How does a lawyer go about reining in the media?  Well, by giving a press conference and telling the Ramsey’s polygraph story in his own words.

From cnn.com:

And I retained the services of an individual who was represented to me to be competent, qualified and fair: a gentleman by the name of Jerry Toriello, T-O-R-I-E-L-L-O, of Clifton, New Jersey. Jerry Toriello is not able to be here today. He had a minor surgical procedure on Friday and is not able to travel until the end of this week. Otherwise, Jerry Toriello would have been here.

Consistent with their honesty and their candor, I will tell you that John and Patsy Ramsey, when tested by Jerry Toriello, ran what is referred to in the field as inconclusive charts, inconclusive examinations. Jerry Toriello recommended that John and Patsy be retested.

For those familiar with our prior trilogies, the excerpts Wood touches on will ring a bell.  It’s important to rehash them in the sense of providing the complete transcript, simply so one can see the subtlety within the full context.

From cnn.com:

Former Boulder Detective Steve Thomas stated: “John, one of the things, as you know better than anybody, at some point, if you’re not involved in this, we’ve got to take you out of the bucket. And you’ve been in it for four months and you certainly know why you’re in that bucket, is you’re in the house, and I don’t need to say anything more than that. But — and I asked this question of Patsy and where it might come out as, but I’ll ask it. And I’m not asking you to take one, but if you were to take a polygraph, how would you do?”

John Ramsey stated in April of 1997: “Well, what I’ve been told is that — and I felt tremendous guilt after we lost JonBenét because I had not protected her, like I failed as a parent, and was told that that kind of emotion, you shouldn’t take a lie detector test because you did not — because you did have that guilt feeling. So I don’t know about the test, but I did not kill my daughter, if that’s what you want to ask me. She was the most precious thing to me in the world. So if the lie detector test is correct, and if it is done correct, I’d pass it 100 percent.”

Steve Thomas went on to say, “Well, I’ll ask you point blank: At some point in this, would you take a polygraph?”

John Ramsey answered, “I would be insulted if you asked me to take a polygraph test, frankly. I mean, if you haven’t talked to enough people, we’re telling you what kind of people we are. You guys — I mean, I’ll do whatever these guys recommend to me to do. We are not the kind of people you’re trying to make us out to be.”

 That’s an official transcript of the questions that were asked of John Ramsey with respect to a lie detector or polygraph exam in April of 1997.

Patsy Ramsey was asked the following question: Patsy said, first: “What does it take to move past me?”  Steve Thomas said, “Well, let me ask you this. And I know Pat Burke who was there – Patsy’s lawyer – “going to jump all over me. And I know — well, let me ask you this way. I’m not asking you to take one, but, hypothetically, if you took a polygraph, how would you do?”

Patsy Ramsey stated: “I’m telling you the truth. I would — I mean, I don’t know how those things work, but if they tell the truth, I’m telling the truth. I’ve never, ever given anybody a reason to think otherwise. I want to find out who did this, period.”

Steve Thomas: “Does that mean, yes, you’d pass it?”

Patsy Ramsey said, “Yes, I would pass it. I’ll take 10 of them. I don’t care. You know, do whatever you want.”

In June of 1998, John and Patsy Ramsey again spent time asking — questions with Boulder authorities. They again voluntarily agreed to answer questions, this time for three full days each. Interrogation for three full days in June of 1998 and not one word was asked, not one mention was made about a polygraph examination. In fact, from April of 1997 when they were interrogated by former Detective Thomas, until April of 2000, three years later, not one mention, not one request, no discussion from the Boulder Police or the Boulder D.A. about a lie detector or polygraph examination.

I’m not sure if that’s entirely accurate.  Thomas refers to a Team Ramsey lawyer that was “going to jump all over him” if he asked about lie detector tests, and John said he was insulted by the question.  Thomas asked them anyway.  Why would it be necessary to cover the same ground a second time in a follow-up interview, particularly if it was such a contentious subject?

As it turns out in a press conference with media on May 1^st 1997 the polygraph question came up.

From acandyrose.com:

REPORTER: John, what do you say to people who raise questions and criticize and say no amount of advice from any number of attorneys would have kept me from talking and telling them every bit of information I had … this criticism came from Polly Klaas’s father … that you wouldn’t take a lie detector test, that you would have …

JOHN:  We have spoken to the police, we spoke with the police approximately eight hours on the 26th, another two hours on the 27th (and) have supplied them with every piece of information we have, so the question that we haven’t spoken to the police is totally false. What we have but what has been delayed, has been this formal interrogation of us as suspects. And frankly, we, we were as you might imagine, insulted that we would even be considered suspects in the death of our daughter and felt that an interrogation of us was a waste of our time and a waste of the police’s time. But because we have to do this, we had to do it. But not under any circumstance that was presented to us.

Does John even mention a lie detector test in his answer? He mentions being insulted to be considered suspects and the delay of a formal interrogation but nothing about willingness or unwillingness to take a lie detector test.  He simply avoids answering the question altogether.

Back to Lin Wood.

From cnn.com:

In March of this year [2000], John and Patsy had their book published, “The Death of Innocence,” and they agreed to and undertook to, engaged in media interviews. And just as they had done back in April of 1997 and in June of 1998, they answered every question, and they answered every question honestly.

And in defiance of their lawyers’ advice to avoid getting embroiled in the polygraph controversy, counseled against it, but relying on their innocence and their honesty, John and Patsy Ramsey said in response to the media inquiries — if asked, would you take a polygraph examination? — they said, yes. Their only condition was that it be fair, that it be conducted by an examiner independent from the Boulder Police Department and its investigation, and that the results, whatever they may be, would be made public.

