Days after the attack, Marjorie Knoller appeared on "Good Morning America." When asked if she felt responsible for the attack, she replied, "not at all."

"I wouldn't say that it was an attack, and I did everything that was humanly possible," she said.

It was just one of numerous public statements she made to the press — an action lawyers usually advise criminal defendants against.

Noel

Noel not only made public statements that suggested Whipple was partly to blame, but he also denounced District Attorney Terence Hallinan, whose office was still investigating the case.

"I would not be surprised if Terence Hallinan went off half-cocked as he usually does," Noel said during a press conference held outside Pelican Bay State Prison. "Mr. Hallinan has proven he is not a reasonable prosecutor and is a disgrace to the office."

That wasn't all Noel had to say to Hallinan. In an 18-page letter to the prosecutor's office, Noel goes on to blame Whipple for possibly attracting the dog

District Attorney Terence Hallinan

s, speculating that she was either wearing perfume or even taking steroids.

"All she had to do was close the door," he wrote. "I would not think a reasonable person under those circumstances would crawl back into the hall and face the dog or to come back out of a position of safety."

It wasn't the only letter to get Noel in hot water. A letter written by Noel dated 15 days before the attack refers to Whipple as a "timorous mousy blonde."

While most defense lawyers usually advise those facing criminal charges against testifying before a grand jury, the lawyers did just that.

Prior to Knoller's testimony, she made yet another statement to the press, denying that she ever blamed Whipple, but still insisting that she didn't "know why she did what she did in not assisting me in protecting her."

But on the stand, Knoller also admitted that she fumbled for her keys following the attack, leading a grand jury to return a second-degree murder indictment against her — far from the image of the "nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn" her lawyer paints of her.

The Early Years

Knoller was adopted as an infant by a dentist and a homemaker who was a former beauty pageant queen. The introverted Knoller went to Brooklyn College and then moved to the West Coast to attend McGeorge School of Law.

Knoller

Noel was raised just outside of Baltimore. Both his father, a pipe fitter, and his sister died of cancer when Noel was young. His mother then moved the family to a tobacco farm and remarried.

Noel earned his undergraduate and law school degrees from the University of Baltimore. His legal career was jump started by prestigious stints for the U.S. Department of Justice and as a federal prosecutor, followed by jobs at two top law firms.

He was married to his first wife for 23 years and had three children — but as adults his children cut off their workaholic father.

Knoller was working as a paralegal for a San Francisco firm in 1987, studying to pass the bar, when she met Noel.

Though Noel was married to his second wife at the time, he reportedly divorced his wife of 20 months for Knoller, who was 14 years his junior. Knoller also sought a divorce from her first husband, though the cause of the breakup is unclear.

Noel

Noel and Knoller married after their divorces were finalized, and Noel converted to Knoller's Jewish faith. Knoller obtained her law license in 1992, and the two started a law practice that they ran from their 800-square-foot apartment in the Pacific Heights apartment building where Whipple also lived.

Far from the boutique firms they formerly worked in, the couple now took minor cases, but developed a niche defending prison guards against management.

The two became known by colleagues for their verbose letters, and by their landlords for their lawsuits over seemingly petty issues. One suit that stemmed from a shower head that needed repairing was seeking $50,000 in damages because one of the repairmen spoke to them in a German accent. Though the repairman was from Germany, Noel charged that he intentionally used the accent to offend his Jewish faith.

Even from prison, Noel has not rested in his civil pursuits. Noel announced he would file a $100 million suit against the California Dept. of Corrections for violations of privacy, loss of income and defamation. And he and Knoller continue to take up the causes of their newly adopted son, Paul "Cornfed" Schneider.

Next: Part IV — The stork delivers "Cornfed"