Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [121]
Almost everyone has written stories about me—the Denver papers, the tabloids, and even CNN. I’ve been on lots of TV shows. It’s too late. There’s nothing I can do about it. Lots of people think that I killed JonBenét, that Santa killed an angel.
Back in ’72, my wife and I led a publicity campaign for George McGovern, which was run by Common Cause. That’s when I met Paul Danish and Ruth Correll. They were among the group that started to clean up the city. Boulder became a place where you could have an aesthetic experience. But maybe it’s been overdone.
Recently the Boulder Dinner Theater was performing Grand Hotel. Now the city has an ordinance against smoking in public places. They threatened to close down the play because there were one or two smoking scenes. Sometimes I think Boulder is overregulated. Everything is protected. Overprotected. Boulder has become just too precious.
I have a Ph.D. in American Studies and a master’s in journalism. In the ’70s, I was teaching journalism at CU. Chuck Green, The Denver Post columnist, was in my first class. I didn’t especially like the academic world; it’s too isolated and remote. When I retired in ’92, Marilyn Haus, who’s in charge of downtown Boulder, hired me as a strolling Santa on the mall. I’d go into restaurants and different shops, like the New York Deli, where Mork and Mindy was filmed—an alien from outer space coming to live in this community.
One day in 1993 I was doing my “Ho, ho, ho” in the deli, and this lady with two children jumped up and asked if I would be their Santa. That’s how I met Patsy Ramsey. I did the family’s Christmas parties in ’94, ’95, and ’96. JonBenét always made sure that I gave Burke lots of attention, then she would take my hand and escort me around to meet everyone at the party. After it was over, she always wrote me a thank-you letter.
In August of 1996 I had heart surgery and had to retire from being a strolling Santa. Patsy’s 1996 Christmas party was on December 23. The family had just returned from shopping in New York City. JonBenét told me they’d seen Cats, Les Misérables, and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show.
That same year, Charles Kuralt chose me as a Santa for his TV show. The crew followed me from one party to another for three days. By December 23, they’d had enough, so they skipped the Ramsey party.
Patsy was disappointed they weren’t coming. As always, she wrote little notes about each child on this lengthy scroll. That evening, I told these stories as I passed out presents. JonBenét gave me a vial of stardust for my beard. Patsy presented me with a beautiful scarf and said, “You’re a member of the family.” I was a member of their club, and I wasn’t a wealthy person.
Looking back, I always thought that if anybody wanted to do major damage to this family, they could do it at Christmas, because they all adored Christmas.
—Bill McReynolds
Meanwhile, the CBI informed the Boulder police that some other handwriting discovered on the pad used for the ransom note was apparently written with the same felt-tipped pen used for the note. This handwriting, found on pages immediately preceding the place where the ransom note pages had been torn out, consisted of the phrase Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey and later became known as the “practice note.”
The CBI’s Chet Ubowski reported to the Boulder PD that there were “indications” that John Ramsey didn’t write the note. Other “indications” pointed to Patsy Ramsey as the author. The evaluations were based on the handwriting samples that the Ramseys had provided thus far.
The police had voluntary samples from Patsy and prior “historical” samples, which they had collected from JonBenét’s physician and from a notebook found in the Ramseys’ Boulder home. Ubowski concluded that “there is evidence which indicates the ransom note may have been written by Patricia Ramsey.” To be more certain, however, Ubowski needed more samples