Subject: Cooper's Shooter and Laura's Killer REVEALED :-)
From: fzb8n@harlequin.cs.Virginia.EDU
Date: 1990-05-26, 13:31
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Reply-to: fzb8n@harlequin.cs.Virginia.EDU ()

My vote for the shooter of Cooper--Ben Horne.  When he finds his daughter 
at OEJ, he knows that Cooper is on his trail...He may have gotten Audrey
to admit that she was working to help him.  

He may also be upset that his daughter is at OEJ, and in the same position
(no pun intended) as Laura was before she died.  (I believe Ben knows how
Laura died; whether or not he was directly responsible is an open question.
The same is true of Leland.)  Ben is cold and evil, but might
still be upset by the possibility of Audrey going the same way as Laura, 
and may hold Cooper responsible.  

The motive I described in the previous paragraph does conflict somewhat with
Ben's calculating nature, however.  I think it is more likely that he just
beat the hell out of Audrey to get her to talk--got her to admit that she
was trying to help Cooper, and moreover that she saw Cooper at OEJ.  He then
tried to kill the detective that was hot on his trail.  Normally, Ben would
have had someone else do the shooting, but all his favorite henchmen were 
busy being killed (Leo, Jacques) or killing (Hank, Leland??).  Ben muffed 
the job by not considering the flak jacket because he's not used to doing 
the dirty work himself.

I didn't tape the last episode (dopey me) so I may have missed something
that blows holes in this theory.  I'm sure someone will let me know.

After having spent some time babbling about Ben here are my views on 
Leland.  Part of Leland's carrying on is legitimate grief over the death 
of his daughter.  But he also feels somewhat responsible for her death 
(note the blood on his hands, and the casket scene).  This is probably 
because, as Bobby accused at the funeral, Leland knew that Laura was in 
trouble, and did nothing to stop it.  He may have known about her working 
at OEJ, and possibly even her involvement with Jacques and Leo.  This 
would explain how Leland knew Jacques was the person he was looking for 
at the hospital.

Why didn't he do anything about it?  Well, this is purely speculation
(even more so than the previous rubbish), but perhaps Ben was blackmailing
him to keep his mouth shut.  Possible dirt on Leland: answering letters in
Flesh World, having sex with Laura, and most remotely--killing Teresa Banks.
If Ben knew inside information about the killing of T.B. from Leland, he
would know how to copycat the crime.

Finally, consider this alternate possibility.  Leland killed Teresa Banks 
in a bizzare ritual a year ago.  He intended to repeat the crime with 
Ronnette Pulaski, but somehow did it to Laura by mistake.  This would 
explain why 'T'eresa had a 'T' under her fingernail, but 'L'aura had an 
'R', for 'R'onnette under her fingernail.  He killed Jacques because he is
pissed off at him for making the Laura/Ronnette switch.  He blames Jacques
for Laura's death, since if it weren't for him, Laura would be alive, and
some faceless whore would be dead.  (Little does he know, BEN actually
made the switch :-)  I don't remember who first pointed out the possible 
significance of the letters (T for Teresa and R for Ronnette), but he/she 
is a genius.  I like this theory--it seems very Lynchian.

This posting is getting long--I'd better quit before I dig this hole for 
myself any deeper.

Frank Brill