October 14, 2008
John Ramsey's Lingering Suspicions
by Lucinda Franks
[snip]
Ramsey admits, for the first time, that both he and Patsy suffered waves of guilt about the murder. "I kicked myself for not getting more sophisticated house security. We left it off that night because it would go off like a siren and catapult us out of bed."
Patsy, he says, wondered who she had enticed by putting JonBenet in beauty contests. And both parents lamented that the videos of JonBenet vamping in these competitionsreleased by the pageant organizationsbecame the only thing most people knew about their daughter.
"But she was a born performer, she and Burke would put on all these plays, Ramsey says. The pageants were only an occasional fun thing."
Yet Pam Archuleta, over coffee and then wine at the Boulderado Hotel, said Patsy was obsessed by the contests, and she describes the alcove just outside the master bedroom in Boulder where Patsy displayed all the photos, trophies, ribbons and tiaras from her own days as Miss West Virginia. JonBenets pageant costumes were handmade in New York, much finer than the other contestants, says another family friend. "Her hair was highlighted, her makeup applied thickly and designed to make her look older. Besides, she had to take piano and singing lessons, she had a coach. Does that sound like fun?
John Ramsey had misgivings about the cost of the costumes and the atmosphere of the pageant circuit: "I hated the 'I won, I won,' attitude of the other families, he says. Sometimes, according to Pam, he and Patsy argued about it: "He came from a well-bred background and things like that were not done.
Even Patsy expressed occasional doubts about the effect of the circuit on her daughter: "She is too friendly, just too friendly with people," she told Michael and Pam. She flirts with people.
Patsys Southern style was considered ostentatious by the understated citizens of Boulder. She coiffed her hair and wore high heels to run errands; she matched her kitchen wallpaper to her China pattern. But she was generous, civic-minded, and bountiful in her caring for other people. According to John, she even ended befriended the press pack.
I would yell at them Get the hell out of here, bottom feeder! he says. But she would sometimes go up to one outside the house and give him a hug and a kiss.
Pam and others recall a rawer side of Patsy: "She talked disparagingly about the people of Boulder, calling them aging hippies with their long dresses, natural hair and Birkenstock shoes. She was quite nasty about the way they dressed.
Some friends saw JonBenet's bedwetting and other problems with toilet training as a protest against the pressure of the pageants. They believe she might have soldiered on to please her mother after Patsys harrowing battle with cancer.
When JonBenet was two years old, Patsy was essentially absent for a year during her treatment. "JonBenet just stuck to me," John said, with a rare smile. "I was upset because Beth had just been killed in the accident and JonBenet would tell me 'Dad I don't like that face.' I would smile and she would say 'That's better.'"
But when Patsy recovered, her three-year-old daughter was all hers. They embarked on the grueling pageant circuit and JonBenet proceeded to act like a little adult for half of her childhood. She won more than two dozen trophies and lost more.
Pam Archuleta saw a fatigue in JonBenet during the last months of her life. "She had this haunted, defeated look. She looked frozen when she got that beauty queen attitude on. I think she was just plain worn out.
The last time the Ramsey family went to Boulder was two years after the murder, when the grand jury was ready to announce its verdict. They had decided that if they were indicted they would turn themselves in, but the press got wind of their plan and they had to hide at the Archuletas inconspicuous ranch house.
"It was a real cloak and dagger operation," Pam recounts. "They were in Atlanta and they flew their plane not to Colorado but to Chattanooga, Tennessee and then to the tiny Erie Air Park outside Boulder. It was mainly for small private planes and when this big jet flew in, the mechanics couldn't believe it. I borrowed my friend's battered Volvothe press would never guess they would be in thereand we speeded to my eye doctor's parking lot where I switched to my Audi. They lay down in the back seat. I was shaking the whole time I drove to my house."
John, and Patsy slept in a double bed squeezed into Mike's office and Burke slept with the Archuleta's son. "I was so nervous. I mean they were used to the highest luxury, double sinks, walk in closets, plasma TVs that dropped from the ceiling above their bed. But they were just so grateful and gracious about it."
The first night, Pam heard Patsy sobbing. "I went in and gathered her up in my arms. She had gotten so small and limp, like a rag doll. Pam could see the toll the enduring trauma had taken on Patsy. "She seemed shriveled and pale and I knew then that the cancer was coming back."
The next day Patsy put up a brave front. "We even joked, Pam remembers, and Patsy wished prison uniforms had vertical stripes instead of horizontal so she wouldnt look fat.
"When we heard the verdict was coming in, we turned on the television and Patsy asked us all to hold hands and kneel down and pray. Then we heard "no indictment" and we jumped up and down and Patsy was shouting Praise God, Praise God! And suddenly she wasn't this pathetic person but back to the strong friend I knew."
Still, the Ramseys were no longer welcome in Boulder, a quiet university community known for its relaxed, New Age flavor and progressive politics. They fled back to Atlanta, leaving behind a string of ruined friendships and damaged lives. Even a couple who had been among the Ramseys very best friends turned against them when the wife began to suspect Patsy. Local radio announcers broadcast virulent accusations. "If they could have lynched us, they would have," John says.
People lost jobs for coming to the Ramseys aid; two families went into seclusion; one woman seemed to simply disappear from sight. A famous restaurant owner went to jail for wielding a pipe at a reporter. Another couple quit their jobs and followed the Ramseys to Atlanta, only to end up unemployed when John Ramseys new business failed. As for Pam Archuleta, "I lost my marriage," she says, beginning to weep. "Michael would go off in his plane and leave me to deal with hiding the Ramseys. I couldn't take it."
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