Something weird about arrest of Jon Benet murder suspect

Maybe...I heard a little while ago that his ex-wife is saying that he was in Alabama at the time of the little girl's death.

Investigators say they were led to Karr by e-mails he wrote containing details about JonBenet's murder that were never made public. One has to wonder how he knew these details. Time will tell.

"One of the few who maintained their innocence was Michael Tracey, a journalism professor and documentary maker who claimed from the start JonBenet was killed by an intruder.

His campaign to catch the killer was rewarded yesterday as police revealed hundreds of emails between Professor Tracey and John Karr were crucial to the accused killer's capture in Thailand.

Karr made contact four years ago after seeing the first of three documentaries the academic produced about JonBenet's murder. Karr wanted to discuss the case at length and eventually began to reveal details only the police or the killer could have known.

Professor Tracey began feeding the emails back to police in the US, who compared Karr's deep inside knowledge to the relatively scant details that had been released publicly. "

It is also possible that Karr got some of the details from Tracey.

A New Rush to Judgment in Ramsey Case?
I get so pissed at the Media's overhyping a story, then later chastising itself for it's behavior. But never failing to repeat the stupid behavior the next time around. Shame on the Media for repeatedly not learning from it's bad behavior and poor professionalism. Are the editors or the bean counters in charge? ---BBB

A New Rush to Judgment in Ramsey Case?
By E&P Staff
Published: August 17, 2006

Is the press going overboard in its coverage of the latest twist in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case -- and suggesting, too early, that the suspect suddenly in custody, John Karr, is guilty?

An Associated Press dispatch late Thursday afternoon raised questions which it said "led some to wonder whether Karr was the answer to the long-unsolved slaying or a disturbed wannabe trying to insert himself into a high-profile case."

The New York Times later on Thursday observed that "by day's end, it remained unclear whether Mr. Karr's confession was genuine or the product of a troubled, attention-seeking man who had already exhibited a fervent fascination in the sexual abuse of children in general, and in the death of JonBenet Ramsey in particular."

It all seemed so much simpler earlier in the day. The front page headline in New York's Daily News read: "SOLVED." The main arrest story in Denver's Rocky Mountain News opened: "The decade-long search for JonBenet Ramsey's killer came to a startling end in Thailand on Wednesday."

The same paper, in a headline for an editorial, declared, "Arrest is warning against rush to judgment." It meant the wide belief that one of the girl's parents may have killed her -- but the same might soon be said about the early media coverage of the Karr arrest.

The Boston Herald editorial was titled: "A tragedy nears an end." The Denver Post carried a headline: "Family's years of fear, anger come to an end." But a few hours later another headline there read: "Cracks in confession fuel skepticism."

Investigators in Thailand told the Associated Press on Thursday that Karr has made several dubious statements to them, including claims that he picked JonBenet up from school the day she was killed and that he drugged her. Actually, she was on Christmas vacation at the time, and there was no evidence of drugs in her body during the autopsy.

Then, on Friday, the same Thai officials, again speaking to AP, changed their account of what Karr had said to them.

In any event, much of the media at first downplayed assertions by Karr's ex-wife that he was with her in Alabama at the time of the murder.

Boston University journalism professor Fred Bayles, a longtime national writer for The Associated Press and USA Today -- among other subjects, he covered the O.J. Simpson murder probe -- told E&P today: "The latest chapter in the JonBenet case offers a journalistic cautionary for both the past and the future.

"For now, there are questions about the suspect's claim he was with the girl when she died. His ex-wife has said he was in Alabama at the time of the killing and that, also, he was apparently obsessed with this case and another one in California. The media might be better served to hold off on the breathless rush to pronouncements in this case, as we've seen in the past.

"Everyone is going to look pretty foolish if there is no solid evidence, such as DNA, to back up his claims of involvement.

"It was this same rush to judgment that in the past made this case even more of a tragedy for the Ramsey family ... the focus of so-called journalists whose careers, and egos, were devoted to implicating them. I'm wondering how those people will feel if Karr is convicted."

