Fantastic Article! Actions of Hunter/Haddon/Smit/Tracey/Lacy In Ramsey Case

Discussion in 'Justice for JonBenet Discussion - Public Forum' started by Cherokee, Sep 5, 2006.

  1. Cherokee

    Cherokee FFJ Senior Member

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060829/cm_huffpost/028235

    RJ Eskow: Doll Parts: For JonBenet, The Pageant Isn't Over

    RJ Eskow
    Tue Aug 29, 11:41 AM ET

    The case against John Mark Karr was dropped for lack of evidence, his attorneys said today. This charade will almost surely repeat itself, however, since there are so many parties interested in finding - or becoming - new suspects in the most famous child murder since Lindbergh's. It's a safe bet that everyone, including the victim herself, will be back on their marks again soon.

    JonBenet's eyes haunt, and so does her story: the forced pageant performances, her precocious mock sexuality, even the lie that she was a natural platinum blonde. That's a secret she carried for a third of her 6-year-old life. ("You're not supposed to tell that!" she said to her nanny.) Seeing brief glimpses of her on TV the last few days, Courtney Love's lyrics came to mind: "I am doll eyes, doll mouth, doll legs ..."

    The mystery of JonBenet Ramsey's death remains, and so do the people whose needs and desires keep it alive. Study the players and motives and it begins to look like a giant web spun by several spiders at once. The family, the journalism professor, politicians, the district attorney, the news media, even the unstable characters ready to win fame through false confession - all are connected by slender but resilient threads of self-interest.

    Whether it's self-exoneration, self-promotion, self-incrimination, or a DA attempting to remove the taint of what one expert called "prosecutorial malfeasance," it seems that everyone had someone to gain by the arrest of a new suspect. At the top of the list stands the US media, hungrier than ever for juicy details on this, the best of all the "white victim" cases.

    There are thousands of tragic child murders, but this victim - rich, high society, artificially glamorized and impossibly young - lived and died in media heaven. JonBenet's tragic story was made to draw viewers. "Yeah, they really want you, they really want you, they really do," Courtney sings.

    At the center of the web are John and (the now deceased) Patsy Ramsey, parents of the dead child. After millions of dollars and years of effort on their part, including private investigators and P.R. campaigns, the uncomfortable fact remains that there are no meaningful suspects except them. The widely-publicized evidence that we've been told exonerates them - including the now-famous "DNA samples" - becomes less plausible the more carefully it's examined.

    It's impossible to prove or disprove guilt at a distance, of course. But it is possible to review the striking errors made initially by police investigators on the crime scene, and the far more egregious mishandling of the case by the district attorney, who showed the Ramseys and their team unprecedented favoritism.

    Also in the picture is Michael Tracey, the journalism professor who has made a career out of the JonBenet case. He grew close to the Ramseys while spinning theories that would support the "intruder" idea and therefore exonerate the couple. Tracey is, of course, the man whose lengthy correspondence with Karr - hundreds of emails over several years - led to Karr's arrest. That arrest conveniently came the same month that Tracey, who has fingered innocent men before, announced he had completed a new book on the case.

    There are also the swarms of emotionally unstable people who are always drawn to confess to famous crimes. Police received hundreds of confessions in the Lindbergh case, and so many people confessed to being the Boston Strangler that a black comedy was eventually made about it. ("No Way to Treat a Lady, " which probably wouldn't have been made in today's era of political correctness, includes a scene in which midget actor Michael Dunn tells detectives: "I did it. I strangled her with my bare hands.")

    Both Tracey and the Ramseys have leaned heavily on the investigative work of Lou Smit, an ex-detective who claims that the Ramseys could not have committed the crime because they were "good Christians." Smit has dedicated himself to proving their innocence, a crusade that has also provided enormous publicity for himself and his private detective agency.

    One of the many problems with Smit's hypothesis is the fact that the murder, which appears staged, was initially made to look like it was both a crime of sexual passion and an attempted kidnapping - something so unusual (if not completely unheard-of) that it overwhelmingly suggests deception.

    That so-called exculpatory DNA evidence was so badly mishandled and contained such a tiny amount of physical matter that independent researchers have concluded that it most likely got into JonBenet's panties at the time of their manufacture. The other possibility experts mention is that the DNA got into the evidence during police handling. At least one account states that the DNA was personally conveyed to the laboratory by Lou Smit himself, which raises other questions about its reliability.

    One of Prof. Tracey's films relied heavily on interviews with two people described only as "investigators." The two men are actually volunteers acting on behalf of the Ramseys, and amateur sleuths located the website of the agency they share with ... Lou Smit!

