Michael Peterson/“The Staircase”

[Miscfeminista]

I recently saw a video on This Morning about this guy

and I think I may have seen a title somewhere before so I started watching”The Staircase”docu series on Netflix(almost done)just because it was first available stuff to watch and well, I got randomly curious…so far I am just not convinced he’s innocent. Even the owl theory does not entirely make sense however”convenient”it may seem.

And then there was a video of his son supposedly talking how he actually finds his dad may have been the murderer all along(or along those lines):

He also mentions he’s recovering addict which could go both ways-they’re either very blunt or could rant”irresponsibly”(I truly do not mean to offend but what I noticed about few people that were long term addicts was that they didn’t pay a lot of attention to what they’re saying or whether it could be true or not or they’d deliberately lie seemingly very easily)but the fact that Kathleen’s birth daughter and Kathleen’s sisters are convinced she was murdered, as well as their neighbour friend(very similar to both his wives in more than one way too)dying very similar death, after which Peterson adopted her(neighbour’s)daughters…I mean I just have too many doubts to see this man as innocent.

Still I am trying to understand how it works-could that guy have killed these women and still grieve to some extent? We often take it as black and white, cold hearted murderer or innocent but could it be this guy was so convoluted that he made the story work for him and continue his life without much regret? Could he have actually been observing his lawyers and kids fight for him while he knew the truth?

I noticed her sisters read his books and found references to his bisexuality as well as to his possible killing tendencies.

The part that makes this for feminist discussion IMO is his hardcore porn use and how it may have related to him murdering as another sexual outlet. I remember reading on another occasion that men who murder might get aroused by the act itself without necessarily doing anything sexual at the same time. It makes me wonder if he’s another low key Ted Bundy.

Have any of you digested this whole story?

Yes I didn’t buy any part of the narrative that he was innocent. It was all so horrifying shady. And then I found out he was having a long long term relationship with one of the directors of the Netflix documentary. Surely that is so unethical and inappropriate of the grieving widower.

Ted Bundy was a sociopathic serial killer. I don't think Peterson is in the same league!

I've seen both documentaries and am watching the drama.
I feel that this is one of those "not proven" cases. I keep thinking there should be more compelling evidence against him, clear forensics etc but all there seems to be are different theories.

Just a suggestion but you might get more traffic on your post if it was in the telly section?

I watched the documentaries and came away with the impression that he was guilty. Haven’t seen the drama but probably won’t watch it, I think.

@GrimDamnFanjo could the fact he has been writer for a long time, as well as having served in military along with a brother who’s a lawyer give him advantage in possibly covering a murder? It also seems that the crime scene was”contaminated”in a way it would not have been today maybe 🤔

@Babymamamama oh thanks, I did want to try post here as I wanted to avoid backlash for suspecting hardcore porn having relevance/tying it to the case on more mainstream subs. And yeah re relationship with Netflix doc woman; supposedly they got together after it was all done(he says so in This Morning)tho I doubt it didn’t impact the work to some degree anyway

@nightwakingmoon don’t think I will watch drama either but another documentary, perhaps

Seems like I'm in the minority believing he's innocent after watching the documentary. Interesting video of Todd - are you sure it's actually Todd? He looks so different now. I'm sad to hear the family bonds have fallen apart- other than Caitlin, the other kids all seemed so close to each other and supportive of their dad throughout the documentary.
And him having a relationship with one of the film makers- that's no evidence of guilt and is irrelevant. I was glad he could move on to try to find happiness again

This short video sums up some of my suspicions:

Dr Phil has good points, it really did seem a bit bizarre him joking with lawyers and documentary being all about him. I just realised I watched the whole thing and know nothing about Kathleen other that she died a suspicious death and has furious sisters and daughter defending her(rightly so). Why did he never try to make amends with her side of family if he cared about Kathleen so much? You would try to reach out and explain it, instead he said one of her sisters”won’t shut her f** mouth”and is reason why he’s on trial.

Does anyone know of some documentary her side of family made?

Lastly, the way she died was by no damn owl. I could believe this theory and this video makes good points too

To be honest I am undecided whether he did it or not. I don’t think there is sufficient evidence to say he did.

The Netflix documentary was an edited version of an earlier Storyville documentary - I don’t think it’s relevant if he was in a relationship with someone on the team as the documentary was very similar to the Storyville one.

also his first wife is alive and well. It was their friend who died in Germany. He was the one to find the body but the finding at the time was that she had died of a aneurysm. At his trial some conflicting evidence was provided from a witness who said there was blood, but at the time there was no such finding and the police and medical examiners did attend the scene and do tests.

in the death of his wife, there are multiple explanations and the scene was contaminated by the police. So I think we may never know.

