Career
Peernock was a former pyrotechnics engineer and California state employee with the Department of Water Resources who claimed he was framed because he was about to publish a book exposing state corruption. Claire had been driving Peernock"s car, a 1971 Cadillac, when the car struck a utility pole. The interior of the car was found to have been soaked with gasoline, with Claire and Natasha also covered with the fluid.
lieutenant was found that an explosive device had been placed on the gas tank rigged to explode, but that it had failed to detonate.
Claire died from head wounds that were termed "inconsistent" with a traffic accident and Natasha was severely injured, but survived. Peernock"s girlfriend was charged with accessory to murder for assisting him with his finances between July 30 and his arrest on September 4, 1987.
The charge against her was later dropped. The case went to trial in 1991 after Peernock underwent several psychiatric examinations to establish whether or not he was competent to stand trial.
During the trial, Natasha testified that her father had restrained her with handcuffs and force-federal her "large quantities of liquor" 12 hours before the crash.
In the middle of the trial, Peernock attempted to fire his attorney Donald J. Green, stating that Green was "working to rig a conviction." During his testimony at his trial, he attempted to strangle Richman as Richman was cross-examining him, only to be stopped & removed from the courtroom by the bailiffs. On October 23, 1991, Peernock was convicted of the charges of murder, upon which Peernock told the court he was innocent and demanded a second trial. Several times during the reading of the verdict Peernock was removed from the courtroom due to outbursts, with the judge eventually ordering him to be handcuffed and gagged with duct tape while in the courtroom.
During the trial, he accused Judge Schwab of conspiring with several others to gain access to Peernock"s finances.
An unrelated search of Peernock"s jail cell uncovered a list of names and addresses of jurors. The discovery prompted Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich to request a ban on juror contact.
The murder was also the subject of a 2001 episode titled "Short Fuse" in the Discovery Channel series "Prosecutors: In Pursuit of Justice."
He was also the subject of a 2015 Investigation Discovery documentary called "A Checklist for Murder".
