I was 4 when JonBenet was murdered. I have very foggy memories of the case in the media from when I was in elementary school; late 90s/early 00s. It wasn't until 2005 though when I really found out about the case. However, JonBenet's murder never scared me; it was actually the cases like Samantha Runnion, Danielle Van Dam, Carlie Brucia that terrified me. I think that a lot of people could name at least one case from their childhood that scared them, or they at least remember.
People from your generation could, I'm sure.
From 50 or more years ago...things like this never made it into the news, not in details like we have seen in the last 20 years, even 10 years.
Before the Internet, before cable TV, before tabloids, there were three major network news channels--and that was all there was. News reports aired live at 6-7 PM, and again from 11 to 11:30 PM. That was the national and international news we got. I don't even remember local news on TV when I was a child, just a small, local newspaper.
It was a different time. Remember John F. Kennedy carried on many affairs, complete with hookers in the White House pool, and not one word was reported or printed about it by any reporter or media until decades later, even though he was dead. Any kind of scandal or murder that made the news was treated with extreme dignity; covering up a murder in a family of privilege like the Ramseys would have been no problem at all in those days. We children might have heard snatches of whispers about neighbors or crimes or such, but we were protected from any kind of exposure to things considered too mature and/or frightening for our young minds.
I often have wondered if the Ramseys expected that same ease, as they were from my generation or older.
It was very different than the world you have grown up in, Eileen. That's why I can't relate to what you young people have experienced. Technology has given us very different frames of reference. While your generation grew up with sex education in a world where child predators are not only prosecuted but have their deeds and faces blasted into our collective consciousness, my generation grew up in a world where the word "sex" wasn't even mentioned in front of children, or teens and adults, for that matter.
I've looked back through the years to realize I had two child molesters living within four houses of mine, on either side, when I was growing up. Not only did their families protect them, one continued to molest children in his own family until his very old age.
I hope your knowledge and education has empowered you.