Hulu/NetflixAs is revealed in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox Episode 4, the trial was as much of a circus as the media coverage, with Knox branded “Luciferina” by tabloids and prosecutors alike.
The Disney+ and Hulu series centers on the shocking true crime case that rocked the world when it unfolded back in 2007, after British student Meredith Kercher was murdered in her Italian apartment.
Although Rudy Guede was the sole perpetrator, Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were falsely convicted. Rather than hard evidence, they became victim to character attacks, with prosecutors and the media building a lurid narrative.
This is explored in the latest episode of The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, including the moment an Italian prosecutor working alongside Giuliano Mignini dubbed her “Luciferina.”
What does “Luciferina” mean?
HuluThe term loosely translates to “she-devil” or “female Lucifer,” and was used multiple times in real life when referencing Amanda Knox.
It first came up during the 2009 trial, which exposed flaws in the Italian justice system. Not only were the jury not sequestered (meaning they could easily have been subject to media bias), but they also heard both Patrick Lumumba’s defamation claim and Kercher’s murder case at the same time.
A lawyer for the civil suit was the first to call Knox a “Luciferina,” a term that was soon enough picked up by the tabloids, often juxtaposed with the description of her “angel face” to depict her as a femme fatale.
Another lawyer reportedly accused Knox of being “dirty inside and out” and a “she-devil, a diabolical person focused on sex, drugs and alcohol, living life to the extreme and borderline.”
Ultimately, “Luciferina” symbolizes the way Knox was vilified not on facts, but through sexist and salacious character attacks that were amplified by prosecutors and the press.
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Did she really do cartwheels?
NetflixAccording to Knox, the claim she did cartwheels and other acrobatics while at the Perugia police station following Kercher’s murder is untrue.
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox Episode 4 delves into the many allegations that she acted strange in the moments following her roommate’s death, which appear to have started after she was seen being comforted by Sollecito.
Italian police claimed they later saw her doing cartwheels and making faces with Sollecito at the station, which the press soon picked up on.
In her 2013 memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, Knox said she couldn’t understand why everyone else present, including Kercher’s friends, were so calm, and that her then-boyfriend was only trying to comfort her.
“I suspect that Raffaele thought I was having a breakdown. He sat me in his lap and bounced me gently. He kissed me, made faces at me, and told me jokes, all in an effort to soothe my agitation, babying me so I would stop storming around,” she wrote.
“I cringe to say that treating me like an infant helped. Normally, it would have repelled me. But at the time it worked.”
She also told ABC at the time of her book’s release, “I was reacting to a very confusing and terrifying situation. And I had a number of reactions.
“I didn’t have a consistent reaction over the entire time. And sometimes I was very angry, and sometimes I was very sad, and sometimes I paced. And I didn’t hide my reaction…
“I wasn’t doing cartwheels, despite what they said. I was reacting in an upset manner. And I was upset. And I could’ve been more sensitive to the people around me. That’s what I think was the major issue – was I could’ve been more sensitive to the people around me.”
Did she really wear an ‘All You Need Is Love’ t-shirt?
NetflixThe Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox also shows her arriving in court wearing an ‘All You Need Is Love’ t-shirt, referencing the Beatles song. This really did happen, with the real Knox donning the tee on Valentine’s Day 2009.
In the series, she decides to wear it after being told by prison priest Don Saulo Scarabattoli to show the world her heart. Her mom, Edda Mellas, later slams this advice, saying that Knox’s unique personality can come across as odd to others.
The t-shirt itself went down badly with the media and the court, with many slamming it as disrespectful. Knox said she was initially surprised by the reaction.
“It was another one to my naive immaturity, things coming through and making my life unexpectedly more difficult,” Knox told ABC.
“Because I did not go to court that day hoping to distract the world with a t-shirt. I went to court that day wearing a t-shirt with words that meant something to me on Valentine’s Day. I wore it for me.
“I didn’t realize in the beginning how much attention was being put on me, and how very intensely I was being scrutinized. I thought that being myself was enough.”
Why did Meredith Kercher’s friends turn against Knox?
NetflixWhile there’s no single clear answer, Knox herself has suggested that her arrest – not her personality – changed how people remembered her, creating a “sinister tone” in the minds of Kercher’s friends.
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox shows several friends from Kercher’s circle testifying that Knox was odd and too open about her sex life.
This unfolded in a similar way in real life, with the victim’s acquaintances accusing Knox of acting strangely at the police station and also claiming she made Kercher uncomfortable. One detail prosecutors cited was the fact that Knox had a vibrator and condoms in her bathroom bag.
“This is one of the more strange things that happened was that no one ever confronted me – no one – about the things that I kept in the bathroom, or what friends I had,” Knox told ABC.
“That was never discussed while we were living together. The one time that she ever confronted me about something was she was very embarrassed and nice about it.
“And I was very embarrassed and, like, awkwardly laughing about it afterwards, and that was when discussing that after you flush the toilet, you have to use the brush, which is not something that I was used to, and that was fairly early on.
Netflix“This was not something that happened afterwards, and it was fine. We didn’t have an estrangement and we didn’t argue about anything.”
As for the claims that Kercher was uncomfortable with the number of male friends Knox invited to their shared house, she said, “There wasn’t a lot of traffic of guys in the house, so there wasn’t ever really a discussion about traffic of guys in the house.
“She was dating one of the guys who lived downstairs, and they came up to visit all the time, because we were all friends.”
Finally, Knox addressed the allegation that Kercher’s friends found her weird, stating, “I didn’t get that impression when I was with them because there were various times that Meredith invited me to hang out with her friends.”
“We went out to pubs together and I think that the environment in Perugia was also very open,” she continued.
Netflix“I think what happened, and what led to later discussions about how uncomfortable Meredith and her friends were or were not around me, was because of my arrest and because of the incredible tragedy that was her murder that had just happened so incredibly and incomprehensibly.
“I think that after my arrest and after all of the sudden I was identified as in some way involved, everything that we had experienced before in their minds took on a sinister tone. That’s what I think happened.”
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox Episode 5 drops on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK on September 10. Until then, check out the new true crime documentaries coming to streaming and the new TV shows to watch this month.