Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [217]
Ainsworth thought the crime scene exhibited an “organized disorganization.” In his opinion, the cord and roll of duct tape had been brought to the house. The note had been written before the Ramseys returned home that night. By writing a bogus ransom note, the intruder had made it look as if the Ramseys had committed the murder and had then covered it up in such a way as to make it appear that an intruder had killed JonBenét. “Using the pad and pen from the house,” Ainsworth told one deputy DA, “was a stroke of genius,” a ruse within a ruse. The Ramseys had not proven themselves in his eyes to be master criminals.
During the last days of September, a reporter told Alex Hunter, “If you don’t have this solved by Christmas, you’re out of here.” To Hunter the statement seemed an exaggeration, just like the stories the reporter’s newspaper published. But it was a clear indication of the public’s frustration. Still, the public was no more frustrated than the police and the DA, who knew that the available evidence so far proved nothing.
In this climate, Hunter had been talking to Bill Wise and Suzanne Laurion about how to repair the reputation of his office. The Vanity Fair article had left a stain on just about everyone involved in the case and was still a topic of conversation. When Hunter talked to several journalists he felt comfortable with and asked how his office was perceived, they answered as he had expected: his credibility would remain an issue as long as he was DA.
While he mulled over whether or not to change tack, Hunter continued to give a series of interviews to The New Yorker, hoping to provide a more accurate picture of what he perceived to be his search for justice in the Ramsey case.
Meanwhile, Suzanne Laurion reminded him that he had many options, and on October 2, she presented him with an analysis.
10/2/97
To:
Alex [Hunter] and Bill [Wise]
Fr:
Suzanne [Laurion]
Re:
Suspected problem and proposed solution
We’ve been beaten up by the press lately and we need to do some things to rehabilitate the office’s credibility, assuming we determine for certain that our credibility has been damaged. “If there’s gonna be a day that comes when we have a case,” Hunter said, “I would like to be making these moves with as much credibility as we can.”
Alex believes the solution lies in a two-pronged media campaign. (1) Open with a formal statement to the media, take no questions, but do work the media crowd for about a half hour before the statement. (2) Follow this with a series of media appearances with only one condition: Alex gets uninterrupted opportunity to speak his piece.
DAY 1: Meet on-the-record with two local daily papers.
DAY 2: Meet on-the-record with two daily Denver papers.
DAY 3: Hold news conference with local and Denver radio.
DAY 4: Hold news conference with four Denver TV stations.
DAY 5: Flip coin to choose among Geraldo, Internight MSNBC, King.
DAY 6: CBS…network chooses program (48 Hrs., Rather, 60 Min).
DAY 7: ABC…network chooses program (PrmeTmeLve, Jennings, Nightline, 20/20, GMA).
Day 8: NBC…network chooses program (Dateline, Today, Brokaw).
Day 9: PBS Charlie Rose.
Day 10: Local weeklies (CO Daily, Planet).
Day 11: National weeklies (Newsweek, Time).
Day 12: American Journal, Extra, America’s Most Wanted, Inside Edition.
Alex says there are two potential “pegs” to hang this campaign on: (1) Koby’s announcement that he’s reorganizing his Ramsey team, (2) just before the [one] year anniversary.
After discussions with Alex, I concluded that THE MESSAGE needs to cover 3 R’s: rift, role, resolution. We must be prepared to tell the truth about the rift between the cops and DA. We must have image-, example-laden statements about our role vs. that of the cops. We must give concrete reasons why we KNOW this is a more complicated case than people imagine.
RIFT
—Yes, it’s bad. The FBI and CBI will attest that our guys are set to evaluate and analyze yet the cops are denying us access to the evidence.
—Yes, it’s bad. When we tell the cops what further investigation