Bonita Papers

I've been thinking about this some more. Patsy told another long, convoluted story about cleaning up that glass in the basement, from the broken window, even including that her children played there. Neither of them seemed to have been worried about the window never having been repaired, which I find odd because rain, even in a basement, can be a problem, but that's just me.

But Patsy included another detail in telling the glass clean up story that might have been important: she said the maid, LHP, also helped clean up that glass. When Patsy started rambling on and on about something, it's a red flag. She was nervous about this topic; John lied about it. Since they claim someone entered their home and that was possibly the point of entrance and exit, as JOHN POINTED OUT TO FLEET THAT AFTERNOON, then never mentioned it to LE until four months later when John claims he broke it earlier that year, it's just too odd on the whole.

So looking at the needs of staging in the panic of that night, their first need was to point away from the three people in the home as the killer so they could get away from LE and into the protection of their attorneys. That's what I believe they were working toward that fateful morning, at any rate. That's why JR called his pilot first thing after he "found" the body, which I fully believe they expected LE to do shortly after arriving that morning. It's why they called over all the friends--to put distance between them and LE when "the moment" came, because handling 7 adults who have significant input and emotions in such a crisis is a lot tougher than handling 2 suspects, giving the Ramseys a buffer and a variety of possible ways to avoid LE's questions. That's what the "raise her from the dead" performance was about, IMO: scare the bejesus out of LE with histrionics and drama, faint, throw up, etc., to run the situation out of LE's control when needed.

So staging an entrance and exit through that window, near the body, where she was strangled, where they expected her to be found quickly by LE or even friends--that was the initial red herring that accompanied the ransom note. The murder was committed by the author of the ransom note, who was an intruder or terrorist faction, and here's how he/they got in and out. Now we're leaving, flying to safety. Buh bye. Don't call us, we'll call you.

But back to Patsy's and John's convoluted stories about that broken window 18 months later: it was all over but the shouting, as their lawyers had seen all the results of the evidence LE had processed and were getting an update on everything with the actual interviews in '98, which was tipping LE's hand by showing the Ramseys and their PI/lawyers the evidence LE had even then. Team Ramsey quickly asked for evidence during and after the questioning had finished. I personally think Hunter was in on the fix from day one anyway, so all the Ramseys had to do was put up a good enough bluff to make it appear they were in fact "cooperating" and then fly on out of Boulder, free and clear, alls well that ends in no one going to prison. The "broken window" as intruder entrance and exit did the job they needed; Lou Smit certainly hung his career on it--or maybe I should say "hanged" his career on it. (For everyone else, they had back up plans, though, as a few keys floating around turned into scores of keys, not to mention, the house went from locked to windows and doors flapping in the wind, but oh well.)

Which leads me to why after 4 months, then 18 months after the murder, the Ramseys were still spinning the tale of the broken window: because the maid, LHP, had changed her allegiance to them once she learned they fingered her and her family first for the murder, and Patsy said LHP helped clean up that broken glass. LHP was talking to LE, and maybe the Ramseys got to see a report in which LHP brought up the broken window glass being cleaned up.

Some talk about what we haven't seen of the evidence, and maybe what we haven't seen includes LHP's detailed interviews. Perhaps the Ramseys, at least, knew all along LHP would put the lie to the broken window at some point, because LE would surely ask her as she worked in the home and basement. So by April '97, having their lawyers firmly in place, the conditions set and the Ramseys in control, they casually mentioned that John broke the window. While Hunter wasn't going to go after the Ramseys, their lawyers still knew he could have the case taken from him and that Thomas was not the dummy they needed in the BPD.

In '98, with lots of time to kill in days of interviews where details were expected, they elaborated, trying to be convincing as there is no statute of limitation on murder. Hunter was an advantage, but he was no guarantee. Thomas was the actual force who threatened to overturn their apple cart, and that's why Hunter and the Ramseys hate Thomas to this day. He foiled their little plan; even if he couldn't get justice for JonBenet, he showed us why.

What none of these people could foresee, though, as it was history in the making, was that years later, we'd still be pouring over their words in serious efforts to find the truth. They knew they had nothing to fear from Alex Hunter, I believe, but how could they know the evolving Internet and a thirst for justice for JonBenet would document and unveil her sad story of abuse, murder, and injustice for posterity? How could they imagine on that night the firestorm that would follow in the media and crime history?

