Part I - James Michael Thompson aka J.T. Colfax

On December 25, 1996, the night JonBenet Ramsey was murdered, J.T.Colfax was staying at the Royal Hotel on Grandville Street in Vancouver, Canada.

On December 27th he was crossing the Canadian border into the United States from Portland, Oregon. By the 28th he was on a bus heading for Denver, Colorado. He got a job as a cadaver transport driver at M&M Transport in Denver, moving dead bodies for morgues. Colfax was a grave register clerk in the U.S.Army in 1987 and had previously worked in the mortuary business in San Francisco.

Colfax was arrested on April 30, 1997 when he left Safeway Photo Processing in Denver without paying for photos processed that turned out to be photos of corpses he attached funny signs to. On May 7, 1997 he was charged with corpse abuse in Denver, Englewood and Littleton, Colorado.

On May 22, 1997 Colfax stole the December 26, 1996 morgue log sheet from the county morgue that showed when JonBenet Ramsey was taken to the morgue. With that J.T. Colfax became a suspect on the JonBenet Ramsey murder case.

"I took the morgue records as a souvenir of a famous murder case. The Ramsey case was on about month four at the time. I had to wait while picking up a corpse so I leafed thru the log-in book and found the listing and took it"

On June 13, 1997 Colfax was arrested again, this time for destruction of property when Colfax angrily beat the receiver against the pay phone he was at in downtown Boulder, Colorado. By June 16th he lost his job and apartment and was staying at the Denver YMCA. On the 18th Colfax was scheduled to appear in court on the charge of abuse of a corpse.

On June 18, 1997 Colfax went to Boulder, Colorado and attempted to push burning papers through the front door mail slot of the Ramsey's vacant home at 755 15th Street, the house where JonBenet was murdered. Nobody reported the fire or that a stranger was on the Ramsey property. That night Colfax slept at Mustard's Last Stand on Broadway in Boulder.

"I burned it the day I came to the end of my rope financially. I sat on the Ramsey patio with a duffle bag containing my typewriter and a phone and radio. I forced myself out of the patio chair to go do what I did so I could STABILIZE my situation and free all the legalities I had before me. Only 2 months ago did I finish my Denver corpse photography case. I saw legalities stretching way out before me. I handled it in the desperate way I did."

Out of desperation that nobody reported the fire, Colfax called the Boulder Police the next morning and talked with Det. Ron Gosage to tell him what he had done. Det. Gosage was shocked, Colfax reported and that told him that nobody had reported the fire. Colfax was arrested on June 20, 1997 and charged with arson. He went to court on January 16, 1998 and through a plea bargain deal that included Lou Smit and Trip DeMuth, Colfax was charged with Criminal Mischief and Theft between $100/$400 and sentenced to two years in the Boulder County Jail and two years probation that would partially run during time served.

From the legal arrest documents another story is told beyond the charges that were filed against Colfax. Between the night of the fire and the next morning when Colfax turned himself in, one of the investigators named Jennifer Gedde from the Chrisman, Bynum and Johnson law firm had been to the house on 755 15th Street and was aware of the fire that morning but failed to report it to the police. In the police report, "She said she reported her discovery to Brian Morgan" but Brian Morgan didn't report the fire to the police either. Jennifer Gedde was an investigator for H. Ellis Armistead hired by the Ramsey attorney.

Other additional interesting factor was that Colfax had opened the mail slot door with his hands while attempting to shove the burning papers into the slot yet when Officer Zamora dusted the mail slot lid for latent fingerprints he reported there were no fingerprints on the mail slot door. So the question remains as to why Jennifer Gedde or even the Ramseys attorney did not report the fire to the police and what happened to Colfax's fingerprints on the mail slot door?

While serving time in jail in Boulder, Colorado, Colfax met another inmate named Lance Matthews. Although Colfax stated later during a July 28, 1999 live chat that he had some issues with Matthews while they were incarcerated together about using his name in news articles along with Matthews, Colfax did ask Matthews to check out the Mrs. Brady's URL's web site when he got out. After Matthews was released from jail he moved to Albany, New York and Colfax began a snail mail correspondence with Matthews. Those letters, in the form of handwriting and art doodles became the "Colfax Diaries" from October 14, 1998 through June 1999 Matthews represented Colfax officially and unoffically on a ten month promotion gig.

Matthews logged onto the Boulder News Forum on the Internet on October 9, 1998 under the hat name of "Matthews" and starting a thread titled, "What I heard while in Boulder..." and within days J.T.Colfax's police reports were posted on the Redd Herring web site. Shortly after that the owner of the Justice Watch Forum put the J.T.Colfax website online. Matthews then got another Internet poster known as Wiltonjr to maintain the web site for him until it was hacked on January 3, 1999. Wiltonjr would later be accused of being the hacker when Matthews posted on the Boulder News Forum that only three people had the password, himself, Wiltonjr and Chris, the owner of the Justice Watch forum.

During the 10 months Matthews was a member of the Boulder News Forum he posted daily diary letters that Colfax wrote in jail and sent to him in the mail. Matthews added additional help from a friend of his named Lisa Flowers who moved from Boulder, Colorado to Albany to stay with Matthews. Lisa helped transcribed Colfax's handwritten letters so they could be uploaded to his website. The postings of the Colfax diary letters on the forum drew mixed reviews from other forum members, some who criticized Colfax for his criminal activity and others who felt that Colfax was just another victim of the system even though he injected himself into the system.

Colfax's diaries were full of interesting stories and also included some Ramsey case tidbidts like the Dean Cole story and the discovery that a wild party was happening the night of the murder near the Ramsey house complete with hand drawn map. Colfax's additional collection of jailhouse art doodles as well as parody stories, mail art projects and campaign projects helped him keep his mind focused on what he does best and that is communicate via his writings, his projects, his art and the media.

Part II - J.T.Colfax and the JonBenet Ramsey Case

In PART II - Learn how the Redd Herring web site posted the Colfax legal papers, learn more about the Colfax web site hacking, the Colsmack Dump, MaBoozer, Jameson's connection, the Dave Lucas Radio Shows on the Ramsey case, Colfax beaten up at Douglas County Jail, Colfax harassed on Internet connections, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, who lied about Dave Lucas' sudden exit, Matthews message in the Lou Smit guest book, the Boulder County Jail map and Mrs.Brady's Birthday card.