Sunday, July 05, 2015
Our Conclusions In “Deceit” & “Dark Matter” And How Our Journey Took Us To Them
Posted by Nick van der Leek
Albert Einstein once said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
One of the tremendously rewarding experiences we [my co-author Lisa Wilson and I] have as authors is our research forces us to set up camp around questions. We spend time: mornings, afternoons, days, weeks, even months asking questions and pursuing answers. The amazing thing when it comes to True Crime, especially popular crime, is those answers are out there. One merely needs to go out and make the effort to look for them. And keeping looking. Seek and we do find!
What makes our narratives distinctive, I think, is that Lisa Wilson and I more often than not work as a team. How many other narratives have two authors, working from opposite sides of the Atlantic? While Lisa provides a US perspective as a juror and a True Crime buff, I am more interested in the intuitive subtleties that underlie these cases. The psychology, the economics, the motives. Human behaviour is fascinating, especially when it drives people to the extreme. I’m also intrigued by what these intuitions reveals about us, and society.
I wasn’t always into True Crime, in fact like Ann Rule I sort of fell into it by accident. While Rule worked with Ted Bundy, I was facebook friends with the model Oscar Pistorius shot dead in his bathroom. I didn’t intend to write a novel, I simply started asking questions, and then penned a 12 000 word magazine article [intended as a 4 part series]. That narrative eventually became my first bestseller.
Although I studied law and economics, I left the corporate environment to freelance fulltime as a photographer and writer. My great grandfather was a famous South African artist, and my brother and aunt are also both well regarded artists [and yes, freelancers] in their own rights too. I guess there is something restless in my blood that makes we want to dig beneath the surface, to see expanded perspectives than what the media serves us.
I need to not only explore the world beyond my door, but represent it to myself and others in a constructive and meaningful way. I feel passionate about meaning above all, and it’s gratifying to find so much in so grim a setting where someone has lost their life. When we honour them, when we remember them honestly, something unexpected happens: we also set ourselves straight, we also get ourselves [and society to some extent] back on track.
In terms of the Amanda Knox case, I stepped into the bullring for the first time in April this year. I knew virtually nothing about the case other than it had been newsworthy around the world. I knew “˜something’ had happened in Italy, and that Amanda Knox was somehow involved [or not] because she was a housemate of a murdered British girl [also a student]. Before I started studying the case I had no bias either way ““ I didn’t know whether she was guilty or not. Based on the little media that came my way, there seemed to me to be equal parts bias that she was innocent and”¦suspicion.
As soon as I started examining the case, literally within a few minutes, my interest was aroused. It was along the lines of: she’s hiding something. It was also along the lines that I thought Amanda might be involved in some way, complicit in some way, but probably not involved in the actual murder. How could she? Why would she?
Again, it is easy to ask these questions and then walk away from them without investing time in their answers. And when they do come they’re”¦well”¦stupefying.
While Lisa travelled to Italy to investigate this case first-hand, I started working behind-the-scenes on a narrative Lisa and I designed a framework for called DOUBT. The plan was that Lisa would return and then we would work on the narrative together. I got so caught up in my own research I started on the narrative and by the time Lisa returned from Italy DOUBT was done. Interestingly, Lisa still wasn’t convinced of Amanda’s guilt when she got back, and we had one or two heated Skype calls while Lisa was still in Italy, where Lisa’s position was set to the default setting of most outsiders to the Amanda Knox case: “but there was no DNA.”
A lie repeated often enough eventually becomes if not the truth, then a kind of truism, doesn’t it? A truism isn’t the truth, it’s a platitude. It’s something you say to get rid of enquiring minds.
No DNA? Well, of course there is ““ at least five instances of it, mixed with Meredith’s blood. What’s perhaps more bizarre, for example, is the lack of Amanda’s fingerprints in her own home. A single print? How many of us could say the same about fingerprints in our own homes? Our computers, door handles, kitchen areas ought to be splattered with prints. Coming back to DNA, not only is Amanda’s DNA present, but so is Raffaele’s in Meredith’s bloody bedroom.
