1998-07-14: RAMSEY SAGA MOVES TO OUTLAW'S GRAVE

http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/extra/ramsey/0714jon1.html

RAMSEY SAGA MOVES TO OUTLAW'S GRAVE
NOTE AT HEADSTONE DEMANDS AN ARREST OR HORN WILL NO LONGER RIP

By Kevin McCullen
Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
July 14, 1998

Tom Horn may be 6 feet under, but someone is threatening his resting place unless there's an arrest in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case.

Boulder parks employees found seven holes punched in the ground in front of Horn's gravestone in Columbia Cemetery along with a note addressed to District Attorney Alex Hunter about the Ramsey investigation.

Police seized the note but have no suspects in the unusual damage to thegrave site of Horn, a stock detective and reputed hired gun for Wyoming cattleinterests at the turn of the century. Horn went to the gallows in Cheyenne in1903 for killing 14-year-old Willie Nickell.

Parks employees discovered the vandalism early last week. They also found atyped note in a plastic bag, weighted by rocks, next to Horn's headstone.Hunter is deciding whether to convene a grand jury to further the investigation into the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. Her body wasfound in the basement of her parent's Boulder home Dec. 26, 1996.

Tom Horn killed a 14-year-old boy in Wyoming and was hung in 1903. If youarrest the Ramseys, we'll leave Tom Horn rest in peace,'' said the note, whichwas signed, ``Western Just Us.''

Police have said the child's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, remain undersuspicion. They have been cooperating with the district attorney's office.

The seven holes were in a step pattern and appeared to have been dug by aflat-bladed tool, according to a police report.

``This happened on July 7th, and July is the seventh month of the year, and there were seven holes. We were trying to figure out the significance, if there is any,'' said John Evans, a parks employee and University of Colorado student.

Parks employees asked police to make extra swings at night by the cemetery, the resting place for many of Boulder's original families. Vandalism occurs there periodically.

Horn, a tracker and Army scout who participated in the capture of the Apache chief Geronimo, is the most infamous occupant of the pioneer graveyard.

In 1993, a jury at a retrial in Cheyenne reversed history and acquitted Horn of the murder of Nickell.

July 14, 1998

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Tom Horn's Grave at Find-a-Grave