Sunday, April 27, 2014

Knox & Sollecito Actions In The Week Prior To Arrest: An Incriminating Behavior Pattern For Sure

Posted by James Raper

[Video above: Sollecito slams Knox’s weird behavior, while not explaining numerous examples of his own ]

1. Today’s Context To This Post

A very strong case for guilt has been made at trial and endorsed at the first-level appeal.

This series hammers home the growing hundreds of incriminating stark differences between the official evidence record, Sollecito’s and Knox’s two books, and Sollecito’s and Knox’s multiple conflicting claims since.

The focus of this post as with the one immediately below is upon the described behaviours of Knox and Sollecito, from the very beginning to this very day. This pattern has more than contributed to the certainty of their involvement in the murder of Meredith Kercher.

2. How The Behavior Speaks To Guilt

The early pointer of the staged break-in aside this behaviour gave investigators an insight into the pair’s possible involvement back on Day One: Behavioral pointers have continued on a par with corroborated developments in the case.

It has even continued, incredibly, since their release from prison. For me it is the thread that runs through this case having as much to do with the overall picture of culpability as the other elements .

This behaviour - to include what they have to say for themselves - is a catalogue of the inappropriate, of the implausible, of inconsistencies and contradictions, of evasions and obfuscations, to be gleaned from the accounts of Knox and Sollecito themselves and highlighted in the accounts of other witnesses. It is also to be gleaned from phone and computer records.

Taken together it is a formidable body of evidence which goes to character and culpability. It cannot be attributed to a railroading job, the machinations of a corrupt and evil prosecutor or character assassination by the media. It is also implausible if not impossible to explain it as being due to naivety, confusion or some quirkiness of character.

It amounts to the pair of them concocting stories, telling lies and misleading investigators and the general public.

3. Physical Evidence Array Is Already Substantial

There are numerous items of evidence which are building blocks in the prosecution case and with which we are all familiar.

    1. The staged break-in via Filomena’s window with pointers to this outside, on the windows and shutters, and throughout the bedroom.

    2. The evident partial clean up proved by footprint trails with footprints missing and what was behind the locked door.

    3. Amanda Knox’s lamp on the floor behind Meredith’s locked door which she only conceded was her own at trial, under pressure.

    4. Knox’s dried and congealed blood on the tap in the small bathroom that Amanda Knox and Meredith shared.

    5. The bloody footprint on the mat in that bathroom definitively attributed to Sollecito rather than Guede

    6.  The mixed DNA of Knox and Meredith Kercher found in blood in the basin, the bidet and on the box of Q tips in that bathroom

    7. Two luminol enhanced mixed traces containing DNA belonging to Knox and Meredith Kercher, one in the corridor and the other in Filomena’s room

    8. Two luminol enhanced footprints of Knox in the corridor and one of Sollecito immediately outside Meredith’s room.

    9. The knife taken from Sollecito’s apartment with Meredith Kercher’s DNA on the blade and Knox’s DNA on the handle and on the blade

    10. Meredith Kercher’s bra clasp with Sollecito’s DNA on a hook and contamination possibilities definitively ruled out.


4. Behaviors In The First Week Of November 2007

I don’t want to make this an unduly long post. Accordingly I am going to concentrate on the period up to that famous police interrogation analysed just below. As to that critical period I will be selective but it should be enough.

The Lady With The Mop?

The story (in Knox’s e-mail) that she had visited the cottage to collect a mop, have a shower and get a change of clothing, earlier on the morning of the 2nd November, but did not notice that Filomena’s window had been broken and her room trashed is just that - a made up story. It is entirely implausible and the account unreliable for a number of reasons including-

    (a) it is hard to believe that she did not notice the hard to miss fact that the shutters to Filomena’s window were (as they were found) open - this would have alerted her to the likelihood that Filomena was back home which she would, of course, have checked out of curiosity if nothing else given that she found no one home.

    (b) her claim that Filomena’s door was shut is contradicted by Sollecito who wrote (prison diary) that when he later entered the cottage with Knox   Filomena’s door was wide open.

    (c) it is hard to believe that she took a shower without noticing until after her shower (as she claimed) that there was blood on the bathroom mat, including a bloody footprint. In fact she didn’t even claim to notice that it was a footprint despite the fact that it was obviously so.

    (d) it is hard to believe that having found the front door wide open and having found blood, and having opted for a shower and to blow dry her hair, she never got round to checking for any sign of Meredith’s presence. Any one else would have tried her door to check whether or not she was home.

    (e) from her appearance at the cottage that morning it is hard to believe that she took a shower at all (let alone blow dried her hair) and the cops remarked that she reeked of body odour.

