Amityville Horror House on Sale

The infamous Amityville horror house is once again back in the news, as it was put up for sale on Monday by owner, Brian Wilson, at an asking price of $1.15 million dollars.

An international superstar in its own right, the house was made famous in Jay Anson’s best selling book “The Amityville Horror,” which was later turned into a 1979 blockbuster movie.

Even before the news broke I was contacted by a producer for FOX 5’s “Good Day NY,” seeking information from me about the history of the home (book: Mentally Ill In Amityville).

Wilson purchased the home back in 1997 for only $310,000; which is $15,000 less then the previous owners, the O’Neil’s, paid for it in 1987. With a sky-high asking price, it’s no wonder why Wilson has stayed silent about the home all these years. In fact, Wilson is insistent on maintaining privacy, and emphatically denied roomers of ghosts or flesh-eating flies. “There are wackos out there who believe there are flying pigs in the house and bleeding walls,” Wilson told Newsday back in 1998. When I spoke to him back in 2008, he was cantankerous to say the least and denied us all access to the grounds.

Wilson has renovated the property, including the boathouse, the bulk head, the central air conditioning, the gas heating system, the roof, the windows, the sprinkler system, the central stereo system, the deck and the patio.

So now the world waits eagerly to see who the new owner will be. Will the new owner finally allow for testing of the grounds to see if there is actually an Indian burial ground on the property? “It’s just a matter of time before someone tries to transform the house into a cash cow,” said former Suffolk County Detective, Ed Miller; one of the many officers who investigated the DeFeo murders back in 1974.

At a village meeting back in 1997, a master planner from Massachusetts explained that the town of Salem turned its sordid history of witch-burning into a multi-million dollar tourist industry. “Could you imagine what kind of attraction it would be,” said Amityville Mayor, Peter Imbert, in regard to the house’s tourist attracting possibilities. But the town’s residents shouted down the idea, citing that it would “exploit the murders of the DeFeo family.”

In 1974, Ronald DeFeo, Jr., shot six members of his family members at the house while they were sleeping. The next family to move in, the Lutzes, said they were chased out of the house by evil-spirits after only 28 days. The Lutzes even passed a lie-detector test on the matter, which was conducted by two renowned polygraph specialists, Chris Gugas and Michael Rice.

Almost as soon as he arrived this week for a broker-open-house on Ocean Ave., Realtor James Smith says he “got an eerie feeling.” But it wasn’t until he went into the basement of the house that, he says, he got goose-bumps and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. “You felt like something was there,” said Smith. He says he asked two other agents in the basement with him, “Did you feel that?” he asked them. Then, he says, “We took off and got out of there.” After the open house, Smith told Channel 4 News, “I don’t believe it was a hoax.” We will have to wait and see how this story develops, but one thing is certain; the Amityville horror house is a mainstay in American culture as long as it stands and it will continue to cause nightmares around the world.

Mentally Ill in Amityville (2nd Edition) ON SALE NOW!!!

Mentally Ill in Amityville 2nd Ed (Kindle Book Available Now - $5.99)

Mexican Drug War: US/Mexican Border Violence (part 1)

The war on drugs in the United States has long been a topic of concern. Even before the term “War on Drugs” was first uttered by President Richard Nixon back in 1969, drugs had already plagued the U.S. Yet, there has been no bigger threat to the U.S. in regard to drugs than in recent years like Mexico. The U.S. has failed to make a dent in Mexican drug trafficking despite multiple efforts and millions upon millions of dollars spent to combat it. In fact, 90% of all cocaine consumed in the U.S. is transited from Mexico. Along with cocaine Mexico is also a major source of heroine, methamphetamine, and marijuana, as well as a primary placement point for the laundering of narcotics and derived criminal proceeds. This begs the questions: Is the United States partly responsible, and what is our role in this diabolical skyrocketing industry?

