Michael Peterson turns 80 this year. He is using the milestone to speak for the first time about the 2003 trial that sent him to jail for life for the murder of his wife, Kathleen.
Kathleen, Michael, and their blended family of four children lived in a mansion in the tony section of Durham, NC. Michael was a successful author and a candidate for mayor several years earlier. Kathleen was an executive with telecommunications company Nortel. She was Peterson’s second wife. By all accounts, it was a happy marriage.
On the night of December 9, 2001, the couple was sitting by their pool drinking wine. Kathleen went into the house first. When Michael entered later, he found his wife unresponsive and lying in a pool of blood at the foot of a staircase. He called 9-1-1. When first responders arrived, she was dead.
At a 2003 trial, Durham District Attorney James Hardin argued that Peterson had beaten his wife to death with a blunt instrument. Peterson’s defense attorney, David Rudolf, countered that Kathleen had fallen down the stairs.
Peterson was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
The question, how did Kathleen Peterson die, has remained unanswered for 22 years. French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s Netflix documentary about the case, “The Staircase,” and last year’s HBO mini-series of the same title were huge hits. It was a sensation on Court TV and spawned stories on TV and radio, books, podcasts and magazine articles. The 25th anniversary of Kathleen’s death in 2026 will undoubtedly fan the flames of Peterson-mania.
“You have these three key ingredients, sex, money and murder,” said Peterson. “When is this fucking thing going to end? It goes on and on and on.”
We met for a three-hour interview in early July at his two-bedroom apartment in a wooded Durham neighborhood where he walks five miles daily. The apartment was cluttered with houseplants and artifacts from a lifetime of travel which are being cataloged for an auction.
‘I Didn’t Do It’
BF: Were you responsible for your wife’s death?
MP: No.
We were at the pool that night. She had to go to work in the morning to have this conference with Nortel, and then I walked in, and she’s at the bottom of the stairs. David [Rudolf] asked, ‘Why did you think she fell?’ [I said] ‘Well, for fuck’s sake, there’s blood, and she’s at the bottom of the stairs. What do you think happened? She fell down the stairs.’
My brother is absolutely convinced it was an intruder. All I know for an absolute fact; I didn’t do it. Did she fall? Was she hit? Was it an owl? I don’t know. I can’t come up with an answer. It’s pointless. What good would it do now?
Homophobia
Peterson is bisexual. During the trial, Assistant District Attorney Freda Black showed the jury photos of a gay man Peterson met online but never in person. She called the photos “filth, pure T filth.”
MP: What happened in that trial could not happen today. It’s just simply not possible for Harden and Freda, racing around showing these pictures, [changing voice] ‘He’s guilty because he’s bisexual.’ Try that one today in court. It’s just not gonna happen. You can’t shame anybody out of anything.
And the one that I blame is [Judge Orlando] Hudson, who is a good liberal Democrat. I’m a good liberal Democrat, but I spent eight years in prison because that asshole did not make correct judicial decisions.
In 2006, the NC Court of Appeals rejected Peterson’s claim that he did not get a fair trial because of repeated judicial mistakes in admitting evidence.
MP: [Judge] Sam Irwin wanted to overturn my case. ‘No harmless error,’ said the other two [judges]. Harmless error for the bisexuality and all of that, and Hudson admits later that he made a mistake doing these things. OK, thanks, but nevertheless, I spent eight years in prison because you made the wrong decision on several major points, homophobia being one of them, and it became a very homophobic trial.
BF: Did Kathleen know you were bisexual?
MP: Kathleen and I never talked about my bisexuality, but there was a silent understanding.
Liz Ratliff’s Body
Shortly before the trial, DA Hardin ordered the exhumation of the body of Elizabeth “Liz” Ratliff. In 1985, the Ratliffs and the Petersons were friends and neighbors in Germany when Liz was found dead at the bottom of her home’s staircase. German and U.S. military determined at the time she had died of a stroke. But in a made-for-TV spectacle, Ratliff’s decaying body was flown from its Texas grave to Durham, where the county medical examiner ruled Ratliff had been murdered.
