Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [183]
Wise asked himself, What was happening to Boulder?
Steve Thomas called me one evening. I couldn’t tell if he’d had a beer or two.
“Jeff, I’m ready to fuckin’ throw down my badge. I’ll go on national TV, I’ll go back to mowing fuckin’ lawns if I have to, to get justice for this little girl.”
That’s when I realized that Thomas, who to me represented someone strong, had the courage to express his deep emotions.
“God chooses a path for all of us,” I answered. “I think mine has been chosen. That’s why I’m here to help.”
“We can do this together,” Thomas replied. “You have a role in this. Your relationship with Hunter is important—you don’t understand how important.” Then he added, “We do God’s work.”
That night, I understood that Thomas and I would devote our lives to getting justice for JonBenét.
Later that night I was having dinner with Frank Coffman when I got a page from a number I didn’t recognize.
“Jeff, I’m kind of nervous,” Steve Thomas said when I returned his page. “Are you going to keep it all cool?” I assured him I would. Then he gave me his home number.
We started talking at night. He’d tell me stuff about when he was a narc cop. We discussed the Simpson case. We talked about our love of cars. I told him I drove around just looking for a used Camaro. He liked Camaros too.
—Jeff Shapiro
2
Ever since JonBenét’s murder, Peter Boyles, a top morning radio talk-show host in Denver, had been critical of the investigation. Bill Wise paid close attention to Boyles each morning as he drove the 26 miles from his home in Denver to the Justice Center. Most of the time, Boyles took shots at the police and at the Daily Camera, comparing it to Pravda. He often suggested that the Ramseys had killed their daughter. Then, as Chuck Green’s columns in The Denver Post became more strident against Hunter in March and April, Boyles, a friend of Green’s, joined in the attack on the DA’s office. Now, in June, Boyles commented on the police withholding evidence from Hunter’s office and on the computer break-in.
Listening in, Wise thought that much of Boyles’s commentary was speculative—probably based on sources not connected with the investigation. Hunter and Wise felt that Boyles was farther off base than most reporters. He made it sound as if Hofstrom had chatted over coffee with Patsy Ramsey in his kitchen when she gave her second handwriting sample at his house—which at the time was neutral territory. Chuck Green was almost as bad. In one of his columns, Wise found what he considered to be seven major inaccuracies.
Wise talked to Hunter, who decided he wanted to put a stop to the flow of inaccurate information about his office. Hunter decided Green should be contacted first, then Boyles. Wise was apprehensive, afraid that Green would compound the problem by writing a column about Hunter’s complaints. Nevertheless, he left a voice mail message for Green, saying he’d like to sit down with him—not to give new information, but to correct some misinformation.
Green not only returned his call, he listened intently. Green had reported that the Ramseys were “allowed” to leave Boulder after JonBenét’s body was found. Wise said that was wrong. They had not been charged with any crime, so they were free to travel at will. Green had also written that the “police and prosecutors” had given the Ramseys written questions prior to their face-to-face interviews on April 30. Wrong again, Wise said. Hunter’s office had not directed the police to submit the questions in January, and no questions had been submitted by anyone in April. Only the Ramseys’ statements from police reports, written just before and just after the body was found, had been given to the Ramseys’ attorneys. Green had also published that the DA’s office provided the Ramseys with a copy of the ransom note. Wrong again. The cops had done that, not Hunter’s office. Green’s claim