Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [119]
Frost was in his jogging outfit. I wore my Washington uniform—suit and tie. He’s sweating and I’m sweating. Nevertheless, Frost reminds me of Pierce Brosnan. In his own way, he’s James Bond.
—Jeff Shapiro
Jeff Shapiro had told his uncle, Richard Sachs, that he wanted to be a reporter. When Sachs arranged for Jeff to meet Tony Frost, Shapiro rolled his eyes. He didn’t think much of the Globe. He thought its publication of the Ramsey autopsy photos was unethical—sickening, in fact. A few days later, however, Shapiro, twenty-three, a graduate of Florida State University, was on the Globe’s payroll and on his way to Boulder as an undercover investigator. His job was to infiltrate the Ramsey family by getting close to John Andrew, then a student at the University of Colorado.
On March 2, 1997, Shapiro arrived in Boulder with $2,000. His contact was Craig Lewis, a Globe writer who was already in town. Lewis, a laid-back guy who wore black jeans, black leather jackets, and sunglasses, found Shapiro a rental car and gave him some pointers about Boulder. Then Shapiro was on his own.
When Shapiro first drove by the Ramseys’ house, he was surprised to see how close it was to the student hangouts on University Hill. Then he discovered that John Andrew’s fraternity house, Chi Psi, was at 1080 14th Street, just five blocks from his father’s home. Shapiro realized that he’d never read that simple fact in any of the press stories. By midday he’d found a room at a youth hostel for $27 a day: no bathroom, white tile floor, a little narrow bed, and a night table. Not very elaborately appointed, but it had a perfect view of John Andrew’s fraternity house. Settling in, he developed a routine. Every evening he visited every bar on the Hill looking for Ramsey’s son. His cover was that he had graduated with a political science degree, couldn’t find a job, and had decided to go to law school at CU.
Soon he learned that John Andrew was no longer living at the fraternity house, so he moved out of the hostel and into a place at the University Court Apartments that he shared with a couple of students. He liked the small-town campus atmosphere—it was like being in school again. Still, he wasn’t making much progress in finding Ramsey’s son. Then one day, leafing through John Andrew’s high school yearbook, he came across the name Allison Russ. On a hunch, he looked her up and discovered her phone number in the CU directory.
On the phone Shapiro introduced himself to Russ as Matthew Hayworth, a law student at CU, and said he was interested in the Ramsey case. She was reserved and laughed a little nervously when Shapiro told her that he wanted to help because he thought the Ramseys were probably innocent. “You saw what the LAPD did to O. J. Simpson,” he told her, implying that the Boulder cops might be setting the Ramseys up. Russ soon became a little more chatty. Shapiro gambled. He told her he’d heard from a friend that lubricant had been found on JonBenét’s body, in the vaginal area, and that it was complicating the DNA testing process. He asked Russ to take this information to John Andrew, who could then pass it on to his father’s investigators. Allison said she would.
Shapiro still had many places to visit in Boulder. Next on his list was Pasta Jay’s. There, he applied for a job—again as Matt Hayworth. He was filling out his application when a college student wearing an Atlanta baseball cap walked in.
“Hi, I’m John Ramsey,” the student said to the manager.
Shapiro was in luck. His prey was standing not 10 feet away asking to fill out a job application. Then John Andrew caught him staring.
“I’m sorry,” Shapiro said. “You just look like someone.”
“Who do you think I look like?”
“Are you John Ramsey’s son?”
“That’s right,” John Andrew said, then asked if Shapiro was a journalist.
Shapiro said he wasn’t and added, “I think the police are doing to your dad the same thing the LAPD did to OJ. The police can play a lot of games with you. But I’m sure you’ve already found that out.”
“I know,” John Andrew replied.
Shapiro