Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Why would a man who is seemingly normal, and has never been in any trouble, kill his very pregnant wife and dump her body in the bay? The Scott Peterson trial leaves this question unanswered. Dr. Ablow's book is an attempt to answer it. Ablow, a forensic psychiatrist, presents the thesis that the roots of Peterson's sociopathy lies in the murder of his maternal grandfather sixty years ago. Unable to care for her children, grandmother Peterson placed her four children, including Scott's mother Jackie, then two years old in a Catholic orphange to be raised by nuns and priests who routinely physically and sexually abused them. After leaving the orphanage around the age of 18, Scott's mother had three children out of wedlock with different men who left her. Two of these she placed for adoption. A third she reluctantly raised and then sent away when he began being troublesome. Then along came Lee Peterson who married her and the birth of Scott her "Golden Boy". Raised by a mother who seemingly had not much feeling about the three children she sent away, and a father who left his own children by a previous marriage, Scott developed into a sociopathic monster - hollow at his core. He was incapable of feelings and could only imitate real feelings, which was the reason he appeared emotionally wooden in his behavior after Laci's disappearance. In addition, Ablow argues, Scott was damaged by his separation from his parents when he contracted pneumonia shortly after birth and had to remain in the hospital in an oxygen tent for several weeks. Jackie demanded perfection in her growing boy, thus to survive he had to approximate perfection, deadening himself to who he really was. Ablow argues the closest Scott came to feeling alive was during sex, resulting in his numerous infidelties after marrying Laci. Laci is presented by Ablow as being emotionally shallow, someone who always wanted everything to be 'pretty'. As a result she and Scott were lacking in even the spark of any real emotional connectedness. Then came Amber Frey, who Ablow maintains provided such a spark in the deadened soul of Scott, resulting in what he calls 'a perfect storm' inside him that caused him to kill his pregnant wife. There were very suble hints to others that Scott was unhappy about his impending fatherhood. It took Laci a long time to become pregnant and he indicated he would have preferred her infertility. As a man incapable of feelings, he was unable to feel anything for his soon to be born son. To Scott, Ablow argues, birth equals death. Jackie 'killed' her three previous children by giving them away. She 'killed' Scott by putting him in the 'Golden Boy' straight jacket'. I agree with Dr. Ablow that Scott was dead inside, although I'm not sure the blame can be placed do neatly on Jackie Peterson. Many people have significantly worse childhood's then Scott and don't become killers. Nor is the hospital separation a cause. Many premature and ill babies remain in hospitals and don't grow into killers. What Dr. Ablow ignores is what is ineffable in the souls of human beings like Scott Peterson - that 'something' that we call evil. In Ablow's world no one is born evil and we must understand these damaged souls. He tells us if he had been called in to testify he would have labeled Scott clearly 'insane' at the time of the murder. But where I really disagree with Dr. Ablow is that Scott killed Laci and Connor because of the spark of life Amber ignited in him. It is difficult for me to believe that a man as deadened to feeling as Scott would kill his wife and unborn child only to replace them with a relationship with another woman and her child by another man. No, Scott was too selfish for that. My instinct tells me that Scott was a selfish man who wanted to be free of all encumbrances. He wanted to be free to continue his many infidelities. The birth and financial responsibilities for a wife and child would severely limit such freedom in the future. What Amber was, was a reminder of that freedom - a freedom to flirt, have sex and 'feel' the false "high" of incipient romance. But Amber would have eventually been dumped by Scott (or worse) when the noose of responsibility began to tighten around his neck. It was the confluence of his meeting Amber with it's attendant reminder of what freedom tasted like, with the tightening noose of fatherhood that caused the selfish and emotionally dead Scott to commit his crime. Ultimately Scott's single minded desire for freedom resulted in the ultimate loss of that freedom forever.