BF: Do you think testimony regarding Liz’s death impacted the jury?
MP: I think a lot of it had to do with Liz. We are watching the TV, and they’re at the graveyard. Then they bring the body back, and it’s filmed all the way. (changing his voice) ‘It didn’t have any effect on the jury.’ Are you kidding me? That and the homophobia. Here are the photographs of Liz in the coffin. And the filth, the filth, the filth. Hell, I would have probably convicted me. (laughs).
Blood Spatter Analysis
In 2010, Peterson’s case was overturned, and a new trial was ordered when Judge Hudson ruled that State Bureau of Investigation Analyst Duane Deaver had given false testimony and lied about his experience doing blood spatter analysis.
MP: The moment that I thought for sure we’re gonna win was the filming of Duane Deaver when he’s beating this sponge. I think he did it 40 times, and then on the 41st time, he got sort of a blood spatter that he wanted. And there’s his assistant; she does a little dance, and they high-five each other. Who could not watch that and realize that this is just bullshit?
‘I Wish I Had Testified’
BF: Do you wish you and your family had testified?
MP: Oh, absolutely. I wish I had testified. [Jury consultant] Margie [Fargo] was saying [to Rudolf], ‘You need to personalize Mike, need to bring him alive here, put his family on, let his children say what they have to say.’ David didn’t want to do that. He thought we won on the basics, on the merits of his arguments, and he did. But the jury went the other way.
In a July 27, 2023, email to me, Rudolf wrote: “When the prosecutor wants to convict someone and is permitted to go beyond what should be allowed, no one is safe.
“We all felt their experts had been neutralized by cross-examination and by our experts. And most importantly, if Mike or any of his children testified, his bisexuality, his ‘double-life,’ and the death in Germany would have been rehashed ad nauseam by the prosecutor. And, of course, Michael had lied about his purple heart in Vietnam during the mayoralty race, which was exposed. Mike as a liar would have become a new theme for the prosecutors.
“Hindsight is blind. I believe to this day that the right decision was made. I don’t believe his testimony could or would have made a difference in the end. The trial was not fair. Irrelevant and prejudicial evidence was allowed (which Judge Hudson subsequently and publicly regretted) [sic], that junk science was knowingly used to convict him, and that Deaver committed perjury, as Judge Hudson subsequently found. That’s why Mike was found guilty. He never should have been.”
The Owl Theory
Durham attorney Larry Pollard, the Peterson’s neighbor and an avid hunter, speculates that after Kathleen left the pool that evening, she went to the side of the house to set up outdoor Christmas decorations. Pollard believes an owl mistook her hair for prey and attacked. Then she ran inside, bleeding from the attack, and collapsed at the base of the staircase. Pollard has spent years developing a mountain of evidence to support his theory.
“[The owl] started taking off because it realized it had made a mistake,” Pollard said. “The talons stopped at the skull bone. They just kind of rake down the skull and slice her like a can opener. The medical examiner photographed the wounds, and you see them clearly, and it fits the footprints of the owl.”
MP: I was in prison when [Pollard] sent me a photograph of the autopsy with owl talons. When I saw those talons, my God, had that been brought up at the trial, there probably would have been reasonable doubt. As far as what I believe, I don’t know. [Then girlfriend] Sophie [Brunet] and I talked about it. [She said,] ‘Wouldn’t you feel better knowing that Kathleen was killed by an owl?’ I said, ‘What difference does it make; she’s dead. This is not going to bring her back or shorten my time [in prison].’
Antonio Campos, the showrunner of the HBO series, “The Staircase,” and Rudolf told me last year that the owl theory was “plausible.” Rudolf said had there been a retrial; he would have presented the owl theory to create reasonable doubt.
Indonesian writer Tiddy Smith upped the ante with his new book, “Death By Talons.” In it, he writes that there is evidence that after the owl attacked Kathleen outside, it stayed on her head when she ran inside.
