Rick Nagel

A Patch Editor's Love Letter to His Wife, on Valentine's Day

Happy 20th anniversary, Paula. I love you.

About 24 years ago, when I was working as the managing editor of Press-Republican Newspapers, I was surprised to find a valentine in the mailbox at Fifth and Peyton. In it was a note from the little sister of a longtime high school friend—skillfully written, with just the right doses of flirtation and humor, and I was intrigued. So I screwed up my courage, called her, and we agreed to a date. We went to Ristorante Chianti for dinner and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure afterward, but it was in between the two that Paula Mary Williams got the first hint of the destiny her valentine had set in motion. Since we had some time to kill before the movie, I asked if she would mind going with me to a shindig announcing the election campaign of …

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Area News: Drew Peterson Pours His Heart Out in Letters Written to Girl Half His Age

“In all my relationships, I treated my partners like gold and spoiled them, which was probably a big mistake on my part,” Peterson wrote in one.

Apparently, you can lock Drew Peterson up for years, but you can’t stop him from sweet-talking the ladies on the outside. Peterson, the 58-year-old former Bolingbrook cop, accused killer and serial marrier charged with murdering one wife and suspected by the Illinois State Police of having a hand in another's disappearance, sent love letters from jail to a 26-year-old DuPage County woman throughout the spring of 2010. “Hello my love,” Peterson wrote to the young woman in one of the letters recently given to Patch. “I really miss you and keep dreaming about holding you … “You still got my heart and I hope you still (have) mine.” The lovestruck Peterson’s letters, all written in pencil on lined notebook paper, depict visions of romance, …

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