Presumed Guilty: An Investigation Into the Jonbenet Ramsey Case, the Media, and the Culture of Pornography

In what he acknowledges is a very speculative treatment of the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, Singular (The Rise and Rise of David Geffen, etc.) contends that the six-year-old beauty queen's parents did not murder her. He finds that JonBenet's mother, Patsy Ramsey, doesn't fit the profile of women who murder, and he further suggests that JonBenet may have been killed by a pornographer. Singular found photos of children on the Internet who were tied up the way JonBenet was bound, and he learned of a Boulder photographer who had tried to take nude pictures of another child beauty contestant and who was said to have photographed one little girl flying a kite that trailed a ""white, nylonlike material"" similar to the cord that had been tied around JonBenet's wrist. But Singular's riskiest conjecture involves father John Ramsey. He theorizes that John, fearing that Patsy might die of ovarian cancer before JonBenet attained national celebrity, tried, without Patsy's knowledge, to accelerate the pursuit of JonBenet's fame by having risqu promotional photos taken of their daughter. After JonBenet was killed, Singular surmises, John wrote the ransom note to cover up his bad judgment. As far-fetched as all this sounds, Singular advances his thesis cautiously and even writes that ""the future will reveal how much of it is true."" Readers who can't get enough of this grizzly case will find Singular's tone and the modesty of his claims persuasive. 50,000 first printing; major ad/promo. (July)