Headsup: Unsurprisingly, Knox chickens out of presenting her "proof" on 10 April of being forced to frame Patrick for Meredith's murder when actually under no stress. She's not a good liar. She could face Patrick's tiger of a lawyer and many officers she has slimed. Trial is closed to the press, like the most damning parts of the 2009 trial; a pity that. And see links here for Knox's false framing #2: Rudy Guede as sole killer.

Friday, December 27, 2019

Commemorating Meredith: Not Only Qualities Lost, Forty Years Of Achievements Too

Posted by Our Main Posters

All YouTube versions exceed 25m views; the most-watched operatic duet

Posted by Our Main Posters on 12/27/19 at 12:01 PM • Permalink for this post • Archived in • Comments here (11)

Friday, December 20, 2019

Crack Italian Law Enforcement Gain Ground On New Kind Of Mafia

Posted by Peter Quennell


1. The Context

One could argue that Italy is both blessed and cursed by its geographical location.

Blessed, because it has a wonderful and extraordinarily long coastline, which allowed for the Roman Empire, allows for many amazing towns and villages, allows for a lot of fresh seafood, and allows for a lot of tourism from the Vitamin-D-deprived countries to the north of it. 

Cursed, because the south of Italy, which a couple of thousand years ago sat right on main trade routes and became enormously rich, fell into deep poverty as both the trade routes and the climate changed. Hence the origin of the mafias.

And cursed again, because it is so close to the desperate populations of north Africa, which makes Italy by the far the main point of entry for migrants to Europe trying to escape tribal frictions and their own descent into deep poverty.

2. The Development

In the past 20 years Italy has had major anti-mafia successes. The Sicilian Cosa Nostra is largely history, and the Calabrian Ndrangheta and Neapolitan Comorrah have been leaned on to the extent that their only expansions have been away from Italy.

And so crime-rates remain lower in Italy than in many European countries, and much lower than in the United States.

The video and this article depict the first big sweep against the recently-arrived Nigerian mafia.

This is typically Italy’s way against organized crime. Seem to be paying no attention (this was the mode in Perugia against the Ndrangheta). But then all of a sudden - pow - busloads of perps are on their way to courts and prison. 

Stay tuned. Such first mass arrests usually lead to other mass arrests. Although not here yet, for sure there will be a tipping point.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 12/20/19 at 11:37 AM • Permalink for this post • Archived in • Comments here (13)

Monday, December 02, 2019

Here’s How We Might Actually Help The Hard-Pressed Media - And Development Generally

Posted by Peter Quennell

One of the largest newspaper printing presses; to what purpose?

1. The News-You-Can-Use Concept

We’re almost fully loaded for our widespread exposure of this huge legal hoax.

And there’s a possible constructive alternative to merely rubbing the media’s noses in it, though that, frankly, is pretty enticing as so many messed up so much.

A couple of decades ago, some smart TV and movie producers noticed that having some “news you can use” built into every airing would attract noticeably more eyeballs. As an example, we should be able to learn something interesting or useful from every CSI episode.

2. Nature Of The Problem

American news media right now fall short terribly in this news-you-can-use dimension. Their “breaking news” almost always tends to be bad news, depressing and disempowering, and all too soon a turn-off.

The overall effect of “breaking news” is to jack up nation-wide paranoia and helplessness. Hence the heated confrontations almost everywhere, which can get luridly misreported like the “Knox case”, and we all move on to our next “breaking news” fix.

Plus the superhero-as-savior angle is vastly over-played these days, both in the media and in entertainment. No top-down president, top-down manager, or rogue soldier or cop, is of much relevance to present problems, which need harmonious skilled diverse teams to resolve them. 

So viewership and readership and revenues dwindle, and we encounter all these desperate struggling media websites. And very few of our myriad problems actually get fixed or stay fixed.

3. Nature Of The Solution

TJMK has long tried to include some news you can use if you want to in the inter-country comparisons of policing, legal and penal systems, as in the previous post just below this.

For the most part Italian policing, legal and penal systems are something other countries could really learn from, rather than reject as the Knox campaign incites people to do.

And here is the much wider value of this angle, if it has any.

Virtually no Americans or Europeans have ever been a part of a development project or process (unlike residents of developing countries, who have often experienced several) and could really use those tools they don’t yet know about to get ahead.

In development terms, American news - and European news, especially on Brexit - is almost entirely useless, and worse, it comes with a high cost, because it is so distracting and prone to over-heating hard-pressed segments of the population.

Japan’s remarkable development exploded from the 1960s. It was mirrored in due course by Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, and then by China, India, and Indonesia. That is more than 50 percent of the world’s population - all growing faster in real terms than Europe or the US are now.

And how did they do this? By first Japan and then all the others “borrowing” and using American systems (with the help of some Americans who moved to Japan) and then taking them further, often much further.

At Toyota, for example, a production system can be tweaked 2,000 times - and then junked and replaced by a new generation system.

