Trial: A Heavyweight American News-Site Reports Well On The Case

Comments

Barbie Nadeau’s coverage of the case has been excellent. I’d just like to made an important clarification to Barbie’s observation below:

“Comment sections in the blogs are rife with threats and accusations—not against Knox and Sollecito, mind you, but against other bloggers.”

The comments sections on True Justice For Meredith Kercher and Perugia Murder File are not rife with threats against other bloggers. In fact, I haven’t seen any threats.

The owners of both Truth Justice For Meredith Kercher and Perugia Murder File don’t have a secret relationship with one of the defendant’s family. I believe that Candace Dempsey’s and Frank’s Sfarzo’s relationship with Amanda Knox’s parents compromises their integrity and makes objective reporting impossible.

I was surprised that ABC’s 20/20 paid for Edda Mellas to travel to Perugia and back. It is wrong that one of the parents of the prime suspect in a murder case has such a cosy relationship with ABC News. It’s no wonder that some of media coverage has been so biased and full of inaccuracies.

The owners of True Justice For Meredith Kercher and Perugia Murder File, unlike Candace Dempsey and Frank Sfarzo, are not trying to profit from Meredith’s tragic murder and they would never tolerate comments that insult Meredith’s family.

Any reporters reading Machine’s important final two paras above might wish to look into the whole huge sleazy industray growing up to make a buck out of the death of poor Meredith.

Contact us if you like. We may be able to help out some here.

This site and the PMF forum are the only two sites that are not for profit, pay their own way, and have no book in the works.

We do this simply in homage to the memory of Meredith, and to girls like her who could use a real heavyweight in their corner now and then.

To Peter Quennell - Thank you. Your last sentence, above, is really touching. I’m a ‘girl like her’, even have a best friend who looks not unlike her and was settling in Italy to teach at the time this happened. It chilled me when I read about it, and I know that so often we lose sight of the victim. When I look at Meredith’s photos to the left there - smiling, full of youth and life and happiness - she reminds me of my friend (now home safe and well) and I am grateful that someone in the world is standing up for Meredith and not making money out of her. So refreshing. You don’t come across values like very often these days…

Nadeau makes a good point about Sollecito. I have been thinking that I would like to see more commentary and speculation on Sollecito and his role in this. Is he someone who has been overlooked in favour of the interest in the unique figure of Knox (as a rare potential female murderer from a good background and who would probably not have done it in self-defence).

I wonder if Sollecito could potentially have played a bigger role in the murder. He was interested in knives and it may have been his knife that was the murder weapon. The scenario set out is that Knox was the one holding the knife because her DNA was on the blade near the handle on Sollecito’s knife that also had Kercher’s DNA on, but this knife had been cleaned with bleach. It could easily be something else, such as that it was Sollecito holding it and stabbing Kercher. But I don’t suppose we’ll ever really know.

I was thinking about TT’s comment above a lot yesterday. We know there are many women following the process who have a story of their own to tell.

TT, Bluebird002,

Yes, it would be good to hear how women see this, however, I think it is important to remember that RS was no 23 yr old American or English guy. We have talked before about how he seems more like a 15 yr old in his emotional development

Here, Amanda would have been amused at how easy it was to get her little ‘Harry Potter’to do her bidding, as most American or English girls do. Later in the relationship, there are normally problems, when he realises or feels that she is ‘taking the p*ss’.

It was not just the DNA on the knife which suggests that Amanda struck the fatal blow, also the other wounds, especially a broken bone in her neck, which suggested that a man was holding that side.

I think would have been Amanda who organised the clean up, her diary’s and emails suggest that she has the ablity to control her emotions, and say ‘Let it be’ and get moving on practical problems?.

Raffaele, calls his sister.

AK would have been in the middle if it escalated from a row between her and Merdedith.

Tit bits from the morning news, and then I’ll let the girls have their say.

1. A ticket or note (blank) was dropped by one of the intruders. Sounds like one of those things you get in a restuarant, maybe got an address on it.

