Wednesday, April 07, 2010

The Daily Beast’s Online Poll: Clear Majority For All Three Having Been Involved

Posted by Peter Quennell

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Comments

Hi Peter,

The outcome of the poll doesn’t surprise me. I visited The Daily Beast and couldn’t find the poll results. I am interested in knowing how many people participated in this poll?

Posted by Nell on 04/08/10 at 11:48 PM | #

Hi Nell. We were informally told by an insider that it was “several hundred at least”. The readership jumped considerably and the folks at The Beast were pleased.

Not a scientific sample, of course, but still, it is not entirely without merit. We were given no heads-up, and a group email went out to the posters only after the chat session with Barbie Nadeau began.

From readers’ recent experiences as reflected in their emails, I would say that the 65% who chose ‘all of the above” is probably now on the low side. The other two polls seem about right.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 04/09/10 at 12:32 AM | #

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the info and for always keeping us up to date. I really appreciate it.

Posted by Nell on 04/09/10 at 04:18 AM | #

Thanks Nell. I guess another way of looking at that top poll is that 87 percent of the responders did NOT think Rudy Guede acted along.

That is a very heartening percentage. So much for those in-your-face anti-Guede websites the FOA crowd are putting up all over the place.

So absurdly extreme that they are losing all of the sensible middle. Even that 13 percent is probably slipping away.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 04/09/10 at 05:14 AM | #

No doubt that all three are equally guilty and each had a different motive: Rudy was attracted to Meredith and wanted her, but she did not want him.  Raffaele wanted to satisfy his fetish for violent sex with women (i.e. - per Manga comics, etc.).  Amanda was jealous of Meredith, as Meredith was far prettier, smarter, and far more popular. Each of them, jacked up on drugs, satisfied their instincts by their collaboration.

As yet, I’m not yet sure whom I think did the knifework—- part of me thinks it was Raffaele, given his fetish and his penchant for knives.  Another part of me thinks it was Amanda, as a way to impress Raffaele, knowing that knives and violence aroused him.  Amanda’s handprint on the knife suggests that she did the actual killing, but I am left to wonder if perhaps her prints got on the knife by her being the one to wash it and put it in the drawer, making her the last to handle it.  As the knife was Raffaele’s I would think that his prints would be on it, as well.

I don’t feel that Rudy had anything to do with the knifing, and I believe that perhaps he got the cut on his hand trying to stop the knifing.  I also feel it was Rudy that put the duvet over Meredith’s body, as I do think he felt remorse.  I don’t think Amanda covered the body as I don’t think Amanda feels anything for anyone but herself.

All in all, I think Rudy’s version sounds the closest to the truth.  I believe that he did hear Amanda and Meredith arguing, as he said, and there was some anger/retaliation thing going on between them.  I think that the incident may have initially begun with Amanda wanting Meredith’s rent money to buy drugs, and that from there the argument ensued, but I think that Rudy was the one that actually took the money from Meredith’s purse and used it to travel to Germany to try to flee prosecution.

Ultimately, none of us will really know the truth of what happened unless we hear it from them.

Posted by Mo-in-Mass.,USA on 04/10/10 at 03:04 PM | #

Hi Peter,

Just wondering how common or uncommon is it for a person to suffer amnesia as a result of cannabis use?

Also with regard to the knife from RS’s apartment - when we say RS had a collection of ( interest in ) knives - were these a collection of ( interest in ) kitchen/cooking knives? or were they a collection of ( interest in ) weapons i.e. hunting knives, military knives or whatever?

Posted by Paddy5000 on 04/11/10 at 03:51 AM | #

From what I have been reading over the course of the years, I think amnesia is one of the who knows how many effects that cannabis use may have on a persons behavior. Maybe it depends on the person who uses it.

A case that does come to mind, is the case of Todd Barry, who confessed his murder of Victoria Cushman thirteen years after it had taken place. All that time, an innocent man, the supposed lover of the victim had been in jail. Basically serving a life sentence, because all his requests for an appeal had been denied. Yes, in the US…

Todd Barry describes how he had smoked pot and drank alcohol, before he snuck into the apartment of his former lover, Victorie Cushman. His conversation with her was calm. She was not upset to see him in his apartment, but at some point she jokingly said she would sue him if her cat had escaped through the open window. At that point he lost control and strangled, hit and killed her. He lived with the secret for thirteen years. He claims he had no control over the rage that he got in because of that particular comment of her.

