Renewed Interest In JonBenet Ramsey’s Murder Leads Us Back To Bizarre Ransom Demand of $118,000

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Last Friday, ABC’s 20/20 aired a never-before-aired interview with JonBenet Ramsey’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, and the late Barbara Walters, following the release of the new Netflix documentary about the 1996 unsolved murder of the 6-year-old pageant star.

During the interview, Walters referenced one of the most perplexing findings from the murder scene: the meandering, purposely dramatized three-page ransom note with the specific demand for $118,000.

“You will withdraw $118,000.00 from your account,” the letter states. “$100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. Make sure that you bring an adequate size attache [sic] to the bank. When you get home you will put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you between 8 and 10 am tomorrow to instruct you on the delivery …”

The amount has long baffled investigators and sleuths. John Ramsey was the president and chief executive officer of Access Graphics, a high-profile computer services company. Put simply, he was rich. 

Had a kidnapper actually wanted money in exchange for Ramsey’s daughter, they would presumably have asked for a much higher sum. Moreover, the entire note was a red herring. JonBenet was not kidnapped. She was murdered and left in Ramsey’s basement.

So, why is the number $118,000 viewed as anything more than just an inconsequential, randomly chosen figure written on the fake ransom note? Because the amount was eerily similar to John Ramsey’s Christmas bonus that year, which he received days before JonBenet’s December 25 death.

Let’s pause.

This ransom amount mirroring John’s bonus is often cited by those who maintain that Patsy, who died from ovarian cancer at age 49 in 2006, accidentally killed her daughter in a moment of rage, and the family then covered it up by staging a kidnapping. Proponents of this theory – police have cleared the family of any involvement – say only John and Patsy would have known about the amount of John’s bonus and thus had the figure on their minds at the time of the murder.

However, John Ramsey told Barbara Walters in the unaired interview that it was actually he who theorized to police there was a connection between the ransom note and his bonus.

“The ransom note has an odd figure — $118,000. That was a bonus that you had received,” Walters said to John and Patsy.

“Well, that was one of the theories that I came up with, that it was close to the net amount I’d received that year as a bonus,” John responded. “One-eighteen means something to the killer. We know that. We believe that. Whether it’s tied to my bonus or something only the killer knows, we don’t know.”

Viewers might take that statement to suggest the killer worked with John at Access Graphics. Not necessarily.

John claims he left his bonus check on the table in his home office. As the intruder theory goes, an intruder entered the house while the Ramseys were away at one of their Christmas parties — perhaps through the basement window — and waited in the house alone. In this scenario, the intruder would have had hours to search the home and come across the check. 

This would also explain why the killer had time to write a three-page ransom note (plus a practice note) using a pad of paper from inside the home: they had time to burn while waiting for the family to come home with JonBenet.

What does all of this mean? Like nearly every detail from the murder scene, the unusual demand for $118,000 does not uphold or weaken either of the two theories.

Proponents of the intruder theory will point to John saying he left the check in the open inside the house. People who believe the family is responsible  will say they don’t believe him, and only the family would know about the amount.

For context, a grand jury in 1999 sought to indict JonBenet Ramsey’s parents for the murder. The district attorney at the time, however, decided that year, however, not to file charges against John and Patricia Ramsey, saying there was insufficient evidence.

Dan Abrams, who covered the case from the start, acknowledged during a recent NewsNation special that he originally thought Patsy was the killer but now favors the “intruder theory.” Most documentarians seem to agree. The new Netflix documentary, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey, and the 20/20 special are told from the lens that the family is innocent.

Abrams and others point to the finding of unidentified, foreign male DNA found in JonBenet’s underpants, and the body wounds that suggest JonBenet was struck in the head after dying of strangulation. Specifically, the coroner found that she was strangled with a garrote. 

The thought that her parents, neither of whom had any reported history of violence, could do that to their daughter, even in the act of a cover-up, is hard to fathom.

And while the autopsy report states that JonBenet did not appear to be raped, it states sexual assault can not be ruled out. 

Granted, former federal prosecutor Trey Gowdy noted on The FOX True Crime Podcast w/ Emily Compagno last week that the autopsy “ruled out penetration,” which has led to speculation that the killer wanted the police to believe that sexual assault took place when it did not.

Do you find yourself more perplexed the more you read? So do we. And so do investigators the more they investigate. 

Why anyone would spend all that time writing a ransom note just to leave JonBenet’s body in the basement is bewildering. Did the murderer plan to kidnap her but kill her instead?

Perhaps the most plausible explanation is that an intruder staged the murder scene to convince police that the family staged the kidnapping, thus leading police to spend more time on the family than outside suspects.

“The ransom note is the piece of the puzzle that has not fit with any narrative. It has been a distraction,” criminal defense and family law attorney Lexie Rigden tells OutKick.

“Whether that was intentional or not, the ransom note has caused a lot of suspicion around the parents, especially the mother, because of the amount of the ransom demand, the time it must have taken to write the letter, the fact it was written on the mother’s stationery, and the fact that handwriting experts at the time say it could have been written by a female. However, the ransom note is not the most important piece of evidence. The DNA is.”

Ultimately, the reality in which the case is never solved continues to increase as times approach 30 years since the death of JonBenet Ramsey. 

Still, John Ramsey, now 80, says he remains optimistic that new leadership at the Boulder Police Department and DNA advancements will culminate with the indication of his daughter’s killer.