Meanwhile, way too many Americans - and Europeans - are barely conscious of systems like those that define their lives and careers… well, except maybe for those on their Apple phone.

For this reason primarily it is actually much slower and harder and more unusual to get development processes (AKA system invention and upgrade processes) moving in the US or in the EC countries than it is in India or Africa!

4. The Main-Media Opportunity

There’s such an enormous “news you can use” opportunity here for the main media.

The NY Times has maybe 100 stories a day where, if one is on this wavelength, one can spot the system angles - a system or some systems broken, waiting for some sharp team to leap in there and fix them. Even in the arts and the sports pages.

The Boeing 737 MAX story is exactly this type of story - Boeing aircraft systems and production and quality control systems were badly developed or broken, Federal government watchdog systems were politically pushed away to arms length - and so nearly 400 people died.

But one has to work really hard from say the NY Times reporting to figure out all the system shortfalls and how to make up for them so all future aircraft are a lot more safe.

The NY Times and BBC and so on could so easily build into many or most of their stories this additional system enhancement angle.  Start to tell us ALL of the news. News-we-can-use is value-adding and empowering and integrating.

And development lessons can really be hammered home by engaging in international systems comparisons. Comparing US and UK versus Italian justice systems is just one place to start.

A lot better than this instance where the premier justice school in the US extensively lied about Italy’s justice - and duped an audience from around the world.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 12/02/19 at 12:28 PM • Permalink for this post • Archived in • Comments here (11)

Friday, November 29, 2019

Knox’s Toxic Campaign: How Safe Are Women Really In Italy?

Posted by Peter Quennell

Carabinieri: best safety force in the world? NYC models on them.

1. Italy’s Crime Rate Generally

We have posted Italy/US crime comparisons before.

American rates of all crimes are typically in the range of five to seven times Italy’s rates. In effect, those resident in Italy are 5 to 7 times less likely to be swindled, burgled, robbed, or murdered than those resident in the United States.

A large, flamboyant, and much-liked police presence (video above) helps to explain that, though most Italians naturally are easy-going and caring, rather than a threat. And the justice/penal system is the world’s best at steering offenders away from a life of crime.

Italy’s low rates continue to decline, even with an uptick in immigrant crime, and Italy’s current prison population is around 60,000 compared to over 6 million in the United States - about 1/25 the US rate.

2. Knox’s Highly Toxic Campaign

One of Knox’s numerous toxic effects is to spread this great lie: that the Italian situation is exactly the opposite of what it really is.

In other words, that American tourists and exchange students are typically a lot safer if they decide to go elsewhere, or stay at home. 

We have all seen the thousands of claims on American website threads to the effect that “I will never visit in Italy” or “I will never study in Italy” or “I had this monstrous experience….” with of course zero proof of that.

Heavily prompted by Knox, such claims still continue to appear.

But note how in reality Knox was and remains a walking time-bomb, and in fact none of what she claims about herself and Italy is true.

She never reveals that she was not herself an exchange student unlike 99% of student-age Americans abroad.

So she was ineligible for any degree course credits. And very significantly, she was not eligible for any financial or legal help. And she was totally unsupervised. Knox also never reveals her voracious drug habit or her shortage of money or her zero real study demands.

This walking time-bomb is the real Knox her grossly irresponsible parents approved to go to Italy.

Oh, and Knox never reveals this, either: she caused every university in America with genuine exchange students abroad to barricade itself against possible future time-bombs like Knox.

Nevertheless the dip in American tourists and exchange students, women especially, continued throughout the 2007 to 2015 period. That was confirmed in several surveys of American students making up their minds where to have their year abroad.

Amanda Knox has worked assiduously ever since to ensure that tourists and genuine exchange students keep away.

3. Crimes Against Women: Hard Facts

Rape is well understood to be under-reported everywhere, and reliable statistics take years to firm up.

This table of the rates of rapes around the world does use data a few years old, though that makes it more accurate than the tables done more recently.

Italy’s rate of rape shows up as 7.6 rapes per 100,000 annually.

That is somewhat lower than that of the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Austria; less than half that of France, Finland, and Norway.

Italy’s is only about one-quarter that of the United States, at 27.3 per 100,000 reported.

So if American women spend serious time in Italy, they will actually be four times as safe. 

4. Bottom Line From The Above?

The toxic message Knox is conveying to millions of American women is the polar opposite of the hard truth.

She is being harmful to Italy, and rendering American women on average somewhat more unsafe.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 11/29/19 at 09:04 AM • Permalink for this post • Archived in • Comments here (2)

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Why For Wrongful Imprisonment DID KNOX NOT SUE ITALY?

Posted by Peter Quennell



This finally hit a big wall…

1. The Dog That Didn’t Bark

Knox made no effort at all to pursue a lawsuit for wrongful imprisonment against the Republic of Italy.

Precisely why?

That kind of suit does happen in Italy, although wrongful imprisonment is extremely rare, and there’s no pack of lawyers making this their main game.

1. The typical global context

That is in sharp contrast for example to the United States, where such suits go on all the time.

