# Scott Peterson is getting "love" letters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 17, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445 "2003-06-17T13:12:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/1 "2003-06-17T13:12:17Z")
I don’t claim to understand women, but c’mon. The guy is accused of killing his pregnant wife. > [@](#): > > It’s not uncommon for young men accused of terrible crimes to receive letters from female admirers, said Jeanette Sereno, a criminal justice professor at California State University, Stanislaus. > > `If you don't see him as responsible for the (slayings), he's a very sympathetic young man, someone the whole world is against,'' Sereno said. `People out there have a need to come to the rescue of someone beleaguered.’’ The details of the crime are here:[Peterson](http://www.local6.com/news/2271247/detail.html) Even if he didn’t do it, wouldn’t it make sense to wait and see? Besides, he was **cheating** on her, hardly a great catch. My question, I guess is what would cause any _normal_ woman to contact this guy? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/2 "2003-06-17T13:26:09Z")
_Normal_ women wouldn’t—but it’s a well-known phenomenon for women to court prisoners; there was even an A&E special on it recently. Remember, Ted Bundy _got married_ in prison! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/3 "2003-06-17T13:36:00Z")
**Eve** is right, it’s as common as mud in these cases. I’m too lazy to check, but dig around in Crime Library, & you’ll find plenty of examples, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![musicguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@musicguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/musicguy)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/4 "2003-06-17T13:56:37Z")
I remember when they caught Richard Ramirez, the infamous “Night Stalker” serial killer in Southern California. This person had raped children and elderly people, cut peoples eyes out, and shot or stabbed everyone to death. When he got to prison, he had a very loyal “fan club”, including a woman who was desperate to marry him. Granted, he was no real danger to _her_. Nobody was ever going to let him out of prison. Still, I found it disgusting that someone would fall in love with him and I feel the same way in this case. Geez women, what are you thinking??? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/5 "2003-06-17T14:06:42Z")
Remember, these are _seriously_ emotionally disturbed women we’re talking about, here . . . I doubt The Woman On the Street (no, _that_ doesn’t sound right . . .) has scrapbooks of Scott Peterson or a Menendez Brothers lunchbox. ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/6 "2003-06-17T14:11:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by musicguy \* > \*\*I remember when they caught Richard Ramirez, the infamous “Night Stalker” serial killer in Southern California. This person had raped children and elderly people, cut peoples eyes out, and shot or stabbed everyone to death. > > When he got to prison, he had a very loyal “fan club”, including a woman who was desperate to marry him. Granted, he was no real danger to _her_. Nobody was ever going to let him out of prison. > > Still, I found it disgusting that someone would fall in love with him and I feel the same way in this case. Geez women, what are you thinking??? \*\* Yeah, that’s the thing that strikes me about this case, the ‘evidence’ against Peterson, isn’t very strong, there’s a good chance he’ll get off. Bundy wasn’t going anywhere. I guess like the women dating OJ, they figure has long as they don’t push him into a corner, he won’t kill them. Maybe they’ll be the one to ‘change’ him…living dangerously and all that. Even discounting the murders, OJ is a wife beater, yet there’s an abundance of women who seem to have no problem with him. I can see Peterson getting off and in six months dating “model” types. What’s the deal? Is is the money? The chance to have 15 minutes? Are they (the women) all \*damaged?\*I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/7 "2003-06-17T14:20:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Remember, these are _seriously_ emotionally disturbed women we’re talking about, here . . . I doubt The Woman On the Street (no, _that_ doesn’t sound right . . .) has scrapbooks of Scott Peterson or a Menendez Brothers lunchbox. \*\* **Eve** I agree with you that some of these women need help…but all of them? I’ll bring up OJ again as an example, do you think the women dating OJ are emotionally disturbed or are looking for the ‘nicer’ things in life? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/8 "2003-06-17T14:27:25Z")
