9. The Hachette Hoax: Gladwell’s Guede Sole Attacker Not Backed Up Even By Knox Or Sollecito



Raffaele Sollecito, Malcolm Gladwell, and Amanda Knox

1. The General Rule

Does anyone think Knox and Sollecito have been the leaders of their own parades?

If so, they should perhaps think again.

While Knox and Sollecito were in prison, from late 2007 to late 2011, they could get their gossipy stories out pretty freely (Knox’s book title Waiting To Be Heard really was a fraud, Waiting To Shut Up would be more truthful) and Sollecito even ran a blog.

They could not talk directly, but they exchanged a few messages via the press

Meanwhile the ferociously strong-arming PR (never mentioned by its new puppet Gladwell) was really calling the shots (see this post).

This was especially so after Knox showed herself way too chummy with Dr Mignini, and (as the Supreme Court noted) began telling her parents that she wanted to confess and have Patrick let out.

The PR had success in insisting that nobody should ever mention Meredith’s name, and in putting defamatory hoaxes into the public realm (see this post).

The Knox and Sollecito PR was less effective in stopping each from pushing the other closer to the flames (see this post and this post).

All the PR vigilantes and for a while the defenses have tended to take a chest-thumping anti-Guede, pro-Lone-Wolf stand.

In contrast, concerning Guede, Knox and Sollecito themselves have almost always pussyfooted around.

2. PR Vigilantes’ Guede Take

Knox’s shadow writer Linda Kulman (see this post) and Sollecito’s shadow writer Andrew Gumbel (see this post) can firmly be placed in the PR vigilantes camp (see this post, part 6).

Both seem to have been stridently anti-Italy. We know Gumbel was (see this post) and he included dozens of false claims in the book (see this post).

Both seem to have had a deep ignorance of what actually happened pre and post arrest and in the trial court in 2009. Both made up numerous things. Both channeled the annulled Hellmann appeal with its discredited “independent consultants” as if it had never been annulled.

Now in his Honor Bound hate-fest, Gumbel includes Guede’s name 110 times in his attempt to nail Guede as Lone Wolf. This, Gumbel’s barbaric crescendo (edited here), would make any Nazi propagandist proud.

The crime, I could have told Maresca and Mignini, was brutal but not complicated. Guede broke in through Filomena’s window, started looking for the rent money, then went to the kitchen to help himself from the refrigerator. (He left forensic traces of all this, and his history indicated that he liked to make himself at home in the places he broke into.) He detoured to the bathroom when he developed an urge to go and sat there while Meredith came in through the front door and slipped into her room. He appears to have been startled by her entry, and did not flush to avoid tipping her off to his presence…

Guede crept into her room and grabbed her from behind under the chin and yanked his hand up over her mouth to prevent her from crying out. He held his knife to the right side of her neck as he issued his demands, presumably for sex. In the ensuing struggle, he jabbed her twice.. Our best guess was that he didn’t set out to kill her, but at some point decided he’d caused so much damage he had no option but to finish her off. He tried to plunge the knife in farther but could not find the right angle. So he switched sides…

As Meredith struggled for her life… her agony, according to the medical experts, continued for more than ten minutes… He picked up his right shoe and walked to the bathroom to wash off his foot and sock before putting the shoe back on. That would explain the bloodstains on the basin tap and the bidet, as well as the consistent pattern of left shoes and right feet. When he realized Meredith still was not dead, he threw a duvet over her body, stole her keys, phones, and money and locked her door to make sure she had absolutely no means of escape and no way of raising the alarm…

This was the crime. This was the sequence of events I was haunted by. I needed no reminder, no visual aid, and certainly no lectures from lawyers pushing their own agenda. On the contrary; it was little short of incredible that the prosecution had not put this together for itself, because all the evidence pointed to this scenario.

What a barbaric hoax. What a jerk Gumbel is. He thoroughly deserved his conviction. We carry dozens of scenarios each more factual than this.

3. Sollecito Backs Away

Sollecito has appeared to find no joy in being hung out to dry.

Barely a word of this murderous fantasy stands up when the 200 or so disproofs in the previous post - well-known to Sollecito’s team and the courts and many in the Italian media - are taken into account. 

How could Sollecito, in his numerous pending media interviews, sound convincing to the world?

And so, predictably to Italians, if not to the PR vigilantes on the US’s west coast, almost immediately the doo-doo hit the fan.

In front of a huge Italian audience, the book was scathingly put down - with the grudging help of Sollecito’s own father, Francesco, when he could see no other way out (see this post).

Dr Mignini did a scathing interview (see this post)

Sollecito and Gumbel were investigated and then charged for diffamazione in the Florence court (see this post, first of eight).

Then in due course THEY LOST.

Sollecito and Gumbel caved, and settled financially, and confessed in writing that their book Honor Bound was not so honorable after all.

So from 2011 Sollecito has shown little confidence when discussing anything in his book.

And ever since, those Guede-As-Lone-Wolf claims excerpted in part above have among those he most wants to forget.

