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Tuesday, Nov 24, 2009
Oscar-winning director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade turns unparalleled access to a murder trial into an unforgettable documentary series.
Apr 3, 2005 | "We were both right here. And you know, the dogs would come over, and we were just talking and finishing our drinks. And then she said, 'I gotta go in, because I've got the conference call in the morning.' And she started walking out that way. And I stayed right here. Don't think I said anything special to her, certainly not thinking this was the last time I'm gonna see her." -- Michael Peterson, describing the night of his wife's death in "The Staircase," an eight-part series to air on the Sundance Channel
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While visiting my hometown, Durham, N.C., in December 2001, I read the first reports of a police investigation into the death of a local woman, Kathleen Peterson, who was found at the bottom of a flight of stairs. The woman's husband, Michael Peterson, 58, was a well-known local novelist who'd written about Vietnam. He'd once had a column in the local paper and had made an unsuccessful run for mayor in 1999. He told police that he discovered his wife, a 48-year-old executive at Nortel, in a pool of blood and called 911, but his wife stopped breathing before the paramedics arrived.
On the local news, the same shot of Michael Peterson talking to reporters was repeated over and over again: "I've whispered her name more than a thousand times, and I can't stop crying," he said into the microphones.
There was something wrong about his response, something too egocentric and melodramatic about it. When I asked my mom about the case, she told me that she was also suspicious. A friend of hers who lived down the street from the couple said that there was no way Peterson could've killed his wife; they had always been the perfect couple. But my mom took those words -- "perfect couple" -- with a grain of salt. Who knew what kind of darkness lurked behind any supposedly happy marriage? Another friend more plugged in to the local gossip, meanwhile, mentioned rumors that Michael might be gay.
Naturally, when I heard that the Sundance Channel would be airing an eight-part documentary (Monday nights beginning April 4, at 8 p.m. EST) about the case by Oscar-winning director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, I wanted to see it. This was the "French film crew" so often mentioned in the Durham Herald-Sun's coverage of the Peterson case, faithfully clipped and sent to me by my mom, which I'd read from start to finish since I first stumbled on Kathleen Peterson's obituary.
The case had more twists and turns than a Hollywood suspense thriller: Michael had four children from his first marriage -- two sons by his wife, and two adopted daughters who were the children of friends who had died. But then it was discovered that the girls' mother, Elizabeth Ratliff, had also been found at the bottom of a staircase in Germany back in 1985, and Peterson had also been the last person to see her alive.
On top of that, Kathleen Peterson's sister claimed that Kathleen had been worried about losing her job at Nortel, which might have forced the couple to move out of their 11,000-square-foot mansion. Peterson, meanwhile, stood to gain from a $1.4 million life insurance policy on his wife. Plus, e-mails were discovered that indicated that Peterson had contacted a male prostitute shortly before Kathleen's death. Eventually, Michael Peterson was charged with his wife's murder; the prosecution claimed that he had beat her in the back of the head with a blunt instrument (leading to all the blood). Peterson's team would eventually claim that his wife simply must have fallen, hitting her head on the door frame at the bottom.
According to the paper, this film crew had access to the entire trial and more. And from the opening credits of "The Staircase," with its somber refrain and artful shots, it's clear that de Lestrade's documentary is very different from those ubiquitous, cheap, sensationalist takes on murder trials (there are several on the Laci Peterson murder already looping through cable TV).
