Most people – whether murderers or not – engage in ritualistic “death practices”. What the hell is that? Well, it’s something like this:
Most of us are less extreme in our rituals. You don’t have to climb Mount Everest or use a parachute to play games with fate. Smoking a cigarette will do. Eating foods you know you shouldn’t is what most of us try to get away with.
Some “death practices” are life affirming. They remind us we are alive, and encourage us to appreciate being alive, and perhaps being with someone else. But some “death practices” are less controlled, and more self-destructive. They may start as disassociation or disconnection, and ultimately lead to a downward spiral.
To understand the mind of a murderer, and the the mechanism of “death practices” for someone like Chris Watts, think about some of those things that you consider crossing the line, in terms of rituals, especially risky rituals. Let’s call them forbidden fruit. It might be cheating on a partner, or stealing from your business partner, or doing things on your phone or computer you probably shouldn’t. It might be having sex at work, or sex with a prostitute, or sex with someone who is married. Or indulging in an addiction of some kind. Whatever it is, a would-be murderer starts to feel the same temptation – about murder.
Wherever the thought emerges, it becomes progressively reinforced or stimulated by circumstantial and subjective factors. Eventually the stimulation becomes self-sustaining. At that point the “death practice” slides into the background, because the time has come to execute on the fantasy of killing.
There is much more to say on the subject, but a blog post is not the place to do it. It deserves a chapter and a lot more context. But to give you some idea of the context we’re talking about, in terms of Chris Watts, some of the factors stimulating the idea of “death practice” [even only in a theoretical sense] included:
- the pregnancy, and the realization at some point that he didn’t want this living thing to come into the world. In other words, he wanted the baby not to exist. This was one of the most powerful psychologies that framed many of the others that followed.
- the sicknesses of the children. Bella and Celeste were less healthy than the average children. It may have had something to do with their mother being a Lupus sufferer.
- the life-size doll wrapped in the twister mat.
- the “near death” spiel that was Nut Gate. This was a real test case for Watts to feel out the psychology of serious harm coming to his youngest daughter, and then experiencing some of the emotions firstly in himself, and in others around him. It’s likely this “death practice” reinforced or even awakened his feelings about needing to get rid of his other child – the baby.
- the bankruptcy in 2015, and the financial malaise that overshadowed the enormous brown house hulking over Saratoga Trail.
- Bella’s trauma after being told her sister might not wake up after eating coconut is another example. When exposed to this, Watts may have entertained the idea of one or both children surviving the death of someone else, and deciding against it.
- other “death practices” include the sequestrating of data on his phone, including nude photos and data into his Secret Calculator app, closing himself emotionally [and sexually, and in terms of general communication] from Shan’ann. Shutting down his Facebook account.
- going to work and working with dangerous chemicals, and being reminded on a daily basis of life-threatening aspects at work, would also nudge him further and further forward into the miasma of murder that was gradually forming in Chris Watts’ mind…
Another one could be putting the doll in the trash – it was a baby doll. Getting rid of the baby. It had to be that weekend too as it was on top of the trash bin.
Yes, and getting rid of the book. When you look at all the concealment and getting rid of before the crime, it links up seamlessly with the concealment and getting rid of [blankets, bodies] after.
It really is like a “dry run.”
It is still disturbing to me to see how he acts in the beach video in Myrtle Beach. I don’t see how anyone could watch that and not see how it screams premeditation. He is so stiff and frozen and seems like he wants to disappear. Or he is thinking of how it would be nice if they all disappeared. His body language and silence convey that he cannot stand being with them. It is one of the saddest things I’ve seen.
@Kaye – I totally agree; he is completely checked out and it’s obvious in that video. Very sad.