The condition is actually broader than that; that the test not be administered by the FBI, which was what the Boulder police wanted but the Ramseys would not abide.

From cnn.com:

So that there is no future misunderstanding about this fact, John and Patsy Ramsey, at the time they made those statements on national television, had never taken a polygraph examination. They did not even have a basic understanding of how such an examination worked.

Why is it necessary to say that?  Why would you need to know how a polygraph worked if one were innocent and are trying to confirm one’s innocence?

From cnn.com:

On April the 11th of this year [2000], I learned from several phone calls from the media that the Boulder Police Department had apparently issued a press release, that Chief Mark Beckner had issued a press statement saying that he was going to accept the Ramseys’ offer and wanted them to appear by a date certain to submit themselves to an FBI polygraph examination.

That’s funny, I thought Lin Wood issued a press statement and an answer.  The way Wood phrases it, it sounds like the Boulder police went behind his back and issued an unexpected press release.  This makes the Boulder police seem disingenuous because the communication is indirect, and thus – potentially – strategic.  But isn’t that precisely how Team Ramsey played it?  Via the media?

From cnn.com:

I actually thought when I received the letter — despite the fact that it was publicized before I got it, I actually thought that perhaps Chief Beckner would, with some discussions and negotiations, actually be willing to allow John and Patsy Ramsey to take a truly fair and independent polygraph examination. And I did at that time what had not been done before, but what I believe any good attorney would do, and I then arranged for John and Patsy to be privately tested.

Again, Wood’s making subtle and not so subtle aspersions about Chief Beckner’s integrity.

From CNN:

 I called Dr. Gelb [again] and asked if, in fact, he would be retained by me to perform the polygraph examinations. I also upon, his agreement, retained Cleve Baxter from San Diego, California. I had been told that if you want the best quality control review of a polygraph examination in the United States call Cleve Baxter. Cleve Baxter is the originator of the Baxter Zone Comparison Technique, and the originator of the numerical scoring system for polygraph examinations, both of which are now standard protocol in the field of polygraphy. This is the gentleman thought to be, literally, the father of the modern polygraph testing techniques, Cleve Baxter. He agreed to do to quality control of Dr. Gelb’s test.

In other words, Gelb and Baxter were like Homer and Marge Simspon, and the FBI was like Bart in the hierarchical superstructure of lie detection?

From CNN:

John and Patsy Ramsey made a commitment to the public. They made a public commitment to take a fair and independent polygraph examination and to make the results public. They had hoped and we tried to get the Boulder Police Department to participate in a truly fair and independent examination.

If it was truly fair, wouldn’t you simply have the police conduct a test?  If not the Boulder police, then the police at some other precinct?  Why this whole private affair with lawyers brokering the whole process, and then at the appropriate time private becomes public?  Why not do it on live television if it’s so transparent, and so public?

From CNN:

We offered for the examination to be conducted by a non-FBI examiner with FBI oversight of the entire process. That offer was rejected. We offered to have the FBI polygraph group come up with a list of non-FBI polygraph examiners that they felt were reliable, qualified, and trustworthy, and we would pick one of those examiners, and we would take the test, and that offer was rejected.

At least Lin Wood admits – right at the end of his spiel – how the FBI were selectively excluded.  What the fuck is a non-FBI polygraph examiner?  Seriously.  How does anyone offer the FBI an opportunity to select a non-FBI polygraph examiner, and call that credible in any universe?

From CNN:

My belief has been from very early on in this process that Boulder Police Department never intended to allow John and Patsy Ramsey to take a truly fair and independent polygraph examination in which they would participate. And my belief was confirmed May 16, when Mark Beckner rejected the offer of the American Polygraph Association to provide an examiner and a test that would be fair to both sides.

John and Patsy Ramsey are here today to honor their commitment. I would now like to ask Dr. Gelb to address for you the test that was performed by him and the results of those tests — Dr. Gelb.

I deal with the questions and results of those tests in the next instalment of the Black Star series.

 

On the five-year anniversary of Holloway’s [likely] death, Stephany Flores Ramirez, a 21-year-old, was bludgeoned in a hotel room in Lima, Peru.  A week after Ramirez’s murder, van der Sloot confessed to the crime, and subsequently retracted his confession.

From Wikipedia:

[Two days after her murder] on 2 June [2010], a hotel employee found her beaten body in Room 309, which had been registered in van der Sloot’s name. He had departed from the hotel without returning the room key and left the television running. A tennis racquet, identified by the coroner as a possible homicide weapon, was recovered from the room. A hotel guest and an employee came forward to say they saw van der Sloot and the victim entering the hotel room together, and the police obtained video of the two playing cards at the same table the night before at the Atlantic City Casino in Lima. Van der Sloot [a gambler] had entered Peru via Colombia on 14 May 2010 to attend the Latin American Poker Tour.

So…did the fact that Ramirez was found dead in van der Sloot’s hotel room suggest in any way that van der Sloot may have been involved?  Of course it fucking did!

From Wikipedia:

Flores Ramírez was a business student less than a year from graduation at the University of Lima. She was the daughter of Ricardo Flores, a former president of the Peruvian Automobile Club and winner of the “Caminos del Inca” rally in 1991. A prominent businessman and entertainment organizer, he ran for vice president in 2001 and for president five years later on fringe tickets.

In other words, he was a big deal, and he was wealthy.

From Wikipedia:

Flores said that police found date rape drugs in his daughter’s car, parked about 50 blocks from the hotel where she died. Her jewelry, money, ID and credit cards were missing, including about $1,000 her father had given her to purchase a laptop, and over $10,000 she had won earlier at the casino. Stephany reportedly kept this money in her car, but a police search found no money in it.