The Innocence Project is essentially a group of lawyers that does make out gangbusters in this line of work (plus a lot of well-meaning saps swindled into making donations to provide income before the giant payoffs arrive).

Although the number of prisoners the Innocence Project released is very small - just several hundred over many years - their cuts in the payoffs granted by the courts against, well, we the taxpayers, has added up to some billions over those years.

2. Why the Knox team blinked

The Knox team’s main self-recognized problems causing their restraint in suing the Republic of Italy would seem to be these.

    (1) Knox was RIGHTLY imprisoned for three years for framing Patrick and leaving him locked up. All courts ruled against her on that and there’s no further appeal route.

    (2) Courts up to the Supreme Court in 2008 decided she (and Sollecito) could be a risk to others, and maybe a risk of flight. And so the courts ruled that she must remain locked up to the end of trial. No bail or house arrest.

    (3) Sollecito very publicly and humiliatingly failed in his own wrongful imprisonment suit which was taken up to the level of the Supreme Court, for proven lying right before and after arrest.

    (4) Sollecito still had to pay the fees of his very powerful legal team (who quite blatantly had been a party to bending other courts). Notorious deadbeat Knox may well have not been trusted by her lawyers to pay their fees.

Knox’s and Sollecito’s lies of commission and omission in the short period before and after their arrest on 6 Nov 2007 created a ton of extra work for the cops and prosecutors.

And Knox’s lies also resulted in Patrick being wrongly locked up.

2. And The Bottom Line Is?

Knox’s lies of omission - telling facts she deflects from because they would land her in the soup - number up in the many hundreds now.  This one is easily graspable even by interviewers so shockingly ill-informed on the details as Gladwell and Doctor Phil. 

Pontificators and interviewers (and Innocence Project lawyers) if they REALIZE that Knox pursued no claim at all, and just why, should certainly be a lot less chummy with her going forward.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 11/21/19 at 09:07 PM • Permalink for this post • Archived in • Comments here (32)

Thursday, November 07, 2019

Demonizations By Knox: Yet Another Paying Audience Is Lied To

Posted by Our Main Posters



Knox lies to Lorena Bobbitt

Postscript To This Post: Breaking News

Dear Audience. So Knox and Legetic DID scam you as we warned. Knox hid that she’s a convicted felon for life and RIGHTLY served 3 years for her unforced murder accusation (in the US she could have faced life) and Knox lied that she was a victim of sexist men. She confirmed at trial she was always treated well; see also this.

Knox’s Seven-Year History Of Frauds

Are lawsuits for misrepresentations in the works?

Many seem to have wisened up and the pace of Knox’s bloodmoney scams has significantly slowed lately. With some help from ourselves, Scams Six and Seven summarized below finally resulted in real media outrage.

And yet nevertheless, surprisingly, Knox on this Sunday (see Part 2) will perpetrate yet another callous anti-victim anti-Italy anti-justice bloodmoney fraud.

Knox began scamming for bloodmoney and trashing Italy and numerous Italians and justice generally back in 2012, as described in these summaries below.

(1) Scam Wave One

We saw Knox’s own scams, following upon numerous scams by her family and PR, kick off in 2012 with the serious misleading of her publisher and the first of numerous media wails.

Click for Post:  Were Prospective Knox Publishers Given The Full Score On The Likely Legal Future Of This Case?

(2) Scam Wave Two

The bloodmoney scams continued with her book in 2013, when we witnessed the defrauding, claimedly for millions, of numerous paying readers and her publisher.

The Knox book includes multiple demonizations of fine Italians, and false claims about her case on every page.

Click for Post:  Knox Book Put On Hold In UK As Legal Implications Of Blood Money Finally Sink In

Click for Post:  Amanda Knox Book: Good Reporters Start To Surface False Claims In Droves

Click for Post:  500-Plus Lies In Knox’s Highly Defamatory Book

(3) Scam Wave Three

Next we observed the US’s Innocence Project paying Knox as a keynoter to lie annually about Italian justice and her “innocence” to the past five or six of their main events.

Click for Post:  Innocence Project: Seven Years Clutching Knox And Trashing Italian Justice To Joy Of Mafias #1

That series about the Innocence Project, itself a huge scam for financial windfalls by its lawyers, continues for another five posts.

(4) Scam Wave Four

Next we exposed over a dozen trusting, misled and defrauded groups. Please do read Part 2 (Knox’s pitch) of this post and Part 3 (how that pitch misleads).

Click for Post:  “Americans Are Paying Knox $10,000 A Gig To Trash Italian Cops - Smart Move Liberating Her”

That widely highlighted post seems to have helped to slow Knox’s American gigs. But still…

(5) Scam Wave Five

We saw Knox lying - and singing - on national TV to a non-alerted, unsuspecting Ireland.

Click for Post:  Amanda Knox sings pro-IRA song in bizarre Irish TV chatshow appearance

(6) Scam Wave Six

Then we saw Knox actually lying to an outraged Italy (and outraged Sollecito), albeit before an audience mostly too young to know the real facts of the case.

