June 1998 John Ramsey Interrogation by Lou Smit and Mike Kane (Questioning Regarding the Pineapple)

0205
23 LOU SMIT: Okay. I think that's kind of a
24 chronological that kind of gets up to the hearing.
25 Now I would like to go over the specifics. And

0206
1 this here is academic questions about heating. And
2 you brought up this that you heard something about
3 pineapple. Now what have you heard about
4 pineapple?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we were asked if JonBenet
6 had eaten any pineapple, because apparently it was
7 found in her system. I don't know if the police
8 asked us that or we saw it on television or the
9 question came up. I don't remember her eating
10 pineapple, I don't remember pineapple at Fleet's
11 or the White's house. It sort of been a very
12 logical hors d'oeuvres. I don't' remember
13 specifically if it was there.
14 I think part of the question was what did she eat
15 when she got home, and I'm sure she didn't because
16 she was absolutely sound asleep. So I don't know
17 nothing about the basis of the question.
18 LOU SMIT: That's why I wanted to show you
19 the picture. I just didn't know what you had heard
20 of this thing. I'm going to show you what's called
21 a picture of 414.
22 This is a photograph that's taken of the dining
23 room table. And it shows various things on the
24 dining room table. Do you see the gingerbread
25 houses? And then you see a bowl on that

0207
1 (INAUDIBLE)?
2 JOHN RAMSEY: Um hmm.
3 LOU SMIT: What else do you see on there?
4 JOHN RAMSEY: I see a glass with what looks
5 like (INAUDIBLE). Tissues on the glass. A couple
6 knives.
7 LOU SMIT: Do you have any idea how that got
8 on that table?
9 JOHN RAMSEY: It might have been (INAUDIBLE)
10 that's a big bowl.
11 LOU SMIT: I'm going to straighten out the
12 picture so we'll want a close up of everything.
13 This is a photograph of 417. what does that
14 represent there?
15 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, it's a large spoon, not
16 a teaspoon. It looks like Patsy's good silver. I
17 guess that could be pineapple, I can't tell. But
18 it could be. Some people (INAUDIBLE) pineapple to
19 make it old and there's this teabag in an empty
20 glass. I can't tell, but it looks like there is
21 some milk or something.
22 LOU SMIT: Who do you know would eat
23 pineapple like that? Do you have any idea?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: Well the kids like pineapple,
25 but that's a big bowl and this is a big spoon and

0208
1 I can't imagine that the kids would have something
2 like that at any time. Certainly not with iced
3 tea, I don't think. They don't even drink iced
4 tea. I think they do not. (INAUDIBLE) yeah.
5 LOU SMIT: John, I just wanted to kind
6 of check back with you. Now these obviously are
7 crime scene photographs.
8 JOHN RAMSEY: Um hmm.
9 LOU SMIT: And this is the condition that
10 things are found when pictures are taken. We're
11 trying to explain that, even in correlating it
12 with your daughter (INAUDIBLE)?
13 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah. Could that have been
14 gotten out by someone who was in there that
15 morning, I wonder?
16 LOU SMIT: I don't know. That's a thought.
17 What do you think?
18 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't know. I mean I don't --
19 that's just a huge --
20 LOU SMIT: You mean somebody who had been
21 (INAUDIBLE)?
22 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, the Fernies or the
23 Whites or, there were a lot of people in the house
24 that were -- that would not be like us to leave
25 that. Certainly not leaving the next morning on a

