Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [178]
Meanwhile, Bardach kept in touch with Suzanne Laurion. “The Ramseys are in a full-court campaign; they’re doing a spin on Alex too,” the journalist told Hunter’s press rep. The DA should know about it, she added. Another time, she asked Laurion, “What is wrong with this town? In any other city, the Ramseys would have been behind bars long ago.” Bill Wise was concerned because he had heard that Bardach was looking for dirt on Hunter and his staff.
At the end of June, Bardach asked for another interview with Hunter. She told Laurion she had conducted over a hundred interviews. She said there was some “serious stuff” being leveled against Hofstrom and Hunter and that most of it was coming from Hunter’s usual allies. Hunter said that any such accusations were ludicrous; he had full confidence in the way his staff was handling the case. Laurion tried to get Bardach to submit her follow-up questions in writing, since the DA refused another interview.
Laurion became concerned that Hunter and his staff didn’t understand the distinction between “on the record” and “off the record.” She could see disaster looming on the horizon with Vanity Fair, and hoping to avoid further catastrophes, she sent a memo to Hunter, Wise, and Phil Miller. She warned them that not all journalists play by the rules, that not all journalists clarify the rules of an interview in advance—because that sort of talk makes sources nervous—and that some journalists are also careless about protecting their sources, even in off-the-record situations. “When they use what source #1 says to get the information from source #2,” Laurion noted in her memo, “they ‘inadvertently’ reveal the identity of source #1 to source #2.” The bottom line, she said, was that the DA’s name might not show up in print or on TV, but it almost certainly would show up on the notepad of some source #2. Her memo continued:
When I was a reporter, I rarely went off the record because most of my sources loved to talk and they would eventually blab stuff to me anyway…ON THE RECORD.
Now that I’m working this case, I never go off the record. No way! As author/journalist Jay Crouse says, “Off the record conferences are subterfuges which stifle the voice of the press and deprive the people of their right to know.”
The warning was tactful but plain. Laurion also sent Hunter and his staff the published definitions of on the record, off the record, not for attribution, background, and deep background.
The same day Hunter met with Bardach, June 2, Frank Coffman, a local writer and new friend of Jeff Shapiro’s, dropped by the DA’s office to leave a note for Lou Smit. Coffman was surprised when Smit came out to the reception area and suggested they have a chat. Over coffee at the Canyon Café in the Justice Center, Coffman told Smit he’d heard a rumor that the acronym SBTC, which had been mentioned in the ransom note, might stand for “saved by the cross.”
The detective said he had to admit that there were “lots of wild things in this case.” He asked if Coffman knew what movies had been playing in Boulder right before JonBenét was murdered.
Ransom was one, Coffman said.
“Well, what do you think that means?” Smit asked.
“Could JonBenét’s death have been premeditated?”
“You’re the one who used the word premeditated,” Smit answered—as if confirming that he too thought the murder had been planned.
“This guy’s going to be caught,” Smit added.
That was odd, Coffman thought. The police didn’t have to catch John or Patsy Ramsey—all they had to do was arrest or indict them. Coffman surmised that Smit was exploring an intruder theory.
“I’ve studied the whole thing, I’ve read everything,” Smit said in a matter-of-fact—and somewhat superior—way. “Other people have a piece of the picture. I have all the information right up here,” he said, pointing to his head.
Some weeks later,