    (f)  less problematic but nevertheless still somewhat surprising is that as she is drying her hair she makes a fuss over shit (left by Guede) in the toilet,  describes herself as being “uncomfortable” about it but does not flush it away before grabbing the mop and leaving.
The Two Stayed At Home?


The story that Knox and Sollecito had spent the previous night (the night of Meredith’s murder) indoors, critically from 9 pm onwards, that both had slept and that Knox had been the first to rise at about 10.30 am the next morning is implausible and uncorroborated, not only because this alibi is directly contradicted by the testimony of Curatolo and Quintavalle, and Sollecito’s statement to the police that Knox had gone out and not returned until about 1 am, but also in view of the following facts.

    (a) Curatolo claimed to have first seen the Knox and Sollecito in Piazza Grimana shortly after 9.30 pm but Knox claimed in her trial testimony that she and Raffaele had cooked and eaten a meal between 9.30 and 10 pm.
    GCM:  Can you say what time this was?

    AK:  umm, around, umm, we ate around 9.30 or 10, and then after we had eaten, and he was washing the dishes, well, as I said, I don’t look at the clock much, but it was around 10. And”¦he”¦umm”¦well, he was washing the dishes and, umm, the water was coming out and he was very bummed,  displeased, he told me he had just had that thing repaired. He was annoyed that it had broken again. So”¦umm

    LG:  Yes, so you talked a bit. Then what did you do?

    AK:  Then we smoked a joint together”¦”¦we made love”¦..then we fell asleep.

    Unfortunately Sollecito’s father himself torpedoed this dodge by telling the court that when he phoned his son at 8.42 pm Sollecito had told him that there had been a water leak while he was washing the dishes. Taking into account Knox’s testimony that they had eaten before the dish washing, this places the meal and dish washing before that call.

    (b) Sollecito told the police that at about 11 pm he had received a call from his father on his land line. Not only is that not confirmed by his father but there is no log of such a call.

    (c) There is no log of a call to his mobile at that time either though his father had sent a text message at that time but which Sollecito did not receive until 6. 03 am the following morning. We know that he had received it at that time because that is the time at which it is logged in the phone records.  Sollecito had just turned his phone on and clearly the phone had been off when the text message was sent.

    (d) There is no record of any phone activity for either of them from after the 8.42 pm call to, in Sollecito’s case, receipt of that text message at 6.03 am,  and in Knox’s case her call to Meredith’s English phone at 12.07 pm the next day.

    A further word about this Point (d) here as Knox has released her phone records on her web site. In her case it has to be said that this is not so unusual. Up until the 30th October there is no regular pattern of late or early morning phone activity.

    It is interesting to note, however, that as of the 30th October there is a spate of texts and calls between her and a young Greek known to us as Spiros.  Communication between them had in fact been going on since the beginning of October but there are 5 texts in the afternoon of the 30th, two telephone calls in the afternoon and a call at 11.38 pm on Halloween.

    In the early hours of the following morning there are a couple of calls between the two. In fact we know that the two met up together for Halloween as Knox was at a loose end.  Meredith had shrugged her off and Raffaele was attending a friend’s graduation dinner out of town.

    Sollecito is different as his father was in the habit of calling at all hours just to find out what his son was doing and, as we know, he had called late only to find that his son’s phone was switched off.

    In the case of Knox she admitted in any event that her phone had been switched off, “to save the battery”.

    (e) There is no record of any activity on Sollecito’s computer after 9.15 pm and until 5.32 am the following morning when music was played for half an hour.  This contradicts the claim that Sollecito had smoked pot and interacted with his computer until midnight and that they had both slept until late the following morning.

    (f) The fact that the next morning, outside the cottage, both Knox and Sollecito looked utterly exhausted. This belies the alibi that they had spent a quiet night indoors and had only risen late that morning.
The Fake Call To Knox’s Mum in Seattle?

Knox falsely claims in her book that having had her shower she called her mother on her way back to Sollecito’s apartment as she was beginning to have concerns as to what she had seen at the cottage. Her mother tells her to raise her concerns with Raffaele and the other flatmates and Knox says that she then immediately called Filomena. Filomena tells her to get hold of Meredith by phone which she tries to do by calling Meredith’s English phone first, then her Italian one.

    (a) How does this correlate to the contents of her e-mail of the 11/04/07?

    (b) How does this correlate to Knox’s phone records?