It wasn’t long ago that Columbia was known as the drug capital of the world. Back in August of 2000, President Bill Clinton and then Columbian President, Andres Pastrana, signed “Plan Columbia,” in which we spent some $7.5 billion to fund the war on drugs in Columbia. Most of that money came from us; the rest from Europe and the United Nations. However, by then most of the problem had shifted to Southern Mexico and Mexico City and quickly drifted-up toward U.S. borders. The shift was mainly due to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was signed by Bill Clinton back on January 1, 1994.

NAFTA created the largest free trade region in the world, eliminating trade barriers, and promoting investments between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. It was praised for its economic benefits. However, it also opened up the borders for a flood of drug trafficking that has spun into a multi-billion dollar industry. By 2000, the domination of Mexican drug cartels contributed to a phenomenal increase in border violence. In Mexico, drug related violence has risen from approximately 2,700 deaths in 2007, to over 5,000 in 2008. Drug related deaths average about 10-12 a day over the last three years, according to the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report of 2009. The Mexican police and military appear to be overwhelmed with the drug cartels and a force that protects these cartels, which has gotten little media coverage her in the U.S.

The Los Zetas are a criminal mercenary army that protects cartels along Mexico’s Gulf Coast. The Zetas are primarily comprised of former members of the Mexican Army’s elite Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFA) or (Airmobile Special Forces Group). Most of the Los Zetas were originally trained Mexican soldiers who had either gone a-wall or had retired. They have since partnered with different, competing drug cartels in an effort to protect them as hired guns; a task that earns them far more then any legal job.

Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderón, has compared the Zetas to Al-Qaida in the fact that they operate as a cell-like structure in order to limit the information that any one member of the organization knows about the association. The Zetas have teamed with these cartels for almost ten years now and are responsible for a myriad of deaths. They are also responsible for Casino robberies, and have recently freed twenty-five fellow Narco-traffickers from a prison in Apatzingán, Michoacán. The Los Zetas are ruthless, and their criminal activities also include kidnapping, murder-for-hire, assassinations, extortion, money laundering, and human smuggling. Some Zetas have even crossed the U.S. border into Texas and formed partnerships with criminal gangs in pursuit of criminal activities.

The Mérida Initiative was announced on 22 October 2007 and signed into law on June 30, 2008, by President George W. Bush. This new plan to combat Mexican drug trafficking is similar to Plan Columbia, and is a security cooperation between the United States and the government of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking, transnational crime, and money laundering. As part of this bilateral enforcement effort, the Bush Administration implemented a three-year, $1.4 billion aid package to assist Mexico. In the first year we sent Mexico $116 million to purchase military equipment to conduct surveillance operations, combat drug-trafficking related violence, organized crime, and other counter-narcotics programs.

In 2009, Congress and President Barack Obama approved an additional $300 million (on top of the $1.4 billion) to Mexico in Merida funding. Additional funding is also available to Mexico from the U.S. Defense Department for military and law enforcement personnel, but this is only a small drop in the bucket. Regardless of this funding, drug-trafficking in the region continues to escalate at an enormous rate. There is no doubt that the biggest reason for this at this point is that Mexican and Columbian drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) generate nearly $35 billion annually in wholesale drug proceeds. This calculates to approximately $105 billion in three-years. That means that we are spending less than 1% of what the DTOs are during the three-year Merida Initiative.

Others blame President Calderón for the escalating trafficking and violence. In the three-years he’s been in power, Mexico has tripled its spending on security, and has seen nearly 14,000 people dead from drug-related violence. The border city of Ciudad Juárez has since been turned into a warzone. There was even one reported incident where a drug cartel stormed into a clinic and killed everyone (nurses, doctors, patients, and all staff). It was reported that the killings occurred because the clinic had cooperated in some way with a rival cartel; they did it to send a message.

