You are now listening to True Murder, The most shocking Killers in True crime History and the authors that have written about him. Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker BTK. Every week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host journalist and author Dan Zupanski.
Good Evening.
On Christmas Night nineteen ninety six, six year old John Benet Ramsay was murdered in her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. A ransom note was found in the home, but it was hours before her father, John found her body in the basement. She'd been strangled with a garat and her skull was fractured. Media sensationalized the tragic death of the child beauty queen, and public speculation and rumors ran rampant. What followed was one of the most notorious unsolved murder
investigations in American history. Boulder police fixated on John Binney's parents as suspects. Needing investigative help, the Boulder DA brought in legendary homicide detective lou Smitt. However, he was soon disenchanted with law enforcement's obsession with the Ramsey family as the primary suspects, excluding other possibilities. Smitt resigned but continued to work on his own time and at his own expense,
determined to find justice for John Benney. He determined the Ramsey family was not involved in her death, but died in twenty ten before he could identify the killer. Thousands of people attended his funeral service, including John Ramsey and the detective's lifelong friend and colleague, John Anderson, along with a handful of retired detectives. Anderson and Smitt family continue
to pursue justice. Aiste on Smith's work now for the first time and Lou and John Beney Anderson tells the story of Smith's investigation and why the Smitt family team now believes that the killer can be identified. The book that we're featuring this evening is Lou and John Beney, A Legendaries Lawman's Quest to Solve a Beauty Queen's Murder, with my special guest author, John Wesley Anderson. Welcome to the program, and thank you so much for this interview. John Wesley Anderson.
Thank you, Dan, it's a privilege to be with you.
Thank you so much, and congratulations on this extraordinary book.
Well, thank you. I accept that on behalf of the team. There was quite a significant team over the last several years that have been involved in making sure this book was out there and that the truth was known.
You write about that what you wanted to do with this book, what you intended, the three things that you hoped that this book would produce. Could you tell us about that briefly?
Yes, thank you. In the purpose of the book is to do three things. Is to get the truth out there. There's been a lot of misperceptions and untruths about the book, so that's first thing. The second thing is to communicate the belief that Loose Smith had that no member of the Ramsey family was involved in any way in the death of John Bennet, and that's been established I think in the book beyond any reasonable adapt But the third thing is to encourage, particularly law enforcement, except the fact
that this case is still solvable. The DNA is good enough that it can identify who the killer is, it can show who the killer is not, and it can exclude people of interests that have been brought up in the case, such as the Ramsey family.
Let's get right away to this fascinating story that you have here, which includes your mentor Loui Smith. Andrew Lewis Louis Smith born nineteen thirty five in Denver, Colorado, enter the Navy seventeen and married his sweetheart Barbara, four kids, Lori, Cindy, Mark, and down. I became a comp in nineteen ninety six, and he called you, Johnny. You were eighteen years old working at the Identification Bureau in Colorado Springs Police Department.
This is nineteen seventy two. Tell us about Andrew Lewis lou Smidt, what you already knew about him, what was his already his background that you knew about, And tell us about the relationship that you gradually and eventually developed with Loosemith.
Happy to do that. One minor correction, just a slip. The murder was in ninety six. Lou began his career in sixty six, nineteen sixty six on the Colins Springs Police Department, and I started in nineteen seventy two, right out of high school. It wasn't old that be a police officer in Colorado you have to be a twenty
one be a police officer. To make an arraster carry again but at eighteen, I was hired full time by the ColorOS Springs Police Department as a cadet, and for the most part we were given administrative jobs, worked in communications, evidence, then a lot I worked in the identication record section, was my first job for a year and a half, and that's where I met Will who the detect at
the time. The detective Bureau was just down the hall from the ID Bureau records identication, and whenever detecteds needed to see if there was a bug shot on a person over if they if they had higher records or anything and file, they came to the Identification ID Bureau counter and cadets as well as civilians would ask the detectives what is it that you need? And Lou really stood out from one of the very first times I've
met him there. He was so thorough, so engaging. He was just a very polite, humble man, and so I really enjoyed that interaction and went out of my way whenever he asked for something that was related to a case.
In the middle of the not we worked shift work, so in the middle of the night I'd often read the unsolved cases, and when Lou had come in, I talked to him about those cases because he always worked une solid workers today called gold cases, and so when he filed a report, I'd go through his supplementary reports to see how he detailed an interview or an interrogation
or a search board. And he clearly stood out from the other detectives just he was so terbole and he became kind of an early mentor role model for me.
He said that Loosenet believed in this Locard's exchange principle or the transfer theory. Explain that, yes, professor Lecard from Lyons, France was the worst, first one who actually documented this theory.
