Michael Peterson Trial

"I always wondered what my life would have been as a porn star. My Cecil B. DeMille moment was poster boy for the Marines, posters in every recruit office in America-- but that was long ago."
-- Michael Peterson



"According to your reviews, you're a fuck machine, but I have a hard time visioning a tennis player as a fuck machine. I played baseball. I see tennis players as bottoms."
-- Michael Peterson

What's Missing?

P A L M  S P R I N G S

Peterson:

"I knew lots of guys who got paid--why wack off in the latrine for nothing when Dirk will give you a $100. My favorite line was a buddy who said, 'I used to fuck sailors over the shitter on shipboard for zip. Dirk gave me $300 to fuck one on his velvet sofa.'"

"If I fuck you until after midnight, and you have to get up at 5, you may not be at your best for California."

"Dirk has become so successful that he now runs a resort in Palm Springs..."

Brad:

"I had a very long day and when I got up there that night, I just said I’ll talk to him when I come back -- I'm tired and I just want to go to Palm Springs... so I didn't go."

Red, White and Blue

When paramedics arrived at the Cedar Street mansion, they found Michael Peterson barefoot and covered with blood. Near his wife's dead body were Peterson's tennis shoes and four socks. Also collected from the scene:

a bottle of white wine, two wineglasses with small amounts of red liquid, a bottle of champagne, a diet COKE can with blood and hair on it, copies of e-mail traffic, pornographic photographs of men taken from Peterson's den... and a condom.










David Rudolf hired a neuropathologist to study Kathleen Peterson's brain. Michael Peterson has said his wife had blacked out several times and once suffered temporary blindness.

The neuropathologist was never called to testify.

one "Trojan" condom wrapper and one condom

"This investigation revealed what appears to be a used condom in the victim's bedroom and towels that appeared to have semen stains on them. We believed that with this finding, a sexual act took place."
-- C. Bullock (Durham PD)

What's Missing?

RUDOLF: "That condom was sent off to a laboratory, was it not?"

BULLOCK: "I believe it was."

RUDOLF: "And there was no semen found on that condom. Was there?"

BULLOCK: "I don't know the results of the lab report."









SBI agent Suzi Barker, testified that no semen was found in a condom police collected from the Petersons home. No identifiable fingerprints were located on the TROJAN wrapper.

Barker said: "If there was no ejaculation, then it would be very common for there to be no semen."













"This defendant was attempting to stage certain aspects of the scene so it would appear how he wanted it to appear."

-- Jim Hardin





Indictment and Search Warrants
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/features/wtvd_petersonindictment1.html

"I didn't do anything wrong."

Peterson said his wife must have fallen but that he doesn't know for sure. He said he had been outside by the pool and came in at 2:40 a.m. to find her dying on the stairs. They had been drinking, he said, to celebrate a movie deal for one of his books.


"I didn't do anything wrong. I suspect some people would want me to act guilty or hide, but I'm trying to live as normal a life as I possibly can. I go to stores and people point at me. What can I do?"
-- Michael Peterson

Kathleen Peterson's autopsy showed

• lacerations on the back of her head were consistent with a beating.
  
  

• her blood-alcohol level was just below 0.08, the level at which a person in North Carolina is considered too drunk to drive.

Evidence collected from 1810 Cedar Street included Peterson's computers, pieces of wood from the stairwell, swabs of blood, condoms and an item labeled "O.J. Simpson Notebook."

Mike's Size 8 1/2, Converse All-Star Athletic Shoeprint

S.B.I. agent Joyce Petzka said she found a shoe print on Kathleen Peterson's clothes which matched Peterson's white leather Converse All-Star athletic shoes. According to Petzka, the design, size and wear pattern of the left athletic shoe was "consistent" with the print on the back of Kathleen Peterson's sweat pants.

Deaver's conclusions about the stairwell:

• Kathleen Peterson's death was "not consistent with a fall."
  

• The assailant stood just outside the doorway when the attack began. Kathleen Peterson was beaten with something like a fireplace blow poke as she stood on the sixth or seventh step from the bottom.
  

• Some bloodstains resulted from Kathleen Peterson's head being struck as she was standing. One stain indicated her head was battered 27 inches above the stairway.
  

• Someone attempted to clean blood from the stairway and wall.
  