0209
1 trip, to leave it like that, out.
2 That's a big bowl, whatever it is, if it's
3 pineapple.
4 MIKE KANE: Do you recognize the bowl?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: Oh, I don't know. I recognize
6 the spoon, because it's a big serving spoon. It's
7 not like a teaspoon. And that could be one of our
8 bowls. We had white bowls like that. Patsy would
9 recognize it for sure. It looks like our glass.
10 LOU SMIT: Who would drink tea with a teabag
11 in the glass?
12 JOHN RAMSEY: Somebody who would drink tea,
13 I guess. I don't know. I don't drink tea. Burke
14 will drink sweet ice tea. I don't remember if
15 JonBenet did, if she did.
16 I mean, even for someone who's there and to get
17 out that big of a bowl and put that much pineapple
18 in it and just leave it. That doesn't make sense.
19 MIKE KANE: That was a serving spoon?
20 JOHN RAMSEY: It's a big serving spoon. I
21 mean don't even have an answer.
22 MIKE KANE: (INAUDIBLE) taken out and put
23 back in the refrigerator. Could that have
24 (INAUDIBLE) where it had been?
25 JOHN RAMSEY: It's possible.

0210
1 MIKE KANE: Any other tea drinkers in the
2 house?
3 JOHN RAMSEY: Patsy drank tea. She likes
4 sweet ice tea.
5 MIKE KANE: (INAUDIBLE)?
6 JOHN RAMSEY: I believe, not much, once
7 in a while.
8 LOU SMIT: (INAUDIBLE) sweet ice tea, you
9 can put a tea bag (INAUDIBLE)?
10 JOHN RAMSEY: Oh, no. With sweet ice tea
11 you have to make the tea. And I don't know how you
12 do it, but she puts sugar in it or something. It's
13 a southern drink. But, no.
14 I mean, first of all, it was hot tea. You
15 wouldn't it in that kind of a glass, it was weird.
16 That doesn't make sense.
17 LOU SMIT: You see, this is the trouble.
18 That we don't know. We don't know the answer. We
19 just didn't know whether it was like that or
20 (INAUDIBLE) around it.
21 JOHN RAMSEY: I would almost think that
22 (INAUDIBLE) that's Patsy's too. But that would not
23 have been left out by us where it would be for any
24 extended period of time. And that is a huge bowl
25 of pineapple or whatever it is and a big spoon.

0211
1 LOU SMIT: On the 26th, that was the
2 morning of the 26th, John, do you remember eating
3 at that time?
4 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't, but -- No, I don't.
5 I think there was -- I don't know, I don't
6 remember. There might have been some coffee made
7 or something like that. I don't think anybody was
8 feeling to eat.
9 LOU SMIT: Where would you keep pineapple?
10 JOHN RAMSEY: If it were opened, it would
11 have been kept in the refrigerator.
12 LOU SMIT: And that's the walk-in one?
13 JOHN RAMSEY: Right. If it were not open,
14 it would be in the pantry. This little (INAUDIBLE)
15 was here with the cans. (INAUDIBLE) next to the
16 cans. I mean it doesn't look like -- the kids
17 wouldn't have gotten that thing and the spoon
18 down. I mean, that's huge for a child's mouth.
19 They would have gotten a little spoon or a fork.
20 They wouldn't have fixed themselves that big a
21 bowl.
22 LOU SMIT: Is this the first time that
23 you knew about this?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: It's the first time I've
25 seen it, yeah.

0212 1 DAVID WILLIAMS: Can we take a look at the
2 photographs?
3 MIKE KANE: While your doing that, could
4 I ask, you said you had cans of pineapple normally
5 would be kept in that pantry that's open. Do you
6 ever by fresh pineapple (INAUDIBLE)?
7 JOHN RAMSEY: We did not, not that I remember.
8 No. I mean, we had --
9 LOU SMIT: What other kind of fruit did you
10 have around?
11 JOHN RAMSEY: Well we had apples around;
12 bananas, a lot of bananas. The kids loved
13 bananas. Grapes, green grapes.
14 LOU SMIT: Where would (INAUDIBLE)
15 JOHN RAMSEY: The bananas would be hanging
16 from a little stand that was kept in the kitchen
17 over in this area. The grapes tended to be in the
18 refrigerator. I don't remember specifically.
19 LOU SMIT: Do you know if JonBenet would
20 ever get up in the middle of the night to eat
21 these things?
22 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't think so. Not -- no.
23 DAVID WILLIAMS: Was that fresh? pineapple?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: No. But, no, that would be,
25 certainly not a glass that with a teabag in it. It