Then there's a couple of different names transfer theory and exchange theory, but basically what the point it gets across is that whenever a crime is committed, the suspect either leaves something at the scene in or takes something with them and that exchange, it's almost a triad between the suspect,
the victim, and the scene. And stronger you can connect those three points true physical evidence, through interviews with witnesses, through a statements conventions, through interviews with the victim of their life, the stronger your case becomes. And what Lou would do is he would go to extraordinary debts to prove that transfer theory and document extensively, well, what was taken from the scene, What might the suspect have with them in his possession if we get a search wark,
what did he leave at the scene. And so that fundamental understanding and application of the transfer theory is something that in experienced detectives just may not have a good understanding of what lou really understood. Even beyond that is, after he returned from the Cross Springs Lace Department, he went to work for the Coroner's office in the District Attorney's office, so he understood the medical legal side of
death investigations. Side investigations were a number of major cases they are, and he had experience and over two hundred murder investigations to include Peninsula murder, that kid netber in Colorado's or in El Paso County outside Gm Springs, Colorado, where he was able to take the same physical evidence that had been there all along in a cold case that was four years old ed in languished of a young girl by the name of a heatherd On Church
and within eleven weeks he had that suspect. They identified it in custody in that suspect up pleading guilty to this first degree murder and later pled guilty to a second count of first degree murder. And that was all that Lou Smith's worked with he and his team detectives.
You also chronicle another case where you say that evil came to Colorado Springs in nineteen seventy five with the Freddie Lee Glenn, and Michael Corbett, and that one of these victims was Karen Grammer Kelsey, Grammar's sister, and that Lew had connected the crimes of Glenn and Corbett and
which we were five murders. Tell us a little bit about Lou and his involvement in this case, a very tragic case where Aaron Kelsey, Grammer's younger sister had a job here in Clora Springs at a restaurant and a group of African American arm robbers came in to rob the restaurant, left without any money at Karen, who was dating one of the other employees that were one of the cooks, was waiting for him to get off, and as the robberty's suspects for leaving the restaurant, they abducted
Kieren and she was brutally raped and murdered. And this was one of a string of cases that these suspects were involved in, and I was only on the scene on one of these. I was a young rookie police officer by that time, and I of course knew Lou from the time I'd been at police cadet, But Lou was one of the detectives on one of the scenes that I was present at. But he had the ability to look at the evidence of all of these different cases.
I think there were five that he ended up lanking together with the scene group of suspects, most of whom were at the time for Carson soldiers for Carson is a large military base here in the Color Springs, Colorado area, and ended up getting convictions on both Borbitten and Glenn.
And the reason I kind of bring out those earlier cases is to show the complexity of the investigations and his capability of a detective to see things and a lot of other detectives myself included, may have overlooked, and he had the experience and knowledge to apply those investigative skills on cases successfully. So when he was hired to be part of the Boulder District Attorney's Office Ramsey task Force.
He brought all that experience with him and that was sorely needed because the Boulder Police Department did not have experienced homicide detectives. For people not familiar with Boulder, Colorado, it's a bedroom community outside of Denver, Colorado, the state capital. It's a beautiful community. It has the state Colorado State University is their large campus. There's some high tech industry there, but it's a smaller community where you don't get a
lot of major crimes to include home sides. Now, you just mentioned that Lou Smith's involvement with Boulder Caiado Police Department and this task force, the Ramsey Task Force. Tell us where you are in your career at that time.
You talked about that.
You gained invaluable experience being involved with Low seeing how he operated from the beginning right to the conviction, through the entire process, even the following two perpetrators we talked about. He had asked you to come along to that interview, so very very interesting how he got how involved you were in learning from Lou Smidt tell us about the circumstances in which he is involved with the Ramsey case, and what is his belief initially about the Ramseys and their field.
Good question, and let me try to wrap that up with the belief that he had wing in. And I know this because we talked about this when he was hired for being interviewed by Alex Huder, the Boulder District Attorney. Lou had used me for reference and he gave me heads up that Hey, Johnny, you might be getting call from Boulder DA. I put you down as a reference. They're putting together this tennis force and they need a couple of experienced investigators, so I was happy to give
a reference to the Buller DA. At that time I had been elected the sheriff in Alpass County. Hola Spring is the county seat Bowler is about an hour and a half in a north and a little west of where I lived at the time, and when I became the sheriff in nineteen ninety four I was elected. I started junior mccamp in ninety five and Lou became my captain of detectives. Unfortunately, his wife, Barb had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing some treatment, so Lou ended
up retiring from the county. From the Sheriff's Office had already previously retired from the police department as at all, and so he had gone into retirement. When the Boulder DA called him, he was Alex Hander. The DA Lou out of retirement to be a part of this task force.