Source: http://www.projo.com/cgi-bin/include.pl/extra/2003/hornoff/day7.htm

It is interesting to realize that Todd Barry does remember the events of that unfortunate evening, unlike Amanda and Rafael, who claim they have no recollection at all, which seems unlikely to be true to me, since it is highly improbable that two people experience the exact same effects after having used cannabis together.

Violent crimes after use/abuse of cannabis are well documented. See the abstract of the following Swiss study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12741654, also for centuries gangs have supplied their hit men with cannabis in order for them to be relaxed while committing their murders.

Those arguing that cannabis only makes you mellow and relaxed are leaving out half the story. Besides, who says that calm and relaxed people don´t make excellent murderers?

Posted by saskia on 04/12/10 at 04:24 AM | #

Thanks Saskia for your reply. I agree with you it is impossible for both of them to suffer amnesia at the same time.

Now onto my question about RS’s interest in/collection of knives? The reason I have posed this question is simply because I would imagine that RS’s interest in/collection of knives was in the weapon category ie hunting or military, it would be reasonable to assume that someone with that particular interest, if he was about to live out one of his fantasies would bring one of his “special” knives with him, and not what looks to me as an ordinary kitchen/carving knife.

On the other hand if he had an interest in/collection of kitchen/cooking knives, then that would explain his use of an ordinary kitchen/carving knife, and of course his reason for taking it home again with him, and basically returning it to what was for him it’s pride of place - “the cutlery drawer” - it now having more significance for him than ever.

However I would imagine that an interest in/collection of kitchen/cooking knives is a fairly common occurrence, and does not make a person a murderer. But as I understand it RS had a fascination or fantasized about violent sex using knives - which coupled with his interest in/collection of knives - definitely does not look good for him.

Please forgive me for perhaps attempting to playing “Devil’s Advocate” but the more I think about it, the more I see that causes me to question this case.

Posted by Paddy5000 on 04/12/10 at 11:01 PM | #

Hi Paddy,

Long term use of cannabis may affect short term memory. This means that users might have difficulty recalling a telephone number that they’ve recently been given. It won’t wipe out whole chunks of an evening from their memory banks.

Raffaele Sollecito had a collection of knives. I believe they were pocket knives and a combat knife.

Judge Massei and Judge Cristiani believe that Amanda Knox carried the double DNA knife for protection and used it to inflict the deep puncture wound on Meredith’s neck, and that Sollecito inflicted the smaller knife wounds.

Incidentally, Judge Borsini and Judge Belardi came to the same conclusion, that Knox and Sollecito were the ones who stabbed Meredith, at Rudy Guede’s appeal.

I’m discovering new information about the evidence against Knox and Sollecito in the judges’ sentencing report which hasn’t been reported in the media. The evidence is compelling and substantial.

Once you read it, you’ll understand exactly why 19 judges thought the evidence was overwhelming.

Posted by The Machine on 04/13/10 at 12:33 AM | #

“Please forgive me for perhaps attempting to playing “ Devil’s Advocate “, but the more I think about it, the more I see that causes me to question this case”  Posted by Paddy5000 on 04/12/10 at 04:01 PM | #[/i]

Now you got me interested Paddy. What is there to question?

There were two knives involved: a pen knife that was never found, and a bigger kitchen knife, referred to as “double DNA knife”. It has Meredith Kercher’s DNA on the blade and Amanda Knox’ DNA on the handle.

Posted by Nell on 04/13/10 at 03:18 AM | #

Giselle1403,

You make a good point.  I am now also wondering if evidence was made to disappear by Sollecito’s sister…..I hadn’t thought about that before.

Can anyone provide status on the outcome of Sollecito’s family’s interference?  Or for that matter, any info on Sollecito’s family’s goings on since the conviction?