What is the chance that Raffaele was at the villa, in Meredith’s room, but not Amanda? What was he doing there if Amanda wasn’t with him? And is it any surprise that Meredith’s bra, cut with a knife after the murder also had Raffaele’s DNA on the bra clasp? This is a guy who had a knife fetish, and who was carrying a knife at the time of his arrest?
In DOUBT [which was banned at first by strident Pro Knoxers and then resurrected as DECEIT] I identified 28 Red Flags. These were singular signals that seem to show patterns of inconsistency. Things just didn’t add up. Indeed Amanda did seem to be [and still is?] hiding something. In DARK MATTER Lisa and I joined forces. We brought a binocular lazer-like narrative focus to the four days of intense police investigation following the discovery of Kercher’s body at midday November 2nd, 2007.
In DARK MATTER we identified an additional 100 plus Red Flags [we distinguished these from the first 28 by calling them “˜Black Asterisks’]. In addition to these we listed several other Highly Suspicious Events amongst other increasingly odd behaviours ““ not only from Amanda, but Raffaele as well. It is when we pool all of these clues together that a picture begins to emerge. Patterns emerge. And suddenly the mystery becomes”¦less mysterious.
If my initial “˜gut feel’ was that Amanda was simply “˜hiding something’, by the end of DECEIT there was little doubt that there was a lot more going on than that. In fact, I’ve suggested to Lisa that based on forensic evidence alone [if one threw away all the circumstantial evidence], Amanda would still a have a major case to answer to. Conversely, if one took the entirety of circumstantial evidence, including the on-again-off-again alibi, and simultaneously threw out [ie ignored] the totality of forensic evidence, Amanda would still have a major case to answer to. That’s my opinion. Lisa’s too, now that she’s gone beneath the surface of this case herself.
The irony is this case is so large, so convoluted, so filled with spin and counterspin, that it is easy to get lost in the details. As we see so often in court cases, it is not a lack of evidence that is a problem, it is the volume of it that gets disconcerting, and frequently confusing. Confusion and doubt [and “˜reasonable doubt’] go hand in hand. Of course being confused by a lot of information is not the same as uncertainty based on a lack of evidence, or based on ambiguous evidence. The evidence isn’t ambiguous.
As such it is Lisa’s and my mission to demystify the eight years culminating in Amanda’s and Raffaele’s ultimate acquittal. Our narratives, especially the first two or three in the series are probably better suited to newbies [people like us]. In THE IVORIAN, and the many narratives to come after that, Lisa and I expect to be as well versed as some folks on forums and resources like the incredibly valuable True Justice.org.
Before wrapping up, I’d like to share a final insight based on our experience writing another true crime series. It may seem like Amanda Knox, Jodi Arias and Oscar Pistorius are three distinct individuals, with nothing in common. But when we look closer we don’t simply see matches in certain defense schemes, we see entire patterns of conduct [including motive] overlapping, and doing so perfectly.
In South Africa we have a similar situation where the media profit out of stories on Oscar Pistorius. They are reluctant to declare him guilty as that would be slaying a potential “˜cash cow’, and with book deals hanging in the balance [an acquittal is literally worth millions], the media are hedging their bets.
As a person involved in the media I am appalled at this, hence our eight narratives on Oscar, two detailing his motive and the method of what we speculate was premeditated murder. In terms of Amanda Knox, we suspect a similar game play between the media and Knox. Both seem to be involved in a kind of PR waltz which both stand to benefit from, if they can dance consistently to their own music.
It was once said of Lance Armstrong that one shouldn’t make Lance Armstrong angry. Anger is what motivates Lance to win. And then the punch line: “˜Beating Lance makes him angry.’ Lisa and I have been astonished at the level of organisation and aggressive militancy [and dirty tricks] employed by Amanda’s supporters. If this was intended to dissuade us from writing, these folks couldn’t be more wrong.
We are not out to make money, Lisa and I, although we care that our narratives resonate and are successful. What we really care about is justice. The bottom line, whether one is a criminal, or the supporter of a criminal is you never look good trying to make someone else look bad. The venom and personal insults Lisa and I have endured in our reviews is impressive. The strategy is clear ““ attack the credibility of the messenger [since the message itself is problematic].