So going in. Before Lou started first day with the task force, he and I had talked when he gave me heads up that the DA may be calling me, and we both thought, again, just from living to information from the media and what the police department had put out there, this was probably going to be a pretty
straightforward case. It sounded like initially that it had to have been a family member, since there was reportedly no footprints in the snow, no forced entry, And what Lou said is, well, you know, I think it's probably just a matter of supporting through who in the family was responsible. But you know, within probably a week or two, it
wasn't very long. Actually, the next time I spoke to Lou, I asked him how things were going in Boulder, and the first thing he said is, Johnny, there's something wrong with this case. He said, the evidence doesn't match up with what we're being and the more he got involved in the case, the more he was perplexed with what is being told by the police to the media and to the public into other law enforcement was not at all the truth. There was forced entry into the home
in the basement. There was no footprints in the snow on the south side of the house because the snow had melted. In Colorado, when you have a southern facing the home or business, that the sun worms that the snow there more quickly than on the shaded side, So the snow had already melted. And Blue came to the belief that there had to have been an intruder who
came into the home. And when he brought that to the attention of the Boulder detectives, they were incensed he was not going along with what their theory had been it was a family member, and whenever he pointed out physical evidence to the contrary, he was dismissed and really chastised for not going along with what they were saying. I know I'll be sized too by Boulder and other law enforcement agencies for speaking out, But Lou had the
courage to say, this is just not right. The work the case is as long as he could tolerate it for a year and a half. But when the Boulder Grand Jury was being in panel to indict the parents, Lou resigned in protest and he wrote a letter, a very heartfelt letter to the district attorney like senator who had hired him, and he said, I just cannot be a part of this injustice. He said, it just is unethical, and so he resigned in protests and had to fight his way to get in to testify at the grand jury.
Let's go back, Let's unwine this story and go back to the faithful. December twenty sixth, nineteen ninety six, five point fifty two, Patsy Ramsey calls nine one one. Tell us what the family had done on Christmas Day? Where they had gone? You talk about the plans that they had for Disneyland a few days later. Tell us where the family was at forehand, and what happens at five point fifty two, and what is the first response from Boulder Police Department.
And I'm happy to and I might qualify this that in deciding to write this book about two years ago, I realized that I was in a unique position to write this. Not only had I known Blue personally and been involved on the fringe of the investigation since he was first brought in but the family, through the Smit Family team that I'm still guard of, I was given unrestricted access to his investigative notes and his tentation. He put it together a a an extraordinary spreadsheet, very detailed.
Family was so supportive of this book and helping get the truth out there that I had restricted access to six hundred and thirty two slides that he had put together in his lifetime, a spreadsheet of eight hundred and eighty three columns, I mean rose fifty four call of each of these spreadsheets. This spreadsheet, each the cells over forty seven thousand potential pieces of information. The report, the Boulder Police report on this investigation is over one hundred
thousand pages. And he had all of this information on his computer and his investigating notes. And what I realized was what he left behind his legacy was this investigation that now I was in a unique position to write about. I had been with him on so many of these cases. So got to the point where I felt, you know that the family deserves this information to come to help
public deserves to know the truth. And if I don't write this story, well then then who is I apologized, Dan, I kind of went off on a tangent there, and I don't know that the answered your question originally, But can you respond and get me back on track if I took this off on the Sidebarder, Well, I'm glad you did.
You did indicate that based on Loosemith's comprehensive and extraordinary note taking along with these slides, the amount of slides that he has that are on the Wild Blue Press website for people to see from that you were able to go back to December twenty sixth, nineteen ninety six, see what the Boulder police response was initially and see how this tragedy unfolded. Tell us about five point fifty two and Patsy Ramsey's calt in two nine one one, and what happens when Boulder police respond.
Thank you to forget me back. And I should make sure that I'm not overstating what's on the Wild Blue Press website wwww dot wildbluepress dot com. What's on there? Twenty slides of blues. The book has an additional thirty six, so it's only fifty six slides of his six hundred and thirty two slide presentation that he put together The other unique thing that I have is true Lou introduced
me to both Patsy and John Ramsey. Patsy passed away four years after the worker at the age of forty nine, but I have since then been in contact with John Ramsey as well as his son John Andrew Ramsey. And so I'm in a unique position when someone might make
a statement based upon secondhand information speculation. Getting in a unique position because I know the story that you're asking about at five fifty two a m under Simmer twenty six, nineteen ninety six, not only through Low's Lands as a Pomspen detective and having still in this case for the last twenty six years, but I've also heard this story
from John Ramsey, John Bennie's father. As the family wakes up that morning, Patsy the mother goes down the huge home three level above ground and then a basement, and she's going down from the upper level, which is where the master bedroom suite was. As she's going down the spiral staircase on the bottoms up, she finds this three page ransom note that the killer had laughed saying that they have their daughter and if they're not paid this
ransom demand one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Then it she'll be murdered. And so she runs upstairs to the second floor, which is where John Benney's bedroom was, finds the bed empty, screams out. John Ramsey, who is upstairs in the master bedroom, comes down. They search the house, they can't find her. Immediately, John Ramsey tells Patsy, now call the police. Call the police. Why he's searching, you know,
the rest of the home. And to also feel like your question about what the family had been doing that day, what they were intending to do, because that's an important part of the story. Is on Christmas Day, December twenty six, ninety six, and when they open their presence, you know, just like any family would. That evening, they go to a French house, they have a nice dinner, and then they come home around ten thirty. Return home in the car.
There's an attached broad floor. John Bennet had fallen asleep per day stairs it's bed, and then and Bert also goes to sleep. He's on that same level. So it's been a long day for them Christmas Day, everybody is tired and they're trying to prepare for the next day. Because they were going to be leaving early in the morning. John Ramsey is pilot and he would at the time his own plane, and they were going to fly to their baby ship home in the four Ramseys, John Patsy,
John Namper. They were going to catch commercial flight from Denver to Florida, where they were going to board the Disney CRUs So who was a lot of exciting time head that they had been planning.