What was van der Sloot – a gambler’s – motive?  Was it sex?  Was that why he murdered Holloway?  Or was it something else?  Holloway’s stepfather [Beth Twitty’s second husband] was a prominent Alabama businessman.  Why target Natalee as opposed to the other 124 students and seven chaperones that were visiting Aruba then? One possibility could be the clothing and jewelry the teenager sported may have attracted a greedy predator.  Accounts from friends also suggested Holloway was drunk when she left the bar, Carlos n Charlies, provoking perhaps a similar circumstance and fate for the American as befell Birna Brjansdottir, the recently murdered 20 year old Icelandic sales assistant*.

If surveillance footage was mysteriously missing in the Aruba case, no such luck for van der Sloot in Peru five years later.

From Wikipedia:

After Flores Ramírez’s family reported her missing, police retrieved the hotel surveillance tape and obtained van der Sloot’s name and national identification number. Her brother’s wife discovered van der Sloot’s background in a Google search about an hour before her body was found.

Peruvian officials named Van der Sloot as the lone suspect in the homicide investigation… On 3 June, Van der Sloot was arrested near Curacaví by the Investigations Police of Chile while traveling in a rented taxi on Highway 68 between the coastal city of Viña del Mar and the capital Santiago.  He was found with a laptop, foreign currency, a business card case, detailed charts of ocean currents around Lima, and bloody clothes. His phone’s SIM card was missing, which made mobile phone tracking of his location impossible. He told Chilean police that unidentified armed robbers hid in the hotel room and killed Flores Ramírez when she disobeyed their order to be quiet.

This was van der Sloot’s “intruder narrative.”  Unfortunately for van der Sloot, the hotel’s surveillance footage left little room to dodge.

From Wikipedia:

Surveillance video from the Atlantic City Casino recorded Flores Ramírez winning $10,000 at a baccarat table area on 25 May 2010, while accompanied by a male friend who was not Van der Sloot. According to casino spokesperson Luis Laos, she also won $237 playing poker on 29 May and it was common for people to know the identities of big winners. Laos stated that van der Sloot did not win any money that night. At 3:00 a.m. on 30 May, Flores Ramírez was recorded entering the casino alone and walking to a poker table where Van der Sloot was sitting. Van der Sloot had not registered for the Latin American Poker Tour. The deadline to pay the $2,700 entry fee for the 2 June event at the casino was 30 May.

Without knowing it, Flores Ramirez had wandered into a psychological labyrinth.  On the fifth anniversary of Holloway’s death/disappearance [if van der Sloot was guilty he must have seen it as a feather in his cap on that night of all nights].  Desperate to enter the Poker Tour but down on his luck, van der Sloot was trying to gamble up the entry fee.  Flores Ramirez presented herself and perhaps her reputation preceded her, or she confided in van der Sloot directly, thus sealing her fate.

From Wikipedia:

Police released hotel security video showing Van der Sloot and Flores Ramírez entering the Hotel TAC together at about 5:00 a.m. on 30 May. At about 8:10 a.m., [van der Sloot] is shown walking across the street to a supermarket and returning with bread and two cups of coffee. Around 8:45 a.m., he is seen leaving the hotel alone with his bags.

An autopsy ruled that Flores Ramírez did not have sexual intercourse before her death and that she was not under the influence of enough alcohol to prevent her from resisting an attack. She suffered blunt force trauma to her head, causing a brain hemorrhage, cranial fracture, and breaking her neck. She also suffered significant injuries to her face and showed signs of asphyxiation, according to court documents.

*Birna Brjansdottir was murdered by two sailors from Greenland.

“Private jets cost a lot of money.” — Donald Trump

How much was Access Graphics worth when John lost it in November 1997?  According to John in Death of Innocence, Access Graphics was “poised to gross $1.5 billion with operations in 20 countries.”

Thus, between December 15^th 1996 and early November 1997, Access Graphics had added 50% to its already enormous revenue stream.  Half a billion in eleven months!  That means the company would likely have doubled its revenues by the end of 1999, around the time of the Grand Jury non-announcement.

It’s easy to imagine that when John was booted out of his own company in 1997 that he “lost everything.”  While he certainly lost out in terms of future earnings, John was nevertheless already worth a fortune, and his expulsion was likely accompanied with a sweet golden parachute.

We don’t know for a fact whether John was paid or incentivized to walk away, but knowing John, had there not been a sweetener involved it’s difficult to imagine John accepting his exit as graciously as he did.  I can’t imagine John riding off without something in his saddlebags.

Although John pleads poverty in Death of Innocence leading up to the Grand Jury trial in 1999, so much so that he said he had to sell his plane, it seems he wasn’t so poor that he had sell the other one.

A Beechcraft in a blue sky when it’s very high up resembles a sequin in the sky, doesn’t it.  A splinter defying the Earth, defying gravity, seemingly defying all odds.  One has to wonder what was going on with the pilot of that Beechcraft, and why it went where it went with such a dizzying frequency.

According to Lisa’s research John still owned one plane, registration N2059W, in 2007/2008, even though he claimed to be having serious financial issues – and he flew N2059W frequently.

This schedule below ties into the timeframe when John was considering running for office a second time.  There’s some talk on the forum thread provided below about Burke leaving Purdue for school in Georgia – which may not be entirely accurate – because we know Burke did eventually graduate from Purdue.

