Perfect Murder, Perfect Town : The Uncensored Story of the JonBenet Murder and the Grand Jury's Search for the Final Truth

by Lawrence Schiller

In Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, Lawrence Schiller thoroughly recreates every aspect of the complex case of the death of JonBenét Ramsey. A brilliant portrait of an inscrutable family thrust under the spotlight of public suspicion and an affluent, tranquil city torn apart by a crime it couldn't handle, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town uncovers the mysteries that have bewildered the nation.



Why were the Ramseys, the targets of the investigation, able to control the direction of the police inquiry?


Can the key to the murder be found in the pen and writing pad used for the ransom note?


Was it possible for an intruder to have killed JonBenét?

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, History, Mystery, Biography, Audiobook

832 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

About the author

The ubiquitous Lawrence Schiller was born in 1936 in Brooklyn, and grew up in San Diego. After graduating from Pepperdine College, he went to work for Life magazine and the Saturday Evening Post as a photojournalist. His photographic abilities, both technical and artistic, laid the foundation for what has become nothing less than an astonishing career.

Schiller first made his name by photographing popular culture icons such as Sophia Loren, Richard Nixon, Timothy Leary, O.J. Simpson, James Earl Jones, Barbara Streisand, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Joe DiMaggio, and Clint Eastwood, just to name a few.

He moved easily through contrasting public worlds, developing stories for Life magazine while shooting nude photographs for Hugh Heffner and Playboy magazine. Schiller was always at the forefront, and always at the right place at the right time, experiencing historical events and developing relationships that would launch his career onto a path of success in a variety of mediums.

He published his first book, LSD, in 1966. Since then he has published eleven books, including W. Eugene Smith's Minamata and Norman Mailer's Marilyn. He collaborated with Albert Goldman on Ladies and Gentleman, Lenny Bruce and with Norman Mailer on The Executioner's Song and Oswald's Tale. He has directed seven motion pictures and mini-series for television.

From 1996 through 2002, Mr. Schiller published four books that became national bestsellers: American Tragedy, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, Into the Mirror, and Cape May Court House. All made the New York Times Bestseller List. American Tragedy, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town and Into the Mirror were made into television mini-series for CBS. Mr. Schiller produced and directed each of the motion pictures.

Other motion picture credits are: Double Jeopardy, The Plot to Kill Hitler, The Executioner's Song, Peter the Great, Murder: By Reason of Insanity, Her Life As a Man, The Patricia Neal Story, Child Bride of Short Creek, Marilyn, The Untold Story, The Winds of Kitty Hawk, Hey, I'm Alive, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, and The Man Who Skied Down Everest.

Lawrence Schiller's projects have won countless awards, including seven Emmys and an Oscar for his work over the years. He is a consultant to NBC News and has recently written for The New Yorker and George magazines.

Schiller's haunting and beautiful portfolio of photographs of Marilyn Monroe is from the last professional photo session of the sex goddess, while making Something's Got to Give in 1962. She was fired from the movie and was dead two months later. Almost a half a century has passed since May 1962, and still these astonishing, daring, and beautifully crafted photographs—never available as limited editions, until now—continue to captivate and enthrall us.

His collection of images chronicling America in the 1960s is an important document of our time. With daring forthrightness, a decade of turmoil, creativity and entertainment is unrolled before our eyes. Schiller's uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time, affords us the privilege of surveying all of this history, captured with succinct and powerful images that have defined and continue to define the national conversation.

Reviews

[Stewart Summers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Schiller writes a 600+ page book on the JonBenet murder and at the end says he has no idea who killed her.

He doesn't even give a hypothetical scenario. His non-committal summation reads as if he was more concerned about not being hit with a law suit from the "killer" for slander.

If you are interested in reading about this case, I would say to look elsewhere.

There are websites with the same, if not more information.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this crime did not get as much coverage in the UK as it obviously did in the States, I was aware of the murder of six year old JonBenet Ramsey – although I knew few of the details. This is a fairly lengthy book which delves into the case and concentrates on the investigation into the murder.

Six year old JonBenet was discovered missing from her bed the morning after Christmas Day, 1996, when her mother Patsy discovered a rambling ransom note on the stairs. Despite the note saying her daughter had been kidnapped, and that she would be killed if anyone was informed, Patsy and her husband, John Ramsey, immediately called the police. Their open presence at the family home was the first in a series of errors and it is difficult not to imagine that the fact the family were wealthy was one reason why the police initially trod carefully; not containing the crime scene and not treating the parents as possible suspects in the crime. This initial mistake led to others. When JonBenet’s body was discovered in the basement of the family home, by her father amazingly; she was moved and the crime scene both contaminated by visitors and crucial evidence possibly lost.

