Posted on 08/17/2006 3:21:42 PM PDT by Arec Barrwin
Rocky Mountain News
Expert: 'Do we have a wack-job or a murderer?'
By Sue Lindsay and Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News August 17, 2006
Legal and law enforcement experts have begun to express outward skepticism about claims by a teacher that he killed JonBenet Ramsey.
John Mark Karr told reporters in a press conference last night in Thailand he was with the 6-year-old beauty queen when she died nearly 10 years ago. He said the death was accidental, as part of a botched kidnapping effort. When asked how he entered the family’s Boulder home, he declined to comment.
But investigators in Thailand have told the Associated Press that Karr has made several other statements to them, including claims that he picked JonBenet up from school the day she was killed and that he drugged her. JonBenet was on Christmas vacation at the time, so school was not in session, and there was no evidence of drugs found in JonBenet’s body during the autopsy.
So far, there is no paper trail of Karr being in Colorado. Police in Boulder said today that they have no record of ever having contact with him.
Denver defense lawyer Larry Pozner said Karr's news conference confession, televised late last night, was bizarre.
"Is this just an obsessive guy craving his 15 minutes of fame? There are those people who confess under circumstances where we immediately know, this is real. This isn’t one of them," Pozner said. "We have to withhold judgment because he has not given enough facts for us to decide: Do we have a wack-job or a murderer?"
Denver lawyer and former prosecutor Craig Silverman expressed similar reservations.
"This confession is nonsensical and it appears to be delusional. To claim this was an accident is ridiculous. It's hard to imagine a more intentional, deliberate murder than hitting a girl with sufficient force to split her skull open and to fashion a garrote and twist it until she stops breathing."
A former investigator knowledgeable about the case watched a press conference by Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy this morning and said he was concerned about what she said - and didn’t say.
"Her statements about, 'I wish that we could have continued (the investigation) in this vein, rather than in the public eye,' I agree with her in that regard. Because, for her sake, I hate to predict what’s going to come down if this whole things falls apart and they drag a guy 12,000 miles back from Bangkok only to get his 15 minutes of fame and a free ticket back to America."
The prosecutors could go with Dan Rather logic. Since no one can prove that he didn't kill her than his confession must be true.
I'm reserving judgement, but this guy seems like he wants his 15 minutes of fame..
I find it strange that the FBI gets involved and does an international extradition from Thailand unless they had some good evidence. This person is a pervert of the worst sort, and I think is playing the crazy card to try to get off.
If this is a hoax confession, he should be sent back to Thailand to be tried for his crimes there
Wonder why?
If he's whack - send 'im back!
Apparently he was keeping up an email correspondence, for several years, with someone in Boulder who did a documentary on this case.
He may have developed an obsession about it, and so become convinced that he did the murder. False confessors are often quite convincing - they have already convinced themeselves.
I'll take whack-job for $500 Arec........he wants to be JonBenet's killer, but he isn't.
Wack Job
Opps, this fellow fled, so he ain't as whacked as he would like people to believe.. Also this fellow collected tons of info on the case, so he knows he is giving misleading info... and I assume it is on purpose. I think they may have their man. IMHO...
Prison in Thailand vs prison here.
Either he is a nut case or he really did kill her but is making his story so bizarre that no one will believe it. He confesses and gets off. Personally I still think one or more of her family were involved. If they weren't I'll apologize to them here on FR.
Greta V.S. sure was quick to believe in the confession. She always thought the Ramseys were innocent so this was her chance to prove it.
If I were Silverman, I would keep my mouth shut. He is an idiot.
I understood that this sleazy guy, John Mark Karr, was under indictment for child pornography in California, then he fled the country rather than appear in court. And he hasn't returned to the USA until now.
If his confession to murdering JonBonet Ramsey is a hoax, he should face the charges against him in California, adding the charges that he skipped bond.
This guy needs to be put in a U.S. prison and NOT returned to any other country, where he could continue to teach school and come in contact with children.
I'm thinking this guy is a WHACK JOB who did NOT commit the murder. He's just so WHACKY that he confessed to a murder he didn't commit. Some folks are just that WHACKY.
NOTHING adds up. Not DNA, not the ransom note, not the little girls wacky parents, not the details of this guy's story. Nothing. He's a nobody, IMO.
He's a nutter. I think there is actually a clinical condition where somone so obsessed with a crime, eventually confesses to it...though absolutely innocent of it.
I suspect God is making sure no more kids are put in his care.....I vote he's a whack job, but then again a whack job killed Jonbonet, so it's a draw.
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