Martin Bashir Interview Excerpts from Nightline – Drew Peterson’s Fifth

Engagement - January 29, 2009

On Drew’s Fiancée, Christina Raines:

BASHIR: Is Chrissy quite shy?

PETERSON: Yes she is.

BASHIR: I can tell. She’s very shy, isn’t she? Not very confident.

PETERSON: She doesn’t really take well to new people or faces.

On His Engagement

BASHIR: For people looking at your story, they would have justifiable reasons for
being worried.

PETERSON: Exactly. I acknowledge that all...

BASHIR: Your first and your second wives complained about you being very
controlling.

PETERSON: …all day long.

BASHIR: Your third wife…

PETERSON: All day long.

BASHIR: …dies.

PETERSON: All day long.

BASHIR: Your fourth wife disappears and is alleged to have told her minister that
you confessed to killing your third wife.

PETERSON: Right. All which didn’t happen. But, I will acknowledge one hundred
percent that I would have concerns if I was the friends and family of this young girl.

BASHIR: Are you slightly surprised that she’s happy to go ahead and become your
fiancée even though you are still legally married to Stacy? What does it tell you
about her?

PETERSON: She likes me. She likes me a lot. I’m a good guy.

On Attention From the Media:

BASHIR: How did you find the attention?

PETERSON: At first it was very terrifying.

BASHIR: Some people though, felt that you quite enjoyed the attention because
you seemed to play up to the crews and have a joke and have a laugh.

PETERSON: I think dealing with them in such a manner with humor was the way I
was able to cope with it all.

On Drew’s Undercover Work:

BASHIR: How many years were you undercover?

PETERSON: I was undercover actually a total of about five years. You basically
spent your day working a con and you were getting people to believe you were
something other than what you were and it was fun.

BASHIR: You enjoyed that.

PETERSON: I thought it was funny that you were able to get people to believe that
you were something other than what you really were.

On Drew’s Marriage to Vicky Connolly and Cheating:

PETERSON: I proposed to my second wife right there on that corner.

BASHIR: Were you faithful to her?

PETERSON: No, I wasn’t. The big joke at one point at one particular time was you
had to lie to your girlfriend so you could go home and see your wife.

BASHIR: You know when you talk about police life it almost sounds like it’s
impossible to be faithful.

PETERSON: The temptations are out there for womanizing.

BASHIR: Do you think that being able to deceive people as a narcotics officer, in a
way, was not helpful to you when it came to being faithful to your wives?

PETERSON: I think so. In fact, I was on some TV shows where I was asked, “You can
con anybody on anything.” and they go, “Are you conning us now?” and I’d have to
say, “No.” but in looking at it objectively, how do you know?

On Drew’s Relationship with KathleenSavio:

BASHIR: How would you characterize your relationship with Kathleen?

PETERSON: I think it was very comical, witty.

BASHIR: Why did she file for an order of protection from you?

PETERSON: She had an attorney and the order of protection was filed strictly to
have sole custody of the house.

BASHIR: But in the order it actually spoke of fear and violence…

PETERSON: Of course that’s what they’re going to say because that’s the elements
they need to obtain an order of protection.

BASHIR: You don’t think she was telling the truth?

PETERSON: No. Never.

On Meeting Stacy Cales:

PETERSON: This here’s Springhill Suites. This is where I first met my fourth wife,
Stacy.

BASHIR: How old was she?

PETERSON: I says, “Do you mind that I’m forty-seven years old?” and she goes, “Oh
no. Do you mind that I’m seventeen?” Oh my God! So I real quick looked through
my law books to see if that was kosher and the age of consent in the state of Illinois
is seventeen and a relationship developed and we started going out. We got a lot of
looks at the time and a lot of controversy over our relationship.

On the Discovery of Kathleen’s Body:

PETERSON: I heard screaming upstairs and there was her friend, Mary. Went
upstairs and she was dead in the bathtub. I checked for life signs and I knew at that
particular tie I didn’t belong there. So I called for additional police units to show up
and take charge of the scene.

On the House Where Kathleen Died:

PETERSON: That’s the house that Kathleen…died in the bathtub.

BASHIR: Must be difficult though, to look at it as the house in which your former
wife died?

PETERSON: Right. It was kind of emotional but what can you do? Life goes on.

On the Death of Stacy’s Sister from Colon Cancer:

PETERSON: She took it very bad. She was on medication and the relationship
towards everything, towards me and the kids started breaking down.

On Stacy’s Disappearance:

PETERSON: She said she was leaving. She found somebody else. She’ll be gone for
a while.

BASHIR: Would it surprise you that a mother would consider doing so?