Our credibility is simple to establish. For my part, I am a professional writer. I did not gain a twitter following of almost 14 000 based on bad writing. I write in partnership with Lisa because her research is often deeper and even more thorough than mine. For me our credibility is based on just two tests: our personal standards and our level of honesty towards ourselves and others. What distinguishes our narratives from all the others out there is the level of honesty ““ including self disclosure ““ both of us bring to our work.
This is because we care about something beyond justice. Besides wanting our readers to have a meaningful and genuine experience reading about these tragic crimes, we ““ as authors ““ also want to be enriched. When we make it a personal journey, the insights and intuitions are truly rewarding. We find how these folks ““ not only the victim but also the perpetrators ““ are not so very different from us. In this sense, if when we genuinely learn something from these true stories, Meredith Kercher’s death need not be in vain.
Follow Nick van der Leek on twitter @HiRezLife and Lisa Wilson at @lisawJ13
Please “like’ Nick van der Leek’s Facebook page.
Posted by Nick van der Leek on 07/05/15 at 04:10 PM in Various hypotheses, Various scenarios, News media & movies, Excellent reporting
Comments
Nick
I have read your ebook. I enjoyed and agree with most of it. As you graciously point out, we have been saying much the same thing here and elsewhere for a few years (some since 2007).
Such is the overwhelming evidence against Knox and Sollecito that surely the real story now isn’t the minutiae of the case at all - the real story has shifted to the necessarily corrupt elements of the judiciary in Italy. That would be a book very worthy of your investigative skills, though it might have to wait, at least until the Supreme Court get it together to construct something vaguely resembling a “reasoning”.
Posted by Odysseus on 07/05/15 at 06:58 PM | #
P.S. I haven’t read “Dark Matter” yet - it’s waiting on my reader.
Posted by Odysseus on 07/05/15 at 07:42 PM | #
I too hope “Meredith Kercher’s death need not be in vain”- but I do not understand what is real motivation for the Knoxen army.
But truth always have an ugly habit of raising her head at most unexpected times.
Posted by chami on 07/05/15 at 09:10 PM | #
@Nick van der Leek, thank you for looking into the Meredith Kercher murder case and thank you, Lisa Wilson, for traveling to Italy to try to find the truth.
With Nick’s statement that he searches for “meaning” even in a grim circumstance like death, I concur, “the insights and intuitions are truly rewarding. We find how these folks—not only the victim but also the perpetrators—are not so very different from us.” How true. Knox has some good traits, so does Sollecito, so does Guede.
It’s humbling to realize that we may have some Knox traits and some Meredith traits as well. Honesty is not easy, therefore it is valuable.
The rabid naysayers who forced your book “Doubt” to be delayed and to become “Deceit” are the same blind wolfpack who have had Knox’s back since Day One. Oh, yes, Knox’s middle name is Deception. I don’t think she can really help it, she has survived too long by denial. It’s likely that an explosive situation with Meredith occurred and she had no brains left, just raw aggression fueled by drugs and alcohol. At some point she became deranged.
Raffaele is similarly high-strung and nervous, relying on antidepressants and relaxants. Now he is writing a second book about all his suffering and saying he wants it all to be forgotten.
He’s also renovating a house in Giovinazzo that his mom left him when she died, in which he’ll start a computer company and a website, with hopes of opening it this fall and meanwhile seeking to hire employees. All this through start-up funds from a public grant that his father seems to have helped him obtain. He is a liar like Knox and told the police he was lying for her! He tried to start a company in Switzerland but they ran him out.
I think Dr. Sollecito has probably crossed the Rubicon with that dolt of a son after 8 years of struggling for him in the legal bear pit and it’s now sink or swim for Raffaele, the doctor needs him to step up. It’s all been too much. So Deception is the middle name of several people in this sordid drama. Raf’s latest evasion is about his relationship with Greta, “it’s complicated,” he says. That usually means the truth is not complicated but quite simple and is NOT positive.
You mention “the venom and personal insults” that you and Lisa Wilson faced from reviews of your books. It’s almost incredible, isn’t it? Typical Knox PR stratagem much like the bully they represent.