Click for Post:  The Hard Truths About Knox Lupária, Sola, Cagossi, Etc Should Have Known Before Betraying Italy

Click for Post:  The World Isnt Short Of Suckers - Lupária, Sola & Cagossi Present “The Traveling Innocence Gang Show”

Click for Post:  How Knox Lied About “The Media” Which Long Lied Profusely For Her

(7) Scam Wave Seven

And most recently we saw Knox attempting a widely-decried swindle of her “wedding guests” for large cash payments.

Click for Post:  Knox’s Fake Wedding Exposed, Yet Another Fraudulent Scam For Yet More Bloodmoney

(8) Knox’s Latest Scam

That is to take place this Sunday in Washington DC. To a paying audience of nearly 1500 Knox will tell the “truth” about true crime - surely a first for her.

The hosting bloodmoney group (which could itself be sued for fraud) is Svetlana Legetic’s callously anti-victim “Bright Young Things”.

Do read here (scroll down) the details of Knox’s part in this bizarre anti-victim pro-bloodmoney charade.

Posted by Our Main Posters on 11/07/19 at 10:15 PM • Permalink for this post • Archived in • Comments here (14)

Friday, November 01, 2019

RIP Meredith Susanna Cara Kercher 28 December 1985 - 1 November 2007

Posted by KrissyG





My tribute first posted here in 2015…

It was a gloriously sunny early summer’s day. I stepped out of the tube onto Tooting Broadway, with throngs of shoppers overflowing the pavements and schoolchildren milling around the bus stops in groups.

Now here at last, in Croydon Cemetery, fifteen bus stops later, I found Meredith’s grave, startling in its unexpectedness, after walking for quite a while, hopeless at following directions, having originally gone to the wrong graveyard altogether, the day before.

My heart pounded as her name suddenly leapt out at me.

The burial site is beautifully maintained, with miniature pink and red rose bushes and set in the peaceful landscaped grounds, with evergreens and lawns.

I stood for a while overcome with emotion, quite alone, with nobody in sight all around.  I said a few prayers, including one pleading that Meredith’s murderers be brought to justice.  I quietly sang Psalm 23 and pondered how this beautiful, funny, bright young student had lived a life that was all too short.

A feeling of pain - for her mother Arline and father John, and Stephanie, Lyle and John and for all her family and friends - contracted like a taut elastic band across my chest.

I recalled how at her funeral service at St John the Baptist Church many of the mourners, including sister Stephanie and friends from Leeds Uni had carried a single white rose each.

Stephanie read out a poem she wrote, ” Don’t Say Goodbye”.  Her old school friends sang as a choir the requiem,  In Paradisum.  Two hymns sung at the service, on 14th December 2007, were “˜Abide with me” and “For the Beauty of the Earth”.

Meredith’s favourite record “With or without you” by U2 was played.

As I sat on a creaky bench nearby under the shade of a gnarled old tree, I scribbled down the following lines:

    I came to pay my respects
    To Meredith Kercher so dear
    To all who knew her.
    Go gently into that night
    Enforced on you by the evil,
    Those who walk in the darkness,
    And you were in their path.
    Your light shines
    And the dark has not overcome it.

I write this article to reflect that this is about Meredith Kercher and her family and friends, and to reclaim the memory of her purity from the soiled agenda of the ex-defendants and the cruel IIP and FOA stalkers.

Stephanie Kercher had said, in response to Knox’s demand, on the launch of her “memoir”, that she be taken to visit Meredith’s grave, that Stephanie and her family just want a safe place for Meredith to rest in peace.

I cast my mind back to the news reports that broke in November 2013 that Raffaele Sollecito had nevertheless paid a “secret visit” to the spot.  He had been in London in March 2013.  He had the grace not to include pictures of the grave on his “London” Facebook page that he may have taken.

Newspaper reports reveal he was taken there by an “English friend” and left no flowers.  The “friend” who was quick to betray Sollecito’s “secret” is speculated to be one Nigel Scott, ex-Lib Dem Councillor in Haringey, and a purported member of the Injustice in Perugia advisory board, the rather grand name of a lobby of aggressive pro-Knox advocates.

Scott put up a picture of the grave in a tweet ““ hastily taken down ““ as the news broke.  He disparagingly refers to the grave as being in “poor condition”, with a temporary headstone marker. 

His co-campaigner, Karen Pruett, maintains a Find A Grave webpage for Meredith and was forced by demand from enraged supporters of Meredith Kercher’s family to take down the picture of Meredith’s grave, most probably taken from the Daily Mail.

Notorious FOA poster Lyn Duncan - who tweets under the name of @Annella - and others, left “tributes” after the acquittal, despite one of their party, Doug Bremner Jr, having referred to the Kerchers as “Nazis” and another mocking Meredith’s grave lacking a headstone as late as 2011, when Knox was first acquitted by Hellmann, as shown in the Daily Mail.

