Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [241]
Sincerely,
[signed]
Harold A. Haddon
Ryckman called Furman and told him that Haddon’s request had been rejected and that her story would be published as written originally.
When Alex Hunter heard that Ryckman was going to break the story about the shoe imprint he also worried about the release of this information. The police had so far been unable to date the imprint. They didn’t know whether the owner of the shoe was aware that the print had been left behind or, indeed, if it was even connected to the murder. Now, with the public revelation, the owner of the Hi-Tec shoes might destroy them—even if he or she wasn’t the killer. If that happened, investigators might never understand this piece of the puzzle.
Meanwhile, reporters were canvassing the Ramsey neighborhood looking for a new angle to use in their stories on the first anniversary of JonBenét’s murder. Louis Sahagun of the Los Angeles Times interviewed Margaret Dillon, who told him that the police had asked her whether she knew if the Ramseys owned a Taser or stun gun. They had also asked her about duct tape and white nylon cord, she said. When Sahagun called Rachelle Zimmer, a Ramsey spokeswoman, to check the information, he learned that they had “known about the use of a stun gun in this murder for many months.” She added, “It must now be clear to any open-minded person that this vicious crime was committed by an outsider.”
On December 16, Sahagun asked Bill Wise whether he said the police were investigating the use of a stun gun in the murder. Wise said he had no idea what he was talking about. It was just another crazy rumor, he thought. Sahagun had gotten a virtual “no comment” from the police when he had asked them about the stun gun.
Three days later, on December 19, before Wise had time to mention the rumor to his boss, Hunter walked into his office, closed the door, and said that the next day, the Los Angeles Times would report that a stun gun might have been used in the murder. Hunter, who had known about Smit’s stun gun theory, had gotten a call at home the night before from a writer who had been tipped and wanted to warn the DA. Wise, who knew nothing of the investigation by Smit and Ainsworth, since he had been removed at Koby’s request from the daily briefings in February, hadn’t thought to ask Hofstrom or DeMuth about a stun gun after Sahagun called him earlier in the week. On Saturday December 20, the Los Angeles newspaper broke the stun gun story on the front page. Ramsey attorney Hal Haddon told The Denver Post: “We’ve been told affirmatively that one [a stun gun] was used.”
Over the weekend Bill Wise received many calls from reporters about the stun gun. On Monday morning, December 22, he asked Tom Faure, the coroner’s chief investigator, what he knew about it. Faure told Wise that there were two marks on JonBenét’s back that could have come from that kind of device, though in retrospect, Meyer thought the marks were scratches, not abrasions from a stun gun. Nevertheless, there were two more scratches on the back of one of JonBenét’s legs which were the same color as the marks on her back.
Since Mark Beckner’s press conference two weeks earlier, Pete Hofstrom had encouraged him to communicate directly with the Ramseys’ attorneys. On December 19, the lawyers met face-to-face with Beckner at the DA’s office. Bluntly, Bryan Morgan told Beckner that he and his colleagues didn’t trust the Boulder PD to conduct an objective or competent investigation, judging by the department’s unprofessional conduct in the past. He hoped to see a change under Beckner’s leadership. Beckner ignored the insult and got down to business. He repeated his request for a second set of formal interviews with the Ramseys and their son, Burke. In addition, he listed some items the police would need for their continuing investigation, including the clothes John