0213
1 absolutely doesn't make any sense for the kids to
2 have left that there.
3 LOU SMIT: Well we can come back to that later. I
4 do want to talk about that a little bit later. You
5 got any more questions?
6 MIKE KANE: No.
7 JOHN RAMSEY: But, I mean, it's strange.
8 It doesn't (INAUDIBLE).
9 LOU SMIT: This is also another picture,
10 picture 416, which also shows the same bowl, only
11 it shows the gingerbread house, and there's some
12 Kleenex on there and things of that nature. So I
13 don't know. Is that the gingerbread house that the
14 children were making?
15 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah. It looks like it. This
16 was like in -- Patsy would know. I'm not sure why
17 a Kleenex box is there either. That's not normal
18 for a Kleenex box.
19 LOU SMIT: What do you say about that?
20 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, I guess it doesn't
21 belong on the kitchen table. I don't know where it
22 came from, but that's now it aught to be.
23 LOU SMIT: Well, I'm sure that Patsy is
24 going to be asked the same question. Maybe she
25 remembers more on this or not. Is it possible that

0214
1 that could have been left out, maybe because to be
2 (INAUDIBLE)?
3 JOHN RAMSEY: I doubt it very much.
4 LOU SMIT: Whey do you say that?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we were leaving town
6 the next morning. We would be gone nearly for a
7 week and a half. I've never seen a teabag left in
8 a glass like that in our house. I know we're not
9 the neatest people in the world, but I don't think
10 we'd have left an open bowl of fruit sitting on
11 the kitchen table.

---

(SNIP)

---

0515
15 LOU SMIT: I just, if I could just
16 -- I know it's getting close to five on our
17 thing -- I think we came here a quarter after
18 and the tape was put on, these are two-hour
19 tapes, so we still have a little bit of time but
20 I wanted to ask you a question and that's in
21 regards to the pineapple.
22 Again, did you discuss that at all
23 or try to find out what the reason for the
24 pineapple in the bowl was, last night?
25 JOHN RAMSEY: Last night? I

0516
1 told, let's see, if I tell Patsy that there --
2 I think I mentioned that I was puzzled by the
3 bowl, the large bowl of what appeared to be
4 pineapple with a big serving spoon in it. It
5 didn't register with her. She said I hope they
6 show you a picture, because I think that's --
7 LOU SMIT: We can do that at some
8 point.
9 JOHN RAMSEY: It didn't register
10 with her last night. I guess what I would want
11 to ask her is where did you keep that
12 silverware, is that in fact your good silverware
13 in wherever it was kept. Because we had a
14 drawer and just you know, everyday silverware,
15 it was always full of teaspoons, there was a
16 million teaspoons, and why that bowl had a big
17 serving spoon in it, and what I think was, you
18 know, a good silver, doesn't make any sense to
19 me.
20 LOU SMIT: That's a question we
21 have to try to figure out, what happened there,
22 when that bowl was placed there and who did
23 that.
24 JOHN RAMSEY: Right, where this
25 spoon came from.

0517
1 LOU SMIT: And even the
2 pineapple.
3 JOHN RAMSEY: Yes, is that
4 what was in the bowl?
5 LOU SMIT: Yeah. And we, and
6 we haven't talked about this too much, but
7 have you heard anything about pineapple in
8 regards to your daughter?
9 JOHN RAMSEY: Just that it was
10 a question mark that there was either was or
11 could have been pineapple in her system.
12 LOU SMIT: And where did you
13 hear that?
14 JOHN RAMSEY: Oh, it's been on the
15 tabloids, been on television; I think these
16 fellows asked me about it. It started to come
17 up as a question, at least in the media.
18 LOU SMIT: See, that is a
19 question, when did JonBenet eat pineapple?
20 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, I don't know.
21 I mean, the I will guarantee you it was not
22 after she came home. She was sound asleep. So
23 it had to be at the Whites or prior to that.
24 LOU SMIT: Okay. Now when
25 you say it wouldn't be afterwards, I mean