So John tell us about the initial search by police, what they discover, before we talk about the subsequent searches of the Ramsey home.
Good The first responding officer is Officer French from the Boulder Police Department. When he arrives within minutes of the nine month one call, he's handed the kidnapping note. He takes a brief look at it, then he searches the home, does not open the door downstairs in the basement where John Beney's body was found. But he was there in the basement and he saw that door and for whatever reason did not unlock it and go inside. A fall
for assistance. One of the good things that happened is there's other officers, supervisors and the crime lab that arrives and they do photograph the scene early on, and those photographs were important for Lou to be able to determine that there was a window standing open in the basement.
It was a window that had been previously opened by John Ramsay munsterly when he had been locked out of the home, and Lou saw that there was this large green suitcase propped up below the window that he theorized might have been used by the suspect and exiting the home. So there was some good photography at the crime scene that was used later on.
Where was the suitcase from and what was found inside that's suitcase?
The suitcase, all of the luggage of the family was in the basement, but it was not in that position. And so when John Ramsey was asked by Detective Arnt to take one other person who was in the home and searched the house from top to bottom. When he went into the basement with this other neighbor, this is now seven hours after nine one. But when John Ramsey went down the basement with the other gentleman, he pointed
out that that window was standing open. He said, that's the window that I got in that i'd broken before, And he said that suitcase wasn't there, that doesn't belong there. Inside the suitcase was two important things. That was not John Benney's suitcase, but inside was one of her Barbie dolls in one of her favorite books, a Doctor Zeus's book.
And what Lu theorized is that the suspect had intended to remove John Benny from the home by being inside that suitcase, and when he was preparing that obviously wanted her to have a book and a doll and so Lu believed that she was alive when that suitcase was positioned below that window. But for whatever reason, whether or not, they weren't able to it's window the suitcase through the window. But that's an important part of showing that there was an attempt to kidnap the little girl.
Now this ensuing seven hours. They look at the ransom note. They look at the gist of the ransom notes, which directs them to the specific amounts of money one hundred
and eighteen thousand dollars. And you write, when John was asked what the one hundred and eighteen thousand dollars might be, that specific amount that was there was blank checks or there was indications of that amount of money, which was a bonus for that year of his work, so that the perpetrator could have seen some evidence of that specific number one hundred and eighteen thousand.
So they were arranging.
He was arranging to get that money in that ensuing seven hours before he was asked by a friend and the detective Arm't to go search the house once again. He opened that door that had not been previously open, and he discovered John Bennet on her back, her hands tied with sort of a string like material, and a black duct tape on her mouth. Tell us what he does and as a result, obviously contaminates this crime scene.
Yes, and tragically one of the biggest mistakes that was made by the police early on was not blocking down that crime scene and preserving the crime scene. There were people that were allowed in, family members rowing throughout the house. The ransom note was passed around to different people that the family's priest was wowed into the home, and detectives
came and went. Crime scene people came and went. Nobody looked into that behind that door for seven hours until Dexecutive Aren't asked John Ramsey to take one other man that was there. A friend in searched the home. The paycheck stab. I should mention that John was Ramsey was paid a bonus at the beginning of the year for the one hundred and eighteen thousand dollars, and that amount was on each of the paycheck steps that was subsequently
printed throughout the year. Since this was the end of the year, there were paycheck steps, John explains throughout the house, So anybody could have looked at that paycheck step and seeing that mount one hundred and eighteen thousand dollars. That was his best guess of where that amount came from. Other than that it really had no value to him.
Now.
The also the thing that Lou Smith noticed there was other evidence outside that he thought was pursuant to the injuries that John Bennet had experienced. So tell us about the baseball bats.
Lou in reviewing the crime scene photos on the exterior of the home that we're taking that morning before the body was found, he noticed an aluminum baseball bat, a black one that was along the foundation on the north side of the house where he thought that maybe of significance was the day after the murder, during the autopsy, the corner that found that his determination was that she died through a fixial strangulation, but also had a severe fracture to the right side of her skull that ran
from the front to the back eight inch skull fracture. Another expert had later determined that it was equivalent to person falling off a three story building and landing on their head. What lou believed is that had to have been inflicted such as violent blow, probably had some kind of a blunt object. And when he saw that photo of the baseball bat near the butler door on the north side of the house, he thought that was significant
for two reasons. The butler door on the morning of the twenty six was found to be unlocked, that no forced entry. Didn't know if it was unlocked the night before when the neighbors, one of the officers unlocked that door and left open. But when you go in that butler door, lu pointed out that the spiral staircase where the note was found was very close to that butler door, so he thought that was significant. There's a second baseball bat that Luke noticed in the exterior Creansine photos taken
that morning on the south side of the house. Now, the Ramsays were asked, are those baseball bats yours, and they said no, neither of the baseball bats were theirs. They didn't recognize them. However, they did say it's not beyond the possibility that some of the neighbor kids who came over and loved to play with Burke and John Benney, that they might have brought the baseball bats over there, but they thought that they were not part of any
of the toys that the family owned. Salutha of that baseball bat, especially on the north side, could be very significant.