A big part of the criticism of Calderón comes from his October 2008, proposed legislation which decriminalized possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. In April 2009, Calderón singed the bill into law, allowing for the personal use of some illicit drugs. This contradiction by Calderón has inflamed his critics. The new law allows individuals to possess small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD, ecstasy, and methamphetamine without penalty. The breakdowns of the legal amounts are as follows:

• Marijuana – 5grams (approx. 3 joints)
• Cocaine – half a gram (approx. 4 lines)
• Heroin – 50 milligrams
• Methamphetamine – 40 milligrams
• LSD – 0.015 milligrams

The Mexican Attorney General’s Office characterized the law as regulating rather than legalizing drugs to give the public greater legal certainly. Some Mexican defense lawyers, however, view the changes as merely codifying what has been an informal practice among public officials within the Mexican Justice System. The break-out of the H1N1 virus (a.k.a. the Swine Flu) distracted the public and international opposing voices regarding the contradictory nature of this new drug law, as it came out at about the same time that the law was enacted.

Despite all of these efforts to combat drug trafficking, this problem continues to get worse. From 2001 – 2008, the amount of cocaine transited from South America towards the U.S. ranges from 494 to 710 metric tons. Seventy-percent of all cocaine that comes into the U.S. is transited through the Mexican-Central American corridor. The primary means of smuggling include:

1. Go-fast boats (a.k.a. cigarette boats – like the one’s seen in Miami Vice)
2. Commercial & private vessels
3. Submarines
4. Commercial & private vehicles
5. Rail traffic
6. Busses
7. Tunnels
8. Pedestrians

What else can be done to combat this growing problem?

http://www.willsavive.webs.com/

PURCHASE SAVIVE'S LATEST BOOK (Amazon.com)

READ PART 2

READ PART 3 (Fast & Furious)

Debt Watch

April 8, 2010 (1:25a.m. est. time)

Current U.S. National Debt: 12,784,748,200,125

At this moment the National Debt is going up $2 million a minute. If it were to remain at this rate it would go up:

• $120 (Million an Hour)
• $2,880 (Billion a Day)
• $20,160 (Billion a Week)
• $1,048,320 (Trillion a Year)

Alleged Prison Confession Casts Doubts

Last week the Italian court released a 427-page report detailing the reasons for Knox and Sollecito’s convictions. This week, however, an allegation from a prison-mate of Rudy Guede’s says that Knox and Sollecito are innocent, because Guede told him so. On Friday the lawyers for Sollecito deposited video-taped testimony from a fellow convict of Rudy Guede, Mario Alessi, in which he says Guede confided to him in prison that Knox and Sollecito were not at the house when Kercher was killed, but rather another man was present. Mario Alessi is a convicted child murderer who is serving a life sentence in Italy for kidnapping and killing 17-month old, Tommaso Onofri, in 2006. Alessi is currently serving time in the isolation wing of the Viterbo maximum security prison in Italy, where they keep the convicted sex offenders.

Last month, in a videotaped statement sent to Sollecito’s defense lawyer (Giulia Bongiorno), Alessi claimed that Guede told him and two other prisoners that Knox and Sollecito were never at the crime scene. Alessi also said that Guede wasn’t alone, but that a male friend of his was there with him. This “other friend,” who Guede refused to identify, was the one who slit Meredith’s throat, according to Alessi. What made him come forward with these allegations? Alessi says that “He came forward for the children.” This is coming from a man who when first questioned by police—about the murdered toddler—went on Italian television and declared his innocence saying, “You shall not touch children!” One month later Alessi was leading police to the shallow, riverside grave where he had buried the child. So why should we believe a man who confessed on tape to beating a toddler to death with a shovel, because the child “was crying?” Moreover, why would Guede cover for this so called “friend” if the friend is the one that did the killing? AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, why was no evidence of this friend found at the crime scene? (Remember, they found numerous signs of Guede's presence).

Rudy Guede heard about Alessi’s allegations two days ago while in prison and released a statement saying that he “never talked with Alessi about Meredith Kercher’s murder.” In previous testimony Guede heavily implicated Knox and Sollecito: “Those two [Knox and Sollecito] must be condemned, because they are murderers.” Guede’s lawyers, Walter Biscotti and Nicodemo Gentile, met with him in prison in Viterbo yesterday, where he released a statement. Guede “denied in the most absolute way” the allegations of Alessi. Guede’s lawyers informed the media that they were in possession of several wiretapped moments of Guede in prison and have never heard him speak of the murder. Guede and Alessi were not noted as friends in prison. “How can we think that he would confide in Alessi?” Guede’s lawyers asked. The lawyers announced legal action against Alessi for the false allegations in the report. Kercher family lawyer, Francesco Maresca, released a statement on the matter, calling Alessi “a lier.”