0518
1 now that's why you know this is going to
2 be a (INAUDIBLE) the question that's going
3 to always be asked?
4 JOHN RAMSEY: She was sound
5 asleep. When I carried her upstairs. I mean I
6 noted when I got her out of the car, and I
7 struggled to get her out of the back seat and
8 she was just, (NOISE) I almost dropped her, I
9 kind of struggled to get her up in my arms and
10 it didn't phase her, she didn't wake up, she was
11 just out. And I know, if she goes to sleep, she
12 is -- that's it for the night.
13 LOU SMIT: Next question is,
14 is could someone have gotten her up and
15 fed her pineapple? I mean that is a
16 logical question, and that's the question
17 we have to answer.
18 JOHN RAMSEY: I can't
19 imagine that somebody could have gotten
20 her up, fed her pineapple, and she
21 wouldn't have screamed bloody murder.
22 LOU SMIT: Why?
23 JOHN RAMSEY: What if it was a
24 stranger.
25 LOU SMIT: Well, it was.

0519
1 JOHN RAMSEY: Had to be.
2 MIKE KANE: Well, could have been
3 -- (INAUDIBLE)--?
4 JOHN RAMSEY: Patsy said she
5 didn't give her any -- I mean, first of all, if
6 we had said oh, yeah, well, we gave her
7 pineapple, that would have ended the discussion.
8 LOU SMIT: That's correct.
9 JOHN RAMSEY: But we didn't.
10 LOU SMIT: But the fact
11 though, John, is she has pineapple in her
12 intestines, okay. She has that in there.
13 No one has fed her pineapple that we know
14 of.
15 Could someone have fed her
16 pineapple that night is all I will say,
17 could somebody have done it? I mean if
18 it's in there, that is a positive. There
19 is nothing --
20 (MULTIPLE SPEAKERS.)
21 JOHN RAMSEY: I understand,
22 I understand. I mean, my suspicion when I
23 first heard that was well, there must have 24 been pineapple at the Whites' house, and I
25 don't remember it but there was all sorts

0520
1 of little finger foods and the kids were,
2 you know, in and out and grabbing this and
3 that. We understand the Whites said no,
4 they didn't serve pineapple. That's
5 factual or not, but I guess my question
6 would be well, did the kids go to the
7 refrigerator, you know, and get a bite of
8 pineapple at the Whites.
9 If it wasn't there and was it
10 earlier in the day, Patsy would most likely
11 know, you know. She liked pineapple. And it
12 wasn't -- if there was open pineapple in the
13 refrigerator, it wouldn't have been -- I am not
14 sure she could get that refrigerator door open.

June 1998 John Ramsey Interrogation by Lou Smit and Mike Kane (Questioning Regarding the Pineapple)

0520
15 You have to ask Patsy. It was not easy, it was
16 like a freezer door, big walk-in freezer door,
17 it wasn't that easy to pop open.
18 But they certainly weren't above
19 going in the pantry, grabbing a box of cereal
20 and, you know, having cereal and stuff. So I
21 guess to say if it was, would not have been out
22 of the question that she grabbed some out of the
23 refrigerator in the day sometime, but I don't
24 know that she could get the door open.
25 But I mean, it's hard for to me to

0521
1 think that this intruder could have taken her
2 downstairs and fed her pineapple. I just can't
3 buy that.
4 LOU SMIT: See, that is the
5 thing, that's the one thing --
6 (MULTIPLE SPEAKERS).
7 On the counter you mean.
8 LOU SMIT: We don't know.
9 The pineapple is inside her, so we have to
0 figure out how that pineapple got there.
11 There is one way it could get there, she
12 had to eat it at some point.
13 JOHN RAMSEY: Are you sure it was
14 pineapple?
15 LOU SMIT: Yes.
16 JOHN RAMSEY: No question?
17 LOU SMIT: No question. No
18 question. So that's always been the big
19 bugaboo.
20 JOHN RAMSEY: What's the -- is
21 there a time line based on where it was in the
22 digestive system?
23 LOU SMIT: That's always open
24 to people's opinions. But there is
25 various theories it could be anywhere from