So we have to keep in perspective what they didn't know, as well as what they did and what they lied about. Those lies have nailed them time and again, as lies always do.

They say it's much harder to investigate the death or murder of a child. I can't imagine, but Thomas appears to me to have been a very righteous man and a staunch professional detective who saw in the autopsy photos what happened to this small child. I think his desire to get justice for her was also driven by the professional pressure of having the media all over the BPD, with the Ramseys publicly putting the blame on their efforts to solve the case while using all their money, power, and LMartin connections to make sure they never would. I think all of that drove Thomas to work the evidence, which is what he did. The evidence led clearly to Patsy, as it still does. John's role is as ambiguous today as it ever was.

But John is not off my suspect list, nonetheless.

 

I do not think Patsy did this all alone. Whether she bashed JB or one their sons did, BOTH parents were involved in the coverup. Don't forget, BOTH parents' fibers were found on the body, fibers from clothing they wore THAT DAY. (the day she was killed). JR's wool shirt fibers, sourced to his dark wool Israeli-made shirt, worn to the White's that day in the INSIDE of JB's panty crotch. That places him THERE, handling the panties in some way, and with JB AFTER OR AT THE TIME OF, her death.
Patsy fibers from clothing she wore to the White's that day and was STILL wearing when police arrived the next morning were found in the paint tote, garrote knot and on the INSIDE of the tape allegedly found on JB's mouth.
That places Patsy not only with JB at the time of her death, but actually handling items used to kill her and/or stage the body- the tote, the cord and the tape.
Patsy admitted never painting wearing that red sweater/jacket, and said she had not worn it in the basement either.
Let's be frank- if Patsy or JR had ever had to take the witness stand in this case, they'd have been questioned extensively about those fibers and forensic testimony about the fibers would have been given in court. But as that never happened, and it was months before LE could question them- the lawyers stopped it cold. If you read Patsy's depos, you will see where LE says right in there that LE says (to Patsy) "And I understand you are NOT going to answer these questions". LW was right there, and he was not allowing Patsy to answer anything about her fibers being found at the crime scene. JR flat out refused, instead getting "insulted" and angry he was even asked.
IMO these are the reactions of guilty people and their lawyers.

 

Doesn't it really only place the shirt there? The police questioned John Ramsey about what he did with that shirt after he took it off and if someone else could have had access to it.

Perhaps Patsy took the shirt and wiped the underwear with it in an effort to implicate John should the intruder ruse not fly.

 

I suppose it places the shirt there, but I feel JR was inside the shirt. I can't see JR giving Patsy a pass for wiping his dead daughter with his shirt in order to frame him. I can't see either of them just "letting it go" if only one of them was responsible for it ALL. Their daughter was DEAD and one of the family was responsible. That is the ONLY reason for the coverup. It had to be someone that each of them felt could not shoulder the blame.

 

Fr. B, I have to disagree big time with you here. If my daughter's missing, and there is a ransom note telling me not to contact anyone or it means she dies, I do a little thinking and looking before I make a 911 phone call. First of all, I would never call 911....I would call directly to a police department and inform them of the situation and the threats....

 

I think you and I are on the same page here.

The image I can't get out of my mind is of one pulling the cord while one held her down. That would explain some of the bruising on the back shoulder and face as well.

But I cannot imagine, no matter how I try, the discussion that led to this act. Nope...it just won't come to me.

 

Okay, about this broken window. I've always been a little confused. I started a thread over at Topix, I believe, about this. Patsy stated that she and Arndt cleaned up that glass mess and, like she always did, she kept emphasizing that "you know the kids played down there." Anytime Patsy, as you wrote above, belabors a point, it throws up a flag that there's some deceiving going on. Anyway, in that interview, Patsy says that she and Arndt really went over that area pretty good because "the kids play down there you know."

Yet, FW stated that he found a piece of glass on the floor, below the broken window, and placed it on the ledge.....What's going on here? If Patsy and Linda both picked and swept up the broken glass, how does FW find a piece on the floor that fateful morning? Patsy emphasized how they had really cleaned up good because "the children play down there you know."

