Netflix’s Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey has brought the tragic murder of the 6-year-old pageant star to the forefront once again, nearly 30 years after the events took place in December 1996.
Over the last three decades, JonBenét Ramsey’s parents, Patsy and John, have been dragged through the mud of public opinion, with countless people considering them to be responsible for the death of their daughter, who was found strangled in the basement of their home.
Docuseries director Joe Berlinger told The Hollywood Reporter that he feels true-crime series and films often try to play both sides of a case, but that his three-part docuseries does not. Instead, it points the finger at the Boulder Police Department as the reason why the case remains unsolved 28 years after JonBenét’s murder.
When asked why he wanted to take on the case, the Oscar-nominated and prolific true-come filmmaker said he felt he could actually move the needle with new information that would hopefully put pressure on the Boulder police to run DNA found at the crime scene with the advanced technology they have today, and help to clear the Ramsey family name.
“I think we can solve the case. I want to give that family a measure of justice,” he said. “There are some basic things the Boulder Police need to do. For some reason, despite a new police chief, despite most of the old players being gone, some of whom were reprimanded, there was still some institutional intransigence into really doing the right thing.”
While Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey is the most recent project tackling the tragic case, there are numerous docuseries and films that have been made over the years, each trying to bring a new perspective to the story. And that includes the upcoming Paramount+ limited series starring Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen as her parents, Patsy and John Ramsey.
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‘Getting Away with Murder: The JonBenét Ramsey Mystery’
Image Credit: Franklin Media/Courtesy Everett Collection Released four years after the death of JonBenét, Getting Away with Murder: The JonBenet Ramsey Mystery sees a reporter travel to Boulder, Colorado, to write a story on the murder. While there, she gets conflicting stories about who killed the 6-year-old pageant star, as some detectives suspected the parents and others suspect one of three men who had a connection to the family. The one-hour Foc documentary was produced by American television production company Rocket Science Laboratories and directed by Edward Lucas.
Getting Away with Murder: The JonBenet Ramsey Mystery is no longer available on TV, but it can be seen on YouTube.
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‘Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: JonBenét and the City of Boulder’
Image Credit: TVM Prod./Courtesy Everett Collection Perfect Murder, Perfect Town was also released in 2000. The CBS miniseries, based on director Lawrence Schiller’s book of the same name, includes historic news and talk show footage, covering in detail what was considered a botched investigation into the murder of the pageant star. The show, which aired from 2000 to 2001, shines a light on how the hysterical media coverage surrounding the murder of JonBenét made the investigation even more difficult. Kris Kristofferson, Marg Helgenberger, Ronny Cox and Dyanne Iandoli starred in the project.
Watch on YouTube.
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‘True Crime with Aphrodite Jones’
Image Credit: Discovery Channel/Courtesy Everett Collection True Crime with Aphrodite Jones dove into JonBenét’s case in the first episode of season two, “JonBenét Ramsey: The Innocent.” The 2011 docuseries episode saw the host dig for answers to the case that raised a lot of questions when it happened. In each of her episodes, the host brought new information to the case, be it by interviews with people who have never talked before or evidence or images that shed light on the cases.
True Crime with Aphrodite Jones is available to stream on Investigation Discovery and Discovery+, among others.
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‘The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey’
CBS was one of the many networks to air a docuseries or film about JonBenét in 2016, marking the 20th anniversary of the 6-year-old’s death. Throughout the six-part series, the investigative team reviewed the cast, the 911 call, the ransom note and other aspects of the cast in rooms they recreated from the Ramsey house. The docuseries primarily pointed a finger at Burke, JonBenét’s then-8-year-old brother as the person who killed her because she ate part of his snack. He sued CBS for $750 million for defamation, and the case was settled years later for an undisclosed amount of money.
Watch on Amazon.
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‘Who Killed JonBenét?’
Image Credit: Dean Buscher/Lifetime/Courtesy Everett Collection Lifetime took its own swing at the story of JonBenét’s murder with an original movie that revisited the tragedy and details that captured the nation’s attention at the time. The film provides a look into what happened on Dec. 26, 1996, when the pageant star was found beaten and strangled in her family’s basement. Who Killed JonBenét? took a fresh look at the events and the competing theories about what happened that day.
Watch on Amazon.
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‘The Killing of JonBenét: The Truth Uncovered’
A&E released the first doc tied to the 20th anniversary of JonBenét’s tragic death in 2016. The network’s documentary included five major revelations in the cold case. First, someone could have come into the Ramsey’s house through a cellar window. Second, several “scoops” leaked during the case were likely false. Third, the Boulder Police Department allegedly withheld DNA that could’ve ruled out JonBenét’s parents as suspects. Fourth, Burke Ramsey, her brother, heard everything that happened in the house that night. Fifth, there were marks on the pageant star’s face and back that hinted at a possible interaction with a stun gun.
Watch on Amazon for free.
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‘Casting JonBenet’
Image Credit: Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection In 2017, Netflix hopped on the JonBenét train with a documentary that featured local actors from the Colorado area offering multiple perspectives on the 1996 murder as they vie to play roles in a dramatized version of the case, according to the streamer. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival that year. Unlike other projects about the case, this one focuses on how the events became a pop-culture obsession and conspiracy.
Watch on Netflix.
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‘JonBenét Ramsey’
Image Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty; Michael Tullberg/Getty Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen will lead Paramount+’s upcoming limited series, currently titled JonBenét Ramsey. The Oscar nominees will portray the 6-year-old’s parents, Patsy and John Ramsey. The project will follow the family before and after the tragic murder, “as they go through the painful loss of a child while facing intense public scrutiny caused by a media frenzy that caused this case to captivate an entire nation,” the show’s description reads. “At the heart of the series, it is the story of Patsy and John Ramsey, exploring the unbreakable partnership of these two complex people — as husband and wife, as mother and father — who had committed themselves and their children to building the narrative of a perfect, privileged life only to have it destroyed one Christmas night in 1996.”
A release date has yet to be announced, but the show will stream on Paramount+.