• The fourth step from the bottom of the stairs, near where Kathleen Peterson's body was found, "has been cleaned in almost its entirety. It took some effort to clean that step as clean as it is," Deaver said.
  

• As for the wall, "There are some runs in that pattern, which indicate to me that a liquid was applied to that place, cleaning it completely clear of blood," he testified. "There was some effort to remove blood completely. It created smears all the way around there."
  

• Based on spots of blood, Deaver said he had "no doubt" that someone moved Kathleen Peterson's body before attempting to clean up and struck her again afterward.
  

Deaver's conclusions about the clothing:

• The wearer of the khaki shorts and white Converse All-Star sneakers was in "close proximity" to Kathleen Peterson, even "standing over her."
  

• "The wearer of those shoes and those shorts was involved in impacting the source of blood, in this case the victim, at some time."
  

• Deaver said he believed Kathleen Peterson "was actually standing at some point in blood, to get blood on the bottom of her feet." The blood was deep enough that "even the arches of her feet were coated with it."
  

• Kathleen Peterson was in "various positions" when the attack occurred. "She is at some time standing after bloodshed occurred," Deaver said.
  

• "She at some time is face up in the scene when bloodshed is occurring, and some time she is face down when these impacts occurred."
  

• Kathleen Peterson was lying face down when a shoe imprint -- presumably matching the defendant's shoe -- was made on the back of her sweat pants. "I have an opinion that these shoes were in motion, the source of blood [Kathleen Peterson] was in motion or they both were in motion."

OCCAM'S RAZOR:
One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything.




"I know it as the principle of parsimony -- basically, what it is -- in scientific testing, you keep things as simple as possible."
-- Peter Duane Deaver


Principle of Parsimony
A criterion for deciding among scientific theories or explanations. One should always choose the simplest explanation of a phenomenon, the one that requires the fewest leaps of logic.



RUDOLF: "Do you realize that the actual theory is, the solution requiring the least number of assumptions is most likely the correct one. Right? That's what Occam's Razor is. It's not keep it simple, is it?"

DEAVER: "I think that is keeping it simple."




"What our experts tell us happened, is that at some point Kathleen fell backward and hit her head. She lay bleeding, gets up, steps into the pool of blood, slips and hits her head again ... She bled out."

-- David Rudolf

"If you want to explain something -- ask the judge."
-- David Rudolf to Duane Deaver, S.B.I.

Bats
Aug. 30, 2003
Charlotte Observer

The elegant 14-room mansion was another burden, Zamperini says. The roof and plumbing needed repair. There were, she says, bats in the attic and termites in the living room. Kathleen, she says, couldn't afford a housekeeper and wanted to move to a smaller place. But Zamperini says Kathleen told her Mike wasn't interested in moving and was "perfectly fine" with the disrepair.





How Many Stairs?



"Michael said 'I came up the stairs, I think to get towels.' And then he looks back down and said she fell down the whole staircase."
-- Candace Zamperini


"We walked down the hall. At the end of the hall, I saw the staircase where she died. I saw the blood."
-- Candace Zamperini


"I sprayed that cat picture, and her blood ran down my arm."

-- Candace Zamperini

When the body of Elizabeth Ratliff was exhumed, several items were found in her casket: a children's book ("The Little Rabbit"), a white stuffed lamb, a charm with ballet slippers and a card with a photo of the Ratliff girls.

"First, let me be absolutely clear about one thing. From the standpoint of the merits of my defense, I am not opposed to the exhumation and autopsy of Elizabeth Ratliff, nor have I ever been. Indeed, from a selfish perspective, and as it relates solely to my defense, I welcome it to clear up this ... distraction once and for all ... Nowhere, at any time, was there a suspicion of foul play, nor any intimation that I had anything to do with her death."
-- Michael Peterson

"No. Good God, no."

Saturday, May 11, 2002

Peterson's defense attorney, David Rudolf, filed a motion detailing a Durham Police Department investigation into the death of Elizabeth Ratliff in Germany.

A sister of the woman who died in 1985 said she found the similarities between the two deaths "very scary" and contacted Durham police.

Peterson told a Durham TV station that he had nothing to do with Ratliff's death.

"No," he said. "Good God, no."