From forumsforjustice.org:

Here’s the flight log for John’s plane, N2059W, for the past four months.  (It’s listed chronologically from the bottom up.)  John has been a very busy little boy and doing HIS part to contribute to air pollution and global warming by using up all the jet fuel he possibly [could].  And he’s not just burning up the sky between Charlevoix, Atlanta and Arkansas… oh no, John likes to spread his favors around to Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, and both sides of the southern part of Michigan, just to name a few places he’s dropped wing.

He even took a trip out to Winner, South Dakota (population 3137). I can’t imagine what THAT was about.  They must have a rip-snorter of a golf course!

By the way, Adams Field = Little Rock, AR [where Beth Twitty is from]

From flightaware.com:

August 2007:

Date Type Origin Destination Departure Arrival Duration:

08-Aug-2007 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Cobb County-Mc Collum Field (KRYY) 03:02PM EDT 07:10PM EDT 4:08

10-Aug-2007 BE35/G Cobb County-Mc Collum Field (KRYY) Boyne City Muni (N98) 03:44PM EDT 08:06PM EDT 4:22

15-Aug-2007 B350/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Gerald R. Ford Intl (KGRR) 04:49PM EDT 05:50PM EDT 1:01

15-Aug-2007 B350/G Gerald R. Ford Intl (KGRR) Boyne City Muni (N98) 09:12PM EDT 09:26PM EDT 0:14

23-Aug-2007 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Grider Field (KPBF) 10:44AM EDT Diverted

23-Aug-2007 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Vermilion County (KDNV) 10:44AM EDT 12:16PM CDT 2:32

28-Aug-2007 BE35/G Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) Adams Field (KLIT) 03:39PM EDT 05:11PM CDT 2:32

29-Aug-2007 BE35/G Adams Field (KLIT) Gerald R. Ford Intl (KGRR) 09:11AM CDT 01:39PM EDT 3:28

One flight in August to Beth Twitty.

From flightaware.com:

September 2007:

Date Type Origin Destination Departure Arrival Duration:

03-Sep-2007 BE35/G Charlevoix Muni (KCVX) Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) 04:32PM EDT 08:36PM EDT 4:04

10-Sep-2007 BE35/G Adams Field (KLIT) Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) 01:08PM CDT 04:39PM EDT 2:31

23-Sep-2007 BE35/G Gerald R. Ford Intl (KGRR) Adams Field (KLIT) 02:08PM EDT 04:57PM CDT 3:49

25-Sep-2007 BE35/G Adams Field (KLIT) Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) 05:21PM CDT 08:00PM EDT 1:39

26-Sep-2007 BE35/G Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) Gerald R. Ford Intl (KGRR) 10:28AM EDT 01:46PM EDT 3:18

27-Sep-2007 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (KDTW) 01:56PM EDT 03:03PM EDT 1:07

28-Sep-2007 B350/G Cherry Capital (KTVC) Marion Muni (KMZZ) 07:57AM EDT 09:26AM EDT 1:29

Two flights in September to Beth Twitty.

From flightaware.com:

October 2007:

Date Type Origin Destination Departure Arrival Duration:

22-Oct-2007 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Winner Rgnl (KICR) 07:15AM EDT 03:51PM GMT 4:36

25-Oct-2007 BE35/G Winner Rgnl (KICR) Boyne City Muni (N98) 03:36PM GMT 03:46PM EDT 4:10

26-Oct-2007 BE35/G Grayling Aaf (KGOV) Ann Arbor Muni (KARB) 12:50PM EDT 02:07PM EDT 1:17

27-Oct-2007 ZZZZ/ Ann Arbor Muni (KARB) Boyne City Muni (N98) 06:14PM EDT 07:51PM EDT 1:37

November 2007

Date Type Origin Destination Departure Arrival Duration:

12-Nov-2007 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Adams Field (KLIT) 11:29AM EST 03:46PM CST 5:17

14-Nov-2007 BE35/G Adams Field (KLIT) Fulton County Airport-Brown Field (KFTY) 01:03PM CST Diverted

14-Nov-2007 BE35/G Adams Field (KLIT) Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) 01:03PM CST

16-Nov-2007 BE35/G Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) Acadiana Rgnl (KARA) 04:43PM EST 06:44PM CST 3:01

17-Nov-2007 BE35/G Lafayette Rgnl (KLFT) Birmingham Intl (KBHM) 06:24PM CST

17-Nov-2007 BE35/G Lafayette Rgnl (KLFT) Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) 06:24PM CST

20-Nov-2007 BE35/G Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) Charlevoix Muni (KCVX) 12:16PM EST Diverted

20-Nov-2007 BE35/G Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) Boyne City Muni (N98) 12:16PM EST

25-Nov-2007 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) 01:58PM EST

25-Nov-2007 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Mc Ghee Tyson (KTYS) 01:58PM EST

25-Nov-2007 BE35/G Mc Ghee Tyson (KTYS) Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) 06:47PM EST 07:55PM EST 1:08

28-Nov-2007 BE35/G Dekalb-Peachtree (KPDK) Adams Field (KLIT) 08:40AM EST

Three flights in November to Beth Twitty.

From flightaware.com:

December 2007

Date Type Origin Destination Departure Arrival Duration:

04-Dec-2007 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Adams Field (KLIT) 10:03AM EST 01:24PM CST 4:21

04-Dec-2007 BE35/G Adams Field (KLIT) Cobb County-Mc Collum Field (KRYY) 02:40PM CST 05:45PM EST 2:05

One flight in December to Beth Twitty.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with the commentary below, it was topical for its time, and as such I’ve included it here.

