Chapter 5
BACKGROUND
Beauty Is Only Wallet Deep
Child beauty pageants are big business. Estimates vary, but the consensus is that pageants comprise a five-billion-dollar industry that sees about 250,000 girls participate in roughly 5,000 pageants held in the US annually. Some estimates are as high as 290,000 participants in 16,000 pageants per year. The industry took a hit in 1997, after the tragic death of its most famous participant, six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, but participation has come roaring back—and the cash registers are ringing as the tiny tots strut their stuff on the pint-size runways of hotel meeting rooms across the country.
Playing Dress-Up Meets Iris from Taxi
Child pageants fall into two categories—natural and glitz. Glitz pageants, like the ones JonBenét participated in, involve dressing young girls in makeup and clothing to mimic the appearance and movement of grown women as they walk down modeling runways and perform song and dance routines.
Many people view this as sexualization of the children involved. According to the 2007 Executive Summary of the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls report,
“Sexualization occurs when a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics; …and/or sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person.”
The APA report goes on to describe cognitive and emotional impairments and multiple negative impacts on the physical, mental, and sexual health of the girl, including eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression or a depressed mood.
The APA’s definition of sexualization as sexuality that is inappropriately imposed upon a person sounds a lot like dressing five-year-olds up as grown women and having them perform suggestive moves on makeshift stages in the ballrooms of chain hotels, but that’s just my opinion. However, it’s hard to avoid that conclusion when, during one episode of Toddlers & Tiaras, a reality show featuring the pageant world, a three-year-old girl was dressed as Julia Roberts’s character in the film Pretty Woman, prostitute Vivian Ward—complete with boots, miniskirt, bare midriff, and blond wig.
Children Can’t Be Choosers
Since children by definition have no independent legal standing and cannot make decisions for themselves, it seems that participation in pageants, like any other choice in their lives, is imposed upon them by their adult decision makers. While some children appear to make certain decisions for themselves, like choosing their own clothing or picking their meals, this pseudoautonomy is actually granted to them by their adult caregivers, not taken as a right by the child. Moreover, these pseudochoices are made from a limited range of options offered by the adults. In any case, the child is by no means a free agent. So I take with a big grain of salt pageant moms’ claims that their kids “choose” to participate. A young child’s desperate need for approval and acceptance by the parental figure who is literally responsible for feeding and sheltering them often makes a child’s “decision” to do whatever their parent wants nothing more than a survival tactic.
While the APA report was not an investigation into pageants or a direct indictment of them, the implications of the report for the quarter of a million children participating in these contests every year are staggering.
The tragic suicide of sixteen-year-old pageant star Kailia Posey, who hanged herself on May 2, 2022, is potentially an example of some of these harms. After a lifetime on the pageant circuit, including a stint on Toddlers & Tiaras, Posey ended her own life.
It was in this pageant world of helicopter moms swarming around child beauty contestants and that culture’s inherent emphasis on outward appearances that six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey lived her short life—until she was murdered on Christmas in 1996.
WHAT HAPPENED?
The Players
The Patriarch
John Ramsey was born on December 7, 1943, in Nebraska. He graduated from Michigan State University with a BS in electrical engineering and an MBA and became a successful businessman. He founded a company that eventually evolved into Access Graphics, which he sold to Lockheed Martin in 1991. Ramsey stayed on as the president and chief executive officer of the new Lockheed subsidiary. He had three children with his first wife before their marriage ended in divorce.
Beauty and the Businessman
If John Ramsey was Ward Cleaver, Patsy Ramsey wasn’t exactly his June. Patricia “Patsy” Paugh was thirteen years younger than John. She had been Miss West Virginia in 1977 and competed in the Miss America pageant, and she had a degree in journalism from West Virginia University.
The couple was married in 1980. They had two children born in Atlanta, Georgia: a boy, Burke Hamilton Ramsey, born January 27, 1987; and a girl, JonBenét Ramsey, born August 6, 1990. The Ramseys moved from Atlanta to Boulder, Colorado, in November 1991 for John Ramsey’s business.
The Murder
Christmas
John and Patsy Ramsey enjoyed a traditional Christmas morning with six-year-old JonBenét and nine-year-old Burke. Around 4:30 that afternoon, the family left their house and went to the home of their close friends, Fleet and Priscilla White, for Christmas dinner. According to the Ramseys’ account of the evening, the family returned home around 9:30 p.m. Burke and JonBenét reportedly fell asleep in the car, and their parents put them straight to bed. No one in the family reported hearing or seeing anything strange during the night.
December 26—The Crime Is Discovered
According to Patsy Ramsey, she got up early and came down the back stairs of the house (wearing the same clothes she wore to Christmas dinner) and discovered a ransom note on the steps. She called her husband, and they searched for but could not find JonBenét.
At 5:52 a.m. on December 26, 1996, a female caller contacted the Boulder Police Department’s 911 service. The call originated from a landline at the home of John and Patsy Ramsey at 755 15th Street in Boulder. The woman, who identified herself as “Patsy Ramsey, I’m the mother,” was frantic and indicated that her daughter had been kidnapped and a note had been left. The following is a transcript of the call:
911: 911 Emergency.
Patsy Ramsey: Police?
911: What’s going on, ma’am?
Patsy Ramsey: 755 15th Street.
911: What’s going on there, ma’am?
Patsy Ramsey: We have a kidnapping. Hurry, please!
