JonBenet Ramsey’s dad is thinking of running for the State House in my district. He says that he is an “independent-minded Republican” and that he opposes abortion.
I’m not one of those guilty-until-proven-innocent types, and I definately think that a parent or spouse of a murder victim should hire an attorney just to make sure they don’t get screwed. Still, I wonder how he feels about abortions in the 23[sup]rd[/sup] trimester.
Interesting times.
There was a programme on Irish television a couple months ago about the Ramseys, from the POV of the guy who had been the chief investigator until he decided the rest of the people working on the case were muppets and quit in frustration.
This programme completely changed my view about the case. I had always believed the parents were involved too. If this guy (can’t remember his name now) is correct, though, it seems very very very unlikely.
Did anybody else see this?
Nope. But I haven’t followed it at all. Only that people seem to think the parents are guilty of something.
If the investigator thought his co-workers were puppets, why does he think the Ramseys are not guilty? To whom are the people puppets, the media who seem to have wanted the Ramseys crucified?
Muppets, not puppets. That’s Irish slang for idiots.
Basically he thought the other investigators, the DA, the media, etc. convinced themselves that the Ramseys were guilty and simply ignored all the evidence that suggested otherwise while exaggerating anything that could be taken as evidence against them … e.g. a couple similarities found between the mother’s handwriting and that on the ransom note suddenly became proof that the mother had written it, when in fact there were more dissimilarities in the handwriting.
[hijack]Hey, js_africanus, we’re practically neighbors! I didn’t know you were this far north.[/hijack]
I was wondering if this was a district in Georgia…
As the article linked the OP notes, the Ramsey’s were living down south after JonBenet’s death, but I see they moved to Michigan last fall.
I’m sure he will do just fine representing the folks up there, after living there a whole six months…
I saw that program as well. It was The System on Court TV.
Can’t remember the details, but the investigator was an independent detective hired by the DA. I have also found in my research that high profile cases are often detrimental to police work.
If it was Michael Tracy (Tracey?), the guy is a sychophant. No credibility at all. He latched on to the Ramseys as a publicity stunt, which landed him a newspaper column, but his views on the case are roundly denounced by anyone closely involved.
Tracey is English, I think. At least he affects the accent, for purposes of identification.
That being said, I think the father is innocent. Not so sure about the other family members.
For what it’s worth, they’ve summered up here for quite a while now. There are a lot of people who pay taxes here for houses they spend maybe two months in out of the year. So it’s not like they’re total strangers. They’re not locals, but that’s not so unusual.
I honestly don’t see why he thinks it’s such a good idea, though. He’s well known, but in an electable way. More in the “under a constant cloud of suspicion” way. And I don’t know that the suspicion is warranted; maybe it’s not. It just seems that he’d be more aware of it.
No, I looked it up. It was Lou Smit.
Like ruadh, I also (based on media coverage) assumed they were guilty… I changed my mind after reading this: http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/ramsey/index_1.html
(hope that comes out - noot great at coding sadly). In case it doesn’t, it’s an article at crimelibrary.com - while I know it’s just a website, the articles there seem objective and well researched.
IIRC, they’ve been a fixture in Charlevoix since the time of the murder, at least. Which is not to say that they represent the locals; however, part-timers who become transplants are often quite involved in local politics—often to the chagrin of those who moved here before them…
Hey, l!n, where are you livin’?
Harbor Springs. Where are you?
I live in Bellaire and work in Acme. But don’t publish that on the internet, people might stalk me.
No problem. You can count on me!
They’ve had their house in Charlevoix for at least twelve years. My family’s “up north” home was just down the road from them. I’ve known them for a very long time, dated John Jr. for a while, babysat for Burke and JonBenet occasionally. I have never had a breath of doubt in my mind that they were completely innocent, nor has anyone else in my family or our circle of friends.
I don’t know what kind of politician John will make, but I do know that they have spent a lot more than summer weekends at that house, and I don’t believe he would run if he didn’t have the best interests of the area and its residents (both permanent and seasonal) as his primary concern. He was a hell of a businessman, YMMV on the relevance of that to success in politics.