    (c) There is no mention of a call to her mother at all in the e-mail. This from her e-mail -
    “”¦.and I returned to Raffaele’s place. After we had used the mop to clean up the kitchen I told Raffaele about what I had seen in the house over breakfast.  The strange blood in the bathroom, the door wide open, the shit in the toilet.  He suggested I call one of my roommates, so I called Filomena”¦”¦”¦..
    Filomena seemed really worried so I told her I’d call Meredith and then call her back. I called both of Meredith’s phones the English one first and last and the Italian one in between. The first time I called the English phone it rang and then sounded as if there was disturbance, but no one answered. I then called the Italian phone and it just kept ringing, no answer. I called the English phone again and this time an English voice told me the phone was out of service.”

    (d) the phone records are as follows for 2 November 2007:

    Ist call of the day @  12.07.12 (to Meredith’s English phone)  - 16 seconds

    2nd call   @  12.08.44 (to Filomena)  -  68 seconds

    3rd call   @ 12.11.02 (to Meredith’s Italian phone)  -  3 seconds

    4th call @ 12.11.54 (to Meredith’s English phone)  - 4 seconds

    8th call   @  12..47.23 (first call to her mother) - 88 seconds

    (e) The discrepancies are numerous, see these examples:

    1. The first call to her mother was not just after leaving the cottage but 40 minutes after the call to Filomena, and the call to Filomena had been placed after she had returned to Raffaele’s place and after they had used the mop and had breakfast. In fact, say about an hour after she left the cottage.

    2.  The first call to Meredith’s English phone was placed before the call to Filomena, and not after as Knox would have it in her e-mail. A minute before,  but Knox did not mention this to Filomena, as confirmed by the e-mail and Filomena’s testimony.

    3. The first call to Meredith’s English phone disappears entirely in Knox’s book.

    4.  The call to the Italian phone did not just keep ringing. The connection was for 3 seconds and this was followed by a connection to the English phone for 4 seconds.

    5.  The English phone was not switched off or out of service. Mrs Lana’s daughter had found it. She said that she would not have done so but for it ringing (the 12.07 call for 16 seconds?). She picked it up and took it into the house where it rang again (the 12.11 call - 4 seconds?). A name appeared on the screen as it rang : “Amanda”.

    6.  The 3 and 4 second calls are highly suspicious. The Italian phone was undoubtedly in the possession of the postal police. According to Massei it’s answering service was activated, accounting for the log. Clearly Knox did not even bother to leave a message for Meredith as it would take longer than 3 seconds just to listen to the answering service. This is not the behaviour of someone genuinely concerned about another.

      Observations:

      1.  In her e-mail, and repeated in her trial testimony, Knox says that she woke up around 10.30 am, grabbed a few things and walked the 5 minutes back to the cottage. If the first call to her mother was about an hour after she left the cottage (see before), then she left the cottage at about 11.47 am, which means that she spent over an hour there. Either that or she spent more (a lot more)  than 20 minutes at Raffaele’s place before calling Filomena. The latter would be more likely as it is difficult to conceive that she spent over an hour at the cottage. She didn’t have the heating on when she was there. Either way there is a period of about an hour and a half between when she might have tried to contact Meredith or raise the alarm and actually doing so.

      2.  That we are right to be incredulous about this is borne out by the false claim in Knox”˜s book. That false claim is significant and can only be because Knox is aware of the problem and feels she needs to add some support to her implausible story of the mop/shower visit and to conceal the real reasons for the inactivity and delay connected with it.

      3. That it is incredible is even belatedly acknowledged by Sollecito’s feeble but revealing attempt to distance himself from Knox in a CNN interview on the 28 Feb this year. “Certainly I asked her questions” he said. “Why did you take a shower? Why did you spend so much time there?”

      4.  That she makes that false claim and has constantly stonewalled and/or misplaced the 16 second call to Meredith’s English phone is indicative of her guilty knowledge. Her guilty knowledge with respect to the 16 second call was that it was made to ascertain whether or not the phones had been located before she called Filomena, and hence for her it was not (incredulous though this is without such explanation) a pertinent fact for her to bring up with Filomena.
The Real Call To Knox’s Mum In Seattle?

As to the 12.47 call to her mother itself (4.47 am Seattle time and prior to the discovery of Meredith”˜s body) Knox not only did not mention that in her e-mail but in her trial testimony she steadfastly declined to recall that it had occurred.

She clearly did not want, or could not be trusted, to discuss why the call had occurred and what had transpired in conversation with her mother before the discovery of Meredith’s body.

Not only was the timing of the 12.47 call inconvenient to her mother but I found it interesting to note from Knox’s phone records (covering 2nd Oct - 3rd November) that mother and daughter do not appear to have called or texted each other once up until that 12.47 call.

It would appear then that in so far as they remained in direct communication with each other for that period it must have been by e-mail. One can therefore imagine that her mother was very surprised to receive that call.