Your studies in law will stand you in good stead with this case.
How good that some people like you and Lisa who are in the media are not sold out to the flavor of the month cash cow.
Barbie Nadeau knows about swimming against the stream.
Media objectivity went out the window. Knox’s father and friends paid for rottweilers to chase it all the way. Knox refuses to take a polygraph. She lied about Lumumba, wrecked his business and then laughed when asked if she wanted to apologize to him or pay him. She flashed money in a park when saying Adios to James, now she may be latching onto another rich boy adrift named Colin S.
Knox is the great supplanter. She tried to supplant Meredith due to fear and ever since she has taken evasive action against the truth.
I wish you great success with your books about Meredith. She is the hero of this story.
Posted by Hopeful on 07/05/15 at 11:19 PM | #
Thank you for for your insightful article. Keep up the good work.
Posted by Vinnie on 07/06/15 at 01:24 AM | #
I have been reading your tweets since the beginning. Doubt was a good read, and really amped the Knoxies.
Posted by Tina on 07/06/15 at 03:18 AM | #
Hi Hopeful.
Giovinazzo? Well, the house is there. But also Francesco presumably realizes that forever he will have to try to keep RS on a short string. Bisceglie is 5 minutes away (where RS grew up in quite humble apartment buildings).
The explosive nature of the RS-Francesco relationship surfaced repeatedly. Here are some posts reflecting that.
Sollecito’s relationships with his lawyers was fraught as well. We fully expected Bongiorno to walk off the case during the awkward defense phase where several times she was a no-show and RS himself in his book describes how disbelieving Maori was.
It leaked out a long time ago that none of the lawyers believe in their clients’ innocence, and Rs and AK each lost a lawyer early-on for that reason.
The stance of RS and the lawyers and family was for years to demonize Knox. Only with the book with Gumbel did he turn to whacking at Italy.
Here was perhaps his most bizarre whack, though it reads much more like Sforza than his own semi-literate language.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/06/15 at 01:10 PM | #
“Lisa still wasn’t convinced of Amanda’s guilt when she got back, and we had one or two heated Skype calls while Lisa was still in Italy, where Lisa’s position was set to the default setting of most outsiders to the Amanda Knox case: “but there was no DNA.â€
A lie repeated often enough eventually becomes if not the truth, then a kind of truism, doesn’t it? A truism isn’t the truth, it’s a platitude. It’s something you say to get rid of enquiring minds.
This corroborates how effective Marriott’s brazen flooding-of-the-MSM with Reasons-to-Doubt (Mostly-Imagined) can be.
If readers are bombarded with enough of them they can be persuaded to conclude that with so many such reasons, Beyond them is Not Reachable - so Guilt is Not BARD.
Even Lisa could be lured-in, albeit temporarily, but for Nick"s zeal and her own accessibility to reason.
Posted by Cardiol MD on 07/06/15 at 04:05 PM | #
The best way to challenge the CSI Effect (on which we posted a few times) is to show any waverers just how many DNA samples really were collected. Take a look at Olleosnep’s huge spreadsheet.
This was one of the strongest-proven cases via DNA imaginable. There was little dispute in Italy. In March 2013 Cassation tartly said claims of contamination must be PROVEN or they have zero value.
Knox’s DNA certainly was found in mixed samples outside the bedroom; it certainly was there on the knife with Meredith’s DNA as the Carabinieri labs proved in 2014. Even ONE mixed sample would be enough for most juries in most countries in the world to find guilt. Here they had plenty.
Meredith’s room was not swabbed for DNA, it was dusted for prints instead (there were none), though items in it were swabbed and that turned up Guede’s and RS’s DNA. So the real truth here is that nobody KNOWS if Knox’s DNA was inside the room or not.
As Cardiol says, to flatly claim there was none was one of the myriad lies.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/06/15 at 08:52 PM | #
Or to repeat the Joseph Gobbels axiom. “A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.” Or in this case
“If you are going to lie then tell a huge lie so that some of it will be interpreted as the truth by the unsuspecting.”
What the forces of evil want and expect is that we will eventually get tired and simply disappear.
This also applies to the Italian legal system. This will not disappear in spite of efforts to make it so. It will go on and on until true justice is realized.