Indeed, after many in the media had already passed judgment, the district attorney in the Ramsey slaying, Mary Lacy, said Thursday there is "much more work" to be done in the case against the suspect, and she warned the public not to "jump to conclusions."

"It's a wacky confession full of holes," said Craig Silverman, a legal analyst in Colorado who has watched the case closely for years.

Looking at the larger picture, Bayles comments that "the larger question for the media is how and why cases like these take on such a lurid life of their own? Is the public really that interested or are certain elements of the media driving the interest? Indeed, this case became a cottage industry for various aspects of the media, not just confined to cable television and the tabloids.

"Some of the reasons are obvious. If there had not been the endless tape loop of this cute little girl performing in various beauty pageants made up as a woman/child, this story probably would not have been a media obsession initially driven by the broadcast media."

Scott Robinson, legal analyst for a Denver TV station, said Thursday, "In this particular case when you have an uncorroborated confession, I think it's good to be cynical and to be skeptical. The suspect seems to be ducking questions about his connection to the Ramsey family… how the little girl came to be in the basement with him in the first place....

"This is either the break that we have all been waiting for, or the biggest hoax that's ever been perpetrated in the JonBenet Ramsey case, a case that has had its share of wacky people involved in it."

J-Prof in Colorado Played Key Role in JonBenet Arrest
Could the professor also be a publicity hound? ---BBB

J-Prof in Colorado Played Key Role in JonBenet Arrest
By E&P Staff
Published: August 17, 2006

A University of Colorado journalism professor from Great Britain played a key role in yesterday's arrest of a suspect in the decade-old JonBenet Ramsey killing.

Law enforcement officials in Boulder began to focus on the arrested man, John Mark Karr, based on his e-mail exchanges with a journalism professor at the University of Colorado named Michael Tracey.

Karr, 41, will be taken within the week to Colorado, where he will face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst of the Department of Homeland Security told a news conference in Bangkok. Karr's ex-wife, however, has said that she was with him and in Alabama at the time of the murder, and a false confession by him is possible.

A law-enforcement source confirmed that Karr had been communicating periodically with somebody in Boulder who had been following the case and cooperating with law-enforcement officials.

A University of Colorado spokesman, Barrie Hartman, said journalism professor Tracey communicated with Karr over several months and contacted police. The university spokesman said he didn't know what prompted Tracey to become suspicious of Karr.

Tracey produced a documentary in 2004 called "Who Killed JonBenet?" and two earlier films on the case. He discounted the Ramseys' role in the slaying, favoring instead what was known as the "intruder theory." The New York Times in 1998 quoted him saying: ''The fundamental constitutional right of presumption of innocence has not been granted the Ramseys.''

The Denver Post reported Thursday, "Several weeks ago, the e-mails became so disturbing to Tracey that he went to the Boulder district attorney. Authorities traced Karr to Thailand using his e-mail address, Hartman said. Tracey could not be reached for comment."

Tracey, 63, once said he was toiling in academic obscurity until he wrote an op-ed piece for the Boulder Daily Camera critical of the media's handling of the case. A Ramsey attorney, Bryan Morgan contacted him, leading to interviews with John and Patsy Ramsey and his first film.

The Daily Camera in 2001 quoted Tracey after the release of one of his films: "I find this an extraordinarily disappointing society. In my own tiny way, I really want to say things are badly out of whack in this culture."

A June 25, 2006, article on the Ramsey case in the British daily The Guardian included a few passages on Tracey:

"I meet Michael Tracey in a place he refers to as his 'downtown office' - a bar called the Hungry Toad, which is owned by a Brit and is the only place in Boulder where you can buy a pint of bitter.... He arrives with a manila envelope and tells me knowingly that he feels very close to solving the case. He can't say why, but he tells me that the DNA from JonBenet's underpants has now been tested accurately enough to be logged in the FBI system. Which means that anyone in any part of the country who has committed any crime for which a DNA sample is taken will automatically be cross-checked. Any day now, the FBI may find a match....

"JonBenet's death gripped America, Tracey suggests, because it had everything going for it: 'Sex, sleaze, the rich father, the American dream gone bad... It was a combination of voyeurism, resentment, anger, irrationality, a cultural viciousness. It was Greek - a lot of people focused on it as a kind of catharsis.'

