Amanda Knox was behind bars when she befriended a Catholic priest.
The mom of two, who spent practically 4 years in an Italian jail, has written a brand new guide, “Free: My Search for Meaning.” It recounts the struggles the 37-year-old endured in making an attempt to reintegrate into society. Knox additionally displays on what it was like returning to a extra regular life, together with searching for a life associate, discovering a job and strolling out in public.
The Seattle native, who identifies as an atheist, advised Fox Information Digital jail chaplain Don Saulo not solely grew to become her greatest pal throughout these years but additionally gave her hope when she felt hopeless.
In her new guide, “Free: My Search for Meaning,” Amanda Knox described how a priest was prepared to be her pal whereas she was behind bars. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Photographs)
“He was a good man, a friend and a philosopher,” Knox advised Fox Information Digital. “He was the family who was there for me in prison when the rest of my family couldn’t be physically there with me. And he was someone who wasn’t just kind to me, but who was willing to engage with me on a philosophical level. He saw my humanity. And he genuinely wanted to spend time with me.
Amanda Knox was a student in Perugia studying abroad when her roommate, Meredith Kercher, was found stabbed to death in 2007. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
“He spoke to me in phrases of his ideology and his religion, however there have been truths in what he mentioned,” she shared. “It might shift my perspective from one in every of utter despair to one in every of hope. And on days after I didn’t have hope, he confirmed me how you can discover worth within the expertise that I had. The concept when you pray to God for energy, he doesn’t offer you energy, he provides you a chance to be robust — that resonated with me.”
Knox was a 20-year-old student in Perugia studying abroad when her roommate, Meredith Kercher, was found stabbed to death in 2007. The 21-year-old was found in the cottage they shared with two Italian women.
British student Meredith Kercher was murdered in 2007. She was 21. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
The case made global headlines as suspicion fell quickly on Knox and her boyfriend of just days, Raffaele Sollecito.
Knox wrote that while she was in prison, a nun had approached her. But when Knox told her she wasn’t religious, the nun replied that she was “no higher than an animal with out God.”
Amanda Knox, left, and her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, of Italy, in 2007, outside the rented house where 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher was found dead in Perugia, Italy. (File photo/ Associated Press)
The priest, on the other hand, suggested they could talk about whatever Knox wanted at his office.
SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER
Amanda Knox is led away from Perugia’s Court of Appeal by police officers after the first session of her appeal of her murder conviction Nov. 24, 2010, in Perugia, Italy. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
“I don’t keep in mind how he broke the ice,” Knox wrote. “By asking how I used to be doing? All I do know is that I discovered myself gushing [in] desperation.”
Over the years, Amanda Knox has been attempting to clear her name. (Getty Images)
Knox also described how she would sing from her cell. Saulo, who overheard her one day, asked if she’d ever played instruments. When Knox told him that she used to play the guitar, he exclaimed, “I’ve a guitar!”
“You might play it throughout mass. You might even come to my workplace to apply,” he told her.
Amanda Knox’s book, “Free: My Seek for That means,” is out now. (Grand Central Publishing)
Knox admitted she “didn’t love the concept of mass,” but the idea of leaving her cell to play the guitar was “one small hyperlink to the life I used to be residing earlier than this nightmare.”
“And so started our musical relationship,” Knox wrote. “A few times every week, I used to be allowed to spend an hour in Don Saulo’s workplace practising hymns on the guitar, after which, throughout mass on Saturdays, I’d play and sing these spiritual tunes.”
Amanda Knox spent nearly four years behind bars in Italy. (Federico Zirilli/AFP via Getty Images)
She also described how Saulo had a small electronic keyboard and taught her to play the piano. And when he learned she loved studying languages, he began teaching her Latin phrases.
FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X
Today, Amanda Knox is a married mother of two. (Lucien Knuteson)
Knox said Saulo’s kindness brightened her dark days. She told Fox News Digital standing up for yourself in prison meant violence.
“I feel lots of people may think simply horrible issues between inmates, and it’s true,” said Knox. “I used to be surrounded by ladies who had been both battling psychological sickness, drug dependancy or simply common PTSD from long-term abuse and neglect.
Amanda Knox claimed the male guards tried to make the most of her. (Claudia Greco/Reuters)
“There was a lot of dysfunction in the community of women that I belonged to. But, without a doubt, the worst experiences that I had were with the male guards, who had absolute power over me and who I could not protect myself from.
Amanda Knox was exonerated of the murder of Meredith Kercher in March 2015. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
“I used to be in a locked room with them, and so they had the important thing,” Knox recalled. “If I ever spoke up, nobody would consider me as a result of [to them] I used to be the mendacity murdering whore.
“I was absolutely at the mercy of male guards who tried to take advantage of me … and it was just horrifying,” Knox claimed.
Amanda Knox mentioned she by no means felt judged by Don Saulo. (Federico Zirilli/AFP)
In her guide, Knox wrote that Saulo “never judged me, never told me who I was, even as the world called me a monster.”
GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB
Don Saulo inspired Amanda Knox to sing and play guitar. (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP through Getty Photographs)
“I felt supported by him in cultivating a mindset of compassion and empathy and gratitude, that it was this mindset that would allow me to understand what had happened to me,” she wrote.
One of many individuals she devoted her guide to was Saulo, “for holding my hand when no one else could.”
One of many individuals Amanda Knox devoted her guide to was Don Saulo. (Oli Scarff/Getty Photographs)
“I remain an atheist, but Don Saulo taught me to value much of the wisdom in the teachings of Jesus,” she wrote. “Turning the other cheek, the golden rule, a radical refusal of judgment, an acceptance of all people – high and low, sinner and saints. No one deserves God’s grace, and yet, it is there for everyone. This is how I think about compassion. It is not kindness if it is reserved for the just, the good, the kind.”
Rudy Guede was ultimately convicted of murdering Meredith Kercher. (Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Photographs)
Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast was ultimately convicted of homicide after his DNA was discovered on the crime scene. The European Courtroom of Human Rights ordered Italy to pay Knox damages for the police failures, noting she was susceptible as a overseas pupil not fluent in Italian.
Knox returned to the USA in 2011 after being freed by an appeals courtroom in Perugia and has established herself as a world campaigner for the wrongly convicted. Over time, she has tried to clear her title.
Amanda Knox’s mother and father are seen right here talking to the press. (Tiziana Fabi/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Immediately, Knox is a board member of The Innocence Middle, a nonprofit legislation agency that goals to free harmless individuals from jail. She additionally steadily discusses how high-profile circumstances have an effect on family members on a podcast she hosts together with her husband, “Labyrinths.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Amanda Knox arrives together with her husband Christopher Robinson (left) on the courthouse in Florence June 5, 2024, earlier than a listening to in a slander case associated to her jailing and later acquittal for the homicide of her British roommate. (Tiziana Fabi/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Guede, 37, was freed in 2021 after serving most of his 16-year sentence.
Knox advised Fox Information Digital she was “haunted” by the spirit of Kercher.
A view of the home that was the positioning of the Nov. 1, 2007, homicide of British pupil Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy. (Franco Origlia/Getty Photographs)
“I think about her every day, especially when I consider what could have happened to me,” she defined. “My fate very well could have been hers, and her fate could very well have been mine. We were both two young women who went to study abroad. Our lives were ahead of us. Everything was going well for us. And then a man broke into our home and killed her.”
A floral tribute with images of Meredith Kercher at her funeral Dec. 14, 2007, at Croydon Parish Church, South London. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Photographs)
“If it hadn’t been for the fact that I just happened to meet a young, kind man five days before the crime occurred, I would very well be dead too now,” she continued.
“When I think about her … [I have] just the utter realization of the fragility, the impermanence and preciousness of life. What a privilege it is to live. And how important it is of a task to fight for your life and to make it worth living while you have it. I think about that.
Relatives of murdered British exchange student Meredith Kercher — Stephanie Kercher (right), Arline Kercher (left) and father John Kercher (center) — arrive for a news conference in Perugia Nov. 6, 2007. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
“One of many largest issues that I’ve needed to battle with is unpacking the truth that a pal of mine’s loss of life is wrapped up in my identification. … My identification is knotted up in [her family’s] deepest ache. The reality of what occurred to her and the justice that was denied to her is an ongoing, painful factor for me and lots of others. When individuals say, ‘Meredith has been lost in this story,’ they’re not fallacious.”
AMANDA KNOX’S ADVICE FOR AMERICAN LINKED TO PUNTA CANA MISSING PERSONS CASE
Amanda Knox told Fox News Digital she hopes to connect with Meredith Kercher’s family someday. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Knox said she tried reaching out to Kercher’s family “a bit in the past,” but has gotten “radio silence.” Fox News Digital reached out to Kercher’s family for comment.
“I simply want … they’d join with me in order that we are able to grieve collectively and attempt to make which means out of this tragedy collectively,” mentioned Knox.
Amanda Knox was a guest on the TV program “Cinque Minuti” in Rome June 10, 2024. (Massimo Di Vita/Archivio Massimo Di Vita/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
Knox knows she can never return to her old life. But she hopes, after telling her story, she can move forward with her family. That, she said, gives her hope today.
Amanda Knox acknowledges the cheers of supporters while her mother, Edda Mellas, comforts her Oct. 4, 2011, in Seattle. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)
“There’s by no means going to be a day when each single particular person on the planet goes to appreciate that I’ve been fallacious and harmed,” said Knox. “I’ve to then ask myself, ‘Can I live with that? What can freedom mean to me today?’
“I think that has been a really important shift in my perspective that I try to convey in the book, going from feeling that I am trapped in my own life … to feeling like I can push forward. It’s allowing me to feel like I can make choices again in light of all this backstory. That gives me momentum.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
