True crime enthusiasts - the Scott Peterson case (and a hobby of mine)

[Palmpilot]

Are cars made of something else now?

"Plastics are widely used in the construction of the modern car body, especially in new cars, but they are mostly applied to outer and inner thin-walled body panels..."

Dive into Car Body Materials: Complete Guide

Dive into the complexities of car body materials with our informative guide. Uncover what are car body panels made of and gain valuable insights.

www.tzrmetal.com

There used to be a lot more sheet metal in cars.

 

[Albany Tom]

Even in the old days there were some mostly plastic cars. I've never heard of a Corvette being hit by lightning, but maybe that's because they're only about 23" off the ground. Or it could also be that I've never heard of a car being hit by lighting. I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but seems pretty rare. I have designed systems to be lightning resistant...it's pretty standard engineering stuff, all cell towers and probably every commercial radio repeater is designed with protection in mind. To me it's similar to a bp vest. It's "resistant" not "proof", and with lightning it's not about stopping it, it's about steering it.

 

[Flatiowa]

Even in the old days there were some mostly plastic cars.

Fieros were plastic on aluminum space frame, I can tell you from personal experience of having one light itself on fire while driving and subsequently melting itself into a glob after I got it stopped and away from it (barely) that I would feel much more confident taking a direct lightening strike to my all steel turret top ‘47 Chevy fleetmaster sedan than most modern vehicles.

 

[Albany Tom]

Fieros were plastic on aluminum space frame, I can tell you from personal experience of having one light itself on fire while driving and subsequently melting itself into a glob after I got it stopped and away from it (barely) that I would feel much more confident taking a direct lightening strike to my all steel turret top ‘47 Chevy fleetmaster sedan than most modern vehicles.

I'm glad you survived! I forgot about Fieros... In my younger and dumber days, I used to seek them out and try to race them with the '76 Lincoln I was driving. They'd hear the Lincoln's engine screaming like mad at around 55, and think I was in trouble, only to realize that was just the C6 dropping into 1st gear, and I had 2 more gears left. Fun times, and way more luck than skill or sense on my part. 6600lb GVWR, if I remember correctly.

Was yours hit by lighting, or was it a problem with the car itself?

 

[Flatiowa]

I believe it was the heater blower fan wire (I’ll never know for sure). It started smoking out of the defrost vent, and a moment latter burning plastic started dripping out of the passenger side dash, quickly turning into a stream of liquid fire on the passenger side floor board. It was fall in iowa, dry corn fields on both sides of the gravel road I was on but I knew one mile ahead was a picked and worked bean field so I floored it, rolled down the window, made it the shallow ditch of that field (by this time sitting on door, mostly outside of the car, and barely able to stand the heat on my foot and hand that was on the wheel). Went through the ditch into the cultivated field holding on to the mirror, roof, and anything I could until a combination of it slowing down enough that I thought I would live, and the heat pushing me away made me bail. Thank god I got through it with a few scrapes and bruises, but it was only moments after it came to a stop the (between the seats) plastic gasoline tank lit up and it fireballed.

 

[Flatiowa]

It’s actually crazy you mentioned a ‘76 Lincoln, when I first bought the fiero my buddy had four door ‘76 mk III ( if I remember the model correctly) with a 460. That thing was a land yacht with opera windows and had VERY long legs.

 

[MooneyDriver78]

I heard that you're protected from lightning in a car, but that was in the days when cars were made of metal, which I assumed would provide some degree of Faraday-cage protection.

Yes, but it’s not Faraday cage (that’s for electromagnetic waves, i.e. radio , not electricity). It will generally follow path of least resistance, that’s why lightning rods work, so assuming significant metal structure you should be protected.

 

[Albany Tom]

Wow...that sounds like a ride that I wouldn't want to take. We had a couple of Jeep pickups around that era that caught fire, but they were always going slow enough that it wasn't hazardous to the occupants. Apparently AMC liked to run wires through doors and through other panels without grommets. Or fuses.

The Lincoln I had was a Town Car, a little longer than the mk's, same 460 engine. Took forever to accelerate but the top speed was seemingly only limited by your courage. I never went above about 110 indicated, because the front end got a little squirrely, and it would start to understeer.

