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It has taken the outside agitation of a publicity-seeking New York City legal expert--no, not Geraldo Rivera--to put the heaviest formal pressure on Boulder authorities. Attorney Darnay Hoffman (clients include Bernhard Goetz, the famed subway gunman; family members include wife Sidney Biddle Barrows, the famed "Mayflower Madam") has filed suit against district attorney Alex Hunter, charging--under an obscure Colorado statute that allows private citizens to question the actions of prosecutors--that Hunter has "unjustifiably refused" to charge Patsy Ramsey. Hoffman's evidence? Testimonials from four writing experts alleging it is probable the ransom note discovered when JonBenet was first reported missing is in her mother's hand. A judge has yet to decide whether the suit merits a hearing.
Most Boulderites seem to wish the issue would just disappear. A recent Denver Post report found that citizens were more concerned with issues like traffic, parking and urban growth than with solving beauty-queen slayings. Fleet White, a close friend of John Ramsey's who was with him when he found JonBenet's body, wrote a letter to the New York Times pleading with the media to leave Boulder alone on the murder's first anniversary. That request will probably not be met. Earlier this month, the media coordinator for the Oklahoma City bombing trials surveyed news organizations about their interest in a JonBenet trial should an indictment of anyone ever be filed; 162 said they would attend. That would compare with a mere 74 on hand for Timothy McVeigh's trial. --Reported by Richard Woodbury/Denver
THE VERSACE KILLING Clothes Make The Heiresses
I don't think it was the best Versace ever," said CNN's Elsa Klensch after the house's show of spring fashions last fall in Milan, "but for her it was a triumph." The "her" is Donatella Versace, a designer in her own right, who took over the company's creative reins in the wake of her brother Gianni's murder last July in Miami. In the opinion of most observers, the Milan show--as well as a show for Versace's Versus line the same week--proved the house is in capable hands, its visionary wedding of cheap sex appeal, expensive classicism and odd materials still potent. Donatella's daughter Allegra, 11, who inherited her slain uncle's share of the business, is reportedly bearing up well. At the Versus show, she enjoyed the honor of being seated front and center, right next to Victoria Adams, the Posh Spice Girl.