jon benet takes one for the team
Little Miss Runner-Up had been dead for ten years. It's hard to believe when I think about it - ten years. I guess after years and years of media saturation, I just forgot about the when of the whole thing. Not that I remember any of the rest of it, but I know the name. Jon Benet. Who names their daughter Jon Benet? Rich freaks that get off on gender specific nepotism.
According to the media, the murder shocked us all. And, according to the media, the entire nation grieved along with the Ramsey family. I'm not sure why, but I never really bought into this. I remember when it all happened and I remember that I looked more upset about the murder than the Ramseys. My skeptical view point of the whole case is what made this case worth remembering in all of us. Scrutinizing missteps and evidence creates legends. It creates legendary characters that will be with us long after their deaths. OJ Simpson, less known as a football player as he is a suspected murderer. Micheal Jackson, less known as a performer as he is a suspected pedophile.
Crime + Media = Fame. Add in a 4 year old wearing heavy make up and you have media gold.
This case didn't start as a murder, originally it appeared that she had just been kidnapped. A ransom note was found on the stairs in her home which had been laboriously written with specific and elaborate details on the when, where and how to drop off the ransom. The first real strange clue to this whole case was how a kidnapper could have been able to write all of this down... On paper found only in the Ramsey's house. These complicated details would have taken extensive planning and forethought and would have taken a while to write out in hand. Not something most kidnappers like to do with the family near by.
Odd clue number two - Jon Benet was found dead in a "secret" room of the Ramsey house. She was bound, gagged with duct tape, raped, beaten and strangled. So the kidnapping note, which would have taken hours to write, was a weird dupe when the goal was just to rape and murder. The secret room - built by Poppa Ramsey - didn't seem to have any "useful" purpose other than to be a secret.
Odd clue number three - The Ramsey parents freaked out like all parents of supposed kidnapped victims who then turned out to be raped and murdered - they went on television - Looking "okay with it". The police were furious. The general public was furious. The media... Ate it up.
The case would only get stranger from there; The police department would be blamed for dropping the ball and never arresting a suspect. Of course, eventually every detective on the case would quit in disgust over the very apparent, and rampant, "political" interference. The Ramseys' behavior only became more and more suspect (of course, that's the media definition of weird) and the truth would eventually be diluted in hundreds of books that would come out about the case in the years following. There is very little about the case that the public doesn't know. Except the truth.
The media kept airing the images of Jon Benet in some beauty pageant, wearing a blue-sequined cowgirl costume and enough make up to make a southern tele-evangelist's wife jealous, so it was a shock when I saw the images of the her at the crime scene. There is a lot of rage there. Rage usually comes from frustration. What a 4 year old could have done to enrage someone that much is a mystery.
The most common theory of the crime is that Jon Benet was murdered by either her father or her older, highly neglected, brother. It was assumed that one of the two of them had tried to rape her and in the process, killed her. When the rest of the family found out, they scrambled to protect themselves and created the phony kidnapping story. When the story went public, the Ramseys called in some heavy political favors to protect themselves.
Of course, this is the most commonly accepted theory. This gave rise to even more fantastic theories of secret pedophile cults among the rich and powerful. The public couldn't get enough. No one likes to be told only part of a story. It eats us up. We HAVE to know. We MUST know. The fact that we only knew that Jon Benet was dead wasn't enough for us. We had to know everything and when there wasn't anyone there to tell the rest, we went mad and created the rest.
The photos of a dead Jon Benet are brutal. The autopsy reads like one of the worst attacks on anyone ever. She was brutalized. That's a lot of focused rage. A lot.
Momma Ramsey died of ovarian cancer just a few months ago. She never left her husband and she never had another child. After the murder, the Ramsey family moved back east and as far away as they could from the memories. Eventually the public's fascination of the crime simmered down and Jon Benet became a cautionary tale for all beauty pageant moms. After enough time, the jokes started to come out and that's when you know it's over - when the jokes become funny and not distasteful.
This week, a man in Thailand was arrested with the murder and has confessed... Sort of. He claims he did it and there appears to be a connection between himself and the Ramsey family which just rekindles the flames of public interest in the matter. Did he do it? Probably not, but with our need to know and our need to have the answers, he will be found guilty and the last chapter of this decade long story will begin to be written. We just need it to be him, for our peace of mind.
He's had ten years to dwell on this case. Ten years to read everything about the case, the family and all things Jon Benet. And much like an obsessed fan or an obsessed detective that won't let go, he seems desperate to be a part of this saga and see it's conclusion. His timid nature almost makes me believe that he know a lot about the case and perhaps he's being set up to take the fall.
Jon Benet - a toy child, a victim of a brutal amount of focused rage, a pre-schooler. She is the only part of this story that we could care less about. We spend so much time thinking about our suspicions and our curiosities that we forget that at the start of this was just some kid. Once again, purity of spirit loses out to the fascination of darkness. We would rather know who the killer/rapist is, and not who the victim was.
