Henry Lee Starting page 177

My question.

How did it get cleared up?

 

Elle it would be a three volume book...


At least the Ramseys are being shown for the lying, murdering, manipulative trash they are.

Will Burke ever speak up and tell all?

 

"Detectives climbed up and down the thirteen steps of the spiral staircase leading downward from the landing outside JonBenet's bedroom. This was especially tricky for them when the stairwell was darkened. The detectives found it impossible to climb over the bottom steps above the kitchen in a normal fashion without stepping on the spots where the ransom note had been left. The only way to avoid the areas where the three pages had been left was to cling to one wall and to move down in an acrobatic fashion. Yet Patsy had not stepped on the note's pages and had not said anything about making any extraordinary moves to avoid the pages, which did not show any footprints on them."

 

Thanks, Sabrina.

What I figured.

 

You're right! Wouldn't it be good if Fleet white was the author?

I think the Ramseys have probably told Burke he will be deprived of all the $$$ from the lawsuits, if he opens his mouth.

I like what you said here SM "At least the Ramseys are being shown for the lying, murdering, manipulative trash they are." Now tell me how you really feel?

 

JC all I can say is that although Burke was in the house that night, and likewise can never truly be all-the-way, 100% out of the realm of possibility, cops have never found anything directly linking him to the crime or the staging. Patsy and John covering for him is a scenario that has been kicked around forever--but John Ramseys actions after the crime cast all kinds of doubt on Burke knowing anything at all.

First off JR let Burke go to the White's house that morning. Kids are notoriously bad at keeping secrets, and JR, being such a control freak, would have wanted Burke right where he could keep an eye on him. But he let him go with Prescilla where he could chirp like a bird. JR also let Burke go back to school days after the crime. JR could have home-schooled him, or gotten him tutors, where he'd have been less apt to spill the beans. Also on the 911 tape, Burke is clearly wanting to know what the hell was going on, so this is another clue that he was in the dark as to what really was happening there. So anyhow, to suspect Burke you have to have more than just the fact he was in the house, you have to have some direct evidence connecting him to the murder or staging and frankly, there ain't any.

Burke and Patsy were in a grocery store in Atlanta months after the murder, and Burke saw a tabloid with his face on the cover, and the story implied he was the killer. Burke fell to the floor crying, and Patsy had to literally drag him to his feet and get out of that store, humiliated. I don't know the details of what happened after that, but there is no question in my mind that those stories were what got the Ramseys on the offensive.

In the first few years of the case I spoke fairly regularly to several people "close to the case." I would never ask about evidence because that would compromise their jobs (and after one experience with my big mouth, I learned fast to zip it up) but if something came out in the press that was just flat out wrong or a lie, trust me, they'd let me know. The cops were disgusted with the Burke stories. Yes the fact that he was in the home makes it impossible to exclude him from discussion, but the fact remained that NOBODY felt he was involved because they had no evidence whatsoever to suggest he was.

Now the cops have been painted as a drooling lynch mob but the couple of people I kinda got to know were quite compassionate about Burke. They were heartbroken that Burke was getting dragged through this mess. The official "clearing" of Burke was an act of compassion for a child who had suffered enough. Does Burke know what really happened that night? Who knows! But he has inheritted his father's closed-mouthedness (is that a word? LOL) and we may never know. I personally feel that if he knew everything he would have told some pals and the word would have spread from there but so far no such rumor has surfaced.

One frustrating thing about Lee's book is even by the end, he is as clueless as anyone else as to what really happened that night.

 

By the way, Candy is right that Sargeant Mason comes off as a true professional in this book--one who got the shaft, unfairly. He was offered his job back. In fact of everybody at the BPD, Mason and Beckner come off very well. So does Steve Thomas. Linda Arndt is a wild card, because Lee clearly implies that it's very possible that she followed Eller's orders and took the rap when they were wrong. Who knows? Who cares at this point. How sad that all these peoples' careers were ruined. Lee is also very clear that the cops were sometimes a bit naive about the law, sometimes breaking it, like the time they broke into the Ramseys house to find themselves being filmed by the security cams. Taking those cams, says Lee, was an "illegal act."

I have to say Henry Lee's writing is at times as bad as his verbal skills. There were some paragraphs or statements that I had to re-read several times and I still am not clear on what he was trying to say. For instance, he talked about FW's rage over the DA's actions, and talks about how FW refused to cooperate after a certain point. Lee says that FW could have been arrested for perjury "or worse." I am still not clear as to why he said that. However, early on, FW was incredibly helpful. What a shame. Every person connected to this case has suffered horribly.

 

I believe that Fleet had "had it" with any more cooperation when he learned that he, A KEY WITNESS was being denied documents, etc. that the Ramseys, THE PRIME SUSPECTS were NOT being denied.

He and his wife, WITNESSES, were being targeted by the PRIME SUSPECTS in this murder and were being interviewed and tested endlessly, while the Ramseys were refusing to be interviewed.

Who can blame him for his letters, outbursts, and subsequent contempt of court conviction?