0522
1 two hours to more than that. But again,
2 it is in her intestine.
3 JOHN RAMSEY: Well my -- my
4 amateur reasoning would be that she came
5 home at -- she was in bed, she was asleep
6 before we got home, which was, you know,
7 9:00, 9:15. I believe she was killed that
8 night.
9 LOU SMIT: What night?
10 JOHN RAMSEY: The 25th. If I have
11 my dates right. The 26th, evening of the 26th,
12 rather than early in the morning or the next
13 morning.
14 LOU SMIT: Think about the
15 date.
16 JOHN RAMSEY: Well okay, the 25th,
17 Christmas Day night. So if you said midnight,
18 that means there is three hours that I would say
19 there is no way she could have eaten any, as --
20 it's a time mark. I think Patsy -- see that
21 picture, asked to see if that bowl looks like
22 something that would have been in the
23 refrigerator and left out, did JonBenet grab a
24 bite when she left the house, I don't know. But
25 I know as a father and as sound asleep as she

0523
1 was, that she didn't get up, we didn't feed her
2 when we got home.
3 She wouldn't have gotten up, Patsy
4 didn't get up. She would have gotten up to feed
5 her. So that isn't an option in my mind. I
6 mean, it would be -- an intruder drug her down
7 there and tried to feed her something, she would
8 have screamed bloody murder. If she opened her
9 mouth to eat pineapple, she would have screamed
10 bloody murder.
11 LOU SMIT: But still it's a
12 fact that it's in there. There is nothing
13 that we can do to change that particular
14 fact.
15 JOHN RAMSEY: I understand.
16 LOU SMIT: So is there any
17 possibility at all that Patsy could have
18 done that, have gotten up and gone down
19 there?
20 JOHN RAMSEY: No.
21 LOU SMIT: Would you have known it
22 if she had?
23 JOHN RAMSEY: I wouldn't have
24 known it but she certainly would have said it.
25 I mean, there was no reason she would have

0524
1 denied it. I mean, it would be very easy, if we
2 were trying to hide this, it would be very easy
3 to say oh, yeah, I got up and fed her pineapple,
4 that explains that, then put her back to bed.
5 We didn't. So I --
6 LOU SMIT: This is why, you know,
7 people think about those things, and especially
8 detectives.
9 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, what I -- I
10 guess one of the things that I felt all along is
11 I mean this thing with oh, you know, we found
12 the practice note and ransom note -- the
13 practice ransom note on the pad. If I was
14 setting this up, give me some credit for being
15 smarter than that. You know, would I have
16 handed Linda Arndt the pad that I wrote the
17 practice note on? If we were trying to disguise
18 something, why wouldn't we say oh, yeah, we fed
19 her pineapple before she went to bed, that
20 explains that. We didn't.
21 So I can't -- I don't accept that
22 that happened. If it did, I would have said it
23 or Patsy would have said it. Even if we were
24 guilty, I mean what's the big deal? I mean you
25 know, what I mean, that it didn't happen. I

0525
1 know it didn't happen after she went to bed. So
2 I -- there has to be another answer to that
3 question. Than that she got up in the middle of
4 the night and had a big bowl of pineapple and
5 went back to bed or we got her up. So...
6 LOU SMIT: Did she ever go
7 out on her own to go down there and eat
8 pineapple?
9 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't recall that
10 she ever did. I don't know. I don't think so.
11 Not that I remember, ever, at night. She was
12 getting to the point where she was -- she used
13 to be not afraid of the dark or anything at all
14 and then she was getting kind of -- she was
15 growing up a little bit and getting afraid of
16 the dark and, you know, just kind of normal
17 things that -- that people start to think
18 about.
19 But she wouldn't have been -- I
20 mean, we were out solidly asleep, we were all
21 tired. Christmas is a big day, it's exhausting.
22 I know she was, had to be exhausted.
23 LOU SMIT: Can you see why we have
24 that concern, though?
25 JOHN RAMSEY: I can see why

