Customer Reviews

JonBenet : Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation

5 star:		(128)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

As a former prosecuting attorney who specialized in crimes against children, I absolutely could not put this riveting book down. I literally finished it in one day. Mr. Thomas gives a true insider's account of the mess that was the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, from the bungled preservation of evidence by the first officers on the scene to the incredible stonewalling by both the Ramseys and Boulder DA Alex Hunter and his plea-happy bunch of senior attorneys.

The Boulder Police Department took a lot of heat, some of it well-deserved, for the lack of progress in making an arrest in this case. This book makes it perfectly clear, however, that the handful of dedicated and experienced investigators who were assigned to the case by Boulder's "New-Age" police chief, Tom Koby, were stymied at every turn by the DA's incredible fear of actually having to try this case against the experienced trial attorneys who were hired by the Ramseys less than 36 hours after JonBenet's lifeless body was discovered in the basement of her own home.

It is no secret that Mr. Thomas believes that Patsy Ramsey murdered her child in the late evening hours of Christmas 1996. Based upon the mountain of evidence he discloses in this book, much of which was ignored or actually suppressed by the Boulder DA, I believe his conclusion is a fair one. Certainly the Ramseys themselves have done everything in their power to thwart the disclosure of the truth in this case, in the process naming as possible suspects just about every person who ever has been close to them. In fact, they just this week backed out of taking polygraph tests yet again. One can only wonder what they are hiding. As a parent, I would be the first one standing in line to do everything within my power to find the person who killed my child. After reading this book, however, you'll understand why the Ramseys have not cooperated with investigators.

Far from focusing exclusively on the parents from the outset, as the Ramseys have claimed, Mr. Thomas and the other investigators at Boulder PD, the FBI, and other police agencies in Colorado, Georgia and Michigan, have exhaustively cleared hundreds of suspects since JonBenet's death. Indeed, based upon the tremendous amount of scientific and circumstantial evidence which has been gathered in this case, the only people who can reasonably said to be prime suspects at this time are John and Patsy Ramsey. Mr. Thomas' very justifiable frustration with the Ramseys, the Boulder DA and many of the ranking officers of the Boulder PD is evident in this wonderful and extremely thorough book.

All Mr. Thomas wants is "justice for a child who was killed in her home on Christmas night." After eighteen months of of an investigation which the DA allowed to be dictated in large part by the Ramseys themselves (a practice absolutely unheard-of in accepted investigative methodology), Mr. Thomas finally resigned in protest when it became apparent to him that the Boulder DA would not even present the most compelling evidence in the case to the grand jury.

I haven't read a book this riveting since Daniel Petrocelli's inside tale of the OJ Simpson civil trial, Triumph of Justice. Although Alex Hunter and his inept staff have gone a long way toward assuring that JonBenet's killer may never be found guilty in a court of law, Mr. Thomas' gutsy account of the facts and evidence in this case leaves no reasonable doubt in the reader's mind as to who killed this beautiful little girl.