PETERSON: Stuff happens. Mothers kill their kids. Mothers kill their spouses.
Mothers do strange things. They become emotionally distraught. It becomes too
much for them. They’re overloaded.

BASHIR: She sent an email to friends and I quote, “As I mature with age I’m finding
that the relationship I’m in is controlling, manipulative, and somewhat abusive.”

PETERSON: Now that doesn’t even sound like something she would say, so I really
question the origin of that email.

BASHIR: You’ve heard about the email.

PETERSON: Yes.

BASHIR: To all intents and purposes it’s come from her email account.

PETERSON: I don’t believe that.

BASHIR: She also appears to have told her friend, Pam Bosco, “I love you. If
anything happens to me, he killed me. It wasn’t an accident.”

PETERSON: No, and that sounds suspiciously like the same thing that Kathleen said.
Almost to the “T” and Kathleen wrote letters and told people the same thing and
that if I show up dead, he did it.

BASHIR: But why would two people, though, be writing a similar thing, “If anything
happens to me, he killed me. It wasn’t an accident?”

PETERSON: I think that this is something that these people heard Kathleen’s camp
talking about and they basically adopted it into what they were saying.

BASHIR: What about the possibility that both women believed that you were
capable of killing them and hiding it?

PETERSON: No. Definitely not.

On Pastor Schori:
BASHIR: Are you aware that she said, she told him that you had confessed to killing
your wife?

PETERSON: I heard that and I really question whether it was something that he
fabricated.

BASHIR: Let’s take for the moment that it’s true. Why would Stacy go and say such
a thing about you?

PETERSON: Maybe she was planning to divorce me. What better way to get rid of
me than to say that I did something that I didn’t do? Have me locked up.

On Being Treated as a Celebrity:

PETERSON: I have people coming up to me all day long and they’ll want to take
pictures with me or I’ll be sitting in a bar and some cute little girls will jump on my
lap and want a picture with me or they’ll want to come up and get an autograph and
it’s kind of flattering. It’s kind of fun.

BASHIR: But are they secretly thinking, “I want to have a picture with a murderer?”

PETERSON: They might very well.

On Christina Raines:

PETERSON: Basically I ran into her going into a bar one night. And I was out and I
seen her sitting there and she’s just as cute as a button and I gave her my phone
number and actually that night she called me and a friendship developed and we
were friends for a while and then a romance developed.

BASHIR: Her own father says his daughter is quite naïve and vulnerable and you
tricked her into the relationship.

PETERSON: I don’t say I tricked her but I sure romanced her real good.

BASHIR: But her father doesn’t like the relationship either.

PETERSON: A father looking at me from the outside and what’s been reported, I
don’t blame the man one bit. Not at all. But on many occasions she’s looked at me
and she says, “You treat me so good, there’s no way that you could have been
involved in anything like this.” And I believe she wholeheartedly believes that.

BASHIR: But isn’t that precisely what somebody who’s a very skilled killer can do?

PETERSON: A killer? A manipulator? Possibly.

BASHIR: He can convince somebody that he’s absolutely…

PETERSON: All I can tell you is that’s not the case. I can understand why everybody
would be concerned – no doubt. And if I was the father of this young girl, no doubt
I’d be concerned.

On Marriage and Fidelity:

PETERSON: I don’t know. I enjoy being – belonging to somebody.

BASHIR: Why?

PETERSON: Just do. You like vanilla ice cream, you like chocolate ice cream. I enjoy
being married.

BASHIR: But then you start having extramarital relationships.

PETERSON: After the marriage is broke down.

BASHIR: So, would it be true then to say that for somebody like you, you enjoy the
early stages of the romance, the getting married, the excitement of all of that…

PETERSON: Right.

BASHIR: …and then as things settle down you maybe lose a bit of interest?

PETERSON: Yes, very much so. The women I was involved with would change or
they wouldn’t do anything to work at the relationship or keeping me happy as a
man. And subsequently the relationships broke down.

BASHIR: When you say, “didn’t keep you happy as a man” what do you mean?

PETERSON: Romantically. They get tied up with the kids and everything and there
was no excitement in the marriage anymore.

BASHIR: Do you mean they weren’t as sexually involved with you as you would
have liked?

PETERSON: Sexually involved, romantically involved, doing little cuddling things.

They seemed to be bored with me romantically after a few years.

BASHIR: And so as that interest in you declines you then start looking elsewhere.

PETERSON: Yes.

BASHIR: And that seems to happen on a number of occasions to you.

PETERSON: Correct.

BASHIR: That’s a bit of a weakness, correct, in you? I mean, couldn’t you sacrifice
that for a bit?
PETERSON: Well I sacrificed it for a bit but it’s something that I enjoy and the thing
is why should I live without it?