“There were droppings left on the stairwell that were very clearly huge guano stains exactly under where Kathleen’s head was lying,” said Smith.
“I agree 190% that the bird was still attached to her when she went inside,” Pollard said.
MP: I was there. I saw no feathers. Todd saw no feathers. EMS emergency people, they didn’t see any feathers.
‘This Is a Shit Hand’
BF: Are you angry about everything that has happened? Did you want to seek retribution?
MP: Anger doesn’t do you any good. It’s wasted. One of the first things I learned in prison was, ‘Don’t let anyone get in your mind. If they get in your mind, they own you.’ There’s no point in holding grudges. Who does that harm? [I told myself] ‘This is a shit hand you’ve been dealt. You’re in prison. OK, you’re not getting out. That’s all there is to it. What are you gonna do now? Well, I think I’ll just go on with my life. I’m not going to beat my head against the wall. I’m not going to scream.’ Who gives a shit? It’s not going to change, so you do the best you can.
The Alford Plea
In lieu of the retrial, in 2017, Peterson entered an Alford plea to voluntary manslaughter (a guilty plea entered because evidence exists for a conviction, but the defendant asserts their innocence). Peterson had already served more time than the Alford Plea sentence, so he was not returned to prison.
BF: Do you regret taking the Alford plea instead of having a retrial?
MP: All of us [the family] were talking on the sofa. Clayton said, ‘It’s a crooked table. Don’t do it.’ Would I be acquitted? Yeah. And if I’m acquitted, what does that mean? ‘Oh, that means you’re free.’ I’m free as it is right now. Hell, I might be convicted and go back to prison; I doubt it, but is that something you really wanna risk? I was 74. Did I want to put the kids through that again? It was just horrifying.
BF: There was a rumor that Kathleen had a $1.4 million insurance policy.
MP: I can’t remember the value of her Nortel insurance policy. I don’t think it was anywhere near that high. Her first husband, Fred Atwater, was the beneficiary. I believe he shared it with Caitlin [Kathleen’s biological daughter].
‘I Live Comfortably’
BF: You wrote a number of books before you went to prison. Are you still writing?
MP: I wrote five books that were published with considerable success prior to my prison term. A TIME OF WAR was semi-autobiographical about my time with the Marines, sold for $1,200,000, and was translated into eight languages. I just finished [several books]. I had to publish them on Amazon because I can’t really make any money.
In 2008, Kathleen’s biological daughter, Caitlin Atwater, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Peterson. Under the terms of a $25 million settlement, any money he earns goes directly to Atwater.
MP: “Behind the Staircase.” Grand Central [Publishing] bought that one for a fair amount of money, but I had to turn it down because I know that if I do get the money, I’m gonna have to give it to Caitlin. God dammit, that’s not gonna happen.
I don’t need anything. It would be nice to sell the books, but I have enough money. I have my Marine retirement and my Social Security. I can live comfortably. It’s OK. I’m not rich, God knows, by any means. The older you get, what do you need? What are you gonna take with you? Nothing. So, what’s the point?
I’ll be 80 years old in two or three months. What do I really care when you get down to it? My time is so limited I’m going to concentrate on those things that I can do, like writing or being with people that I love.
Brenda Pollard assisted with the research for this story.
Comments 23
First of all, I see no homophobia by any person or persons. It might be considered homophobia if we lived in a society where gay and straight were viewed equally but we don’t. Gay people have to “come out “ because it indicates something they were hiding. Our culture is more accepting now than it’s ever been but it’s certainly not indifferent towards homosexuality. Unfaithful spouses are definitely looked down upon (rightfully so) but to be in a heterosexual marriage and be caught in homosexual activity would be extremely humiliating. The prosecution is completely justified in highlighting his sexual orientation. Sadly the reason it adds merit to his conviction is because homosexuality is far from unanimously accepted.
