'Beast' Testifies: Drew Peterson Talked About How He Killed Stacy

CHESTER, IL — A vicious gang member who supposedly worked with the FBI to record Drew Peterson’s murderous plans said the disgraced former cop also mentioned a couple times about how he killed his fourth wife.

“He admitted to me that he killed Stacy Peterson,” fleshy informant Antonio “Beast” Smith said Monday afternoon during the first day of Drew Peterson’s murder-for-hire trial.

On another occasion, Peterson, 62, pressed transcripts of his murder trial on Smith so his prison buddy could read how his conviction for killing third wife Kathleen Savio was trumped up, he testified.

Smith, 25, said Peterson wanted him to read the “testimony of some sort of clergyman.”

Stacy’s pastor, Neil Schori, testified at the Savio murder trial. He told of speaking with Stacy shortly before she vanished in 2007, and recalled how she told of Drew returning home in the middle of the night on the weekend Savio was killed.

After reading the transcript and informing Peterson that he believed the case was “bull---t,” Smith said Peterson told him the “clergyman didn’t know he was talking to a dead woman.”

Smith also remembered Peterson discussing the murder of Glasgow “a lot.”

Smith testified how he first met Peterson when he was transferred to protective custody at Menard Correctional Center in August 2013. A former Gangster Disciple and current Satan’s Disciple, Smith said he feared for his life because he cooperated with Department of Corrections officials to work against other prisoners.

Smith said he had heard of Peterson and that another prisoner gave him a book about his case. He didn’t read it, he said, but did look at the pictures.

Round-shouldered and wearing heavy black eyeglasses, Smith boasted from the witness stand of his glory days as a three-sport high school athlete who went on to win a college football scholarship.

Smith’s days as a student-athlete ended in 2011 when he was convicted of attempted murder, home invasion and robbery, according to testimony. He had been previously convicted of forgery and burglary.

Smith said he and Peterson hit it off in protective custody and would hang out during their brief recreation periods and at dinner, and would cook meals together in a cell. Smith also said he protected Peterson, who had been preyed on by other prisoners.

“I made sure that they knew if they had a problem with Drew, they had a problem with me,” he said.

Smith said he called an official at Menard to tell him Peterson wanted to kill Glasgow. He also sent letters to Glasgow’s office and the Will County Circuit Clerk.

Smith decided to go ahead and work with the FBI at the behest of a prisoner he shared a cell with after he was transferred from Menard. He said he hoped for a reduction in his sentence.

Smith was taken out of the state prison system and is doing his time in the federal system. Peterson’s attorney, Lucas Liefer, said Smith has since volunteered to work as a federal informant.

The Bureau of Prisons lists only one 25-year-old Antonio Smith currently in custody. He is incarcerated at a minimum security satellite camp in West Virginia.

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