0526
1 you -- you know, this question, where did it
2 come from, but I don't think -- other than the
3 fact that there is this bowl on the table, which
4 I can't -- Patsy needs to look at it to answer
5 that question. But I don't -- it's either very
6 significant if the intruder somehow -- well,
7 that just doesn't make sense.
8 I mean JonBenet was a smart, strong
9 little girl. And if she had the opportunity to
10 scream and to kick and fight, she would have
11 done that. No question in my mind. So I don't
12 buy that, you know, an intruder sat her down and
13 fed her pineapple.
14 LOU SMIT: That explains how
15 she got that? We have got to figure that
16 out?
17 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah.
18 LOU SMIT: I know.
19 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, I think
20 Patsy needs to see that picture, see if
21 that makes any sense to her, that bowl.
22 It didn't to me. If our kids or if we had
23 prepared food for our kids, we would have
24 given a teaspoon, because there is a whole
25 drawer full of them. It would have been a

0527
1 heaping bowl of pineapple. Just -- if
2 that bowl were in the refrigerator,
3 covered with Saran Wrap or something, it's
4 possible that Patsy would remember that.
5 But I have to look at the
6 picture, I can't see any other explanation
7 -- it looked strange to me. Quite
8 frankly.

---

(SNIP)

---

0552
12 JOHN RAMSEY: Right. Are we ready
13 to talk more about the pineapple later on?
14 LOU SMIT: If you would like
15 to, you can talk about it now.
16 JOHN RAMSEY: All right.
17 Bryan chastised me a bit on the way home,
18 he said like you were very adamant that
19 she wouldn't be eating pineapple. What do
20 you know for sure? I said I know we
21 didn't feed her pineapple. I know I
22 didn't feed her pineapple, I know Patsy
23 didn't feed her pineapple, because she
24 said she didn't.
25 And I was going on track of

0553
1 there is no way of a strange intruder
2 could have gotten her down there without
3 her screaming, kicking and hollering and
4 fed her pineapple. But you asked I think
5 if what if it was someone she knew, and
6 that's conceivable. And --
7 LOU SMIT: How would you
8 explain it?
9 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, at the risk of
10 just unfortunately after this case already
11 jumping to the conclusion there was apparently
12 one of JonBenet's friends or parents that day
13 said JonBenet told them that Santa Claus was
14 going to come visit her that night, last night,
15 not the night, I don't know if that's hearsay on
16 my part.
17 LOU SMIT: Where did you hear
18 it from?
19 JOHN RAMSEY: I think I heard it
20 from our investigators. I think.
21 LOU SMIT: Okay?
22 JOHN RAMSEY: Okay. So let's,
23 if that's true, and if the Santa Claus were
24 somebody she knew, she adored Santa Claus, they 25 had a special relationship. If he was the one,

0554
1 came into her room, as previously promised, she
2 wouldn't have been alarmed, she would have gone
3 downstairs with him, gone wherever he wanted. I
4 don't know why he would have sat down and fed
5 her pineapple, but it's possible.
6 LOU SMIT: Do you have any
7 ideas who this could be?
8 JOHN RAMSEY: Bill McReynolds is
9 the only Santa Claus I know. That she knows.
10 LOU SMIT: Didn't JonBenet
11 have other Santa Clauses?
12 JOHN RAMSEY: (Shaking head).
13 LOU SMIT: How about a fellow
14 named Cal?
15 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't -- I don't
16 know.
17 LOU SMIT: How about a Santa
18 Claus that may have been on her note, on
19 the Christmas --
20 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't think
21 there was one. No.
22 LOU SMIT: How about another
23 Santa Claus from a previous years?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, this Bill
25 McReynolds has done it for two or three years.

