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Death by Talons: Did An Owl 'Murder' Kathleen Peterson?
An Outrageous Theory For Murder!
On December 9, 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her Durham, NC home. Her scalp was laced with deep incisions, and her blood was strewn from outside to inside the house.
The sinister truth of that night turned her murder into North Carolina's most enigmatic criminal case, capturing media attention across the globe.
Police zeroed in on Kathleen’s husband, Michael Peterson, and charged him with murder.
But Was It The Truth?
A neighbor, Larry Pollard, came up with an alternative “killer;” he claimed an owl had attacked Kathleen outside her house. He said it sliced her scalp with its fierce talons and caused her to run inside, collapsing at the stairwell, and bleeding to death.
When the media heard about his theory, Larry was mocked. And Michael was convicted.
Now, twenty years later, author Tiddy Smith explores Pollard’s theory and questions whether law enforcement ignored, or even hid, evidence to convict Michael Peterson. And was an owl, in fact, the real killer?
On December 9, 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her Durham, NC home. Her scalp was laced with deep incisions, and her blood was strewn from outside to inside the house.
The sinister truth of that night turned her murder into North Carolina's most enigmatic criminal case, capturing media attention across the globe.
Police zeroed in on Kathleen’s husband, Michael Peterson, and charged him with murder.
But Was It The Truth?
A neighbor, Larry Pollard, came up with an alternative “killer;” he claimed an owl had attacked Kathleen outside her house. He said it sliced her scalp with its fierce talons and caused her to run inside, collapsing at the stairwell, and bleeding to death.
When the media heard about his theory, Larry was mocked. And Michael was convicted.
Now, twenty years later, author Tiddy Smith explores Pollard’s theory and questions whether law enforcement ignored, or even hid, evidence to convict Michael Peterson. And was an owl, in fact, the real killer?
308 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 14, 2023
34 people are currently reading
950 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 20, 2023
As a person who researches and writes about true crime for a living (and has read a lot of sub-par true crime books as a result), this book stands out from many, many others I have read. Not only is it a completely new and fascinating look at a "well-known" true crime case - The "Staircase Murder" - it is also thoroughly researched and well-written.
If nothing else (even if you're not interested in this true crime case, but I mean, how could you not be?), read this book for the chapter on Owl Attacks alone! You will never look at an owl the same way again. LOL
Those who have dismissed the "Owl Theory" regarding the death of Kathleen Peterson have clearly never read this book. While I can't say with 100% certainty what caused her death, I can say with confidence after reading this book, neither can you.
If nothing else (even if you're not interested in this true crime case, but I mean, how could you not be?), read this book for the chapter on Owl Attacks alone! You will never look at an owl the same way again. LOL
Those who have dismissed the "Owl Theory" regarding the death of Kathleen Peterson have clearly never read this book. While I can't say with 100% certainty what caused her death, I can say with confidence after reading this book, neither can you.
April 12, 2024
I was already bought-in to the “Owl Theory” before picking this up, and, despite the book’s flaws, I’m still convinced an owl had something to do with Kathleen Peterson’s injuries and ultimate demise, but the author drastically undermines this argument by trying to explain almost every mystery of the crime scene as resulting from owl activity inside the house. Also, the foremost question in my mind throughout the book, which is finally asked (but never answered) in the last 3 pages, was “Why did neither Michael nor Todd describe any feathers on Kathleen or around the house that night?” Lastly, if this was a barred owl attack as Smith posits, I invite him to study a bird field guide. “Reddish-tan feathers?” Great horned owl (the most common owl in NC), maybe. Barred owl, no.
January 23, 2025
Kathleen didn’t fall. Did an owl kill her? Maybe. I’m definitely somewhat scared of owls now, put it that way.
March 1, 2023
Who Killed Kathleen Peterson The Owl Or Michael Peterson?
I was very familiar with this true crime case Written In Blood by Diane Fannings. Still Tiddy Smith has written an exceptional book since Kathleen Peterson died. This book was just filled with tons of information as to why Michael Peterson could be innocent of his wife Kathleen’s murder.
I must admit I was very sceptical at first, but the more I read Larrys argument the more I found he put up a great argument as to why it was possible that Peter may not be guilty. If anyone is familiar with this case the police certainly botched it up from the beginning, and I wondered how they ever got a conviction after reading all the arguments Larry Pollard came up with as to why an owl could have been the cause of Kathleens death.
First Larry has put the arguments against Michael Peterson, his life, lies, and sexual preferences, and how he came to be convicted. Second The explanation why Larry thinks an owl killed Kathleen, and Third how the police not only made so many mistakes, but later it was found there was corruption amongst some of the police who attended that fateful night.
