The Case of JonBenet Ramsey-CBS Sept. 18

[HarmonyE.]

Let's say that they are broke or poor and do not have any money (I don't know, this is just hypothetical). LW would use his own discretion to predict whether a payout from litigation is higher than the cost he would have to pay spending time and energy on the case. He could conceivably sue and split the award with the Rs as long as it covers the legal fees he would have charged them to begin with. Or, he could be an altruist and do the case for free (pro bono). I guess it depends on his own motivation for threatening to sue. It could be personal, or it could be at the behest of the Rs.

Agree with the part about his motivation. We can't know that. Most such cases are taken on contingency by attorneys, with the attorney or his/her firm taking a third or more of any settlement or judgment.

Problem for Lin is, I don't see CBS settling when they can get more publicity for finally breaking the case completely open by deposing the killer of JonBenet Ramsey. And once Burke is deposed and it's established that he agreed to do a national TV interview before the airing of the CBS special, the case would probably be tossed by the court.

For a somewhat analogous, if not totally on-point situation, see Terry Hobbs v. Natalie Pasdar. Terry Hobbs was the stepfather of West Memphis murder victim Steve Branch and Natalie Pasdar is from the Dixie Chicks. Natalie mentioned at Free the West Memphis 3 Rally a number of years ago that Hobbs was a more likely suspect than the WM3. Hobbs sued, hoping for a huge pay day. His deposition was a disaster for him and ultimately helpful for young men in prison. And because Hobbs admitted doing interviews about the case, the Court dismissed his claim as he was deemed a limited public figure and was unable to establish actual malice on the part of Pasdar. (He managed to make himself look like a very good suspect in his deposition).

CBS knows what they did and they are clearly okay with it.

Over to you, Lin and Burke...

 

[TheOtherChristina]

What would have happened if they called 911 to request help for an injured child instead of faking a kidnapping?

Assume for a minute that BR did everything including strangling JBR and leaving her in the basement. The only differences would be that the Rs would not have lost all their money deflecting the crime to a mythical intruder and only a very few people would even know the story. The whole thing would be forgotten by the public in no time.

Foolish, selfish people.

I believe that Patsy and John may have had mixed motivations, which may have resulted in the contradictory staging elements.

Regardless of what she may have done, I believe Patsy's grief was genuine. She didn't battle her way back from stage 4 cancer to lose both of her children. She wanted to protect Burke, no matter the cost.

Meanwhile, John had political aspirations. Can you imagine him watching passively as his family secrets are given up one by one? Those secrets range from embarrassing to devastating. Even the possibility that he could have been involved would have tanked his current business, his defense contracts, his high-powered connections, and his future political career. He had other children and could easily have had more, starting fresh with a new wife. Patsy didn't have a similar luxury.

 

[Nikolai_ff]

What would have happened if they called 911 to request help for an injured child instead of faking a kidnapping?

Assume for a minute that BR did everything including strangling JBR and leaving her in the basement. The only differences would be that the Rs would not have lost all their money deflecting the crime to a mythical intruder and only a very few people would even know the story. The whole thing would be forgotten by the public in no time.

Foolish, selfish people.

True. Remove the garrotte. Put on a regular string. Clean up the pubic region. Presto. A childish game gone bad.

 

[just the facts pls]

Surely Burke would of been taken off them even if it was to go into some kind of facility to help him with his issues?

I think that might have been the best thing for him. From everything I learned about the case from his history of violence against JBR to the smeared feces, it all points to an underlying pathology that qualified professionals could have helped with.

With that said, the interview tapes prove without a shadow of a doubt that BR was an intelligent child and capable of forethought and deceptive behavior even at a young age. The tapes show him smiling when he said his mother "went psycho." I don't have any reason to believe he was operating from a purely visceral standpoint. No, there is a lot more there than meets the eye.

 

[MaryMac250]

You can't tell what people are like due to "their eyes." Also I cannot believe you just equated autism with being "psychotic" and "almost demonic." That's nonsense. You clearly know nothing about autism. Maybe Burke has it, he does show signs. And maybe Burke killed her. But don't you dare say that because person X in X group did something bad, that means EVERYONE in X group is evil. How could you?

The truly distinguishing thing about BR's expressions is that they are inappropriate to the content under discussion about his sister. IMHO, this reaches past an autism diagnosis.

 

[Nikolai_ff]

Another corroborating evidence for the CBS is that no credible evidence of the intruder was found. No crushed leaves, strange cars, bits of clothings on the fence or elsewhere.
Also, a "small faction" would have went in with several people and armed AND kidnapped BOTH kids almost certainly while gagging and tying up the parents.
Also, an older boy would be more valuable than a younger girl methinks.

 

[ZsaZsa]

The CBS part 2 was very eye opening to me as I closely watched BR. When you watch him very closely and focus only on him he is very sneaky and makes the snide laughs and giggles as he thinks he is getting away with lying to the interviewers. He treated the interviews like a big game and he had some obvious "tells" when he was lying.
He also told a lot of truths as well but did it smartly without giving much information to them. He is one really smart kid at that age.

