Tab Man: Old School, New Moves
                     
The hotel maid was suspicious. In a guest's room, she found 8-by-10                     
photographs of JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old who had been                     
murdered nine months earlier in Boulder, Colo. On the dresser sat a                     
copy of the three-page ransom note found inside the home. She became                     
alarmed. The hotel was, after all, near Okemos, Mich., hometown of                     
JonBenet's father, John. The maid phoned the FBI, and more calls led to                     
the Boulder police, who quickly ID'd the suspicious character: Jeff                     
Shapiro, freelance reporter for the tabloid Globe. 

                     
Shapiro has been the most dogged miner--mainstream or tabloid--of this                     
tabloid gold mine. He has all the aggression of the old-school tab guys,                     
but, like some of the supermarket weeklies, he's putting a much younger                     
(25), less cynical face on the genre. How aggressive is he? He once                     
spent the night in a tree, binoculars in hand, trying to spy on police                     
activity in the Ramseys' house. Shapiro joined the Ramseys' church in                     
Boulder and took communion next to the parents. "He preys on people,"                     
says Pamela Griffin, a Ramsey family friend who says Shapiro even dated                     
her daughter to get information. He denies it with a laugh, saying: "I took                     
her out because she was beautiful.'' 

                     
Shapiro, a graduate of Florida State University who typically has a                     
two-day stubble, sports the '90s tabloid reporter's uniform: blue jeans,                     
black leather jacket and impenetrably dark shades. His biggest scoop, he                     
says, came after Globe published crime-scene photographs showing                     
JonBenet's bound wrist. Shapiro and a friend figured out where the cord                     
was purchased, and took the information to police. He says forensic tests                     
confirmed that cord from the shop matched cord used in the crime.                     
Boulder police declined to comment. 

                     
Shapiro's a real journalist, doing a lot of old-fashioned shoe-leather                     
reporting. A frequent visitor to the district attorney's office, he's got                     
Boulder police sources, too. While in Okemos for a month, he filled a                     
pair of three-ring binders with info on John Ramsey's past; Shapiro says                     
he gave a two-hour briefing to the FBI on their contents. (The FBI in                     
Denver confirms they met with him twice.) Shapiro says he refuses to pay                     
sources, a real break with tab tradition. His tactics are hard-charging but                     
legal; "I may have made mistakes,'' he says, "but I've never done anything                     
to hurt anyone.'' 

                     
He claims, and seems sincere doing it, that he doesn't just want to sell                     
papers. The tabs' work in the JonBenet case, he believes, has been "an                     
incredible investigative tool. I know in my heart I've made a real                     
contribution to getting justice for this girl.'' 

                     
Another nouvelle tabloid trait: Shapiro has regrets. At one point, he                     
wrote a lengthy note to John Ramsey, apologizing for Globe's                     
accusations against him, saying, "I believe you are innocent." And in fact,                     
Shapiro is convinced that someone else did it. Who? He won't                     
say--especially not to another reporter. 

                     
Daniel Glick                      
Newsweek, October 12, 1998