Drew Peterson’s own words made the case against him

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Over the years, testimony from jailhouse informants has raised plenty of eyebrows, especially when someone has been convicted of a crime based on the word of an unreliable inmate who cut a deal for better treatment.

Drew Peterson really can’t complain about that.

On Tuesday, a jury convicted the former suburban police officer on charges of plotting to have Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow murdered. The jury needed only about an hour to convict Peterson.

It wasn’t a jailhouse informant who did Peterson in, but a jailhouse informant who was wired for sound. The testimony of the inmate, Antonio Smith, was backed up by Peterson’s own secretly recorded words. The recording is at times unintelligible, but key parts of the conversation between Smith and Peterson is clear enough.

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After Smith told Peterson he had arranged for his uncle to kill Glasgow, Smith said, “I told him what you said, that it’s the green light on, that basically go ahead and kill him,” … “That’s what you wanted, right? … It ain’t no turning back.”

Peterson responds. “OK, all right. I’m in. From the first time we talked about it, there was no turning back. … If I get some booze in here, we’ll celebrate that night.”

Peterson has yet to be sentenced, but he’s already serving 38 years in prison for the 2004 murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, and now faces up to 60 more.

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