By Marilyn Bardsley
(Continued)
And so began a series of leaks from the police department and other local officials that created a toxic investigative environment and a fertile ground for media sensationalism. From that day on, a clear pattern emerged in the coverage of the case. While police chief Tom Koby made little comment, reporters had their own sources, which tended to implicate the Ramseys. At that point, John and Patsy were placed under police protection but were largely unaware of the mounting suspicion against them.
One person, however, saw what was happening. The Ramseys' friend lawyer Mike Bynum convinced them they needed an experienced attorney: "It is foolish to blindly throw oneself into the maw of the justice system and to trust the result."
In retrospect, whether or not this was the right thing to do, the media interpreted as proof that the Ramseys were guilty: why would you need a lawyer if you were innocent?
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| Ramseys on TV |
Meanwhile, the story had developed major traction outside of Colorado and eventually hundreds of journalists from tabloids to major news outlets streamed into the Boulder area. When they couldn't pry out any juicy nuggets of information from the police and local citizens, they made things up or took some little kernel of information and blew it all of out context. Nothing was too sacred for the media to attack:
Vanity Fair quoted a policeman saying that on the first morning, Patsy Ramsey while weeping, had been "peering at him through splayed fingers." Friends and family members who were present at the time tell a far different story, describing how John and Patsy were so overcome with grief that they were unable to talk without crying. Their opinion was quickly dismissed as being biased.
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