    A. L. Bardach's 1997 piece for Vanity Fair remains the definitive overview of the case. Careful reading of this piece, together with some follow-up on the DNA evidence, provides a strong foundation for putting the case in context.

    One of the Ramseys' first moves was to engage the law firm run by Hal Haddon, a powerful Democratic power broker who counted among his allies Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter. Bardach's piece documents the extent to which Hunter's favoritism compromised the investigation. In an extraordinary move, the active police files were even shared with the Ramseys' defense team during the investigation. Observers believe Haddon pressured Hunter not to indict the Ramseys, despite that fact that the police were reportedly prepared to arrest them six months after the murder.

    Hunter's perspective on the Ramseys was unusual for a DA investigating a crime, as evidenced by his conversation with Bardach:

    [Alex Hunter, an affable man of 61, acknowledged that much of the Ramseys' post murder behavior was unusual. "No question about it. They lawyered up] early on," he said. "Normally it is true, such victims throw themselves at the police and district attorney, offering and begging for information. The fact that they do not cooperate is most compelling, but it is not really evidence." Hunter asked me (writes Bardach) if I knew that Patsy Ramsey was a college graduate and had talent as a painter. He passed on the information that "she ran the science fair" at her son's school ... "She [Patsy]was fused with JonBenet," said Hunter. "It was more than mere love." ... Toward the end of our talk, he said, "These are not bad people," then added, "Of course, we know that good people can do bad things."

    While ambivalent, probably by intent, he sounds like a man who made up his mind early on - "good people," devoted parents, fine citizens. Hunter doesn't mention other, more troubling facts about the couple: Ramsey leading investigators immediately to a small broken window; the staged appearance of JonBenet's body; Ramsey's strange lack of affect; their immediate hiring of a public-relations expert; the report that Ramsey had instructed his pilot to fly him out of town immediately after the body was discovered, until a police officer objected; and so on. The "ransom note" is another puzzle Hunter doesn't discuss. Handwriting experts could not make a definitive finding, but looked at dozens of writing samples and found it resembled Patsy Ramsey's. It's written as if composed by terrorists, and demands exactly the same amount of money ($118,000) John Ramsey had recently received as a bonus. Strikingly, it's oddly obsequious about Ramsey himself - a vain man who named his daughter after his own first and middle names (John Bennett).

    Hunter's chosen investigator was personally close with several of the Ramseys' lawyers. This investigator brought in Lou Smit, who quickly concluded that the Ramseys' Christianity eliminated them as suspects. Soon this investigator's team was clashing with other investigators.

    From Bardach again:

    Haddon's team even persuaded Hofstrom and Hunter to give them "private viewings" of the original ransom notes and "the actual ligature and garrote." "The Ramseys' best defense attorneys are right inside Hunter's office," he mumbled bitterly.
    The sharing of such information, says 25-year F.B.I. veteran Gregg McCrary, "is unprecedented and unprofessional and an obstruction of justice...It's possible you could make a case for prosecutorial malfeasance."

    The current Boulder District Attorney, Mary Lacy, was part of Alex Hunter's team during the initial investigation of the crime. In an display of partiality that stunned some observers, she attended Patsy Ramsey's funeral. Lacy was criticized for making public comments about the behavior of University of Colorado students, with critics suggesting that she had "tried them in the press" rather than a courtroom.

    She will now face the same criticisms about Karr. While she insisted in her press conference announcing Karr's arrest that the press should not prejudge him, she made that statement ... in a press conference. Having staked her reputation on the Ramseys' innocence, she must produce a suspect or else have that claim of innocence challenged.

    Nothing fundamental about this case has changed with the announcement about Karr. The confluence of interests that produced this debacle - Ramsey, Tracey, Lacy, the media - will almost inevitably produce more such episodes.

    JonBenet Ramsey was, by all evidence, an extension of her parents' ego. She told family friends she didn't like the pressure of the pageants (although some pageant mothers challenge that assessment.) She was already such a consummate performer, made up to a womanly perfection, that few outsiders knew she was a chronic bedwetter who reportedly had serious behavior problems. Her mother took her to the pediatrician thirty times in three years.

    "Someday you will ache like I ache ... "

    Somewhere in a darkened room a man watches as JonBenet sings and dances, endlessly repeating her performances for an audience of one. Michael Tracey, or another self-styled investigator, is cooking up a new theory. And the television cameras are always warm, always live, always ready to turn their bright glare on the half-broken strands of an old web - one that will be woven again, and again, and again.