Meanwhile, Sollecito’s lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno—who is also a politician—holds a seat in the Italian Parliament. Her timing in releasing the Alessi tape comes just a couple of days after the 427-page court report on the Knox and Sollecito convictions; despite the fact that she's been holding it for about a month. Investigations of the statements made by Alessi will be carried out in the coming days. Indeed the report was filed yesterday by Bongiorno with the Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Perugia.

Head of One of the World’s Largest Drug-Rings: A Former Lingerie Model?

An international arrest warrant was issued this morning for former lingerie model, Angie Sanclemente Valencia, who is accused of running one of the biggest drug-trafficking operations in the world. Police report that Valencia quit modeling and started running drugs from South America to Mexico, Europe, the UK, and North America, using other unsuspicious-looking glamour models to move her product. The native Colombian moved to Argentina last year to set up her drug empire after previously working for Mexican drug-baron, The Monster. Her sexy drug-runners were paid to board flights with large amounts of cocaine every 24 hours.

It was only after one of Valencia’s runners—a 21yr old model—was busted at Buenos Ares airport with 55kg of cocaine that police exposed the syndicate and its leader. Valencia (a.k.a. “The Queen of Coffee”) is said to be on the run somewhere in either Mexico or Argentina. Valencia was making a fortune police say, paying her employees £1450 ($2250) a day to run drugs. Police tried to trace the 30yr old beauty via her Pomeranian lapdog, but found that it was registered to an abandoned warehouse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9nDPNEgFDM

Rudy Guede’s Sentence Dramatically Reduced

On December 22, 2009—just three days before Christmas—Rudy Herman Guede’s sentence was reduced from 30 years to 16. Guede was originally convicted back in October 2008, for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. He opted for a fast-track trial and was sentenced to 30 yrs. His appeal to the Corte d'Appello took only two days. An eight member jury took four hours, upholding his conviction; however, his sentence was dramatically reduced. As he left the courtroom after the appeal Guede said, “I'm not happy because I am innocent.” The Corte d'Appello reported that the ruling took into account some extenuating circumstances for Guede. However, we will have to wait for the court to officially publish their reasons for reaching this decision. This process is expected to take up to 90 days.

Meanwhile Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were also convicted in a separate trial that ended at the beginning of this month. Guede’s cohorts in the murder—Knox jailed for 26 years and Sollecito for 25—still await their appeals, which are scheduled to take place towards the end of 2010.

Looking forward: Guede's reduction is a shocking blow for the convicted couple, because it validates the courts theory that Knox and Sollecito were the masterminds behind this crime.

Looking back: I also suspect that Knox and Sollecito’s recent guilty verdict played a part in the appeal reduction.

During the appeal Prosecutors restated their original position that "Guede, Knox and Sollecito were high on drugs when they murdered Kercher after she refused to join in a sex game." Francesco Maresca, Kercher’s family lawyer, said that he was “Surprised” with the reduction in the sentence. “He could have saved her. He could have acted to save her, then he wouldn’t be here asking forgiveness,” replied Francesco Maresca at the appeal. Meanwhile, prosecutor Pietro Catalani said, “He [Guede] is not credible.” Adding that wounds on Meredith’s body suggest it took far longer for her to die than Guede’s testimony indicated.