Did law enforcement ignore or hide evidence to convict Michael Peterson, or was an owl, in fact, the real killer? I really enjoyed this book and I now have a different opinion of those fluffy creatures. For sceptics and anyone who is familiar with this case I highly recommend this book and to anyone who is in a book club you will not be short of theories and conversation for a long time. I will leave it up to you whether you agree with Larry Pollard’s theory that The Owl Did It or Peter fooled everyone and is truly guilty of Kathleens death. Thanks to WildBlue Press I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I was very familiar with this true crime case Written In Blood by Diane Fannings. Still Tiddy Smith has written an exceptional book since Kathleen Peterson died. This book was just filled with tons of information as to why Michael Peterson could be innocent of his wife Kathleen’s murder.
I must admit I was very sceptical at first, but the more I read Larrys argument the more I found he put up a great argument as to why it was possible that Peter may not be guilty. If anyone is familiar with this case the police certainly botched it up from the beginning, and I wondered how they ever got a conviction after reading all the arguments Larry Pollard came up with as to why an owl could have been the cause of Kathleens death.
First Larry has put the arguments against Michael Peterson, his life, lies, and sexual preferences, and how he came to be convicted. Second The explanation why Larry thinks an owl killed Kathleen, and Third how the police not only made so many mistakes, but later it was found there was corruption amongst some of the police who attended that fateful night.
Did law enforcement ignore or hide evidence to convict Michael Peterson, or was an owl, in fact, the real killer? I really enjoyed this book and I now have a different opinion of those fluffy creatures. For sceptics and anyone who is familiar with this case I highly recommend this book and to anyone who is in a book club you will not be short of theories and conversation for a long time. I will leave it up to you whether you agree with Larry Pollard’s theory that The Owl Did It or Peter fooled everyone and is truly guilty of Kathleens death. Thanks to WildBlue Press I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 27, 2023
Shiver! I totally despise conspiracy theories, but in this case, SOMETHING has definitely gone on.
And it's clear that law enforcement has an entirely f*ed up! What really happened to Kathleen? The two possibilities mentions during the trial DO appear insufficient. Was a raptor – specifically an owl – implicated? It appears that law enforcement in general came in with their own opinion, and made their you discoveries match, and threw out all others. We can't possibly know what exactly happened, but this is yet another example of our pathetic so-called justice system. Sad, sad, sad.
story and trial as presented were both complete and frustrating. The reader is left many questions about Michael and his character, but NOTHING suggested that he killed his wife!
And it's clear that law enforcement has an entirely f*ed up! What really happened to Kathleen? The two possibilities mentions during the trial DO appear insufficient. Was a raptor – specifically an owl – implicated? It appears that law enforcement in general came in with their own opinion, and made their you discoveries match, and threw out all others. We can't possibly know what exactly happened, but this is yet another example of our pathetic so-called justice system. Sad, sad, sad.
story and trial as presented were both complete and frustrating. The reader is left many questions about Michael and his character, but NOTHING suggested that he killed his wife!
August 2, 2024
Death By Talons is a fascinating and fastidious investigation into a highly complex death. The crime scene is bizarre, and Smith matches it with a bizarre theory which nonetheless seems more and more believable as the book goes on.
It’s hard to believe there is so much to say about a case that has already had so much attention. This book is actually the first media I’ve consumed on this case (now I’m watching The Staircase to get another perspective) but it does a great job of covering the whole story.
The owl theory is undeniably whacky, but Smith does a good job of making it plausible and showing how it can tie together a lot of different bits of evidence that are otherwise in tension with either the prosecution theory, or the defence theory, or both. Something I found myself repeatedly thinking as I read through is “yeah this owl business seems very weird, but then under any scenario something very weird must have happened here – so why not an owl?”
A section I really liked was Smith’s evaluation of the earlier death of Elizabeth in the other staircase in Germany. The coincidence is utterly compelling and inescapable, but… what does it really mean? Sure, there are clear points of similarity, but also significant points of difference, and none of it really sheds light on the Kathleen Peterson case in any tangible way. This is tricky thing to think about, because it means we have to detach from our human intuitions about coincidence. Sometimes when things coincide it simply doesn’t mean anything. The book has a very sophisticated discussion of this philosophical point. I guess that makes sense, given that Smith is a professional academic philosopher by trade.
Some parts of the book's argument were less convincing to me. One of the boldest elements of the owl theory is that it entails a high level of police corruption in the handling of the crime scene. In particular, without police malfeasance there is no clear way to explain the lack of feathers. I kept asking myself “when is there going to be some evidence of corruption?” Now Smith does turn to this towards the end of the book, but I found the evidence a bit thin.