This may take years but eventually justice will be served.
I am reminded of the childish idiot who tearfully posted on facebook with regard to Britney Spears “Leave Britney alone” Same child same pathetic plea.
Posted by Grahame Rhodes on 07/06/15 at 09:09 PM | #
Hi Graham
Yes and this sure wasnt only lies from the Marriott machine - the lawyers themselves dragged their feet almost from Day One on the collection and processing and then misrepresented it.
They attended all tests, after some extreme delays. They they set about claiming there could have been contamination, though they had seen none and had raised no objections.
The foolish and ill-qualified Hellmann swallowed this. No wonder Cassation was tart with him.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/06/15 at 10:19 PM | #
Knox summed it up neatly, in her own memoriales, as she was being arrested:” I realise this looks bad for me (i.e., I stink)”, and “I know I can be difficult to work with. “
She knew it then, and she knows it still. I wonder if Edda still has the little wooden desk and the convoluted explanations penned upon it, after she had called her daughter out.
Posted by mimi on 07/06/15 at 10:34 PM | #
@ Pete: “Meredith’s room was not swabbed for DNA, it was dusted for prints instead (there were none), though items in it were swabbed and that turned up Guede’s and RS’s DNA. So the real truth here is that nobody KNOWS if Knox’s DNA was inside the room or not.”
Actually Meredith’s room was swabbed for DNA in several places: walls, floor, door, wardrobe and I think the desk. Most of the tests were performed on objects, but there were samples obtained from room surfaces. If memory serves, they were all samples of blood stains and they all contained Meredith’s DNA, but the spreadsheet can confirm.
What is true is that room surfaces were not extensively swabbed, but I don’t know if that’s standard protocol or not.
Posted by Olleosnep on 07/06/15 at 11:11 PM | #
I heard about the murder soon after it happened; I too felt that the American is hiding something (I cannot read or speak Italian and my friend translated the news).
But several years later, when I heard that “there is no DNA” I was unsurprised. But then I asked: but she lived there!
But then I learnt her defense: if Amanda’s DNA is present, the reply will be -she lived there and if it is not found then -there is no DNA.
It is a very nice trick. I am surprised that it worked!
Heads I win and tails you lose.
Nice game big kids are playing.
Posted by chami on 07/07/15 at 04:19 AM | #
Thanks Olleosnep
“What is true is that room surfaces were not extensively swabbed, but I don’t know if that’s standard protocol or not.”
It was a choice they made. Dust or DNA. Having swabbed the traces evident to the eye they then dusted in numerous other places where Knox’s DNA could have been (and absence of any prints actually was, as Micheli was first to note, the cleanup area did include Meredith’s room itself).
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/07/15 at 11:52 AM | #
A peek preview of new talking points from the David Marriott “nothing but the truth” campaign.
“There was no hair, fiber, footprint, shoe print, handprint, palm print, fingerprint, sweat, saliva, DNA of Rudy Guede in the bathroom where there was a bloody footprint of RS and DNA of Knox. That in and of itself tells you unassailably that Guede did not do the crime alone.”
“There was no hair, fiber, footprint, shoe print, handprint, palm print, fingerprint, sweat, saliva, DNA of Rudy Guede in Filomena’s room where the breakin was staged, though there was Knox’s DNA. That in and of itself tells you unassailably that Amanda Knox is framing him.”
“There was no hair, fiber, footprint, shoe print, handprint, palm print, fingerprint, sweat, saliva, DNA of Amanda Knox in the bedroom where she slept. That in and of itself tells you unassailably that Knox did not even live in the flat.â€
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/07/15 at 02:56 PM | #
Hilarious “peek preview, especially:
“......That in and of itself tells you unassailably that Knox did not even live in the flat.â€
Posted by Cardiol MD on 07/07/15 at 04:38 PM | #
Both of these books are really great and provide readers with very honest and balanced views of the ongoing murder case against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. Thank you Nick and Lisa.
Posted by Johnny Yen on 07/07/15 at 08:48 PM | #
Pete writes <snip>
“Here was perhaps his most bizarre whack, though it reads much more like Sforza than his own semi-literate language.
