'Living the dream': Drew Peterson speaks to FOX 32 from behind bars

CHICAGO - Next month will mark ten years since Drew Peterson was arrested for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

The former Bolingbrook police sergeant is now serving almost 80 years in prison for Savio's murder and a separate murder-for-hire scheme.

On May 7th, 2009, Peterson was cornered by police a few blocks from his west suburban home. He's been behind bars ever since, serving 38 years for murdering his third wife, 40-year-old Kathleen Savio, and 40 years for scheming from prison to murder Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow.

"Living the dream" -- that's how Peterson jokingly described life inside the maximum security federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was moved there from a state prison in Menard after his murder-for-hire plot to kill the state's attorney suggested he was a threat to prison security. He seems thrilled by the transfer from Menard.

“It was dirty. The mattresses I had, the pillow I had, you wouldn't put your dog on it. It was terrible. Urine and defecation spread on the walls. It was a horrible, horrible place. Then I come to the federal place and it's comparatively like a day care center,” Peterson said.

During FOX 32’s two separate 15-minute interviews, it was apparent that over the last decade, Peterson has not wavered regarding his innocence.

“I didn't murder Kathy and I didn't murder Stacy,” Peterson told FOX 32’s Larry Yellen over the phone.

Stacy, of course, was Peterson's fourth wife. The 23-year-old disappeared in October of 2007 -- four years after Savio was found dead in a dry bathtub. When Stacy disappeared, Peterson claimed she ran off with another man. It's now been almost 12 years since she disappeared.

In response to FOX 32 asking if Stacy were still alive, wouldn’t she have appeared someplace, Peterson said, “Well, there's been all kinds of cases of a woman coming back years after, as much as 10 or 12 years afterward.”

We asked Peterson if there's anything he would have done differently over the years.

“I would have stayed a bachelor for sure. It's just like every time I fell in love with somebody and tried to make a life with them, things didn't work out,” Peterson said.

The one-time Bolingbrook "Police Officer of the Year" said that unlike some notorious killers, he's had no prison romances with women inside or outside the prison.

“I love women. I just don’t have access to them here,” he said.

The 65-year-old Peterson says he's in good health, and makes $20 a month working in the prison laundry. He watches sitcoms and movies, and he keeps in touch with his kids and is proud that two of six children have recently graduated from well-known colleges. He also follows national politics.

“I like, I like Don Trump. I think what happens is this country needed a businessman running it, they didn't need another politician doing political things,” Peterson said.

Peterson is still appealing his murder-for-hire conviction in the state courts. His appeal to the U.S. Supreme court in the Savio case was turned down, so now he's going to challenge it in the federal courts. In both cases, he blames his defense attorneys for bungling his defense.