Possible Reasons for Reduction

So, the question still remains at this point, what was the courts reduction based on? Until the detailed report is released, we will only be able to speculate. Below are a few reasons why the ruling may have been reduced:

Guede’s original story was that he met up with Kercher at the apartment where they had made a date for that night. He claims that he was “hooking-up” with Kercher when the burrito he had eaten earlier needed his immediate attention. He rushed into the bathroom and listened to his iPod as he sat on the toilet. "I heard Meredith's and Amanda's voices, arguing about some money missing," he told the appeal court. "I was listening to music but halfway through the third track I heard a piercing scream." When he came out of the bathroom he was confronted by an Italian man [Sollecito] with a knife, who he struggled with. Guede did report that his fingers were cut from the altercation. He then said that he heard a woman’s voice and saw a silhouette of what appeared to be Knox in the doorway. Before they rushed off, Guede claims that they screamed that they would pin the murder on the black guy.

Sollecito’s bank account was found empty when checked by police, while Knox was found with the exact same amount of money in her possession that Kercher had withdrawn from her account before the murder. Guede’s prints were found all over the crime scene, while Knox and Sollecito’s prints were not. However, an apparent clean-up had taken place after the murder, that much is confirmed. Moreover, Knox’s prints were not found anywhere in an apartment that she had lived-in for the previous two months; except for one latent print found on a cup in the kitchen. How could that be without a clean-up? There were also 19 prints found in Meredith's room that were unidentifyable, because they had been smeared as if wiped clean by someone.

Then there are the five barefoot, bloody prints in the house that were wiped clean, which were only found after using the chemical luminol. My book will give a detailed forensic analysis of these prints; providing evidence that two of the barefoot bloody prints belonged to Knox and two belonged to Sollecito. Hence, disproving the 'Lone-Wolf-Theory.'

Lets not forget the five traces of blood found throughout the apartment that had a mix between Knox and Kercher's genetic profiles. The relatively large sample left on the sink facet in the bathroom located next to Meredith's bedroom was only found to be Knox's blood.

Meredith’s boyfriend—who lived in the flat downstairs—had left her the keys to their flat so that she could water his Marijuana plant and tend to their disfigured cat. Those keys were never found, but were used to get into the flat and smear blood down there to make it look like the boys downstairs were involved. Guede simply did not have enough time to do the extensive cleaning that appears to have taken place; as he was witnessed at a disco just hours later.

There was no break-in on the night of the murder, as claimed by Knox and Sollecito. The window found broken in Filomena’s room (roommate of the girls), was clearly staged. The room had been ransacked before the window being broken, as indicated by the broken glass found ON TOP OF the clothes that had been thrown around the room. Undeniably there is no sign suggesting a different hypothesis. Moreover, in order to break into this window, one would have needed a very high ladder, and this window is in direct view of the open road, which is illuminated at night by the car park across the street. So, someone let Guede in the house willingly, and there is no medical sign that sexual violence occurred.

Italy’s trial of the century is far from concluded. In the meantime, we will need to wait for the courts explanation on the sentence reduction in order to give a more accurate account of the ruling. Guede, from Ivory Coast, is currently celebrating his 23rd birthday today behind bars. Since he has already served two-years, he will now only spend another fourteen-years in jail. Aside from the fact that 21-yr-old Meredith Kercher was violently murdered, we may never really know exactly what happened at Via della Pergola 7 on the night of November 1, 2007. But you can safely bet that all three were involved somehow.

Foxy Knoxy: The Study Abroad Murder

The verdict came in on December 4, 2009, on what has been termed “The Study Abroad Murder.” More than two-years after the murder, foreign exchange student from the United States, Amanda Knox [22] was convicted Friday in an Italian court of being the ring leader in a “sex game gone bad” that led to the brutal murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher [21], on the night of November 1, 2007. This case had nearly fell off of the American media’s radar until the “stunning” decision that sent Knox to prison for 26 years and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, to jail for 25 years. Meanwhile Knox has become a tabloid celebrity in Italy the likes of Paris Hilton, and beyond. Knox was voted “person of the year” in 2008 in an online poll by a major Italian T.V. station. Knox nudged out her second place opponent—Italian-born French first lady, Carla Bruni—to get the honors.

