In the local section of this morning’s newspaper there was a story. A man shot his wife in the head on Sunday, killing her and their unborn child. He fled to Ohio where he was arrested yesterday. It seems to me that stories like this are pretty common. At least once a month I read about someone killing his wife or, more rarely, a woman killing her husband. Some of the features might be distinctive – in one recent killing, the wife was the well-loved and respected principal of a Montessori school; in another case, the man went to the church where his wife was playing the organ at choir practice – but the baseline story remains the same: someone decides to kill his or her spouse.
Scott Peterson has been getting a lot of attention on this message board and in the media in general. Some people have tried to claim he’s a particular form of evil. I’m not so sure. How different is he from the man in today’s paper who shot his wife as she was driving away? For that matter, is he so very different from the man currently being Pitted who’s given his wife at least two black eyes? I’ve no doubt that Scott Peterson is evil; I’m just not sure he’s a particularly different or distinctive kind of evil. He was luckier than some – he avoided capture longer and got more sympathetic coverage – but I don’t see him as all that different.
I’m interested in reading what the rest of you think.
I’m fairly convinced the case got the media play it did at least in part because they were both white and good-looking. Not that Laci’s death wasn’t a tragedy, but if she hadn’t been pretty, I doubt so many people would have cared.
I thought the reason for the interest was that it was a murder that happened on Christmas Eve (if I recall correctly). I guess it caught the public’s imagination…
Laci was a missing person for awhile, before her body was found. And missing people (especially rich white ones) tend to get a lot of press as the police and family members try to get people to call in with clues to thier wearabouts. As it became clear that Scott was a suspect, the media attention naturally followed through to his trial.
Actually, Scott Peterson is unusual in that he got the death penalty. It is relatively less common to be sentenced to death if you kill someone known to you.
IIRC, the strongest correlation for receiving the DP is if you kill a stranger. Which is why the death penalty is relatively uncommon, even in states which have it on the books. Most victims of violent crime know their attackers.
Probably true. I think the circumstances of the Peterson murder made him appear to be worse than the average murderer - the victim was pregnant. And pretty, and white, which makes her both more sympathetic and more unusual, and makes her killer look worse.
Not that it makes any moral difference if Laci had been fifty years old and had one eye and no teeth. But I suspect people feel more threatened by a murder if they cannot find any way to distinguish themselves from the victim - in appearance, in actions, in something.
“That can’t happen to me, because I don’t get drunk and go home with strange men.” as opposed to “She just wanted to have her baby”. If you see what I mean.
Several months back, someone posted a link to an article citing statistics that showed that pregnant women are murdered at an unusually high rate. The fact usually doesn’t get publicized because the pregnancy is usually in the early stages, so it would merit nothing more than a note on a coroner’s report. I’d be grateful if someone better with search engines than I could dig it up for me.
I think the Peterson case in unusual in the fact that Laci’s pregnancy was so advanced, and the baby was apparently wanted by both mother and father- at least until Scott found a piece of ass he liked better.
The Scott Peterson murder story did have some unusual aspects, but it wasn’t all that unusual.
The really unusual Peterson murder case was the other one broadcast live by court TV last year. The Michael Peterson trial and the events of the crime, were down right bizarre. I won’t hijack the thread further by listing a dozen such items, those who followed it will remember and those who didn’t follow it wouldn’t believe it anyway.
Oh, if every gang murder and kidnapped child recieved as much attention as those few cases where the media latches on like leeches… I don’t think it was a “special” case. It was just one that media fixated on. Things like that happen every day. Things WORSE than that happen every day - but no one really seems to notice unless the media does.
This also applies to global news - genocide in Yugoslave vs. genocide in Sudan or genocide in Iraq 15 years ago or genocide in Cambodia etc etc… for every case where we do pay attention, there are many more we never hear about (whether that is because the American media beast is irresponsible, or because we don’t care, or because we try to block it out is up for debate).
I don’t think it is just that he murdered his pregnant wife, but that he failed to react to his situation like a feeling person would.
He showed no remorse for killing her. He did not seem distressed at her disappearance. He immediately tried to date another. When the police found the bodies, he dyed his hair and cooly fled the country. In the court he was not just stoic, but came off as nearly indifferent. So, not only did he murder, he did not seem upset about it. Most people can imagine becoming angry enough to do someything they would regret to a loved one, whether it is just saying something unkind, or snapping at them or physical violence. But the key is regret. He did not seem to regret his actions.
