By Ann Carnahan
News Staff Writer

The FBI investigated the supermarket weekly the Globe after hearing reports it tried to extort information from a Boulder police detective about the JonBenet Ramsey murder, a new book says.

A Globe reporter implied his paper would print that Detective Steve Thomas's mother had committed suicide, the book says.

"They hope you'll cooperate with them, ... " reporter Jeff Shapiro said of his editors as he stood in Thomas's driveway one night last August. "They know about your mother."

Instead, Thomas told Shapiro to leave, according to Perfect Murder, Perfect Town by Lawrence Schiller. Denver Rocky Mountain News reporter Charlie Brennan helped research the book.

Three days later, a FedEx package arrived at Thomas's house. In it were photos of his mother and an aunt and a request from another Globe staffer for an interview.

Ironically, Thomas's mother did not commit suicide, according to the book. She died from an illness when Thomas was 7.

Thomas, who resigned in August because of concerns that the Boulder District Attorney's Office was mishandling the case, decided not to press charges against the Globe or any of its employees, the book reports. The FBI dropped the investigation.

Shapiro told the News he went to Thomas's home to "warn" him.

"What the Globe did to Steve Thomas was one of the worst things I've ever seen in my life," Shapiro told the News. "I was sickened by it, and I did everything I could to stop it."

Shapiro said he reported the extortion attempt to the FBI. Thomas's attorney, Peg Miller, confirmed that Shapiro contacted the FBI, but declined to comment on his motives.

Schiller writes that the Globe's Craig Lewis sent Thomas the pictures of his mother and aunt.

Lewis told the News he sent the photos because, "I thought he might enjoy seeing them.

"I photocopied the pictures to him ... There was no, 'Talk to me or else."'

Lewis said he was also hoping to get Thomas's attention.

"When you're trying to get someone to speak to you, when you know there are 200 or 300 journalists doing the same thing, you look for anything that would separate you from the crowd ... Now what did I have that the other 200 journalists didn't have? I had pictures of his mother."

Shapiro says the Globe fired him last week after he accused staffers of acting criminally. Editor Tony Frost declined comment.

Thomas, now a construction worker, dropped the matter months ago.

"It was at a point when he said, 'I just want to be left alone for a while,"' Miller said.

February 16, 1999