"We don't convict people based on mysterious."
-- David Rudolf's opening statement

Tournee du Chat Noir avec Rodolphe (not "Rodolptte") Salis
A Round at the Black Cat

The Chat Noir was a cabaret in Paris, established in 1881 by Rodolphe Salis.
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen and several other artists who frequented the
cabaret -- including Adolphe Willette, Caran d'Ache, Henri Rivière and George
Auriol -- created a journal which was also named "Le Chat noir."

The attitude pervading much of the work was known as fumisme, which
mocked official values and societal norms through biting satire, puerile humor,
and practical joking, is reflected in the journal.

The French word fumisme literally means chimney sweep, but it can also be
used to refer to a joker, crackpot, or fraud.

"This cat picture was hanging in my room when I was living in Graefenhausen."
-- Barbara Malagnino

the Doctrine of Chance

"The more often a defendant performs a certain act,
the less likely it is that the defendant acted innocently."

F L A S H B A C K S

"Hearing about the blood, as I did again recently, just helps me remember what Michael said when he called us 18 years ago to tell us there had been an accident. He said there was only a spot of blood behind Liz's ear. ...What? What about the blood on the walls? Why wasn't he suspicious? Why was he so sure it was an accident? Michael should have said: 'You need to come to Germany right away!' "

-- Margaret Blair


"Because I want answers now. I want the truth to come to light. There's too much darkness that has been clouding over this whole situation and its time -- it's time for the truth. As painful as it is, it's time for the truth to come forward."

-- Margaret Blair, 9-21-2003







"One male witness, name of whom I do not recall, but believe to be a neighbor, related to me that a few days prior to her, death Ratliff complained or otherwise made mention that she had been having severe headaches."

-- Steve Lyon's notes

"The male witness voiced his belief that Ratliff may have walked up the stairs, blacked out at the top of the stairs and fallen down them as a result. The male witness seemingly wanted to dominate the interviews and interject the 'correct' information. I asked about Ratliff's consumption of alcohol during the evening prior to which a witness related she may have had a glass of champagne or wine."

-- Steve Lyon's notes

The Nanny

News & Observer

Barbara Malagnino told jurors that when she went to the Ratliff home on Nov. 25, 1985, all the lights were on, something that was unusual. When she entered, she saw Ratliff at the bottom of the stairs with a pair of yellow boots on. She said she touched the body and it felt warm.

"I shouted her name a few times and ran upstairs," Malagnino said. "The bedroom door was closed. I took the telephone and tried to phone the Petersons, but the phone was dead."

Malagnino testified that she then ran to the Peterson's home and Patty Peterson, Mike Peterson's first wife, answered the door.

"Where was Michael Peterson?" Black asked.

"He was at the top of the stairs in a T-shirt and boxer shorts," Malagnino replied.

They all went back to the Ratliff home where her two toddler girls were asleep. Malagnino said Mike Peterson told her to get something to cover up Ratliff's body. Malagnino said she thought Ratliff was still alive because her body was warm; Mike Peterson grabbed her arms.

"She's dead," Malagnino said Peterson told her. "The warmth comes from the floor heating."

Ratliff friend, Cheryl Appel-Schumacher spoke of the enormous amounts of smeared and spattered blood she helped clean the day after.

Karin Hamm, a neighbor, claims she saw Peterson hurrying away from Elizabeth Ratliff's house the night she died. Her testimony was never entered. Nor was this bit of testimony from...



Amybeth Berner

"Michael had told me that he'd been in the CIA at some point and had point-blank murdered someone while he was in Vietnam. That concerned me. Then later on, I believe it was the summer of '84, my husband and I had lost custody... um -- we won custody of his two children and they weren't returned, and Michael came to me at that point and he said that he had connections, and if I wanted to have her knocked off he would do that. And I told Michael that, that wasn't a way that I would operate. I went to my husband at that point and told him what he had offered to do."





"Well let's get to that instead of recollection of other murders committed by the defendant."
-- Judge Hudson to Tom Maher during a hearing

Rule 404 (b)

The rule says that when a suspect is on trial for one alleged crime, evidence of "other crimes, wrongs or acts" may be admitted "as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake, entrapment or accident" in the crime at issue. State appeals courts have said that judges must determine whether two or more incidents are "sufficiently similar" and close enough in time to one another, although rule 404(b) specifies no time.

How do we go from soul mate
to cold-blooded killer?

REMEMBER BARBARA STAGER?

