2000-02-29: The Sick Secret Behind JonBenet T.V. Movie

The National Enquirer, February 29, 2000, p.16
The Sick Secret Behind JonBenet T.V. Movie
They even sold the rope that strangled her

For sale, Cheap: The rope that strangled JonBenet Ramsey and the flashlight that crushed her skull!

In a sick "garage sale", chillingly realistic props from the upcoming TV miniseries on the Ramsey murder were gobbled up by crew members and their pals.

The grisly prop sale included the blanket that covered the little beauty queeen after she was killed, the murder weapons, a ring she was wearing when her body was found and a pageant crown placed on her head in her coffin.

"A woman electrician bought a bracelet and said 'Look what I got for $20'" a set insider disclosed.

She didn't know it was a match for the gold bracelet JonBenet got as a present on Christmas 1996, the day she was murdered.

"I showed the electrician the inscription on the bracelet - 'JonBenet 12-25-96,'" said the insider. "She went, 'Yuck' and got a sick look on her face.

"A lot of people at the sale thought it was in very bad taste."

The sell-off was held January 15 and 17 in Salt Lake City at a warehouse where scenes for "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town" were filmed.

The two-part, four hour drama - scheduled to air February 27 and March 1 on CBS - is based on the best- seller by Lawrence Schiller, who produced and directed the mini-series.

The filmmaker was so obsessed with detail, he had every room of the Boulder, Colo., home where JonBenet was murdered re-created in a studio, including the dark basement room where her body was found.

He built an entire replica of the Ramsey home exterior, the coroner and district attorney's offices and the so-called "war room" where investigators kept their files on the murder.

JonBenet's bedroom set was filled with exact reproductions of her furniture, her stuffed animals, her clothes and the pageant costumes she wore. It was all for sale.

So were the holsters the girl posed in, a set of golf clubs - a golf club was at one point considered the possible murder weapon - and even the investigators' evidence collection.

Incredibly, Schiller had two stun guns purchased for scenes that touch on a theory the weapon was used to render JonBenet unconscious. Both the stun guns were sold.

"The reproduction of the pageant crown JonBenet was buried in sold for $80," the insider added "I was disgusted."

So was a crewman's friend who went to the sale and paid $20 for an oak desk used for scenes involving police investigators - because inside the desk he found horrific reproductions of JonBenet's autopsy and crime scene photos.

"The guy who bought the desk thought the pictures were real," said another source.

One photo depicts the dead JonBenet from the lips down to the top of her chest and shows in detail the deep furrow left on her neck from the rope that strangled her. Another shows her neck with the rope still on it.

"The pictures are only seen briefly on a desk in one scene shot in the 'war room', but Schiller wanted lots of detail," said a source on the set.

"That picture of the neck wound in particular disturbed a lot of crew members and extras!"

-DON GENTILE