One of Smith’s claims on this point is that the police behaviour was so inexplicable, they must have had some hidden motivations. I don’t buy that. To be sure there was a lot of police incompetence, but that comes up in almost every true crime story I encounter. Police failed to secure evidence? They always do. Someone scuffed up the murder scene? Typical. Vital exhibit misplaced? Par for the course. Clearly, incompetence doesn’t equal corruption.
For example there is a lot of discussion about the shifted planter. So someone shifted a large and heavy planter with the ostensible motive of protecting a blood spot. Best practice? Of course not. But it didn’t seem that odd to me. I can kind of imagine myself doing it when I try to think my way into the body of a dim-witted cop fluffing around a crime scene with adrenaline pumping. And Smith doesn’t really show how an anomaly like this indicates anything about an owl. He’d be better off recalling his own reasoning about coincidences and how they don’t necessarily mean anything. The same applies to anomalies in crime scene handling and documentation.
I hope that these quibbles and questions don’t suggest that the book is anything other than excellent. These are the kinds of doubts and questions you have when you read an argument for a counter-intuitive story that is nonetheless convincing enough to make you bother looking for holes.
Was I convinced that an owl killed Kathleen Peterson? Not exactly. But I wouldn’t say I was convinced by the prosecution or defence theories either. I actually don't know quite what to make of it all. As I said before, it is clear that something exceedingly odd occurred that night. Maybe Smith’s right and it was a bird of prey, or maybe something else happened. But to my mind the mark of success for this book is that I’m taking the ridiculous-in-the-abstract owl theory seriously.
It’s hard to believe there is so much to say about a case that has already had so much attention. This book is actually the first media I’ve consumed on this case (now I’m watching The Staircase to get another perspective) but it does a great job of covering the whole story.
The owl theory is undeniably whacky, but Smith does a good job of making it plausible and showing how it can tie together a lot of different bits of evidence that are otherwise in tension with either the prosecution theory, or the defence theory, or both. Something I found myself repeatedly thinking as I read through is “yeah this owl business seems very weird, but then under any scenario something very weird must have happened here – so why not an owl?”
A section I really liked was Smith’s evaluation of the earlier death of Elizabeth in the other staircase in Germany. The coincidence is utterly compelling and inescapable, but… what does it really mean? Sure, there are clear points of similarity, but also significant points of difference, and none of it really sheds light on the Kathleen Peterson case in any tangible way. This is tricky thing to think about, because it means we have to detach from our human intuitions about coincidence. Sometimes when things coincide it simply doesn’t mean anything. The book has a very sophisticated discussion of this philosophical point. I guess that makes sense, given that Smith is a professional academic philosopher by trade.
Some parts of the book's argument were less convincing to me. One of the boldest elements of the owl theory is that it entails a high level of police corruption in the handling of the crime scene. In particular, without police malfeasance there is no clear way to explain the lack of feathers. I kept asking myself “when is there going to be some evidence of corruption?” Now Smith does turn to this towards the end of the book, but I found the evidence a bit thin.
One of Smith’s claims on this point is that the police behaviour was so inexplicable, they must have had some hidden motivations. I don’t buy that. To be sure there was a lot of police incompetence, but that comes up in almost every true crime story I encounter. Police failed to secure evidence? They always do. Someone scuffed up the murder scene? Typical. Vital exhibit misplaced? Par for the course. Clearly, incompetence doesn’t equal corruption.
For example there is a lot of discussion about the shifted planter. So someone shifted a large and heavy planter with the ostensible motive of protecting a blood spot. Best practice? Of course not. But it didn’t seem that odd to me. I can kind of imagine myself doing it when I try to think my way into the body of a dim-witted cop fluffing around a crime scene with adrenaline pumping. And Smith doesn’t really show how an anomaly like this indicates anything about an owl. He’d be better off recalling his own reasoning about coincidences and how they don’t necessarily mean anything. The same applies to anomalies in crime scene handling and documentation.
I hope that these quibbles and questions don’t suggest that the book is anything other than excellent. These are the kinds of doubts and questions you have when you read an argument for a counter-intuitive story that is nonetheless convincing enough to make you bother looking for holes.
Was I convinced that an owl killed Kathleen Peterson? Not exactly. But I wouldn’t say I was convinced by the prosecution or defence theories either. I actually don't know quite what to make of it all. As I said before, it is clear that something exceedingly odd occurred that night. Maybe Smith’s right and it was a bird of prey, or maybe something else happened. But to my mind the mark of success for this book is that I’m taking the ridiculous-in-the-abstract owl theory seriously.
August 7, 2024
Was it an owl? Tiddy is pretty convincing.
January 2, 2024
Watching The Staircase a few years ago, the obvious problems with both prosecution and defence theories drove me to distraction. I could not make up my mind as to what I thought.
