Infamous cop-turned-killer Drew Peterson joked about killing a journalist in a chilling new interview.
Peterson, who murdered his third wife and is a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, told NewsNation's Ashleigh Banfield, he would not murder her unless they were married.
In a video clip from their prison interview, the former Chicago cop says: 'I promise unless you marry me, I won't kill you. I'm making a joke' before laughing.
Banfield immediately replies: 'I guarantee you that's not going to happen, my friend' as Peterson continues to laugh away.
Drew Peterson told NewsNation's Ashleigh Banfield: 'I promise unless you marry me, I won't kill you. I'm making a joke'
Banfield immediately replies: 'I guarantee you that's not going to happen, my friend' as Peterson continues to laugh away
Peterson's fourth wife Stacy Peterson (left) disappeared in 2007, four years after his third wife Kathleen Savio, (right) was found dead in a bathtub
Peterson was sentenced to 38 years in jail for the 2004 murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio in 2013.
The disgraced former Bolingbrook, Illinois police officer is also suspected of killing his fourth wife Stacy Ann Peterson, who disappeared on October 28, 2007 at age 23.
She is presumed dead, although her body has never been found. Peterson insists that Stacy ran away.
Peterson has also been sentenced to 40 years after he was convicted of a plot to kill James Glasgow , the prosecutor who helped put him behind bars in 2016.
In a later part of the interview, Banfield asks him if his 'fourth wife is dead' to which he replies that he 'doesn't know'.
When asked about what he thinks happened to Stacy, Peterson says: 'I believe see, if you look into her life, her mother did the same thing.
'Her mother did the same thing and disappeared like that. Stacy always loved and admired her mother. So, if Stacy did what her mother did. I could believe that all day long.'
In 1998, Stacy's mother, Christie Marie Cales, was last seen strolling a street at 4.30pm in the Chicago suburb of Blue Island before going missing.
Her boyfriend told authorities that Cales had left and never returned but Stacy's surviving siblings insist she was murdered.
Stacy and Peterson pictured together during their relationship
After Stacy (pictured with Peterson) went missing, Savio's case was reopened
Peterson also talked about Savio and described her as 'boisterous and combative' during the interview.
'Kathy, my third wife, she’d fight at the snap of a finger, she’d just want to argue all the time. She was a very, what's the word? Well, she was very Italian. She was very boisterous, very combative. It had to be her way or no way. And I didn't really put up with that,' the murderer said.
When questioned why he won't confess to his crimes, Peterson said he did not want his 'children to think he killed their mothers'.
Benfield inquired: 'You're definitely not going to live to 127, that's for sure. So, what's the downside of just laying it all out there? What's the downside of just saying at all?'
Peterson then explained: 'What's the downside? I'm not wanting my children to believe that I killed their mothers. I do not want my kids to think that that about me.'
After hearing his response, the journalist said: 'it sounds like you did do that and you just don't want them to know.'
Savio's body was exhumed and later ruled a homicide
Peterson is due for parole in 2047 at age 93
But the murderer quickly hit back and said: 'No, I didn't do that. I want them to know the truth and believe the truth.'
Peterson also went into detail about his life in prison and said he has befriended 'murderers and child molesters.'
'So, some of your friends who you've been able to make inside here in protective custody, are murderers and child molesters,' Benfield asks, to which Peterson responds: 'Sure.'
He also revealed that he and his friends do not talk about their crimes and he has no opinion on which of them is guilty of their crimes.
When questioned why he won't confess to his crimes, Peterson said he did not want his 'children to think he killed their mothers'
He also revealed that he and his friends do not talk about their crimes and he has no opinion on which of them is guilty
Stacy disappeared four years after Savio was found dead in a bathtub.
The pair began dating when Stacy was only a teenager, something Savio found out about after receiving an anonymous letter in the mail in 2001.
'She called me and she said, 'I got a letter, and it said– he was having an affair, and she was a laughingstock,' Sue Doman, Savio's sister, told Dateline.
'The thing that really stood out with Kathleen was that [Stacy] was a baby. She said, 'I don't understand why he would do this.''
Savio wanted a divorce following the revelation and demanded half the investment in the house and half of Peterson's pension.
During his trial, prosecutors claimed Peterson killed Savio because he feared their pending divorce settlement would wipe him out financially.
When Savio, 40, was found dead, she had a two-inch gash to the back of her head and the tub she was in was dry. But police at the time deemed her death an accident, believing she had slipped and fallen.
Peterson began dating Stacy when she was only a teenager, something Savio found out about after receiving an anonymous letter in the mail in 2001
A former co-worker of Peterson's claimed that the cop had offered him $25,000 to hire a hitman to kill Savio, although he had never followed through
After Stacy disappeared, authorities became increasingly suspicious of Peterson.
Savio's body was exhumed and her death was reclassified as a homicide. Peterson was arrested in May 2009.
A friend testified that Savio told her Peterson once pointed a knife at her and said 'I could kill you and make it look like an accident.'
A former co-worker of Peterson's claimed that the cop had offered him $25,000 to hire a hitman to kill Savio, although he had never followed through.
Peterson is due for parole in 2047 at age 93.
