11-30-2019, 09:59 PM
June 1998 John Ramsey Interrogation by Lou Smit and Mike Kane (Questioning Regarding the Pineapple)
0205
23 LOU SMIT: Okay. I think that's kind of a
24 chronological that kind of gets up to the hearing.
25 Now I would like to go over the specifics. And
0206
1 this here is academic questions about heating. And
2 you brought up this that you heard something about
3 pineapple. Now what have you heard about
4 pineapple?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we were asked if JonBenet
6 had eaten any pineapple, because apparently it was
7 found in her system. I don't know if the police
8 asked us that or we saw it on television or the
9 question came up. I don't remember her eating
10 pineapple, I don't remember pineapple at Fleet's
11 or the White's house. It sort of been a very
12 logical hors d'oeuvres. I don't' remember
13 specifically if it was there.
14 I think part of the question was what did she eat
15 when she got home, and I'm sure she didn't because
16 she was absolutely sound asleep. So I don't know
17 nothing about the basis of the question.
18 LOU SMIT: That's why I wanted to show you
19 the picture. I just didn't know what you had heard
20 of this thing. I'm going to show you what's called
21 a picture of 414.
22 This is a photograph that's taken of the dining
23 room table. And it shows various things on the
24 dining room table. Do you see the gingerbread
25 houses? And then you see a bowl on that
0207
1 (INAUDIBLE)?
2 JOHN RAMSEY: Um hmm.
3 LOU SMIT: What else do you see on there?
4 JOHN RAMSEY: I see a glass with what looks
5 like (INAUDIBLE). Tissues on the glass. A couple
6 knives.
7 LOU SMIT: Do you have any idea how that got
8 on that table?
9 JOHN RAMSEY: It might have been (INAUDIBLE)
10 that's a big bowl.
11 LOU SMIT: I'm going to straighten out the
12 picture so we'll want a close up of everything.
13 This is a photograph of 417. what does that
14 represent there?
15 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, it's a large spoon, not
16 a teaspoon. It looks like Patsy's good silver. I
17 guess that could be pineapple, I can't tell. But
18 it could be. Some people (INAUDIBLE) pineapple to
19 make it old and there's this teabag in an empty
20 glass. I can't tell, but it looks like there is
21 some milk or something.
22 LOU SMIT: Who do you know would eat
23 pineapple like that? Do you have any idea?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: Well the kids like pineapple,
25 but that's a big bowl and this is a big spoon and
0208
1 I can't imagine that the kids would have something
2 like that at any time. Certainly not with iced
3 tea, I don't think. They don't even drink iced
4 tea. I think they do not. (INAUDIBLE) yeah.
5 LOU SMIT: John, I just wanted to kind
6 of check back with you. Now these obviously are
7 crime scene photographs.
8 JOHN RAMSEY: Um hmm.
9 LOU SMIT: And this is the condition that
10 things are found when pictures are taken. We're
11 trying to explain that, even in correlating it
12 with your daughter (INAUDIBLE)?
13 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah. Could that have been
14 gotten out by someone who was in there that
15 morning, I wonder?
16 LOU SMIT: I don't know. That's a thought.
17 What do you think?
18 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't know. I mean I don't --
19 that's just a huge --
20 LOU SMIT: You mean somebody who had been
21 (INAUDIBLE)?
22 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, the Fernies or the
23 Whites or, there were a lot of people in the house
24 that were -- that would not be like us to leave
25 that. Certainly not leaving the next morning on a
0209
1 trip, to leave it like that, out.
2 That's a big bowl, whatever it is, if it's
3 pineapple.
4 MIKE KANE: Do you recognize the bowl?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: Oh, I don't know. I recognize
6 the spoon, because it's a big serving spoon. It's
7 not like a teaspoon. And that could be one of our
8 bowls. We had white bowls like that. Patsy would
9 recognize it for sure. It looks like our glass.
10 LOU SMIT: Who would drink tea with a teabag
11 in the glass?
12 JOHN RAMSEY: Somebody who would drink tea,
13 I guess. I don't know. I don't drink tea. Burke
14 will drink sweet ice tea. I don't remember if
15 JonBenet did, if she did.
16 I mean, even for someone who's there and to get
17 out that big of a bowl and put that much pineapple
18 in it and just leave it. That doesn't make sense.
19 MIKE KANE: That was a serving spoon?
20 JOHN RAMSEY: It's a big serving spoon. I
21 mean don't even have an answer.
22 MIKE KANE: (INAUDIBLE) taken out and put
23 back in the refrigerator. Could that have
24 (INAUDIBLE) where it had been?
25 JOHN RAMSEY: It's possible.
0210
1 MIKE KANE: Any other tea drinkers in the
2 house?
3 JOHN RAMSEY: Patsy drank tea. She likes
4 sweet ice tea.
