Peterson: 'I'm Being Held Hostage Against My Will'
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) -- Drew Peterson recently remarked in a letter to a friend that he was "being held hostage against his will" in jail and made a long list of grievances about the conditions he is suffering through.
As WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports, the former Bolingbrook police sergeant's letter-- a copy was obtained by CBS 2 -- uses a fair amount of dark humor to describe the conditions in the Will County Jail.
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Peterson says he is stuck in a 17-by-19 foot cell with a "concrete bed with a lawn chair mattress," is always cold, and is kept in solitary confinement with only a few moments a day to talk to others, Sneed quoted the letter.
He wrote that his only outside human contact is when his meals come at 6 a.m., 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., when his clean clothes come once a week, or when guards come to check on him. Otherwise, he says, he watches TV all day.
Peterson also complains that he is allergic to the laundry soap, the meals are high in fat and carbs, and he is only allowed to call his attorney, Joel Brodsky, and his family during "time outs" in a small nearby dayroom. He says he cannot contact his mother, despite the fact that she has "legal, financial and health issues."
"It is cruel and unusual punishment to hold somebody in these conditions so long without the opportunity for a trial," Brodsky tells CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli.
"Help I'm being held hostage against my will," Peterson writes in his letter, which is dated Dec. 2, 2011.
Further, Peterson says: "It's been said to me the guards aren't allowed to talk to me due to my charismatic personality and their fear I will manipulate them. LOL."
Peterson has been held since May 2009 on charges that he murdered his third wife, Kathleen Savio, whose body was found in a dry bathtub in March 2004.
Savio's death was originally ruled an accidental drowning by the Will County Coroner's office. But after Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, disappeared in October 2007, Savio's body was exhumed and her death was reclassified as a homicide.
Peterson has not been charged in Stacy's disappearance, but Illinois State Police believe she is dead, and have named Peterson a person of interest.
The complaining prisoner gets no sympathy from Cassandra Cales, Stacy Peterson's sister.
"He's the one that made the decisions to take these womens' lives, and that's why he's being held. He's not being held hostage," she tells CBS 2.
"It does sound like he's miserable in there, and I'm glad to see that," she adds.
In the made-for-T V movie, Rob Lowe plays Drew Peterson, Kaley Cuoco of "The Big Bang Theory" plays Stacy Peterson, and Cara Buono of "Mad Men" plays Savio.
The news release for the movie does not take a definitive position on whether Peterson killed Savio, or whether he was responsible for Stacy's disappearance.
"Are Kathleen's death and Stacy's still-unknown whereabouts just a tragic coincidence? Or is there more there than meets the eye?" the release says.
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