Net Worth

Michael Peterson Net Worth: How Rich Is This American Novelist?

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Aarya

In this article, we will discuss the topics like, What is the net worth of Michael Peterson? Everything about Michael Peterson and also How much money has he accumulated? Therefore, if this is something that piques your curiosity, stick with us.

What Is The Net Worth Of Michael Peterson?

Michael Iver Peterson is an American author who was born on October 23, 1943 and has a net worth of $250,000. In 2003, he was found guilty of killing his second wife, Kathleen Peterson, on December 9, 2001. A judge gave Peterson a new trial after eight years because a key witness for the prosecution had given false testimony. In 2017, Peterson used the Alford plea to reduce the charge against him from murder to manslaughter. He was given a sentence for the time he had already spent in jail, and then he was set free.

The French documentary miniseries The Staircase is about Peterson’s case. Filming began soon after he was arrested in 2001 and continued until his plea deal in 2017. In 2019, he told the story of his life since the death of his wife in a book called Behind the Staircase, which he published himself. The Staircase, a miniseries that will air in 2022 and star Colin Firth and Toni Collette, will also be about this murder case. A sequel to the French documentary from 2004 as well as podcasts, radio shows, and other forms of media have been made about Kathleen’s death.

michael peterson net worth

Personal Life And Work Life

The son of Eugene Iver Peterson and Eleanor Peterson (née Bartolino), Michael Iver Peterson was born near Nashville, Tennessee. He got a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Duke University. Peterson was the head of the Sigma Nu fraternity and the editor of the daily student newspaper, The Chronicle, from 1964 to 1965. He went to school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s law school.

Peterson got a civilian job with the U.S. Department of Defense after he graduated from college. His job was to look into arguments for more military involvement in Vietnam. In the same year, he also got married to Patricia Sue. She taught first grade at the Rhein-Main Air Base in Grafenhausen, West Germany. Clayton and Todd were their two kids. Peterson joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968 and served during the Vietnam War. After a car accident left him permanently disabled in 1971, he was given an honourable discharge with the rank of captain.

In 1999, when Peterson ran for mayor of Durham, he said he had been given a Silver Star, a Bronze Star with Valor, and two Purple Hearts. He had all the medals, but he said he didn’t have the paperwork to go with them. Peterson said he got one Purple Heart for being hit by shrapnel when another soldier stepped on a land mine and the other for being shot. He later said that the car accident in Japan, where he was stationed as a military police officer after the war, caused his war injury, not the shrapnel wound in Vietnam. The News & Observer said that Peterson’s claims about getting two Purple Hearts were not backed up by any records.

michael peterson net worth

Peterson and his first wife, Patricia, spent some time living in Germany. There, they became friends with Elizabeth and George Ratliff and their two children, Margaret and Martha. After George died, the families of Peterson and Ratliff grew very close. When Elizabeth Ratliff died in 1985, her two children were put in Michael’s care. After Michael and Patricia got a divorce in 1987, Clayton and Todd lived with Patricia, and Margaret and Martha stayed with Michael. Michael then moved to Durham, North Carolina. Clayton and Todd joined their father after a while. Michael moved in with Kathleen Atwater, a successful business executive at Nortel, in 1989. In 1997, they got married, and Kathleen’s daughter Caitlin joined the family as the fifth child.

Peterson wrote three books called The Immortal Dragon, A Time of War, and A Bitter Peace. These books were based on his experiences during the Vietnam War. He worked with journalist David Perlmutt to write the biography Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company. He also worked with Arthur L. Boyd to write Operation Broken Reed. Peterson also wrote a newspaper column for The Herald-Sun. His columns were known for their criticism of the police and of Durham County District Attorney James Hardin Jr., who would later go after Peterson for killing his second wife, Kathleen.

michael peterson net worth

Case-related Movies

People were very interested in the court case, in part because of a documentary series on TV called Soupcons (Suspicions), Death on the Staircase, or The Staircase, which talked about Peterson’s legal and personal problems. More than 600 hours of footage were used to make eight 45-minute episodes of the documentary.

It was made by the French director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and came out in October 2004 through Maha Productions. The documentary shows in detail how the defence got ready for the trial. It also looks at what the press did and how it did it as it reported on the case. The filmmakers started working on their project not long after Kathleen died and Peterson was charged with murder. The jury was chosen in May 2003, and the case went to trial in July 2003.

After the guilty verdict, de Lestrade talked to the jurors to find out why they came to that conclusion. Most of the jurors were convinced that Kathleen’s injuries could not have happened by accident because of how much blood she lost and how many cuts she had.

Henry Lee, on the other hand, said in court that the amount of blood didn’t matter because most of it was splattered when she coughed and blood ran down her face from her injuries. He also said that some of the blood might have been watered down with urine. Lee also showed the jury that he had coughed blood by drinking ketchup and spitting it out.

In November 2012, de Lestrade released a sequel called The Staircase 2: The Last Chance, which made its debut at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The movie shows how Peterson’s family and legal team argued for a new trial, which they got.

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