The prosecution did make a pretty critical error however. Trying to produce a murder weapon when they were staring at it. I believe she fell down the stairs but I’m sure it was initiated by him. Once at the bottom all he had to do was slam her head against the wall or stairs until she quit moving. They were so caught up in finding a weapon they overlooked the fact he didn’t need one. That also accounts for the location, amount and severity of the lacerations on the back of her head as well as the volume and location of the blood splatter. Saying she obtained that many lacerations just on the back of her head and no where else from a tumble down the steps is just nonsense. She sure doesn’t look that frail and completely capable of putting her arms out.
Imagine seeing someone you love in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs. Obviously you’d call 911 which he did. Then he hangs up? Even if you thought the person was dead wouldn’t you try to revive them? Guess who can help you in those situations? Yep, the 911 dispatchers. But if you are still trying to get your story straight and the crime scene staged, might want to cut that recorded phone call short.
The fact that some people, especially his children, consider him to be a good person does not mean he wasn’t capable of murder. There is clear evidence from where I sit and add the fact that almost the exact same tragedy happened in Germany in the 80’s with him makes it a no brainer. He got away with it once and probably thought he could again given the first one was in a different country and well, they speak German. He even withheld a lot of information from his own lawyers. He’s a murderer and to feel sympathy for him is to dishonor his slain wife. May she rest in peace.
All associated with prosecution lacked integrity and lacked competence. The jury was homophobic. The daughter will never find solace; she has only compounded the tragedy. My sympathy to Mr. Peterson.
I think at this point the only person who really knows how this woman died is in fact Michael Peterson. Not saying that he did it but he knows if he did.
I think there was a team that started with the police and trickled all the way up to the district attorney that had decided Michael Peterson was guilty and they were going to do whatever they had to do to make sure he was convicted.
By not securing the proper measures in regards to his wife’s Kathleen’s clothing for DNA testing BEFORE everyone touched them, thereby compromising the accuracy of any subsequent DNA testing. Should have been enough to throw this case out. After 8 years of this man being in prison. He was denied his rights to a fair trial because of the se circumstances.
Not to minimize the terrible thing that happened to his deceased wife. It’s sort of leaves that realm and goes to another place where a person ‘s rights to a lawful and fair trial have been compromised. However, she died almost become secondary to the fact that his rights were not taken into consideration. It seems that the district attorney when he went for a second trial was saying it doesn’t matter about the DNA. We know he did it. That’s the message I got. You have to follow procedure because if you don’t then this ceases to be the land of the free and the home of the brave it becomes a kangaroo court system. If one person goes to prison who is innocent, that is an atrocity. It also means that there will probably be several people who are guilty that will go free if procedure is not followed. It is as simple as that. You have to cross the t’s and. The eyes because if you don’t, things will slip through the cracks. That is one step away for making this country a vigilante country where we take the law into our own hands. Much as was the case during the founding of this country, we fought for freedom. However, when you fight with your neighbors or your spouse or your children and think you have a right to do whatever and there is no law of the land to stop you, then that’s what happens. So too the law has a responsibility to respect the rights of people that have taken into custody and let the law prove them guilty or innocent. Without that we have nothing.
This case is really a no-brainer. He’s swearing all the time still playing the victim role. He made his mistake she asked to use his computer because she left hers at work and needed to write an important email. He should have said the computer may have a virus, but he gambled like non-genius criminals do and let her use his computer where her typical female curiosity led her to the pages where he was arranging for a GAY date. She had become his meal ticket as he had not sold a book in years and she was making a damn good salary supporting him and his GAY sex habit. His kids cannot be that stupid to still believe him. Caitlin did not budge at all as she connected the dots that he killed her to avoid his gay life being exposed and his wife cutting off his money. He would have been a disgraced figure and his phony image exposed. Michael: You are not going to Heaven where your murder wife is but to Hell where You belong.
Well the twin towers were previously attacked some 20+ years earlier so I’d say it is extremely likely terrorists would want to hit two of the biggest buildings in the NYC financial district. It’s not a coincidence.
Well the twin towers was previously attacked some 20+ years earlier so I’d say it is extremely likely terrorists would want to hit two of the biggest buildings in the NYC financial district. It’s not a coincidence.