This, then, is the story not only of a terrible crime of the murder of a little girl, but of a town which was considered almost crime free – a safe place to live, with a small town mentality, which found the spotlight being t turned on it hard to take. As questions were asked, the family came under scrutiny; not only JonBenet’s parents, but even her nine year old brother, Burke. JonBenet was a Beauty Pageant queen and, although thankfully child pageants are not popular in the UK, it is easy to understand how uncomfortable this made people. Photographs of a picture perfect little girl, with curled hair, plastered in make-up and teetering on high heels is, to most people, quite profoundly unacceptable and, certainly, public opinion reviled the family partly due to this ‘hobby’.

As the book unfolds, the author has quotes from just about anybody who was involved, or touched by, the case. Parents at JonBenet’s school, investigative journalists, those who worked for the Boulder Police force, the DA’s office, the FBI, friends of the family and members of their Church are all given a voice. What comes across is just a real sense of discomfort and distrust. Although the Ramsey’s were, oddly, not seemingly eager to aid the police; putting hurdles in the way of every request, from interviews to forensic evidence; there seemed little evidence against the couple that was not circumstantial.

As the book digs further below the surface, a picture emerges of a marriage not as perfect as it first appeared, of a little girl who, despite her beauty and success, at the very least suffered from bed wetting, which may have been indicative of underlying problems, of a law enforcement agency unable to work together and of a town which had to come to terms with notoriety. Sadly, there seems to have been no real justice for a little girl who deserved better from all the adults involved in this book.

[Ben Loory · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a deadline recently and so spent about 9000 hours obsessively reading everything available on the internet about the Ramsey case. Then once I'd read all that, I bought and read this book, which contains much less than everything on the internet. I think I learned one or two little things-- a mysterious phone call from "John" to a hardware store about Patsy Ramsey's credit card bill (which turned out to have been made by a tabloid reporter), an interesting tidbit about the professor who did the psychological handwriting analysis (he was just as nuts as everyone else involved in the case, maybe even more)... that might be it.

In general, the book goes wrong right where the case went wrong: almost immediately. An hour after the body's found, the Ramseys are allowed to drive away from the scene without being inspected or interviewed. And after that moment, pretty much nothing is ever learned-- from them or from any other source. Crime scene was contaminated; handwriting analysis is conflicted and inadmissible anyway; cops and the DA are at war and/or various shades of inept; everyone refuses the FBI's help; nothing makes sense; nobody ever has any real idea of what happened or why. The whole thing just sinks into a bog.

There's not really enough for a book here. And DEFINITELY not enough for an 800 page book.

Schiller never even attempts to provide a possible explanation for what happened. He just exhaustively details the failure and hopelessness.

But if you hadn't already done 9000 hours of internet research, this would probably get you up to speed on the case.

Not that being "up to speed" on this case will get you anywhere at all.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got 57% of the way through this before calling it quits. I love true crime stories, and length of book isn't daunting for a speed reader, but this book is frankly a bore after the first 200 pages. As one other apt reviewer put it, If someone farted within the vicinity of someone who knew Jonbenet, it's documented here. The constant asides and first-person recollections detract from the narrative utterly and completely. Not suited for someone reading multiple books at once due to lack of chapters or sections. Calling it quits.

[Bob Mayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now that we know the Grand Jury voted to indict, it changes everything. I was actually on a jury, coming out of the courthouse in Boulder when the DA announced there would be no indictment. The way he phrased it made it sound as if that was from the Grand Jury.

The Ramsey's destroyed a lot of lives in Boulder, and elsewhere. Looking at the fresh evidence, and the old evidence, it's very likely their son killed her and then they covered it up. Many people paid the price of that coverup. A tragedy compounded.

The book is an interesting read if you know where things stand now. My wife and I have lived many places. Boulder is beautiful, but there is a feeling about it that isn't so pleasant. It prides itself on being very liberal, but strangely, it's a very intolerant town.

[Alyce Mickell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A loooong book. I forced myself to read all of it even though I knew there wouldn't be any resolution in the end. I guess I picked it up for the same reason most people do. I wanted to learn as much as I could about this unsolved case, and see if I could draw my own conclusions. I did learn a few things that I did not know before reading it, but most surprising were the grand missteps taken by the Boulder PD in the hours and days after the murder. I would not recommend this book to anyone who does not want to struggle with its length and open endedness. It is a difficult read and not extremely rewarding. But if you want to gain access to the evidence, the police procedure, and the demeanor of the Ramsey's after the murder so you can draw your own verdict, I say go for it.

