Joyce Carol Oates's My Sister, My Love: The Case Of John And Patsy Ramsey Case

Great Essays
Register to read the introduction… The press is highly responsible for this. Even after being cleared by the DNA evidence the Ramsey’s have remained under a multitude of suspicion from the world. To this day there are still people that believe that they killed their daughter. Because of their social status and wealth, many people assume that they paid higher officials off and hired high-powered attorneys who had connections with the DA’s office. Many feel that the media was controlled and information they obtained was purposely manipulated to benefit certain theories. They feel that the world was fed lies on the case and some say that they will never know the truth in much detail. Today, the media still takes advantage of printing a Jonbenet story and many other media have been inspired by this case. Even after seventeen years, the unsolved case has become a popular subject in many television documentaries, crime blogs, and even books. Joyce Carol Oates’s story My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skylar Rampike, shares some striking similarities to the Ramsey case. Sarah Churchwell states that “The Ramseys were renamed the Rampikes, Patsy is now Betsy and her daughter recast as bliss (a champion junior ice skater) whose premature sexualization by her ambitious, exploitative mother is at the heart of Oates’s storytelling” (Churchwell). Another book written by the Ramseys themselves is the “The Death of Innocence” goes into detail on their side of the story. The book speaks about their role in the investigation and discusses myths and facts that clouded the case. The Ramseys thought that if they told their story that they could somehow change they way the world viewed them. Though it had a positive affect on some, many people felt that the Ramseys were trying to “cash in” on their daughter’s death, reinforcing the notion that they cannot be …show more content…
"The Murder of JonBenet Ramsey." Crime Library n.pag. Web. 2 Mar 2014.

Churchwell, Sarah. "The Death of Innocence." New York Times 18 Aug 2008, n. pag. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

Fox, RichardL., Robert W. Van Sickle, and Thomas L. Steiger. Tabloid Justice: Criminal Justice

in an Age of Media Frenzy. 2nd. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2007. 1-15. Print.

Jones, Aphrodite, dir. "JonBenet Ramsey." True Crime with Aphrodite Jones. Investigation

Discovery : 31 Mar 2011. Television.

McKinley, Carol. "Ramsey Case Spawns Media Feeding Frenzy and Public Obsession."Fox News. N.p., 22 May 2001. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

Mitchell, Kirk. "Boulder Involeved in JonBenet Case Often Clashed ." Denver Post 25 oct 2013,

n. pag. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

"Grand jury prepared child abuse indictment against JonBenet Ramse'ys parents, newly released documents show." NBC News 25 oct 2013, n. pag. Web. 2 Mar.

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