Let's talk about the immediately the Boulder Police Department and their conclusions as to what happened, which informs how they proceed.
Within four days the case detective and supervisors. But one of the detectives, Trump Tom Treheel, was filling out a lab request for the Colored Bureau Investigation CBI, and at the top this abated twelve thirty of ninety six, so four days after the murder. He's filling out the lab request form and puts at the top that it is John Benny Ramsey is the victim. The suspects are Patsy Ramsey and John Ramsey and puts the offense as will
full kill homicide family. So immediately within forties of the murder, the detectives had reached the conclusion that the parents were
responsible for that murder. And what's tragic is on the fifteenth of January nineteen ninety seventh, so within three weeks of the murder, the lab report came back on those articles that were submitted for biological testing, as well as other lab examinations, but the fingernail scrapings that were obtained during the autopsy on the twenty seventh of December nineteen ninety six, as well as the panties that John Binney was wearing identifying DNA that excluded the Ramsey family specifically
John Ramsey, Burke Ramsey, Patsy Ramsey, a total of ten people whose DNA blood was submitted. One of those people
that's named on that report is Patsy Ramsey. What's said is on that same day, December twenty or December thirtieth, nineteen ninety six, the Bolder Police Department is holding a press conference and during the press conference, the Public Information Office for PIO makes the statement that they had obtained blood samples from all of the Ramsey family except for Patsy Ramsey, and the PIO makes some kind of a comment about perhaps she was too distraught to comply. Well,
that's a lie. That is not true, and they knew it was not true because the detective who's in charge of the evidence has just submitted a form with all of their names submitted the biological samples. One or two possibilities either of the pio just misspoke and it's an inverting mistake, or it was a deliberate intentional distortion of
the truth. Now, had it been an unintentional mistake, somebody should have stepped forward, either during that press conference or immediately after and say, wait a minute, we have to do a correction. You know, we did have her sample, but that was not done. So it implies that this was a deliberate, intentional attempt to use the media and provide this information to the public in an effort to coerce a confession or statement or cooperation from the parents.
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slash mur de Are zip recruiter the smartest way to hire? Now, we talked about the philosophy that Loosmith had, and of course subsequently you have is that the belief that the perpetrator brings things to the crime scene and then takes things away from the crime scene. Tell us what Loosmith investigated in terms of what was left and what more importantly the killer took with them.
Well, Luke pointed out was there were several items of physical evidence left at the crime scene that had to have been brought by the suspect into the home. Specifically, the black duct tape that was found over John Binney's mouth. It had been torn on both sides, is about a four or five inch strip of duct tape and instead being cut, it was torn. Well, that's important is if you could find the role of duct tape that was torn, that was used before and after that piece was torn,
you could make those together. But nowhere in the Ramsey home were there any black duct tape rolls. Ever, Secondly, was the white parachute cord known as pairchord five point fifty that was used by the suspect to tye John Benny up their wrists with slip knot and then also a separatist used to fashion the garat that she was strangled with. There was no other parasite cord found anywhere in the home. That was another item that had been
brought in. The other thing that Lou did was he showed that there were two marks woing patterns, one on the right side at John Beni's cheek on the right side low or ear, and the other one on her back, and Lou believed those were made by a stun gun, where there was no stun gun in the possession of the Ramses. They had never bought one, they didn't know anybody who owned a stun gun. There was not one found in the crime scene or anywhere in the home
by the police. So that was another item that Lou said had been brought into the crime scene by the suspect. And he also took that item with him when he left. But the most important thing that he took with him
lip point out was his DNA. He left DNA both into the fingernails on the panties, and then later in two thousand and eight, another lab report verified that there was touch or trace DNA that was compatible with the DNA on the finger nails and the peonties that was found on John Beanese Long John, so she was wearing for pajama bottom. So there's three sources of DNA that was compatible with one another in two thousand and eight
that excluded the family. It also came back and showed it was mail DNA.
You also mentioned that there was a bootprint left by the body in that wine cellar.
Yes, Lou thought that was significant because this high tech bootprint was right next to John Benese's body, and it was very crisp, very clean, so it didn't look like it had been there very long. But all of the first responders, the lab personnel who had been there, their bootprint, their footwear was checked, as was all of the footwear and the Ramsey household, and there was no high tech
footwear being worn by any of those people. So loud their eyes that it's probable that the suspect too entered the home it was wearing high tech boots.
Now let's get to the explanation of despite what Lou Smith has already found what already has been determined about the DNA itself, basically excluding the entire Ramsey family. And this idea that Lou points out all of these things that were not found. Any evidence was found of duct tape or parachute cord, or high tech boots or stun gun or any evidence to point that the Ramseys had
anything to do with the assault itself. In terms of all the things we're missing from the home, it makes no sense where they would have gone to if they were in that home and it.
Was searched thoroughly.
Let's talk about how Lou wants to make a presentation to the prosecutor in this case and how a grand jury was impaneled and the results.
