June 1998 John Ramsey Interrogation by Lou Smit and Mike Kane (Fat Cat Phrase in the Ransom Note)
2 MIKE KANE: There are these phrases in
3 here that seem to have some kind of Hollywood
4 connection? What did you think about that?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: It didn't dawn on me at
6 the time, because we (INAUDIBLE) so much. But that
7 came out later. There was a couple of phrases that
8 came out later: "you must grow a brain"; and we
9 can talk about the of the fat cat; and other fat
10 cats here, or something like that.
11 MIKE KANE: You're not the only fat cat
12 around.
13 JOHN RAMSEY: Right. Those are the phrases
14 that we, you know, later we thought we had heard
15 from people around us who have tried to
16 reconstruct who, where.
17 MIKE KANE: When you say we thought?
18 JOHN RAMSEY: Patsy and I.
19 MIKE KAN
21 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, grow a brain, fat
22 cats. We'd heard those before.
23 MIKE KANE: Were you ever able to --
24 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we had some names
25 we came up with. We passed on (INAUDIBLE) our
0343
1 friends in Atlanta, "Atlanta fat cats" later in
2 that week.
3 MIKE KANE: When was that specifically?
4 JOHN RAMSEY: That was when she was back;
5 when we were back for the funeral.
6 MIKE KANE: (INAUDIBLE) friends saying that
7 about?
8 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, when we went back, Ron
9 Westmoreland had like a little reception after the
10 funeral, and some of my friends were there, and he
11 has a beautiful home in Atlanta. He makes a lot of
12 money. It's not a stretch for him to have it. It's
13 very nice.
14 My friends were around me, consoling me and trying
15 to give me advice. And to be a part of that group
16 it's the Atlanta fat cats.
PMPT Page 225
"The ransom note would become public only in September 1997. Karen Howard, an employee of Access Graphics, said that she was struck by the words "your are not the only fat car around.' Howard remembered that Patsy's father, Don Paugh, used the word CATS all the time; for example, 'Those cats down in marketing'."