eyes for bad guys

Baseball aficionado Bill James is writing a true crime mystery that will include his thoughts about JonBenet's killer, expected to be on bookshelves in 2010. Back in 2006, James was named one of the Time magaine 100 most influential people in the world--

Talkin' about baseball, and watching a game, with Bill James

published in Sports Illustrated

by Joe Posnanski

"..."You know what I wish people would stop saying?" he suddenly asks ... and once again his mind goes in a whole other direction. Bill has just finished writing a true crime book -- a million thoughts on crimes from Elma Sands to the Kennedy assassination to JonBenet Ramsey -- and his mind has locked in on another seemingly ridiculous thing: People always talk about the eyes of serial killers. The eyes. You can see it in their eyes. There's horror in their eyes.

"That's just nonsense," Bill says. "Nonsense! Do people really believe there's something different about the eyes of murderers? Their eyes look like everyone else's eyes. And this is dangerous nonsense because it makes people believe that they can look in someone's eyes and determine guilt or innocence."

Yes, the mind never stops working. The questions never stop coming. This seems to be one of the things that makes Bill different ... most of us hear a cliché like "There was something dark in the murderer's eyes," and it just rolls right over us. We don't -- or at least I don't -- stop to ask what it means.

But for Bill James -- who has spent his life asking questions -- it's just natural to heard him ask, "Are you saying that there was a black spot in the eyes of the guy who committed the murder? Or was it a gray cloud?..."

A famous baseball sports writer, a story about killers and JonBenet-- suggestion of that combination here and now is simply more ironic than words can express. :)