Distractions, or something else?

Why would I want to take your life?
You've only murdered my father, raped his wife,
Tattooed my babies with a poison pen,
Mocked my God, humiliated my friends. - Bob Dylan

Since at least the mid-90s I've become pretty good at tuning out American celebrity crime. I don't mean merely the crimes committed by celebrities, but crimes of celebrated notoriety.

JonBenet Ramsey's was the first of the victim's faces I remember shutting out. It wasn't that I thought the case such a distraction; I just didn't want to look. Maybe now, with this as with other cases, it's time we take a second look, or perhaps a first. Thanks to this thread on the RI discussion board for the suggestion. (And not just Ramsey, but let's also examine with new vision the weird and disturbing practice of child beauty pageants.)

John Ramsey of course was a deep imbed of the defense establishment, having been a naval officer and later president of Access Graphics, then-owned by Lockheed Martin, which was rumoured to have been involved in highly classified work for the Pentagon. That's enough right there to raise some natural suspicion. The evidence of longstanding sexual abuse raises another. ("If she had been taken to a hospital emergency room, and doctors had seen the genital evidence, her father would have been arrested," said forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht.)

From The Konformist, some points about the ransom note:

The author knew of John's business activities and a recent huge bonus he had received. The amount demanded for ransom was $118,000, the identical amount to his bonus. The money, the note said, was to be in $100,000 in $100 bills and the rest in $20 bills, placed in "an adequate size attaché case" (the note had an accent mark on the e for attaché, just as there is on the second e of JonBenét.) The note had details of Mr. Ramsey's career in the Navy, describing a year he spent in the Philippines at Subic Bay, called in the note the SBTC, as though the writer referred to the place often by those initials. It also had phrases such as "The delivery will be exhausting," "Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter," and "we are familiar with law enforcement countermeasures and tactics," the kind of jargon popular in military memos. Finally, the note referred to him as "John" 3 times in the last paragraph, but only as Mr. Ramsey in the formal opening. Based on this evidence, it was clear that the writer of the note was a sophisticated person with a military background and intimate knowledge of John Ramsey's life.

And then there's Laci Peterson, a name I've successfully blocked until now.

Matt Dalton, Scott Peterson's former attorney, has written a book titled Presumed Guilty, which argues the case that Laci and her unborn child were ritual slayings.

Here's Dalton, interviewed by MSNBC:

When I talk to witnesses and I read reports from witnesses and seems to indicate that Laci was being followed by two men cussing at her. A woman eight months pregnant is being followed by two men cussing at her. The witness described it and it stood out in her mind because it was so outrageous what she was seeing. At the same location, screaming is heard. At the same location, a suspicious van speeds off. And it's the same van sitting in front of her house 45 minutes before. That's what I think happened to Laci Peterson.

...

I know from my investigation that several of these satanic cults were found in the Berkeley area. I know from my investigation that seven pregnant women have suddenly disappear in that area. That's an incredible number of people, of pregnant women, to disappear over a three-year period in that general area. That's incredible.

The other thing that I thought was incredible is that Evelyn Hernandez, eight months pregnant, disappears from that area on May 1st, according to the satanic calendar and the Satanists that's called the grand climax, a day of sacrifice. December 24 of the same year, Laci Peterson apparently abducted. Personal property found in the street. Laci Peterson is found in the same San Francisco Bay that Evelyn Hernandez is found in. Laci Peterson has no hands, no feet. Her head is missing. The baby appears to have be removed and handled by somebody, in my opinion. I think that's incredible that two of the seven women that had disappeared, disappeared on satanic days.

Blaming the devil is an old and comic gambit, and even though I've learned enough to say Satanic Ritual Abuse is real, and operates cloaked by a screen of disbelief and enjoys the above-the-law patronage of establishment figures crosswired with military-intelligence "national security," I hope I also know enough not to embrace every "could it be...Satan?" defense. Still, I think aspects of cases such as Ramsey's and Peterson's invite sober re-examination now that such dark possibilities no longer seem so ridiculous.


By the way, I apologize for the irregular posting. It's not for want of trying. I have several drafts on the go, but December is proving a hard month and I'm teetering on burn-out. It'll probably be slow around here until the New Year.