TOM LEONARD: Back in November 2003, Michael Peterson was only a month into a life sentence for murdering his wife when he received a strange but cheering letter in prison.
Was the staircase killer just a fall guy? It s the murder-mystery that inspired a TV genre - a novelist with a secret, his wife dead at the foot of the stairs, and a bizarre twist. As Colin Firth stars in a dramatised version, TOM LEONARD examines the tale
US novelist Michael Peterson was accused of murdering wife Kathleen in 2001
She was found in a pool of blood at foot of stairs of North Carolina family home
Within days, Peterson, then 58, had been charged with first-degree murder of his 48-year-old wife by prosecutors - leading to televised trial with twists and turns
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