Yes, Lou was adamant that the grand jury should hear all of the evidence in this case and not just certain parts of the evidence that would omit any possibilit of an intruder theory intruder coming to the home. So what Lou had to do was this was right after he left the Boulder DA's office, after the grand jury was impaneled by the special Prosecutors, and Lou wrote a letter to the grand jury foreman asking permission to come in and speak and show some of his slide presentation
to the grand juror. And he said in his letter that there's evidence here of an intruder that needs to be shown. Instead, the special prosecutor for the grand jury contacted Lou and said you're not going to be allowed to testify for the grand jury and that we want all of your case reports and the slide presentation back. You shouldn't have any of that information Lou had to hire. Didn't hire that. He Atteamed Legal Services through two attorneys
pro bono. That they didn't charge him for this, but they represented Lou and argued that the information Lou had he didn't take anything from the Boulder Police or the Diaism has already had that he just had copies of the autopsy report, copies of the grand scene photos, copies of different documents police reports that came from their file
in the CBI reports for example. So what the decision was Since these were already in the possession of the Boulder Police, the decision was made that he would be allowed to testify. He asked for three hours and only gave him two hours. Not sure which slides he got to present and that limited amount of time, but he did get to fulfill his request to testify. He later told me that it was a very difficult, challenging examination.
In presentation, he said he was never more rudily treated by an attorney or by members of the grand jury as he experienced during that session.
Now, what is stated in that grand jury decision.
The grand jury transcripts have never been least and we've tried, as our team or sent family team to obtain them. Different attorneys have attempted to attain copies of the grand jury transcripts to no avail. They've never been shown to the public, which which is wrong. We should know what the grand jury transcripts say. What we were told was there were indictments against both Patsy Ramsey and John Ramsey.
For some it wasn't for homicide. It was some lesser crime will fold something about I don't have it here in front of me, but subjecting the child to dangerous situation or something like that. Those charges were never filed, so that grand jury returned to true Bill, which is why Luke could talk about it. But the parents were never charged with those crimes, primarily in lowse belief was
that they couldn't be proven. In fact, the district attorney said during a press conference that the grand jury has concluded their investigation, but there's no evidence to substantiate any wrongful doing. But what also, what the DA knew was that the parents were represented by major law firm out of Denver, and no doubt the district Attorney knew their star witness was going to be Lou Smith, and this was a case that against appearance, they could not be proven.
But the statute limitations expired after three years. So that's another reason why we think the grand jury transcripts should be released.
Now you write about what happens afterwards, and you go to February twenty third, two thousand and a Perfect Murder, Perfect Town TV miniseries broadcast by CBS. Tell us a little bit about this and why you've included some of this information.
There's been several documentaries, articles, books like mine that have been written. One of the ones that did get a lot of exposure was Lawrence Schiller's Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, and in that one there were different people, including Lou Smith, who had a major role that was played by an actor in this case, Chris christ Jefferson was selected to portray Lou Smith, and as he was going in to be filmed for this role, Chris Christoffers and wanted to
meet Lou and flew into Colorado Springs. I was there when Lou met with Chris Christofferson. We spent the day together. It was an interesting experience, and that documentary didn't have a lot of success when it was released.
You read about the continuing effort by Lou Smith, and then your eventual involvement. Tell us a little bit about that and how the circumstances in which all that happens, and until we can get to the point where we talk about the extraordinary efforts that Lou continues to do to prove his stun gun theory.
When Lou left the DA's office, he did take all of his investigati files, notes, his computers that contained a lot of the documents and photos with him, and then he continued on his own to investigate this case, attempting
to identify that the suspect. One of the things that he did after he left the DA's office was to continue to try to prove that it was a stun gun that was used, and the importance of that cannot be understated or overstated because and lose mind that went to prove the intent of the killer was immobilized not to kill, but to mobilize the victim in the home,
which goes with the kidnet for ransom intent. So Lou ended up doing to prove that it was a stun gun was He purchased an adult sized pig, a full grown pig with a coroner out of the Denver metro area and the pig euthanized and then applied the stun gun. He found a stun gun of the same make and model that he theorized was used and used the pig to recreate the stun gun marks, which came back identical
to what was shown on John Benay's back. The distance between the two probes on the stun gun is is important. Measures three point five centimans between the two probes, which did identify a airtaser stun gun that had been used, and Lou was able to acquire that exact model.
Now tell us about the effort that Lou does to still approach Boulder Police Department, especially given his focus on this DNA. He believes that the ramses have been exonerated by virtue of this DNA and technology advancements make Lou believe that this should be definitely tested. Tell us about his efforts to approach the Boulder Police Department and offer his services.
Yes, throughout the rest of his life until he passed away in twenty ten, Lou continued even though he wasn't paid to be on the DA task Force any longer, on his own time and own experience. He wasn't working for financial gain. He was working really to help solve this case. And so he continued to send emails and what he called darts. And he would like send a little dart into the Boulder Police to say, you know
this person here, their DNA needs to be checked. And he kept on his spreadsheet of eight hundred and eighty three entries what four tier systems, So as he learned more about an individual, they would move up to the top tier. So he continued until he passed away, feeding this information to the mystery or to the police department and trying to get them to follow some of these leads.