911: Explain to me what’s going on. Okay?
Patsy Ramsey: There… We have a—there’s a note left and our daughter’s gone.
911: A note was left and your daughter’s gone?
Patsy Ramsey: Yes!
911: How old is your daughter?
Patsy Ramsey: She’s six years old. She’s blonde, six years old.
911: How long ago was this?
Patsy Ramsey: I don’t know. I just got the note, and my daughter’s gone.
911: Does it say who took her?
Patsy Ramsey: What?
911: Does it say who took her?
Patsy Ramsey: No! I don’t know. There’s a—there’s a ransom note here.
911: It’s a ransom note?
Patsy Ramsey: It says SBTC. Victory! Please!
911: Okay, what’s your name? Are you Kath…?
Patsy Ramsey: Patsy Ramsey, I’m the mother. Oh my God! Please!
911: Okay, I’m sending an officer over, okay?
Patsy Ramsey: Please!
911: Do you know how long she’s been gone?
Patsy Ramsey: No I don’t! Please, we just got up and she’s not here. Oh my God! Please!
911: Okay, cal…
Patsy Ramsey: Please send somebody.
911: I am, honey.
Patsy Ramsey: Please.
911: Take a deep breath and…
Patsy Ramsey: Hurry, hurry, hurry!
911: Patsy? Patsy? Patsy? Patsy?
Operator, Can You Help Me End This Call?
Apparently, at this point, Patsy Ramsey believed she had hung up the phone, as she quit communicating with the operator. However, the line was not disconnected, and some claim that garbled voices can still be heard in the background. Numerous attempts at enhancing the remaining audio have been made, and sources, including the 911 operator, have suggested that three voices were present, one of which might have been JonBenét’s brother, Burke, who was reported by the Ramseys to have been asleep at the time. Burke Ramsey denies having been present during the call.
I’ve heard this recording along with alleged transcriptions, but, in my humble opinion, the content of the conversation is completely unintelligible. You can listen for yourself by clicking here: Patsy Ramsey 911 Call (Enhancement Of Voices at the End) | YouTube
Honesty—It’s What the 911 Operator Needs from You
Now, let’s think this through. Patsy Ramsey supposedly came down the back stairs and found the ransom note. She called for John, and they looked for JonBenét and couldn’t find her. Patsy then made her hysterical call to 911, referencing the ransom note—the note that specifically warned her not to call the police. The note said:
Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as police, F.B.I., etc., will result in your daughter being beheaded. If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies. If you alert bank authorities, she dies. If the money is in any way marked or tampered with, she dies. You will be scanned for electronic devices and if any are found, she dies. You can try to deceive us but be warned that we are familiar with law enforcement countermeasures and tactics.
Yet, Patsy Ramsey never mentioned a single word to the 911 operator about having the police respond clandestinely. In fact, she repeatedly demanded that the operator send officers quickly. She mentioned the note three times during the 911 call and even quoted from it (“It says SBTC. Victory!”). I find it very strange that in a hysterical state of panic a mother would quote the nonsensical initials of the kidnappers’ group name, but wouldn’t think to mention a threat to behead her child if she called the police.
Immediately after phoning 911, at 5:54 a.m., Patsy Ramsey called family friends, including Fleet and Priscilla White and John and Barbara Fernie, and asked them to come to the house, again violating the kidnappers’ warning not to speak with anyone—even a stray dog—about the situation.
AFTER THE POLICE ARE CALLED
Step Right Up! The Show Is About to Begin!
Like a ringmaster leading a circus parade down 15th Street, Boulder police patrolman Officer Rick French arrived at the Ramsey property at 5:59 a.m. and parked his patrol car in front of the house. Shortly after Officer French arrived, the Whites and the Fernies showed up along with the Ramseys’ minister. These individuals were reportedly not present in the house between the time the family returned home from Christmas dinner and the time the ransom note was allegedly discovered and, therefore, served no legitimate investigative purpose at the scene. Yet, responding officers allowed them to enter the home (which was by any definition an active crime scene) and move about without restriction or supervision.
Can No One Here Read Directions?
Even after law enforcement had access to the note, other police arrived at the residence without any effort to disguise their presence, nor is there mention in the public record I’ve seen that the Ramseys expressed concern about the very visible presence of police or their friends and pastor. Either the cops and the Ramseys couldn’t read, or on some level, no one involved believed the note was real.
Victims’ Advocates—The Hostess with the Mostest or How to Cater a Crime Scene
To round out the parade, police summoned victims’ advocates to the scene to provide crisis intervention services to the Ramseys. The advocates arrived with bagels and coffee, and after serving the snacks, they were joined by one of Patsy’s friends in cleaning up the kitchen, including scrubbing a countertop. When police later determined that the ransom note was most likely written in the kitchen, the extent of the damage to the evidence became clear. The Boulder police essentially convened a morning coffee klatch at an active crime scene.
Burke Has Left the Building
Burke Ramsey was taken to the home of friends at some point during the morning. He was removed from the Ramsey house without having been questioned by police. John and Patsy Ramsey were never separated and were allowed to spend the entire morning together. No steps were taken to isolate them and get their individual stories on the record before they could be rehearsed and coordinated.
Have Your People Call My People
Not that it really mattered. John and Patsy Ramsey did not individually give formal statements to the Boulder police until April of 1997, despite having previously given two exclusive television interviews to discuss the death of their child. They did, however, give fingerprints and DNA.
To be continued…
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