The Only Valid Criterion For Dismissing A Conspiracy

[Erik Narramore]

I don't personally believe the police shot Sheila, nor do I believe that, if they had shot her, they would then try to cover it up by framing Jeremy, knowing him to be innocent.  I think if they had shot Sheila, they would have owned up to it immediately and probably just claimed she was pointing a gun at them, or if it was obviously an accident, they could have claimed she was already dead having committed suicide, and that would have been the 'conspiracy' we would now be discussing 37 years later.  These things happen and that would have been the end of it.  I've never understood why people think the police would cover that up.  They had no motive to do so and the nature of the situation gave them every opportunity to come up with a cover story to justify or excuse shooting her, which would have been accepted by pretty much everybody.

Having said that, it's worth adding a caveat.

In a scenario in which Sheila is shot by the police, the probability of a conspiracy increases if, for whatever reason, the police don't admit to it straight-away and enter it into the record.  There is a small possibility that she was accidentally shot by a police officer, who then panicked and covered it up with the assistance of one or two others.  This, however, is independent of the later investigation of Jeremy.  The police may have had genuine reasons for treating Jeremy as a suspect regardless of such a cover-up, though it could also be that the police were driven to go after Jeremy by a sense of guilt that one of their own had shot Sheila under whatever circumstances.

The pro-innocent argument we sometimes hear is that senior officers were threatened, or in effect blackmailed, by the relatives - specifically, Robert Boutflour - who had found out that Sheila had been somehow shot by the police and had also discovered other irregularities in the investigation.  The relatives told the police that the press would be informed unless the spotlight turned on Jeremy.

I don't accept any of this, but that's not because I think it is crankish.  These theories do have a logic to them and the police might have been persuaded to look at Jeremy and then find evidence on him in order to avoid embarrassment and maybe even a criminal investigation of police officers.  However,, there is no clear evidence to support it, so I can't know if it is true or not, and for various common-sense reasons, I'm inclined not to accept such theories.