Yahoo News Here's how The Staircase links to Making a Murderer
Since The Staircase debuted on Netflix earlier this month, viewers and critics having been dubbing the doc 'the new Making a Murderer' – and with good reason, too.
But it turns out these two gripping true crime stories already have a link, but one that wasn't explored in the newer episodes of The Staircase.
Speaking to The Huffington Post, Michael Peterson's attorney David Rudolf revealed that he actually once taught Jerry Buting, one of the lawyers who represented Making a Murderer's Steven Avery.
"I started a clinical program back at the University of North Carolina in '78, and Jerry was in, I can't remember, like the second or third clinic that I ran," Rudolph said.
"And enough of the people who went through that clinic ended up being defence lawyers, which is a nice thing to see for me."
When asked if the two had ever had a catch-up about their respective high-profile cases David said they'd talked 'a little bit'.
"Not at any length," he added. "But it hasn't escaped our notices."
In the interview Rudolph also discussed the infamous owl theory, which has gained even more publicity since The Staircase arrived on Netflix.
When asked why the theory that Kathleen died from an owl attack wasn't presented at the original trial, Rudolph said he only became aware of it 'a day or two before closing arguments'.
According to Rudolph, the owl theory was originally seen as a bit of a joke, but he credits the rise of YouTube and social media in helping more people see it as a plausible theory.
"Later on people went back to the file and found the references to the owl, to the feather in her hair, the blood, and all the sudden there was some publicity about people who had been attacked by owls and videos of, literally, owls attacking people's heads from on YouTube," Rudolph explained.
"None of that existed back in 2001. In some ways, it's sort of a reflection of social media. Who knew anything about YouTube in 2002 or 2003? I certainly didn't. If you go to YouTube and type in 'owl attacks on people,' you'll probably come up with 50 videos."
The Staircase is available to watch now on Netflix.
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