I have the book The Murder Room in front of me. Nowhere in the table of contents do I read about JBR. I have read the book as well, and don't recall the case being discussed. Of course, if they had taken the case, I have to think it would be in the book which is copyrighted 2010. Also, if they were asked, there is no conceivable reason that I can think of for them not taking the case. The case is discussed in two of John Douglas' books (Law and Disorder and The Cases That Haunt Us) and in Bill James' book Popular Crime....
So, if TVS was asked, why would they turn it down? I believe the case meets the three criteria for them to take the case. Also, if TVS was not asked to take it, then why the hell not? My two messages on the tip line mention TVS specifically and I threw in the term "pro bono" to boot. They can't even call me back for a one minute conversation about whether or not they had contacted TVS? No wonder the case is unsolved.
Bill James, in his book, Popular Crime, Reflections on the Celebration of Violence, on page 388, writes about the JBR case: "...what I believe to be the most unusual crime scene in American history." One must think the members of TVS would be foaming at the mouth to get involved; however, one of the criteria is that TVS must be asked to get involved. They do not go out and volunteer their superlative services. That is why I started this thread, to get to the bottom of this question.
If you have info about the TVS and this case, please source it. I am completely fed up with the BPD.
Thx,
AGettler
When I first heard about The Vidocq Society (TVS), I too had hopes that they might get involved in the Ramsey case. But alas, if you read the criteria that they have publicly stated, you can see why this will never happen. From the TVS website (
http://www.vidocq.org/case-acceptance/) (emphasis mine):
The mission of the Vidocq Society is to act as a catalyst and provide pro bono assistance to law enforcement agencies to aid them in solving cold case homicides.
Not all cases submitted to the Vidocq Society are accepted for consideration. Cases may come to the Societys attention through a request from a family member of the deceased or an inquiry directly from the law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction.
Our sole purpose is to provide guidance to law enforcement agencies to assist them in solving these homicides. Opinions given by our members are personal and offered in the spirit of cooperation and assistance, based only upon the facts presented, and should not be considered formal or legally binding opinions of the Society.
When a case is accepted for presentation by the Society it is done so only with the active cooperation of the department involved. Our goal is to provide assistance when requested. We do not conduct independent investigations, nor do we seek public recognition for our work. If the department seeks publicity we will assist by allowing the press entry to the presentation. However, the investigation remains 100% under the control of the investigating agency.
Some specific criteria are:
[*=1]The victim must not have been engaged in criminal activity that caused his/her death.
[*=1] The department with investigative jurisdiction must invite the Society to assist their effort.
[*=1]The case should, at minimum, have the following:
a. A body
b. A known crime scene
c. Physical evidence
The only family members who could ask TVS for involvement would be John Ramsey or Burke Ramsey -- and it should be obvious that thats not going to happen. Even if a family member requests their assistance, they will not take the case unless they have the full cooperation of the department with investigative jurisdiction (BPD) -- and neither is
that going to happen. So unfortunately, TVS (as helpful as they might be in clarifying what happened) will not be getting involved in investigating this.
The best that might be hoped for is to get Richard Walter to spill the beans on what he thinks personally based on his personal knowledge of the crime. As
AK has pointed out, Walter has said that he
knows who killed JonBenet, but he wont tell anybody. Think about that: If he
knows who killed JonBenet, why would he not say who it is and how he determined it? Could it be that he knows the name of some intruder that the police have dismissed as a suspect? Or has he surmised from what is known publicly which of the three persons present in the house that night is most likely the one responsible? And what is Walters specialty that would give him any type of insight into this? Richard Walter is a forensic psychologist who helped develop the field of criminal profiling.
I would submit that Walter has looked at the behaviors of those involved and the circumstances that are known about the crime, and he has concluded by logic who he thinks caused her death.
Here are a few links you might find interesting:
Article about TVS and the book by Michael Capuzzo about them (
The Murder Room):
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129032377
An article written by Capuzzo about TVS and his book where he states Walters claim about knowing JonBenets killer:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a8211/vidocq-society-members-081010/
Each of the three founding members of TVS is fascinating -- even if somewhat quirky. Frank Bender (
RIP) was a self-described sex-addict (he claimed to have slept with hundreds of women with the full consent of his wife). Here is a book about him and his attempt at identifying some of the feminicidio de Juarez -- the hundreds of decomposing bodies of young women found near the Texas/Mexico border:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Girl-Crooked-Nose-Botha-ebook/dp/B005ERIRRM
Several years ago Mansfield University did a series of interviews with different people. (Since we can only link one video per post at WS, I'll link the first and then the others you'll have to copy and paste the video number in the URL.) Here are two interviews with Richard Walter:
[video=youtube;nHsMWKChaTw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHsMWKChaTw[/video]
...and:
/watch?v=Gp1l34qNGtg
And here are two interviews with Michael Capuzzo:
/watch?v=Gp1l34qNGtg
/watch?v=IPJKRB34yoc
(I know this is all more information than you asked for,
AGettler, but I just thought Id follow up with the information I had found when I was looking into TVS a few years ago myself.)