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monsters or monstrously unlucky?

This is a book about three distinct, yet intimately interrelated stories, told as one. First, there is the story of the murder of JonBenét Ramsey; second, the story of the investigation of that murder and the antagonism between the Boulder Police Department and the District Attorney's office; and third, the media coverage of these events.

I think Schiller does a workman-like job on all three, but for readers primarily interested in the story of the murder of JonBenét, this book, at about 800 pages, is a bit too much. For those interested in the politics and pecking order of the judicial system as practiced in Boulder, Colorado, this is probably a fascinating read from cover to cover. The story of the media is also interesting, but too narrowly focused on the tabloid coverage, especially the material about Jeff Shaprio, then working for the Globe. Stories from the local (Colorado) media are quoted liberally throughout the text, but the day-to-day inner workings of the local press is not detailed. Some of this material seems pasted in as though Schiller began to weary of his subject. The detail about the Colorado judicial system, often presented in footnotes at the bottom of pages, was legalistic and not really illuminating. Additionally the text is marred by typos of the kind not caught by spell checkers, including the wrong "their" near the bottom of page 385, an extraneous article on line 11, page 501, and most significantly, an "isn't" for an "is" on page 227. (Actually the sentence in that footnote doesn't make sense with either an "isn't" as written, or an "is" as seems indicated.)

On the plus side Schiller does an excellent job of making some of the players come to life including the very tricky Jeff Shapiro, the tabloid reporter who insinuated himself into the district attorney's offices, made friends with the Boulder police, joined Ramsey's church and even talked at length with John Ramsey on the phone (something Schiller was not able to do). The portrait of the sincere and tremendously dedicated Det. Steve Thomas was also good, as was that of retired detective Lou Smit, who befriended the Ramseys. Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter comes across primarily as a politician. I also appreciated the floor plan of the Ramsey house in Appendix A and the character list at the back of the book. The name index was also valuable, although I think there should have been a subject index as well.

Because I didn't know the details of the case before reading this book, for me, the most important parts are pages 497-499, where the FBI profilers present their extremely powerful arguments against the intruder theory, and pages 660-670 where there is a summation of the evidence gathered by the Boulder police.

Reading between the lines we can see that John Ramsey himself is a slightly "superior," somewhat cold and calculating man with some prejudice against the relatively liberal culture of Boulder, Colorado and against the poor (see page 690 where he argues that Bill McReynolds, who played "Santa Claus," should be a suspect partly because "he doesn't have two nickels to rub together"). Nonetheless one imagines that John Ramsey loved his daughter (and she loved him) so that it is untenable to think that he could have deliberately murdered her. Furthermore he has too much control of himself to have accidentally struck and killed her. On the other hand Patsy Ramsey comes across as someone with particularly shallow values predicated almost entirely on appearance who has a temper that she could very well lose. Her love for her daughter is less clear than her husband's, although her need for JonBenét to succeed and thereby reflect favorably upon herself is very strong. One imagines that she could punish her daughter very severely but outside of public scrutiny. One further imagines she would seek to cover up anything that would make her look bad. One very telling observation in the book (p. 13) is that the ransom note was the "War and Peace of ransom notes." The Patsy Ramsey seen in this book is a person who does everything in a flamboyant and overdone manner.

I don't think, however, that the evidence as presented here is strong enough to draw a definite conclusion about who killed JonBenét. One thing is clear: John and Patsy Ramsey are either monstrously unlucky, or they are monsters.

--Dennis Littrell, author of the sensational mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”