From forumsforjustice.org:

Posted by Why_Nut, Dec 8, 2007:

Looking at those logs, though, you can see how the voters of Michigan knew that John was a liar through and through when he claimed that Charlevoix and Michigan were his true home. He still finds it seemingly impossible to bring himself to spend more than a couple of weeks or so in a row there without flying out to some other state. I [will] keep an eye on the real estate listings in the area, because I know that there will be a point when we will see him put the Charlevoix house up for sale.

Burke seems to want nothing to do with that place, and the town and state are hurting for money and they keep putting his property taxes up enough that I think John will simply decide to buy property in Arkansas and turn his back on all pretense he had that he liked Michigan for anything other than his old access to Round Lake for the boats he no longer has.

From flightaware.com:

January 2008

Date Type Origin Destination Departure Arrival Duration:

27-Jan-2008 BE35/G Charlevoix Muni (KCVX) Purdue University (KLAF) 11:10AM EST 12:57PM EST

27-Jan-2008 BE35/G Purdue University (KLAF) Charlevoix Muni (KCVX) 06:19PM EST Diverted

27-Jan-2008 BE35/G Purdue University (KLAF) Boyne City Muni (N98) 06:19PM EST Diverted

27-Jan-2008 BE35/G Purdue University (KLAF) Boyne Mountain (KBFA) 06:19PM EST 08:16PM EST 1:57

15-Feb-2008 BE35/G Boyne Mountain (KBFA) Tri-Cities Rgnl Tn/Va (KTRI) 10:23AM EST 10:57AM EST 0:34

16-Feb-2008 BE38/G Tri-Cities Rgnl Tn/Va (KTRI) Boyne City Muni (N98) 04:41PM EST 08:06PM EST 3:25

23-Apr-2008 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Sault Ste Marie Muni (KANJ) 11:06AM EDT 11:54AM EDT 0:48

From forumsforjustice.org:

Posted by Cherokee, May 3, 2008:

As Why_Nut pointed out, John still hasn’t filed the necessary paperwork to run for election in Michigan. The deadline is May 13th.

I thought maybe John was too busy cavorting about the countryside in his private plane to notice he’s getting dangerously close to not being a candidate for office. So, I thought I’d take a look at his recent flight logs.

John made a trip to Purdue on January 27th. Burke should have already started classes at Georgia State by then, so I don’t know what that was about. Then John makes a trip to the Kingsport, TN area on February 15th. He spends the night, then flies back to Charlevoix the next day. John’s most recent flight occurred on April 23rd when he flew up to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan near the Canadian border. Apparently, he’s been there for the past 10 days.
From flightaware.com:

April 2008

Date Type Origin Destination Departure Arrival Duration:

23-Apr-2008 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Sault Ste Marie Muni (KANJ) 11:06AM EDT 11:54AM EDT

04-May-2008 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Oakland County Intl (KPTK) 03:40PM EDT 04:36PM EDT 0:56

04-May-2008 BE35/G Oakland County Intl (KPTK) Boyne City Muni (N98) 10:42PM EDT 11:44PM EDT 1:02

05-May-2008 BE35/G Boyne City Muni (N98) Oakland County Intl (KPTK) 03:38PM EDT 04:35PM EDT 0:57

From forumsforjustice.org:

Posted by Cherokee, May 5, 2008:

Good grief! John has been burning up the airspace over Michigan the past two days!

First, John flies from Charlevoix down to Pontiac, MI at 3:40 p.m. yesterday. Then last night, he flies back to Charlevoix, arriving close to midnight at 11:44 p.m.

Today, John flies BACK to Pontiac (at almost the exact same time in the afternoon as yesterday’s flight) at 3:38 p.m. He’s still in Pontiac as we speak. I wonder what is so pressing in Pontiac that John has to fly there two days in a row. Wouldn’t it be cheaper and save precious (and expensive) plane fuel to spend the night in Pontiac?

The strange thing is … I didn’t find a record of John flying from Sault Ste Marie back to Charlevoix. John flew to Sault Ste Marie on April 23rd, but there is no flight log for his return! How did he get his plane from Sault Ste Marie to Charlevoix? Obviously, he flew out of Charlevoix to Pontiac, so he had to travel from Sault Ste Marie to Charlevoix SOMEHOW. Hmmmm.

I admire the dedication of these folks on Forum For Justice but the online snooping eventually becomes amusing if little else.  Although John did seem to have a freewheeling lifestyle following Patsy’s death, I’m not sure whether gas guzzling is necessarily a crime.

In July 2008 oil prices hit an all-time record of US$147.27 so Cherokee’s point below – posted in August 2008 –  isn’t without merit.

From forumsforjustice.org:

Posted by Cherokee, August 11, 2008:

Hmmm. It looks like he’s made a couple of trips to Purdue from Charlevoix since the last time we tracked his plane. That’s curious. Burke transferred from Purdue to Georgia State last year, and Purdue wouldn’t be [in] session anyway unless Burke is taking summer school. Is Burke re-enrolling in Purdue after a year at Georgia State?

Whatever the case, John stayed only one hour at Purdue on July 24th, and only 15 minutes on July 27th! 15 minutes on land for a four-hour flight? Did John forget something the first trip and think he had to go back and hand deliver it? Whatever happened to using the US mail? Oh, I forgot. When you have money and your own private plane (and you don’t seem to care about the environment and that there’s a gas crunch going on) you just jet around whenever you feel like it BECAUSE YOU CAN.

By the way, it sure looks like John’s romance with Beth Twitty is kaput. No more flights to HER hometown or out to Arkansas to meet her family.

