Darrel Kirkwood

Darrel Kirkwood is a man who falsely confessed to killing Jonbenet Ramsey in 2000. It was later revealed that Kirkwood had been in prison in Indiana at the time of the killing.

Kirkwood phoned the Boulder Police Department as well as the Ramseys themselves. He also sent an email to the Ramseys' private investigator Ollie Gray. He reportedly spoke to John Ramsey on three occasions. He gave his name as "Daniel Cooper from Orlando Florida" and asked John Ramsey for "$3,000 for airfare, so he could fly to Boulder with his parents and turn himself in". Kirkwood claimed to be a professional "hitman" hired by a former employee of John's company, Access Graphics. He reportedly "even gave the name of a former employee who had never been associated with the murder". John Ramsey claimed that he recognized the name "Cooper" told him. John Ramsey also claimed that "Cooper" knew intimate details of the Ramsey home which had not been publicly revealed.

After John Ramsey rejected Kirkwood's requests for money, he stopped calling.

On the basis of John Ramsey's accounts of his conversations with "Cooper", the Ramseys' private investigator Ollie Gray and lawyer Lin Wood began touting him in the press as a prime suspect. In an interview with the tabloid Star Magazine, Gray and Wood said they "believe there are a number of intriguing aspects to Cooper's story, and are anxious for the police to follow through". In fact, police had already discredited the theory. The star article also referred to "Cooper" as a "professional killer".

By March, 2001, the communications had been traced to Darrel Kirkwood, a con-man living in Indiana, with a long record of crimes including forgery, fraud and fraud on a financial institution. It was revealed that Kirkwood had been incarcerated in Indiana at the time of Jonbenet's death.

Lou Smit and Ollie Gray continued to promote Kirkwood as a suspect to the media, listing him (though not by name) as number 4 on their "list of suspects" in May 21, 2001. It is unclear why they did this even though by that time Kirkwood was known to have been in prison when the crime occurred.