Hours of Secret Drew Peterson Recordings Played in Court, He Still Hasn't Ordered Any Killings

CHESTER, IL — Prosecutors looking to heap even more years on already incarcerated wife-killer Drew Peterson played hours of secretly recorded prison conversations, but the locked up former cop has yet to order anybody’s death.

Peterson, 62, supposedly plotted from behind bars to have Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow murdered. Glasgow led Peterson’s prosecution in 2012 and got him sentenced to 38 years in prison for drowning his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

Prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Office and Randolph County, where Peterson is doing his time at Menard Correctional Center, contend Peterson enlisted the assistance of another inmate to hire a hitman to kill Glasgow.

That inmate, 25-year-old Antonio “Beast” Smith, a fat, slope-shouldered, bespectacled convict who was a special friend of Peterson’s, went running to the authorities and told them of his prison pal’s supposedly murderous plans.

Smith then donned a wire to secretly record Peterson in hopes of getting his prison sentence reduced. Smith was convicted of attempted murder, home invasion and robbery in 2011.

Peterson’s murder-for-hire trial started Monday. On Wednesday morning, prosecutors played hours of a muffled recording of Peterson and Smith speaking together in a prison recreation yard. If Peterson was talking about having Glasgow killed, it was impossible to tell from the recording.

Peterson and Smith’s voices were drowned out by the shouts of other inmates, the bouncing of a basketball, and what sounded like the repeated clanging of a barbell being dropped.

Jurors were provided with transcripts of what Peterson was supposedly telling Smith but prosecutors have yet to reveal who produced the transcripts or how they figured out what was said on the recordings.

On Tuesday, Peterson’s attorney, Lucas Liefer, asked Randolph County Judge Richard Brown to make prosecutors disclose who wrote the transcripts. Judge Brown turned Liefer down.

During the times the recordings could be understood, Peterson was hardly heard. His special friend “Beast” did a lot of talking about prison life, as did other, unidentified inmates. Peterson on the other hand, not so much.

This was in stark contrast to the recordings played Tuesday. On those recordings, Peterson hardly ever shut up. He told tales of swimming pool sex with Russian hookers, his unfulfilled dreams of brothel reality show fame, his disdain for attorney Joel Brodsky, and his desire to knock cable news star Nancy Grace down a peg or two, among other things.

Peterson also detailed his plans to smuggle drugs from Mexico for a cartel.
For all his big talk Tuesday, Peterson might well have been completely absent from Wednesday’s recordings. And his fellow prisoners proved pretty boring, as they discussed nothing more interesting than their methods for illicitly baking birthday cakes and peanut butter brownies in their cells.

Smith sat on the witness stand the entire time the recordings were played. Assistant Attorney General Steve Nate stopped the recording intermittently and asked Smith to tell him what he and Peterson were talking about. Smith consistently said he and Peterson were discussing having Glasgow murdered.

The Department of Corrections had assigned both Peterson and Smith to the protective custody section of Menard, which is where they met.

Even though he was in protective custody, Peterson was so weak and vulnerable he needed Smith to defend him from other prisoners, Smith testified earlier in the trial.

And even though Peterson was so weak and vulnerable that he needed special protection while he was in protective custody, Glasgow still considered him a threat to his safety.