A Perfect Husband

by Aphrodite Jones

  Bill Peterson, speaking to reporters on behalf of Michael’s family, spoke of the “complete and utter demoralization” of his brother, insisting that Michael Peterson was innocent. Bill Peterson told the media that because prosecutors had focused on “gay porn” during the trial, they had prevented the defense from putting Michael on the witness stand.

  Patricia Peterson gave a brief statement to reporters as well, speaking of the solidarity felt by the Peterson family, of their sheer and complete belief in his innocence, regardless of what the jury had determined. To prove her devotion to Michael, Patricia told the media that Michael “did not participate in the act” of Kathleen Peterson’s death.

  “This is about the death of a mother,” Patricia told a TV news team. “This is about children losing their mother, and possibly losing their father. It is an unconscionable loss for every one of those children.”

  When the verdict was made public, screaming headlines read:

  GUILTY: PETERSON GETS LIFE IN WIFE’S KILLING. And to everyone’s chagrin, there was even more information that family members came forward to tell, which revealed secrets about Peterson’s “alter” personality.

  Michael Peterson’s sister, Ann Christensen, called reporters from her home in California to say that her brother, ten years her elder, had a volatile temper, which was often directed at the women in his life.

  “It’s not just anger,” Christensen told news reporters, “it cuts you to the bone.”

  Kathleen Peterson’s sisters, Lori Campell and Candace Zamperini, also came forward after the verdict. They revealed to Herald-Sun reporters that Michael was a controlling husband who “flew into rages around the house.”

  Candace Zamperini explained that Kathleen had hidden the “trouble” in her marriage from the family, and in an interview with Court TV, Candace referred to a diary that Caitlin had written, three entries of which were so upsetting, she couldn’t bring herself to finish reading them.

  “I hope that someday other people can read what life was truly like with Michael Peterson in that house,” Candace told reporters. “He did verbally abuse people and control things.”

  In an interview with Court TV, Lori Campell revealed that Michael’s temperament was erratic. Lori told news reporters that she was aware of an “incident” that occurred when her sister was on a trip with Michael in Paris. According to Lori, Kathleen alleged that Michael had hit her, just after their belongings were stolen on the Metro. Kathleen explained that Michael had gone out and bought her an expensive purse, in an attempt to “make up.”

  “He became angry and he took it out on her,” Lori told media. “I admired her and looked up to her. Kathleen was an intelligent woman. But she didn’t leave him.”

  Kathleen’s sister Lori would also state that she never believed for a minute that her sister had fallen down the stairs. Upon learning about Kathleen’s death, she recalled, the first words out of her mouth were “He did this to her” and “He didn’t love her.”

  Elizabeth Ratliff’s sister, Margaret Blair, had confided to members of the prosecution that Michael Peterson allegedly beat his English bulldog, that she had seen Michael hurt the family pet, watching the bulldog’s eyes become bloody. Blair told Durham prosecutors that she had witnessed the incident, and she had gotten “the biggest white fluffy towel” she could find, so she could comfort the poor dog.

  Elizabeth’s former nanny, Barbara Malagnino, alleged that back in the early days, she had seen Michael Peterson beat his pet, Bud, a basset hound. Malagnino further alleged that just after Elizabeth’s death, Michael Peterson had “scraped the nose” of one of the Ratliff girls, rubbing the girl’s face in urine on Mrs. Ratliff’s wooden floor.

  Kathleen’s first husband, Fred Atwater, and daughter Caitlin would confide that on 9/11, the day of the U.S. terrorist attacks, they had been informed that Kathleen was in the emergency room being treated for a head injury. Fred and Caitlin were told that Kathleen had hurt herself by diving into the swimming pool, but they could never get a straight answer from Kathleen about what happened. Upon reflection, they felt the story Michael had told them never really made sense. Kathleen was not a big swimmer. She was the type to wade into the water slowly. . . .

  And on the steps outside the courthouse, after a press conference was held by Jim Hardin, Freda Black stated that the passion in her closing argument had stemmed from the significance that the case held for victims of domestic abuse all across the world.

  “I was speaking for women,” Black told reporters. “These were two female victims of domestic violence.”

  Fifty-six

  Many people who watched the trial had become armchair analysts. Among them were amateur observers, well-read attorneys, Court TV addicts, as well as members of the Peterson clan, who used obvious code names on message boards, who seemed to thrive on gossip and speculation. In the final days of the trial, a majority of these outside observers expressed an overwhelming opinion that Michael Peterson would be found not guilty. They seemed certain that Peterson would walk, that he would be acquitted.

  The jurors held a press conference to talk about the verdict, claiming the Elizabeth Ratliff evidence had not influenced their decision. As for Henry Lee’s testimony, jurors said it was “irrelevant.” When asked about the blow poke, jurors said they didn’t know what the murder weapon was, but they were convinced that Michael Peterson had beaten his wife to death, using some kind of blunt object.

  But jurors didn’t know, nor did courtroom observers or Court TV junkies, about one of the most interesting details that was never presented during the case. People had no clue that DA Hardin had been contacted by a U.S. attorney about a recent sale out of Kennebunkport, Maine. The call was regarding the sale of two blow pokes....