Time has shown how Scott’s, Pruett’s and other Knox chums’ characters speak for themselves.

Meredith’s final resting place is beautiful, in a quietly understated way.  The grave adjacent is of a Liverpool supporter aged 22,  who died around about the same time as Mez, who was 21.  It is very poignant to see.

Meredith’s headstone is fashioned out of marble and reads, ” We will always love you MEREDITH SUSANNA CARA KERCHER 28th Dec. 1985 ““ 1st Nov. 2007 Forever in our thoughts, always in our hearts.”

The temporary marker, so much derided by Knox’ supporters, remains at the foot.  I left some Sweet Williams in a flower container and slowly walked away, moved and changed by the visit.

Posted by KrissyG on 11/01/19 at 01:00 AM • Permalink for this post • Archived in • Comments here (15)

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

The Best Alternative-Sources Series: Roberta Glass’s True Crime Reports

Posted by The Machine


1. Pro-Justice V Anti-Justice Media Trends

Increasingly common these days is for pro-truth, pro-victim and pro-justice sources to stake out the high ground.

Malcolm Gladwell, subject here of an ongoing series, really is a throwback, part of a trend that is losing traction and that may already have peaked.

Taking the side of the dwindling band of fabricators, inciters, stalkers, defamers, blood-money-grubbers, media-bashers, and foreigner-bashers, and the most unsavory crime elements seeking to undermine justice, now takes major chutzpah and unawareness.

Just before Gladwell’s rant against Italian justice surfaced, we had launched a new series to highlight the large number of objective sources on Meredith’s case and many others where justice is in question.

Documentaries, films and podcasts about people who have been convicted of murders they allegedly didn’t commit have been hugely popular.

TV documentaries such as American Girl, Italian Nightmare, Paradise Lost, West of Memphis, Making a Murderer and The Case Against Adnan Syed have all been watched by millions of people.

The Serial podcast about the Adnan Syed/Hae Min Lee case has been downloaded over 175 million times

When They See Us - the Netflix drama about the Central Park Five case - has been watched by 23 million Netflix accounts worldwide.

TV producers, filmmakers and podcast-makers know full well that a tale about a supposedly innocent person being railroaded by corrupt or incompetent cops and rogue prosecutors is a far more exciting and melodramatic story than cases where the juries convicted the right people.

They are not always concerned about truth and justice - they want a product that is a moneyspinner and will guarantee them an audience of millions, bucketloads of publicity, newspaper headlines and media interviews. Pesky facts that undermine their narrative that an innocent person was railroaded invariably get ignored.

They literally create fairytales where prosecutors and police officers are presented as evil villains intent on imprisoning innocent victims who are as pure and innocent as Snow White. Unfortunately, Joe Public and the likes of Kim Kardashian are stupid and they unquestiongly believe everything they see and read in the media without bothering to do any fact-checking.

Over 300 online reviewers gave the Netflix hoax Amanda Knox high marks. Gladwell quoted it. Celebrity Kim Kardashian watched the faux documentary on Netflix and said she thinks Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are innocent on Twitter.

“Just finished the Amanda Knox doc. I don’t think they did it. I really want a Natalie Halloway doc & they need to solve that crime. So sad!”

She recently tweeted her support for Netflix darling Brendan Dassey - who along with Steven Avery was convicted of raping and murdering Teresa Halbach.

Whenever a new true crime documentary or drama about alleged miscarriage of justice lands on Netflix, I immediately wonder what inconvenient facts have been brushed under the carpet and what lies and disinformation have been presented as fact.

I know I definitely can’t rely on The Guardian for reliable information because it has a long history of supporting people who have been convicted of murder or casting doubt on their convictions e.g. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, the West Memphis Three, Adnan Syed, Jeremy Bamber, James Hanratty and Simon Hall.

2. Roberta Glass’s True Crime Reports

Roberta has the right approach to ascertaining the truth with regard to high-profile cases i.e. she relies on the official court documents - not on misinformation and propaganda.  Her explanation of where she is coming from on her YouTube Channel:

”Tired of the misinformation and propaganda in current True Crime reporting, podcasts and documentaries; Roberta Glass set out in 2018 to create a True Crime Report sourced directly from the court records and case files. Her drive and curiosity to look deeper into the true crime stories she covers has also taken her to the courthouse where she has covered the NXIVM trial and Jeffrey Epstein related hearings. “

Roberta has interviewed Ken Kratz who prosecuted Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey and Lyn Hartman who was engaged to Steven Avery.

It’s fascinating to listen to the stories of people like Lyn Hartman and Alexa who were fooled by the PR campaigns to free convicted killers and how they eventually realised they had been manipulated and misinformed. They give the listener an insight to what Rabia Chaudry and Kathleen Zellner are really like and how they mislead people.

I also recommend listening to the interview with former policeman and author Martin Preib. He explains how innocence activists from Northwestern’s Innocence Project - who included Paul Ciolino - framed Alstory Simon.

3. Podcasts Recommended For First Listening

I’ve listed some of the most interesting podcasts below.

