

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.



(SNIP)



0515

15 LOU SMIT: I just, if I could just

16 -- I know it's getting close to five on our

17 thing -- I think we came here a quarter after

18 and the tape was put on, these are two-hour

19 tapes, so we still have a little bit of time but

20 I wanted to ask you a question and that's in

21 regards to the pineapple.

22 Again, did you discuss that at all

23 or try to find out what the reason for the

24 pineapple in the bowl was, last night?

25 JOHN RAMSEY: Last night? I



0516

1 told, let's see, if I tell Patsy that there --

2 I think I mentioned that I was puzzled by the

3 bowl, the large bowl of what appeared to be

4 pineapple with a big serving spoon in it. It

5 didn't register with her. She said I hope they

6 show you a picture, because I think that's --

7 LOU SMIT: We can do that at some

8 point.

9 JOHN RAMSEY: It didn't register

10 with her last night. I guess what I would want

11 to ask her is where did you keep that

12 silverware, is that in fact your good silverware

13 in wherever it was kept. Because we had a

14 drawer and just you know, everyday silverware,

15 it was always full of teaspoons, there was a

16 million teaspoons, and why that bowl had a big

17 serving spoon in it, and what I think was, you

18 know, a good silver, doesn't make any sense to

19 me.

20 LOU SMIT: That's a question we

21 have to try to figure out, what happened there,

22 when that bowl was placed there and who did

23 that.

24 JOHN RAMSEY: Right, where this

25 spoon came from.



0517

1 LOU SMIT: And even the

2 pineapple.

3 JOHN RAMSEY: Yes, is that

4 what was in the bowl?

5 LOU SMIT: Yeah. And we, and

6 we haven't talked about this too much, but

7 have you heard anything about pineapple in

8 regards to your daughter?

9 JOHN RAMSEY: Just that it was

10 a question mark that there was either was or

11 could have been pineapple in her system.

12 LOU SMIT: And where did you

13 hear that?

14 JOHN RAMSEY: Oh, it's been on the

15 tabloids, been on television; I think these

16 fellows asked me about it. It started to come

17 up as a question, at least in the media.

18 LOU SMIT: See, that is a

19 question, when did JonBenet eat pineapple?

20 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, I don't know.

21 I mean, the I will guarantee you it was not

22 after she came home. She was sound asleep. So

23 it had to be at the Whites or prior to that.

24 LOU SMIT: Okay. Now when

25 you say it wouldn't be afterwards, I mean



0518

1 now that's why you know this is going to

2 be a (INAUDIBLE) the question that's going

3 to always be asked?

4 JOHN RAMSEY: She was sound

5 asleep. When I carried her upstairs. I mean I

6 noted when I got her out of the car, and I

7 struggled to get her out of the back seat and

8 she was just, (NOISE) I almost dropped her, I

9 kind of struggled to get her up in my arms and

10 it didn't phase her, she didn't wake up, she was

11 just out. And I know, if she goes to sleep, she

12 is -- that's it for the night.

13 LOU SMIT: Next question is,

14 is could someone have gotten her up and

15 fed her pineapple? I mean that is a

16 logical question, and that's the question

17 we have to answer.

18 JOHN RAMSEY: I can't

19 imagine that somebody could have gotten

20 her up, fed her pineapple, and she

21 wouldn't have screamed bloody murder.

22 LOU SMIT: Why?

23 JOHN RAMSEY: What if it was a

24 stranger.

25 LOU SMIT: Well, it was.



0519

1 JOHN RAMSEY: Had to be.

2 MIKE KANE: Well, could have been

3 -- (INAUDIBLE)--?

4 JOHN RAMSEY: Patsy said she

5 didn't give her any -- I mean, first of all, if

6 we had said oh, yeah, well, we gave her

7 pineapple, that would have ended the discussion.

8 LOU SMIT: That's correct.

9 JOHN RAMSEY: But we didn't.

10 LOU SMIT: But the fact

11 though, John, is she has pineapple in her

12 intestines, okay. She has that in there.

13 No one has fed her pineapple that we know

14 of.

15 Could someone have fed her

16 pineapple that night is all I will say,

17 could somebody have done it? I mean if

18 it's in there, that is a positive. There

19 is nothing --

20 (MULTIPLE SPEAKERS.)

21 JOHN RAMSEY: I understand,

22 I understand. I mean, my suspicion when I

23 first heard that was well, there must have 24 been pineapple at the Whites' house, and I

25 don't remember it but there was all sorts



0520

1 of little finger foods and the kids were,

2 you know, in and out and grabbing this and

3 that. We understand the Whites said no,

4 they didn't serve pineapple. That's

5 factual or not, but I guess my question

6 would be well, did the kids go to the

7 refrigerator, you know, and get a bite of

8 pineapple at the Whites.

9 If it wasn't there and was it

10 earlier in the day, Patsy would most likely

11 know, you know. She liked pineapple. And it

12 wasn't -- if there was open pineapple in the

13 refrigerator, it wouldn't have been -- I am not

14 sure she could get that refrigerator door open.

.