The time is 1988. The place is a lovely home in a lush and leafy suburb of Durham, North Carolina where a distraught BARBARA STAGER nervously dials 9-1-1 and reports that her dear husband of four years, RUSS STAGER has suffered a terrible accident -- he was shot to death in his bed. MRS. STAGER -- a writer -- had a very difficult time finding the right words to explain to authorities exactly how RUSS'S death had occurred.

BARBARA later told police that, fearing her husband might be woken up by noise and might get confused and reach for the loaded gun that he "always" kept under his pillow, she tried to quietly remove the gun, and then -- BLAM! -- the pistol suddenly went off and fired a bullet into her husband's brain.

BARBARA appeared as distressed and devastated as everyone else in the family. After all, she seemed as happy then as she was nine years ago when she had re- married and moved herself and her children into a home with RUSS STAGER.

Everyone mourned RUSS STAGER'S shocking, sudden death -- including friends from his up-scale neighborhood, members of MR. STAGER'S church, and the staff and students at Durham High School where RUSS was a much-loved teacher and baseball coach.

Other than a million dollar insurance pay-out, no one had any reason to suspect that BARBARA was lying about what happened. Everything looked like an accident, and as far as anyone knew, she was a loving wife and mother.

Poor BARBARA.

Everyone pitied her -- that was -- until it came to light that eleven years prior to her second husband's death -- BARBARA'S first husband had also died in a accident where, according to BARBARA, her spouse was quietly cleaning his gun and then -- BLAM! -- the pistol suddenly went off.

So the writer was placed on trial for the murder of RUSS STAGER. A major part of the evidence against her was the earlier suspicious death of her first husband, JAMES LARRY FORD.

Then District Attorney, Ron Stephens said: "We pretty much proved that she killed her first husband. We basically tried that first case in front of the jury to discount her theory of an accident."

In May of 1989, after only forty-five minutes of deliberation, a jury declared that BARBARA STAGER was as guilty as sin, and the deceitful, greedy, evil Black Widow was whisked off to a, decidedly, down-scale prison cell.

Sadly, to this day, her children stand by her and still publicly claim that BARBARA STAGER is completely innocent -- of both murders.

How do we go from appearance to reality?

REMEMBER TIMOTHY BOCZKOWSKI?

It was déjà vu all over again when Timothy Boczkowski of Pittsburgh, PA was suspected in 1994, of murdering of his second wife, Maryann. Many had doubts, even though Timothy sounded grief-stricken and shocked when he called 9-1-1 to say he had found Maryann dead in his backyard hot tub.

People were suspicious because the bizarre tub death happened four years after Boczkowski's first wife, Mary Elaine, was found dead in the couple's Greensboro, North Carolina home. Timothy told police he had entered the bathroom only to find his wife had mysteriously drowned... (where else?) in the tub.

Fact is, plenty of folks suspected Timothy back in November of 1990, but since Mr. Boczkowski had no motive and no criminal background, charges were never filed in that first case.

Once burnt however, friends, family and legal authorities were twice shy and in 1994, they set about the legal task of using one murder to prove the other -- thereby showing that neither was an accident.

Testimony was, the two women looked enough alike to be twin sisters. Mary Elaine (34) and second wife, Maryann (35), were both heavily insured, and both alone with husband Timothy when they "accidentally drowned" in tubs. That, and other not so obvious similarities, went a long way toward conviction.

Pittsburgh police officer Gary Waters noted that Timothy Boczkowski's "got to be the unluckiest man in the world to lose two wives in a hot tub and bathtub -- or this is a homicide."

Boczkowski was convicted in 1996 of the first degree murder of Mary Elaine and was given life in prison. In May of 1999 -- the serial tub killer's luck ran out completely when, after returning a verdict of guilt for the murder of Maryann, a Pennsylvania jury gave Timothy Boczkowski the death sentence.

Asked why he killed both women in the same manner, Boczkowski reportedly replied, "I don't know. That was stupid, wasn't it?"


More Tub Murderer

"We have a very clear picture of what happened that night. There is no question in my mind that Michael Peterson killed Kathleen, and the evidence will support that."
-- Jim Hardin, pre-trial

"A picture is worth a thousand words. But what if those walls could talk? What would they say? Kathleen Peterson is talking to us through the blood on that wall. She is screaming at us for truth. And for justice."
-- Jim Hardin's closing