And as you mentioned. Who in their right mind would fail to fix a broken window in a basement? You mentioned wetness but what about field mice and chipmunks, etc.? They would have been parading in through that broken window the very first time the temperature dropped to 45 degrees...

 

Good points.

 

One thing I feel certain about: I'd have at least read the ransom note in full once before I'd have picked up the phone. Not Patsy or John. Grab the note, read a few lines of 2.5 pages, run around in underwear like a headless chicken, don't even question the other person sleeping closest to the child, her brother, don't search the house to see if they're even still in danger from these terrorists or if the child might still be there, or if it's a sick joke...nothing but, "OH MY GOD!! CALL 911!! TELL THEM NOTHING IMPORTANT LIKE WE'RE BEING WATCHED!! JUST SEND SOMEBODY!!" CLICK!

I also believe it would have taken more than that silly note for me to go from after-Christmas, morning sleepy, wanting my coffee so I can get the kids ready and to the plane to..."OH MY GOD!! SHE'S BEEN KIDNAPPED AND THERE'S NO OTHER EXPLANATION!! HELLO!! WE HAVE A KIDNAPPING!!!!!!!!

Instead, she went from 0 to 200 in 10 seconds, according to Patsy.

This case is so cut and dried, it really took the corruption of Alex Hunter, the idiocy of Mary Lacy, and the egotistical guile of Lou Smit and Michael Tracey to render it FUBAR for all time.

 

I think you misspoke--we all do with this cast of thousands: Linda Hoffman Pugh was the maid; Arndt was the detective there that morning.

Yes, Patsy kept harping on how zealously they cleaned up that glass. Why? One guess is as good as another, but if I have to guess, I'd say she wanted to make a good case for the reason there was no glass tracked through the house when the intruder entered the already broken window...because she was so careful to keep the kids safe, great, loving mom that she was, unlike one who might conspire or participate in the murder of her child? I don't know, but I'm sure she had some diabolical agenda in her head.

As for White finding that piece of glass, he said he put it on the window sill, but somehow a piece ended up on the suitcase. This certainly got Smit going with his crime scene photo of it on that suitcase, which he pointed out to Katie Couric like it was a bloody shoeprint. Glass is very hard to clean up entirely, I can tell you from experience. It breaks into so many hard to see shards when it shatters, and they are tiny and fly all over the place. With carpet, even harder, as it sticks into it. I'm not surprised that White found a piece, no matter if Patsy and LHP did vacuum like crazy there.

Good point about critters coming in the window. Makes me wonder when exactly John did break it. Team Ramsey implies it was only months before the murder, when Patsy and the kids were still in Charlevoix or visiting elsewhere, never pinning that down. Patsy and JonBenet were in Atlanta on Thanksgiving 1996, though I don't remember if Burke was with them. But as far as I remember, no date certain has ever been given--or I can't remember it, I should say.

It would seem important. It would seem LE would know, as well, because surely they asked LHP about it. Maybe the date is known and I should just look again that the '98 transcripts. sigh

Here's something I do remember: jams said any number of times that someone was actually with John Ramsey when he broke that window, and she knows who it was, but of course she isn't capable of straight up just saying who it was. If it's in the LE transcript, I missed it, though how I can't imagine. Anyone else read that?

The thing is, though, jams THINKS she knows this as some privileged source or she's lying. I'd go lying if I had to bet, but there's also the possibility that she has bought someone else's lie because her ability to screen info for bullchit is non-existent. If she believes she has actual info from someone who was a witness to John taking his suit off, pants and all, then putting his shoes back on and scooting into the window well in his undies, she surely believes she knows the date or thereabouts. Yet she doesn't offer that, either.

Now why wouldn't they want the date known, much less provide a witness to corroborate John's otherwise incredible story?

It's just more of why the Ramseys have always been and will always be suspects: nothing straightforward, nothing simple, never transparent or clear. All has to be abstruse; everything has to be a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma with them. It's excuses, blame, obstruction, diversion, and evasion in all things. Even now, the same applies to Burke, who has shunned talking to LE himself, as an adult, refusing to lift one finger to help investigate the murder of his sister even now.

That creates suspicion, and in this case, the die is cast.