    As long as everyone acts in their own self-interest, the pageant will never end.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2006
  2. LurkerXIV

    LurkerXIV Moderator

    Excellent Article

    It concisely sums up both the history of this bizarre and tragic case, and the current situation: the status quo of self-interest.
     
  3. Spade

    Spade Member

    Cherokee

    Great find! I read the Huffington Post every day but somehow missed this. Thanks. People are starting to get it.
     
  4. Tricia

    Tricia Administrator Staff Member

    WOW. This is great Cherokee. Thank you.

    Send this link around kids ok? This really does explain it all.
     
  5. Show Me

    Show Me FFJ Senior Member

    I love it...quickly explains in incestous relationship the main suspects have with the DA's office and allllll the so called experts in the case.

    This is pulitzer prize winning stuff if a reporter is brave enough to venture into the real facts....we need an Ortega to do indepth research.
     
  6. hioniam

    hioniam Member

    Nice find Cherokee!

    Which account does he refer to?
    Anything more about that?


    This is a bit cryptic.
    Which man does he allude to?

    hioniam
     
  7. Cherokee

    Cherokee FFJ Senior Member

    I think Eskow was just saying that somewhere a pedophile and/or man with a JBR obsession is watching those videos of a sexed up JonBenet over and over again. He wasn't referring to any one particular man.
     
  8. Watching You

    Watching You Superior Bee Admin

    Wow. Someone finally has it right.

    I wonder if RJ Eskow will forevermore be labeled as BORG and probably accused of getting all his information from the BORG forum of record, FFJ.

    Poor little JonBenet, betrayed by her family, betrayed by the people who were sworn to find justice for her. Precocious mock sexuality - when I think about that, it makes me want to throw up. She was TAUGHT to act that way by her mother and her mother's kin. Being a vamp doesn't come naturally to a little girl. I raised three little girls, and at the ages JB was strutting her mock sexuality on stage, mine were wheeling their baby dolls in little carriages and swimming in the pond. "Normal" to JB was being stuffed into some revealing costume and pimped on stage for whatever weirdo to leer at, whether she wanted to or not. No wonder she was so worn down she had a snotty nose all the time. Stress will do that to a child.
     
  9. Barbara

    Barbara FFJ Senior Member

    Kudos to Eskow!

    It's nice to see that every now and then, courage in journalism, REAL JOURNALISM will find its way through to the people.
     
  10. babyboomer

    babyboomer Member

    What a terrific article! Really says it all!
     
  11. hioniam

    hioniam Member

    Cherokee:
    Thanks! Rereading it I think most probably you are correct.


    Watching You wrote:
    Interesting point! I think her bedwetting problem has also a psychological
    connection with the whole "pageant thing".

    hioniam
     
  12. Carol

    Carol Member

    I don't care much for RJ Eskow or the Huffington Post, but I must say that this should be read by everyone!
     
  13. Little

    Little Member

    Just a few Sunday afternoons?

    Reading that article reminded me of the "Just a few Sunday afternoons" comment. I dug this out:

    Quote Source: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/05-97...97/a08wn029.htm
    The parents also defended their daughter's involvement in beauty pageants. Images of the child in glittery dresses and makeup have appeared in magazines and on news programs, prompting some criticism of child beauty pageants.
    "Those were beautiful pictures. I'm so happy that we have those pictures," Mrs. Ramsey said, but added, "That was just a few Sunday afternoons." End Quote

    Quotes and some observations from PMPT:
    Pg. 93 & 94 PMPT:
    Patsy enjoyed visiting Pam griffin’s simple home in Longmont. She would walk in, kick off her shoes, and watch several seamstresses assemble costumes in Pam’s basement workshop. Sometimes Patsy would bring lunch for everyone. Other times she would sit out on the about her battle with cancer of her worries over JonBenet’s incontinence. Patsy told Pam that JonBenet often waited until an emergency was imminent and as a result was still having accidents. Pam said that when her own daughter, Kristine, was small, she also used to wait until the last possible second and sometimes miscalculated. Patsy complained that JonBenet had frequent infections that were hard to clear up because her underpants were always wet. JonBenet would often fall asleep in her bedroom in front of the TV set, she said, and Patsy would wake her up at around midnight to make sure she used the bathroom. Sometimes Pasty was just in the nick of time, but sometimes she was too late. Pam understood how aggravating this could be for a mother.

    In all, Pam Griffin made half a dozen outfits for JonBenet, some of which cost as much as $600. Several of the outfits were not typical pageant attire but more like theatrical costumes. One day Patsy’s mother, Nedra, who occasionally came to pan’s house with Patsy showed her a photograph of an outfit with marabou and glitter. Nedra said it was just right for “Patsy’s doll babyâ€, as she like(d) to call JonBenet. She thought it would be perfect for the “Anybody from Hollywood†category at the next pageant, where the children could dress as Shirley Temple or Charlie Chaplin or any other star – or, for example, a Las Vegas Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, which Nedra thought would be perfect for JonBenet.