When I finally got to the relatively brief coverage of the idea of an owl having attacked Kathleen I was bewildered as to why this wasn't given more coverage. She has talon shaped slashes on her head with no skull fracture and owls known to attack people live in the trees by her house. It's not a radical notion if you simply stop seeing the case as a binary decision between two unsatisfactory explanations.
Since then I've been routinely frustrated at just how glib or patronizing a lot of coverage of this theory is. It is far too often treated as some sort of joke.
Finally in Tiddy Smith's book, somebody has written a book that really looks at what the evidence of Kathleen's death actually shows and the conclusions are difficult to refute if you're playing with a straight bat.
An invaluable insight into this case that I would recommend to anybody.
When I finally got to the relatively brief coverage of the idea of an owl having attacked Kathleen I was bewildered as to why this wasn't given more coverage. She has talon shaped slashes on her head with no skull fracture and owls known to attack people live in the trees by her house. It's not a radical notion if you simply stop seeing the case as a binary decision between two unsatisfactory explanations.
Since then I've been routinely frustrated at just how glib or patronizing a lot of coverage of this theory is. It is far too often treated as some sort of joke.
Finally in Tiddy Smith's book, somebody has written a book that really looks at what the evidence of Kathleen's death actually shows and the conclusions are difficult to refute if you're playing with a straight bat.
An invaluable insight into this case that I would recommend to anybody.
March 25, 2023
Wonderful narration from Tom Lennon, he brings the pace, angst and suspense.
When Kathleen Peterson was found murdered in December 2001. Her body was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in home, with her head was covered in deep incisions.
The charged her husband with murder, but Larry Pollard, their neighbour states that the true killer, had natural talons, a owl. .
But Michael is convicted.
Twenty years later, author Tiddy Smith takes a look into the owl theory. Was evidence ignored. Who is the killer.
When Kathleen Peterson was found murdered in December 2001. Her body was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in home, with her head was covered in deep incisions.
The charged her husband with murder, but Larry Pollard, their neighbour states that the true killer, had natural talons, a owl. .
But Michael is convicted.
Twenty years later, author Tiddy Smith takes a look into the owl theory. Was evidence ignored. Who is the killer.
April 19, 2023
I'm convinced.
April 25, 2024
An unexpectedly riveting book - an interesting account of apparent police incompetence, conspiracy, and a surprisingly believable alternative to a well known case.
December 26, 2024
Carl Sagan famously said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
Tiddy Smith’s Death By Talons is a well researched, well argued read - and it’s informative and entertaining to boot. It’s central claim that Kathleen Peterson was not only killed by an owl (or bird of prey), but that the bird was in fact *in the house* and that this reality was somehow successfully concealed is nothing if not extraordinary.
Does Smith bring extraordinary enough evidence to the table for one to reasonably conclude the claim is proven?…I would respectfully say, “no.”
But for those truly interested in the case, and the famously eccentric theory at the center of this book, I would also say that is arguably beside the point. For IF the central premise WERE true, at this point it would quite likely not be possible to produce evidence sufficiently extraordinary to conclusively prove it. Such is the point of a coverup, after all.
What Smith has done, is compile enough foundational information, and undeniably strange tid-bits throughout the case and its troves of evidence, presented in a digestible enough way as to hopefully give even a critical reader enough of a basis to find themselves asking…“What if?”
Given his claim is so extraordinary, I think Mr. Smith can count that much as an extraordinary achievement.
Tiddy Smith’s Death By Talons is a well researched, well argued read - and it’s informative and entertaining to boot. It’s central claim that Kathleen Peterson was not only killed by an owl (or bird of prey), but that the bird was in fact *in the house* and that this reality was somehow successfully concealed is nothing if not extraordinary.
Does Smith bring extraordinary enough evidence to the table for one to reasonably conclude the claim is proven?…I would respectfully say, “no.”
But for those truly interested in the case, and the famously eccentric theory at the center of this book, I would also say that is arguably beside the point. For IF the central premise WERE true, at this point it would quite likely not be possible to produce evidence sufficiently extraordinary to conclusively prove it. Such is the point of a coverup, after all.
What Smith has done, is compile enough foundational information, and undeniably strange tid-bits throughout the case and its troves of evidence, presented in a digestible enough way as to hopefully give even a critical reader enough of a basis to find themselves asking…“What if?”
Given his claim is so extraordinary, I think Mr. Smith can count that much as an extraordinary achievement.
June 19, 2025
Well I wasn't afraid of owls before this. Yikes! But I believe it. I listened to a podcast about this case and it is so bizarre, I wanted to know more about the owl theory.
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