Roberta Glass True Crime Report can also be listened to on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker and Castbo

Posted by The Machine on 10/29/19 at 11:00 PM • Permalink for this post • Archived in • Comments here (7)

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Powerful Evidence Of Sollecito’s Presence: HIS Footprint Is Proved

Posted by James Raper



Prosecutor Dr Manuela Comodi introduced this very tough evidence

Long post. Click here to go straight to Comments.


1. Series And Post Overviews

Previously in our hard-physical-evidence series we put Sollecito rock-solidly at the scene of the crime through his DNA in Meredith’s bedroom.

This post also puts him at the scene of the crime through a footprint unmistakably his. It was not Guede’s as one of the PR hoaxes has it - always a very weak claim, as there is no evidence that Guede ever took his shoes and socks off, and not even a compelling scenario.

Again, please bear in mind the trial circumstance. Read this trial report for a taste of how the footprint evidence sent the defenses into shrill disarray. Starkly obvious to the jury (panel of judges) but never without exception mentioned by the PR.

The purpose of this post is to explain exactly why the right sided footprint, as seen below in the bottom right hand corner of the bathroom mat, can be, indeed was, attributed to Raffaele Sollecito.

Saying that it was attributed to him is not to exclude any number of other people to whom it could also belong, but as we shall see we can, perfectly reasonably, exclude the two other suspects in the case, Amanda Knox and Rudy Guede.




2. Bathmat Footprint Evidence At Trial

In evidence was a forensic analysis of the footprint, undertaken by Dr Rinaldi and Chief Inspector Boemia, comparing the print to the reference prints, made on a flat surface, of each of the three suspects. After taking measurements it was clear that the print could not be attributed to Amanda Knox because her foot is smaller in size. That then leaves us with Sollecito and Guede.

The mat, of course, is not a flat surface. It contains the tufts of weave which form the pattern on the mat.

In this image below the colour has been enhanced, whereas the image above reflects the reality of a stain where the blood is clearly diluted, and this, in itself, is a matter which has a part to play in attributing the stain.





We can now consider what those comparative measurements were.

On the basis of the above measurements compiled from Rinaldi’s and Boemia’s Report, Sollecito’s foot is a far better fit for that on the mat than Guede‘s, and for this reason Rinaldi and Boemia came to the conclusion that the bathmat print belonged to Sollecito.

The trial judge, Massei, wrote - 

“The analyses of the size of the big toe, Sollecito’s being absolutely the widest, led in itself to the conclusion of compatibility between the print on the mat and the right foot of the defendant, whereas the comparison between the sole print of Guede and that of Sollecito also demonstrated the different size of the plantar arch, with Guede’s narrower one attesting to the fact that the Ivory Coast national has an altogether narrower foot in comparison to Sollecito’s foot. The sole prints of the two defendants in question therefore present considerable differences in terms of :- (1) the big toe; (2) the width of the metatarsus; (3) the width of the plantar arch……”

Clearly the disparity in the width of Sollecito’s and Guede’s big toes is significant.

However Professor Vinci, Sollecito’s expert, disputed Rinaldi and Boemia‘s finding as to the width of the big toe on the mat. He noted that the big toe, as seen in Exhibit Two above, falls on elevated weave in the shape of a spiral. According to Vinci the flourishes of weave in this part of the curl of the spiral did not exactly match and the top right of the stain was not in fact part of the big toe, but attributable to the second toe. Once this was detached, the width of the big toe on the mat was more akin to the width of Guede’s big toe.

Furthermore, he argued, the detached stain could not belong to Sollecito because his second toe did not appear in his reference print - it did not touch the ground due to a case of valgus on the right of his big toe.

True, but the point is a non-sequitor as Sollecito’s second toe is not required for his big toe to match the width of the stain - indeed held back in a hammer position we should be even more confident of the width of the big toe - and, in any event, the mark to be detached could not belong to Guede’s second toe, as we shall see.


Massei was unable to agree with the operation of detaching the mark from the toe because it depended on an assumption that there was an interruption in continuity.

“The base of the material in the disputed point shows that the trace of blood is a single unit on all of the curl (flourish), and is uniformly linked, forming a single unit with all the other parts of the material on which the big toe was placed.”

Massei continued -

“Although it is possible to agree that in the calculation of the width of the big toe the point of measuring may fall in an unstained place, nevertheless a comprehensive view of the bathmat clearly shows why this was done. Considering that the small region under discussion is part of the tip of the big toe, the point on the right of the toe giving the 30 mm measurement lies along the line descending perpendicularly from that tip, without any widening……………..furthermore, the association of the bathmat footprint with Guede’s foot (see the CD ROM provided by Professor Vinci showing “the superimposition sequence” for Guede’s foot) appears, frankly, as strained, given that Guede’s footprint, apart from having a morphology which is generally longer and more tapered, also has a second toe print which unequivocally falls quite far from the big toe print, so that the small mark whose detachment from the big toe is in question here could hardly be attributed to the second toe of the defendant (Guede)”.