Posted by Mo-in-Mass.,USA on 04/13/10 at 01:38 PM | #

Hi Paddy. It’s been a while since anyone argued here that the case stands or falls for them based so narrowly on which knives were used when. Is that what your last para is implying?

If this was a pre-planned or un-planned “lets teach Meredith a lesson and give her a real fright” kind of situation, then the largest nastiest scariest knife would be the one.

If the act was pre-planned at RS’s then the large knife would have been brought along deliberately. If not pre-planned then it could have been brought along for another reason, like to chop mushrooms or to protect AK from supposed threats.

We have covered what we know of the drugs in many comments and some posts. The ONLY thing we know for sure is that AK and RS claim they were users on the night - and both, miraculously, lost their memories (about the one thing the AK and RS alibis have in common).

Complete memory lapse seems impossible, especially in two smokers, but fuzziness over what was real and what imagined is not uncommon.

We have posted that skunk cannabis (which is MOST of the cannabis in Europe and the US now) has been proven to result in psychotic episodes and probably murder.

So has crystal meth.

But Mignini in the summations said the police or prosecution believe it was actually cocaine. That too can fuel paranoid rages.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 04/13/10 at 05:16 PM | #

Hi Giselle and Mo.  The Sollecito family is all going to trial in the last week of this month.

For those unfamiliar with the mess the Sollecitos have got themselves into, the relevant posts, both by our poster Jools, are here and here.

It is certainly conjectured in Italy that someone might have gotten to someone and made some thing or things disappear before all of the above hit the fan.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 04/13/10 at 05:25 PM | #

Thanks Machine for your reply. When I first got interested in this case, naturally I was disgusted by AK and her family and of course supporters, and I was delighted to find this site and find that there were many Americans who were honest and genuine, and not supporting AK, her family, and their antics. To me they have always come across as the lowest of the low. But I did not want to ” rush to judgement ” based on what I read about AK etc., as to do such is always a mistake, so I decided to wait until I could read the judges sentencing report, and view the case from the point of view of the judge and the jury, as they are the only independent people ( who have no axe to grind on either side ), and they are the ones who are privy to all the relevant information first hand - before I would make a final decision as to her guilt or innocence. So I agree totally with you I will understand things once I read the report.

Thanks also Nell for your reply. You ask me what is there to question? Well I suppose the first thing that springs to mind is - As far as I can understand it AK is supposed to have been carrying a knife over 12” long in her purse or handbag for protection - Well that must be a huge purse or handbag, and she doesn’t seem like the type of person to use a handbag. Perhaps she had a back pack? However if it is true that she was indeed carrying this knife or any knife for that matter, then to me she was a person carrying an offensive weapon, and for me there is no reason to do that. In my eyes anyone carrying a knife, is carrying a weapon and ” up to no good”.

Barbie Nadeau says something to the effect that AK may have been clipped on the back of the head during her interrogation. Well AK said she was hit. In my eyes a clip on the back of the head is a very nice way of saying she was ( may have been ) hit on the back of the head. As Barbie points out this activity is a custom during criminal interrogations and in schools in Italy. However that does not make it right.

Another thing that I would have to question is the notion that the bathroom AK showered in was covered in blood. From what I can see that is totally untrue. There was in fact very little blood in that bathroom, and the fact that the 2 police officers after having viewed this blood actually refused to break down the door to Meredith’s bedroom, in case they would be sued for damages by the owner of the property. So if the police didn’t think they were at the scene of a serious crime, obviously that says it all as to the extend of the blood in that bathroom. Also in relation to the the issue of blood in this bathroom, apparently the police leaked a photograph of the same bathroom to the media, covered in pink, giving the impression to the public that the bathroom had been covered in blood, with of course is totally untrue.

Also when AK texted Patrick Lumumba ” See you later “. It is almost certain that she wasn’t arranging to meet him later that night. Because as we all know ” see you later ” basically means nothing in the English language. It basically means ” see you again/sometime/whenever. Sadly the police seem to have taken this as an indication that AK meant to meet PL later that evening. All that occurred there was a misunderstanding due to nuances in translation of 2 different languages. Meaningless.

