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Hollywood hot for cold cases
A buried tragedy re-lives again.
1996. Christmas night. JonBenét Ramsey. Little girl. Unsolved murder. Colorado. Similar to the Nancy Guthrie not yet solved case.
For months this story ran. I was on it daily. The tragedy never solved. Now — for reasons unknown — it’s becoming a TV series. Networks needing properties will probably next scratch up Hiawatha’s dental records.
Meanwhile, I resurrected my dusty notes on the JonBenét horror.
Babysitter like any other kid. Ironclad alibis everywhere. My story’s March 6, 1997, headline: “For Jon Benet, police need to get hot under the collar.”
The story: “Unthinkable, impossible that this horror is two months old. And not racing to a solution, not even creeping toward one.
“Boulder, Colo., is a little town. Maybe 11 humans. I have more people in my bed at home. Weeks ago cops leaked word that they were poised to make a collar. Then they pulled back. Then their head fuzzball blinked straight into a camera lens and burbled the equivalent of ‘Hey, man, we know whodunnit — so come out, come out, whoever you are.’ ”
I then again reported total radio silence and reported, is this insanity? Right or wrong, cops believed they knew who did this, but no arrests? No charges, no indictments, no orders, no handcuffs, no lineups? Only polite requests for folks to please — if it wouldn’t inconvenience them too much — stop by for a chat? And would the mom and dad, whose kid was assaulted and tortured and butchered mind very much stepping into headquarters so’s they all might have a word together? Back came word. Yeah, they’d mind. So then what?
Hear of anything like this before? This land of the free, home of the brave, got some legal system or what? But a suspected butcher/pervert/pedophile murderer walks Boulder unbothered, unannoyed, unannounced, unhounded by cops who suspect them.
This is two months past her death. Trails get cold. Clues do not grow hotter. I wrote: “STOP with those local yokels who shudder at money and power. Bring in some gritty New York cops — the kind who’d happily arrest their mothers or presidents.”
Daily I reported updates. Weekly came police hints. Monthly? Repeats. Hourly produced clues. But cops never heated up. Psychological portraits were produced. Suspects pulled in. The DA released an autopsy report. Colorado’s Bureau of Investigation investigated.
Today I add: Watch. Like with Savannah Guthrie’s mother — hard to find a killer in a small town where everyone knows everyone.
I repeat: Police need to get hot under the collar . . . Do their job. Stop with the local yokels who shake with nerves at those with power.
Just a few notes
Former US attorney and now US Army Judge Advocate General, National Guard Maj. Gen. Bobby Christine: “We’re slowly eroding the rule of law until it just doesn’t exist and everyone’s comfortable with it.”
Note: So many highly placed individuals have been brought down that a restaurant chef is thinking of writing a new cookbook: “101 Ways To Prepare Bread and Water.”
And one deep thought for those who might have a deep thought and, thus, should bear this in mind: If a cop is alone in the forest and makes a statement without his precinct captain being there — is he still wrong?