"Where is the catharsis, I ask, if the case is unsolved? 'It's in the hate. Hate the Ramseys, you feel better. This was pretty close to a conspiracy.'"

Tracey's profile at a university site reveals that he is "an internationally recognized researcher and scholar, came to CU in 1988 from England, where he was head of the Broadcasting Research Unit in London, Britain's leading think tank dealing with media issues. He has served as special adviser to the BBC's Community Programmes Unit, consultant to a variety of organizations and honorary visiting research fellow at the University of Bradford. From 1994 to 1999 he was Visiting Professor and Chair of International Communications at the University of Salford in England. From 1991 to 1998 he was a Trustee of the International Institute of Communications....

"He has published extensively in eight books, academic journals, conference papers and popular media. He has also given countless talks and lectures in many countries on the politics, organization and economics of public service broadcasting. Since 1998 he has become a documentary film maker, including producing three documentaries about the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. He is currently researching and writing two books dealing with aspects of what he terms 'the injustice of the American justice system.'"

Karr's ex-wife said today that he had become an expert on the Ramsey case but was with her in Alabama when the murder happened.

what do you suppose the chances are he's met the real killer at some time, this is the thought that has been crossing my mind the last few days

I've been following this, and have no interest in linking everything I've read.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Awaiting dna, as Soz said, sometime back.

I think I will await specific details rather than speculate.

Innocents often confess falsely to big crimes
Innocents often confess falsely to big crimes
Experts say they do it for attention or may be mentally ill
Cecilia M. Vega, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, August 20, 2006

From the O.J. Simpson case to the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby, famous crimes often attract confessions from people who have nothing to do with them.

And this week's admission by John Mark Karr that he played the lead role in JonBenet Ramsey's brutal death is raising suspicions that the former Petaluma schoolteacher may have pulled off a giant hoax.

"People just don't believe that someone could confess to something they didn't do," said Saul Kassin, a psychology professor at Williams College in Massachusetts and an expert in confessions. "It happens with a good amount of regularity, particularly in high-profile cases."

There are many reasons why, including a chance to be in the limelight or a pathological need for fame.

But experts agree it usually boils down to one thing: The person is deeply disturbed.

"Sometimes you run into people who because of some mental illnesses are delusional and might actually believe they were part of the crime," Kassin said.

Following his arrest Wednesday in Bangkok, Karr allegedly told authorities that he had sex with the child beauty queen. He also told reporters that he was with her when she died and that her death was an accident.

There are aspects to his story, however, that just don't seem to add up. Investigators concluded there was no semen on JonBenet's body when she was found dead in the basement of her Colorado home the day after Christmas in 1996. An autopsy also showed that she died from strangulation after being beaten so badly that she suffered a fractured skull -- hardly an accident.

And Karr's ex-wife has said she doubts he committed the crime because the couple spent that holiday season together in Alabama where they were living at the time.

Karr, 41, is awaiting deportation from Thailand to face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault. Authorities in Thailand said he would be returned from Bangkok today.

In the days since his arrest, his bizarre obsession with JonBenet has come to light, along with a history that includes marrying teenage girls, behaving inappropriately around children in the schools where he taught and, according to authorities, possessing child pornography.

He wrote her love poems -- one called "JonBenet, My Love" -- exchanged volumes of e-mails with a University of Colorado journalism professor who produced documentaries on the case, sent letters to JonBenet's mother, Patsy, and researched the case on his own.

But it remains to be seen whether he actually had anything to do with the crime or, instead, made a voluntary false confession.

It would hardly be the first time.

In 1932, more than 200 people came forward to claim a role in the highly publicized kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's son. Investigators in the O.J. Simpson case have said that a dozen people claimed to have stabbed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman to death in 1994.

The 1947 Black Dahlia murder also prompted scores of people to confess to killing 22-year-old actress Elizabeth Short, whose body was found cut in half in a vacant lot. One man reportedly paid so many visits to Los Angeles police that detectives gave him the nickname "Confessin' Tom."