 

I thought I read somewhere that John broke that window sometime during the summer of 1996. I don't buy that story at all so John saying he broke it the previous summer goes out the window too, IMO. And something else I don't believe is that Patsy helped LHP clean up the glass. Not for one minute can I imagine Patsy down on her hands and knees in that basement scooping up glass. Not with LHP there. This is the woman who would put her purse on the stairs for LHP to clean out. Since when is that a housekeepers job? Nopey nope nope, I think what really happened was Patsy handed LHP the broom and the dustpan and pointed to the basement. Maybe handing her those items is what Patsy considered helping. Nah, Patsy didn't clean that up. And John story doesn't hold water either. It's just so convienent for that broken window to be there as an escape route for an intruder when they needed one, isn't it?:bsflag:

 

Didn't JR and FW find a chair blocking the door to this room in the morning during their basement search? So that this non existent intruder could not even escape that route? Anybody remember that?

 

Yes, I did misspeak. I meant Pugh instead of Arndt. Thanks for pointing that out as I might have thrown some people off.

Now. Here's what I think explains the broken window. Here's why I believe Patsy emphasized the fact that she and Pugh cleaned the broken glass throroughly because "the kids play down there all the time , you know."

The window was broken sometime before that fateful night. If not, LHP would have disputed this. When you break a window, some of the glass would fall to the floor and some would remain on the ledge by the window. The glass, on the floor, was indeed cleaned up. But there was still some shards of glass up on the ledge that did not fall to the floor. \

That night, when things went wrong, and the staging was taking place, they needed an entrance/exit and John probably remembered the broken window. They moved the suitcase close, brushed some dirt off the ledge by the window, scuffed the wall, etc. The piece of glass, remaining on the ledge from the initial break, fell to the floor and this is the piece FW noticed and picked up and replaced back on the ledge.

Now. This is why John took FW to that room before discovering the body. John wanted FW to see the possible entrance/exit before discovering the body. When FW did, indeed, acknowledge the broken window, John should immediately have gone to Arndt with this news. After all, Arndt sent John to search around and find something amiss. This would have been big news in a house entry, no? John should have reported this to Arndt HAD HE NOT ALREADY KNOWN THERE WAS A BODY IN THAT WINE CELLAR AND WAS ANXIOUS TO HAVE THIS BODY DISCOVERED!

Patsy belabored the point about the GLASS BEING METICULOUSLY CLEANED UP BECAUSE THE KIDS PLAY DOWN THERE YOU KNOW, because knocking the glass to the floor was supposed to show that someone came in through that window knocking the glass off the ledge.....it was part of the staging......

 

Okay, makes sense to me. Whether it's exactly this or something like this, no doubt it had to do with the cover up.

 

Well spotted. Yes, Patsy was not prone to cleaning anything, from all I've read and her own admissions.

I always found it amazing how the RST went after LHPugh for not keeping the house cleaner and being a better maid. Of course, they were after her because she withdrew her former support of the Ramseys once she found out they'd tried to finger her and her family first that morning. Jams even reported the Pughs to LE as child molesters from a photo she and her pet pervert on her site found among child porn they perused--for the Ramsey investigators, of course. The photo was not of any of the Pughs, but hey, when you shill for the Rams, the truth need not be involved.

And the truth about LHPugh's maid skills is that it was a 15 room, four floor home, occupied by a family of four, plus often visiting adult children and their frequent guests, parties, neighborhood kids in and out, and Pugh was PART TIME, and no doubt found herself baby-sitting, as well.

I bet Pugh knows plenty. She'd have fared better if she hadn't hooked up with that ambulance-chaser Darnay, though. If Lin Wood had been working for Pugh, no doubt she'd be a wealthy woman now, after all Team Ramsey did to her.

 

By the way, Karen: if you're going to be around a bit, should we continue with the "Bonita Papers"? I have more notes but thought maybe you'd wandered off.... :computer:

 

Oh no no no m'dear! I check in here every day at least once and more often 2 or 3 times. I'll be here.:eye: What's up?

 

But John may not have found out about the wiping with his shirt until a long time down the road. The police didn't collect the shirt at the crime scene. They couldn't even compare the fibers until a year after the crime, when the shirt was turned over.

By then John was guilty of a felony, probably multiple felonies.

