Angel Face: The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox

Angel Face: The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox

Author: Barbie Latza Nadeau

Plot: Despite all the airtime devoted to Amanda Knox, it’s still hard to reconcile the fresh-faced honor student from Seattle with the sexually rapacious killer convicted of the November 2007 murder of her British roommate. Few Americans have heard all the powerful evidence that convinced a jury that Knox was one of three people to sexually assault Meredith Kercher, brutalize her body, and cut her throat. In Angel Face, Rome-based Daily Beast senior writer Barbie Latza Nadeau - who cultivated personal relationships with the key figures in both the prosecution and the defense - describes how the facts, inflamed an American audience, and painted an offensive, inaccurate picture of Italy’s justice system. An eye-opener for any parent considering sending a child away to study, Angel Face reveals what really went on in this incomprehensible crime.

My Review and Thoughts:

Here is another case that I have been following since the start. This is a case that has everything. Mystery and murder. An American accused of murder in a foreign land and convicted of this horrible crime. Amanda Knox is to me the perfect criminal mind. Many believe she is innocent. She even walked free after spending time in jail and being convicted.

I believe she is guilty. I believe the angel face persona is all what it is, fake. She is the perfect psychopath in sheep’s clothing. Her very image is haunting for she has gotten away with a heinous crime. Some believe she is an innocent girl, the evidence proves otherwise and the conviction proves her guilt even though American politics has strong armed the justice system of Italy to let her free, which they caved in and did so.

The problem with a lot of Americans is they believe that American’s are innocent in foreign lands no matter what. They scream outrage if an American citizen is convicted even though the evidence no matter if it is mostly circumstantial is real. In America circumstantial evidence is enough to convict and yet we don’t scream foul play when that happens.  

This is another book that is great in detail and massive research. I really enjoyed learning all the information of the ones involved before the crime. You get to hear about Amanda Knox and all the others before the incident, learning about their jobs, school years, home life, personal life and then also the tragedy that takes place. This is a truly haunting book in that it’s filled with massive truth that has been hidden from a lot of the American public.

…the more one knows about the evidence in the case - much of it overlooked in U.S. press accounts - the easier it is to understand how these young women fell prey to the temptations of Perugia, with tragic results…Page 19

Now I first want to pin-point that having a lot of sex does not make you a murderer it just makes you, in modern terms a slut. Amanda had no true reality in concealing her many flings, one night stands, men she just met, one time having sex with a total stranger on a train ride and even making sure she left her vibrator out in the open for people can see. She was a party girl, someone who loved to smoke pot and have sex. Sadly countless sex acts in modern day reality is normal so when the media and the public used that against Amanda Knox I thought it was trashy and really had no baring on the case. With that said the victim Meredith did not like Amanda’s blatant in your face sexual reality and it often brought on arguments and frustration and anger among the roommates because she was constantly bringing back strange men to the house. 

The aspect of sexual nature did play apart in the murder, Meredith in viewpoint was raped and sexually tortured even though there was no case for that other than she had bruises all over her and that her vagina and anus had been penetrated at some time but the doctor could not confirm or deny that rape happened. Where the idea of the over sexed reality came into play was that Amanda was a true sex fiend, which she was and her boyfriend Raffaele who was also know as a person that had a strong blatant sexual nature. Both Amanda and Raffaele knew the victim and Amanda lived with the victim and Raffaele would stay in the same house on many nights.

After the body was found many strange and odd things came out of Amanda’s and Raffaele’s mouth. For one the police found both of them outside the house with a mop and bucket, where Amanda explained she was going to mope Raffaele’s apartment because of a leak. Then later she explained to the news and bystanders that Meredith her roommate had been found murdered in front of her closet, but in fact Meredith was found in front of her bed, but she had been murdered in front of her closet, yet someone had pulled her over in front of the bed. No one knew she had died in front of the closet until the investigation went through and yet Amanda knew it. One thing that also should be mentioned is that 14 set of fingerprints and DNA samples where located at the crime scene, the sets of finger prints where smeared and the DNA was degraded not being able to match anyone. A small female sized footprint was found, that could not be matched yet had the same basic size of Amanda’s. Both Amanda’s and Raffaele’s alibis did not match.

Interesting to note was that the break in reality was quickly voided because the glass pattern from a rock breaking a window was clearly done after the people where already in the house making the robbery idea a false lead that was deliberate to throw off the police. Also very odd was the lack of bloody footprints leading from Meredith’s room, inside the room footprints but outside the room none( hint the mop). Could that be what the mop and bucket had been used for.

The police using Luminal, a chemical that picks up blood that has been washed away is used and there in the hallway are countless small footprints (Amanda’s size) hidden to the naked eye that more or less had been covered in blood. Also blood had been washed away in the bathroom. But the most damaging in my viewpoint and the case slam dunk is the drop’s of blood found in the other roommates bedroom, it was Amanda’s DNA mixed with Meredith’s also Raffaele’s DNA was found on the cut off bra of Meredith. Now I have seen countless criminal’s convicted on less and yet DNA, Tampering with Evidence, Lies and much more are just over looked by American‘s in this case. 

That is not all, this book gives you landmark evidence and the amazing reality of how easy this case could have been closed and shut.

Now I don’t want to give the whole book away, or at least all the information that is court documented as facts but yes Amanda had been seen in the cleaning supplies section of a local store that very morning that the body was found and Raffaele had been discovered buying bleach on Nov. 4th which has been attributed to washing of his shoes.

This book details the amazing mystery, the unbelievable actions and realities’ of all those involved in this odd twisted crime. This plays out like a great Sherlock Holmes mystery and yet Sherlock would have no doubt of who had done the murder most fowl. You can believe what you want, that’s the beauty of free will, but evidence does not lie, for it is the truth that thoroughly condemns.

The one flaw I see with this book is it is nothing major, it reads like a magazine article or newspaper story. Now with that said that does not mean it’s a bad book, because it really is a great book on the exploration of this crime in history. I really enjoyed the authors theory on what happened that night. The truth is only known by four people. One is dead, one sits in jail for 16 years and two have walked free. As long as there are bold writers like Barbie Latza Nadeau who are interested in the truth and the evidence, the guilty reality will never fade away from these murderers.