The problem he had was that the parents still remained under the umbrella of suspicion with Boulder Police detectives and any time that Low or anyone else would try to say, you know, maybe these other people should be looked at. There was just this pushback from the Boulder police. We felt that too. As a team. After Lou had passed away, our Smith family team met with the Boulder law enforcement on tow occasions, and we felt the same thing. Every
time we brought up somebody that should be pursued. There was just it was met with a lack of Indian entry at all.
You're right about the extraordinary relationship that was developed between John Ramsey, Patsy Ramsey, and Lou Smith, and also that you were able to meet with Patsy once and meet with John as well.
Yes, I'm not sure why. I was still the sheriff of bel Passo County and there was a meeting in Carl Springs with an attorney who Lou was very close to, and John and Patsy Ramsey were both attending that meeting, and Lou pulled me aside and he says, hey, John, I want you to go to this meeting with me because I want you to meet John and Patsy Ramsey. I said, well, I'll be happy to do that. I didn't realize that would be the only time I got to meet Patsy, because shortly after that is when she
cancer returned, and then she died shortly thereafter. Lou had established a very close relationship with John and Patsy for two reasons. Not only were they grieving parents and had first hand information on this case, but Lou also wanted to make sure that he kept that lit of communication open so that he could on a person of interest. He could call them and say, you know, was this person here ever employed by Access Graphics, John's Ramsey's business,
So he purposely kept that line of communication open. When Patsy was diagnosed with cancer and was in hospice in Atlanta, Lou flew from Color Springs to Atlanta to spend a little bit more time with her about this case, hoping some information might come out that you know, would have been lost. So he documented very carefully each of those meetings that he had with Patsy Ramsey and also with John Ramsey.
Because he says, as an opportunity to stop for a second for these messages, the idea of what was learned. You talk about the best practices and lessons learned with this particular case, but you also were so involved with Lucieneth that you were asked by the family to do the eulogy and very important you include what you did have to say about this very important figure in your life.
Yes, I was honored to be asked to represent Lou's other homicide detective partners, to include Dave Spencer, who had a major role after Lou passed away and trying to continue this best friend and partner's work Loup and the book is dedicated to Blue Spent and Dave Spencer, and without Dave's support, I don't know that we'd ever gotten
as far as we have. Dave passed away also to cancer on the twenty four year anniversary of John Bedney's death in Simber twenty sixth, twenty twenty and left a real void with our team, and it was one of the other reasons why I decided I needed to get
this book written. And I relied so heavily on day with his thoroughness of documenting or interview surveillances or reports that when he was gone, right before he passed away, in fact, our last based based conversation, he asked me to go over to his house and pick up his notes in his case file he had a three ring binder that had put together, and so I decided that I needed to make concentrated effort getting this case oxen
as best I could in this book. For me knowing that you know, as this may be my best opportunity to do that as well.
You chronicle that Lou was adamant he would be involved with this right to his nine day and so he made appearances on with Barbara Walters an interview and Larry King. And despite those appearances and all of the incredible evidence that he was able to bring forth in those interviews, still the narrative was not what loose Nitt would.
Have liked, was it? It was not. It seemed like whenever he tried to bring this evidence out through media, Katie Currie or Larry King or Barbara Walters, the interviewers certainly understood Lou's credibility, his credentials, what he was trying to communicate, But Boulder Police were continually resistant of any possible intruder theory despite all of the physical evidence, and
we've experienced that to our team. There was another reason I felt that the book need to be written, because I'm not so sure that Boulder Police really understand their case all that well. I think that there's been so much misinformation, disinformation and such. It's such a complex case, with over one hundred thousand reports. I think that there may be some misperceptions or misinformation within the Boulder law enforcement community. Do they know that this DNA excluded the family?
Was that report well known? I know Lou was still at the District Attorney's office in Boulder when it came to light, but that was like six or seven months after it was turned over to the police. So has something happened to some of the evidence instance some of the reports. How retrievable is that information? For example, Lou knew that there were a total five forensic handwriting examiners who looked at the note that the rantsing modes and
had varying results. Some said that they couldn't exclude Patsy or one in particular said, and I think this gets misinterpreted that she may have written the note, and then thatness represented that she did write the note, But there were other examiners who said they couldn't confirm that she had written note. But there was a really important one that Lou had identified. A friensic examiner who gave the friensic is expert opinion that Patsy Ramsey was not the
author of the note. She did not write the note. But this is another thing that I think Blue brought out that other people just either didn't know or ignored, was that the Ramseys both took and passed polygraph examinations by one of the leading polygraph operators in the US at the time. And one of the questions that was asked both of them was do you know who murdered John Benie? And they said no when they passed that question. But a specific question that went to Patsy was did
you write the note? And she said no and passed that part of the examination that results that were validated by an independent polygraph operator. Now I know people say, well, you know, polygraphs can't be used in court, and that's why they're not admissible. They had both of the parents failed the polygraph exam examination, everybody would have said, let's see, you know, that shows that they were involved. Now, as a detective, we use polygraphs and the results of the
polygraphs fairly extensively on major cases. But what we always knew was, well, you have to confirm what the polygraph says with a physical evidence. So when we have forensic examiners such as what lew had found out or he's now retired a US Secret Service and writing expert who said Patsy did not write the note, and then she passes a polygraph and she not write the note, how much of that information is known too bolder unforment and
known to the public. And those are things that lou tried to communicate through the various appearances that he did on different shows and TV shows and through documentaries, but it was ignored it. So what I've tried to do is continue lose work and continue to get the truth out there in the written form, in publishing some of his slide presentations to give references not only not just an opinion that he had, but what's the original source, what's the physical covenant? Show us?
