Photo gallery: Comparing HBO’s ‘The Staircase’ cast to those they portray
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Prime Time for True Crime
We love to play detective, which might explain why Durham’s most notorious murder trial — did author Michael Peterson kill his wife Kathleen? — is the setting for another true-crime TV miniseries, this time on HBO Max. What really happened to the people and places involved? How much of what we’ll see on “The Staircase” will mirror reality? And why does society obsess over crime stories?
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Photo gallery: Comparing HBO’s ‘The Staircase’ cast to those they portray
With the release of the new eight-episode HBO Max limited series “The Staircase,” based in part on the Netflix documentary series of the same name, attention turns once again to Durham: where Kathleen Peterson bled to death two decades ago at the bottom of a staircase in her Durham mansion, and her husband Michael went on trial for her murder.
Unlike the Netflix documentary series, HBO’s retelling from creator/producer/writer/director Antonio Campos is a dramatization, with actors — many of them quite notable — playing the parts of real people in the case.
Here’s a look at some of the cast of “The Staircase” alongside photos of the real people they portray.
Michael Peterson
Kathleen Peterson
David Rudolf
Bill Peterson
The Peterson and Ratliff children
Prosecutors Jim Hardin and Freda Black
More on HBO’s ‘The Staircase’
For full coverage of HBO Max’s “The Staircase” and other background on the death of Kathleen Peterson and the murder trial of Michael Peterson, visit: newsobserver.com/topics/staircase
This story was originally published May 3, 2022 at 6:30 PM.