Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [122]
When Detective Harmer had searched the Ramseys’ Charlevoix home in January, she had noticed several handwritten items. Now, with Ubowski’s report in hand, the court granted a second search warrant. On March 5 Harmer left for Michigan. It took her only an hour and fifteen minutes to collect thirteen recipe cards, an address book, two small legal pads, three notes from a kitchen corkboard, and a photo album with printing. The next day she returned to Boulder and placed the “historical” writings into evidence.
At the time, the entire contents of the ransom note had not been released to the media and the public. The police were investigating all possible influences on whoever had written it. They found, for example, that the note contained several phrases similar to snippets of dialogue in recent movies. On November 29, a month before JonBenét’s death, the movie Dirty Harry had aired on TBS in Boulder. In the movie, a kidnapper tells Clint Eastwood, “If you talk to anyone, I don’t care if it’s a Pekingese pissing against a lamppost, the girl dies.” JonBenét’s ransom note threatened, “If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies.” In Dirty Harry the kidnapper says, “It sounds like you had a good rest. You’ll need it.” JonBenét’s ransom note said, “The delivery will be exhausting so I advise you to be rested.”
In the movie Speed, a terrorist played by Dennis Hopper says, “You know that I’m on top of you. Do not attempt to grow a brain.” The ransom note contained the following: “You and your family are under constant scrutiny as well as the authorities. Don’t try to grow a brain John.”
On the night JonBenét was murdered, the movie Nick of Time aired at 7:30 P.M. on a Boulder cable channel. The story centers on an unnamed political faction that kidnaps a six-year-old girl. The victim is told, “Listen to me very carefully.” Bill Cox, who was staying with Fleet and Priscilla White, told the police he remembered watching the movie that night. The ransom note begins, “Listen carefully!”
The ransom note would become public only in September 1997. Karen Howard, an employee of Access Graphics, said that she was struck by the words “you are not the only fat cat around.” Howard remembered that Patsy’s father, Don Paugh, used the word cats all the time; for example, “Those cats down in marketing.”
Once the CBI’s handwriting analysts no longer needed the ransom note, the lab turned its attention to lifting fingerprints from the paper. Technicians would have to immerse the pages in various chemical solutions, which would react with the amino acids, fats, and waxes that are transmitted to objects by human hands. The pages would then be dried so that the chemicals could react with and expose any latent fingerprints or palm prints. The CBI told the police and Pete Hofstrom that the process would make the paper fibers swell, forever altering the relationship between the ink and the paper surface. As a result, further examination and analysis of the indentations in the paper, a critical component in handwriting analysis, might become impossible. The ink might run. Some of the tests might even cause the document to turn black.
Hofstrom knew that if the Ramseys were eventually charged in the murder, they would want their own handwriting experts to testify, and any reputable analyst would have to examine the original note to make an assessment. Hofstrom felt the Ramseys should have the same chance to review the documents that the police had.
He told Patrick Burke about the situation, and in a letter the lawyer registered a formal objection to destructive testing of the ransom note. Burke presented Hofstrom with a set of conditions to be met before he would allow the CBI to test the note for the police. He wanted access to the ransom note for the Ramseys’ own handwriting experts. In addition, he wanted a first-generation copy of the note and 4 x 5 inch negatives of each page. Later the Ramseys’ attorneys