2. Cops are checking 3 cigarette stubs, the plastic envelope and the plastic flowerpot/vase, used to smash the window.

3. Also checking CCTV footage from carpark opposite house and online to see if the sickos have posted a video to you tube or whatever

Hey Kevin, not all ‘American and English girls’ behave badly you know! Let’s not generalise, it is not the place for that. We’re here to think about Meredith - who was a super girl by all accounts. That said, my ‘woman’s eye’ view on the matter is probably slightly different from a conjecture point of view: Knowing girls and the way they interact, having shared living quarters with other girls and seen the conflicts arise…yes…I can think myself into that flat quite easily. We can never know, but for my money this was as much to do with the relationship between the two girls as anything else. Here’s why:

I look at Meredith and, as above, she seems like a lovely, innocent, very bright kid, who has no enemies in the world. Looking at her parents, her sister, the way they have conducted themselves - you can get an idea of the kind of upbringing she had. These parents would not take any money for flights out there to follow the trial, have never spoken to the press, have been respectful about the Italian justice system, always acted with dignity and good manners despite the nightmarish situation they are in. They are deeply respectable, conservative, highly intelligent people, who will have passed those values on to Meredith, I am quite sure. But I see a real strength in them to; they strike me as the sort of people that are enduring, but in other circumstances would stand up and fight for what is right and just and decent. They are profoundly moral, is the sense I have. And with the conviction of morality comes a great strength. I see this in Meredith’s face. She does not look to me the type of girl who would stand by and not comment on something that was unfair, unjust or wrong. She’s no pushover. If Amanda was leaving the bathroom a pigsty, not clearing up, being awkward, winding the other girls up, I think Meredith would indeed have tackled her about it. And I don’t think Amanda would have liked that one little bit. Nag nag nag, just like mum…what’s the big deal? Chillll. I can just hear it now. Girls are good at undercurrents. Horribly good. If someone’s out of step, they will know it and feel it.

Ok. Amanda is a very interesting girl. I imagine her turning up as a flat-mate. First thing you think is, she’s fun, she’s pretty. But boy, does she know it. Personally? If I saw a see-through plastic wash-bag in the bathroom with condoms and a vibrator in it? Know what I’d think? I’d think ‘This one’s trouble’. I know, I know, it’s not necessarily fair to think like that. But you would. Speaking as a girl, who’s been in similar situations. You would. Believe me. It’s not a prudish, it is simply the way she is displaying it. And she was DISPLAYING it. And the girls would talk and gossip about it between themselves. And Amanda would know that. And Amanda wanted the attention or she would not have done it. Amanda positively wants negative attention from women I think. It puts her closer to the boys, who give her lots and LOTS of positive attention, which makes her feel better about herself. It’s easy to get positive male attention at that age, with her looks and wild side. Even more so when the girls are ‘ganging up’ on her…‘Poor Amanda…’. Side with Amanda, get beside her.

I’ve seen it before. Several times. It’s usually girls who have a deep sense of inadequacy about themselves, are very unsure of themselves, despite surface confidence; and girls who don’t feel very powerful internally, or externally. Until they find boys. Then they’ve found their power - their sexuality - and it is intoxicating. Suddenly they are all powerful. She wanted to rebel, kick out, be free, be herself, feel better/sexier/more out there than her boring stuffy housemates…By displaying her sexuality in the form of the vibrator she was sending a very powerful message, make no mistake. It was a superiority message, an ‘I don’‘t care WHAT you think’ message. She was marking herself out to the other girls as sexually confident, sexually mature and highly sexually active. I am absolutely sure. The girl has issues. You don’t do something like that for no reason. It doesn’t make her a murderer, of course, but it hints at early conflict I think. This thing may have been building from Day One. Think of the friends’ testimony. The ‘frostiness’. Oh yes. Frostiness doesn’t even begin to cover it. Amanda brought trouble to their door, and it’s a clear as day.

If this had not been the case then the vibrator would not even have been MENTIONED in court. It is a very powerful clue to the way the other girls saw her that it has. Something about the way she dealt with that situation was deeply unsettling for them. It wasn’t funny. It was a slightly hostile act in their eyes, by which Amanda set herself apart from them.

So…from here you can conjecture away. AK’s drunk, AK’s stoned, AK can’t stop thinking about Meredith who has accused her of STEALING now. AK’s really, really angry and upset. She’s winding herself up, egged on by the guys who want to stay on the right side of her. It reinforces her sense of grievance. Guede’s sniffing around getting wound up sexually, RS there, but he’s not driving this thing. AK wants to have it out, she’s out of control….a row erupts, maybe Amanda hits out,  maybe the boys have to step in…and before you know it…

I have no idea. None of us do. But I can think myself into that flat. I think Guede escalated this, for what it’s worth. I think he was the instigator. I think Amanda had been winding him up sexually - full on flirting, but not aware she was playing with fire. I think that is the key dynamic. Raffe and poor Meredith were in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.  I think AK is deeply implicated. Beyond that who can say. But I don’t think it was her idea to kill Meredith that night. Without Guede’s presence it might just have been an ALMIGHTY row resulting in one of them moving out of the flat. That would be my guess…I may be completely wrong.

Where next:

Or to next entry Daily Mail’s Jan Moir Wants Due Process Respected By Parents

Or to previous entry Trial: Newsweek Reports On The Perugia Progress So Far