It is also very difficult to accept that Knox could not recall a phone call she was not in the habit of making. (On the other hand the same records show that it was not at all unusual for Knox and Meredith to communicate with other on Meredith’s English phone.)

Sollecito’s Call From His Dad?

At the cottage, and prior to the above call, Sollecito received a call from his father at 12.40 am. Do we know what they discussed? It would in any event have been after the discovery of Filomena’s broken window and (allegedly) Sollecito’s (rather feeble) attempt to beak down Meredith’s door.

Did the responsible adult advise his son to do the obvious and call the police? One would think so, but then why was there a 10 minute delay before he called his sister in the Carabinieri at 12.50 am? Indeed, why call his sister at all? Filomena had also urged Knox to call the police when she called at 12.35.The delay might be explained by the unexpected arrival of the postal police and if this was the case then it was before Sollecito called the 112 emergency services.

The Claims Of Finding Meredith’s Body?

Neither Knox nor Sollecito saw into Meredith’s room when the door was broken down and her body discovered on the floor under a quilt. Yet in the immediate aftermath it is as if they have wanted others to believe that it was they who discovered her body and in the bragging about this there have been disclosures, not only as to what they should not have been aware but also suggestive of disturbed personalities. This behaviour was remarkable for all the wrong reasons.

    (a)  Luca Altieri”˜s testimony makes it clear that Knox and Sollecito had heard about Meredith”˜s cut throat directly from him during the car ride to the police station.

    However her bizarre and grotesque allusion in the early moments of the investigation to the body being found stuffed into the closet (wardrobe) is not just factually incorrect (it was lying to the side of the closet) but bears correlation to the later forensic findings based on blood splatter in front of and on the closet door, that Meredith had been thrust up against the closet after having been stabbed in the throat.

    (b)  The behaviour of Knox and Sollecito at the police station is documented in the testimony of Meredith’s English girlfriends and of the police. Whilst it is true that people react to grief in different ways it is difficult to ascribe grief to Knox’s behaviour. Emotionally she was cold towards Meredith’s friends and occasionally went out of her way to upset them with barbed and callous remarks.

    The fact that Knox was not observed to cry and wanted to talk about what had happened is not of itself indicative of anything but remarks like “What the fuck do you think, she bled to death” and her kissing and canoodling with Raffaele (including them making smacking noises with their lips when they blew kisses to each other) in front of the others was not normal.

    Rather chilling in retrospect was a scene between the pair of them when Knox found the word “minaccia” ( in english - threat) amusing and made a play of it with Sollecito in front of witnesses.

    (c) Grief is in any event reserved for friends and relations, or people one much admires. The evidence is that the initial short friendship between the two had cooled to the extent that Meredith was studiously, if politely, avoiding being around Knox. For the narcissistic and attention seeking american girl this would have been difficult to ignore and may well have offended her.

    (d)  The next day Sollecito was willingly collared by a reporter from the Sunday Mirror and told her about the horror of finding the body.
    “Yes I knew her. I found her body.”

    “It is something I never hope to see again,” he said. “There was blood everywhere and I couldn’t take it all in.”

    “My girlfriend was her flatmate and she was crying and screaming, ‘How could anyone do this?’”

    Sollecito went on to tell the reporter that “It was a normal night. Meredith had gone out with one of her English friends and Amanda and I went to party with one of my friends. The next day, around lunchtime, Amanda went back to their apartment to have a shower.”

    About the only thing that is true here is that he knew Meredith.

Comments

Thank you James - you’ve distilled the essentials very well…

From the point of view of psychology, the behaviour rings alarm bells at almost every turn. It does matter - especially as it has persisted, even though they are now older.

Posted by SeekingUnderstanding on 04/28/14 at 10:52 AM | #

Knox in particular is ultra-prolific. Sollecito has become less terse. James Raper is the master at spotting where they tripped over their own tongues.

In the early days her legal team in Perugia PUBLICLY tried to shut Knox up, by complaining to the media that for her own good their client really ought to not make stuff up. In a case full of crazy legal firsts (all of which bit the perps in the tail) this sure was a mother of a one.

A lot of what Knox was doing in the first of the two “interrogations” she hijacked in the wee hours of 5-6 November 2007 (which James reverse-engineered in his post below) was drawing maps to their homes and writing out the personal details of the half-a-dozen others she wished to frame.

Thereafter she hijacked the “interrogations” further, in her bossiness-on-steroids mode, to write out those two statements she signed. She was not asked for them; they were her idea.

In the first statement, I suspect she really did intend to say to Patrick “lets meet right now” believing that she had been fired and Meredith had taken her place at the bar. This is what she said.

