FEMALES 'FLOCK' TO LACI HUBBY

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June 16, 2003 -- Slay suspect Scott Peterson has won a legion of female admirers who deluge him with encouraging letters as he awaits trial for allegedly murdering his wife and unborn son, it was reported yesterday.

Peterson's California jail cell is literally littered with supportive letters from women - including one who's doing hard time for killing her husband, the Modesto Bee reports.

Criminal-justice expert Jeanette Sereno told the paper, "If you don't see him as responsible for the [slayings], he's a very sympathetic young man, someone who the whole world is against.

Prison officials have already acknowledged the possibility of a real physical threat against Peterson, who is accused of killing pregnant wife Laci just before Christmas and their unborn son, Connor.

Guards at the jail where he is being held near Modesto make sure his food tray is picked randomly from a stack in case of a poisoning attempt.

Officials also change the times of his rooftop exercise sessions to reduce the chances of a possible sniper attack.

When he is brought to and from the roof, inmates whose cells he must pass along the way also are temporarily removed so that they can't try to assault him.

Details of Peterson's jail stay came as another report said he had been caught on phone tapes, just after his pregnant wife vanished, repeatedly trying to talk a lover into handing over damning snapshots of them.

Peterson, unaware that girlfriend Amber Frey's cell phone was being tapped by cops, obsessively bombarded her with calls up to four times a day in early January - always opening their conversations with the same, gushy "I love you," sources familiar with the phone transcripts told Newsweek.

Scott Peterson fetching loads of letters, special precautions, in jail

ASSOCIATED PRESS 11:20 a.m., June 15, 2003

MODESTO – Since his arrest mearly two months ago, Scott Peterson has amassed an unusually thick stack of letters – many of them from women – in his single-person jail cell, according to a newspaper report.

A fellow jail inmate of Peterson's told the Modesto Bee that one of Peterson's female correspondents is an inmate serving time at a state prison for women in Chowchilla for murdering her husband. A guard read the letter aloud, according to the inmate, Chris Young, 29.

Peterson is awaiting trial in the Stanislaus County jail on charges he murdered his pregnant wife, Laci, and the couple's unborn son. He has pleaded not guilty to double-murder charges that make him eligible for the death penalty.

Deputy Tom Letras, a Sheriff's Department spokesman, confirmed that Peterson gets a lot more mail than most jail inmates, but wouldn't comment on who the senders are.

But Jeanette Sereno, a criminal justice professor at California State University, Stanislaus, says it's not uncommon for young men who have been accused of terrible crimes to receive letters from female admirers.

"(Peterson) is a young, attractive man who has yet to be found guilty," Sereno said. "If you don't see him as responsible for the (slayings), he's a very sympathetic young man, someone the whole world is against. People out there have a need to come to the rescue of someone beleaguered."

Young, who faces trial next month on multiple felony charges stemming from a high-speed chase, said he briefly had contact with Peterson while serving meals at the Stanislaus County jail, and noticed that extra security precautions have been taken to ensure Peterson's safety.

For instance, Peterson is escorted to twice-weekly solitary sessions at an outdoor recreation yard at varying times to reduce chances that he will be attacked. Inmates on meal duty have been told to select Peterson's trays randomly – to avoid poisoning, Young said.

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Peterson case: Phone talks with woman described

Posted on Mon, Jun. 16, 2003

Peterson case: Phone talks with woman described

Mercury News Wire Services

Although he called his lover three to four times a day during January, Scott Peterson revealed nothing that would indicate he killed his pregnant wife and unborn son, according to a report in this week's Newsweek magazine.

In those conversations, according to Newsweek, Peterson asks Amber Frey for snapshots of the two taken at a Christmas party, and tells Frey that he loves her. But the wiretaps, which Frey requested of police after the Christmas Eve disappearance of Laci Peterson became public, are inconclusive as evidence in a homicide case, the magazine says.

Newsweek says it obtained information contained on the tapes before a gag ruling was imposed in the case last week.

