Erased: Missing Women, Murdered Wives by Marilee Strong Page A
Authors: Marilee Strong
Tags: United States, General, Social Science, Psychology, True Crime, Health & Fitness, Pregnancy & Childbirth, womens studies, Murderers, Murder, Case studies, Violence in Society, Crimes against, Uxoricide, Pregnant Women
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levels of prisons will yield
The Dark Triad
3 5
different results. Testing of ‘‘normal’’ nonprison populations may
yield an average of around 5.
Although all this sounds simple enough, the test for psychopa-thy was developed almost completely within the confines of the
prison system and was originally used only to assess and study vio-lent and career or recidivist criminals. Robert Hare is the first to
admit that a much larger problem is the unknown number of still
dangerous but much less obvious subclinical psychopaths running
at large in society—people whose intimate partners are not armed
the way prison guards are protected from these potentially violent
individuals.
For those who have had no previous brush with the law, have held
down jobs, have stayed married for a considerable period of time, and
are generally ‘‘high-functioning’’ yet share many of the personality
characteristics that define psychopathy, the test is not particularly
useful because it was never designed for such people.
In the unvarnished Scott Peterson, the man captured in words on
the Amber tapes and other wiretaps and in deed by his crime, we can
see nearly all the personality traits associated with psychopaths: super-ficial charm, manipulativeness, pathological lying, self-centeredness,
a lack of empathy, and an absence of remorse.
He does not, however, have the long documented history of
lawbreaking and behavioral problems that would rank him in the
highest levels on the PCL. Rather, Scott Peterson appears to be more
typical of the high-functioning or subclinical psychopaths Hare and
psychologist Paul Babiak refer to as ‘‘snakes in suits.’’
‘‘The real Scott Peterson . . . can be appreciated by anyone who
watched [his TV interviews] or listened to the taped phone conversa-tions his girlfriend made,’’ Hare and Babiak write in their 2006 book
Snakes in Suits . ‘‘In these audio and visual documents, he shows no
apparent concern, empathy, remorse, or even sadness at his wife’s
disappearance.’’
Peterson had no history of violence, had never even been in a
fistfight, according to his family, yet was suddenly able to commit an
extraordinarily heinous murder. He was fairly responsible, capable of
holding down a job and achieving moderate success, although at the
time of the killings he was not meeting the expectations his employer
had set for him. He did not leech parasitically off of those around
him. Other than being serially promiscuous, he did not engage in
random thrill-seeking behavior.
3 6
E R A S E D
If anything, Scott Peterson seemed pathologically overcontrolled
and passive-aggressive, catering to his wife’s every wish while metic-ulously plotting her demise. In many respects he was law abiding to a
fastidious degree. How many full-blown psychopaths would go to the
trouble of purchasing a fishing license and bringing along tackle and
poles if the sole purpose of their boat ride on San Francisco Bay was to
dump a body? How many would spend potentially their last precious
hours of freedom—knowing two bodies had been discovered in the
bay and that they might be arrested at any minute—preparing their
tax return?
What we see in Scott Peterson is not the unrestrained psychopathy
of a pure predator like Jeffrey Dahmer. He was capable of controlling
his darker impulses in a way a more classic psychopath is not.
On the surface, he was a veritable Boy Scout. His violence was
channeled to a singular and specific goal, timed, planned, and well
thought out, not driven by an animal-like frenzy. As the noose of
apprehension drew tighter around him, he did not snap into the
self-preservation-at-all-costs mode of a full-blown psychopath.
Scott’s continued communication with Amber Frey is another
example of behavior not consistent with a ‘‘classic’’ psychopath. Scott
continued to call and romance Amber after his wife’s disappearance,
chatting
The Dark Triad
3 5
different results. Testing of ‘‘normal’’ nonprison populations may
yield an average of around 5.
Although all this sounds simple enough, the test for psychopa-thy was developed almost completely within the confines of the
prison system and was originally used only to assess and study vio-lent and career or recidivist criminals. Robert Hare is the first to
admit that a much larger problem is the unknown number of still
dangerous but much less obvious subclinical psychopaths running
at large in society—people whose intimate partners are not armed
the way prison guards are protected from these potentially violent
individuals.
For those who have had no previous brush with the law, have held
down jobs, have stayed married for a considerable period of time, and
are generally ‘‘high-functioning’’ yet share many of the personality
characteristics that define psychopathy, the test is not particularly
useful because it was never designed for such people.
In the unvarnished Scott Peterson, the man captured in words on
the Amber tapes and other wiretaps and in deed by his crime, we can
see nearly all the personality traits associated with psychopaths: super-ficial charm, manipulativeness, pathological lying, self-centeredness,
a lack of empathy, and an absence of remorse.
He does not, however, have the long documented history of
lawbreaking and behavioral problems that would rank him in the
highest levels on the PCL. Rather, Scott Peterson appears to be more
typical of the high-functioning or subclinical psychopaths Hare and
psychologist Paul Babiak refer to as ‘‘snakes in suits.’’
‘‘The real Scott Peterson . . . can be appreciated by anyone who
watched [his TV interviews] or listened to the taped phone conversa-tions his girlfriend made,’’ Hare and Babiak write in their 2006 book
Snakes in Suits . ‘‘In these audio and visual documents, he shows no
apparent concern, empathy, remorse, or even sadness at his wife’s
disappearance.’’
Peterson had no history of violence, had never even been in a
fistfight, according to his family, yet was suddenly able to commit an
extraordinarily heinous murder. He was fairly responsible, capable of
holding down a job and achieving moderate success, although at the
time of the killings he was not meeting the expectations his employer
had set for him. He did not leech parasitically off of those around
him. Other than being serially promiscuous, he did not engage in
random thrill-seeking behavior.
3 6
E R A S E D
If anything, Scott Peterson seemed pathologically overcontrolled
and passive-aggressive, catering to his wife’s every wish while metic-ulously plotting her demise. In many respects he was law abiding to a
fastidious degree. How many full-blown psychopaths would go to the
trouble of purchasing a fishing license and bringing along tackle and
poles if the sole purpose of their boat ride on San Francisco Bay was to
dump a body? How many would spend potentially their last precious
hours of freedom—knowing two bodies had been discovered in the
bay and that they might be arrested at any minute—preparing their
tax return?
What we see in Scott Peterson is not the unrestrained psychopathy
of a pure predator like Jeffrey Dahmer. He was capable of controlling
his darker impulses in a way a more classic psychopath is not.
On the surface, he was a veritable Boy Scout. His violence was
channeled to a singular and specific goal, timed, planned, and well
thought out, not driven by an animal-like frenzy. As the noose of
apprehension drew tighter around him, he did not snap into the
self-preservation-at-all-costs mode of a full-blown psychopath.
Scott’s continued communication with Amber Frey is another
example of behavior not consistent with a ‘‘classic’’ psychopath. Scott
continued to call and romance Amber after his wife’s disappearance,
chatting
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