[Xanthi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Running over 600 pages long, I knew this book would either be a detailed though riveting read or it would be a hard slog. Unfortunately, for me, it was the latter.
Naturally, it was interesting to read about the events, the evidence found, the investigations, the interviews, the media, and the prime suspects (the parents), the city of Boulder, etc. but there was by far too much detail , in general. Also, a lot of the book was dedicated to the issue of the hostilities between the police and the DA's office. It was important to present this aspect of the long, drawn out saga, but I felt it could have been condensed, as it was the least interesting aspect of this book. More pages dedicated to everything else, and less to this 'in-fighting', and the book would have been by far more interesting. Also, because of this focus on the warring detectives and cops, there were a LOT of names flying about. No wonder there was a 'who is who' list at the back of the book. I kept having to refer back to it until I gave up caring.
Am I any wiser after reading this book? No. Do I think this crime will ever be solved? No. Did the first response police botch things, making this case even harder to to solve? Yes, without a doubt.
I guess all in all, there is some lack of satisfaction in reading a true crime book where the mystery isn't solved. No fault of the author, of course. That's just how it is. Though the author's lack of his own theory was kind of an odd omission.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed shouting "Ghoul!" at Scott as he tried to read this surreptitiously in the Lufthansa business lounge in Denver. But it is a good book, if verging on the obsessive in terms of the detail sought out. If someone farted in a restaurant and it had made a sound vaguely similar to someone grumbling "JonBenet", it would have been reverently noted here. Worse, the police would have followed it up in an effort to divert the criticism of their early handling of this case. It seems almost every effort was made, and a lot of it futile effort in the wrong direction at the wrong time. I won’t find out though, as I’ve kind of lost interest because I know how it all ends with no-one being any the wiser, and because the book has just become too obsessive on the detail.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it's taken over 2 years of perseverance, and bite-sized chunks on and off was the only way for me to do it - but I'm so glad I did! This is a meticulously presented (an unkind reviewer might say "tediously") catalogue of this tragic case, the dramatis personae, the investigation and the behind the scenes politics involved. Those seeking sensationalism will be bored to death within 50 pages. Those interested in facts should stick with. Just don't expect any hypothesis at the end of it: some form of conclusion, even couched in caveats that it was mere speculation, might have been nice... But the whole point was really to show WHY this case remains unsolved.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schiller does a great job presenting all sides of the case. Now I don't know what to think.

[Sydney]

I am officially dumping this book after just over 200 pages. I just can't get into it. I feel like I have to keep notes just to keep all the key players straight.
It's no wonder this crime was never solved. I can't decide if the author is trying to illustrate how seriously messed up the investigation was. Talk about a bunch of bungling idiots! And it doesn't paint a pretty picture of the media either. As a former journalist myself, I'm pretty horrified at some of the tactics described in this book... if they are indeed true. But I'm done with this book. I can't believe I wasted as much time on it as I did.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

‎832 pgs. I give this 3 out of 5 stars. Seemed to go off topic too much. Went into detail on how the victim was found, the parents, some of the suspects, as well as the tabloids who posed as "friends" "potential church members" etc in order to gain info on the victims family and/or anything to do with the crime. This a disappointing read b/c it seemed to go topic too much telling the reader how the town of Boulder grew into the town that it is today, where the investigators come from, what they did before the crime and for how long. A sad and tragic story nonetheless, I recommend this to anyone who enjoys true crime novels.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much of this case that will never be understood. But it was the incompetency of the Denver police to secure the crime scene and avoid evidence contamination that led to much of the media speculations at the time, as well as the Ramsey's behavior. They ACTED guilty. At least of being afraid they could be held accountable. So of course, they became accountable in the public's eyes anyway. This book does a good job of pointing out what went wrong in the investigation and how things seemed to spiral out of control so badly.

[Samantha Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know anything about the JonBenet murder, and wanted a Serial-type story to take me away. This book was VERY long - and to be honest I skimmed a lot - but for those who want to get invested and familiar with ALL the details; they definitely don't leave anything out! After 1000 pages, naturally, we still don't know who committed the crime (always a let down, but fair). It's safe to say that there was some gross negligence from the police and the lack of co-operation from the family comes off VERY sketchy... worth a read if you're into true crime.

[Alison Strachan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored!!!

I know that the Jon Benet Ramsey case was never solved, but the author could have at least spun a THEORY on what he thought might have happened. Instead, this book was a chronological spewing of facts on the case from the week of the crime until present. It was nothing I didn't already know and a huge disappointment.

My sincere apologies to all members of my book club who endured this read!!!

[Chris Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really hope this is the most insufferably overly-detailed yet interminably boring book in the genre of "revealing dirty truths", because if it isn't, there exists one that is worse, and I might accidentally buy it and try to read it. Nonetheless it gets two stars for being at least factual in between the lengthy interviews and statements that add exactly zero information except that yet another neighbour thought they were a nice family.

[Elaine Wakely · Rating 1 out of 5]

Will this book ever end?

I gave up - I'd rather watch a documentary or read a shortened version of events with some analysis... not just a fact/timeline spewing.

[Ellis · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was sooooooo long, I found it quite boring actually.. I did finish it, but it took my quite a while!

[Kris Zeller · Rating 1 out of 5]

I find it AMAZING that someone could take such a fascinating case and make it so torturously boring. Pass.

