During an interview with CNN, John Ramsey was asked about his feelings after he read the ransom note. He said, "... And I told Patsy (JonBenet's mother), call the police immediately." During the same CNN interview, John Ramsey said, "...we were fortunate from almost the moment that we found the note to be surrounded by friends, our minister, our family doctor, a personal friend of mine who is also an attorney...."
Soon after the 911 call by Patsy at 5:52 a.m., the parents had called their friends and the family's minister, Reverend Rol Hoverstock, all of whom were invited and permitted to congregate at the home. There were marked police cars in front of the home.
(Subject: Male Caucasian, Age: 55, Civil Engineer, 5:45 am.)
"Thank you, sir, for coming in at this early hour."
"You're welcome, but let's get on with it."
"Very well."
(Subject is briefed on preliminaries.)
1st question to subject: "If you found that note in your home one morning, while it was still very dark, and your daughter was missing, what would you do?"
Response: "Am I allowed to be the head of a billion-dollar sales corporation?"
"Yes, and you had political collections."
"Uhmm…I'd go directly to the FBI."
"Would you think about it first with your wife?"
"Sure, we'd talk about it first, probably talk about it for quite a while. I mean, it's a big decision to get even the FBI involved. Basically, I'm betting my daughter's life on their competence."
"So, why would you even bet your daughter's life? Why not follow the instructions on the ransom note right to the letter?"
"Because she's six years old, which means she's old enough to remember details about the kidnapping, the kidnappers, and where she's being held…sounds, smells, things like that. If she's released with the ransom, the kidnappers run a serious risk that she could help the authorities find them."
"So what you're saying is there's a strong likelihood that she would be murdered even if the ransom were paid?"
"I guess…sure, that's what I'd think."
"Why the FBI and not the Boulder police?"
"Is that rhetorical, or do I have to answer that?"
"It's not rhetorical."
"Okay, based on what you told me, look, Boulder is a cute town. There's not a heck of a lot of people who've been kidnapped or murdered there, at least in this century. If you live here, you know that. It really can't be expected of the police here to know exactly how to handle a situation like this."
"Fine, so you call the FBI. What are you going to say?"
"You know something, I'd even be afraid to use my home phone, just in case it's being monitored by the kidnappers. Maybe, I'd use a cell phone. Can they monitor that?"
"If they're sophisticated enough, I suppose they could."
"Hmmm."
"Obviously, the important point here is that your paranoia is so great in the event of a kidnapping of your daughter that you'd even think twice about using a land phone. Let's move on. What would you tell the FBI?"
"I'd tell them how it is. I'd tell them to NOT approach the home under any circumstance, that the house may be watched…."
"Stop! Tell me, what makes you think these kidnappers are this organized?"
"Well, the measly quantity of their ransom would first make me think that they're dumb, but then again maybe their intentions aren't the ransom."
"What else could it be?"
"Maybe their intent is to be tested, to be pushed. Maybe they want to see me call the cops just to have a reason to hate me for one more thing that gives them the compulsion to kill my child. I don't know. But I wouldn't underestimate them - they were able to come into my home in the middle of the night, while we were all in it, and walk out with a 6-year-old girl without a trace or even a sound. That's impressive."
"Go back to the FBI."
"All right…I'd get the name and rank, or whatever, of the person I'm talking to. I'd try to get to as superior a person as possible. I wouldn't want some rookie agent to start calling the Boulder cops, for example, and Boulder PD sends out a parade of patrol cars to my home to be seen by everyone…I'd also ask whether the phone I was using was a secure communications line, but I'd also be afraid to ask that."
"Is that pretty much it?"
"Maybe, I don't know. You're asking me these questions kind of abruptly. I would have had more time to think of precautions I'd take if I were the Ramseys who could have sat down and thought about it for at least an hour. Give me an hour...if I had an hour...."
"We don't have an hour. Let's move on. Would you call your friends and neighbors over? Even your priest?"
"Come on, I think we all know the answer to that."
"Are you saying it's obvious?"
"Fine, another non-rhetorical question. Of course, I wouldn't call all my MCI friends and family to visit. The note says it: talk to even a stray dog and my daughter dies."
"What if you and your wife, just like John and Patsy, felt like you needed emotional support?"
"Emotional support! Are you f---ing kidding me? What do you think my daughter'd think if she learned that I risked her life because my wife and I needed someone to hold our hands? Who needs emotional support most? Me?! My wife?! Or my little baby, all alone, in the darkness somewhere, with some perverts hanging over her! Emotional support - give me break! That's one of the things that totally pissed me off about Patsy's excuse, or John's, for why they called every Tom, Dick, and Harry they knew over for breakfast. And…and that damn priest - why the hell's he there? She's not dead yet to need a priest."
"Here, have a glass of water, cool down."
(Subject refuses the glass.)
"What would you have done if you saw a marked patrol car pull up in front of your house and a uniformed officer come to your door after everything you said to the FBI?"
(Laughter. Subject shakes lowered head for twenty-two seconds, a smile on his lips, then looks up.) "I would have shot him. Because that cop just killed my daughter."
"Thank you for your time."
"Yeah, whatever."
(Subject departs.)
Of the 19 persons so far similarly tested, clearly this one has demonstrated the strongest reactions to our line of questioning. The anger in this subject is far more pronounced than we've experienced before. We're not certain of the root of that anger, but it is noteworthy that this individual happens to have a 7-year-old daughter from a current second marriage. He has an adult daughter from a first marriage, but for the last several years this young lady has lived in Greece and was recently engaged to marry a Greek politician. Subject regrets the distance that separates him from his first daughter, and in some ways feels like he lost her during his divorce from her mother. (He didn't volunteer any additional details, and we didn't press him for them - he was obviously hurt from the experience).