0555
1 Patsy would know, but I don't know if there is
2 anyone else before that or not. I don't recall
3 if there was. We had a guy at Atlanta, he used
4 to come to our Christmases as Santa Claus and
5 that's kind of how we got the tradition started,
6 he would come to the Christmas party, kind of
7 our office Christmas party at the house, that
8 was, you know, five, six, seven years ago. She
9 wasn't even there, frankly, so --
10 LOU SMIT: Do you understand
11 why I pushed you on this?
12 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, I say it hit
13 me like a ton of bricks when I thought about it.
14 I said that's very conceivable. Trying to
15 explain where she ate pineapple and there was
16 pineapple on the table. I don't know if that
17 bowl of pineapple on the table came -- I don't
18 remember seeing it that morning, but it was
19 chaos, so you know, there was food that was
20 gotten out, when people were there. They made
21 toast, I think, that was pretty much all
22 confined to the kitchen, the kitchen counter
23 area.
24 You know, it's possible that bowl
25 was brought out as part of the food for people

0556
1 that were there, in which case this -- that
2 doesn't quite fit. But it's possible.

---

0556
17 JOHN RAMSEY: It's -- if I -- you
18 know, if I recall this little tidbit that her
19 mother said that JonBenet said Santa was going
20 to come visit her the evening of the 26th, she
21 never told us that. And if that's something
22 they would have, you know, secretly prearranged,
23 would have been very possible, because I think
24 JonBenet took Santa through the house, you know,
25 that night of the 23rd or was with him while he

0557
1 was there the year before, I remember that.
2 If I came -- if I in fact -- if
3 in fact that's who said that to her and in fact
4 was said, and somebody she knew, and was
5 expecting, particularly Santa Claus, she would
6 hop right out of bed, you know, gone to the mall
7 if he wanted to.
8 LOU SMIT: You see that that
9 pineapple is a clue, I mean that's in the
10 case.
11 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, it's -- you
12 know what I don't understand, I guess, to -- is
13 when she would have eaten, could she have eaten
14 it during the day, you know, grabbed a bite of
15 pineapple at our house or Fleet's house or how
16 much pineapple. So you guys would know that a
17 lot better than I. But if we say okay,
18 let's -- let's have the hypothesis that she ate
19 the pineapple sometime between 9 p.m. when she
20 came home and -- then and we found a bowl of
21 pineapple on the kitchen table, I know for a
22 fact that I didn't do, serve her pineapple, I
23 know for a fact that Patsy didn't because she
24 said she didn't. She wouldn't have gotten up
25 and just gone down and fixed herself a big bowl

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1 of pineapple in my opinion, she's never done
2 that that I ever recall.
3 She was dead tired. And she
4 wouldn't do that. An intruder wouldn't have --
5 say she could open her mouth, she would just
6 scream bloody murder and we heard her, she sure
7 wouldn't have sat there eating pineapple, but if
8 it was somebody she knew I don't know why she
9 would have sat down and ate pineapple, but
10 JonBenet liked pineapple, no question about it.
11 So that's good.
12 I am glad you brought that up too.

---

(SNIP)

---

560
10 JOHN RAMSEY: Absolutely. We
11 have some letters if him. We have a tape from
12 him that hopefully you guys have. If you guys
13 don't have it, I couldn't listen to it but it
14 was a tribute to JonBenet or something like
15 that. And apparently it starts up and it says
16 you left Santa Claus and went, you know, doing
17 all those fancy things and you came back to
18 Santa Claus, our guy said it was very weird. He
19 wrote me a letter saying that he carved
20 JonBenet's name in a heart, it had the name of
21 three other little girls that died early.
22 I mean I couldn't start saying,
23 okay, that's the guy. But that's premature, but
24 that would be in my mind explain how, if we said
25 JonBenet ate pineapple between 9 p.m. when she

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1 went to bed and when we found her, that is the
2 only way that's plausible to me that she could
3 have eaten. Is someone she knew and trusted and
4 said let's go downstairs, there is a surprise.
5 He might have sat there with pineapple and a
6 glass of tea, I don't know, but --