    Page 94 & 95 go on to describe more coaching - more pageants - Patsy feels that JonBenet needs a portfolio – Pam Griffin offers to take JonBenet to a pageant & Patsy said no thanks, Pam told the police JonBenet had to be with her family and Patsy told her when the Royal Miss nationals moved to Las Vegas the John didn’t want his six-year-old daughter exposed to Vegas.

    Page 96:
    The Ramseys spent the summer of 1996 in Charlevoix and Atlanta, where JonBenet entered the Sunburst pageant, which cost Patsy over a thousand dollars in entry fees. JonBenet was first runner-up in each of the nine categories in her division, but once again she missed out on the overall title. Her performance, Pam said, was still a big accomplishment. It was her first experience competing against top-of-the-line entrants – southern girls who already held numerous titles.

    After Sunburst, both Patsy and Nedra called Mary Clark, the pageant director. They wanted to dissect every detail of JonBenet’s costumes, music, and performance. Exactly what were the judges looking for? How could they hone a competitive edge for JonBenet? It was obvious to Clark that Patsy was ready to spend any amount of money, go to any length, to ensure a win for her daughter.

    Kristen said that JonBenet often gave her prizes away to newcomers who hadn’t received any. But unlike many regulars on the circuit, she didn’t appear at pageants she’d previously won simply to present trophies to new winners. Instead, Patsy had JonBenet compete all over again at those pageants.

    One day Patsy suggested to Pam Griffin that they make a few dresses to have on hand for kids who showed up in “civilian†clothes. Patsy said she didn’t want some little girl to feel humiliated. Pam felt that Patsy was a genuinely kind person but also knew that Patsy always wanted to make the best possible impression on people.

    On December 17, JonBenet entered the All Star Kids Christmas pageant at the Airport Holiday Inn outside Denver. Her parents watched her win several titles, including Little Miss Christmas. When it was all over, John carried all her trophies and costumes to the car. It would be her last pageant. End Quote

    Just a “few Sunday afternoons�

    Quotes from: PMPT: Page 71-72 – Kit Andre, a dance instructor who worked with JonBenet.

    Patsy told Kit that JonBenet participated in pageants and she herself had been in pageants when she was younger. She’d brought an audiotape of music – “I want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.â€

    There was no time for JonBenet to learn the basics of ballet or tap, but Patsy said they needed a song and dance by summer. “And whatever it takes, I’ll pay for it,†Patsy said. Private lessons were $100 each, Kit told her. That was no problem, Patsy replied. End Quote

    (My comment: Patsy does not want to wait in the reception room while Kit works with JonBenet. She wants JonBenet to improve her singing. She schedules JonBenet for three lessons a week. She’s determined that JonBenet would be ready for the summer pageants.)

    Continued Quote:“It will be better if I’m here,†she insisted. “I’ve done this before.†End Quote

    (My comment: Kit discovered that JonBenet had a wonderful personality – learned gestures etc, she felt she was smart and talented. )

    Continued Quote: But she also understood that JonBenet was performing because her mother wanted her to, not because she wanted to. JonBenet wasn’t one of those kids who had seen someone dance and decided, That’s what I want to do.

    Kit Andre: I’ve looked at that pageant video several times. They make JonBenet look like a clown. Someone else taught her those pseudo-adult movements, the provocative walk, the poses, all of it.

    The pageants were Patsy’s gig. JonBenet was her alter ego. Patsy had the money, she had the costumes, and she had the kid. She could relive her own pageant thing. You got the picture right there. Patsy didn’t have a sense of proportion about how this should fit into her child’s life. What I saw on the pageant video…you don’t do that to a six-year-old. – Kit Andre. End Quote

    Quote from: PMPT Page 95:
    Most pageants include a “Most Photogenic†or “Photo Portfolio†category, where the entrants are judged solely on their photographs. Pasty decided it was time for JonBenet to have a portfolio, and Pam Griffin recommended a photographer, Randy Simons, who could make a six-year-old look twenty. When a pageant favored the seductive look, Pam told Patsy, Simons was the best. End Quote

    Quote from: PMPT: PAGE 258 -259 - Linda Wilcox (a Ramsey housekeeper – left in 1994)
    After Patsy finished decorating the house, Burke became her favorite child. She spent all of her time at his school. He was her first project.