The Modesto Bee, meanwhile, also using information it says it gathered before the gag order, reports that Peterson is receiving stacks of letters in jail, many of them from women.

A fellow inmate told the Bee that Peterson's correspondents include a woman serving time for murdering her husband. A guard read the letter aloud, inmate Chris Young said.

Peterson has pleaded not guilty to double-murder charges that make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Late last week, a judge issued the gag order barring lawyers, witnesses and police officers from publicly discussing details of the case. Judge Al Girolami said the gag order was the only way to stop leaks and rumors from derailing Scott Peterson's right to a fair trial.

Stanislaus County sheriff's deputy Tom Letras confirmed that Peterson gets more mail than most inmates, but would not elaborate.

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, Sereno said, ``he's a very sympathetic young man, someone the whole world is against. People out there have a need to come to the rescue of someone beleaguered.''

Young, 29, also told the newspaper that extra security precautions have been taken at the Stanislaus County Jail to ensure Peterson's safety. For instance, inmates on meal duty have been told to select Peterson's trays randomly to avoid poisoning, he said.

Peterson was arrested after his wife's body and the remains of their unborn son washed ashore in San Francisco Bay.........

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Peterson-Frey Wiretaps Reveal Little Hard Evidence

POSTED: 3:56 p.m. PDT June 15, 2003
UPDATED: 9:10 p.m. PDT June 15, 2003

MODESTO, Calif. -- Since his arrest nearly two months ago, Scott Peterson has amassed an unusually thick stack of letters -- many of them from women -- in his single-person jail cell, according to a newspaper report.

Video

Analysis: Assistant San Francisco D.A. Jim Hammer And Defense Attorney Bob Moore Discuss Gag Order

Another report -- in Monday's edition of Newsweek -- reveals that wiretaps between Scott Peterson and his one-time mistress Amber Frey have yielded very little hard evidence in proving that the Modesto fertilizer salesman killed his pregnant wife at the couple's home on Christmas Eve.

Newsweek reporters -- San Francisco Bureau Chief Karen Breslau and Los Angeles correspondent Andrew Murr -- were leaked information about the wiretaps before Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami slapped a gag order on the case last Thursday.

In the information they received, the Newsweek reporters said Scott never lost his temper with Amber, told the Fresno woman he loved her and was desperately trying to get pictures from her of the couple at a Fresno-area Christmas party before they became public.

The magazine also offered a different view of Frey -- that of a young woman who thought about going to the Peace Corp before finding work as a pre-school teacher in Fresno. At a local church where Frey attends services regularly; the pastor tells Newsweek that "Amber has a real desire to become the person God wants her to be."

Frey once again found herself in the center of a controversy not of her own making on Friday when Mark Geragos, the famed defense attorney representing Scott Peterson, filed court papers asking Girolami to lift his gag order and charge attorney Gloria Allred with contempt of court.

Geragos claims that Allred, who is representing Frey, violated the judge's gag order within hours after it was imposed on Thursday afternoon by appearing on Fox News Network's 'On The Record With Greta Van Susteren.'

On the show, Allred said that the court order only extended to Frey as a potential witness and not to her. She discussed several issues in the case including a ruling Thursday by Judge Roger Beauchesne. According to the Modesto Bee, Geragos disagrees and says in his court filing that her appearance was "mocking the authority of this court."

In response, Allred called the action an "attempt to silence" her.

"I think this is an attempt to silence me," Allred said in a faxed statement to the Modesto Bee responding to the defense allegations. "The protective order makes no reference to me, and Mark Geragos knows that."

Citing numerous leaks in the case, Girolami issued the gag order late Thursday.....

Old black magic: Does the defendant of the moment have an antique defense?

Satanic cult theories were all but debunked 15 years ago. Can such a defense work for Scott Peterson?

By Harriet Ryan

Court TV

MODESTO, Calif. — When Jeffrey Victor, a sociologist who studies the occult, learned Scott Peterson's defense team may blame a satanic cult for the murder of his wife and unborn child, he couldn't help but shake his head.

