Free The Forgotten Killer: Rudy Guede and the Murder of Meredith Kercher (Kindle Single) by Douglas Preston, John Douglas, Mark Olshaker, Steve Moore, Judge Michael Heavey, Jim Lovering, Thomas Lee Wright

Lumumba.
    But a follow-up note Amanda wrote to police the next day indicates that the techniques they used were effective nonetheless. The same CIA document describes the techniques used to brainwash a person, as well as the desired results. If you compare Amanda’s note to the police just hours after her interrogation with the techniques and goals of brainwashing, the results speak for themselves. (The excerpt from Amanda’s note follows the CIA excerpt below, in italics):
              The most important aspect of the brainwashing process is the interrogation. The other pressures are designed primarily to help the interrogator achieve his goals. The following states are created systematically within the individual. These may vary in order, but all are necessary to the brainwashing process:
              A feeling of helplessness in attempting to deal with the impersonal machinery of control.
             
Please don’t yell at me because it only makes me more confused, which doesn’t help anyone. I understand how serious this situation is, and as such, I want to give you this information as soon and as clearly as possible.
             
Honestly, I understand because this is a very scary situation. I also know that the police don’t believe things of me that I know I can explain.
             
I have a clearer mind than I’ve had before, but I’m still missing parts, which I know is bad for me.
             
In regards to this “confession” that I made last night, I want to make clear that I’m very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressures of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion. Not only was I told I would be arrested and put in jail for 30 years, but I was also hit in the head when I didn’t remember a fact correctly.
    What the inquisitors did not achieve, however, speaks volumes of Amanda’s character and innocence. No matter how hard they tried, and how manipulative and coercive they were, Amanda repeatedly denied
any
involvement in the murder, and the police could develop no feelings of guilt in her. This is not sociopathy; this is innocence. Note that in her letter, she expresses empathy for the officers who had just subjected her to this abomination.
    Never once did she question her own innocence. And never did she experience any sense of identification with the accusations of the police. This is an innocent college girl subjected to the most aggressive and heinous interrogation techniques the police could utilize (yet not leave marks). She became confused, she empathized with her captors, she doubted herself in some ways, but in the end, her strength of character and her unshakable knowledge of her innocence carried her through.
    How Could This Happen?
    It is either inexperience combined with poor training or corruption—or both. I have had rookie FBI agents come out to the field and conduct vastly superior investigations to what happened in Perugia in this case. I do not think that the Italiansystem is inferior. In fact, if I thought so, I would not be criticizing these detectives in this manner.
    Every country has prosecutors and investigators who make mistakes. Every country experiences the shame of corruption. No country should be judged on whether these things exist; it should be judged on how it deals with them.

CHAPTER FOUR: COURT FINDINGS
    by Judge Michael Heavey and Jim Lovering
    Six years ago, the murder of Meredith Kercher spawned a grotesque and unwieldy controversy that continues to this day. What really happened is not in doubt, and it will not change. Rudy Guede committed the murder during a botched robbery, after which he fled the country.
    Unfortunately, this became clear only after facts had been pieced together and Guede had been identified from traces he left at the crime scene. It took a number of days. By then, the investigation had already veered out of control.
    While they waited for a lab in Rome