Jonbenet Ramsey Analysis

December 26, 1996 the day meant for celebrating the joys of the holidays with the ones they loved were spent mourning the death of their six- year-old sister and daughter, JonBenet Ramsey. Twenty years of silence, Ramsey’s older brother Burke Ramsey sits down for the first time for a Dr. Phil McGraw interview. In the 2016 interview McGraw uses news articles, tapings, and older interviews to build his credibility in which gains his audience’s attention. Dr. Phil’s purpose of this interrogation is to re-introduce the unsolved murder for those who may not know about the twenty year long case. By using the visual and audio aids his audience can hear and see the emotion, or lack thereof, of those mentioned at the time. The tone, attitude, diction, and syntax of what was said effected their claims on them not being guilty.

In the episodes, Burke firmly wants the public to know that he had nothing to do with his sister’s murder. Although he is
trying to make a very convincing argument that he nor his parents had anything to do with JonBenet’s death, his actions told another story. During the sit down, which being asked questions pertaining to his relationship with JonBenet, he would always answer them with minimal eye contact and one word answers. This shows his possible dismissal of the questions which makes him seem uninterested in such a serious and traumatic topic. For example, while being asked about the suspicious phone call his mother, Patsy, made he would smile usually and have this uncomfortable chuckle. These small but impactful moments showed the audience a different way of thinking when it came to Burke being a possible suspect. He tried to clear his name but wasn’t helping his case, but his nonchalant, dismissive attitude. Visual aids also played a huge role in this interview because in the Dr. Phil episode and the CNN interview with John Ramsey, showing his lack of empathy, states that he was irritated that the police, media, and society suspected him, which in turn he said that “they lacked common sense.” Also in the police interrogation with Patsy, she seems irritated with the fact someone would think she would do it and that whoever thought that “must have conjured something in their head.” The last visual aid used would be the psychologist tape with Burke Ramsey. This tape doesn’t help because as he’s watching it, Burke’s eyes roll slightly, his face scrunched up with an attitude, and he was constantly fidgeting as if he’s bothered with what’s been exposed for the first time. Also in the psychology to itself, he describes the murder and says that she was hit (but he said that his father only said that she was in heaven, not how she died) and when asked to draw a picture of his family he left out JonBenet. The family, John and Burke, as a whole seems to be leaving out a few details of this mystery and in a way, most of this new evidence does not add up or make sense. In particular, the ransom note had a very detailed amount of money, $118,000, which happened to be John Ramsey‘s exact amount of his Christmas bonus. Additionally, a neighbor from across the street said that she heard a scream coming from the Ramsey’s basement; however, Burke, who was in the house, said he did not hear a thing. Seeing that the ransom note had John’s exact Christmas bonus listed and the neighbor heard a scream were so detailed, it was easy to point fingers towards the Ramsey’s because they tried so heavily to cover it up. It did gain rise of suspicions of “Who would know the exact dollar amount of John’s bonus?” and “Was the neighbor telling the truth?” These questions make Dr. Phil audience to doubt who should they believe. In part three of the three-part series, the tone of the interview switches from accusatory to exculpatory. The Ramsey’s lawyer, L. Lin Wood, mentions that “Boulder Police wanted to incriminate the Ramsey’s for this murder.” This is shown through the investigators lying to the media and the Ramseys to get a confession by saying that, “There were no footprints in the snow and that someone in the house did it.” which in fact, there was no snow surrounding the house. This raises the question “Why were the police lying?” Another example is that the DNA test and the court found all three Ramsey’s not guilty, but the police withheld that information for months and you continue to accuse the family. Lastly, part three discusses a major component that was barely introduced as another option which would be that just a few houses down another little girl is sexually assaulted and stunned ( by a stun gun just like JonBenet,) only a few months after JonBenet’s death. FBI profiler, Candice DeLong, says that “he was a possible suspect but was never questioned and was ruled out almost immediately by the Boulder Police Department.” With these instances the audience may be on the fence of who to believe because the Ramseys are made out to be the suspects by the police, the detectives, and the media; but all along the police during this investigation had not been that truthful. During the final scenes of part three the audience learns of the scamming ways of the police, but also feel sympathetic towards the Ramsey’s because at the end of the day they did lose a child.
It started to hit home especially when John Ramsey explained JonBenet’s tombstone and how he should have further protected his family. Dr. Phil asks him why he marked the tombstone December 25th instead of the 26th, as almost to imply that he knew what he did and when he did it. However, John simply responds with, “The killer wrote ‘...I’ll call you tomorrow,’” which he assumes was written on the 25th and also he did not want society to forget that his youngest daughter was murdered on Christmas night, which is supposed to be the most peaceful night. He then says that she was murdered to target him and that he should have been more private with his businesses and brought a home in a more safe and secure neighborhood. Ultimately he feels a sense of guilt, but could that be from rivalry or because of him slaying of his own
daughter.

Throughout this interview with Burke and John Ramsey, both display a lack of empathy for their sister’s and daughter’s, respectively, gruesome death. Dr. Phil speaks on this by saying, “It has been twenty years since they have spoke about this topic, so it’s understandable that they will have some type of social anxiety.” With the Dr. Phil interview using visual content as well as news articles gives credibility to him as an interviewer, but as an overall interview the other parties involved in the interview seemed to already have their mind set against the Ramsey’s. Having those biased opinions, the diction used, and the physical mannerisms in the entire interview made it easy to conclude that the Dr. Phil did not effectively persuade the audience it was meant to target.