"Not this again, not this nonsense," Victor recalled thinking.

If much of the country seemed intrigued by reports that Laci Peterson's disappearance coincided with a "satanic high holiday" and that her body showed signs of a ritual murder, Victor and others who were on the frontlines during what he calls the "satanic panic" of the late 1980s and early 1990s were more circumspect. To them, Peterson may be the suspect of the moment, but his defense, if he uses it, seems a thing of the past.

"What's being raised in California is kind of a vestige from a national obsession of 15 or so years ago," said anthropologist Phillip Stevens Jr. of the years when allegations of vast, international Satanic cults committing ritual murders and child abuse dominated afternoon talk shows. The allegations resulted in scores of controversial prosecutions and civil suits against day care centers and others.

Back then, Stevens, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, contributed to a report that investigated nearly 12,500 alleged instances of Satanic activity and concluded there was no evidence such cults even existed. He said recently, "This is a non-issue now. It burned itself out. People finally wised up."

Regardless, a satanic connection is being treated seriously by Peterson's lawyers. The defense has pointed to a brown van, reportedly adorned with satanic symbols, seen near the Peterson home, and some witnesses recalled a group of suspicious men, one sporting a 666 tattoo, in the area. After several reports about possible cults in the Modesto area, a young woman stood outside the courthouse last week with a handmade sign reading, "Modestans are not Satanists."

Stanislaus County Sheriff Les Weidman, who began his law enforcement career in 1969, has found himself defending the area's honor.

"I can't think of a single victim from satanism. Categorically, this community is safe. There is no reason to think it is some kind of breeding ground for satanic cults," he said.

Back in the day

Although the Peterson case has revived the discussion about possible satanic influence in crime, the speculation pales when compared to the hysteria that gripped many portions of the country in the late 1980s. Then there were widespread fears that an underground network of Satan worshippers was committing child abuse and murder on a mass scale during elaborate religious rituals.

Although there is some controversy about how the public concern began — and some believe that satanic cults still exist and commit crimes — people who have studied the phenomenon say it resulted partly from a laudable desire to believe accounts of sexual assault victims, especially children. The accounts were influenced by the new "recovered memory" therapy movement, which encouraged adults to use hypnosis and other approaches to remember repressed childhood incidents, especially sexual abuse.

At the panic's height, about 1990, so-called "ritual abuse" experts — often therapists who had treated adults who claimed to have been victims of Satan worship as children — told conferences of law enforcement officials that these cults killed as many as 50,000 people a year and secretly disposed of the bodies through cult-controlled hospitals and mobile crematoriums. Police assigned officers to occult beats, and states issued guidebooks to investigators to interpret satanic evidence at crime scenes.

Talk show hosts, like Geraldo Rivera, devoted show after show to the topic. Guests included women claiming to have spent years as cult "breeders," producing infants for ritual sacrifice, and other cult "survivors" who recalled elaborate rites and systematic molestation.

In several sensational cases, children accused caregivers of sexually abusing them during elaborate satanic rites. In San Diego, police arrested a church volunteer named Dale Akiki after youngsters said he was part of a ring of satanists who physically and sexually assaulted them during rituals marked by torture and the sacrifice of animals, including giraffes and elephants.

"It was the modern version of the witchhunt," said Victor, whose 1993 book "Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend" sought to debunk the conspiracy theory. He was among those who began to question the accounts of alleged victims.

In a widely read adviser paper published in 1992, FBI agent Kenneth Lanning, who worked on ritual abuse cases in the agency's Behavioral Science Unit, noted he could find "little or no corroborative evidence" for the widespread, coordinated murder and abuse alleged. There were simply no bodies, no wire taps, no hidden videos, no concrete proof that even one murder or molestation had been committed as part of a group satanic rite.

"Until hard evidence is obtained and corroborated, the public should not be frightened into believing that babies are being bred and eaten, that 50,000 missing children are being murdered in human sacrifices, or that Satanists are taking over America's day care centers or institutions," Lanning wrote............

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