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"The stakes are a bit higher for us"
The NAACP's Washington bureau chief takes the Census Bureau to task for its new multiracial categories.
By Daryl Lindsey
[02/16/00]

More Columbine carnage
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By Dave Cullen
[02/15/00]

Do the multiracial count?
This year the Census Bureau will finally let mixed-race Americans tell the truth about their backgrounds. So why are civil rights groups upset?
By Gregory Rodriguez
[02/15/00]

Why the Columbine report is delayed
Still fielding attacks over leaked video footage and grim timing, the sheriff's department is waiting for the right moment to release the full details of the high school massacre.
By Dave Cullen
[02/14/00]

Opportunity clicks
Why President Clinton's plan to wire the poor is a good start.
By Daryl Lindsey
[02/11/00]

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Yet I can say with absolute certainty that I'd reject any proposal from John and Patsy Ramsey. Like many Americans, I'm under the strong impression that the Ramseys murdered their 6-year-old daughter JonBenet, just as surely as O.J. Simpson murdered his ex-wife Nicole and her visitor Ronald Goldman. That makes it strange indeed that the country's most prestigious religious publishing house is bringing out the Ramseys' book of recollections and recriminations. Thomas Nelson Publishers' announcement of an April release for their book, "The Death of Innocence: The Untold Story of JonBenet's Murder and the Investigation That Failed Us All," has been met with near-universal silence in the business, yet it raises a huge question: How did Thomas Nelson establish the Ramseys' innocence?

Before getting to Nelson's response, it's worth recalling that the Ramseys remain very much under suspicion, even if a Boulder, Colo., grand jury chose not to indict them for the Christmas 1996 murder of their daughter. In an extraordinary series of statements, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens (who has personally reviewed all the evidence in the case) made obvious that he thinks the Ramseys are guilty, even though the grand jury couldn't issue an indictment in the case.

Owens began an Oct. 27, 1999, press conference by saying, "For the past 34 months, the killers of JonBenet Ramsey have escaped justice." The plural "killers" cropped up several more times. "The killers in this case made some serious mistakes, but they are also very smart. They have stonewalled effectively and covered their tracks well."

Owens concluded with this statement: "Finally, to the killers of JonBenet Ramsey, let me say this: You only think you have gotten away with murder. There is strong evidence to suggest who you are. I believe that the investigators are moving closer to proving their case. They will keep pursuing you. And I am confident that each day brings us closer to the day when you will reap what you have sown."

In case the Ramseys missed this pointed message, Owens asked the Ramseys directly to "quit hiding" behind their lawyers and press agents and help him find the killers -- "no matter where that trail may lead." When the Ramseys responded that John Ramsey had hoped to speak to the governor, Owens responded with his most incriminating statement yet: "Mr. Ramsey is considered to be a prime suspect. It would be very inappropriate to meet with him."

So the question for Thomas Nelson is, what does the publishing house know that Gov. Owens doesn't? TN's publisher, Rolf Zettersten, has stated publicly that he believes the Ramseys have been falsely accused. "We think this is a faith story in the sense that their faith in God has certainly sustained them through the grieving process over losing their daughter in a terrible tragedy and through the ensuing years of false accusations and misleading statements about them and who they are," he told the Denver Rocky Mountain News.

In a press release from Thomas Nelson, the Ramseys maintained, "We have remained silent while baseless and slanderous accusations about our family were made by the frenzied media."

Zettersten did not answer my telephone or e-mail requests for an interview with Salon. (An assistant explained that no response would be forthcoming.) That left me looking into another recent decision by the religious publisher, in my attempt to understand what Nelson's motivations might be in the Ramsey case.

That other book is Misty Bernall's "She Said Yes," about the murder of her daughter Cassie Bernall in the Columbine High School tragedy last year. The early press reports of Cassie Bernall's death -- that she was asked by shooter Dylan Klebold if she believed in God, and when she said yes, he shot her through the temple -- were in fact disputed by a primary witness and police investigators soon after the events occurred.

Nelson's publicity materials for the Bernall book, however, make no mention of the controversy, and the publisher continues to sell the book capitalizing on the "she said yes" scenario. In its Internet advertising campaign for the book, the publisher quotes Newsweek ("Cassie Bernall said yes when asked if she believed in God -- and instantly became an evangelical saint"), as well as an earlier Rocky Mountain News story: "Bernall entered the Columbine High School library during lunch. She left a martyr."

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