You also talk about really and I like to ask you, how do you is you did make this presentation to bold a police department with your team, with this incredible amount of evidence, how do you explain especially the resistance to retest DNA utilizing new genetic genealogy. You say it's just a phone call that all you would have to do is make a phone call.
Yeah, yeah, I can't explain that. As our team, our spent family team, the Boulder DA and two DETECTIVESPD came to that meeting. It was hosted in the DA's office. Michael Doherty is the District Attorney still and we thought there was a fairly positive meeting. We left them information that was actionable, but then we never heard anything. We'd offer to come up and go through lose slide presentation.
That offer was ignored. So what we did is we took the initiative and I sent a meeting was back to the Boulder DA in the police requesting a second meeting. The District Attorney did return that email and he said that any future meeting or invest would have to be coordinated through Commander Tom Trehill of the Boulder Police Department. I schedule the meeting if I have, if I'm available,
I'll try to stop by. So the second meeting was at the Boulder Police Department with Commander TREHILLO Commander Gossip and the District Attorney was able to and during that meeting. This was during COVID, so we kept our team presence in a month just Cindy Smith Marlon and I were in a parent representatives, but we did offer to come back up and go through Lose Slight presentation in detail. We offered to give them as hard copies of all
six hundred and thirty two slides. We gave them actionable information. We gave them our top twenty list of persons of interest. We even list of the independent Eliminada throughout DNA collection testing efforts. I think there was probably eight or nine on that confidential list at that time. We shared with them the other people that we were full into their cooperation and their trust, and they refused any future meetings.
They just completely cut off all phone email exchanges, to the point that after some time, when Commander Trihio refused to return my email's over phone calls, I put a cheat Navis Herald and specifically asked for a meeting with her, and she wouln't even give me the courtesy of a return phone.
Now, despite that, the Smith Family team continues, what is your goal with this book and what is your goal with this investigation that continues?
What our Smith Family team hopes to do, and this is Lou's life, is to communicate through the physical evidence the unniable proved that the no member of the Ramsey family was involved in the murder of John Bedet. One point two is that this case, it's still solvable. The DNA that was there, the genetic markers can rule people out, not just the Ramsey family. It can be used in a variety of ways. Now we don't know that the state of the DNA evidence because your police won't release.
We do have the genetic markers that lou had. Initially there were ten genetic workers in ninety seven. Since then in two thousand and eight are additional, so there's at least fourteen genetic markers.
But there are.
Advances being made every day in DNA technolology with private labs. When we last met with Boulder Police, we gave them the names, phone numbers, email addresses of three private labs that were willing to step forward and help with the investigation. We've stayed in touch with those three private labs. They have never been contacted. Our team even offered to pay for the testing through our goalfundme page, and that request
has been denied as well. One of the other things that happened in December December sixth, the last year of twenty twenty two, Older Police disclosed a media release of the results of an internal investigation that showed that Detective Tom Treheo and four other investigators were being disciplined for a misconduct and specifically not investigating or thoroughly investigating their
case load. They did not say that it was the John Binney case, but there was discipline to include Commander Treheo being removed from the supervisor over the investigations division and put on midnights in patrol. So we hope to do and after that meeting, I sent another meeting request to the police chief as well as the DA and the commanders involved with well Or Police on the investigation, asking for a meeting and gave them to the end
of January of twenty twenty three to respond. They've never never called, never never accepted art or requests for a meeting. Helped share within the evidence that clearly shows that the Ramsey family are not involved in that this DNA can be used to eliminate additional persons of interest and hopefully identify who the friends.
I want to thank you so much John Wesley Anderson for coming on and talking about your book. Lou and John Bennet, A legendary Lahman's quest to solve a Beauty Queen's Murder. I want to applaud you for this book and for your extraordinary effort and all obviously chronicling the incredible story of legendary Lou Detective Lou Smith.
Thank you, Dan.
Do you have a website that people might refer to tell us about that?
Thank you? Yes, I have probably web site for this case is my publisher, Wildbluepress dot com. I have a separate website that does not have anywhere near the information that the publishers do. My website is jwander dot com. My initials JW A N d er dot com.
Thank you so much, John Wesley Anderson, Lou and John Benet, A legendary Lahman's Quest to solve a Beauty Queen's Murder. Thank you so much for this interview, and you have a great evening.
Good night,
