Rogue Lawman Drew Peterson: Weeping Wife-Slayer Can't Escape Justice (FPD CASE VAULT)

As he was sentenced to 38 years behind bars for murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio, cowardly cop Drew Peterson whimpered like a baby.

"I don't deserve this," he sobbed, desperately pleading for mercy.

Said Prosecutor James Glasgow: "I've never seen a more pathetic display."

The pitiful outburst was a fitting end to a case that gripped the nation since October 2007, when Peterson's fourth wife and mother of his two kids, Stacy, vanished. Peterson, 59, quickly became the prime suspect.

Still, the cocky police sergeant from Bolingbrook, Ill., seemed to taunt authorities. But it was the suspicious death of his third wife, Kathleen, that ultimately did him in.

Peterson was 47 years old and still wed to Kathleen when he began hitting on 17-year-old Stacy. He married her in October 2003, just eight days after divorcing Kathleen.

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Then, in 2004, Kathleen, 40, was found dead at home in an empty bathtub. Even though she had a gash on her head, it was initially ruled an accidental drowning.

Meanwhile, cops believe he killed Stacy because she knew about him murdering Kathleen, but her body has never been found.

After Stacy mysteriously disappeared, Savio's case was reopened and a second autopsy ruled her death to be a homicide, leading to Peterson's conviction.