5 MIKE KANE: (INAUDIBLE)?
6 JOHN RAMSEY: I believe, not much, once
7 in a while.
8 LOU SMIT: (INAUDIBLE) sweet ice tea, you
9 can put a tea bag (INAUDIBLE)?
10 JOHN RAMSEY: Oh, no. With sweet ice tea
11 you have to make the tea. And I don't know how you
12 do it, but she puts sugar in it or something. It's
13 a southern drink. But, no.
14 I mean, first of all, it was hot tea. You
15 wouldn't it in that kind of a glass, it was weird.
16 That doesn't make sense.
17 LOU SMIT: You see, this is the trouble.
18 That we don't know. We don't know the answer. We
19 just didn't know whether it was like that or
20 (INAUDIBLE) around it.
21 JOHN RAMSEY: I would almost think that
22 (INAUDIBLE) that's Patsy's too. But that would not
23 have been left out by us where it would be for any
24 extended period of time. And that is a huge bowl
25 of pineapple or whatever it is and a big spoon.
0211
1 LOU SMIT: On the 26th, that was the
2 morning of the 26th, John, do you remember eating
3 at that time?
4 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't, but -- No, I don't.
5 I think there was -- I don't know, I don't
6 remember. There might have been some coffee made
7 or something like that. I don't think anybody was
8 feeling to eat.
9 LOU SMIT: Where would you keep pineapple?
10 JOHN RAMSEY: If it were opened, it would
11 have been kept in the refrigerator.
12 LOU SMIT: And that's the walk-in one?
13 JOHN RAMSEY: Right. If it were not open,
14 it would be in the pantry. This little (INAUDIBLE)
15 was here with the cans. (INAUDIBLE) next to the
16 cans. I mean it doesn't look like -- the kids
17 wouldn't have gotten that thing and the spoon
18 down. I mean, that's huge for a child's mouth.
19 They would have gotten a little spoon or a fork.
20 They wouldn't have fixed themselves that big a
21 bowl.
22 LOU SMIT: Is this the first time that
23 you knew about this?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: It's the first time I've
25 seen it, yeah.
0212 1 DAVID WILLIAMS: Can we take a look at the
2 photographs?
3 MIKE KANE: While your doing that, could
4 I ask, you said you had cans of pineapple normally
5 would be kept in that pantry that's open. Do you
6 ever by fresh pineapple (INAUDIBLE)?
7 JOHN RAMSEY: We did not, not that I remember.
8 No. I mean, we had --
9 LOU SMIT: What other kind of fruit did you
10 have around?
11 JOHN RAMSEY: Well we had apples around;
12 bananas, a lot of bananas. The kids loved
13 bananas. Grapes, green grapes.
14 LOU SMIT: Where would (INAUDIBLE)
15 JOHN RAMSEY: The bananas would be hanging
16 from a little stand that was kept in the kitchen
17 over in this area. The grapes tended to be in the
18 refrigerator. I don't remember specifically.
19 LOU SMIT: Do you know if JonBenet would
20 ever get up in the middle of the night to eat
21 these things?
22 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't think so. Not -- no.
23 DAVID WILLIAMS: Was that fresh? pineapple?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: No. But, no, that would be,
25 certainly not a glass that with a teabag in it. It
0213
1 absolutely doesn't make any sense for the kids to
2 have left that there.
3 LOU SMIT: Well we can come back to that later. I
4 do want to talk about that a little bit later. You
5 got any more questions?
6 MIKE KANE: No.
7 JOHN RAMSEY: But, I mean, it's strange.
8 It doesn't (INAUDIBLE).
9 LOU SMIT: This is also another picture,
10 picture 416, which also shows the same bowl, only
11 it shows the gingerbread house, and there's some
12 Kleenex on there and things of that nature. So I
13 don't know. Is that the gingerbread house that the
14 children were making?
15 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah. It looks like it. This
16 was like in -- Patsy would know. I'm not sure why
17 a Kleenex box is there either. That's not normal
18 for a Kleenex box.
19 LOU SMIT: What do you say about that?
20 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, I guess it doesn't
21 belong on the kitchen table. I don't know where it
22 came from, but that's now it aught to be.
23 LOU SMIT: Well, I'm sure that Patsy is
24 going to be asked the same question. Maybe she
25 remembers more on this or not. Is it possible that
0214
1 that could have been left out, maybe because to be
2 (INAUDIBLE)?
3 JOHN RAMSEY: I doubt it very much.
4 LOU SMIT: Whey do you say that?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we were leaving town
6 the next morning. We would be gone nearly for a
7 week and a half. I've never seen a teabag left in
8 a glass like that in our house. I know we're not
9 the neatest people in the world, but I don't think
10 we'd have left an open bowl of fruit sitting on
11 the kitchen table.
