Sample...Chapter One...Doc Miller's Book...".Prostitution of Justice".
From Chapter One, Can you see my hand?
CHAPTER 1: Can You See My Hand?
Quite clearly, she had reasons for what she had done and therefore could convince herself that she had done nothing wrong. That was why she passed the polygraph.
John Douglas, Mindhunter
On Christmas Night, 1996, six-year-old beauty princess, JonBenet Ramsey, was killed in the home of her parents in Boulder, Colorado. This is the story how and why the law failed, and continues to fail to address the facts and manner of her death.
The law in the United States, its Constitution of personal freedoms and protections, and the lawyers who administer it, all must take some responsibility for failed justice in the death of JonBenet Ramsey. In fact, this ancient legal system, clunks like an oxcart on an interstate highway, one justice for the rich one justice for the poor. The system oozes a polluted mix of media, money, greed and political power when it merely pretends to address justice.
Had the law performed as envisioned a hundred years ago, even fifty years ago, John and Patsy Ramsey would have been tried for their apparent complicity in the death of JonBenet. Instead, their public relations maneuvers, their books and interviews, their lawsuits, and especially their lawyers, have squeezed pus from the blind eyes of justice.
As citizens, sane persons are asked to imagine the horror of JonBenets last moments over and over, thanks to the constant replay on tabloid television and in tabloid headlines. We look to our own consciences, our own obligations to our children, and cannot believe that John and Patsy, devout Christians and respected members of the community, could have been involved in such a crime. We saw Patsy raise her finger on national television and warn parents in Boulder, to Hold your babies close. Theres a killer out there. Her voice cracks and our hearts break as John methodically recounts how they were a normal family. Yet, we have seen photographs and videos of JonBenet, six years old, wearing glamour make-up, scantily clad as a Las Vegas showgirl. We must ignore these images in order to accept Johns freak show concept of normal.
The years go by. What was floated as a bizarre intruder theory begins to spark more attention than the actual evidence. The evidence includes the longest ransom note in history, written and found at the scene of the crime by the mother of the dead little girl. The Ramseys move to Atlanta, Georgia, recalling their beautiful daughter lovingly and pocketing a $600,000 advance on their book, The Death of Innocence. They then move to Charlevoix, Michigan, and John makes a failed run for the Michigan state legislature on an Im innocent platform. They granted interviews every now and then, be it on Larry King or in the National Enquirer, or in church on Sunday. Their story changes as JonBenets brother, Burke, grows older Oh Yeah! Thats right. Burke was awake at the time of Patsys phone call to 911 on the morning of December 26, 1996. His is the voice on the tape saying, Whats happening? What do you want me to do?
The cameras roll with Patsy crying, or preparing to cry, on the late night news. Years after the murder, we hear that John Ramsey was locked in a bathroom of his new mansion in Atlanta by a mysterious intruder posing as a workman. This makes the national headlines. Good press, bad press, any press, Patsy Ramsey often said. Yes, any press. John Ramsey seems prone to intrusion, and Patsy Ramsey seemed as though she invited it.
Hal Haddon, the genius of the Ramseys criminal defense team at Haddon, Morgan & Foreman, sequestered in his law office mansion in Denvers Capitol Hill neighborhood, moved on to a fabulously wealthy NBA star, Kobe Bryant, and his firm won a dismissal of rape charges. Bryants victim was hounded to silence by the press coverage. The rest of the phalanx of the Ramseys criminal defense lawyers have moved on as well, to new cases, less notorious cases, profitable cases that attract less scrutiny from the press. The press has moved on. It broke camp the day Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter announced that the grand jury investigating the death of JonBenet Ramsey would not file charges. It would not issue a report. It would not release the original of the ransom note. And, according to Colorado law, the grand jurors would be silenced (on pain of contempt of court and/or felony charges) should they divulge any of the testimony or evidence they heard. With nothing left to report, the JonBenet Ramsey judicial inquiry, as well as the body of the child herself, would be abandoned! Next victim, please.
Tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, another little girl will by murdered by her mommy or daddy, brother, uncle, aunt, step-parent or guardian, maybe for bedwetting or crying too long, maybe for sexual pleasure or revenge because a new boyfriend doesnt like small-voiced backtalk, maybe for convenience, maybe by accident. Her adult caretakers will be taken into custody, questioned separately, and lacking a reputation as credible millionaires, or any evidence pointing toward other suspects, one or both of them will be charged with murder. Their public defender will seek a plea bargain that spares their lives. The local DA will ask for the death sentence if he has strong enough evidence. The newspapers that tell lurid stories of kinky sex, child abuse and violence against murdered children will be used to light fireplaces, wrap fish or perhaps the glassware and dishes for a family moving to another Boulder. Their stories die, but, the JonBenet story doesnt die.
The next little girls name will not become a household word synonymous with mystery, not if her parents are poor. The elements that keep JonBenets story and name alive, unlike that of most child victims, are those of mystery, incomprehensible evil, fairy tale and gothic titillation. Sadly, these elements deeply affecting the human psyche inevitably attract humor. When Saturday Night Live created a skit diffusing the horror of the story with its obviously ridiculous aspects including the behavior of police and parents, lawyers and media, John and Patsy threatened to sue. With their money adding to the appeal of the story is the bizarre role of the legal system, now used to silence critics and leave the American people increasingly to distrust and scorn their hope for equal justice. The legal system will grind on, freeing the rich and the guilty, sometimes the rich and the innocent; but very reluctantly the poor, regardless of guilt or innocence. Lawyers earn few fees from working stiffs and the poor.
The media will continue making special stories starring Lizzy Borden, the Lindberghs kidnapping, Patty Hurst, O.J. Simpson, Princess Diana , Michael Jackson and Ramsey news or history specials. The beauty princess murder is not quite so gory as that of Lizzy Bordens parents, not so glamorous as the Lindbergh kidnapping, lacking a trial, but like those other trials and crimes of the century, hers is filled with curiosity, sexual innuendo and taboo.
Contrary to what Patsy Ramsey said and to some portrayals in the press, the little beauty princess didnt enjoy the child beauty pageants in which her mother entered her. JonBenet didnt lust for the competition, nor crave the endless lessons and practice. There were signs that she was growing increasingly apprehensive of her mothers incessant pressure to compete. Her childhood friend, Lindsey Phillips, while visiting JonBenet, couldnt help but notice the pageant trophies in JonBenets bedroom. They're not really mine, JonBenet confided in Lindsey. They're more my Moms trophies.
Patsy Ramsey had dyed JonBenets hair from a light brunette to blonde during their last summer in Charlevoix, Michigan, in 1996. Judith Phillips, Patsys former friend, immediately noticed the little girls blonde hair when the family returned to their 15th Street mansion in Boulder. She asked Patsy why she had dyed JonBenets hair.
It was the hot summer sun in Charlevoix," Patsy claimed.
As a professional photographer who had photographed Patsy, JonBenet and Burke over the years, who had worked with numerous models sporting both natural and artificially colored coifs, Patsys lie seemed disingenuous. Judith attributed this to Patsys upbringing in the South where belles are born blonde, naturally, where cosmetics belie innocence and closets are built to hold family secrets.
Normal maternal expressions of love don't revolve around a five-year-old bleached blonde in satin hot pants. Patsy lied to Judith about JonBenets hair because she must have felt there was something socially unacceptable about the applications of artificial beauty inside their home to a supposedly perfect child. Her lie suggests a kind of embarrassment on her part for wanting to make her child more beautiful, more competitive, more fetching for the eyes of judges.
It was, in fact, Patsys talent for small and large deceptions, and the willingness of the Ramseys lawyers, and lawyers in general, to use larger and more consequential deceptions, that led in part to the failure of the investigation in the death of JonBenet. When the arts of deception are privileged, as they are in the case of wealthy citizens in America, all other Americans become potential victims. The self-deceptions of the prosecutor who says, I don't make up the rules, cops muted under the code of the blue brotherhood and the kind of finger pointing by plea bargains, all cheat the system. Journalists and bureaucrats listen, and bring all the tenderness of tarantulas to each new celebrity case. Defense lawyers, so conspicuously typical in the case of JonBenet, adopt the deceptions of their clients and drive the American jurisprudence system into one that allows the wealthy to ignore the law as prosecuting lawyers incarcerate more poor and uneducated suspects in the United States of America than any other nation ....