Last Thursday, November 1, a day on which I normally work, while I was at the house of my boyfriend Raffaele, at around 8:30 pm, I received a message on my cellular phone from Patrik, who told me that the premises would remain closed that evening, because there were no customers, and thus I would not need to go to work.

I responded to the message by telling him that we would see each other at once; I then left the house, telling my boyfriend that I had to go to work.

This would explain

(1) why she set off out of Sollecito’s house, with or without him in tow;

(2) why she launched the attack on Meredith, having picked up Guede in the square for some additional muscle on her side, Sollecito not actually having any;

(3) why she deleted Patricks text message (which she could have done any time in the past week); and

(4) why she had the conniption on being shown her text reply to him; note how the conniption happened then, not when she was told (if she ever was) that Sollecito said she made him lie.

Not deleting that text sure was a mother of an oversight. No wonder she began to whack her head. That text put her out of her house, and on the way to Patrick’s bar, and it led directly to Alibi Version 2.

http://www.truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/comments/our_take_on_the_case_for_the_prosecution_4_amanda_knoxs_multiple_confl/

Posted by Peter Quennell on 04/28/14 at 12:13 PM | #

I’ll second that assessment, Peter. We know so much about the evidence itself that motive has not been discussed as much. We are told Patrick had already offered a job to Meredith mixing drinks at the bar, and Amanda demoted to handing out fliers.

It offended her narcissistic sense of self worth, already damaged in juxtaposition with the self-assured, popular Meredith.

Why did she transport the kitchen knife to the cottage? I am pretty hard line about this. At some level, in her drugged out mind, she intended to murder Meredith. And the other two were dupes. Sure, she did something similar in Seattle as a hazing prank she did to her room mate. Even father Curt didn’t escape her attention seeking.

Why do people kill? Drugs, thrill seeking, jealousy. And devastated families left behind.

I can only hope Sollecito and Guede finally, tell the truth about what happened that night; I doubt that will happen though. As long as justice is served, fine, and the Kerchers will at least have closure.

Posted by Ergon on 04/28/14 at 05:25 PM | #

Italian justice seems very thorough but you need the patience of Job to stay with it! Just as well I suppose, there will be less doubt at the end.

There’s a blockbuster of a book to be written when this pair do go down; some people may speak up who have hitherto been afraid to do so. Like the Knox crowd in pre-Perugia Seattle?

The book could also catalogue the PR manoevres, the lies, the dirty-tricks, etc. And if Sollecito has squealed, well… a lot of blanks could likely be filled in. Can someone ask John Follain if he’s up for it?!

But first things first. Nencini must be about ready now…

Posted by Odysseus on 04/28/14 at 06:13 PM | #

Hi Ergon and Odysseus

Firstly I think Knox did not go with any preconceived plan concerning actual murder. However having said that, the fact remains of her drug fueled subconscious motive was there in the intent to scare or more likely, degrade Meredith hence the offer to Guede.

That is why she can now say and convince herself that she had nothing to do with it and indeed is puzzled and scared since she has believed her own lie. There is nobody more convincing than people who believe the lies they tell themselves. Her main ‘modus operandi’ was and still is.

“How can a woman of mixed race be better than me when she should ‘kowtow’ before my obvious superior American ‘wasp’ image.”
(See friendofstafranks previous post .)

Then there’s Nencini’s report next week. While I am sure that the vast majority of reports coming out of Italy are as concise and to the point with all the Ts crossed etc; this one will be blockbuster. That’s what you get for maligning Italy in general and Italian juristprudence in particular. I wonder how many drafts it’s gone through before the final document.

The point is that if you mount a campaign against someone, or in this case a country, then you had better watch out because said powerful individual/country will come back and bite you in the ass.

The Knox/Mellas/Gogerty-Marriot triumphate seem to have never realized that, or perhaps they just were, in their egocentric stupidity, dismissive of of the none response emanating from Italy and within this web site.

For example it has been suggested that “The postal police took Meredith’s lamp into the bedroom in order to look for clues.” Sad but indicative of the shear stupid drivel written by some of the Knox supporters who absolutely refuse to read anything associated with the guilt of Knox.

Bruce Fischer wrote that Peter is a “lunatic” which was very quickly deleted when it was pointed out that the national pastime of the USA is suing people who malign you. But then that’s just indicative of the close minded panic of Fischer and others.

So anyway, to next week, also it should be noted that there are those in the Knox inner circle who are convinced a guilty verdict will be a fete accompli and are trying to amass support. Having seen Bruce Moore’s pathetic attempts on CNN trying to convince people the Guede was a stool pigeon against the Mafia, I don’t hold out any hope for them at all.