This has always made me laugh. RS thinks he’s being satirical, but what comes out is a pack of lies behind the sarcasm:
“There’s no DNA of Raffaeles [on the bra clasp] but there could be anybody’s.”
Really?
Posted by Slow Jane on 07/07/15 at 11:54 PM | #
Nick,
thanks a lot for your interesting article. I haven’t read “Dark matter” yet, but I’ll do it. At the moment I’m reading the John Follain’s book “Death in Perugia” and Luciano Garofano “Assassini per caso”.
By the way, does anyone know if there’s a book version (not ebook) of Deceit & Dark matter ?
Posted by Albi62 on 07/08/15 at 12:45 PM | #
@Albi62
Re book versions (as distinct from ebooks) - as far as I’m aware they aren’t available.
Posted by Odysseus on 07/08/15 at 01:07 PM | #
Hi Albi
Amazon US does offer print on demand now if the writer sets it up with them. The purchaser gets a nice paperback. I havent asked Nick if he plans to do this - he did say he likes being able to update text, so at any one time they reflect the latest info & theories.
I have a Kindle but dont much use it, I download a lot of books onto Desktop Kindle and from there via this wonderful free program below put them into other formats (Calibre has a lot of formats):
In my case I need book to be searchable as few of any are indexed, and easy to underline passages. So I put them into RTF format and from there I cut and paste into DOCX, WPD or PDF formats.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/08/15 at 02:31 PM | #
Re the box at the top (copy below for our record) readers in Italy, France, Germany, Russia and India have accepted the offer of a review copy of Nick’s book via Amazon Kindle. (The books can be read on any PC.)
Is anyone else interested? Put the request right here, thats fine with us.
Bestselling True Crime writer and South African photojournalist Nick van der Leek writes about the many flashbulb moments he experienced writing about the Meredith Kercher case. We’re impressed with this state-of-the-art way to dig and reveal in face of dishonest PR. If you’d review Deceit or Dark Matter on Amazon or other sites please email us, and we’ll gift a Kindle copy by return.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/08/15 at 07:13 PM | #
Peter: I’d be glad to contribute a review in the hope that it will promote justice for Merideth. Sign me up. Thanks. - whatswisdom
Posted by whatswisdom on 07/08/15 at 07:49 PM | #
@Peter Quennell on 07/08/15 at 02:13 PM
Thanks for the offer. Instead of reviewing boring journal papers (they just arrive without invitation), I would like to read critically and comment on the book.
I usually read twice, first one is a rapid scan and the second one is a slow and critical read.
Even journal papers receive my personal opinions (also). So it will be here too…
I look forward to reading deceit by Nick van der Leek.
(My recent trip to the US was bit hectic and tiring. But I promise to complete the review within 10-15 days).
Posted by chami on 07/08/15 at 07:50 PM | #
Chami,
Sent, along with another. Did we have lunch? I thought that was on your progam!
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/08/15 at 09:17 PM | #
Hi whatswisdom. Sure thing, its sent. Amazing how little time this takes.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/08/15 at 09:18 PM | #
It comes as no surprise that Knox and her racist acolytes tried their damnedest to get this book suppressed. No more however, because bit by bit the entire truth will come out and then Knox and her lying allies will be exposed for who they really are. Oh sure it may take years, but to quote William Shakespeare in Macbeth act 1 scene 7
“Screw your courage to the sticking place”
This of course will continue for as long as it takes until the entire world knows Knox for what she truly is.
Posted by Grahame Rhodes on 07/08/15 at 09:23 PM | #
Peter
I’d be more than happy to review the book on Amazon. Let me know if you need me to send any further details.
********
David from Pete
Thanks. Sent. To all other requestees too. Our next featured book as well. Here again are ways to read, each mode takes less than 5 minutes to get there.
I have a Kindle but dont much use it, I download a lot of books onto Desktop Kindle and from there via this wonderful free program below put them into other formats (Calibre has a lot of formats):
In my case I need books to be searchable, as few of any are indexed, and easy to underline passages. So I put them into RTF format and from there I cut and paste into DOCX, WPD or PDF formats.