0205
23 LOU SMIT: Okay. I think that's kind of a
24 chronological that kind of gets up to the hearing.
25 Now I would like to go over the specifics. And
0206
1 this here is academic questions about heating. And
2 you brought up this that you heard something about
3 pineapple. Now what have you heard about
4 pineapple?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we were asked if JonBenet
6 had eaten any pineapple, because apparently it was
7 found in her system. I don't know if the police
8 asked us that or we saw it on television or the
9 question came up. I don't remember her eating
10 pineapple, I don't remember pineapple at Fleet's
11 or the White's house. It sort of been a very
12 logical hors d'oeuvres. I don't' remember
13 specifically if it was there.
14 I think part of the question was what did she eat
15 when she got home, and I'm sure she didn't because
16 she was absolutely sound asleep. So I don't know
17 nothing about the basis of the question.
18 LOU SMIT: That's why I wanted to show you
19 the picture. I just didn't know what you had heard
20 of this thing. I'm going to show you what's called
21 a picture of 414.
22 This is a photograph that's taken of the dining
23 room table. And it shows various things on the
24 dining room table. Do you see the gingerbread
25 houses? And then you see a bowl on that
0207
1 (INAUDIBLE)?
2 JOHN RAMSEY: Um hmm.
3 LOU SMIT: What else do you see on there?
4 JOHN RAMSEY: I see a glass with what looks
5 like (INAUDIBLE). Tissues on the glass. A couple
6 knives.
7 LOU SMIT: Do you have any idea how that got
8 on that table?
9 JOHN RAMSEY: It might have been (INAUDIBLE)
10 that's a big bowl.
11 LOU SMIT: I'm going to straighten out the
12 picture so we'll want a close up of everything.
13 This is a photograph of 417. what does that
14 represent there?
15 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, it's a large spoon, not
16 a teaspoon. It looks like Patsy's good silver. I
17 guess that could be pineapple, I can't tell. But
18 it could be. Some people (INAUDIBLE) pineapple to
19 make it old and there's this teabag in an empty
20 glass. I can't tell, but it looks like there is
21 some milk or something.
22 LOU SMIT: Who do you know would eat
23 pineapple like that? Do you have any idea?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: Well the kids like pineapple,
25 but that's a big bowl and this is a big spoon and
0208
1 I can't imagine that the kids would have something
2 like that at any time. Certainly not with iced
3 tea, I don't think. They don't even drink iced
4 tea. I think they do not. (INAUDIBLE) yeah.
5 LOU SMIT: John, I just wanted to kind
6 of check back with you. Now these obviously are
7 crime scene photographs.
8 JOHN RAMSEY: Um hmm.
9 LOU SMIT: And this is the condition that
10 things are found when pictures are taken. We're
11 trying to explain that, even in correlating it
12 with your daughter (INAUDIBLE)?
13 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah. Could that have been
14 gotten out by someone who was in there that
15 morning, I wonder?
16 LOU SMIT: I don't know. That's a thought.
17 What do you think?
18 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't know. I mean I don't --
19 that's just a huge --
20 LOU SMIT: You mean somebody who had been
21 (INAUDIBLE)?
22 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, the Fernies or the
23 Whites or, there were a lot of people in the house
24 that were -- that would not be like us to leave
25 that. Certainly not leaving the next morning on a
0209
1 trip, to leave it like that, out.
2 That's a big bowl, whatever it is, if it's
3 pineapple.
4 MIKE KANE: Do you recognize the bowl?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: Oh, I don't know. I recognize
6 the spoon, because it's a big serving spoon. It's
7 not like a teaspoon. And that could be one of our
8 bowls. We had white bowls like that. Patsy would
9 recognize it for sure. It looks like our glass.
10 LOU SMIT: Who would drink tea with a teabag
11 in the glass?
12 JOHN RAMSEY: Somebody who would drink tea,
13 I guess. I don't know. I don't drink tea. Burke
14 will drink sweet ice tea. I don't remember if
15 JonBenet did, if she did.
16 I mean, even for someone who's there and to get
17 out that big of a bowl and put that much pineapple
18 in it and just leave it. That doesn't make sense.
19 MIKE KANE: That was a serving spoon?
20 JOHN RAMSEY: It's a big serving spoon. I
21 mean don't even have an answer.
22 MIKE KANE: (INAUDIBLE) taken out and put
23 back in the refrigerator. Could that have
24 (INAUDIBLE) where it had been?
25 JOHN RAMSEY: It's possible.
0210
1 MIKE KANE: Any other tea drinkers in the
2 house?
3 JOHN RAMSEY: Patsy drank tea. She likes
4 sweet ice tea.