From John's interview in 2000:

"21 Q. (By Mr. Levin) Mr. Ramsey, it is
22 our belief based on forensic evidence that
23 there are hairs that are associated, that the
24 source is the collared black shirt that you
25 sent us that are found in your daughter's
0058
1 underpants, and I wondered if you --
2 A. ********. I don't believe that.
3 I don't buy it. If you are trying to
4 disgrace my relationship with my daughter --
5 Q. Mr. Ramsey, I am not trying to
6 disgrace --
7 A. Well, I don't believe it. I
8 think you are. That's disgusting....
17 Q. (By Mr. Levin) Mr. Ramsey, when
18 you came home on the 25th, do you recall if
19 you threw your clothes down the chute to the
20 second floor where someone who might have
21 been in the house would have access to them?
22 Can you tell us who might have done that?
23 A. Who knows. I don't know.
24 Q. I understand it is tough.
25 A. I really don't. Yeah, I don't
0065
1 know.
2 MR. WOOD: I mean, you asked for
3 his clothes in December of '97, you got them
4 in January of '98. Why, for the love of
5 common sense and logic, wouldn't you have
6 asked him about that in June of 1998 when
7 his memory was a lot more fresh, at least
8 fresher than it is now two plus years later?
9 But, you know, that's just a part of the
10 ongoing mystery of some of the aspects of
11 the case, I guess, in terms of the
12 investigation.
13 Q. (By Mr. Levin) Wool shirts, would
14 those normally go out to the cleaners or
15 would it depend? Even now, what is your
16 family practice?
17 A. Well, if it is a dry-cleaning
18 item, we'd normally send it directly to the
19 dry cleaners. Once in a while they get
20 thrown in by mistake, but particularly if it
21 is a shirt.
22 Q. Your dry-cleaning items, would you
23 just throw them down the chute and let Linda
24 sort them out, this is dry-cleaning, this
25 gets washed or would you separate them up
0066
1 front and keep them in a separate place, if
2 you recall?
3 A. I don't -- I am trying to
4 remember where the laundry chute went to. I
5 mean, it probably -- I wasn't that organized
6 to separate things out like that as a normal
7 course of business.
8 MR. BECKNER: Did you ask what he
9 did on that particular night with the shirt?
10 I missed that.
11 THE WITNESS: Frankly, I don't
12 remember.
13 MR. LEVIN: I thought I had asked
14 you. I wasn't sure if that was clear.
15 THE WITNESS: I mean, typically
16 if it is a wool shirt, something that does
17 require dry-cleaning, I try to get several
18 cycles out of it, but I don't remember.
19 MR. BECKNER: What was your
20 normal routine?
21 THE WITNESS: Well, normally, I
22 would --
23 MR. WOOD: About dry-cleaning?
24 MR. BECKNER: No.
25 THE WITNESS: -- I would hang
0067
1 onto it. If it was something I wanted to
2 wear again, I'd hang it, I'd try to, I'd
3 usually hang it up. Sometimes I would put
4 it on a chair. But I wasn't religious about
5 that. I would normally try to hang it up.
6 Q. (By Chief Beckner) Let me be
7 more specific. Would you throw your clothes
8 on the floor typically in a pile?
9 A. Well, no, not, not if I was, if
10 I was going to wear it again. If it was
11 headed for the laundry, you know, it could
12 end up on the floor before it ended up in
13 the laundry chute, but if I intend to wear
14 it again, if it was a suit or sweater, or
15 something like that, I normally wouldn't
16 throw it on the floor."

 

OK, that's fine, but if you've found a ransom note and your kid's missing, you're not going to spend a lot of time looking around the house for her, are you? As Marc Klaas says, your kid can be disappearing at the rate of 1 mile per minute.

But Patsy probably didn't give Ramsey too much time to deliberate about calling 911. It seems like she called that and everybody she knew in Boulder before he had time to evaluate the situation.

Ramsey might have called Mike Bynum right after reading the ransom note. As I recall, Ramsey was pretty vague about what he was doing before the police arrived. That would dovetail with koldkase's theories about the disappearing phone records, I think.

 

fr brown,

Thanks for this refresher from John's interview in 2000.

It seems ridiculous the Ramseys never cooperated with the police when it came to handing over their clothes immediately after the crime? I don't understand this. I remember Linda Arndt's clothes were bagged after she had been in the Ramsey home. It just doesn't make sense.