The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox episode 4 continues to look at the bad police work that led to Amanda’s botched trial. We also see how the talk of the Black man at the basketball court comes into play.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox episode 4.
We start following a Black man who breaks into a house and pulls out a mattress to sleep. A woman walks in to find him there, and she decides to call the police on him. Is this The Baron? I guess we’ll find out soon.
Amanda’s dad turns up in Italy in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox episode 4
This episode gives us a look at how Amanda’s parents handle the entire situation. Her dad now turns up, and it’s clear that there is still a lot of animosity between him and Amanda’s mom.
Their arguing is stopped by a police report. A man called Rudy Guede is named in the murder investigation. Yes, this is the man who was arrested in the nursery, and he is nicknamed The Baron. He’s even connected directly to the murder scene, and it offers Amanda and her lawyers some hope. If they can prove Rudy did it, then surely, Amanda should get to go free.
Part of the problem is that Rudy got away, and he hasn’t been apprehended by the police. Instead, Mignini uses one of Rudy’s friends to call him and find out where he is. Rudy admits to being at Meredith’s house, but says that he tried to stop the murder from happening. He won’t say who did it, though, but confirms that it wasn’t Patrick.
One thing he does say is that Amanda Knox wasn’t there. Could this help to clear her name?
An argument breaks out between the police
The cops end up fighting between themselves, knowing that by ignoring the DNA about Rudy and putting so much pressure on Amanda makes them look incompetent. Of course, this is what made them look incompetent.
Mignini can’t help but remind them all that Amanda named Patrick in it all. They need to work that out while also getting Rudy in custody. One thing that does happen is that Patrick is released with an on-air apology. Not that something like that does a lot to help him after what he went through.
Rudy opted for a fast-track trial, admitting to partial guilt. That meant that Amanda and Raffaele were still viewed as co-conspirators. This is despite Rudy even initially saying that Amanda wasn’t at the house on the night of the murder. We continue to see how the publications continue to build a case for the public to judge Amanda and Raffaele.
How Rudy met the girls in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox
With all this playing out, we head back to a month before Meredith’s murder, which is when Rudy met both Meredith and Amanda when they came to the boys’ apartment. He immediately took a shine to Amanda and made sure he learned where they lived.
Amanda showed no interest in him, so it’s not surprising that she didn’t really remember who he was. Do you remember everyone you’ve met once? I certainly don’t!
Flashbacks also tell us what happened the night of Meredith’s murder, as if Rudy is telling the story. We don’t see the murder, which is respectful of Meredith’s family, but we do see the aftermath, how he ran to the boys’ apartment, and how Meredith’s phone ended up on the ground.
A push for an open court for Amanda Knox
After a year of being stuck in prison, Amanda’s lawyers work on their defence. They need to try the case in open court so that the public has a chance to interact with Amanda. Up to this point, the public has only seen what the police and the media want them to see.
It’s a daunting experience for Amanda, though, probably not prepared for all the public and the press there. At the same time, the lawyers aren’t the best, never experiencing such a publicized trial. It’s clear they have no idea how to help Amanda’s case.
Amanda goes through the way the Italian murder trials go, including a judge, a second judge, and then lay judges who are members of the public acting as the jury.
We also learn that Amanda wasn’t just facing the criminal case for murder. There were civil cases at the same time, so that Patrick, Meredith’s family, and the owner of the apartment could seek financial recompense from Amanda and Raffaele. This meant that the confession that was found inadmissible for the criminal case because Amanda didn’t have a lawyer present would still be heard for Patrick’s case.
It’s no wonder everything stacked up against Amanda Knox. It’s also clear that the judge is biased against Amanda, meaning that the confession is even allowed to be discussed in the murder part of the trial, ignoring the fact that she was psychologically tortured to confess.
We get to hear about Patrick’s life after his arrest. There was the fear that his son would never know what happened to him, and we learn that despite trying to open his bar after his release, it failed. It’s no wonder he wanted financial recompense.
There is a great look at the two Italian girls Amanda and Meredith lived with, seeing how they changed as the murder accusations came out. One of the girls is against Amanda, but it’s clear that she never originally thought that Amanda did it. The three girls were still friends after the murder, and this would suggest that the publications did their work in turning people against Amanda.
It’s easy to see why Amanda starts to lose hope as everyone turns against her. What’s interesting is that the press continues to focus on Amanda and not on Rudy. To be honest, growing up with this story, Rudy’s name wasn’t mentioned all that much, because the press had a much more “interesting” story. And you wonder why we stop trusting the free press.
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox airs on Wednesdays on Hulu.
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