In the 2011-12 book promotion tour Sollecito proved nervous and ill-informed about what was in his own book.

Our main poster Hopeful watched one typical TV interview, and described how he was unwilling or unable to back up “his” book’s claims concerning Guede quoted in part above (see this post).

I think the biggest clue to Raffaele’s dishonesty was his refusal to denounce Meredith’s “real” killer, Rudy Guede. Had he not been part of the violence or obstruction of justice against Meredith, he would have the moral high ground to express natural horror rage and resentment against this “real” killer, a killer whose act has also destroyed Sollecito’s life.

If he were totally innocent, Raffaele would want only to name and shame Guede and howl for the harshest punishment. If Guede had gotten me involved in such a nightmare I would blame him without regret and with no game-playing or fear of his lies. The fact that Raf does not dare to anger Guede and refuses to judge the known killer who has dropped Raf into a living hell is a sign of some perverse obligation to Guede, fear of Guede, or guilty knowledge or some unnatural response.

He refuses to denounce Guede, while he revels in his coverup for Amanda. This suggests he is part of the crime.  He denounces prison loudly enough! He seemed to want to say that prison serves absolutely no purpose at all, incarceration accomplishes nothing. This is simply a reflection of how much he hated prison, not how little he deserved it.

So Sollecito pussyfoots on Guede as throughout his numerous book interviews. And that “coverup for Amanda” he revels in? Never happened.

That serious allegation cost him in the Florence court. In fact for eleven years Sollecito has denied Knox confirmation of her final alibi (see this post and this post),

4. A Rickety House Of Cards

It’s truly bizarre that Gladwell’s researchers and editors, if not he himself, picked up on none of this.

These days Knox is sounding even more mental than what passes for normal for her (see this post).

Imagine that Sollecito and Knox terminally divide - he remains incessantly ticked off, while she rakes in the dough - and one or other spills the beans.

Whither Gladwell at that point?

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/04/20 at 01:51 PM in

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Comments

Knox did try to blame all on Guede at the Modena Innocence Project event last year. She was seriously short on facts. It was actually Sollecito that hit back. 

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjmk/comments/knoxs_italy_catastrophe_1_her_very_telling_non_mention_of_sollecito

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjmk/comments/knoxs_italy_catastrophe_2_explaining_some_major_threats

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/05/20 at 07:48 PM | #

Sollecito actually lost in two trials for lying: the one described above, and his bid for a damages payment, lost because he had lied.

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjmk/comments/sollecito_loses_supreme_court_appeal_against_florence_court_ruling

Knox has lost for lying in one trial, for her false claims about Patrick, and faces another trial. The statute of limitations on her book has several years to run. It contains myriad diffamaziones and at least one is a clear felony.

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjmk/comments/questions_for_knox_1_did_you_actually_undergo_an_illegal_interrogation

Guede also lost in court: his 2017 appeal to the Supreme Court in light of the weird 2015 Marasca-Bruno outcome. It did get Sollecito rattled (so what’s new?!). Theres a good summary of why he appealed here.

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjmk/comments/what_is_the_legal_situation_as_of_todays_hearing_of_rudy_guede

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/05/20 at 07:52 PM | #

ALERT horrible news, Mr. John Kercher has been killed in a hit and run in Croydon. See The Sun online news for Feb. 6, 2020:  headline:  Kerchers’ New hell, Meredith Kercher’s Dad dies After ‘Hit-and-Run” just yards from his house.

He was found collapsed on the pavement just a few yards from his front door. He had suffered a broken leg, broken arm and injuries but had no memory of what had happened to him. He was taken to hospital but died age 77. The Sun said he died “Saturday” but headline reads Feb. 6 which in U.S.A. is a Thursday. I believe Meredith died on a Thursday, too??

Oh, this is just awful, just terrible. It was a misty day, some folks said he had gone into a shop and walked outside. The police are looking for the car or any information on his death. Through Crimestoppers.

The story shows nice pix of John and Arline together at Meredith’s 2007 funeral. Then a big photo of Meredith smiling and others from the Perugia story.

May the nice John Kercher rest in peace.

Posted by Hopeful on 02/06/20 at 10:33 PM | #

Devastated he didn’t get justice for Meredith.  My thoughts and prayers for the family.

Posted by KrissyG on 02/07/20 at 02:13 AM | #

Awful awful news.  And totally with KrissyG.

Posted by DavidB on 02/07/20 at 05:06 AM | #

Really shaken for once. Lovely man. He was so proud of Meredith. His best friend in the world.

In his book (which we posted quotes from) John thanked TJMK. Prior to his stroke a while back, he was responsive to questions on pure facts though so keen to not be guiding us in any way.

Suspicious? Could be. I wonder if the police know of the long history of stalking and threats John had to endure. Doug Bremner online equated him with a Nazi, and others like Michele Moore were nearly as bad. There are many hate pieces demonizing him on Ground Report.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/07/20 at 09:45 AM | #

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