Posted by Grahame Rhodes on 04/28/14 at 08:13 PM | #

Max Clifford head of Max Clifford Associates the “PR consultancy” in London has today been found guilty of eight indecent assaults. He is described by prosecutors as a “a well-practised manipulator who promised to boost his victims’ careers and enable them to meet celebrities in exchange for sexual favours”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27192600

Almost by definition it’s a seedy kind of individual who is attracted to PR and the addiction to manipulation and “image”. In that respect AK’s PR guru is not a million miles from his infamous client - both see no shame in lying if they think it serves their purposes. Birds of a feather really do flock together. Always.

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/comments/Jaw_Dropping_BBC_Bias/

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/comments/some_images_relevant_to_the_murder_of_anni_hindocha/

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/comments/silicon_valley_lawyer_richard_dwyer_mulls_knox_fingering_patrick_also_dewan/

Posted by Odysseus on 04/28/14 at 08:31 PM | #

@Graham Rhodes

Agreed. The stupidity of the Knox crew beggars belief sometimes, to the point where I’m not sure whether to be irritated or compassionate for their deep congenital idiocy.

Btw, as I understand it Nencini is scheduled to report by Wednesday <u>this week</u>. I certainly hope that’s right - I’m getting impatient!

Posted by Odysseus on 04/28/14 at 08:43 PM | #

@Odysseus

‘Birds of a feather really do flock together. Always.’

Yes, it’s true.  Most people find it easy or easier to link up with or ‘be friends with’ other people whom they are already like. They ‘like’ people they are like.

It takes a little more thought and consideration, (and empathy), to connect with someone who is very different from oneself - perhaps background, or temperament, or race. But how worthwhile it is when we do!

There is also the drive of ‘belonging’ : the need to feel we belong to or with others, such as family, or perhaps church or modern equivalent, or with colleagues too.

It is an elemental drive whose strength can be underestimated. It can be as strong as the sex drive, or supercede it. It is most observable in personalities and groups where there is much insecurity.

There is a desperation to prove the belonging, and a self generated pressure to conform to the group.

‘Oh, we all like this,...or all believe that…and so we must all in unison turn against such and such a person’. One can see how the ‘clique’ or clan arises.

In contrast, persons who are centred in themselves, at ease with their core self, and have, most of all, a realistic sense of their own self-worth (not too much, but not too little), will be more able to be comfortable in thinking things out for themselves, and won’t be so anxious for others to agree with them, or, especially, approve of them.

(This is tied up with a mature conscience also.)

We can recognize someone who has this sense of Self-belonging…they often have a serenity, and good sense of humour too.

I don’t want to be rude (the FoA have enough coming to them presently), but it is conspicuous too when people don’t have this inner security. They can manifest hysterical expression.

Posted by SeekingUnderstanding on 04/28/14 at 11:06 PM | #

Hi, Grahame, speaking of ‘maligning an entire country’

https://www.facebook.com/Justice4Anni?hc_location=timeline


BREAKING NEWS: SHRIEN DEWANI’S PR AGENT MAX CLIFFORD FOUND GUILTY

“Max Clifford has been found guilty of sexual assault against young women and girls as young as 15. He will be sentenced on Friday and is expected to be sent to jail.

While working for Shrien Dewani, Max Clifford <u>orchestrated a campaign of abuse against South Africa, its officials, its police and its justice system in newspapers all over the world in attempt to help his murder accused client avoid extradition and trial</u>.

He increased the pain and suffering of Anni’s family by spreading lies in the worldwide media and he, together with Preyen Dewani, attempted to trick Anni’s father into a contract with him. Fortunately, Anni’s father Vinod Hindocha refused.

Clifford was charged with 11 counts of indecent assault against seven women and girls, aged 14 to 19 at the time. He has been found guilty on 8 of the charges.

His conviction today will be welcomed by many as he is a self-confessed liar who made money for years living off other peoples misfortune, protecting wrongdoers and preying on vulnerable young women.

<u>It says a lot about the Dewani family’s judgment that they hired someone like Max Clifford at the start of this case and used him to peddle their propaganda, rather than hiring a defence lawyer and going to trial</u>.”

Perhaps the Knox family should not also have hired a PR agency at the outset?

Posted by Ergon on 04/28/14 at 11:24 PM | #

@SeekingUnderstanding

There is also the human tendency to identify oneself with a group, so that outsiders are “beyond the pale”. This need is obviously very strong in those with fragile egos and weakest in those who are more individuated and in touch with the Self.

“I wouldn’t belong to any group that would have me as a member” - Groucho Marx.