  THE VOICE OF JIM HARDIN

  “Before our closing arguments, I received a phone call from a lady in Kennebunkport. She told me that a man by the name of Michael Peterson had called her and ordered three blow pokes. She said they’d shipped two of them to him, that he had given them his credit card. Peterson would have received them just after Rudolf had placed the defendant’s blow poke into evidence. Maybe he wanted to give them as gifts. I don’t know. But the woman from Maine faxed down the order form to us, and we have it in the vault.

  “I don’t know where the blow poke the defendant entered into evidence came from, but I can tell you one thing, it wasn’t in that garage because we certainly would have found it when we executed the last search warrant on June 27, 2002. I gave specific instructions for every inch of that house to be measured. I was in that garage, several other people were in that garage on a couple of occasions, and that blow poke was not there.”

  “I think every aspect of this case was calculated. Every aspect from the defense, from the media leaks, which started with an accident theory, saying that she was drunk, high on Valium. Then they float the intruder defense out there, and then come back to the accident defense. Everything they did, in my opinion, was calculated from the inception.

  “From Peterson’s perspective, he had this mapped out in his mind. It was just so apparent to me, with the 9-1-1 calls, how selective he was with his information. Then he was selective with the officers when they got there, about how information was provided, essentially through Todd, so he was protected. He wanted some information provided, to give them something so they would continue to believe it’s an accident. But I believe that was all calculated.

  “Mr. Rudolf tried to put a lot of things in front of the jury that either he wasn’t going to prove, or he couldn’t prove, and he did that by design, that’s my opinion. That’s all done to confuse the jury. Basically, Rudolf, throughout the trial, was testifying without presenting evidence.

  “People are going to say that I staked myself out on that blow poke, and I probably did, as it turned out, more than I wish I had. But Rudolf made a tactical error on his part, he staked himself out when he talked about the loving relationship, saying they were soul mates. We
were very pleased that he had done that. It opened the door for us. We had a lot of Brad information, the computer information, and when he talked about their idyllic relationship and how Peterson had no motive to harm her, he opened the door wide enough for a Mack truck to drive through.

  “For me, Dave Rudolf tried this case like he tries every case. He’s got a playbook. And that playbook includes attacking the prosecution, sometimes attacking the victim, and pandering to the press. Rudolf was constantly in front of the media talking about things I believe he cannot ethically talk about. He was giving constant interviews, two or three a day, while the case was going on. I don’t think you’re ethically entitled to do that.

  “I have no idea why Peterson downloaded a hard copy of Brad’s Web site with all the reviews people had given Brad about their ‘encounters.’ For some reason he had downloaded this, along with e-mails, and all this pornography was in a desk file with some of Kathleen’s important papers. These sexual materials were in there with Kathleen’s Nortel records, with her November benefits sheet, with tax bills that had to be paid, with some phone bills. They were things you would have to attend to within a month.

  “In my mind, it all goes back to, if she loses her job. Think about her precarious job situation. She was about to lose her job. Kathleen had been able to survive a couple of rounds of firing, but then her immediate supervisor was terminated. She had been placed on the ‘optimization’ list just before her boss was fired, and then she had been taken off the list. But personally, I think she was aware that if her boss was being terminated, she was next on the chopping block.

  “It’s our view that Kathleen would have had significant deprivation of oxygen to the brain. You’ve got the two-hour period before those red neurons could develop, so she had to lay there for at least two hours bleeding and dying. And during that period of time, there were a succession of assaults. There was the initial assault, and, in our view, there was another assault, because of the blood spatter on top of cleanup.

  “Obviously, we had to piece things together. Obviously, Peterson didn’t want to talk with us about it, but you look at his situation. He had just lost an election. They’re in a horrific financial situation. She’s on the verge of losing her job. Personally, I think all those stressors were coming to a head. And I think that when she found out that he was having extramarital relations, or at least attempting to have them, I think she told him to hit the bricks.

  “As for Michael Peterson, I think he’s an evil person, and, at his core, is a psychopath.”

  Fifty-seven

  THE VOICE OF FREDA BLACK

  “When the family first came into our offices, they basically expressed their disbelief that this really was a homicide and that Michael committed the crime. Candace and Lori were the first to have a discussion with us, and they made a specific request to know what evidence we had. We were leery to tell them all our evidence, because they didn’t know us, and they weren’t in our corner yet.

  “Jim and I told them some things about the blood spatter evidence, and offered them an opportunity to look at the autopsy pictures. And when Candace looked at them, she cried. A few weeks later, she had a conversation with Art Holland, and with Dr. Radisch, and Candace called to let us know that she felt satisfied that her sister had been murdered.

  “A friend of Lori’s, a guy named Dennis, had told her that he had sexual relations with Michael. And Lori wasn’t sure if it was true, but she was hopeful that if it was true, that maybe it was just a onetime thing. She told me she didn’t want to worry Kathleen about it, so she made the conscious decision not to tell Kathleen. When we contacted this fellow, he said he would refuse to testify. He had hired a lawyer, and we decided he wasn’t going to be worth it. It was going to be a big ordeal to get him up here, and we had Brad, who would cover that category.