READ THIS BOOK! Jon Benet, by Steve Thomas, who was the leading police investigator and who interviewed both the Ramseys in Atlanta after they had stonewalled the police for a protracted time, and then ultimately resigned in disgust over the whole morass of a bungled investigation, has written the best book on the murder of Jon Benet thusfar. (I have also reviewed Mother Gone Bad and Perfect Murder:Perfect Town here on Amazon and I have read numerous other books about the murder of Jon Benet). Thomas very clearly details the evidence - what the police knew when, what the Ramsey's said and did when, and how they later contradicted themselves innumerable times. Thomas goes further. He offers the most intelligent rebuttal to the intruer theory and all the other stun gun nonsense propigated by Lou Smitt in a careful, step-by-step manner. In my humble opinion, if you read this book, Perfect Murder Perfect Town and Mother Gone Bad and still believe that an intruder broke into the Ramsey home that Christmas eve and then fed Jon Benet pineapple, changed her clothing, struck her over the head with a blunt instrument and took her to a closet room in the basement and garrotted her with Patsy Ramsey's broken paintbrush, then wrote a two practice ransom notes and a third "war and peace" of a ransom note with Patsy Ramsy's pen on Patsy Ramsey's notepad, then your elevator just doesn't go to the top floor. As an insider to the investigation, Thomas is best able to relate what the police knew when, to detail the unbelievable hostilities between the police and the DA and the degree that the DA (Alex Hunter) was playing into the hands of Team Ramsey (the Ramsey attorneys and investigators) and to the national press. The murder of Jon Benet is so gruesome, so heinous and the story so complex, the evidence so twisted and debauched and botched that no tabloid account or one liners on the evening news can begin to tell the tale. To really understand what happened here takes careful review and study. What has transpired since Jon Benet's murder is a travesty as horrid as the murder itself - and it is not just a confederacy of dunces. Within hours of discovery of Jon Benet's body, the Ramseys began stonewalling the police and began assembling Team Ramsey whose ostensible purpose is to solve the murder (better than the police) but who have done nothing other than obfuscate, confound and tamper with a proper investigation. This is most deliberate, no confederacy. The murderer has escaped trial - Mr. Thomas convincingly and painstakingly points the finger right where it belongs at Patsy Ramsey as the murderer. He offers his favored theory of the crime we've heard before - that Patsy snapped over a bedwetting incident. Whether or not that was the precipitating cause, there is so much evidence which points toward Patsy Ramsey that the Grand Jury's failure to indite is an absolute outrage, and the People of Colorado ought to be outraged at the waste of their taxpayer dollars and the total failure of the criminal justice system. The problem with the evidence here is a legal glitch: each item of evidence can be explained in some other way - sufficient to create "reasonable doubt", which is all the defense requires to acquit. However, there is an overwhelming pattern here, a pattern which simply cannot be coincidental - and the sheer number of items in the pattern very convincingly points to Patsy. If "preponderance of the evidence" (the standard in civil trials) were the standard to convict here (as opposed to "beyond a reasonable doubt", the standard in criminal trials), Patsy Ramsey would most certainly be behind bars today. Mr. Thomas was extremely courageous to resign in protest from his job as a policeman and he is even more courageous to break the blue wall of silence and be the first insider to write - besides the Ramseys - and he is able to analytically tie together a lot of loose ends and inconsistencies. Many of these things are things that if you have read all the other books most likely never occurred to you, even though you knew the details. (A fact which points out to just how professional the Boulder police and Mr. Thomas really are). He does an excellent - no extraordinary - job of wrapping up the murderer; Unfortunately, he lacks the power to indite her and put her behind bars. This book is the most coherent, most concise, most sensible book written about the murder of JonBenet so far. It is a must read for anyone who is interested in this tragic case. Mr. Thomas is a real straight shooter. I highly recommend it (especially Barbara Walters and anyone who was swayed by her recent interview)....And Thomas clearly states that he asked both the Ramseys more than once if they would take a lie detector test. Something which both Ramseys claimed to Barbara Walters the Boulder police never asked them to do. I am sorry but I do not think it takes much common sense to figure out who is most likely to be telllng the truth here - a man who believes perhaps too much in the law (to the point he was willing to resign rather than betray his conscience and his belief in that law) or the Ramseys who claim that as murder suspects who spent years blocking every attempt by the police to talk to them and who make a practice of making statements on the national media rather than to the police. It is not a haqrd call. Thomas holds nothing back in terms of his feelings about the Boulder police department, the Boulder District Attorneys office and the media circus. He also holds nothing back about his feeling for JonBenet and about the emotional impact of her life and death and how his life was irrecovably changed. Like I said, he is an extremely straight shooter. Perhaps too straight. He may be off here and there about a detail or two of what transpired, but he is overwhelmingly righton with the big picture. Read this book! And once you've read it, pass it around to all your friends. The truth will eventually vindicate JonBenet. God knows the justice system has failed. We owe it to JonBenet. Thanks.

Thank you, Steve Thomas, for the courage to say what so many people think! The JonBenet case captivated me from the start, more than that it was the murder of a darling little girl - in the main, I was intrigued with the complete and utter lack of cooperation on the part of the parents. The less they cooperated, the more interested I became and the more convinced of their - especially Patsy's - involvement. Thanks to Steve Thomas' fine work, all the pieces seem to fit together, and I do not understand how any thinking person could come to any other conclusion than that of Patsy's guilt. It is just impossible to think anything else. There is one and only one thing (I think) that makes some people doubt her guilt; the fact that it is nigh onto unbelievable that a mother could kill her own daughter like that. There is no denying she did it, but I agree that no sane mother could do this. I have read every word that I can get my hands on about this case, and thought that Thomas' book would just be a rehash of what I already knew. Not so - I could not put it down. Thomas reveals many little known facts that again point irrevocably to the Ramseys' involvement. For example,the ransom note said that the kidnapper would call with instructions between 8 & 10 am, yet neither of the Ramseys made any notice of that time frame, nor even noticed when 10 o'clock came and went with no word. No way. They had to know there would be no call from a kidnapper; else they would have sat glued to the phone and agonized when no call came. It's called human nature. Finally, shame, shame on the DA's office and its sycophants. I admire Steve Thomas' courage in resigning and cannot help but notice that some of the people in that mess who showed the most integrity and courage, like Thomas and the Whites, have been demonized.

