Scott Peterson's Words That Will Send Shivers Down Your Spine

As of 2024, Scott Peterson is still behind bars for the murder of his wife, Laci, and their unborn child, Conner, and he still maintains his innocence. At some point, he began working with the non-profit Los Angeles Innocence Project to clear his name. The organization claims to have evidence that will exonerate him and in January 2024 filed motions for DNA testing and post-conviction examination of evidence.

Through the years, Scott has spoken about the case and his crimes many times, though mostly in private. 2024, though, was a year of renewed eyes on the murders. Peacock released its three-part docuseries "Face to Face with Scott Peterson," in which Scott spoke publicly for the first time in two decades. Netflix released its own three-part docuseries, "American Murder: Laci Peterson," the same year. Between the audio and video of footage in these programs and others reported throughout the years, the killer has made plenty of chilling claims and confessions. Here are the most spine-chilling.

Scott Peterson was arrested on April 19, 2003, just a few days after the bodies of Laci and Conner were found in the San Francisco Bay, mutilated and decomposed. But months before he was detained, Scott was questioned by officials at the Modesto Police Station. On December 26, 2002, just two days after Laci went missing, the former fertilizer salesman was pressed about his relationship with his wife and whether she was happy with her pregnancy. "We spent hours preparing for the child, the nursery, everything," he said. "And we will have our boy." The words are more chilling knowing now that Scott murdered them, and that he had reportedly lied about his wife and son to multiple people, including Amber Frey, whom he was having an affair with at the time of their disappearance. 

In the 2024 Netflix docuseries "American Murder: Laci Peterson," Frey that when she met Scott in November 2002, he said he had never been married, had no children, and didn't plan on having any. The pair met at a bar after being set up by her friend, who met him at a work convention a few weeks before. Even here, Scott appeared to have crafted a facade that excluded his wife and unborn child. Jon Buehler, a retired detective of the Modesto Police Department, said in "Face to Face" that the killer wore a tag at the event that said "Horny Bastard," apparently playing the role of a single man "looking for a new conquest."

We have to go back to 2017 for some of Scott Peterson's first comments about the murder of his wife, Laci, since he was arrested and put behind bars. They came in the form of a phone call from prison that was aired in the six-part A&E series, "The Murder of Laci Peterson," released in August that year. A few months before it hit airwaves, Scott spoke to his sister-in-law, Janey — who as of this writing still believes he is innocent — and appears to blame law enforcement for the death of his wife and unborn son. "I wasn't the last one to see Laci that day," he said in a June phone call from prison. "There were so many witnesses who saw her walking in the neighborhood after I left. The police failed to find my family."

In 2024, in his first public remarks in decades, he spoke about the murders and asserted his innocence for Peacock's "Face to Face with Scott Peterson." Again, he seemed to deflect the blame to law enforcement. "I just remember how insane I was going with no sleep and worried about Conner and Laci," he said. "And what seemed like just an apathetic response from the police department."

Deflecting the blame for the murders of his wife and unborn child seems to be part of a pattern for Scott Peterson. In Netflix's "American Murder: Laci Peterson," we hear chiling conversations he had with his former lover, Amber Frey. "So what do you want to be together with me?" she asked Scott in one of the recordings played in "American Murder." "For the rest of our lives I think we could care for each other," he replied. But when "Face to Face" director Shareen Anderson spoke to him in Mule Creek State Prison for the series, he again appeared to deflect blame for his actions — this time onto Frey. "I wanted the search to continue," he said when pressed on why he kept talking to Frey after Laci disappeared. "Stay in contact with Amber, I thought, and she wouldn't get into the picture, complicate it, and ruin the search for Laci ... The knowledge of her was a time bomb."

Frey was reportedly unaware that the man she thought was her boyfriend was already married with a child on the way. Her testimony was a key part of the case against the killer, as the prosecution had little direct evidence to work with. Instead, it painted him as a man motivated to get rid of his wife to make way for a new life with Frey, who has one child of her own.

In "Face to Face with Scott Peterson," the killer chillingly spoke about his alleged last moments with Laci — and how he vividly remembers them. "I would see Laci smile when she would do her hair on the morning of the 24th, and the way we would share a bowl for cereal because we were too lazy to do two bowls," he said. "Just those little things are still with me."

Given that Scott has been caught in various lies regarding Laci and the murders over the years, the veracity of his claims has been questioned. Court TV anchor Ted Rowlands, who appeared in both 2024 docuseries — "Face to Face" and "American Murder" — described his experience interviewing the convicted murderer. "He's an odd dude," he told Court TV anchor Julie Grant. "He made us take our shoes off. He was very orchestrated. His answers were totally rehearsed ... very scripted."

Rowlands did acknowledge the possibility that new DNA evidence could exonerate Scott — in particular, a piece of duct tape found on Laci's demains that contains DNA that was never identified due to outdated technology at the time. But the Court TV reporter still placed the blame for Scott's conviction squarely on him and his "whole demeanor." "And that's why he's sitting in prison ... The way he conducted himself before, during and after Laci's disappearance," Rowlands said.

Over the years, two people have claimed Scott Peterson admitted to killing his wife, Laci, though their credibility has also been questioned. After all, dishing out the disturbing details about a high-profile case can be lucrative, whether from book sales or money from tabloid rags. If true, though, the claims are certainly chilling.

In her 2008 book "I'm Sorry I Lied To You: The Confession of Scott Peterson," author Donna Thomas said Scott admitted to his crimes during one of the many times she visited him in his San Quentin prison cell. "I took my arm and put it around her neck," he allegedly told her. "I used my right hand to cover her mouth. She fought hard, but it was nothing for me." As The Modesto Bee notes, the book includes various assertions that conflict with her previous self-published work, in which claimed she had an affair with Scott (the 2008 book admitted this was not true).

In 2003, Scott Peterson's former cellmate, James "Jimbo" Soares, spoke to the not-very-trustworthy tabloid Globe and said the convicted murderer had also confessed to him. "I killed my wife — I killed the b****," Scott allegedly said while he was housed at California's Stanislaus County Jail before the trial. "I just snapped and I hit her on the head with a club." Soares' claims were again reported by the equally not-very-trustworthy National Enquirer in 2008. Much like Thomas, Soares' credibility and motivations have been questioned. "[His[ story is an obvious fallacy that begins with his lack of credibility and ends with his motivated narrative," teacher and author Lynn Crosbie wrote in The Globe and Mail. Notably, Soares was sentenced to life behind bars for kidnapping and assaulting his girlfriend with a deadly weapon.