July 2008

Date Type Origin Destination Departure Arrival Duration:

27-Jul-2008 BE35/G Purdue University (KLAF) Charlevoix Muni (KCVX) 08:09PM EDT 10:07PM EDT 1:58

In August 2016, a month before John and Burke’s appearances on Dr. Phil, it seems N2059W was sold to Jeffrey Morgan, from Kentucky. At that stage, John’s 285 horsepower Beechcraft had sailed from shore to shining shore under John’s command for more than half a century.  Was it sold to raise money to pay for an Apologia War Chest to coincide with the 20-year Anniversary and an anticipated media blitz? Or did the loot from appearing on Dr. Phil mean John could upgrade at last to something shinier and new?

What do Ivanka Trump, Michael Moore, a convicted child murderer on death row called Richard Allen Davis and John Ramsey’s son from his first marriage – John Andrew – have in common?

Not much, obviously, but if each of the first three individuals provides us with any insight into John Andrew, then perhaps we have a formula for gaining a little additional insight into John Ramsey via his eldest son. And if we have more insight into one son of John Ramsey, perhaps we’ll come away with more insight into the other.  Worth playing for?

Let’s start by looking at Ivanka Trump.

1. Ivanka – like father like daughter?

How much is Ivanka like her father, and what do we learn about her father through Ivanka?  Further, what can be applied, and how much, to the psychology surrounding the Ramsey case?

From theaustralian.com.au:

Now 35, married and a mother of three, Ivanka was but 27 when she wrote The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life. I can’t remember the book making much of a splash when it landed but now that Ivanka’s dad has been elected president, it has been taken apart and mocked.

As memoirs go, you’d have to agree that it has something of a fatal flaw, in that it lacks a certain self-awareness. Take the opening line which, I kid you not, reads: “In business, as in life, nothing is ever handed to you.”

She goes on: “Yes, I’ve had the great good fortune to be born into a life of wealth and privilege, with a name to match … Yes, I’ve chosen to build my career on a foundation built by my father and grandfather …”

But that doesn’t mean it has been easy. The first time Ivanka had to walk into a board meeting, at the age of 25, she felt sure that all the middle-aged men sitting around the table thought she was there only because of her dad.

In prior narratives, I highlighted the diminishing returns of excess.  As wealth increases self-awareness decreases – is one of the more obvious.  When we see this “excess” and “excessive self-inflatedness” manifest in children we call them “spoiled”.  Spoiled children grow up to be spoiled adults.

The word spoiled suggests a bungled, slipshod or low-grade attitude to one’s fellow man and the world one lives in, but of course what it really is, is superiority.  It’s superiority based on money.  Well, isn’t that the way of the world and if it is, does it really do any harm?

Very wealthy people are a law unto themselves.  They don’t cook, or clean.  They don’t have to apologize when they make mistakes. They sue or fire those who stand up to them.  If they break something they buy something to replace it.  In this sense, when people take on money’s transactional nature, they develop a disposable personality. In many cities around the world we see this disposable personality writ large as throwaway culture.  Surrounding cities are mountains of garbage.  You don’t want it or like it?  Pretend it’s not a problem or throw it away.

Again, we may shrug and say, “What’s the harm in that?”  Well, this incessant keeping up with the Kardashians and comparing oneself to the Jones’ is in my opinion why the Ramseys felt compelled to cover up the murder of their daughter.  They were so caught up in a world of appearances that they simply could not be seen in the impossible light the crime placed them in.  They couldn’t bear to be seen as what they were: inadequate.

Money of course is a sort of cultural weapon used to immunize ourselves against inadequacy and insecurity.  Does it work?  Does Donald Trump strike you as a man secure within himself?  Besides the bluster, how about that hairstyle?  And how about his daughter?

From theaustralian.com.au:

In fact, she says, “we didn’t rise to our positions in the Trump company by any kind of birthright. We had to earn our place. And we’ve all had some kind of advantage somewhere along the way … People think Donald Trump’s daughter could not possibly have ascended to the role of vice-president of his real estate company for any reason other than the fact that I’m my father’s daughter … In fact, despite my title, my pedigree, I’m just like any other young woman in the workplace.”

This is complete nonsense, but also not what I’m looking for.

An interest in the material benefits of money by its very nature makes the interests of human beings secondary. An obsession with money leads to seeing the world and people as a transactional demesne, with money as the ultimate barometer of a person’s ultimate worth.  Soon everything is seen in terms of monetary worth, including one’s spouse, one’s friends, one’s children.

As grand of course as the sequin stars are of the rich and famous, it’s not enough to save them from death.  The rich, like the poor, come into the world naked and no matter how much money they’ve made, the richest of the rich leave the world just as naked, and just as dead as the poorest of the poor.

If money is pageantry it is also death and shit. This is the strange side-effect of buying into transactionality.  In the case of Donald Trump, we clearly see a tussle between “reality” and “Trump’s reality.”  Facts that do not agree or “sit well” with Trump are dismissed as “alternate facts”.  It’s not necessary to stress how dangerous such a narcissistic attachment to one’s own reality can become, especially when a narcissist has massive resources [like the White House] at his disposal to defend his delusions.

But isn’t a narcissistic attachment to one’s own reality in defiance of reality one description of the Ramsey case?

If a transactional approach to the world makes us uncomfortable, it should. Many of us participate in this transactional world up to a point.  Men buy beautiful women, and women make themselves beautiful, high-priced commodities.  But there’s always a fatter cat out there, always a bigger, more beautiful fish swimming in the sea.  If money maketh you then similarly someone with more money or more beauty invalidates you.  Also, if your money isn’t good enough to warp the world to your will, as occurred recently with Trump’s attempt to install a “Muslim ban”, then what is it good enough for?

