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Michigan because of his interest in learning the Chinese language—that school, according to Perry, offered an excellent program in Chinese. Perry, majoring in Asian studies, went on to become fluent in the language. He also served on the University of Michigan’s Honors Student Council.
    It was at the University of Michigan that Perry met Janet. They were introduced by Janet’s roommate, and like his father had been attracted to his mother, Perry and Janet hit it off almost instantly. Although Janet missed their first date because she overslept, she and Perry were always together after they finally went out on a date. Janet was capricious and creative, and she was beautiful—all attributes that attracted Perry to her. She could be quirky at times, but she always had a sense of humor, which Perry liked. When Perry graduated in 1983, he had made plans to relocate to Chicago, where he had obtained work as a brokerage house manager trainee. Janet joined him in Chicago approximately six months later, toward the end of the year.
    They lived together in the Windy City for about two years, before deciding to move to Nashville, where Janet’s parents lived. Perry, at one point, decided that he wanted to be a lawyer. He subsequently applied to and was accepted at Vanderbilt University Law School, one of the top-twenty law schools in the United States. Janet’s father, himself a lawyer and fond of Perry, offered to pay Perry’s tuition and expenses while he was at Vanderbilt, even though he and Janet were not yet married. Perry was, of course, ecstatic at such an opportunity and he eagerly accepted the Levines’ generosity.
    It wouldn’t be until 1987, however, that Perry and Janet would wed. Janet had been hoping for years that Perry would propose to her, but when he never did, she took matters into her own hands and proposed to him. They had gone on an outing to Percy Warner Park, not far from the Levines’ home and near to the location of Janet’s future dream house on Blackberry Road. While at the park, Janet knelt on the ground and asked Perry to marry her. He, of course, accepted, and Janet became, in a manner of speaking, Perry’s “golden goose.” What more could he ask for? It was a dream come true, especially on the financial side of things.
    Now that Perry and Janet were finally married, Lawrence and Carolyn Levine wanted to do everything in their power to assist their only daughter as much as possible. According to family friends, Perry had developed a close relationship with Janet’s mother, Carolyn, because of his desire for a mother figure in his life, since his own mother had died when he was only nine. As a result, the Levines gave Janet and Perry money so that they could purchase a house that they both wanted. They wanted so much, they would later say, to help make their daughter happy. At that time they also wanted to help Perry so that he could make a good life with their daughter and provide for her in the manner to which she was accustomed. The house, located on a hill on Thirty-second Avenue, helped a great deal in that regard.
    Perry, by this time, had begun to worry about his father’s financial situation. Arthur’s finances had suddenly put him on a track with hard times ahead. The mortgage company had foreclosed on his Michiana home a year earlier, due to his inability to keep up the payments, and Lawrence Levine, upon hearing of the foreclosure, purchased the property from the mortgage company for $115,000 and allowed Arthur to live in the house, presumably until he could get back on his feet. Records show that Levine terminated Arthur’s lease on the property in early 1987 when Arthur was unable to keep up with the rent payments. Levine sold the house the following year for $144,500, which was $29,500 more than what he paid for it.
    After vacating the Michiana house, where he had lived for years, Arthur moved to Nashville in order to be nearer Perry and Janet. When he first got into town,