One of the country's most sensational false confessions came from Texas prisoner Henry Lee Lucas. During the 1980s, he said he killed more than 600 people, including his mother and Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa who disappeared in 1975.

Lucas told stories of cannibalism and necrophilia, and his tips about unsolved cases earned him perks such as a private jail cell and unlimited cigarettes and cheeseburgers. Eventually, he recanted and insisted that the only person he had really killed was his mom.

Typically, the false confessions in high-profile cases never make the headlines because they often involve little more than a brief phone call between police and the confessor. Someone calls to falsely report his involvement in a crime, detectives ask for a detail about the crime that was never made public and the exchange ends there.

Modesto police Sgt. Al Brocchini, who worked as a detective on the Laci Peterson case, said that in his six years working homicide cases, he has never known anyone to come forward to take responsibility for a crime they didn't commit hoping to achieve 15 minutes of fame.

"If that happened and somebody called and said, 'I did that crime, I committed that murder,' a police department isn't going to go over there and handcuff the guy and place him under arrest," Brocchini said. "We're going to see if he was in the place at the time of the murder. Get the details first."

Still, Richard Ofshe, a UC Berkeley sociology professor who has worked on many high-profile cases of false confessions, said, "It's a very common phenomenon.

"The people who confess to crimes they didn't commit are not thinking clearly," he said. "The people who do it, everyone agrees, are unbalanced and it's done for attention."

Such people often don't consider the long-term consequences of giving a false confession, including the possibility of being convicted for a crime you didn't commit, Ofshe said.

"They're obviously disturbed," he said. "Their reasoning is not working."

But it's not just fame that drives people to make false confessions.

He said people also confess to crimes they didn't commit to protect a family member or because they were coerced into a confession during an interrogation.

Ofshe is currently involved in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, in which five black and Latino teenagers confessed to raping a white woman, an investment banker. DNA later linked an imprisoned murderer to the attack in Manhattan.

In the case of Karr, Ofshe believes his reported admission of guilt may be the result of an interrogation, rather than one driven by a desire for notoriety.

"This may be, and in all likelihood is, an interrogation-driven confession," he said, adding that confessors typically are able to provide significant details about the crime, whereas Karr has publicly, at least, remained tight-lipped.

When asked what happened when JonBenet died, Karr told reporters, "It would take several hours to describe that. ... It's very painful for me to talk about it."

But when asked if he was an innocent man, Karr flatly responded, "No."
-------------------------------------

News researcher Johnny Miller contributed to this story. E-mail Cecilia M. Vega at [email protected].

BBB
Now we know the real reason John Karr admitted his involvement in the JonBenet murder. He wanted to return to the United States but didn't have the money to buy a plane ticket. Clever psycopath.---BBB

JonBenet suspect heads to U.S. in style
By JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press Writer
Sun Aug 20, 2006

ABOARD THAI AIRWAYS TO LOS ANGELES - John Mark Karr, the suspect in the death of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, sipped champagne and ate fried king prawns in business class Sunday after being put aboard a flight to Los Angeles to face charges in the United States.

As Karr wined and dined in style and chatted with the three U.S. officials escorting him, another bombshell emerged: Reports that Karr sought treatment at a Thai sex-change clinic.

His Thai Airways International flight took off about 8 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT) for the 15-hour flight to Los Angeles. Karr's journey will eventually end in Boulder, Colo., where he is expected to face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault in connection with the young beauty queen's 1996 killing.

Karr, dressed neatly in a red, short-sleeve, button-down shirt and black tie, was not handcuffed while being whisked through Don Muang International Airport in Bangkok. At the departure gate, he talked amiably with fellow passengers.

The 41-year-old teacher sat in a business class window seat next to Mark Spray, an investigator with the Boulder County District Attorney's office. A U.S. Embassy official and an agent with " Homeland Security" on his T-shirt were also part of the escort party.

Before takeoff, Karr took a glass of champagne from a flight attendant and clinked glasses with Spray, who sipped orange juice.

Dinner on board, served on a starched white tablecloth with silverware, was one many passengers would envy. Karr started with a pate, then had a green salad with walnut dressing. The main course was fried king prawn with steamed rice and broccoli, followed by a slice of Valrhona chocolate cake for desert. Karr drank a beer, crushing the can with his hands when it was empty, then moved on to a glass of French chardonnay with his main course.