From theaustralian.com.au:

“When I was a child my home was the top three floors of Trump Towers on Fifth Avenue,” she writes, “and it had my father’s name on it, up there in big, bold letters. In fact, when I went to boarding school, they were the first buildings I’d lived in that didn’t say TRUMP.”

Ivanka’s bedroom was on the 68th floor, and “in many ways it was a lot like the bedrooms of other little girls my age”. Except, of course, that “during this time, Michael Jackson was living one floor below us …” The book is filled with lines like that, including this one: “After my father bought the Plaza …” And: “I went to dad and said, why don’t you surprise Tiffany with a credit card for Christmas?”

Lest you think she was spoiled, Ivanka insists she was not. Her friends from boarding school would talk about “my jet, my villa, my yacht, my stuff” but “there was no room for that type of thinking” at Trump Towers.

2. Michael Moore on TrumpLand

Michael Moore was exceptional in his prediction that, despite what the polls were showing, Trump would win the election.

MOORE: Trump’s election is going to be the bigger ‘fuck you’ [holds up the finger], ever recorded in human history. And it will feel…good!  [Long pause]. For a day.  Ahh, maybe a week. Possibly a month.   And then like the Brits who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe, only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe you actually have to leave Europe! And now they regret it!

Referring to the US election in 2016, Moore says:

You used the ballot as an anger management tool.

What the US election shows is that the same obsession with money [Trump’s money in this case], the same hypnosis affects those with it affects those who without.  Half of America using the ballot as an anger management tool [just as Britain had] shows to what extent this transactional psychology has addled entire nations.  In South Africa, black South Africans have voted on entirely racial lines to score some sort of racial payback after years of Apartheid racism.  One racism has been exchanged for another.

Moore goes on to show how slipshod truth is hijacked by those participating in populism:

MOORE: Those of us who are upset about the things in this country that we’re upset about, the way to fix it, you know, isn’t to put Trump in there to blow it up. But…a couple of rightwing websites doctored that piece, right after where “If you vote for Trump and it’ll feel good…”

This is transactionality’s deceptive power.  Take what you want, take what people want to hear, and throw away the rest.

It’s not a very scientific approach to reality is it?  Any long term disconnection with reality creates psychological schisms which manifest in very unhealthy ways.  How can one otherwise explain the cover up of JonBenét’s murder as just as psychologically slipshod?  And wasn’t that low-grade attitude to their circumstances borne out of the same shit –  the Ramseys being spoilt and superior?

From Ivanka we see a flawed way of thinking that may seem perfectly normal to her.  From Michael Moore we see how a narrative can be controlled and also perverted towards a particular end.

3. Richard Allen Davis and Crime as a form of Emergency Venting

Davis is the man who kidnapped and murdered 12 year old Polly Klaas,

From Wikipedia:

[Richard Allen Davis] Davis was born the third of five children in San Francisco. Both of his parents, Bob and Evelyn Davis, were alcoholics.  His defense attorneys during his trial said that his mother was a strict disciplinarian and punished Davis for smoking by burning his hand.

The couple divorced when Davis was 11. After the divorce the children lived with their father, Bob, a longshoreman. Davis’ father was sometimes unable or unwilling to care for his children, so they shuttled among family members and babysitters. Davis’ father would remarry two times. Davis resented both of his stepmothers.

Bob Davis was mentally unstable and sometimes suffered from hallucinations. He is reported to have taken a gun outside the home and shot at mirages.

Mental instability can be brought on by something as simple as a parent who neglects his own children.

From Wikipedia:

At an early age, Davis tortured and killed animals. According to Ruth Baron, the mother of one of Davis’s childhood friends, “He would douse cats with gasoline and set them on fire. He made a point of letting people know he carried a knife, and he used to find stray dogs and cut them.”

What do Ivanka Trump, Michael Moore’s TrumpLand and Davis have in common?  Have you figured it out yet?

From Wikipedia:

By the time he entered his teens, Davis was deeply involved in a life of crime. He told a psychiatrist that stealing relieved whatever “tensions” were building up inside him. He dropped out of high school in his sophomore year.

At 17, Davis found himself in front of a judge, who told him that he could either go to the California Youth Authority or join the United States Army. He chose the latter. He received a discharge after 13 months’ service.

On October 12, 1973, Davis went to a party at the home of 18-year-old Marlene Voris. That night, Voris was found dead of a gunshot wound. There were seven suicide notes at the scene, and the police concluded that she committed suicide. Friends of Voris believe Davis murdered her. In 1977 he told a psychiatrist that her death had deeply affected him and he had been hearing her voice in his head and also “At times another voice would appear, telling him that she wanted to be assaulted or robbed or raped.”

A crime of course is the ultimate transaction.  One person takes another’s life or innocence in exchange for some sort of psychological “reset”.  Perhaps the criminal has had a bad childhood or is not being treated well.  By committing a crime, some sort of psychic “equilibrium” is regained.  Of course, it would only need to regained in a world operating along the lines of transactionality.

The prosecutor in the Jodi Arias trial once remarked that crimes are either motivated by money or sex.  Joe Kenda adds a third dimension – revenge.  The revenge often has to do with money or sex or a perceived loss of social status [which has an impact on money or sex].

From Wikipedia:

A few weeks after Voris’ death, Davis was arrested for attempting to pawn property he had stolen. He confessed to a string of burglaries in La Honda and served six months in the county jail. Five weeks after his release, on May 13, 1974, he was arrested for another burglary. He was sentenced to 6 months to 15 years in prison; however, he was released on parole after serving a year of his sentence.