This is the fourth book I've read on the Jon Benét case and easily the best one.

Former Boulder police Det. Steve Thomas, who was one of the chief investigators in the Ramsey case, does not mice words here and leaves the reader with no doubt about who killed Jon Benét. He also makes it abundantly clear why the case never went to trial and why it is highly unlikely that it ever will.

Thomas acknowledges that the crime scene was hopelessly compromised by the inexperienced boulder police, but more important demonstrates that the case could not be tried because the top attorneys in the Boulder District Attorney's office, and in particular DA Alex Hunter, were afraid to face the Ramseys and their team of lawyer in court. Thomas cites statistics showing that the vast majority of criminal cases in Boulder during the tenure of Alex Hunter had been plea bargained and not taken to trial. The effect of this kind of justice was to leave the DA's office with an appalling lack of trial experience and a morbid fear of going against "Team Ramsey." Hunter, a politician's politician, clearly saw that his main job was to make sure no indictment against the Ramsey's would ever see the light of day. To this end, he and his attorneys worked very hard to discourage the police, whose investigation clearly showed that the Ramseys were guilty and should be indicted. John Ramsey took advantage of this situation by hiring lawyers who were friends of lawyers in the district attorney's office who were supplied with information about the ongoing investigation. Thomas goes so far as to quote people accusing the district attorney's office of obstruction of justice. Of course no such charges were ever filed.

After reading this vivid and uncompromised account, I no longer have any doubt about what happened to Jon Benét. Thomas presents his scenario on pages 285-289. He also explains why he thinks it was a murder and not an accident. The real question is, why did John Ramsey help Patsy cover it up? Thomas's answer (p. 289) is that Ramsey "chose to protect his wife." It was perhaps a snap decision that once entered into could not be undone. Thomas does not see John Ramsey as having molested his daughter; instead he believes that the prior vaginal trauma that Jon Benét allegedly suffered was at the hands of her frantic mother handing out punishment for regressed toilet training. We can see this possibility from Thomas's account of Patsy Ramsey being questioned by retired Denver homicide detective Captain Tom Haney (pp. 325-327). Patsy comes across as a very tough broad indeed, even a little on the crude side. Thomas concludes that beneath her mask, he saw "cold rage." Perhaps John Ramsey was afraid of going against his wife. Perhaps she knew something very embarrassing that he wanted to keep hidden.

Because Thomas had intimate and extensive knowledge of the facts of the case second to none, there are bits of evidence here that the other books I have read do not contain. The fact that the Ramseys video taped the police at the empty Ramsey house in Boulder as they were acting out scenarios is an example. The plan with the Georgia police to wire tap the Ramsey's Atlanta home is another. The details of the textual analysis that Vassar College linguist Don Foster did on the writings of Patsy Ramsey that led him to assert that she wrote the ransom note is a third. The conclusion of the FBI's team from its Child Abduction and Serial Killer Unit that the ransom note "was a cathartic act that allowed the offender to `undo' the murder in one's own mind" (p. 217) is a fourth. There are many others. Incidentally this is a better book than Schiller's Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, not only because it presents facts and an intimate point of view not found there, but because it is more focused and leaves out a lot of unnecessary media material.

I think the most important lesson we can learn from the Ramsey case is that the rich really are different. For one thing, they can more easily get away with murder. I am thinking also of the Martha Moxley case in Connecticut, the Cullen Davis case in Texas, and of course the O.J. Simpson case in Los Angeles. What's the answer? It's the same thing that compromises our political system: money gives those with it a tremendous political advantage over those of modest means. I wish I knew the answer.

I like the way Thomas ends the book with a tribute to Jon Benét whom he calls "a strong-willed little spirit" who "would have chosen her own course in life, not one mapped by a mother living vicariously through her daughter's beauty...an incredible little kid who loved to be tickled." He adds: "Miss America was the least she could have been."

As a boy, I read all the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories, the stories by E.A. Poe concerning his intellectual detective Auguste Dupin, watched all the detective shows on TV, including Perry Mason, and I just loved a good mystery story.

Well, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. The JB Ramsey case is worthy of anything written by A.C. Doyle or Poe. I know as much about it as the next Ramsey fanatic and Mr. Thomas seems to have thought through the evidence and his conclusions seem well founded. As it seems probable that we shall never know what actually happened in that house that night, conjecture is about the best we can do.