This convinced me of his innocence.
Well, first, Deborah, coincidences occur in all situations and all walks of life. How likely was it that terrorists would crash airplanes into the World Trade Center? How likely are crashes of commercial airliners due to pilot error? Both are very unlikely. How likely, then, is it, that the wife of a man who was killed during the 9/11 attacks would then die in the crash of a commercial airliner due to pilot error? Extremely unlikely, yet it occurred. Big fat coincidence. Very unlikely events happen all of the time. So it is not outside the realm of possibility that an innocent man knows two women whose lives ended at the bottom of a staircase.
Secondly, ask yourself why the prosecution insisted upon driving Elizabeth Ratliff’s body via car from Texas to North Carolina to have a medical examiner there perform the autopsy on it , who by the way was the same incompetent medical examiner who determined Kathleen Peterson’s death to be a murder, when it would have been much quicker and easier to have a highly qualified pathologist examine the body in Texas? Why would that be? There you have the answer to that “coincidence”.
The fact that the soles of her feet were bloody does NOT prove that “she was not dead from the first beating and…..Michael Peterson beats her again on the head to finally kill her”.
It can just as easily point to Kathleen having fallen, hit her head, and attempted several times to get up, but not been able to stay upright, and falling and hitting her head again.
I’d save my tears for the unjustly convicted man, not the woman who died in an accidental fall, as about 40,000 Americans do every year.
I believe that Michael Peterson is innocent, that the police and detectives rushed to judgment, that the prosecution used dirty tricks, and that the jury got it wrong. I’m sick of people assuming that authority figures and doctors can never be wrong. I’m glad that he did not have to stay in prison for the rest of his life.
That’s extremely flimsy “evidence” upon which to base a judgment of guilt. For one thing, if they had a silent understanding, that could very well mean that they had never talked about it, but yet she knew and he knew she knew, in which case it would be true that he never told anyone.
Secondly, when he said he never told anyone, he may have been making an exception in his mind for telling Kathleen, and what he really meant was “anyone except Kathleen”, and he simply misspoke. People misspeak all of the time.
At first, I had mixed feelings just because of the closeness of his family who was standing behind him . but there was just so many things that were too coincidental as well, but what really got me? Is when he said that his wife knew he was bisexual, but they had a silent understanding… OK so almost at the very end where he is talking about his bisexuality… He makes a statement. I’ve never told a human being about this before until now, so how could his wife know if he had never told anyone right there is where for sure he made a mistake and he’s a liar, and he killed his wife .
Yvonne, I tend to agree with you. I do not believe I could have convicted him if I was on the jury. I agree with your points, and while I don’t know for certain about his real innocence, I do feel that there should have been sufficient doubt.
Well, aren’t you nice? that was a completely inappropriate response to Yvonne. Shame on you. Apparently, MP isn’t the only asshole out there.
I have doubts about his guilt. I am not saying he didn’t do it, but I have read about this case and watched the documentary and other videos taken, and I could not convict him based upon what I have read and seen. I don’t think the evidence about his being bi-sexual should have been allowed, but even so, I don’t think I could convict him. I know many people (and apparently a jury) disagrees with me, but that’s ok. It was just too sensationalized and too easy to blame him for her death. God help any of us if our spouse or loved one should have a similar accident and we get blamed.
I don’t know how this man ever got convicted, Had I been on the jury I would have acquitted him. No murder weapon, no motivation to kill – the prosecution did not make their case. Too many unanswered questions. The sexuality issue should never have been allowed, it has no relevance. The wife obviously knew he was bisexual.
Yvonne, you’re clearly an idiot who doesn’t know anything about the case. The wife did not know he was bisexual and was the only one earning any money for the family. He had plenty of motivation to kill. He removed the murder weapon and let her bleed to death. I hope you’re never on a jury when you ignore the facts. He got the idea from Liz’s death and used it here.
