How Chris Watts & Brian Laundrie Successfully Brought Down The Scott Peterson Propaganda Train Of Lies
Pretzel logic on steroids.
YouTube / Getty / Instagram In the last decade, Scott Peterson’s family and supporters have launched an immensely expensive, elaborate, and unfortunately successful campaign to convince the public that Scott Peterson is innocent.
Part of this campaign was family friend Shareen Anderson’s biased documentary (A&E’s “The Murder Of Laci Peterson”) that twists facts, bends the truth, and even outright lies to their audience.
It convinced thousands of people (who lack research and critical thinking skills) that Scott got a bum deal.
New followers are indoctrinated into accepting and applying the pretzel logic and mental gymnastics it takes to excuse the mountain of circumstantial evidence against Scott Peterson.
Then they go on social media to spread misinformation and gather more gullible people.
It’s a pyramid scheme in its own right. Now we see the same ‘logic’ applied in other cases, specifically Chris Watts’ and Brian Laundrie’s.
Here’s a brief history of events to illustrate this statement:
Just like the unpredicted storm that hit the San Francisco Bay in April 2003 which loosened up the weighted down bodies of Laci and baby Conner after they’d been submerged in water since Christmas Eve, something always seems to come along and stick a wrench in Peterson’s plan to get away with murder and be viewed as an ‘innocent man’.
I guess whoever ‘framed Scott’ finally thought it was time to let the cat out of the bag and orchestrated this act of nature.
All bitter irony aside, of course, those bodies were never supposed to surface.
Scott drove 90 miles to San Francisco Bay on December 24th, 2002.
He went ‘fishing’ in a 14-foot boat that he purchased the same day he told his mistress that he ‘lost his wife and this will be the first holidays without her.’ A pregnant Laci disappeared that same day.
3.5 months later, after a major storm, both mom and baby wash up…in the San Francisco Bay. If you frame someone, don’t you want the bodies to be found?
Why would you frame someone and hide (weigh down) the bodies!? It was pure luck and an act of nature that they ever washed ashore.
Along with a colossal amount of other evidence, which you can read about in one of the many articles on this blog, this accounted for Scott Peterson’s conviction.
The only things the prosecution didn’t have, were the proverbial smoking gun, a video of Scott committing murder, blood evidence, and a signed affidavit from Laci saying ‘Scott killed me.’ They literally had everything else.
Fast forward several years and you now have the Peterson propaganda train going, complete with a website, button for donations, the A&E documentary.
These are some of the lines from it, regurgitated by Scott’s loyal band of groupies all over social media:
The home was too clean for a murder to have occurred.
There was no murder weapon.
There was no blood.
There was no messy crime scene.
There was no murder witness.
No one heard any screams.
The master bedroom and white linen were too clean for a murder to have occurred there.
What? You think he murdered her with bare hands or something? Well, but there’s no murder weapon!
Scott had no criminal history. No guy without a record is going to just snap and kill his pregnant wife one day.
The affair Scott had isn’t a motive. It was too brief. Besides, many men have affairs and don’t end up killing their wives.
Scott lying to the police about the affair doesn’t mean he’s guilty of murder. A liar does not a murderer make!
He had a beautiful pregnant wife. They got along so well. He’s not gonna commit murder over some ‘side piece’ who meant nothing to him.
No man would ever kill his first male child.
He called his wife on the way home from the Berkeley Marina and left a message, which means he obviously thought she was alive. He wouldn’t have called otherwise.
He was cooperative with the police at first. See? What murderer is cooperative with the police?
It had to be someone else because Scott states he didn’t murder his wife.
Success! Until August 13, 2018, that is.
Another storm would surface and throw a giant wrench in the ‘Scott couldn’t have done it’-campaign.
The new ‘storm’ and giant wrench? Chris Watts.
One by one the Chris Watts case destroyed all of their catchphrases and excuses. If you are familiar with the Watts case, go back and read the above list of ‘arguments’ again.
For those unfamiliar with the Watts case, Chris utterly obliterated all the reasonings the Scott apologists had offered up. Many of them claim he made Scott Peterson ‘look guilty.’
Media outlets and voices within the True Crime communities online suggested Watts had ‘pulled a classic Scott Peterson’.
The cases were compared on a daily basis, parallels between both murderers’ behavior, motivation, and modus operandi were drawn, the Scott apologists kept losing traction and credibility.
A large majority of Scott Supporters quietly retreated, while others now jumped into the Watts case.
Back to ground zero, the Peterson propaganda machine had to build their support up again.
Chris Watts had made sure they could no longer use the above excuses, and so their new excuse was based on the claim that Scott Peterson hadn’t tried to flee the day he was arrested.
Some highlights from operation ‘Scott didn’t flee!’ on the innocent camp’s website and its related social media pages:
Most of the $15,000 cash Scott had on him was an ‘accidental withdrawal’ from a bank. His mother even testified to this, and certainly, his mother wouldn’t lie to protect her son from a murder charge?
So what if he was near the Mexican border? I mean, it’s San Diego and San Diego is close to the Mexican border. See?
So what if he dyed his hair but said his hair had been lightened by the chlorine in a friend’s swimming pool. The media was all over this story so he wasn’t trying to hide; he just wanted some privacy.
So what if he gave his GPS-equipped vehicle, which the police were tracking, to his brother to drive in order to throw off police. His brother just happened to be in the market for a newer truck and decided to take over Scott’s payments.
Ignore everything found in Scott’s car. He was just on his way to play golf.
It doesn’t matter he didn’t have any golf clubs with him because golfers love rented clubs and borrowing others’ equipment.
Quit paying so much attention to what’s in Scott’s car and focus on your own life! Don’t you have any hobbies!?