I think all of us would agree that the fly in the ointment here is that crazy ransom note. The FBI says it is the weirdest note they have ever seen. From every aspect, its writing is a mystery. A kidnapping gone bad? But kidnappings for ransom seem to be in disfavor these days. Then why was JB taken to the basement? Why didn't the culprit remove her body from the house and dump it somewhere? Why didn't the kidnapper call the house between 8 and 10 like he said he would in the note? Was the intention EVER to kidnap? Then why write the note? From any point of view, it just does not add up.

It's difficult to imagine parents doing this to their child on purpose. Perhaps it was accidental. But the parents are partly to blame for the "umbrella of suspicion" that followed their every movement. Patsy in an interview warned the parents of Boulder to "watch out, there is a child murderer on the loose." Of course, there were no further similar cases in Boulder, or perhaps the "real killer" stopped with JB. Maybe it was entirely personal (the ransom note was directed towards John Ramsey and was pretty personal).

The bumbling Boulder police, the contaminated crime scene ... this has been a comedy of errors from the start. There have always been way more questions than answers as a result. The trail is cold now, one of the parents is dead, and we have to face the fact that we may never find out the truth. I think even 'ol Sherlock would throw in the towel with this one.

Although I believe the reader has to like true crime to enjoy this (and I do), it was a really well-done piece. Thomas is no angel, and I'm not sure that I much liked him at the end of reading this book, but his points are well-taken. The reader learns immediately that Thomas believes Patsy Ramsey was the murderer of her daughter, JonBenet. I admit that when I opened this book, I was convinced the Ramseys had nothing to do with this child's murder. However, though of course my opinion is of little importance to the world, Thomas convinced me that Patsy Ramsey did indeed accidentally murder her child in a fit of rage over JonBenet's having soiled her bed in the night.

The book is very well done in terms of cataloguing details about the case that most people knew nothing about; certainly I learned a great deal. It's also well organized. The only gripe I have about it is Thomas's including his resignation letter in the book. The letter is too long, incredibly self-serving, arrogant and boring to read. If he'd edited the letter or left it out entirely, it would be an even better book.

If you enjoy true crime and are as interested in this tragic case as I am, you'll love this book.

the police thought JonBenet was killed over a bedwetting incident? Or precisely what in the ransom note pointed to Patsy Ramsey? There's a lot of new stuff in this book like John Ramsey's son stating that his father told him he found the body a full 2 hours before everyone thinks he did. You'll also find out just why the cops loathe the DA's office and probably end up loathing them yourselves.

A must-read.

It is very discouraging that a man with so much smarts and so many talents would stand by a woman who in my eyes seriously betrayed him and their family. I believe Steve Thomas's account of the crime warrants extreme merit. The book is not only informative, but fascinating. I don't know how the Ramsey's could openly admit that they completely cooperated with the investigation. When I was in grade school, one of my classmates was murdered and the parents didn't leave the police station until the murder was solved five days later. I know this for a fact because my father was the lead detective on the case.

From the evidence presented in this book, circumstantial or not, the outcome led me in only one direction with my finger pointing at one person.

Who to believe, the Ramseys, Lou Smit, or Steve Thomas? After reading this book, in my opinion Steve Thomas logically lays out who in all probability the perpetrator of this awful crime really was. He easily provides logical explanations that Team Ramsey and the talking heads throw out as proof of the possibility of an intruder. Makes sense that the Hi-Tec bootprint was left by a wandering cop (favorite footwear of cops). It also proves my suspicions that Alex Hunter and Tom Koby were weak, feel-good, New Age, very Boulder lack of leadership or will types. Thomas shows the inconsistencies the Ramsey's continue to tell the press. If you believe in the intruder theory, explain how the intruder fed JonBenet pineapple then waited for a couple of hours for it to partially digest (it was found in the upper intestional tract according to Thomas). This police officer worked his tail off to find the killer. You can't tell me the same about the Ramsey's. They're working about as hard as OJ. This book made me furious that a DA system such as existed in Boulder could be tolerated by it's citizens. If this crime had happened in Atlanta (the Ramsey's GA home) then maybe the results would've been far different. From Thomas account the GBI wouldn't have been afraid to pursue the truth or would've coddled the prime suspects. I think Boulder and Colorado justice officials ought to be hanging their heads on this one.

This is a powerful work. If you've followed this case from the beginning, Thomas exposes details and ideas not before published, or even discussed online. If you are interested in reading one credible work that explains every detail and angle of this case; this book lays everything out clearly, logically, and credibly. Thomas was one of the lead investigators, and his outrage at how the Boulder DA bungled this case is raw and vibrant. His conclusion is inescapable, and the recent actions of the Ramseys are all the more outrageous in the face of the facts presented here.