........ KING: Albany, New York. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, my question is sort of twofold. First, if indeed the satanic cult does exist, in order to rise it to the level of creating reasonable doubt wouldn't you first have to show a propensity on the part of the members of this cult to commit these kinds of crimes, number one?
And number two, in order to show propensity, I would think, that the best way to do that would be arrests or, you know, previous kinds of offenses and I'm not hearing anything about that. So I'm wondering how they would really plan on using this theory.
KING: Chris, that a good point?
PIXLEY: Well, if any of these people were previously arrested for murder, Larry, we know they wouldn't be out on the street.
As far as propensity, Texas A&M did a study in 1991, they interviewed over 150 homicide detectives from around the country. And the consensus among the detectives was that satanic cults are involved in 1 out of 10 homicides and 1 out of 3 suicides.
Now, that's not the final word on the issue. But I think that they will be able to show that this is a real movement, a real issue. But I don't -- I don't at all dispute the fact that if this is the defense's theory, you know, they have to get past the jurors' incredulity in the very beginning of the case.
But the fact remains it just may be the truth. I don't think Mark Geragos would pick this theory out of thin air. There are so many others that would sound better if he was making something up.
WECHT: Larry, may I comment on other statistics?
I don't know where those homicide detectives came from. That is the most absurd statement -- I don't mean from Chris, I mean what was reported in that study. One out of 10 homicides, 3 out of 10 suicides, whatever the number was.
There may be people who are satanically motivated in a theological, philosophical sense. Are they cultists who bond together in an organized fashion? No. And do amputations sometimes occur? Oh, yes. I've seen people cut up their loved ones after death and so on. But were they part of a cult? No. So I don't know where those statistics come from.
KING: Let me take a call.
PIXLEY: Larry, if I can respond, though, to Dr. Wecht. What this means now then, Dr. Wecht, is either Scott Peterson is a sociopath or somehow the prosecution's going to have to explain how a baby was born through a coffin birth with tape around its neck.
Now, it may be innocuous. And everybody said well, here maybe the tape just washed up around the baby's neck. But if that baby does in fact have a noose around its neck, you're going to have to show that this guy's a sociopath. And you're also going to have to prove that the timeline here, less than 24 hours to commit this murder, an awful lot of gruesome stuff was done by a guy with no criminal record and no history of violence.