When we said he was just living out of his car we didn’t mean he was sleeping in it.
He was sleeping on friends' and families' couches. He wasn’t packing up and preparing to flee to Mexico!
Asking reasonable questions like ‘Why did he have a water filter with pots-n-pans?’ and ‘Do his family and friends not have indoor plumbing? Do they not have basic cooking supplies?’ is really stupid and pedantic and proves nothing.
Scott said his name was Jacqueline Peterson — his mother’s name —when he bought a used car for cash because police were seizing his vehicles. The Florida driver's license number he gave to the seller was no big deal either.
In order to pull off a successful attempt to flee, Scott would have required his family’s help but it’s not as if this has ever happened before in similarly high profile cases.
Yes…very convincing. They just couldn’t get past that one pesky question though:
“Why would an innocent man be carrying all that ‘fugitive gear’ if he wasn’t intending to flee the country?
So they went to work and came up with a bevy of excuses. Pretzel logic on steroids.
What could possibly go wrong now?
What could possibly throw a wrench in their ‘Scott wasn’t trying to flee’ campaign?
Enter Brian Laundrie.
Who, on the contrary to Scott, successfully enacted the exact same plan that Scott Peterson (and family) had.
Here is a refresher and list of items that were found when Department of Justice Officers arrested Scott Peterson on April 18, 2003 — would any of these items be helpful to Brian Laundrie now, you think?
Undated bill of sale with an unverified signature of Michael Griffin, the registered owner of the vehicle.
An application for a duplicate title for the vehicle was also signed by Michael Griffin-Driver’s license for John Edward Peterson, Scott Peterson’s brother.
Approximately $15,000 in cash, including $14,000 in $100 bills with paper wrapper bands.
Credit cards: Two Visa cards and one MasterCard issued to Scott Peterson. One MasterCard and one American Express Business card issued to Scott Peterson / TradeCorp. One Visa card issued to Anne E. Bird, Scott Peterson’s sister. Chevron card issued to Scott Peterson’s mother Jacqueline Peterson.
16 music CDs.
Thomas Guide map book of California and Thomas Guide map book of Central Valley Cities and surrounding areas
24 blister packs of sleeping pills
12 tablets of Viagra
Four cell phones
Double-edged dagger with a t-handle
Columbia foul-weather jacket
A shovel
Large Tarp
Foreign Currency
Double Blade Guillotine (Cigar Cutters)
A backpack containing water purifier, Water bottle, Climbing rope, Filet knife, Duct tape, Cooking grill, Rain pants, Ziploc bags, Socks, Firestarters, Camp kit that included cooking utensils and a rope, Leather gloves, Two more folding knives, Folding saw, Scissors, Two packs of razor blades, Waterproofing spray, Axe, Hammock, Binoculars, Mask and snorkel gear, Fishing rod and reel, Leatherman tool
Clothes: Lace-up, rubberized boots, Hiking boots, Low-top hiking shoes, Two pairs of brown slip-on casual shoes, One pair of brown lace-up casual shoes, Flip flops Two pairs of black dress shoes, Sweatshirt, Four pullover long-sleeved sport shirts, Two pairs of shorts, Button-down shirt, Two pairs of casual pants, Running pants, Jersey, Three tee shirts, Two long-sleeved casual shirts, One pair of athletic shorts, Cowboy hat, Two pairs of dress socks, At least 10 pairs of athletic socks, One pair of Levis-Two neckties, A pullover sweater, A scarf-Black dress belt, At least six pairs of underwear briefs
What, you got bored reading through all these items? Well, he had even more with him when he was arrested though.
So how would these supplies help someone like Brian Laundrie right about now?
As this is written when Brian Laundrie is still on the run, it’ll be interesting to compare the Laundrie vs. Peterson supply kits.
And in what way his parents may have been involved, possibly also supplying their son with ‘accidental large withdrawings’ of cash.
Brian’s case is hurting the excuses of Scott’s team even more than Chris Watts’ did.
Look at the thousands of tips that rolled in once the case was thrown into the spotlight.
Did they have an officer go investigate each and every one? Of course not.
Look at the eyewitnesses that said they were 99.99% sure that they ‘saw Brian’ and turned out to be wrong?
What’s going to happen to all the ‘eyewitnesses’ who called in and said they ‘saw Brian in Florida’ when he was supposed to be killing Gabby?
Will Brian have a ‘Janey Peterson’ type on his side to claim that Brian couldn’t have possibly killed Gabby because of all the ‘eyewitnesses who saw him in Florida?’
Will he too have a ‘perfect circle’ of witnesses that exonerate him like Janey claims in Scott’s case?
You know, the 4-12 eyewitnesses who claimed they saw Laci Peterson walking the dog before Scott even left the house and called the police tip line, regurgitating what was on the $500,000 reward flyer a week later? Yeah. Those guys.
Brian Laundrie hasn’t even had his day in court yet, but in the minds of many, he’s already guilty.
Why is that? Could it be that Brian’s own actions — and his successful escape — make him look guilty? Yet in Scott’s case, they blame the ‘big, bad media’ for Scott’s demise. You can read my post about this particular issue here.
The Gabby Petito/Brian Laundrie case is playing out right before our very eyes now. Unreliable eyewitnesses, media attention — all those excuses Scott’s team rattles off, are falling on deaf ears now. We can see that the media is reporting whatever information they are being given.
They aren’t out ‘to get Brian’.
Brian is providing a live view of an eerily similar high-profile case in action.
Did Brian Laundrie get away with Scott Peterson’s original plan to flee? Yes. Absolutely. For now at least.
Tabitha Kent is a Scott Peterson and True Crime researcher from Hollister, California.