Kercher’s lifeless body had been found by Italian police under a duvet in her room at Via Della Pergola 7, in Perugia, Italy on November 2, 2007. Kercher was found partially clothed with her throat cut and with multiple signs of bruising to her neck and body. The pathologist’s report indicates that she was stabbed at some time between 9.30 p.m., and 11.30 p.m., on the night of November 1, 2007 (and because her carotid artery was not hit she suffered a long, agonizing two-hour death). Meredith’s door had been locked from the inside and the window in her room on the ground floor had been broken; which appeared to police to be where the killer had exited. All in all, it looked like a typical sex crime to police. But soon that would all change!

Knox and Sollecito both told police that she was at his flat the night of the murder, and that Knox did not leave until 10:00 a.m., the next morning. She claimed that she returned home, saw the blood in the bathroom, and thought that one of her roommates may have had a menstrual accident and had forgotten to clean up. She claimed that she was scared and rushed back to Sollecito’s house, but not before taking a shower. Sollecito accompanied her back to the cottage where the police arrived unexpectedly, as they had found both of Meredith’s cell phones in a nearby neighbor’s garden.

At the murder scene, police and media swarmed the house. Knox and Sollecito—who had been dating less than two-weeks—had been photographed by Italian media kissing and acting odd. Later at the police station, many people were brought down for questioning. Knox and Sollecito continued their strange behavior according to Pisco Alessi, owner of Merlin’s pub. Pisco said that Knox and Sollecito were laughing, joking, and kissing. “It just seemed completely wrong in that situation,” he said. Others questioned at police headquarters confirmed that they had seen Knox and Sollecito making faces, joking around, and passing notes to each other as well.

On November 5th police decided to bug Raffaele’s phone. That night they recorded a conversation that he had with his father about a flick-knife that he carried with him in which he said, “Well they have already questioned me and they didn’t find it on me, those stupid policemen.” From this police called in Sollecito for questioning the next night. Although she was not called-in by police, Knox tagged along for support. Suddenly, Sollecito had changed his story, claiming that Knox was with him only until 9:00 p.m., on the night of the murder. After police notified Knox of Sollecito’s change of heart she then changed her story. Knox provided police with a handwritten statement which would be the most damaging pieces of circumstantial evidence against her.

Key points in Knox’s statement:

“This is very strange, I know, but really what happened is as confusing to me as it is to everyone else.”

Knox starts off claiming that she was at Sollecito’s flat smoking marijuana, having sex, and “might even have fallen asleep.”

“The next thing I remember was waking up the morning of Friday November 2nd around 10am and I took a plastic bag to take back my dirty cloths to go back to my house.”

As she goes on, she begins to tell a different story of what might have happened in which she claims her boss, Patrick Lumumba, was the probably the murder. Lumumba is a (black male) Congolese immigrant who owned the nightclub (Le Chic) where Knox had been a waitress. According to this version of events Knox met Patrick Lumumba at around 9:00pm on the night of the murder at a basketball court in Piazza Grimana in Perugia and then went to her house. This is significant, because a homeless man later testified that he saw Knox and a black man on that very basketball court at that time.

“In my mind I saw Patrik in flashes of blurred images. I saw him near the basketball court. I saw him at my front door. I saw myself cowering in the kitchen with my hands over my ears because in my head I could hear Meredith screaming…these things seem unreal to me, like a dream, and I am unsure if they are real things that happened or are just dreams my head has made to try to answer the questions in my head and the questions I am being asked.”

Knox then does not rule out the possibility that there is evidence against her at the crime scene.

"The police have told me that they have hard evidence that places me at the house, my house, at the time of Meredith's murder. I don't know what proof they are talking about, but if this is true, it means I am very confused and my dreams must be real.”

Knox then acknowledges that her story seems far fetched and stands by both of her stories.

“I also know that the fact that I can't fully recall the events that I claim took place at Raffaele's home during the time that Meredith was murdered is incriminating. And I stand by my statements that I made last night about events that could have taken place in my home with Patrik, but I want to make very clear that these events seem more unreal to me that what I said before, that I stayed at Raffaele's house.”

Knox reaffirms that she is not sure what she was doing the night before the murder.