"It seems odd to me. If there is an arrest warrant issued, he ought to be under arrest," said former Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant, who was involved in the Ramsey investigation. "It is very strange. Whoever is in control of him ought to make sure he isn't doing things like drinking champagne."

Other experts called the royal treatment a brilliant strategy.

If Karr says something incriminating that is challenged in court, the investigator who was sitting next to him simply says he was never in my custody, said Denver attorney Larry Pozner, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

"There is always a reason when the unusual happens," Pozner said.

When Karr lands in Los Angeles late Sunday, he will be processed by immigration officials and is expected to be arrested by local authorities on an arrest warrant out of Colorado, said Carolyn French, spokeswoman for the Boulder County district attorney's office.

Karr will then have an extradition hearing in Los Angeles within the next few days, French said. If he agrees to waive extradition, Karr will then be taken to Boulder County.

"If he fights extradition that is a much more lengthy process," French said.

Karr was being brought back to the United States on a temporary passport. French did not have information on who paid for the flight.

After dinner, he flipped through the movie channels and watched "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise. He also dozed on and off, and two guards accompanied him on several trips to the bathroom, each time leaving the door slightly ajar.

The suspect was relaxed, smiling and chatting nonstop with the U.S. officials next to him ?- until the television news crews on the flight turned their cameras on. Then he stopped smiling, clutched the armrests of his seat and stared at his lap.

Karr did not speak to reporters, but at one point summoned an AP reporter over to his seat. He mentioned an interview she had given, recalling that someone asked her what he was like.

"You said I looked you straight in the eye when I talked to you and I want to tell you I appreciate that, I thought it was nice," Karr told the AP reporter.

Just hours before Karr's departure, a doctor at a seedy but popular clinic in downtown Bangkok specializing in sex-change surgery said Karr had come in for treatment.

"He was one of my patients," Dr. Thep Vechavisit of the Pratunam Polyclinic said. He refused to provide further details.

Another employee at the clinic, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media, said Karr had talked with the doctor about a sex-change operation. This could not be confirmed by other sources.

Bangkok, where Karr lived on and off for two years, is regarded as a major global center for sex change operations. The Pratunam clinic advertises sex-change surgery for $1,625 ?- a bargain compared to U.S. prices, where male-to-female reassignment surgery can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Thep has received considerable publicity for his male-to-female operations and the clinic is one of the sponsors of an annual beauty pageant for transsexuals in the seaside resort of Pattaya.

Karr appears to have been shadowed by gender issues since his early years, according to excerpts of e-mails published in the Rocky Mountain News that Karr wrote to University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey.

Karr said his father was a "strong influence but rarely around," and responded to Tracey's question about whether his "fascination with little girls ?- which clearly has a strong erotic component ?- is a way of going back."

"Maybe I am not going back but have simply stayed consistent," Karr responded. "My peer group has not changed since I was a little boy, and girls were the people I was with always. Referring to them as a peer group is somewhat incorrect, but might also be the very definition of what they continue to be in my life."

Karr, once detained on charges of possessing child pornography, in recent years apparently traveled to Europe, Central America and Asia to search for teaching jobs. He taught in at least two Thai schools.

U.S. officials, the only ones to have actually interrogated Karr, have been silent about what he told them, citing his right to privacy and legal procedures. Secondhand accounts by Thai officials have been vague and contradictory.

Karr told reporters Thursday that he was alone with JonBenet when she died in the basement of her home on Dec. 26, 1996, but that her death was an accident.

However, there is little public evidence linking him to the crime, prompting some experts to speculate that he is either lying or delusional.

"Many high-publicity crimes have these people coming out of the woodwork," said Elizabeth Loftus, director of the Center for Psychology and Law at the University of California-Irvine.

Lawyers for the Ramsey family say a number of people already have confessed to the killing of JonBenet, but none had enough credibility to attract the attention of law enforcement.
------------------------------------------------

Associated Press writers Robert Weller and Judith Kohler in Denver contributed to this report.