Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [180]
BOULDER PROSECUTOR OUT OF LOOP
Police detectives investigating the murder of JonBenét Ramsey refuse to share the results of DNA analysis with the district attorney’s office…. Test results from Cellmark Diagnostics Laboratory, received by Boulder detectives May 13, remain a secret to Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter and his staff.
The relationship between the two offices has been stormy at several points in the Ramsey case.
—Charlie Brennan and Kevin McCullen
Rocky Mountain News, June 7, 1997
After the Rocky Mountain News published “Boulder Prosecutor Out of Loop,” Hunter called Jeff Shapiro from his car phone. The headline, not the facts of the story, seemed to have embarrassed the DA.
“God, I hate that fucker,” Hunter said. He meant John Eller, who was probably responsible for holding back the DNA results.
“Should we look into him?” I asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” Hunter answered. “I think it’s his turn”—meaning that Eller should get ripped in the tabloids.
“I can get you Eller’s résumé,” Hunter told me, “and I can get you the letter Larry Mason’s attorney just wrote to the Boulder PD. He’s suing Eller.”
Hunter suggested we meet in his office. Later in the day, he started the conversation by discussing different ways I could dig up dirt on Eller. He handed me Eller’s résumé from his recent job application in Florida and pointed to something on the fourth page.
“I think if you look far enough, you may find a sexual harassment charge somewhere here.”
“Really,” I said.
“When do you think this could come out?” Hunter asked. “I hate that fucker!”
We both started to laugh.
In my mind, Eller was the bad guy. He’s the asshole. Then it hit me. I was reacting to Hunter’s perception of Eller. Hunter said the police detectives were the good guys and Eller was the problem.
I asked him about Eller’s claims that Larry Mason had leaked information to the media.
“It was someone in Bryan Morgan’s office who really leaked that, not Larry Mason,” Hunter said.
“What was leaked?” I asked.
Alex picked up the phone and said he was calling Bryan Morgan to get the facts.
“Did you ever dig that up for me?” Hunter asked Morgan a moment later.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The DA was calling Ramsey’s criminal defense lawyer right in front of me to get information I had asked for.
I mean, would Chris Darden call Johnnie Cochran and say, “Did you check on that date I need for this Enquirer guy?”
It was bizarre.
—Jeff Shapiro
During the second week in June, Jeff Shapiro visited the Boulder public library to research garrotes. He learned that the Spanish conquistadors who colonized the Philippines had executed native revolutionaries by strangling them with a garrote in the same manner the media believed JonBenét had been murdered. Shapiro discovered that the garrote became the symbol of the Philippine revolution of 1872 and that every Filipino schoolchild learned that the revolutionaries had been garroted to death in public. José Rizal, who inspired the revolution, was himself sentenced to death on December 26, the same day of the year that JonBenét Ramsey died.
I knew John Ramsey had been stationed at Subic Bay in the Philippines, and he must have known about the role garroting played in the history of the islands.
I started to freak out.
I called Steve Thomas. Soon after that, he and Detective Jane Harmer saw me. I read them the material about the Philippines.
“I really want to help,” I told Thomas.
“It seems like you’ve got the right intentions,” Thomas said. “You care about this little girl—you seem to want justice for JonBenét. I’m committed to that, and as long as you are too, I’ll be more than happy to continue these conversations.”
I looked into Thomas’s eyes and knew I was doing