‘Owl’ will be revealed.
If you haven’t seen The Staircase then honestly, I’m a little disappointed in you. A precursor to Making a Murderer, the true crime documentary follows the arrest and trial of novelist Michael Peterson who is accused of killing his wife Kathleen Peterson, a wealthy business executive who was found in a bloody heap at the bottom of the stairs at their home in North Carolina, on the night of December 9 2001.
The trial took place in 2003 and the documentary was originally aired in 2004, but Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade has since revisited the case and created a follow up which was made available, along with the original documentary, as a 13 episodes series on Netflix in June this year.
The whole documentary has been more than 15 years in the making and, as you would imagine, a whole host of weird and wonderful theories have been thrown up in that time, including one that an owl did it. Which is one of the theories Mr Peterson’s defence attorney in the series David Rudolf will be discussing when he gives a talk at The Lowry theatre this month.
Mr Rudolf will discuss the intimate details of the case and the series, as well as the conflicts he wrestled with in determining whether to let the filmmakers follow him, his client and his trial preparation.
He will also be sharing his insights into the most curious and contentious issues in the case, including the blood spatter evidence, the bisexuality and Germany evidence (this must sound very confusing if you haven’t seen it) and the genesis of the Owl Theory.
The live discussion, which will be Mr Rudolf’s first appearance in the UK, was supposed to be a single afternoon event but following high demand, an extra evening show has been added.
The talk will take place at The Lowry Theatre on October 15 and tickets are available here.