  “Their suggestion that this was some type of revenge, because Peterson had been critical in his newspaper articles, that people would have framed him out of revenge, the average citizen would find it hard to believe. Most of the people who testified didn’t even know who Michael Peterson was. How would they come up with an idea to frame somebody that they don’t even know?

  “Mr. Peterson is not O.J. Simpson. He’s simply not that important of a person. They tried to use the idea that we framed him, you know, that there was contamination of the scene. Peterson was so arrogant that he thought we would risk everything by framing him. But why would we want to do that? It’s an unbelievable allegation to think that people from all these different agencies would risk everything they work for in the legal process.

  “The only picture that we consistently got of Michael Peterson was that he and his wife appeared to have a solid relationship. We heard that from all the people who knew them, which made us believe that if there were really bad things going on in that home, it was going on behind closed doors, that Kathleen was not telling friends and family everything, which was not surprising to me.

  “Kathleen was the type of woman who would have found it embarrassing and humiliating to admit she was being mistreated. A woman of her stature and position, to be willing to put up with what she was probably having to put up with, whether it was the anger, whether it was the demeaning comment. I would think that because his ego was so big, Peterson didn’t fathom that this woman was supporting him and his children. He probably didn’t let his mind go there.

  “Kathleen probably didn’t confide in anyone. We tried to find someone who was her best girlfriend, but we never found that person. We tried to find out who her best friends at work were, but we kept coming up on a dead end. I think Michael mesmerized what little spare time she had. And if you think about the lifestyle she had, you know, if she wasn’t at work, she was either at home cooking or just doing all the things that it takes to run a household that big. There were the parties that she hosted, and she took care of the girls. So where was she going to have any extra time to even have a best girlfriend?

  “Rudolf showed different pictures and videos of items in their house, trying to prove that they weren’t poor, that they weren’t hurting for money. Rudolf showed the video over and over again, he showed still pictures and certificates of authenticity, trying to show that all of the Petersons’ material possessions were worth a lot of money.

  “One of the items they showed was something that dated back like a zillion years ago. It was a figurine or something supposedly from an ancient Chinese Dynasty. And they showed a certificate of authenticity, which stated the object was purchased in May of 2002. But all I could think was, why is he buying expensive artwork when he’s supposed to be paying lawyers? To me, it’s just a show of his selfishness. Here he’s going to go to trial for first-degree murder, and he’s got bills to pay, but Peterson goes out and buys a luxury item.

  “When we were executing the final search warrant, I went into the house with the men from the police department, and, I mean, the house was not kept up well. There were trash cans overflowing with garbage. There were items of linen just laying in the closet. It was definitely not very tidy, and he’d been living there with the children since he’d gotten out on bond. I really don’t believe he wanted to clean the house. I don’t think that he cared about anything in the house, and whether it was clean or not.

  “We were there in June, and the primary reason we were there was so we could take measurements to have a carpenter reconstruct a portion of the staircase. We also had FBI come with us to take some fiber samples, because there was a fiber in front of one of Kathleen’s fingernails. We believe that she had her hands on her head, to try to fend off blows, and in the process, some of her own hair came out, and some other fiber ended up under her nail. But as it turned out, we weren’t able to match that fiber.

  “We always believed that Mr. Peterson got rid of the weapon. One key reason was because of this perfectly round spot of blood that was found outside the front door of the house. Now, according to what Mr. Peterson told EMS when they got there, he had not re
ally gone outside, except perhaps to look out the door. But Duane Deaver explained that because of the roundness of that spot, it had come from a source that was perpendicular to the pavement. As opposed to something coming off clothes or shoes, it was a blood drop that came off an item.”

  Epilogue

  Two years after Kathleen’s death, long after the Peterson mansion was placed on the market, all of its contents having been picked over during a public auction, Kathleen’s grave was well-kept with flowers, and someone had anonymously left a loving poem, entitled “If Tears Could Build a Stairway.” By the time Michael Peterson had turned sixty, he had begun serving his time in prison. He was happily teaching illiterate inmates how to read and write, and also giving television interviews proclaiming his innocence.

  Then for some reason, out of the blue, members of Peterson’s support group decided to propose a new theory to explain Kathleen’s demise. Some people found it impossible that anyone would continue to fight for Peterson. Others felt Peterson’s supporters were hanging on because of yet-to-be-disclosed book or movie deals, because of the continuing national TV coverage; the Michael Peterson story was ready to be aired on Dateline NBC, and there was an upcoming ABC documentary, a promising TV event to air as a three-part series.

  Whatever the reason for the public outcry from Peterson supporters, the explanation they were offering, the new theory about how Kathleen Peterson died, was something that boggled the mind.

  In a letter written to DA Jim Hardin on December 5, 2003, Larry Pollard, a respected attorney and former neighbor of Michael Peterson’s, suggested that the murder case be reopened. Pollard, along with Nick Galfianakis, another respected attorney in Durham society, were spreading the word that the deep gashes to the back of Kathleen Peterson’s head had been caused by the talons of an owl.