangements?
13 JOHN RAMSEY: Patsy made the reservations?
14 MIKE KANE: Was it through the travel agent?
15 JOHN RAMSEY: The travel agent. Actually
16 I think I remember calling Walt Disney directly. I
17 think I might have gotten the number out of a
18 magazine or something. Because I think I remember
19 joining the Disney or somebody like that directly.
20 Because we had the option of going to Disney World
21 for a day or two, and we no, because Patsy didn't
22 want to. I Remember.
23 MIKE KANE: And then the trip to Charlevoix,
24 was that planned a lot in advance?
25 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah, fairly. Not months

0302
1 in advance, at least a month in advance. We had to
2 get tickets for the kids and figure out their
3 schedule and get Mike Archuleta lined up. So it
4 was planned. For sure three or four weeks in
5 advance.