that in the end the petersons were still worth $1.5 million. >> i had money. and it's not a matter -- it was not a financial problem. >> reporter: but what about that dramatic trial-within-a-trial the jury had seen? michael, implicated in not one murder, but two -- that friend, elizabeth ratliff's, death long ago in germany. so there you are in the court of public opinion this guy with two important women in your life and they're both dead in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. >> exactly. absolutely. has to be guilty. >> you're a writer of fiction. your editor would probably take that kind of coincidence out of the book. >> well, he would say, "well, you know, come up with another one." she died in the bathtub or something. but-- no. >> but you're not immune to the irony of this, huh? >> no. of course not. but at the time -- >> because in -- in the course of this investigation -- >> didn't even occur to me. honest to god, it never even occurred to me. >> did you kill her? >> liz? no. of course not. >> reporter: and those witnesses who said elizabeth ratliff's blood was all over the staircase walls, michael insists their memories are wrong.