The lesson we learn from Jon Benet is not that you need to lock your doors with better locks or that you need to love your children more than you do already, but that we need to stop letting our selfish needs get the better of us. Poor Jon Benet, she had to die for our sins.
According to the media, the murder shocked us all. And, according to the media, the entire nation grieved along with the Ramsey family. I'm not sure why, but I never really bought into this. I remember when it all happened and I remember that I looked more upset about the murder than the Ramseys. My skeptical view point of the whole case is what made this case worth remembering in all of us. Scrutinizing missteps and evidence creates legends. It creates legendary characters that will be with us long after their deaths. OJ Simpson, less known as a football player as he is a suspected murderer. Micheal Jackson, less known as a performer as he is a suspected pedophile.
Crime + Media = Fame. Add in a 4 year old wearing heavy make up and you have media gold.
This case didn't start as a murder, originally it appeared that she had just been kidnapped. A ransom note was found on the stairs in her home which had been laboriously written with specific and elaborate details on the when, where and how to drop off the ransom. The first real strange clue to this whole case was how a kidnapper could have been able to write all of this down... On paper found only in the Ramsey's house. These complicated details would have taken extensive planning and forethought and would have taken a while to write out in hand. Not something most kidnappers like to do with the family near by.
Odd clue number two - Jon Benet was found dead in a "secret" room of the Ramsey house. She was bound, gagged with duct tape, raped, beaten and strangled. So the kidnapping note, which would have taken hours to write, was a weird dupe when the goal was just to rape and murder. The secret room - built by Poppa Ramsey - didn't seem to have any "useful" purpose other than to be a secret.
Odd clue number three - The Ramsey parents freaked out like all parents of supposed kidnapped victims who then turned out to be raped and murdered - they went on television - Looking "okay with it". The police were furious. The general public was furious. The media... Ate it up.
The case would only get stranger from there; The police department would be blamed for dropping the ball and never arresting a suspect. Of course, eventually every detective on the case would quit in disgust over the very apparent, and rampant, "political" interference. The Ramseys' behavior only became more and more suspect (of course, that's the media definition of weird) and the truth would eventually be diluted in hundreds of books that would come out about the case in the years following. There is very little about the case that the public doesn't know. Except the truth.
The media kept airing the images of Jon Benet in some beauty pageant, wearing a blue-sequined cowgirl costume and enough make up to make a southern tele-evangelist's wife jealous, so it was a shock when I saw the images of the her at the crime scene. There is a lot of rage there. Rage usually comes from frustration. What a 4 year old could have done to enrage someone that much is a mystery.
The most common theory of the crime is that Jon Benet was murdered by either her father or her older, highly neglected, brother. It was assumed that one of the two of them had tried to rape her and in the process, killed her. When the rest of the family found out, they scrambled to protect themselves and created the phony kidnapping story. When the story went public, the Ramseys called in some heavy political favors to protect themselves.
Of course, this is the most commonly accepted theory. This gave rise to even more fantastic theories of secret pedophile cults among the rich and powerful. The public couldn't get enough. No one likes to be told only part of a story. It eats us up. We HAVE to know. We MUST know. The fact that we only knew that Jon Benet was dead wasn't enough for us. We had to know everything and when there wasn't anyone there to tell the rest, we went mad and created the rest.
The photos of a dead Jon Benet are brutal. The autopsy reads like one of the worst attacks on anyone ever. She was brutalized. That's a lot of focused rage. A lot.
Momma Ramsey died of ovarian cancer just a few months ago. She never left her husband and she never had another child. After the murder, the Ramsey family moved back east and as far away as they could from the memories. Eventually the public's fascination of the crime simmered down and Jon Benet became a cautionary tale for all beauty pageant moms. After enough time, the jokes started to come out and that's when you know it's over - when the jokes become funny and not distasteful.
This week, a man in Thailand was arrested with the murder and has confessed... Sort of. He claims he did it and there appears to be a connection between himself and the Ramsey family which just rekindles the flames of public interest in the matter. Did he do it? Probably not, but with our need to know and our need to have the answers, he will be found guilty and the last chapter of this decade long story will begin to be written. We just need it to be him, for our peace of mind.
He's had ten years to dwell on this case. Ten years to read everything about the case, the family and all things Jon Benet. And much like an obsessed fan or an obsessed detective that won't let go, he seems desperate to be a part of this saga and see it's conclusion. His timid nature almost makes me believe that he know a lot about the case and perhaps he's being set up to take the fall.
Jon Benet - a toy child, a victim of a brutal amount of focused rage, a pre-schooler. She is the only part of this story that we could care less about. We spend so much time thinking about our suspicions and our curiosities that we forget that at the start of this was just some kid. Once again, purity of spirit loses out to the fascination of darkness. We would rather know who the killer/rapist is, and not who the victim was.
The lesson we learn from Jon Benet is not that you need to lock your doors with better locks or that you need to love your children more than you do already, but that we need to stop letting our selfish needs get the better of us. Poor Jon Benet, she had to die for our sins.
posted by Daniel Loomis | 10:54 AM
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