I certainly don't. I too, am the type of person, like Fleet who would cut my nose to spite my face based on principal.

I feel really sorry for the White family. Not only to be abused in the investigation by the investigators, but to be twice blessed by being abused and libeled by the ordinary citizens on internet forums.

We have ad nauseum heard about Burke's feelings. Some on the forums conveniently forget that the Whites have TWO children who have to read this trash about their parents.

Damn the Ramseys! Damn Candy! May what they have done return to them twofold

Maybe someday the Whites will be vindicated.

They are the ONLY ones in this case with any integrity.

 

Barbara--vindicated from what?Yeah FW is a hothead, often with good reason, but this book shows how a lot of things got misinterpretted and with all the warring factions, tempers flared all over the place. FW should have gotten a lawyer early on--why he never did that is beyond me. Now it's way too late--not that it matters anymore since this case is dead in the water. The sad fact is that the Ramseys, from the get-go, were very smart and conniving. Ramsey hired the best lawyers in the business and that, as much as police mistakes, nailed up the case coffin. I wish people would stop trying to paint this one or that one a hero or the devil--all these people are just ordinary people who got dragged into an extraordinary situation. They all made mistakes--who doesn't

 

Candy's gone into meltdown mode again....posting a dozen and a half posts in a matter of hours, dragging up old news articles and such and somehow all the posts are to prove 'something' against Fleet.

Still not getting her point....don't care. Only Groo seems to understand what the fluck Candy is talking about. Did Imon get banned?

 

Wait wait wait--I never said FW was treated as a suspect. Henry Lee never said that either. What he did say is that FW turned uncooperative and for reasons Lee is not clear on, FW could have been charged with perjury. But throughout the chapter overall, FW is presented as helpful and cooperative--and a dman good friend to the back-stabbing Ramseys until that fateful argument in Atlanta

 

I can imagine I would have become just as uncooperative as FW supposedly had if I'd of been treated to the crap they were, while the last people to be with JB before she was murdered were given red carpet attention.

 

Wasn't is supposedly Bynum that advised John to get a lawyer that morning?

 

Well IMO, in 20/20 hindsight, I think Hunter could have been better at communicating to FW why the Rams got their transcripts and he didn't. I'm still not clear on why this occured (the R's getting theirs), and the one fault I can see about Lee's book (which is overall very fair to all parties) is that he could have been a little more forthcoming about Hunter's negative public remarks on the police dept, his support of Krebs, ect. He did talk about Wise's remarks, but not Hunter's. On the other hand, Lee doesn't really get too far into the emotional sides of things, he usually just sticks to his observations about procedure, Ramsey behaviour, and that kinda thang.

By the way, Lee was there for ST's presentation and he said that some of what ST talked about was VERY compelling, but that the evidence fell way short of a conviction. In fact it seemed like most of the parties involved believed that they had probable cause to indict the Ramseys, but not to convict. This is one hell of a blow to the "we have been cleared of all wrong-doing by a federal judge" garbage being peddled by the Ramseys. Lee also said some of what ST spresented was "frivolous" like the date on the tombstone. I completely agree. I always thought the date on the tombstone was a whole lotta nothing.

Another thing that both Lee and the FBI agreed 100% on was that given the complexity of the layout of the house, the chances of an intruder finding all the stuff used in the staging in that maze of a house was about zilch. When you combine this with the "fabricated" ransom note, and the fact that intruders don't stage crime-scenes in other people's homes, you can only conclude that there was no intruder.

 

yes it was, Driver. One thing about this book, as I said before, is that Lee quotes heavily from PMPT and it's never made clear how much of this stuff was Lee's personal observation as opposed to stuff he got from other published sources.

 

A fingerprint of Burke's and Patsy's was found on the pineapple bowl, Bob. Pineapple was found in JonBenBenét's digestive tract I would say you could link these together.

 

Thanks for your answer, BobC.

I have doubts. Kids grow on up and go to their graves with some secrets.

 

What's interesting too is Lee plays little significance to the DNA-- he said the DNA under her nails was weak and contaminated.

I don't quite understand where is going with one of his last paragraphs:

"Most recently an attorney for John and Patsy Ramsey has come forward to criticize the lack of investigation on the source for the second DNA traces found in the underpants worn by JonBenet. This was, according to this attorney, an example of the tunnel vision that investigators applied int his case. The underpants worn by JonBent were an adult size 7. Where this underwear came from is still a mystery. Bolder detectives were able to find that this type of underwear were sold only in Bloomingdales and manufactured in Asia."

Bob is right, it is difficult to understnad. Like how he speaks.I am not knocking him, I certainly would never be able to get my PHD in a Chinese university, but the ghostwriter could have done a better job. It is not an easy read like the Thomas book.

 

I was just going to say that Sabrina--you're right. The DNA is barely mentioned. The Ramseys have made that a huge issue but nobody else has. Henry wanted to know if JBR ever swapped clothes with any of her friends--so that tells you how easy it is to transfer DNA fragments