I don’t believe his wife, Kathleen knew her husband was bi sexual, gay. And there was a “silent” understanding. Scott Petersons laptop had explicit conversations with men in plain view. Possibly, Kathleen walked into the house, saw what was on his laptop, (computer), went back outside and confronted Scott. Maybe she threatened divorce and exposure of Scotts sexual proclivity. Definitely think he killed her. Wonder what his first wife really thinks.
Cannot believe people could think Michael Peterson is innocent or that this could be an accident, No one could have a coincidence of two women falling downstairs with 7 lacerations on both their heads. There is no such thing as coincidence in murder cases! Hopefully something called poetic justice will occur and he will get what he deserves for killing these women who both happen to be involved with Michael Peterson!
I have watched both the actual documentary of The Staircase on Netflix as well as HBO-MAX’s docu-drama The Staircase many, many times, and am both fascinated and mystified by the case due to the relatable set of circumstances that I have experienced at my house, on my narrow staircase to an attic space that has become my living space for many, many years.
I have a particularly odd, striking connection to this story, due to the bizarre similarities of the staircase at the center of the investigation for the death of Kathleen Peterson.
Although my house in Fort Worth, Texas pales in comparison to the Peterson house in North Carolina regarding size, architectural beauty, and largesse, the one similarity between these two homes that is truly uncanny is the staircase.
Both staircases look almost identical, down to the color of the paint on the walls, the stain of the wood on the stairs, and even the splatter of a spilled beverage that still remains on the the walls and door opening up to the Stars today.
Like the Peterson house, though much, much smaller, my house was also built in 1940. It too has a small staircase leading up to a room that is not part of the original blueprint of the home.
I have lived in this house in a cozy TCU neighborhoood for close to 15 years. Having made the upstairs my designated living space, on any given day I walk up and down that narrow staircase many times a day, as I spend most of my time upstairs, where my bedroom is as well as an informal, quaint den area where I watch tv and relax with my beloved cats Little Tiny and Romeo.
After moving into the house that was originally a rental property of mine, I learned very quickly two essential rules necessary to avoid falls down the stairs:
1) NEVER walk up or down the stairs in socks, flip-flops, or any other shoe without a solid grip on the bottom.
2) Always ensure that you have at least one free hand available to grab onto the banister in case of an unintended slip or fall.
Over all the years I have lived at this house, close to fifteen years, I am glad to say that I have only suffered from two serious falls on the stairs.
The first fall occurred within the first few weeks of living at this new home. Walking down the stairs in cozy socks, while at the same time carrying objects in both hands, I slipped and had no way of catching my fall. I can’t remember what happened to the objects I was carrying, but I clearly remember the pain and suffering resulting from banged up shins and broken toes.
The other fall occurred only a little more than a year ago when I slipped on the stairs because I failed to take off my soccer cleats, which doubled as ice skates on those stairs. That fall resulted in a wound on my shin that ended up landing me in the hospital a month later since the wound wouldn’t heal.
After watching and rewatching all of the episodes of The Staircase, I couldn’t help but wonder why no other forensic studies had been done on accidents that had occurred on other similar staircases like mine.
Over the years I have had many close calls with horrific falls going up and down my staircase; the only saving grace for me has been twofold: 1) my sturdy banister that I am ever mindful and thankful for, and 2) my height. Because I am so tall (72inches), a fall for me on the stairs injures my legs/feet well before my head would have a chance to collide with the wall, the stairs, or the banister.
Although the Peterson case is well in the past, it is important for me to share my own experiences where no one did end up dead, but very well could have if my dimensions were different or the angle at which I slipped had been even a quarter of an inch off.
I just came across this series and I intend to finish the series. It begs for understanding while giving into murder. A shocking story that may never be able for the listeners to agree. Well done series!
When I saw on forensic files her soles of her feet were bloody and heard it was a sign that she was not dead from the first beating and stood up walking on her own blood, and Michael Peterson beats her again on the head to finally kill her , I wanted to cry , How can such a monster be released?!!
I have a painting of Peterson it is the black woman with part of her hair is missing
Who is she?