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Tag: Barbara Walters Presents American Scandals

  • JonBenét Ramsey’s Father Talks In Depth About the Murder Of His Daughter With Barbara Walters

    JonBenét Ramsey, the child beauty pageant princess who was found murdered in her basement in 1996, would have been 25 this year. Many still vividly remember the scandal that erupted following her murder — which was never solved.

    As part of a Barbara Walters Presents American Scandals series, which aired on cable’s Investigation Discovery Nov. 2, JonBenét’s father, John Ramsey, opened up about those difficult days following her murder when he, his now-deceased wife, Patsy, and son Burke were the center of an intense investigation.

    Ramsey said his greatest priority was to shield his son from tabloid headlines that accused Burke of the murder of his six-year-old sister.

    “We tried to shield him from that,” John said. “Friends would ask us, ‘What can we do to help?’ We said, ‘Next time you go in the supermarket, call the manager over when you see our child’s photo on the front cover, and ask him to remove it.’ A lot of them did that.”

    For the first time since the death of JonBenét Ramsey, Burke, now 28, spoke about those horrifying days, saying that he has since moved on.

    JonBenét was found dead in her parents’ Boulder basement the day after Christmas 1996, an apparent victim of sexual assault. For months after the discovery of the body of the child beauty pageant contestant, her parents and her brother were investigated but never charged in the crime.

    In Walters’ sitdown with Ramsey, he said he believes law enforcement botched the investigation. He also spoke about the untimely death of his wife Patsy in 2006 from ovarian cancer. His new wife, Jan, talked about how she dealt with the controversy despite some people telling her that she was “marrying a killer.”

    Walters’ next installments in her scandal series with feature the trials of O.J. Simpson, the murder of John Lennon, Jim Bakker’s sex scandal and imprisonment for fraud, and the Menendez brothers.

  • JonBenet Ramsey Murder Revisited: The Protection of Burke Ramsey

    The JonBenet Ramsey murder case is nearing its 19th year as an unsolved crime. Everyone who recalls the horrific report of a Christmas gone so terribly wrong in Boulder, can picture the beautiful little blonde beauty pageant contestant, and her fairy tale life that ended way too soon.

    Barbara Walters revisited the JonBenet Ramsey case as part of her new series, Barbara Walters Presents American Scandals, and talked with JonBenet Ramsey’s father John Ramsey about how he and late wife Patsy Ramsey worked hard to prevent son Burke from learning of the rumors that surrounding the family following JonBenet’s death. Burke Ramsey spoke for the first time about the case.

    “We tried to shield him from that,” John Ramsey explained.

    “Friends would ask us, “What can we do to help?” We said, “Next time you go in the supermarket, call the manager over when you see our child’s photo on the front cover, and ask him to remove it,’” he added. “A lot of them did that.”

    JonBenet Ramsey was just six years old when she was found dead in the basement of her family’s Boulder home. A ransom note and eight hour search prompted panic, leading to the discovery of her body. She had duct tape covering her mouth and had been sexually assaulted. She had a fractured skull. The little girl’s hands were bound, and she was covered with a blanket. As with most murder cases, all eyes focused on those within the home–parents John Ramsey and Patsy Ramsey, and older brother (he was nine at the time) Burke.

    Despite the efforts of family members and friends, Burke Ramsey learned he, too, was a suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation–while he was at the grocery store with his mom.

    “The headlines from a tabloid screamed out that Burke had done it,” John Ramsey said at the time. “She dropped her produce and rushed Burke out, but the damage had been done.”

    All three family members were cleared in the death of JonBenet Ramsey in 2008, due to the presence of unknown male DNA. That came too late for Patsy Ramsey, however. She died of ovarian cancer in 2006.

    John Ramsey has moved on. In 2011 he got married again, to Jan Rousseaux. She appeared with John for the interview with Barbara Walters, and shared how the stigma has never left the family. Some friends even warned her she was “marrying a killer.”

    JonBenet Ramsey would have been 25 this year. Burke Ramsey is 28.

    Will John Ramsey go to his grave never knowing who killed JonBenet?

    Many maintain, to this very day, that he already knows.

    Who do you think killed JonBenet Ramsey?