The Death of Innocence: JonBenet's Parents Tell Their Story

by Patsy Ramsey and John Ramsey

Book Overview

The last word on the controversial crime that still grips the nation. Publishers Weekly on this riveting bestseller: "The Death of Innocence is part memoir, part murder mystery...[It] paints more than a plausible picture of a family victimized at first by the horrific murder of a young girl and then by a relentless media and police campaign to smear their reputation and prove their guilt. As we read the account of the hellishness of their lives since...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451409736
• ISBN13: 9780451409737
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Onyx Books
• Length: 434 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.5" x 7.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Discover the truth.......

This book has been an eye opener for myself and the five people I have recommended it too. My copy has fallen apart from all its readers. I became very interested in the story of JonBenet. I could not understand why any parent would kill his or her own child. NOW I KNOW! This book explains alot about the night beautiful JonBenet was taken from this earth. It also lists evidence that the police did not want you to know. Her parents deserve justice for their daughter. The police should spend more time looking at the evidence before claiming someone is guilty. Do we not live in a country where we are "innocent until proven guilty"? Read this book and discover the truth yourself!!!

Wonderful Book

This book was beautifully written as the love and passsion of the parents of JonBenet Ramsey. It tells the real story the way it happened and it tells of the STUPID MISTAKES THE INEXPERIENCED POLICE DEPARTMENT MADE. If only the media knew the true story......

JonBenet's parents speak up

JonBenet Ramsey would be turning thirteen this August 6th, 2003, if her life had not been cut short at the age of 6. For 6 years, the Boulder police, DA, and tabloids have tried this case with lies, hearsay and fake proofs. Their theory (among others) ? Patsy Ramsey, a mother of two with a history of cancer, found her six-year-old daughter JonBent had wet her bed on Christmas night. She then became hysterical, killed the child, hid her body and made up a fake ransom note. Her husband covered it up. "We were not able to find a slap in a supermarket" said a policeman. Routier, Downs, all the parents who killed their children had a history of mental illness and family abuse. JonBenet's parents have NO past history whatsoever. They have been screaming their innocence for 6 years. No evidence is linking them to the murder. For 6 years, JonBent Ramsey has been pictured as a 6 year old Lolita in revealing costumes, a "pageant addict" that her mother "forced on stage".. Being in pageants myself I can tell you that the average pageant child competes in 20 to 25 pageants in a year. JonBenet Ramsey competed in 9 pageants over 18 months, 8 of them were tiny local competitions. Had she lived, she would probably have never made it close to a local newspaper headline. She was just another kid. This book tells the story of parents who not only lost their beloved child, but who were not allowed to mourn her. It tells the story of two persons who will never be able to have a fair and unbiased trial in America because their case was tried in tabloids and trash talk shows. It tells the story of a ruined investigation, because for 6 years the prosecutors REFUSED to look anywhere else but at the parents. What did they find ? Nothing. I find it interesting that this book only gets 3 stars... but they always say truth doesnt sell.

It Could Happen to You!

What is so scary about what happened to the Ramseys, in their being "tried and convicted by the media" is that it could happen to any one of us. Our culture is one of sound bytes and image-is-everything. I was very skeptical - but after reading/listening to their side - and the investigator's side...I see how easy it was for the "facts" to be used as a cover up for poor police work and a decision by the Boulder police was made to not lose face - above anything else. Read this book! It is compelling and it made me angry that we've been so quick to judge, and so slow to be compassionate.

Forget what you think about guilt or innocence...

Consider what this book gives you: access to two of the most major players in the Ramsey case. Whether you are anti-Ramsey (and prepared to disbelieve every word), pro-Ramsey (and prepared to believe every word), or somewhere in between, Death of Innocence gives you something concrete against which to measure media reports, talk show content, and the statements and leaks from the Boulder PD and DA. Once one's mind is made up, it's tempting to stop thinking, stop listening, stop being open to possibilities that are contrary to your rigid stance. But the only thing that will accomplishe is to freeze you in place, leaving you forever stuck with your views, regardless of where the facts may lead. If you happen to be right, perhaps that's not such a bad thing. But if you're wrong, you'll either be eating a lot of crow, or denying the correctness of the ultimate solution of this crime (*if* it's ever solved). For quite a while now I have been leaning toward the possibility that the Ramseys are innocent, but I bought their book to look for contraditions and conflicts that might challenge or change my thinking. I did not simply seek reinforcment of what I was already tending to believe. In Death of Innocence, I have read things that trouble me, raising questions that I wish I could hear answered. But over all (at least at this moment) I remain open to the thought that the Ramseys may well be innocent. You may see it otherwise. This book is neither exonerating nor incriminating. Rather, it is an important piece in an intriguing puzzle. Regardless of whether it contains information or disinformation, it is an essential document for those who are thinking their way through the maze of this murder case, for how can one do that without knowing what the Ramseys have to say? It may be lies or it may be the truth -- but in either case, it is the only document of its kind that we have available to us. To judge it, you must read it. And to know its accuracy, you must wait for a time that may never come. It is not my admiration for the writing that makes me give this book 5 stars (in fact, I see the hand of the ghost writer throughout; I wish that freelance writer hadn't "helped" the Ramseys because I wanted their "voices" to be truly theirs). Why did I give the book 5 stars? Because it tells us the Ramseys' story, or at least the story the Ramseys want us to believe -- and, either way, it is indispensible to anyone who is making an informed decision regarding the Ramseys' guilt or innocence. Use it to shape your thinking now, and to refer to later, if and when the case is officially solved.