Also there has been a lot written that AK was a slut or whatever basically because she had sex with about 7 men since she was in Italy. I must admit I do not subscribe to the double standard. If a young man had sex with the same amount of women in the same time frame he would be hailed a ” stud “. Nonsense. In addition what do any of you think your own daughters or sisters are up to when they go abroad to study or whatever. When most students go abroad to study or whatever, a major part of their activity is sex and drugs. That is a fact of life that many of you may not want to admit to yourselves. As you all know your daughters would never engage in such activity - ” little angels “. That is more Nonsense. Also AK has been demonized for possibly having had sex with a man on a train or perhaps lying to her sister ( and or friends ) about having done so, and she being painted a bad role model for her sisters. Again if AK was a young man this would not be an issue. It would be a great achievement if he had sex with a strange woman on a train. Or alternatively if he lied about having done so, it would merely accepted as being the norm as men LIE about having sex with women all the time. Also I have noticed a pic on the examiner blog which shows a young man with his shirt off kissing either AK or one of her sisters - implying that there was something terrible or disgusting being done by the girl in the pic. That is of course more nonsense.

With regard to the staged break in. Any idiot would ” toss ” their own room also to try to distract attention from themselves. Not rocket science

Those are just a few issues that spring to mind.

Before I make my mind up as to her innocence or guilt, I’ll wait for the report

Thanks Giselle1403 for your reply, I really appreciate it.

Posted by Paddy5000 on 04/16/10 at 11:38 PM | #

The story about the blood in the bathroom seemed like a deliberate red herring on Amanda’s part. Almost every civilised girl would be wildly embarrassed to leave traces of menstrual blood in a shared bathroom or any bathroom for that matter and by all accounts Meredith was fastidious. Similarly I cannot think of one female I know who would dodge traces of menstrual blood in order to take a shower. Either you would retreat in disgust, use another bathroom or clean it up. As for the ears, I have several piercings in my ears (youthful folly) and although they may have bled occastionally they did not gush blood enough to fall on a sink. Highly improbable AK.

Posted by pensky on 04/17/10 at 12:24 PM | #

Hi Paddy,

The photograph of the bathroom you refer to wasn’t brought up in court or mentioned in the judges’ sentencing report. You should stick to the evidence that was presented in court.

Judge Paolo Micheli didn’t believe Amanda Knox’s account of what happened on 2 November 2007 and noted that she was “mucking about in the house and taking a shower with all that blood [from the murder] around”.

According to the forensic experts’ report, the tap of the wash basin was “notably stained”.

This report by Nick Squires sheds light on just how much blood there actually was in the bathroom:

“Miss Romanelli told the court how Miss Knox had telephoned her on the morning after the murder – before Meredith’s body had been found – to say that she had just taken a shower and that she had noticed blood stains in the bathroom.

Miss Romanelli was away from the cottage at the time, having spent the night with her boyfriend.

“She told me ‘It’s very odd. I’ve just come back to the house and the door is open. I had a shower but there’s blood everywhere. I’m going to get Raff. Meredith is nowhere to be seen. Oh God, maybe something’s happened to her, something tragic.’”

It struck Miss Romanelli as strange that Miss Knox would choose to take a shower when the bathroom was spattered with blood.

Police forensic experts later found 13 traces of blood in the bathroom, including a 10-inch-long smear on the floor and numerous droplets.

“I thought it was odd that she’d had a shower when there was blood all over the place,” she told chief prosecutor Giuliano Mignini during cross-examination.“ I really don’t think that’s normal.” (The Daily Telegraph, 8 February, 2009).

Raffaele Sollecito told the police in his recorded 112 call that there was a “pool of blood” in the bathroom.

I don’t understand why you’re bringing up Amanda Knox’s morality. This had absolutely no bearing on the verdict.

The killers staged the break-in in Filomena’s room and used the bathroom with the blood stains. Rudy Guede’s visible bloody footprints lead straight out of Meredith’s room and out of the house. They became progressively weaker and fainter. There is no evidence that he went to the blood-spattered bathroom, Filomena’s room or that he removed his trainers.

Posted by The Machine on 04/17/10 at 01:01 PM | #

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