We can now move to how Hellmann considered the evidence when his appeal court acquitted Knox and Sollecito.

Noting that there is an unstained section of the bathmat print, where apparently Sollecito’s toe should be, were we to have a complete print of his big toe on the mat, Hellmann disparages what he considers is Massei’s assertion that one can simply draw a line down from the disputed mark of blood in accordance with the shape of Sollecito’s toe, hence arriving at a measurement for the width of the big toe coinciding with Sollecito’s.

Looking back I think that Massei did leave himself open to criticism with that remark, but more particularly because (unlike Guede) the vertical axis of Sollecito’s big toe (see below) does have a more obvious tilt to the left (which might be a consequence of the valgus and consequent “hammer position” of the second toe) and which, together with the blood on the flourish of the weave (on the right) would give a reading for the width of the big toe, without relying on part of that measurement falling in an unstained section.

However there are a number of other reasons which Massei believed were persuasive, and which Hellmann ignores. The first is a disparity in the length of the respective big toes, Guede having a longer toe than Sollecito. Secondly, the position of the left hand curve of the ball of the foot, and the lower section (the left side of the plantar arch – there can be a number of measurements here as the plantar arch tapers off significantly in width), on the bathmat is fairly clear and if one lines up the suspects’ curves with that on the bathmat, then the tip of Guede’s big toe is noticeably higher than the mark of the toe on the mat, whereas Sollecito’s coincides. In addition, the top of the ball of Guede’s foot is noticeably higher whereas Sollecito’s more or less coincides.

Below are the respective representative prints for Sollecito and Guede. Placing them side by side for comparison purposes is subject to formatting considerations. Superimposed upon them is an outline of the stain to illustrate the points made above. Of course, to some extent the outline of the stain is subject to one’s own interpretation, but I believe it is reasonably accurate.

Guede’s print has 7 points of disparity with the stain – Sollecito 1 as below. 



                                                     
Hellmann draws attention to the fact that the comparison print for Sollecito’s right foot shows that the distal phalange of the big toe (the part of the big toe which connects it to the ball of the foot) is absent on a flat surface, but is present on the bathmat, and that in Guede’s representative print the distal phalange is present.     

Having criticised Massei for, he says, the subjective element of his interpretation, Hellmann then gives us his own subjective interpretation.                             

“Now, since the contact of the foot with blood took place on the floor of Meredith’s room, namely on a flat and rigid surface, the distal [phalange] would not have been able to have become stained, and thus it would not have been able to leave the very visible trace on the bathmat.”

Hellmann goes on to state that the print was left by Guede, in accordance with Professor Vinci’s contention.

But hold on! Why should we be required to accept that Sollecito would necessarily have stood in blood in Meredith’s room (and remember that the mark on the mat was diluted blood, which aspect modifies, if not negates, any direct correlation) or, if he did, that it was on a flat and rigid surface there, since there was blood on Meredith’s clothing on the floor, and indeed there were towels soaked in blood in her room, although it is not, at first sight, an unreasonable hypothesis? However, be it the assumption (which does not explain the diluted blood) is hypothetical given that Hellmann does not accept that the print on the bathmat is Sollecito’s, nevertheless Hellmann’s logic is circular and deficient given that there are no connecting bloody footprints between the blood in Meredith’s room and the bathmat print.

He could, of course, explain that, but not without giving credence to the removal of blood traces, which he ignores in his report.

Hellmann also ignores the pertinent and critical point made by Massei that the point of Guede’s second toe falls some distance from the big toe such that it is unlikely to be responsible for the width of the big toe on the mat.

Hellmann’s grasp of detail is poor, his attention is selective, and his grasp of context almost non-existent.

Cassation’s Fifth Chambers were worse, if that was possible -

“Finally, the footprints found at the murder scene can in no way be traced to the appellant.”(i.e Sollecito)

Yes, seriously, that’s all they had to say on the subject! They did not even give any reasons for the assertion.


But even if the bathmat print can “in no way” be traced to Sollecito, can it be traced to Guede? How did Guede get to the bathroom to leave his supposed print without leaving a trace on the way there?

It would appear, on the forensic evidence, that Guede left Meredith’s room and proceeded direct to the front door. Initially he left just- about -visible bloody left shoe prints. The blood trailed off but the shoe prints were picked up again by the application of luminol. He did not divert to the small bathroom, or for that matter to Filomena’s room to stage a break-in.

3. Defense’s Attempts To Nail Rudy Guede

Sollecito’s defence team had an improbable theory - that Guede, immediately after the murder and despite his homicidal rage, was smart enough to hop out of Meredith’s room on his left foot with a clean shoe on, and the other bare but covered in blood, and that having by this means entered the bathroom and washed his bloody right foot, disastrously leaving his (supposed) imprint there in the process.