When a criminal commits a crime and is convicted, transactions abound.  The criminal gives up his life behind bars to “pay” for the crime.  The various lawyers, judge and jury get “paid” for their involvement in this transaction.  Justice is expressed in transactional terms too – as a rebalancing of the scales.

When a crime is committed but the body and evidence covered up, what is actually going on?  Well, a cover up and staging is an attempt to interfere with or disrupt this transactionality.  The criminal wishes not to “pay” for the crime he’s committed.  If he can muddy the signals that link him to crime, he doesn’t have to.  And he does that by scattering fake signals – hundreds of sequin stars – to throw investigators off track.

An inadequate person, incidentally, does precisely the same.  Instead of admitting they’re not up to scratch, they find ways to bullshit that they are.  In the Polly Klaas kidnapping and murder, what’s likely is that Klaas was alive when the police first found Richard Davis stuck by the side of the road, just as happened to Danielle van Dams kidnapper and murderer, David Alan Westerfield.

From Wikipedia:

[On October 1^st, 1993] in a rural area of Santa Rosa…a babysitter returning home noted a suspicious vehicle stuck in a ditch on her employer’s private driveway. She phoned the property owner, who decided to leave with her daughter. As she drove down the long driveway to Pythian Road, the owner passed the suspect. She called 911 when she got to a service station and two deputies were dispatched on the call.

The deputies did not know of the kidnapping [of Polly Klaas] or the suspect’s description…The deputies ran the suspect’s driver’s license number and car plate number, but they came back with no wants or warrants. The deputies tried to convince the property owner to perform a citizen’s arrest for trespassing. Under California law, a citizen must make an arrest for this type of misdemeanor. The property owner would have had to go to the car with the deputies and say “I arrest you.” The deputies then would have taken him into custody. The property owner refused.

This refusal to directly intervene possibly cost the twelve-year-old Polly her life.

From Wikipedia:

The deputies called for a tow truck to get the suspect’s car out of the ditch. They searched it thoroughly before the arrival of the tow truck and did not find evidence of anyone else in the car….

Two months passed.

From Wikipedia:

On November 28, 1993, the property owner was inspecting her property after loggers had partially cleared the property of trees. She discovered items that made her think they might have matched those used in the kidnapping. She called the Sheriff’s Department to report her discovery and deputies and crime scene investigators were dispatched. One of the items found, a torn pair of ballet leggings, was matched by the FBI Crime Laboratory to the other part of the leggings that were taken as evidence on the night of the kidnapping…

In lieu of Davis’ silence, a total of about 4000 people searched for her.

From Wikipedia:

While Davis was being interrogated by Petaluma PD and the FBI, a massive search was launched on Friday, December 3…The search remains today as one of the largest ever conducted in California. The search continued through Saturday, December 4. The search effort produced other items of evidence, but did not produce any evidence of human remains. The search was planned to continue on Sunday, December 5, but on the evening of December 4, Davis confessed to kidnapping and murdering Klaas and led investigators to her body. He had buried her in a shallow grave just off Highway 101, about a mile south of the city limits of Cloverdale, California.

When Davis broke in and kidnapped Klaas, he intended to spend private time with Klaas.  The disposal of the body was done in a way to hide it, not merely to hide the body from view but because Davis didn’t want who he really was to be revealed.  This is the aspect we often miss – the efforts to hide are not simply to hide the victim, but also to hide the identity and the type of person who would do such a thing.

From Wikipedia:

It is debated that [Davis] killed [Polly Klaas] before the arrival of deputies and hid her body in the thick brush on the hillside above where his car was stuck. He then waited for an undetermined period of time after being escorted back to Highway 12, about 1.5 miles from where his car was stuck and drove back up to retrieve her body. He was reportedly out of breath, sweating profusely (despite being a cool night) and had twigs and leaves in his hair when contacted by deputies. It is also debated that he had chosen the grave site in advance, since it would not have been discovered by a casual observer. The grave site area would be directly visible from Highway 101, but not the grave itself. [Davis] had to drive from the Indian Rancheria in Ukiah once a week to meet with his parole officer and he would have seen any police activity in the area.

That’s brazen though isn’t it.  Davis buried Klaas on the route he had to drive once a week to check in with his parole officer.  Who would suspect him of committing a crime while on the way to or back from seeing a parole officer?

It’s almost as brazen as a family standing around, hinting, nudging, winking at a Ransom Note while their daughter lay murdered beneath their feet and the feet of the officers and friends at the scene.

In a transactional world, people can be used as things, used and then disposed of.  This is precisely what abductions and murders involve.  The person becomes really a thing used to a particular psychological purchase by the criminal.

And so, what do Ivanka, Michael Moore’s TrumpLand and the child killing Davis have in common?  Isn’t it obvious?  Grief.  Davis’ grief was a lifelong endowment, Michael Moore’s TrumpLand is a nation unravelling because of its pain and strife. In Ivanka’s case it’s not grief in the sense of misery but grief in the sense of stress and strife.  Ivanka’s already had her clothing line struck from Nordtrom’s, a real world consequence of the Trump brand backfiring, and causing Ivanka’s brand [built entirely on her father’s platform] to implode.  That’s transactionality for you.  Transactionality is a rickety system, and one rigged to blow when the weather changes.  Systemic collapse.  That is also one way, I believe, to describe what the Ramsey family went through – one and all – on Christmas night and the day after Christmas. It was a systemic collapse of family values and human values, all underwritten by cheap transactionality.

Incidentally, if you think transactionality has nothing to do with you, or is somehow world’s apart, think again.  Religion is transactional.  If I’m good I get rewards in heaven.  If I’m bad I go to hell.

Which brings us to John Andrew…