    At that time JonBenet was too young to do anything spectacular. She hardly got Patsy’s attention. Suzanne Savage was in charge of her, JonBenet wasn’t in school yet, and her world revolved around adults, whereas Burke’s life revolved around his friends.

    Then, when JonBenet started school, she became Patsy’s second project. The children really were like projects to her. I’m afraid that after JonBenet became Patsy’s focus, she also became her obsession.

    I think that to Patsy, nothing and no one had the right to be imperfect. Everything had to fit Patsy’s image of what it should be. So JonBenet was under immense pressure to fit the image Patsy had of her new project. End Quote

    The statement that this was only a few Sunday afternoons only appies to the actual event itself, however the preparation was more elaborate than that statement alludes to. After all The Miss America Pageant is only one night

    Little

    Just a “few Sunday afternoons� That poor little girl.
     
  14. Carol

    Carol Member

    I just re-read this article in the Huffington Post and I was surprised that it generated only 12 comments and a lot of them did not agree with Mr. Eskow. A shame.
     
  15. Elle

    Elle Member

    Thank you for this great article by R.J. Eskow, Cherokee. Skimmed and scanned it late last night. Read it fully this morning. We could do with more like this on the front page of Atlanta and Boulder.
     
  16. Elle

    Elle Member

    Just a few Sunday afternoons, Little, with a little six year old prancing as a Las Vegas Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, in that gawdy outfit, with Nedra Paugh written all over it. What is is with these pageant women -family females and these damn pageants? They are obsessed! I really hate them with a passion, the women I mean, as well as the stupid pageants. :-(
     
  17. Little

    Little Member

    It's not something I understand Elle. Then again, I don't understand how some of the youth sports turn into such a personal parental competition either. I'm sure not in all instances, but in the ones that make you shake your head, the child is a means to an end, with the parent feeling entitled to taking all the bows. I don't see any way a productive life-lesson comes from that. IMO, Patsy's life showed what lesson a child brings away from a parent using their child. It's what Nedra did to her, and what they both did to JonBenet.

    Little
     
  18. Pearlsim

    Pearlsim FFJ Senior Member

    I hadn't looked at the videos of JonBenet for years, til this new wave hit with Karr's "confession"

    Trying to be very objective, what I saw was a child who often looked a little dazed/bored/unhappy on the stage.

    Certainly JonBenet could do the moves and ape back what had been drilled into her. And sometimes I did catch a vision of emotion on her face. For instance, in the one video where someone puts a crown on her head, JonBenet seems to register a bit of surprise (me???) and then this adorable little smile of pleasure.

    But mostly, her eyes look kind of devoid when she's strutting around. Anyone else have that feeling?

    And as to the few Sunday afternoons. Hogwash. It was WAY more than that...in number and in intensity of their focus. I could even take them putting her in a pagaent once a month, if they hadn't made each one so over the top on preparation and priority.

    I will NEVER get over the image of JonBenet the tiny little girl strutting around in that one white costume with the headdress that's taller than the child. Talk about sick....
     
  19. wombat

    wombat Member

    By the time Patsy was on her way out, she had reduced "a few Sunday afternoons" to "just one big pageant" - she said this in her Hawaii farewell video.

    Yes, Pearlsim, especially in the ones where she has her mouth open and is staring out from under the makeup and bleach. JonBenet -"six years old...she's blonde..."
     
  20. Pearlsim

    Pearlsim FFJ Senior Member

    Wombat...just that one quote from Patsy - "six years old...she's blonde" is enough to make a person sick. I've seen the pictures of the very young, NOT blonde JonBenet and wonder what it must've been like to be five or six years old and know that your mommy doesn't think you're pretty enough without cosmetic engineering.

    I have three kids who have all been involved in performing arts. Through their many times on the stage with orchestras, bands, plays, piano, cello, oboe recitals etc...I've seen lots and lots of child performers. And there are some children who do just radiate stage presence and a love for performing from a very early age. You can see it in every thing they do and no amount of coaching can produce that natural talent and passion.

    JonBenet, bless her heart, didn't seem to have any of that natural passion. And why should she? The poor kid was just a baby but already had a more demanding life and schedule than most adults.

    Like Watching You said, little girls that age should be pushing doll buggies and doing other fun innocent things that don't create so much stress and structure on their lives that they are sick constantly.

    I hate child beauty pageants and think the whole industry is disgusting. When I see the images of a highly sexualized JonBenet dressed up like a highprice call girl and strutting around in such provocative ways, it literally makes me want to throw up. Especially when it looks as though she was only getting up there because it was what she was told she had to do to keep Patsy's pageant obsession going.
     
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