Posted by davidmulhern on 07/08/15 at 11:10 PM | #
Peter,
I will review either ‘Deceit’ or ‘Dark Matter’ on Amazon if the offer still stands. I perused some of the awful remarks that the ‘friendlies’ of AK posted. Of course, no critiques of the actual evidence were presented, but mostly incoherent ramblings and vindictiveness.
Posted by Vinnie on 07/09/15 at 06:53 AM | #
Doubt was so threatening, Knoxers fought tooth and nail to get it removed from Amazon. Thankfully it reincarnated as Deceit.
Cheers Nick and Lisa.
Posted by Tina on 07/09/15 at 08:59 AM | #
Hi Bettina
Someone I respect has written this in the context of another cover-up. I think it also applies totally to the Knox/Sollecito mob:
“We should understand that the cover-up is an ongoing crime that has to be maintained by the criminal cabal that is behind it. The real culprits need to maintain the official deception of what happened. They can’t allow the truth about it to come out, for if it does they’re toast, so they have no alternative but to maintain the cover-up. As they say, no rest for the wicked.”
I find it reassuring to remember that. There really is no rest for those who weave the tangled web of deceit. All bases must be covered, all the time, in case the truth comes out - as it surely will eventually.
For a while they can tell themselves they’ve got away with it but a still small voice in them will always whisper “for now”. That’s some justice already.
Posted by Odysseus on 07/09/15 at 10:15 AM | #
Odysseus
I’d agree. The downsides of covering up a crime in the nastiest possible way seem considerable - as some have already found out.
1) They are all fellow-travelers of certain very unsavory characters, some of whom are tracked by the FBI and its Italian counterpart.
2) NO professional who leaped on the bandwagon is coming out of this well. Ask Hampikian and Kassin and (soon) Preston, Douglas and Bob Barnett.
3) Some are known and a few exposed as having criminal records or confrontations with the law. Even Chris Mellas and Curt Knox show up. Heavey was reprimanded.
4) Some are already charged in Italy and face the risk of US lawsuits next. Sforza for one. Bruce Fischer, Steve Moore and Karen Pruett will face bad news.
5) Many have lost out financially and in terms of career. Moore got fired from Pepperdine University and (with no help from us) others also saw their careers take a dive.
6) Sforza can no longer enter the US without risk of immediate arrest at the airport and was exposed as a violent bully and a greedy money-hungry fraud.
7) US media has now stiffed most of them, and with exposures of the lies in the RS and AK books and how the courts were bent, media will be done with them all.
To Grahame Rhodes, Johnny Yen, etc, please feel free to add. We could use a master list.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/09/15 at 02:34 PM | #
There are two factions here. There is of course us who will never stop but keep on digging away until the truth is finally exposed and excepted. We will never stop because of the memory of Meredith Kercher who was murdered by Guede Sollecito and Knox in the worst cowardly way possible. We will never stop because apart from the horrendous crime committed both in Italy and the United States we speak for true justice and the belief that intelligence is more important than rapidly fading looks as in Amanda Knox.
Then there are those who support Knox and her lies and refuse to even consider the truth. They will keep on because they have to. They do this in order to avoid either criminal prosecution for aiding and abetting the known murderer Amanda Marie Knox or at the very least look more stupid than they actually are. They are no better than the followers of David Koresh or Jim Jones because they will swallow shit and ask for more. As a result they will became more fearful as time goes by. As for Knox herself I would not give a ‘tuppenny damn’ for her future because at the very least she will end up like Casey Anthony and perhaps at the very best like Jody Arias.
No we will never stop.
Posted by Grahame Rhodes on 07/09/15 at 05:59 PM | #
These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judging is not good: Whoever says to the guilty, “You are innocent”—peoples will curse him and nations denounce him. But it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and rich blessing will come upon them.
Posted by Vinnie on 07/09/15 at 11:43 PM | #
@ Peter, thanks for editing my post! I had plugged in my phone because the battery was about to go out and later when I picked up, my post was done!
A quick comment:
“In THE IVORIAN, and the many narratives to come after that, Lisa and I expect to be as well versed as some folks on forums and resources like the incredibly valuable True Justice.org.”