Most people can also imagine being accused unjustly of some crime. I think most would imagine some emotion whether it be anger at the unjust accusation, or utter depression at the hopeless ness of the situation or complete panic. I don’t think very many can seriously imagine behaving as he did after the murder, whether or not he did it. His lack of emotion makes him seem more like a fiend in human form than a person.
Thanks, Stuffy, that was the post I was looking for. I seem to recall reading a longer and more detailed article on the subject, but that has apparently been lost to the mists of time.
I don’t think it’s all because they were “white and rich.” First of all, I was under the impression Laci Peterson was Hispanic, not white. Her maiden name was Rocha. She certainly looks as if she could have been Hispanic.
Four fairly attractive, young, upper-class white people killed by two black males. This story was far from a national headline. I don’t think many people heard about it at all, besides in Kansas where it took place. The rich/white/young or whatever formula doesn’t work here.
I think the main reason this got so much attention was not Laci Peterson’s looks, it was Scott Peterson’s. We rarely see handsome male killers. The Lori Hacking murder came and went pretty fast compared to the Peterson murder, because Mark Hacking isn’t a handsome-looking guy.
If Scott Peterson was fat and dumpy looking, this trial wouldn’t have gotten so much damn attention.
Well, given that most men don’t kill their wives, yes.
As far as a criminal? No, not really. He’s stupid, for one thing: most criminals are. Arrogant, amoral, narcissistic, selfish. Nothing new here.
It got the attention it did because he’s cute and Laci was beautiful. If Laci had been a 250 pound low-income woman from Mississippi, we never would have heard a peep about it. The world is only interested in pretty victims.
As far as him being a “special” brand of evil: well, kind of. When he killed Laci he knew he was killing not one but two people. That baby was completely innocent and totally 100% helpless. The fact that he killed them, threw them away like trash and never showed remorse shows me that yeah, he’s got a heart of stone.
Someone mentioned on the radio news program that the #1 cause of death for pregnant women was being murdered by the father. Not sure if (a) that’s true, or (b) how that fits in with the “most men don’t kill their wives” meme.
So was the baby who was killed a few hundred miles from you last Sunday, less than two weeks before Christmas. As far as I know, the man who killed him showed no remorse, nor have I read of any from the other men I mentioned in the OP. Then again, their trials won’t get national news coverage.
Men kill their wives every day. Men kill their pregnant wives every day. Check out the link Stuffy provided. I was stunned when I read about a man deliberately going to a church to kill his wife, I guess because he knew where she’d be and that she’d be vulnerable. Is Scott Peterson really more evil than this man?
Sure, Scott Peterson is more evil than the average human being, and I’m very glad most men aren’t like him. The question is, is he any more evil than any man or woman who decides to murder his or spouse? To me, he’s not. I’d say what I think of them, but if I did, we’d be heading for the Pit.
…not wanting to hijack the thread, but can I ask how a normal, feeling person would act? Back in 2000, Christine Lundy and her seven year old daughter Amber, were horrificly murdered in their home with a tomahawk. The husband, Mark Lundy was in absolute grief at the funeral, was in tears, he acted, well, I suppose the way you would expect a grieving person to act. Six months later, he was arrested for their murders. Is there a way I should act, lest I be arrested for murder, to help people know I’m innocent?
The point being, there are also lots and lots and lots of men who don’t kill their wives, pregnant or not, every day. This means Scott Pederson, as well as the other instances mentioned, are still the vast minority of husband-wife relationships…
In addition to the fact that Laci was attractive, I think a good part of the attention that this case received was because it took so long to find her body. Had they discovered her within hours or days of her disappearance, then I think the story would have faded away. Because she was pregnant and it was Christmas Eve, it was immediately clear that she was unlikely to have left willingly, and with the perception of a heavily pregnant woman as vunerable, many people got involved in trying to find her. As time wore on and things like Scott’s infidelity came to light, the story became more interesting to people and Scott’s involvement in Laci’s disappearance started to look likely. A pretty pregnant woman is a very sympathetic character, and Scott came across as a complete louse, so a big attraction to the story was the hope of “catching the bastard out” as well as finding out what he did with her.
If it hadn’t been Christmas Eve, if she hadn’t been pregnant, if she wasn’t attractive, if she had been found sooner, if Scott hadn’t been exposed as a cheating husband… then maybe none of us would have ever heard of Laci Peterson.