The "tells" for me was mainly these:

-he would end with "you know" when he wanted the interviewer to believe more in what he was saying
-he would squirm and move his body around during some of the lies
-he would giggle and laugh after some of the lies

When he said "i know what happened". OMG that was when I knew he did it for sure.

Then he followed it up with up with a demonstration of how she was hit over the head....

 

[asyousay]

Another corroborating evidence for the CBS is that no credible evidence of the intruder was found. No crushed leaves, strange cars, bits of clothings on the fence or elsewhere.
Also, a "small faction" would have went in with several people and armed AND kidnapped BOTH kids almost certainly while gagging and tying up the parents.
Also, an older boy would be more valuable than a younger girl methinks.

Also I can not see any kidnapper group referring to themselves as a "small" fraction. You would embellish yourself in a note one would think :moo:

 

[Katrina1978]

Have they determined what time JB was killed? or apx time at least?

 

[ZacksDad]

Quick question for the experts here. Opinions welcome.

I have always felt that PR had plans to remove the body. I am not sure when JR became involved with helping with the coverup so just talking about PR since most think she wrote the letter. I think JR getting the plane ready may have been how they were going to get rid of the body completely out of the state. I think they were going to carry body out maybe in suitcase and get it on that plane to dispose out of state.

Regardless of JR involvment.
Question is

Do people think PR original plan was to get rid of the body so that it always remained a mystery what happened to JBR?

Reading many people stating they think they were going to fly it away for a proper burial. What about this scenario:

They stage the kidnapping with the note.
They hide the body.
They get the money but call the police.
They plan on the body being found later date abandoned somewhere with a note stating the did not follow instructions by calling LE.
JR get nervous that police will do a better search and find the hidden body.
Moves the body to an open area and later finds her.

 

[cubbeegirl]

Are the Ramsey's not broke now so how can they still afford the top lawyers ?

Or is it all relative and when people mention "broke" it just means not multi millionaires?!

I think it's they are " Ramsey broke " ...

 

[cubbeegirl]

Absolutely! But I think, they were, as you say, too selfish and also very self-absorbed. Additionally, Burke would have been under mental health care he so desperately needed (and needs).

Ahh...but what would people think .....
One must keep up appearances ...

 

[Linda7NJ]

"Hold your babies close"- ships Burke off to the White's


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Frigga]

That is odd when you think about it. Would make sense that if that toy was somehow part of what happened that night they would have thrown it out or hidden it. Like if the toy was broken as part of an argument or something. I can't remember if any of the crime scene photos showed that toy or if it disappeared. Like you said it seems like Burke would have a better description of it if it was that important that he had to have it together that night.

I think the toy was the train- something he wanted to play with- not necessarily something needing to be put together or an addition to the train he got for Christmas. We never did get bank or cc records- did we? You do add and move train tracks around and buildings and figures. That train looked wonky in the reenactment to me, the building with it, I mean. Anyone ese notice?

 

[bodester413]

I think the toy was the train- something he wanted to play with- not necessarily something needing to be put together or an addition to the train he got for Christmas. We never did get bank or cc records- did we? You do add and move train tracks around and buildings and figures. That train looked wonky in the reenactment to me, the building with it, I mean. Anyone ese notice?

Yeah that's a good point. It could have been the train also.
No, I don't think we did see any bank or credit card records. At least I don't recall seeing anything like that.

 

[WhoKnowsWhat]

Then why didn't JR just say he was on the extension and why did they say Burke never woke up???

I believe they thought if they could convince everyone Burke was not awake he would not be questioned. And they did not want him questions about anything.

 

[RL2]

CBS knows what they did and they are clearly okay with it.

Over to you, Lin and Burke...[/QUOTE]

This^
I never truly bought James Kolar's theory that BDI when I read his book 4 years ago.. he kind of lost me once he started discussing child sex predators and the fecal smearing. However, I must say that actually seeing Burke demonstrate striking out when being interviewed really makes it a much more possible theory than when I just read Burke's actions as described by Kolar in his book.

I agree with many of you, Burke's Dr Phil interview did NOT help. And, when DP asks Burke what he would say to the people who still think he killed his sister, instead of saying something along the lines of: "I didn't kill my sister. I loved her very much, I miss her everyday. I DIDN't do this!" His response: look at the evidence or a lack thereof.

Yep. CBS and their investigative team looked at the evidence all right...

 

[WhoKnowsWhat]

I think BR hated his sister because of all the attention she got and he felt left out of the equation, IMO.

When Dr. Phil asked him what Patsy talked about when she was dying, did she talk about JonBenet. Burke said she just talked about the family. He still doesn't want his mothers attention on JonBenet

 

[SecretaryGal]

Have they determined what time JB was killed? or apx time at least?

According to her grave marker, before midnight

 

[Nikolai_ff]

Also I can not see any kidnapper group referring to themselves as a "small" fraction. You would embellish yourself in a note one would think :moo:

Patsy did not want to write "large faction" since the police could have assumed it was Hezbollah or something and called the CIA and FBI counter terror. They wanted to keep it local, with small town cops/detectives and a local DA they could influence.