Hmmm. Maybe _that’s_ what I need to do! Commit some kind of weird high profile crime, that gets me lots of media attention, and then I’ll finally find a woman willing to settle down with me. (Gotta wonder what kind of marriage proposals the guy who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart’s been getting.) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/9 "2003-06-17T16:58:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by holmes \* > \*\*I don’t claim to understand women, but c’mon. The guy is accused of killing his pregnant wife. > > Even if he didn’t do it, wouldn’t it make sense to wait and see? Besides, he was **cheating** on her, hardly a great catch. > > \*\* Note that word “accused”- as Holmes pointed out, they haven’t released any evidence yet that is at all convincing. Right now, it seems like the only reason they chacrged him is that the case was so high profile they felt they had to. Sure, he did cheat on her. OTOH, he seems to have been otherwise a good husband- supported her well, no abuse. He is good looking, fit, and not poor. Many women have settled for less. However, it would seem that these women are not “normal”. After he is aquited, then… ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/10 "2003-06-17T19:36:28Z")
I imagine part of the appeal is just the notoreity – Scott Peterson’s in the news a lot, and a segment of the population is inclined to support _anyone_ who’s high-profile. Anyone remember the segment on Michael Moore’s **TV Nation** where they sent out junk mail to regular folks, trying to raise funds for serial killers – and got a couple’a hundred dollars in response? Compared to that, love letters to Scott Peterson seems trivial IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/11 "2003-06-17T21:15:07Z")
These women, I suspect, suffer from extreeemely low self-esteem. If nobody wants them, why not go after someone nobody but them wants? It’s a creepy hybrid of teen idol worship and the bad boy allure. While I don’t think all of these women want publicity, they probably like the thrill of the situation yet the relative safety of it- devoting themselves to an abandoned man, spending money to free him (although I can’t imagine what would happen if that really happened…), secure in knowing that he isn’t off cheating (at least not with other women, although many prisoners have multiple penpals that don’t know about each other). ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/12 "2003-06-18T04:20:06Z")
The late comedian Bill Hicks did a routine referring to Bundy’s marriage proposals, commenting, “… and I’m not getting laid!” ---
**Author:** ![Mith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Mith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mith)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/13 "2003-06-18T12:13:30Z")
Cat Fight, I don’t agree with you saying that they have low self esteem, as a whole. A daughter of my mom’s friend wrote faithfully to a man in jail for a little over a year. She enjoyed the writing, enjoyed the fantasy of ‘what could be’, enjoyed his dependance on her, and most of all, enjoyed the safety. She had been raped 2 years before she started her correspondence with the jailbird. SHe very much liked the idea of having someone special to think about… AS well as never having to deal with the physical aspects of a romantic relationship. Their entire relationship was fansty, romanitc poems, and dreaming with a sense of unity (us against the system, us against the odds). This, at that time, was all she wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Mith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Mith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mith)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/14 "2003-06-18T12:20:10Z")
Just thinking about this further, I can see why it woudl appeal to many women… and men. ‘Making friends with the enemy’, perhaps finally having a sense of power in a relationship, a total sense of being important and wanted (even if just to write letters and for visits) as well as some twisted sense of being a martyrdom (forgiving the unforgiveable and sacraficying their right to a healthy relationship in order to prove it), they’d never worry about being physically abused or cheated on, and they may get media attention a lot of THAT is what we all want… attention and acceptance. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/15 "2003-06-18T12:56:19Z")
. . . And the prisoners use them for all they’re worth. That A&E show noted that these guys are usually corresponding with about 20 “soul mates,” and getting money and gifts from them. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scott-peterson-is-getting-love-letters/182445/16 "2003-06-18T17:00:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mith \* > \*\*Just thinking about this further, I can see why it woudl appeal to many women… and men. > ‘Making friends with the enemy’, perhaps finally having a sense of power in a relationship, a total sense of being important and wanted (even if just to write letters and for visits) as well as some twisted sense of being a martyrdom (forgiving the unforgiveable and sacraficying their right to a healthy relationship in order to prove it), they’d never worry about being physically abused or cheated on, and they may get media attention > > a lot of THAT is what we all want… attention and acceptance. \*\* Oh, come on, the reason _men_ write to women in prison is pretty obvious. That whole bondage thing, women being locked up with other women 24/7 and we all “know” what happens in men’s prisons, so the same thing “must” be happening in women’s prisons…(After all, the highest rated episode of _Charlie’s Angels_ was the one where they went to prison!)