Upfront disclosure: I've had a variety of peripheral connections to the Ramsey family over the years, saw Don Ramsey's ad firsthand, was in the Times building that day and Bob Atwood begged me to testify before the grand jury about what I may or may not have known (I didn't testify, and what I knew wasn't crucial to the case).

First off, Ramsey's ad was a full page of text ranting about Frank Murkowski, who was running for reelection to his second Senate term at the time, and a fellow named Miles Davic (no, not Miles Davis, dummy) who had been a behind-the-scenes guy in Republican politics in Alaska for well over a decade. This story provides a link to a 1988 story which mentions Murkowski, but it's suspicious that mention of his name is missing here. Second, I'm pretty sure that Ramsey's ad was published in one early edition of one day's paper and was pulled before it appeared in the later edition, which was the one that received wider circulation, and that this was what set him off.