Burke’s Fight For Himself and the Memory of his Sister

The JonBenét Ramsey case is still a mystery to generations, even those who didn’t experience the national swarm and confusion of the case during the time of which it occurred. Still circulating today, many theories have surfaced and resurfaced on who’s to blame, what actually happened, and how it is still a mystery today.

JonBenét Ramsey was six years old at the time of her death. She was said to be “brutally tortured, sexually assaulted, and murdered” on either the night of Dec. 25, 1996, or early in the morning on Dec. 26, 1996, by an unknown intruder.

At the time of the case, Burke Ramsey, JonBenét’s older brother, was sought out and interviewed without his parents’ consent, by the Boulder Police Department. At this time, Detective Fred Patterson concluded that Burke had no involvement or knowledge of his sister’s death until she was discovered the next morning. It should be noted that although Burke was a minor, being nine years old at the time of the murder and the interview, he was still noted to not have any clue about the murder.

Burke would undergo four more interviews, all of which his parents did consent to and in each interview, Burke was ruled to not have any involvement or knowledge of his sister’s death.

To summarize, Burke Ramsey was found to be unknowledgeable and uninvolved in his sister’s death by more than one person and on multiple occasions immediately following the murder. So, the problem? CBS Corporation broadcasted a four-hour documentary called, The Case of JonBenét Ramsey, in which the documentary highlights Burke Ramsey as the killer. Something that was ruled completely untrue even at the time and years after the case.

“CBS represented and promoted that the Documentary would reveal the truth by presenting to viewers ‘new witnesses’, ‘new evidence’, and ‘new theories’…CBS further represented and promoted that for the Documentary, it had assembled a highly skilled team of seven ‘world renowned’ investigators who would conduct a ‘complete reinvestigation starting right from scratch’”.

Burke Ramsey and his lawyer Lin Wood decided to sue CBS Production for the Documentary because it is defamatory against Burke, saying he was the killer. In the court case it even states, “As far back as 1998, law enforcement authorities responsible for the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation have repeatedly, publicly and unequivocally cleared Burke Ramsey of any involvement in the death of his sister.”

In addition to suing CBS Production for defamatory, Burke’s lawyers filed lawsuits against, Critical Content LLC for being in relations with CBS Productions during the time of the film. Burke Ramsey not only filed lawsuits against those larger corporations but filed lawsuits against the seven “world-renowned” investigators: Jim Clemente, Laura Richards, James Kolar, James R. Fitzgerald, Stanley B. Burke, Werner Spits, and Henry C. Lee. Burke and his lawyer filed for lawsuits against the seven individuals because they had each “allegedly conducted a ‘complete reinvestigation starting from scratch’” and also spoke in defamatory context as well as used libel information against Burke.

Of the seven individuals Clemente, Richards, Fitzgerald, and Stanley Burke were just acting and none had any relation to the case. Spitz and Lee on the other hand were talking heads who often found their way into cases for publicity and profit and were cast as two of the investigators. Lastly, Kolar played the role of an investigator after CBS and Critical Content used the script from his book for the Documentary. Kolar, out of all investigators, had more law enforcement background. He was employed by the Boulder District Attorney’s Office from 2004-2006 to help build an investigations unit but had little to no experience; Kolar had zero homicide investigation experience before the JonBenét Ramsey case.

Kolar published a manuscript called, Foreign Faction, where he wrote his theories on Burke Ramsey allegedly killing his sister. Upon further review, Burke decided to drop the libel cases against Kolar for his published manuscript, Foreign Faction, “because (a) the book had no audience and received little or no publicity, (b) the accusations were ridiculous and had been rejected by law enforcement authorities and the mainstream media, (c) he did not wish to elevate Kolar or his book to a position of credibility they did not deserve, (d) the book was a miserable failure, and (e) its publication did not at that time cause any significant harm to Burke’s reputation.”

Evidence that was used in the defamatory case included that no evidence has ever been reported that Burke has been accused of killing JonBenét, the original facts from the law enforcement investigation, the script of Foreign Faction which the movie is based on, the fake expertise of the defendants, the Ransom note, misinterpreted interviews with the Ramsey family, discrediting the intruder theory, and the fact that was added that JonBenét was not sexually assaulted.

The defendants framed Burke in ways like accusing the injuries to be done with his Train Toy rather than the stun gun, claiming DNA evidence is worthless, the prior defamatory accusations against Burke with tabloids, the fake gist of the documentary framing Burke, false new evidence such as Burke on the 9-1-1 call and the following hours after the call, saying he did not display the correct response to trauma, and the defendants made a theory and highlighted it in the Documentary that Burke killed his sister because she took his pineapple.

One of the most interesting pieces of evidence used is that the defendants knew there was no evidence accusing Burke of killing JonBenét Ramsey, their accusations made in the film were not based on fact, they ignored evidence that Burke was not the killer, and CBS had reported on information that exonerated Burke.

CBS and the defendants had little to no evidence that supported the “facts” used in the Documentary. Each one of the defendants was caught for speaking out against the truth, based the film on a theory that was widely rejected by authorities, and the lack of real evidence within the documentary.

It is noted in the court case that the major pieces of evidence, the Ransom Note and the handwriting expert was only mentioned once, and the Pseudo-expert was unreliable. “The Pseudo-Experts’ analysis of the Ransom Note borders on fantasy as the Pseudo-Experts wonder aloud why the note starts with “Listen carefully”—which would be appropriate for the spoken word— rather than “read carefully,” given that the note had been written. This attempt at shallow observation does little more than showing the Documentary is grasping for straws to fill airtime to support its false accusations, while recklessly avoiding the actual evidence.”

To further the falsity of the Pseudo-expert, when the Ramsey house was searched, none of the kidnapping movies that were said to be referenced in the Ransom Note were located in the house and there were no connections between the Ramsey’s or these movies. With this finding, the use of movie scripts used in kidnapping movies to construe this Ransom Note is false because the Ramsey’s have zero connection to the movies and would have to know word-for-word scripts from these films to rewrite a Ransom Note as hefty as the one found was.

As this insane court case came to a close, all defendants, individuals, and the large corporations involved were charged with Defamation, the Conspiracy to Defame, and Joint Venture which was only found guilty by CBS and Critical Content.

Burke Ramsey graduated from Purdue and now lives in Michigan and is employed as a software engineer. He was 29 years old at the time of his defamatory case and has no history of any criminal conduct, sexual, drug or alcohol abuse of any kind or any violent behavior. Burke Ramsey settled the defamatory case and won $750 million dollars from the defamatory lawsuit and the defendants.

Burke Ramsey Defamation Case, State of Michigan (3RD CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF WAYNE December 28, 2016).

Kreps, D. (2019, January 05). JonBenet Ramsey's BROTHER settles $750 million lawsuit AGAINST CBS. Retrieved March 30, 2021, from https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/jonbenet-ramsey-brother-settles-cbs-lawsuit-775394/