HUMBERT HUMBERT PETERSON

Turning on the serious nationally televised show Nightline, Thursday, I was astounded to see a long segment profiling Chicago's own Drew Peterson. Drew was riding around with his interviewer, pointing out places where he met, romanced and some say murdered the last two of his four wives. The interviewer asked probing questions about Drew's marital history and Drew, who apparently never loved a woman more than a microphone obliged, in excruciating detail.

Drew, it turns out, is a romantic, who wants nothing more in life than to "owned" by a woman, preferably one half the age of a man beginning to look a lot older than his 55 years. Drew paints himself as a veritable Prince Charming, who, when the flame flickers in his current beloved, morphs into a garden variety adulterer with a vengeance. Drew's unapologetic justification: "I just gotta have it".

The interviewer tried to question Peterson's latest squeeze, a twenty-four year old thing who had just moved in with Drew and his four children along with her two. All we got was a photo of a young woman in a doorway, frozen with angst. Apparently, she stayed up late enough to catch the Nightline interview as well, for the next day she moved out under the watchful eye of her father and a contingent of Bolingbrook's finest.

I'm of the opinion that Drew didn't whack either wife, but when it comes to long term romance, the guy sure is a lady killer.