The Forgotten Killer

Rudy Guede and the Murder of Meredith Kercher

by Douglas Preston (Author), John Douglas (Author), Mark Olshaker (Author), Steve
Moore (Author), Judge Michael Heavey (Author), Jim Lovering (Author), Thomas Lee
Wright (Author)
2016 Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

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Discuss in depth the relevance of the title

Discuss cause and effect relationships you found in the book
"The Forgotten Killer" possesses a title that compels you to open and find the truth of the
title within. When you first pick up the novel, the questions were; why? and how?, how could a
killer possibly be forgotten, and why? What possibly are the factors that have caused this to
become the focal point of this non-fiction novel? So lets put on our Watson spectacles and get
with it.
First, before we can answer our questions, we must delve into a summary of the events in
the novel. We start with the people involved: there was the victim Meredith Kercher, the real
murderer Rudy Guede, the "criminal-justice system of a civilized European country," and the
wrongly persecuted Amanda Knox and her Italian friend and co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito.
Amanda's living hell starts when she and her boyfriend found Meredith dead, they immediately
called the police. Leading to the Italian police force zeroing in on them as suspects. They were
the individuals to call and the only ones reported to be at the shared housing at the time: they
became the leading suspects. This let the real perpetrator, Rudy Guede get farther away. Mainly
due from the pressure of the media to find the killer, due to the controversy of Meredith's death.
Under severe pressure, the Italian Police Force couldn't find any easy suspect, but Amanda and
her boyfriend. The force had to find a killer quick and what better than the roommates found at
the scene. The force quickly started to spin stories to the media, who by the way gobbled it up
and spat it out all over America as well. Later, Amanda's boyfriend was let go, but Amanda was
locked away into an interrogation room. She was mentally tortured to break down and sign
papers that stated she killed Meredith, but she maintained her innocence. While all the while the
real "mystery" murderer, had more and more damning evidence building. At this point the police
force couldn't turn back; they had to save their reputation and jobs. They couldn't just turn
around and tell the world (who by the way were in an frenzy over the innocent American college
girl being a sexual fetish murderer) they lied and failed to catch the real killer. When in reality,
Rudy was in their jail over a petty thievery: they had the real killer! To cut a long story short, they
finally let Amanda go from prison a few years later. She had people like John Douglas who
realized things didn't match up and were purposely done wrong. They also managed to actually

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put the real murderer behind bars because they had found semen and the rest of his DNA
everywhere at the crime scene. In the end, every juridical person involved with this case suffered
some damage, but not enough, they somehow managed to sweep it mostly under the rug and
continue as they were.

Now to answer our first question. "The Forgotten Killer" was a dutifully picked title for this
novel, you could say "it fit like a glove." Because as you read through the book, the evidence, the
people, and the controversy of the case reaching international news, you find the title becomes
more and more accurate. The prosecutors of the case just ignored finding the real killer: the
media cashing out on such a controversial case. Nobody would have benefitted if the real killer
was found nor would they have wanted to find the real killer, or nobody besides the prosecuted,
being Amanda and her boyfriend. There were people who came forward to the media about it
being a fluke, but they wouldn't take it. Doesn't "Foxy Knoxy" sound better than "Oops We
Didn't Do Our Research," wouldn't that bring in the views which equals more money. Through it
all, the killer was left forgotten, until it inevitably couldn't help but point to Ruby.
Moving on to our last question. It's a "no brainer" when signaling out the massive cause
and effect the lead Italian investigator kick-started. When you pick the easier route and choose to
cower and lie, you ruin lives. You can ask, what about the media, didn't they pressure them to find the killer?
Someone was wrongly convicted and payed the price of years in jail to just cover juridical asses.
Instead of putting forth the amount of effort to create an elaborate faux crime scene and story,
you could have been searching for the real killer. The police force dug themselves a deeper and
deeper hole that wouldn't let them turn around and pronounce the truth. Then the media shit
themselves over the juicy information they didn't take the time to research. It just became one
huge catastrophe. Just one major cause and effect if you will.
In conclusion, this novel was written by people who sought the truth. To inform us about
the forgotten killer and the overlooked victim. Someone we forgot under all the deception and
cowardliness to pass a murder off on an innocent. The decisions we make will forever haunt us
and I believe in this case, some more than others.

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List eight things you learned from this book

Brainwashing: "Induction of Fatigue" Is a brain washing technique that results in intense
psychological debilitation. Forcing a prisoner to remain wake during long periods of time with
newly rotation interrogators every interval. Allowing them to sleep for 2-3 hours and forcing
them awake to begin the interrogated rotations.
Persons of interest: Ordinary people don't commit a brutal crime for their first time. Unless if
there is a motive. Which I found was a surprising way of knocking a person of interest from the
list of suspects.
Interrogation considerations: If a suspect is identified, you should expect no remorse or
admission of guilt. They would likely have justified the killing in his/her mind.
Interrogation considerations: If the suspect was somehow tied to the scene, he/she would create
scenarios to present why he/she was tied to the crime scene. Most often they would say they
came to scene during when others were present, or after the real killer left or he was another
victim.
The investigation: "Target fixation" is when investigators and prosecutors fixate on a single
suspect.
The investigation: "Junk Profiling" In the book, Amanda didn't openly grief in public for her
friend, so this lack of public weeping allowed the detectives to wrongly believe she killed her
friend. Imagine balling your eyes out in the privacy of your home and going into public dry eyed
and then being falsely accused.
Evidence: If you killed someone with a knife, blood will frequently finds its way between the
tang and the handle of the knife.
Media: Through the entire book, I just can believe how much the media influenced this case.
I never really thought the media could even influence an investigation the way they did. Pushing
and pushing for juicy news, then not taking the time to review their information on a real murder
case.

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