5 MIKE KANE: (INAUDIBLE)?
6 JOHN RAMSEY: I believe, not much, once
7 in a while.
8 LOU SMIT: (INAUDIBLE) sweet ice tea, you
9 can put a tea bag (INAUDIBLE)?
10 JOHN RAMSEY: Oh, no. With sweet ice tea
11 you have to make the tea. And I don't know how you
12 do it, but she puts sugar in it or something. It's
13 a southern drink. But, no.
14 I mean, first of all, it was hot tea. You
15 wouldn't it in that kind of a glass, it was weird.
16 That doesn't make sense.
17 LOU SMIT: You see, this is the trouble.
18 That we don't know. We don't know the answer. We
19 just didn't know whether it was like that or
20 (INAUDIBLE) around it.
21 JOHN RAMSEY: I would almost think that
22 (INAUDIBLE) that's Patsy's too. But that would not
23 have been left out by us where it would be for any
24 extended period of time. And that is a huge bowl
25 of pineapple or whatever it is and a big spoon.
0211
1 LOU SMIT: On the 26th, that was the
2 morning of the 26th, John, do you remember eating
3 at that time?
4 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't, but -- No, I don't.
5 I think there was -- I don't know, I don't
6 remember. There might have been some coffee made
7 or something like that. I don't think anybody was
8 feeling to eat.
9 LOU SMIT: Where would you keep pineapple?
10 JOHN RAMSEY: If it were opened, it would
11 have been kept in the refrigerator.
12 LOU SMIT: And that's the walk-in one?
13 JOHN RAMSEY: Right. If it were not open,
14 it would be in the pantry. This little (INAUDIBLE)
15 was here with the cans. (INAUDIBLE) next to the
16 cans. I mean it doesn't look like -- the kids
17 wouldn't have gotten that thing and the spoon
18 down. I mean, that's huge for a child's mouth.
19 They would have gotten a little spoon or a fork.
20 They wouldn't have fixed themselves that big a
21 bowl.
22 LOU SMIT: Is this the first time that
23 you knew about this?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: It's the first time I've
25 seen it, yeah.
0212 1 DAVID WILLIAMS: Can we take a look at the
2 photographs?
3 MIKE KANE: While your doing that, could
4 I ask, you said you had cans of pineapple normally
5 would be kept in that pantry that's open. Do you
6 ever by fresh pineapple (INAUDIBLE)?
7 JOHN RAMSEY: We did not, not that I remember.
8 No. I mean, we had --
9 LOU SMIT: What other kind of fruit did you
10 have around?
11 JOHN RAMSEY: Well we had apples around;
12 bananas, a lot of bananas. The kids loved
13 bananas. Grapes, green grapes.
14 LOU SMIT: Where would (INAUDIBLE)
15 JOHN RAMSEY: The bananas would be hanging
16 from a little stand that was kept in the kitchen
17 over in this area. The grapes tended to be in the
18 refrigerator. I don't remember specifically.
19 LOU SMIT: Do you know if JonBenet would
20 ever get up in the middle of the night to eat
21 these things?
22 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't think so. Not -- no.
23 DAVID WILLIAMS: Was that fresh? pineapple?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: No. But, no, that would be,
25 certainly not a glass that with a teabag in it. It
0213
1 absolutely doesn't make any sense for the kids to
2 have left that there.
3 LOU SMIT: Well we can come back to that later. I
4 do want to talk about that a little bit later. You
5 got any more questions?
6 MIKE KANE: No.
7 JOHN RAMSEY: But, I mean, it's strange.
8 It doesn't (INAUDIBLE).
9 LOU SMIT: This is also another picture,
10 picture 416, which also shows the same bowl, only
11 it shows the gingerbread house, and there's some
12 Kleenex on there and things of that nature. So I
13 don't know. Is that the gingerbread house that the
14 children were making?
15 JOHN RAMSEY: Yeah. It looks like it. This
16 was like in -- Patsy would know. I'm not sure why
17 a Kleenex box is there either. That's not normal
18 for a Kleenex box.
19 LOU SMIT: What do you say about that?
20 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, I guess it doesn't
21 belong on the kitchen table. I don't know where it
22 came from, but that's now it aught to be.
23 LOU SMIT: Well, I'm sure that Patsy is
24 going to be asked the same question. Maybe she
25 remembers more on this or not. Is it possible that
0214
1 that could have been left out, maybe because to be
2 (INAUDIBLE)?
3 JOHN RAMSEY: I doubt it very much.
4 LOU SMIT: Whey do you say that?
5 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we were leaving town
6 the next morning. We would be gone nearly for a
7 week and a half. I've never seen a teabag left in
8 a glass like that in our house. I know we're not
9 the neatest people in the world, but I don't think
10 we'd have left an open bowl of fruit sitting on
11 the kitchen table.