I thought he was totally guilty but that it was probably fairly opportunistic and not first degree murder.

I mean he's yet another man who waited until she was dead before calling the ambulance.

I will have a look at this documentary later. And look out for it by Laura Richards' Crime Analyst podcast as she's great at taking these thing apart and centering the victim(s).

However, I'm wondering why the reference to bisexuality. It's always brought up as an indication that someone is a) messed up b) confused c) suspicious in some way or d) depraved in some way. I'm not saying you think that, more wondering what it's relevance here is. Is there actually any connection between him being attracted to both sexes and to him being suspected of murdering his wives? Like was he deeply ashamed of it and his wives found out before their deaths?

He seems to be ashamed of it. He could be a closeted gay man, his son in video above made odd comments about him being more into men and Michael himself at the end of documentary says that who knows what his life would be like if he allowed himself to have relationships(other than just sexual relations)with men and then said he most likely wouldn't have kids and all that. That sounds odd to me if someone is bisexual: he is indicating he would probably settle for men.
Why would a bisexual man not have children in plan at one point since he's supposedly such a big family guy?

To me it wasn't about bi or homosexuality, it was the deceiving part and hiding it, possibly using his partners for cover up. He had time to come out bi or gay in those 50 years.
Then there's the hardcore pornography(20 years back they called it hardcore, now it's mainstream-which doesn't mean it's"less of a big deal", it's just a sad fact of internet)and seeking prostituted men.

Even if Kathleen knew about his bisexuality, I somehow doubt she would be fine with him seeking prostituted men. If it was an open marriage, it would be open but Michael only ever said he"thought"she knew. Meaning they never even had an open conversation about it-I can't imagine someone just giving a silent nod without any discussion to such things, that smells abusive.

I didn’t watch the documentary but I am watching the drama, which makes the documentary out to be biased and in my reading is portraying MP as a textbook narcissist and guiltily af.

"I thought he was totally guilty but that it was probably fairly opportunistic and not first degree murder.

I mean he's yet another man who waited until she was dead before calling the ambulance."

That's what seems to have happened with the mother of his biological kids, who he moved back in with after he came out of prison. His son said he waited almost 3 hours to call ambulance and that he had to call it when he arrived(she had a heart attack I think). That would be a third woman for who he called ambulance for that died

"which makes the documentary out to be biased and in my reading is portraying MP as a textbook narcissist and guiltily af"

"The staircase"doc on Netflix actually aimed at presenting him as innocent with all the sad music and"heartwarming footage"of him with his kids, I was actually hopeful it will have more dirt but it was mostly him rambling as long as he wants and badly justifying stuff that came out that didn't portray him well

His first wife isn't alive and well, she died this year - I'm sure I saw somewhere that one of the sons is suspicious of her death too, but I can't find where it was

Sorry, should have rtft before my reply above! Doh.

Personally I'm not positive he did it, despite him appearing to be a textbook NPD. That's not me saying he didn't, just that I don't believe the evidence proves beyond reasonable doubt that he did. Basically the same as my opinion on Jeremy Bamber

Of course he did it. Two women in his life mysteriously die in the same way?

Agree the evidence doesn’t prove he is guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.

that video of Todd is pretty telling. He certainly sounds as messed up as you’d expect someone who grew up in a cult like narcissistic family dynamic to be, poor guy.

I find it hard to believe the owl attack theory - mainly because there was no mention of other owl attacks, in the weeks/months leading up to, and after Kathleen’s death. One owl attack, in isolation, seems very unlikely, whereas if there had been other owl attacks in the area, then it would be more believable that Kathleen had also been attacked by one. Surely his defence team would have looked for other reports to add weight to the theory?

I second the doubts about owl attack. Some zoologist or whatever he was, said that while owls do attack humans it's quite rare and that there have rarely(if ever actually)been records of it being fatal.
If the wounding from the bird was so bad that she slipped on her own blood, there would have been a lot more blood outside?
And then fruthermore how did he not hear her if they were both outside when the owl attacked her? If something got you in middle of the night by the head I am sure you would scream A LOT.

Another YT commenter said that around that time of year where they live it's way too cold to stay outside for so long-and he was supposedly outside for around 2 hours wearing shorts. There was no mention of that in whole documentary

Also her putting Christmas decorations around midnight?...like what kind of sense that even makes. It's just scary how sloppy the investigation about something so serious can be

To paraphrase:

To lose one lady may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two may be seen as murderous.