Back to the original topic, I really didn't pay much attention to all of it when it happened. But reading a few things on here make me more inclined to believe he did it than when I started. Primarily the combination of two particular things. First, that someone that knew him well was certain that he couldn't have done it. Second, that general public opinion seems to be that he wasn't a good guy at all.

Those two things, to me, don't line up with a normal person. We all know people that are sneaky, or kind of jerks, or whatever. But the thing is, everybody knows that about them. When someone is just a miserable person, even there mom is going to admit that they're a bit of a troubled child, or whatever. It's a different process, but I've interviewed quite a few people over the years. Most people are pretty easy to read, and are what I'd call genuine about who they are. Some people have a bit of a skill in presenting themselves as nicer or kinder than they really are...and some interviewers are good at spotting them. I know some people that are great at spotting these folks. I think I'm pretty good at it, but I work with people that are better. Anyway, my long winded point is that every once in a while, maybe 1 out of 100, there's someone that can fool everyone. I don't know if they've fooled themselves, or if they're excellent actors, but they can effectively be someone they're not for an extended period of time. My belief, which isn't worth really anything on this, is that this Peterson guy is one of those. He has people trying to help him out because he's convinced them he's a normal person...and he's not.

 

[Lowflynjack]

Brendan Dassey is still in prison too. Just because our justice system fails sometimes and we don't like to believe it, doesn't mean it doesn't fail.

Frankly, even if Avery committed the murder, the fact that law enforcement absolutely had a motive to frame him, combined with the evidence tampering, should mean there is a "reasonable doubt" as to whether he did it.

None of us really know what happened. In the end, I believe they did it. Just because someone has a motive to frame you for murder doesn't mean the evidence doesn't remove reasonable doubt. In that were the case, he'd have free reign to murder in that county for the rest of his life.

 

[geezer]

People quite close to Scott thought he was a great guy, such as his mistress, who thought she was a future Mrs. Peterson.
She still liked him when his wife went missing, but when wife and son came back to haunt Scott's new life, she backed out.

A Judge who is a close friend explained that the Judge in the Peterson case restricted pictures of the bodies from being shown by the prosecution to avoid biasing the jury. The defense could use the pictures, but if they did, opened the door for the prosecution to use any and all.

Geragos was too skilled a defense attorney to give them that possibility.

 

[Palmpilot]

People quite close to Scott thought he was a great guy, such as his mistress, who thought she was a future Mrs. Peterson.
She still liked him when his wife went missing, but when wife and son came back to haunt Scott's new life, she backed out.

A Judge who is a close friend explained that the Judge in the Peterson case restricted pictures of the bodies from being shown by the prosecution to avoid biasing the jury. The defense could use the pictures, but if they did, opened the door for the prosecution to use any and all.

Geragos was too skilled a defense attorney to give them that possibility.

At the time, I remember wondering if the people in Modesto worried about the trial being moved to San Mateo County, but it turned out that jurors in the Bay Area didn't like murderers any more than folks in the central valley.

 

[MooneyDriver78]

People quite close to Scott thought he was a great guy, such as his mistress, who thought she was a future Mrs. Peterson.
She still liked him when his wife went missing, but when wife and son came back to haunt Scott's new life, she backed out.

A Judge who is a close friend explained that the Judge in the Peterson case restricted pictures of the bodies from being shown by the prosecution to avoid biasing the jury. The defense could use the pictures, but if they did, opened the door for the prosecution to use any and all.

Geragos was too skilled a defense attorney to give them that possibility.

I’m pretty sure the judge also instructed the defense not to challenge the body condition or question the TOD estimate, as that would allow the prosecution to enter the photos to backup their testimony.

 

[rwellner98]

I forgot about Fieros..

I had a high school job at a quick lube during the Fiero era. Always thought they were fun little cars, except that they were assembled such that one had to reach awkwardly between the engine and the exhaust manifold to grab the oil filter. Further, it seemed like every Fiero that rolled through had just been driven a hundred miles to make sure everything was good and hot. Least favorite car to work on, for sure.