Sometimes humans can act like gibbons in their inclusion/exclusion games! Think golf clubs, Eton, etc… Actually it’s also observable in web site comments sections (not this one I hasten to add!) where not just outsiders but even new members are regarded with outright contempt until they have duly recognised and paid obeisance to the existing hierarchy 😊 Anthropologists (and psychologists like yourself ) must find deep humour sometimes in this group dynamic!

Posted by Odysseus on 04/29/14 at 12:38 AM | #

@Raper, your list of 10 points under “Physical Evidence Array” is definite proof of guilt. The defendants’ behavior adds more proof. Thank you for a comprehensive and valuable description of the evidence.

You mention a flurry of phone calls and texts between Knox and the Greek fellow named Spiros, on October 30th and 31st (Halloween).  They had also been in contact during the entire month of October. I wonder what that was all about? Drugs? Romance?

Perhaps Spiros could still shed some light on Knox.

Posted by Hopeful on 04/29/14 at 01:11 AM | #

Thanks James…always enjoy reading your pieces.

Posted by Bettina on 04/29/14 at 01:41 AM | #

Very interesting. Does anyone know the whereabouts of Spiros or if he was ever questioned. If Knox did disappear from 9-1 maybe, just maybe Spiros was involved in helping with the murder of Meredith-seeing as Raf was a major wimp-and RS was involved with moving the body and arranging the clean up (his father is a doctor). Hmmmmmm. I just wonder

I want to do a post for this case, maybe after we hear the rationale of the court, on Ms. Knox’s handwriting (graphology) and neurolinguistics-speech patterns eye movements, pupil size-altho that is probably from the meth-pot would make them dialated-moonsize-not pinpoint size as they are.
At any rate, I see rather a lot of samples of handwriting on AK-are there any on RS-that would be most telling.

I am a PhD plus-the + being post doc training in hypnotherapy. And I am an AMERICAN-became convinced of her guilt on reading her book. Also spent a couple of decades investigating murders, child abuse, fraud (medicare and medicaid) and other such things. Graphology shows the same types of things as several psychology exams. Further, it is one of the big things you study when determining how to hypnotize a person. Neurolinguistics is also rather telling-speech patterns, eye movements-used that a lot in my previous consulting practice also.

RS was just Amanda’s boy-toy and drug source for a week-Again, if she had known Spiros for a month and met with him on Halloween-a meeting the next day would not be out of the question. Just another angle to me-RF was in “love” and did want to protect AK even AK saw him as one of her boy toys-makes that very clear in her book-again just wondering. Maybe RF could be innocent of the killing but came over to help with the fake burglary (altho AK had already tried that in Seattle according to her blog) and the clean up and alteration of the crime scene for his “love”. thoughts?

Posted by Friendofstfrank on 04/29/14 at 03:22 AM | #

Hi Friendofstfrank

Looks good. Looking forward. We have various examples of writing if you dont have those. Always interesting to know how anyone came to see guilt. Its a mater of pride that we have a good group of lawyers and judges who read.

The proof for RS being right there at the time is the fresh blood he stepped in to make several prints. See the post a week or so ago from Yummi with the high definition prints.

Spiros owned an internet cafe. Others are more up to speed as to who he is though given time I can find out a lot. Knox suggested seven possible perps in her “interrogation” that finished at 1:45 to keep the cops busy running around. Spiros was one.

They were all seen and found to have no relevance to the case and were not put on the stand except for Patrick. Here is the list:

Peter Svizzero
Patrick
Ardak
Juve
Spiros
Shaki
A South African (Guede, disguised?)

Posted by Peter Quennell on 04/29/14 at 03:43 AM | #

We are all aware of Knox’s pathetic attempt to delay the discovery of Meredith’s body.

On the morning after the murder, one of the officers of Postal Police discovered that there was a locked door. Knox pointedly explained that it was Meredith’s door and that there is no reason to be concerned because she locked the door all the time, even to take a shower. Based on Knox’s assurance, the Postal Police ignored the door.

However, in part one of her interview with “The Daily”, (at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGHWMS8xnIU”, ( from 5.34 onwards, immediately preceded by a big gulp when she says “Meredith’s room”), Knox states of that room:

“Her door was locked and that was strange. She didn’t normally lock her door. It had happened at various times, but not… it wasn’t the usual thing…”

This is a complete reversal of what she had told the Postal Police and it proves, yet again, that the guilty-as-hell Knox cannot tell a consistent “story”.

This is also another example of a major Knox interview where the interviewer does not challenge any of Knox’s obvious lies, but allows her to hold forth as if she must be telling the truth. 

No much wonder that she continues to sucker so many gullible Yanks.

Posted by Mealer on 04/29/14 at 03:45 AM | #

P.S.