“I'm very confused at this time. My head is full of contrasting ideas and I know I can be frustrating to work with for this reason. But I also want to tell the truth as best I can. Everything I have said in regards to my involvement in Meredith's death, even though it is contrasting, are the best truth that I have been able to think.”

Knox reaffirms that she is not sure what she was doing the night before the murder, and that Patrick may have been the killer.

“In these flashbacks that I'm having, I see Patrik as the murderer, but the way the truth feels in my mind, there is no way for me to have known because I don't remember FOR SURE if I was at my house that night.”

Knox then asks herself a very puzzling question, which is basically saying that she was not there unless they have proof that she was, and if so then she doesn’t remember.

“Is the evidence proving my pressance [sic] at the time and place of the crime reliable? If so, what does this say about my memory? Is it reliable?”

Raffaele Sollecito made a similar statement that Knox was with him from 1:30p.m., that day until around 8:30p.m., at which time she left and did not return until the next morning. Police arrested Lumumba, and searched his club. No evidence was found there and no evidence of Lumumba was ever found at the crime scene. He was released from prison three-weeks later after police tracked down people who could confirm that he was at the club until late on the night of the murder. Lumumba was obviously upset and claimed that Knox had probably killed Kercher because he had recently fired her and hired Kercher in her place. He eventually had to close down his club after the incident, and he sued Knox in a civil suit for “slander.”

Police turned their investigation to Raffaele Sollecito’s flat in Corso Garibaldi. There, police found a pair of Sollecito’s sneakers that they claimed were a perfect match with one of the footprints left at the crime scene. They also found a flick-knife that they would later claim had Knox’s DNA on the handle and Kercher’s DNA on the tip.

After the arrest a massive journalistic manhunt had begun trying to dig-up some dirt on the couple. Not long after someone discovered Amanda Knox’s MySpace page, which was titled "Foxy Knoxy." The name caught on like wildfire! On her page she had a blog that featured a story entitled Baby Brother, which described a young woman who was drugged and raped, that concluded with two roommates in a bloody confrontation. Sollecito also had an internet blog which featured a photograph of him dressed as a mummy and wielding a meat cleaver; while promulgating his desire to try “extreme experiences.” Security footage from a local clothing shop named “Bubble” soon surfaced. Knox and Sollecito were seen kissing and purchased sexy under wear just one day after Kercher’s body was discovered. The shop keeper told journalists that he overheard the two talking and giggling about the wild sex that they were going to have.

A YouTube video of Knox drunk soon surfaced. The media jumped all over these new findings, and began painting “Foxy Knoxy” as a drug crazed, sex crazed party girl. More strange behavior would be exhibited by Knox when she was seen several times laughing and smiling in court, and in her prison diaries; which when analyzed by a British psychologist showed multiple signs of narcissistic behavior and psychopathic tendencies.

Six weeks after the murder forensic tests confirmed the fingerprints and DNA of a local drug dealer, Rudy Hermann Guede, all over the crime scene. Soon after, Guede was arrested in Germany and extradited back to Italy to face charges. Guede admitted being at the house during the murder. He said that Meredith invited him back to her apartment, they flirted, kissed, and then he went to the bathroom. It was there he claimed he heard Meredith screaming. Guede then said he opened the bathroom door and saw a man, an Italian man (Sollecito), standing there with a knife in his hand. Guede also told cops the Italian man said he would try to pin the murder on him (“The black guy”). Guede claims that he left the house and went to a nightclub with friends. The next day he took a train to Germany. Police didn’t believe a word that Guede was saying. Their only intention was to connect Guede to Knox and Sollecito.

Right on cue, an Albanian immigrant appeared at the police station and claimed that he had seen the suspects lurking by a trash compactor just 50 meters from the house the night before the murder. He claims that he ran his car lightly into the dumpster by accident and that Knox, Sollecito and Guede jumped out of the dumpster and threatened him with a knife.

