Name List For Suspected Cannibal May Grow

Jan. 3, 2001 -- Police say the man accused of killing and cannibalizing a missing 10-year-old Montana boy may have killed at least two dozen more people in his native Massachusetts, based on a list uncovered by investigators.

Police say they are trying to pinpoint the whereabouts of 27 people who are on a list, recently found in suspect Nathaniel Bar-Jonah’s Montana home. Labeled “Lake Webster” — where Bar-Jonah grew up as a child — the list includes, among others, the names of three Massachusetts boys Bar-Jonah was convicted of assaulting between 1975 and 1977. According to the lead investigator on the case, Great Falls police Sgt. John Cameron, the majority of the people on the list are boys. The list includes the people’s ages, which range from 5 to 17.

Cameron said investigators are focusing on Webster, Mass., in their search, but they also believe some of the people may have lived in parts of Pennsylvania. So far, he said, in addition to the three Massachusetts males Bar-Jonah was previously convicted of assaulting, detectives have found three people on the list. But he stressed that police are trying to locate the others and that they should not be referred to as victims.

“There is a list with names, and we’re trying to find out where they are,” Cameron said. “We’re being careful not to call them victims yet because we’re trying to locate their whereabouts. But the list could mean something.”

Recipe of a Gruesome Slaying

Bar-Jonah, 43, was charged last month with kidnapping and murder in the 1996 disappearance of Zachary Ramsay. The child disappeared on February 6, 1996, apparently on his way to school. Some witnesses have told police they saw Bar-Jonah near Ramsay or at least standing along the normal route the child walked to school.

Ramsay never showed up at school that morning. Police were stumped by his case until Bar-Jonah was arrested in Dec. 1999 for allegedly impersonating a police officer while walking by an elementary school. [In his previous assaults in Massachusetts, Bar-Jonah had dressed as a police officer to lure boys into his car.] On the day of his arrest, police searched his home and found 28 boxes of potential evidence that they say appear to link him to Ramsay’s disappearance.

According to court documents, investigators found several pictures of young boys, two yearbooks from a local elementary school, stun guns, knives, batons, blue police-style coat, police badges and patches and a toy chrome pistol. They found a list of names, including Ramsay, young relatives and children of friends. (All except Ramsay are alive and accounted for.)

Perhaps detectives’ most startling discovery were writings that they say may allude to Ramsay’s suspected gruesome fate. In two separate writings, Bar-Jonah makes references to “Little Boy Stew,” “Little Kid Desert,” “Little Boy Pot Pies,” anal sex and masturbation. Police say they believe these writings refer to actual events where Bar-Jonah molested Ramsay, killed him, and then butchered him, serving his remains to unsuspecting visitors. Various acquaintances of Bar-Jonah, Montana prosecutors claim, have told investigators that the suspect served them meals where the meat tasted peculiar.

In addition, court papers say various witnesses have told police they saw Bar-Jonah with the clothes Ramsay wore the day he disappeared and that he admitted to the slaying.

Tough Case for Prosecutors

In letters written to the Great Falls Tribune, Bar-Jonah has denied any involvement in Ramsay’s disappearance. But despite the circumstantial evidence that seems to link Bar-Jonah to the boy’s disappearance, experts say Montana prosecutors have a tough case to prove.

Prosecutors have interviews with people who believe they saw Bar-Jonah near Ramsay the day he disappeared — testimony that can be cast into doubt in court. They say they can prove Bar-Jonah at least knew Ramsay because they were members of the same church and witnesses often saw them socializing.

But they have no body, no murder weapon, no eyewitnesses to a killing. Bar-Jonah’s previous history of assaulting children in Massachusetts will help their case, but only if a judge decides it is relevant to the Ramsay case. Bar-Jonah also has a separate pending case where a Montana mother has accused him coming to her home dressed as a police officer in 1997 and asking her if he could take her son to the police station. But evidence in that case can only be used if the judge decides it is relevant to the presumed slaying of Ramsay.

Without a body or murder weapon, Montana prosecutors have to prove not only that Ramsay is dead but that he was murdered — not an easy task, especially when the alleged victim is a child. And Bar-Jonah’s defense could capitalize on reports that Ramsay ran away from home once. (However, in that incident, reports say he came back voluntarily.)

“With missing body cases, when the victim is an adult, it’s easier to prove they’re dead because you can show that they haven’t had any activity on their credit cards, bank accounts and that they would not have disappeared without saying something to friends,” says Richard Holmes, an attorney who has tried missing body cases. “But with a child, it’s different. They don’t have credit cards or any real patterns of behavior that you could ask friends and family about. And you have to disprove any suggestions that they may have run away.”

Holmes says DNA and other evidence becomes even more vital in child missing body cases. So far, investigators have uncovered bone fragments in Bar-Jonah’s home, but they were not linked to Ramsay. And DNA tests have not tied the blood stains on some of Bar-Jonah’s clothes to Ramsay.

Alleged Deviant Obsessions

The prosecution must also hope to rely on the previous psychiatric reports that indicate that Bar-Jonah’s has an obession with sexual violence and cannibalism. In a 1983 report, Dr. Robert Levy said Bar-Jonah believed his troubles started when, as a first grader, he said he tried to strangle a classmate. Dr. Levy also said Bar-Jonah had read extensively about multiple murder, an interest in instruments of torture, and that Bar-Jonah fantasies about violence are a source of sexual excitement for him.

In other examinations, another doctor said Bar Jonah’s sexual fantasies included dissection and cannibalism; a case worker in 1980 wrote that he “expresses a curiousity about the taste of human flesh.”

Prosecutors hope the circumstantial evidence will be enough to convict Bar-Jonah. It has been in other missing body cases. Before a gag order was placed on the case, lead prosecutor Brant Light told The Associated Press, “It’s going to be extremely difficult. We’ve got a lot of circumstantial evidence, enough to put this case before a jury.”