[Amanda Meehan · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a bore!
And no real theory as to what happened; I wanted theories!!!!! Crazy out there thought provoking theories!!!! Back to the world of Internet conspiracy cover ups for me!

[StarMan · Rating 3 out of 5]

RATING: Didn't learn much new. Neither loved nor hated it. Thus, 3 stars.
REVIEW: Exhausting detail (though relevant) on incompetent Boulder police. That 911 tape sure was interesting. Will this case ever be solved?

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I began reading this because the pickings are slim around here and I have a slight obsession with articles about cold cases. Well, maybe more than slight. The details of the crime were just as horrible (Actually, moreso with how in depth you learn about what someone did to her - it's hard to fathom such brutality towards a child and very disturbing to read.) as I had thought I remembered, having been a teenager at the time and not really following it but absorbing the media frenzy anyway. To some extent it was interesting to chew on all the conflicting evidence. On the other hand I feel like there was so much information that probably didn't need to be in the book. Painstaking details about conflicts between investigators and all sorts of day to day stuff - the conflicts are important to understand the case, but like I said - painstaking. Much of the details and evidence are also repeated multiple times. I liked to read people's experiences with Jonbenet (though they were only a very small part of this mammoth book) as the salacious 'beauty queen' angle is such an obsession with the media. It made me ill and infuriated when early on in the book a reporter is quoted describing the case as 'SEXY' when this angle is discovered.

[Carla JFCL · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm fascinated by this case and have read several books about it. I found this one to be the "best" in the sense that I think it's the most comprehensive (and, in fact, exhaustive; it takes a long time to plow through this one.)

One of the more interesting things about this case is the fact that everyone involved blames someone else, including the authors of the various books that have been written; in some cases they even criticize each others' books. I'll just say that there's enough shoddy investigation, shady stories, outright lying, contradictory evidence, etc., to go around. Be that as it may, I think that this is probably the best book to start with for anyone who is interested in this case, because it seems to contain the most detail, and is relatively objective.

FYI - this was made into a miniseries a few years back, which I found mediocre at best.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I appreciate the author's efforts to present an unbiased and complete record of the Jonbenet Ramsey murder and investigation, I felt he had too much of an agenda to properly to so.

There are a lot of facts in this book. But the author also ignores a lot to suit his purpose. I felt the author sided too much with the DA office and the media. Many of the newspaper and magazine articles are unnecessary and the ones provided are heavily influenced.

I try to read everything about a subject I'm interested in; to give myself a rounded perspective. But I was more frustrated with this book and the lack of evidence and superfluous information. The author could have done better with the writing, although I found the appendices useful.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book from a sale table after seeing the glut of contradictory documentaries corresponding to the twentieth anniversary of Jonbenet's horrifying murder.

I had missed the fact that this book was published in 1999 and consequently it does not include the recent revelations of the grand jury's actual findings and how their decision was overruled by the DA. Still, it is a well written detailed log of the events and personalities involved and I think it leads the reader to understand how this sad case became a failure of egos, media leaks and cover ups instead of a victory for justice for a murdered little girl.

The book does a great job of communicating the weltschmerz of this case.

[aya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even in the true crime books I love, there is usually something I hate--the author's self-satisfaction (Helter Skelter), the author's complete lack of writing ability, the author's inability to tell the difference between important details and completely irrelevant details...
This is one of the first true crime books where I didn't hate anything. Schiller has very readable, intelligent style and good pacing, especially for the length of the book. What we are left with is a true crime book that succeeds as a book as well as a vehicle for information. Well-composed with relevant details, he actually manages to be fairly objective.
Top three true crime books I've ever read.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is long! It is full of details which is great in true crime however some of these details had nothing to do with the case. This book is equally about the city and politics of boulder which is probably why it is titled the way it is. I did learn some new stuff to the case and am so torn by the way it was handled wondering if different and earlier interviews as well as evidence that wasn't collected in time could have resulted in a different outcome. Sorry for all involved and the terrible tragedy and vicious crime this poor little girl endured.

[Jamie Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

On the cover blah...

'Like Norman Mailer's The Executioners Song and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood Schiller's Perfect Murder, Perfect Town will be considered a ...classic

I don't think so.

This has taken me forever to read, I mean months - because quite honestly it isn't very good.

The author interviewed just about everyone involved. Then wrote it down without really making an attempt to craft it into a readable book.

I don't read a lot of true crime but this really didn't seem to be well executed despite the obvious amount of research.