Now I've Heard it All - Drew Peterson Asks the Public for Money for His Lawyer

A man's wife goes missing. She leaves behind two small children. Publicly he remains somewhat disturbingly unruffled. He doesn't go on TV to ask people to help him look for her or to plead with her to come home. He does reveal he thinks she ran off with another man. Time drags on. The 'ran off with another man' theory becomes murky as nearly two months pass and no word to her two small children.

In similar shoes in the past even guilty spouses tried to aid in the search for their missing partners, and many became ardent fundraisers to the cause of the search. Of course, these people who put their hands out for money to look for someone they know is dead are certainly not moral giants, but at least in their dishonesty they try to 'act natural'. What would a grieving husband/wife/mother/father do? Not Drew Peterson. On the same day his former pastor goes public with the hearsay revelation that Stacy Peterson, the missing 4th wife, confided to the pastor that Drew had killed his third wife, Peterson sets up a website to pay his mounting legal fees.

Hmm. He hasn't spoken to the police much. He has not been formally charged. He has indeed given interviews, though altogether not adding much to the positive spin on his public image. Lately he has complained about the press camping outside his door. At one point he said attention would be better focused on people in real need. And, I guess in setting up the 'help me' website, he has now morphed himself into one of those 'people in real need'.

Now, I believe firmly in our system of justice. I am not enamored of the press lingering and giving too much attention to presumed criminals. Every moment the camera spends on a squirrely spouse is a moment lost to the effort of finding a missing person, or a body. Every day a missing person remains unaccounted for increases the probability that person is no longer among the living. Teachers who take off with their students to Mexico surface quickly, as do fugitive campaign donors. It is ridiculous to think a 23 year old woman of limited means and even more limited daily freedom could remain out of sight and below the radar long after people who had well planned out and seemingly well financed escape routes were found. Especially since at this point Stacy Peterson would have little to lose by showing her face - she owuld certainly have public sentiment and reasonable safety on her side.

So, the natural thing for a husband, especially one who knows he is under suspicion, to do, is to put the search for the spouse front and center, the question of who's responsible for her disappeaance or death off to another day. After all, right now there is one clear victim, a young woman gone missing. Finding her, alive or dead, gives closure to a family. More importantly, two young children who are presumably living right in Drew Peterson's house, not to mention two from his third marriage for whom the cause of death of their mother has now come into question, must be very uneasy. Drew Peterson doesn't have just himself to think of at this point, he has children and their well being to put at the forefront. Four children with no mother between them now and the likelihood they could soon lose their father, at least temporarily.

Mind you, no one has officially declared Stacy Peterson dead. If indeed she took off with someone, as Peterson claims, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing for him to ask for money to have someone find her. It would serve two purposes, giving a mother back to her children and clearing his name in her disappearance. It would also send a signal to those children that at least in public, their father cares about their mother's and their own well being.

But, you hear it all in this country. Scott Peterson thought up a wild tale about a satanic cult moving through Modesto, California on Christmas Eve and scooping up his pregnant wife while he was innocently golfing, er, fishing, away his day more than a hundred miles away. Because on its face it is totally believable that a loving husband and expectant father leaves his bloated wife home to finish their holiday shopping on her own while he goes off fishing, on Christmas Eve! And catches nothing even though he'd mapped out the currents and tides. Not knowing America would soon be listening, Scott Peterson, attending a candlelight vigil for his wife in Modesto, calls his girlfriend and tells her he is in Paris and the lights are beautiful. He did a lot of things that made him look guilty and prolonged the suffering of the rest of a family who hoped his wife Lacy was still alive. Still, he never put his hand out for strangers to pay his legal fees long before his wife and son's bodies were discovered in the San Francisco Bay, or even after he was charged.

Not so Drew Peterson (no relation to Scott). He has his hand out. He isn't looking for money to find his wife. He isn't looking for money to help take care of his kids should this case go south for him. Nope, he's first in line himself. Hand out, give me money. Yes, according to Drew Peterson's lawyer, if there is any money left after legal fees are paid then money can go to a search and into a trust for his kids. But, Drew and his lawyer first. It's hard to say whose image such a ploy hurts more, Peterson's or his attorney's. One looks like a money-grubbing ambulance chaser unconcerned with public opinion or good taste, and the other looks like a cold, selfish individual who feels victimized and entitled to money from others. Is this what American justice and American media have come to? Do we give the man interviews and comment endlessly on why we think he isn't telling the truth, plant ourselves outside his door (where his kids live too) hungering for ever more hearsay about him, and completely lose focus of the reality someone has vanished and is probably dead? Do we in any way support a man who has lost his wife, to circumstances unknown, publicly seeking funds for his own defense and ignoring the reality no one has found his wife, and his children are in need right now?

What would really do our system of justice and just our basic humanity well would be to shut off the cameras, stop asking for interviews and leave this man alone. Let the justice system work. If he is guilty, then hounding him has done nothing other than get his back up. If he is innocent we have done him and his children no good. Our focus on him has caused Stacy Peterson to become invisible. It has buried Kathleen Salvio all over again. It says a lot about a man under duress that he would have the chutzpah to publicly ask for money for himself and his defense against undeclared crimes, but it says a lot more about the state of our society and our collective humanity if we give such a request any credence at all. Stacy Peterson is gone into the mist. Kathleen Salvio is dead. It is these two women and their children who should be getting any attention at all here.