He then returned to Meredith’s bedroom, inadvertently standing in blood again with his clean left shoe and leaving with a trail of bloody left shoe prints - in which case the exercise of washing his foot was entirely in vain, on two counts, after all that careful hopping around. Neither is it entirely clear why his right shoe came off in the first place. His shoes were foot-hugging Nike Outbreak 2. Improbable that one could have come off even in a struggle.

It is patently obvious that his washing his foot was the most inept performance in all this given the mark the foot subsequently left on the mat. The same observation obviously applies to Sollecito as well but in his case, and not with Guede, or any other unknown male, it is far more credible to accept that he had diluted blood on the sole of his foot for a reason unconnected with his having just washed it.

All the above, as it pertains to Guede, or another unknown male assailant, is exceedingly unlikely and there is a far simpler explanation. Someone with more time to spare than Guede, or his unknown mate, and with less risk of discovery attached, was responsible for the diluted blood and had inadvertently stepped in it.

There had, undoubtedly, to be blood on the floor (and elsewhere) between Meredith’s room and the small bathroom, probably prints, and these and other such traces (bathroom door, Meredith’s door etc) were deliberately and carefully removed by wiping them away with wet towels, cloths etc. Probably whoever had done this had then stepped on one of the towels or cloths in question and then stepped onto the mat without thinking. Hence the diluted blood.

It is interesting to note that Guede, during his stay in jail in Germany, wrote (emphasis added) –

“I am asking myself how is it possible that Amanda could have slept in all that mess, and took a shower with all that blood in the bathroom and corridor.


The reason for removing the blood was not just to conceal who would have made prints (the print on the bathmat was, after all, left in situ) but, from a visual perspective, to conceal any blood that might be noticeable and alarming to anyone approaching Meredith’s room. Guede’s bloody left shoeprints in the corridor, pointing to the exit, were visible but only on close inspection.


The prime stager, the person who would have had most interest in attending to a post murder manipulation of the crime scene by the removal of blood traces would, of course, have been Amanda Knox. It was a prerequisite if her account of having stopped by the cottage to have a shower, before the discovery of the body, was to work in the manner for which she hoped.

However, having attended to this she would then, from the position of her own narrative, be in a position to instigate and manage, entirely innocently from anyone’s perspective, the discovery of her flatmate’s murder. Visiting the cottage to have a shower and collect a mop, with no visible blood in unexplainable places to alarm her, was an indispensible opening sequence in the narrative.

She did, though, leave the mat in situ. This may simply have been because it never occurred to her that this could be used as evidence incriminating Sollecito and, of course, the absence of the mat would no doubt have been remarked on by her flatmates. Having eliminated other blood traces, removing the mat might have been conceived as being a step too far as it would have raised questions.

Finally Guede, for numerous reasons, is simply not a credible candidate for the clean up, particularly given the numerous and incriminating traces of himself that he did leave at the crime scene.

Given the comparative measurements, given the full context of the crime scene, including the removal of blood traces and the attribution of a luminol revealed footprint to Sollecito outside Meredith’s room, and given the fact that the murder weapon was in Sollecito’s kitchen drawer and that his DNA was on the bra clasp, there can be little doubt that the bathmat print belonged to him.

Posted by James Raper on 10/17/19 at 09:32 PM • Permalink for this post • Archived in • Comments here (12)

Monday, September 09, 2019

The Hachette Hoax: A Guide To Our Dozen Posts

Posted by Our Main Posters




All Posts So Far In Ongoing Series

1. Click for Post:  How “Psychology Expert” Malcolm Gladwell Gets Every Single Claim On The Case Wrong

2. Click for Post:  Gullible Gladwell Duped By “Strangers” In Reality Vigilantes & Anti Justice Trolls

3. Click for Post:  Explaining To “No Physical Evidence” Gladwell Just How MUCH There Was: #1 Knife DNA

4. Click for Post:  Explaining to “No Physical Evidence” Gladwell Just How MUCH There Was #2 Mixed Blood

5. Click for Post:  Explaining to “No Physical Evidence” Gladwell Just How MUCH There Was #3 Footprints

6. Click for Post:  Explaining to “No Physical Evidence” Gladwell Just How MUCH There Was #4 Faked Break-In

7. Click for Post:  Explaining to “No Physical Evidence” Gladwell Just How MUCH There Was #5 Bra Clasp

8. Click for Post:  There’s This Powerful Evidence Of Knox’s Crimescene Presence - Locked Right Inside Meredith’s Room

9. Click for Post:  There’s This Powerful Evidence Of Sollecito’s Crimescene Presence: Unmistakably HIS Footprint

10. Click for Post:  Gladwell’s Lone-Wolf-Killer Hoax Was Abandoned By DEFENSES 10 Years Ago

11. Click for Post:  On Guede As Sole Attacker Gladwell Doesn’t Get Strong Backup - From Knox Or Sollecito

Do check back, there’s more to follow.

Posted by Our Main Posters on 09/09/19 at 02:00 PM • Permalink for this post • Archived in • Comments here (0)

Page 10 of 119 pages ‹ First  < 8 9 10 11 12 >  Last ›