True Justice.org is incredibly valuable. To take nothing away from the Wiki, .net, and .org, I believe that this is the #1 site for truth and justice for Meredith Kercher. People need and want a site where they can read about the murder and the case. The main posts, with accompanied pictures, all archived by topic, are the perfect medium for the public to learn about and to stay up to date with the case. Of course, I learned a lot from my participation at .org and continue to learn a lot from my participation at .net (I would encourage anyone who doesn’t post at .net to join us) but TJMK is and has always been my primary reference source. I’m a big fan of posting boards but the posts scroll by quickly and there is no good way to index nor source information at a posting board. This was a brilliant idea, Peter. Thank you for starting TJMK and for all the work you do running it.
Posted by JohnQ on 07/10/15 at 12:15 PM | #
Nick,
I want to make a quick comment about something you wrote which got my attention.
“As soon as I started examining the case, literally within a few minutes, my interest was aroused. It was along the lines of: she’s hiding something. It was also along the lines that I thought Amanda might be involved in some way, complicit in some way, but probably not involved in the actual murder. How could she? Why would she?”
Each of us has a personal story about how we became interested in this case and how our thoughts changed over time.
I point out the following not because it is a criticism but because I think that it is part of human nature.
You asked yourself, at one time, “How could she? Why would she?” I think that, looking back on it, you would probably agree with me that you didn’t know Amanda Knox at all well enough to think e.g. “How could she?”
This is human nature, but, unfortunately, it is also human nature that a vast number of people get stuck at this stage. They either can’t or won’t place their first impressions aside and let the truth guide them.
I understand that you’ve encountered some people haven’t and won’t think anything bad about Amanda Knox.
Thank you for standing up for meaning as you call it in the face of the viciousness and ignorance of these people.
Posted by JohnQ on 07/10/15 at 01:48 PM | #
Hi Pete, thanks for the list of guilty and/or guilt ridden supporters of AK. There are so many now living in fear of being exposed, investigated and prosecuted. This is one big reason why they keep posting, tweeting and screaming “innocence” when they know it’s not true. What’s another reason why they keep on screaming? Because they themselves do not believe in the unlawful March verdict! Irony much? 😊
As for Camp Sollecito, Vanessa was fired or strong-armed out of the police force for what she did during the investigation. Some of us believe that she destroyed the blonde/chestnut brown hair evidence that was found in Meredith’s hand and also AK’s bloody clothes. Remember, just before the postal police were about to arrive (RS saw them going house to house down the street) Raffaele immediately called Vanessa. It is believed that he called her to make sure that evidence was destroyed. Also, it is highly suspected that she then went on to release secured police videos to youtube. Then she was terminated from the force.
Who else? Well, there was RS’s maid who suddenly changed her story about the bleach and RS’s high school dean who refused to cooperate with Detective Volturno in his investigation of RS’s prior scissors attack in high school. For some unknown reason, the records from that attack were shredded. Had those records been found, I honestly believe that all three killers would now be doing life without parole. This little-known story is highlighted in the English translation of his testimony here:
http://themurderofmeredithkercher.com/Oreste_Volturno’s_Testimony_(English)
Some of us also believe that Hekuran Kokomani was also paid off at some point in order not to cooperate and, therefore, made a deliberately confusing and obtuse testimony:
http://themurderofmeredithkercher.com/Hekuran_Kokomani’s_Testimony_(English)
I believe that we will find out even more with Dr. Mignini’s lawsuit against RS’s attorney Luca Maori. Indeed, the case is still wide open as the judges cannot do the impossible and write a credible and acceptable motivations report. Therefore, the verdict cannot be confirmed and, at some point, will be overturned. RS will then have to go directly to prison and the extradition process of AK will begin. She’ll be arrested and put into Seatac and then there will be a big legal battle in the US. But in the end, she will be extradited to serve her sentence.
Posted by Johnny Yen on 07/10/15 at 05:13 PM | #
Hi Johnny,
I have to say I don’t know how Vanessa could have had the power to have others steal hairs. This doesn’t seem possible.
Posted by JohnQ on 07/12/15 at 06:45 AM | #
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