We know that, immediately after Meredith’s bedroom door had been broken in, those present, (excluding on Knox’s own admission, Knox and Sollecito), could only have seen much blood and Meredith’s foot, protruding from under a duvet. The rest of her body and head was covered. 

In the same “The Daily” interview, Knox states at 13.39, ( in reference to the police, house-mates and their friends), that “People… were talking about her throat being slit…”

How would any of the people, present that morning with Knox and Sollecito outside the murder house, be “... talking about her throat being slit” when, (at that stage),  all of Meredith’s body, bar her foot, had been completely covered?

How, therefore, could Knox, (and even Sollecito), know this specific detail of the murder, other than she, (and he), had been directly involved in it, as perps?

Posted by Mealer on 04/29/14 at 04:14 AM | #

Thanks Peter.

Again, tho, I wonder, being an expert on judging injuries (bruises, especially deep ones, don’t form until 14-48 hours after occurrence, and blood doesn’t dry up-stays fresh-for 6+ hours depending on how thick it is-bleeding from the throat is going to stay fresh for hours further it tends to gush out of the body after death for around 45 minutes for that type of wound-don’t mean to sound morbid but . I am speaking from investigating deaths and serious injuries for well over a decade-also about sitting up from laying down about 30 minutes past death-the rigamortis (sp) takes several hours-body is still warm and feels alive for an hour after death at least-that is why it is hard to ascertain time of death within an hour or two-spent a lot of time examining dead bodies and investigating it.

at any rate, In “Waiting to be heard” AK says that she noticed blood on RS hand. Now, being a fisher person in the USA, fish don’t bleed that much-not even when you are gutting them after capture. Do the fish in italy bleed a lot?

In “Waiting to be Heard” AK also says that she got up before RS why he is still asleep and in “Honor Bound” RS says they got up at the same time and he walked her to the door and kissed her goodbye. Hmmmm. Is it customary to consider a mean around 12-if she left at 10:30 and spent an hour sprucing up (not)to eat breakfast that late? Me, I’d call it brunch. And if they were going on a day holiday that day, isn’t noonish rather a late start-don’t you miss most the day. Again, inconsistencies in the stories.

Posted by Friendofstfrank on 04/29/14 at 05:06 AM | #

Hi, Mealer,

You say “How would any of the people, present that morning with Knox and Sollecito outside the murder house, be “... talking about her throat being slit” when, (at that stage),  all of Meredith’s body, bar her foot, had been completely covered?”

We know a lot more since transcripts of the trial testimony were released on McCall’s Wiki.

Paramedics went in to see Meredith. Battistelli stood by the door when they were there. I think this is how the information got out. Altieri knew because he said in his testimony that he was pressed for details by RS and Altieri told him, and AK. RS asked “Was it with a knife?” which Altieri thought was an extremely naff question.

Previously I had also thought it strange that AK would have used Mez’s english phone when Mez had F’s italian phone sspecifically for use in Perugia. However AK’s phone records do show that AK used Mwz’s english number all the time. I have no idea whether Filomena and Laura did as well. Maybe that had become a badge of connection for AK in the same way that she copied Laura’s ear piercings.

For all her philanderings with the boys I detect signs that AK was insecure with the girls and over-anxious to please and connect with them. This may be where it all went wrong for her.

There are, of course, a good many phone numbers I do not recognise. Among them will probably be the number of a drug pusher AK was reported to have on her phone.

I have always been prepared to change my mind if the evidence warrants it. However a concession here and there makes no difference to the overall incredulity I encounter with their behaviour.

Posted by James Raper on 04/29/14 at 11:47 AM | #

Thanks James for another methodical analysis. I would only have one quibble. You conveniently forget that the American defendant is “pretty” and charmingly “quirky”. That’s surely enough to blow all the so-called “evidence” out of the water and prove that this whole case has been a grotesque miscarriage of justice:-)

Posted by Odysseus on 04/29/14 at 03:58 PM | #

@odysseus
Thanks for your comment re belonging to the group and its hierarchy.
Sometimes one can ‘re-do’ a dialogue with its sub-text ( as in a Woody Allen film - what is REALLY being said).. That can be funny…

Posted by SeekingUnderstanding on 04/29/14 at 04:15 PM | #

Thank you for alerting us to the Nencini report now out, Pete .

330 pages! A substantial book, no less. I look forward to reading the details.
I’m glad Il Messegario placed emphasis in their short article on the definite presence of the multiple attackers, and the way they acted simultaneously. ‘The lone wolf’ version no longer exists.

Posted by SeekingUnderstanding on 04/29/14 at 04:47 PM | #
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Or to previous entry The Incriminating Bathroom Evidence: Visual Analysis shows the Footprint IS Sollecito’s