More evidence soon began coming in against young Amanda Knox. Allegedly Knox had been seen by two men washing some clothes and a pair of shoes at a laundry mat in Via Fabretti with an African man the day after the murder. CCTV cameras in a car-park across the way from her house had captured images of Knox entering the cottage just before Meredith arrived that fatal night. There were also reports from neighbors living in the flats overlooking the cottage had seen two people running away from the house at the time of the murder.

A Local Supermarket assistant testified that on the morning of November 2, 2007, he witnessed Amanda Knox come into his store at 7:45 a.m., the morning after the murder, and purchase cleaning products. This put a big hole in Knox’s story, because her and her lawyers have always maintained that she had stayed at Raffaele’s apartment until 10:00a.m.

Although Knox later claimed at her trial that she and Meredith were close, more than one of Meredith’s friends testified that they didn’t like each other. They claimed that Meredith didn’t like Knox because she was promiscuous and frequently brought home strange Italian men. Meredith’s father confirmed this, saying that his daughter had voiced these concerns to him as well. One girl testified that Knox had bragged to them when she first arrived that she had sex with a stranger on the train ride in.

Rudy Guede later opted for a ‘fast-track’ trail and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of Meredith Kercher. Guede told police that Meredith had gone to her room and opened a drawer and noticed that some money was missing. According to Guede, Meredith believed that Knox had taken the money to buy drugs. This may have been the only thing that Guede was telling the truth about, because later it was found that Meredith had withdrawn €250 to pay for her rent due on the November 1st. However, her landlord never received the money. Coincidentally the sum of €215 was found on Amanda Knox when she was searched.

Police held Knox and Sollecito for one year, the maximum under Italian law, before bringing them to trial. One year after the trial began, hoards of people stood outside the courthouse after the guilty verdict and watched as Knox and Sollecito were escorted to prison in armored vehicles. Crowds ran after the vehicles chanting “Assassins” as the couple were escorted to prison.

The American media has repeatedly painted the verdict as being brought down on Amanda from a corrupt, unjust, and primitive Italian justice system and a lack of any real physical evidence. However, most of these arguments come without any knowledge or respect for the field of forensics; along with other biases. Amanda Knox’s parents have been on a tireless campaign over the last two years, proclaiming their daughters innocence and damning the Italian justice system. The American media has bought their story lock-stock-and-barrel, without questioning them or doing any research. There have been numerous stories using Knox’s friends and family to protest the verdict and claiming that the young, pretty, and Caucasian Knox was a model citizen who is incapable of participating in such a vicious act.

However, there are some that believe that the Italian media’s obsession with branding Knox as some spoiled American swinger girl is an attempt to use her as a target for their anti-American sentiments. The American media have really made themselves the bad guy here. This is one of the most gravely misreported cases in recent history. The American media has done no digging, consulted no Italians, and have repeatedly recycled discredited sources and those with a vested interest in the outcome. Moreover, they have revealed no understanding of how the Italian judicial process works, and often depict the Italian professionals with contempt. So far no-one has held them accountable for this.

So what really happened that fatal night? How did the murder occur and who was involved? Did Guede know Knox and Sollecito, and did they conspire and kill Meredith Kercher? What transpired during the trial, who testified, and most importantly, was there enough physical evidence to convict the couple? My new book attempts to detail, examine, and answer these questions and many others.

Study Abroad Murder: The Mystery of Via Della Pergola 7 is the chronological story of the brutal murder of Meredith Kercher. I walk you through the days leading up to the murder and take you inside the house at the time of the murder; and everything that transpired afterwards.

I feel that it is my obligation as a writer, forensic specialist, and journalist to bring the real story to the world from a unique perspective. With the combination of trial transcripts, judge’s reports, news articles, interviews, and a detailed forensic evaluation of the physical evidence, this book is designed to be the quintessential book on this case.

This story is far from over as Knox’s appeal is expected in the third quarter of 2010. Through all of this, let us not forget Meredith Kercher, who was taken away from us so violently and unnecessarily. Also, let us remember the Kercher family, who lost a beautiful, vibrant young daughter so tragically that night.

http://www.willsavive.webs.com/