2002-12-24: Webbsleuths Forum (http://www.webbsleuths.org)
"Jailhouse tipster is one of many"

jameson
Charter Member
11695 posts Dec-24-02, 10:45 AM (EST)

1. "RE: Jailhouse tipster is one of many..."
In response to message #0

This tipster has been around a while.

He claims he was in jail with someone who told him about the murder -- with details including a motive.

The tipster - Cook - has a mother who believes he is telling the truth and they have hired a lawyer to make it all public.

The million dollar reward was put out by the tabloids - - the Globe as I remember but wouldn't swear to that without checking. That reward had a time limit and is no good.

The Ramseyfamily.com site still says there is a $100,000.00 reward - - but that site is not active or updated. the email address is defunct and the phone number goes to a business that is unrelated to any search for justice for JonBenét.

Are we to understand that reward is no longer real either? I don't know.

The motive, by the way, is that the killer wanted a job, didn't get it, went directly to John Ramsey and was blown off.

If Lou Smit and Ollie Gray have investigated this guy and feel it is a hoax, I would say it probably is. But I hope someone didn't just talk to Cook and went to the accused. I don't know that Cook gave out the name of the guy he was fingering - - seems to me he wanted certain things before he would name the guy.

Again - - I am not inside on this one - - but there are a few more bits to add to the discussion.

What do you think should happen next?

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jameson
Charter Member
11695 posts Dec-24-02, 10:55 AM (EST)

2. "RE: Jailhouse tipster is one of many..."
In response to message #1

Anti-Abortion Terror

Robert Cook, a former private security guard, juvenile probation officer and US Navy sailor, was arrested recently after threatening violence against women's clinics. Cook was planning to use money he allegedly obtained from a daring and previously unsolved $260,000 robbery of an armored car company he had worked for, to finance what he told others would be a war against abortion doctors and clinics. The hold-up he is charged with took place in Kenosha, Wisc.

Cook allegedly shifted the money to an off-shore bank account in the Cayman Islands, amassed an arsenal of weapons and ammunition kept in an Illinois storage locker, and apparently tried unsuccessfully to recruit others to join him in targeting abortion providers as well as government offices. The FBI arrested Cook on Aug. 16 for the 1994 armored car robbery after he made a specific threat to begin his anti-abortion attacks on Tuesday, Aug. 22. Cook had been questioned by police in Pensacola, Florida last January, after he reportedly warned store owners near the clinic that they "had better get bulletproof glass" and, "It's going to look like the 4th of July around here."

Public anti-abortion leaders tried to deny any connection to Cook. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition and a former national spokesman for Operation Rescue, told the press, "There is a real concern and fear among some leaders that just talking to someone who might be involved in violence brings you into this conspiracy investigation." They called Cook a loner who traveled around the country to hot spots in the abortion battle and offered vague ideas on how to "end abortion within a year." They claim they were made uneasy by him, as a potential provocateur, and pointed him out to authorities.

Abortion-rights activists think Cook may have had more significant links to the movement's leaders. Cook attended a conference of an anti-abortion organization in St. Louis shortly before his bust, and wrote a letter to "justifiable homicide" advocate Father Trosch which appeared in a newsletter put out by the Alabama extremist this summer. Abortion-rights activists called on federal officials to investigate his ties to the public anti-abortion movement.

When Cook was arrested by federal agents in Ill. in the neighborhood where he kept a storage locker full of weapons and ammunition, he was found with $11,000 on him, several changes of clothes, food and water, and an AR-15 assault rifle in his vehicle. The St. Louis police intelligence division had followed Cook while he was in town for the conference staged by the American Coalition of Life Activists, and arrested him on minor traffic violations. At the time of his arrest, he stated his occupation as "revolutionary," and told police that he couldn't go to abortion clinics because he couldn't control his actions. Capt. Harry Hegger, commander of the intelligence division, confirmed that Cook did attend some meetings during the St. Louis conference.

"Whether this is a conspiracy or not, this guy was out there for a long time, making it clear he was going to kill providers and wasn't shy about it," added Nancy Koshin-Kintigh, field director of the national clinic access project for the Feminist Majority. "There are a lot of unanswered questions." An affidavit filed in the Eastern U.S. District Court revealed that Cook had planned to say goodby to his children, who lived with his ex-wife. Cook allegedly told friends in Portland, Ore., that he would kill an abortion doctor by Aug. 22 and vowed that he would rather die than be caught, the affidavit stated. The affidavit said Cook rarely paid child support until after the robbery, and when he did pay, it was all in cash.

Since the robbery, Cook also paid more than $8,000 in cash for two cars, spent $1,500 on copies of his writings and donated at least $160 to an anti-abortion group, according to the affidavit. FBI officials said he did not appear to be working at the time. Cook also set up a voice-mail service to help him recruit abortion opponents to join his cause, FBI officials said. And on several occasions, Cook allegedly told friends that he was waging a war against abortion.