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Tag: Tammy Lee

CBI Agent Tammy Lee says Coder’s Questions about the “Emotional Conversation” Frustrated Watts

Two things stood out to me about Tammy Lee’s comments. One was her recognition that Watts’ facial expression changed when they started vilifying Shan’ann, and offering her as a scapegoat. Although Watts initially balked at this psychological carrot verbally, it turns out they could easily see – on his face – how much he was willing and able to run with it. And that’s exactly what he did do.

The other thing that stood out was Lee referring to the question that frustrated Watts the most. She’s says it was from Coder, but there were a couple from her where he got pretty angry, and started raising his voice too [related to Tammy not wanting Shan’ann to get a bum rap for a crime she didn’t commit].

TCRS has a particular theory why Watts would have been not only frustrated, but anxious around this idea of the “emotional conversation.” Any ideas what that theory may be?

CBI Agent Tammy Lee on OXYGEN: “It’s worse than I thought so it must be true”

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There’s a saying by Mark Tawin:

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

Let’s face it, mindfuckery is a tricky subject. It’s tricky to talk about because what you’re trying to do is convince someone their cognitive wiring might be a little wonky. And if you don’t start off this argument just right, you’re liable to lose not your argument but the suspicion may arise that you – the guy fielding the argument – might be touched in the head.

I suppose, to make this argument effectively one has to start by acknowledging – GASP – the possibility that human beings in general sometimes [often, actually] make mistakes.

So let’s take Einstein. Did one of the smartest people who ever lived ever make a thinking error?

Have we made any mistakes in our thinking about Einstein?

How about Stephen Hawking?

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And Bill Gates?Fullscreen capture 20191207 173849

The good news is when we acknowledge our mistakes, amazing things are allowed to happen. Take Steve Jobs:

Is it possible mistakes were made not just individually, but collectively in the Watts case? If so, what sort of thinking errors are we talking about? Well, here are a couple to choose from:

While a couple of these may apply, a handful look like they do.

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Let’s deal briefly with just one before we deal with the statements in the documentary more specifically. It’s this one:

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Essentially what the Appeal to Probability is saying is that because something is possible it’s probable. The law, for example, disagrees with that. In court something has to be probable, and reasonably probable absent other more or less probable possibilities, for it to be judged true.

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There are many instances where things are possible – anything, theoretically is possible. But it’s this area that explains tricky, troubling and ongoing debates around, for example, did the world evolve or did God create it? Which is possible? Which is probable? Is climate change manmade or is it a myth? Which is possible? Which is probable?

There are many, many areas we can go into, and figuring out truth from fallacy using logic is both a fascinating and very in-depth area of cognitive psychology. A lot of true crime deals with our perceptions, and what we perceive. We won’t go into that here, but it’s a subject TCRS has covered at length in the past, and will continue to expose in SILVER FOX POST TRUTH, the final book in the SILVER FOX trilogy.

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Now let’s deal with the documentary.

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Fullscreen capture 20191207 163017Fullscreen capture 20191207 161944Fullscreen capture 20191207 162244Fullscreen capture 20191207 162545Fullscreen capture 20191207 162814On the one hand, the District Attorney and the Deputy District Attorney are the authorities closest to the case, so we’d expect thought leadership and clarity from them. Basically what they believe must be true. That same appeal to authority applies to CBI agent Tammy Lee. And yet invariably all three agree with the same faulty premise. Because the second version is worse, it must true.

There’s a very obvious problem with this premise, and it’s this:

There’s a third version that’s even worse than the second. Does that mean that premise is true? The DA and the agent – and the documentary – don’t even mention Watts’ version to Cadle.

We can also see how in Watts First Confession, where he said Shan’ann killed the kids and so he killed Shan’annn [a false idea deliberately offered to Watts by the investigators themselves] was a step closer to the truth, but also not true. It was true Watts had killed Shan’ann, but not true that she’d killed the children. And yet this same psychology of deception holds for how the interrogators got their pound of truth from Watts. They tempted him to give a little bit of truth by giving him “permission” to lie about – to minimize – his involvement. Stay with me here because it gets a little convoluted here. Watts is incentivized to take the bait because he is at least let off the hook of the child murders. But in taking the bait, he also admits the truth – the worse truth – that he killed Shan’ann.

If the psychology of “worse version trumps all” holds, then surely the worst version of all in terms of a global view of this case would be Shan’ann killing her own children, and then Watts killing her.

We must also bear in mind the same methodology of the First Confession was also used in the Second, which was to lead people-pleaser-Watts down the Yellow Brick Road of the confession. Coder – not interviewed here – did that.

What happened next, did this happen or that. That? Okay, what about this. Oh…

Significantly Watts didn’t volunteer his confession in either case [except he did in the Third Confession to Cadle] he was led to it. And he gave the version he thought his interrogators believed anyway. He gave the version, worse than the previous version, but still the minimal version he could get away with telling. What did he get in exchange? He was let off the hook in having to talk about it, first in terms of an even longer interrogation, then a trial, then more interrogation.

There is a worse version than the Second Version, by the way. The Second Version – an almost random, impulsive killing at the well site – is worse than the first, but it’s also better than the second. Why? Because the second version strips away the premeditation. A premeditated murder is an aggravated crime, it is criminal intent with deliberation. When this occurs a sentence is often the maximum sentence – as it was in this case.

Watts agreed in his plea deal to charges that included the words with deliberation [including of both children]. And yet his Second Confession, the one the prosecutors and agent now seem to say they accept, walks back that deliberation.

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TCRS has exhaustively covered – and ridiculed – Watts bogus notions in the Second Confession that he alternatively “just snapped” and that he committed the crime “in a rage” without thinking. In fact TCRS predicted the “just snapped” minimization months before Watts came up with it.

“Chris Watts Just Snapped” – October 4th, 2018

The DA accepted his version of a cold, calculated murder and so did Watts. That’s why he signed the plea deal and didn’t object to this version mentioned during the sentencing on November 19th, 2018. Watts – in his last version [written in April 2019 and published in October 2019] – has also admitted he’d premeditated the murder for weeks, and made one or more attempts to poison Shan’ann to bring about a miscarriage.

So why would the DA and CBI Agent Tammy Lee go back on their own version, the one fielded in court?

To soothe popular opinion?

To engage popular opinion?

Maybe. Maybe one. Maybe both. Or maybe there is an even simpler meat-and-potatoes mindfuckery going on. It’s known as the appeal to ignorance, a very powerful and successful way of bullshitting the mainstream in the modern era. A bunch of YouTube channels thrive on this run-of-the-mill fallacy, as do MLMs. Evil, deception and dishonesty thrives in a culture of ignorance. And like or or not, in spite of or perhaps because of the information era, we live in a culture of ignorance.

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Further Reading:

Chris Watts describes the reason he killed Shan’ann Watts: “I just snapped” [AUDIO Part 1+2] – March 2019

Chris Watts explains what made him snap – June 2019

“Like, he snapped” – Chris Watts Special Coming Soon on HLN – July, 2019

If there’s an innocent reason the authorities closest to this case believe what they do [and I’m not convinced there is, but who knows] it may be due to their being so close to the case that they’ve become emotionally compromised. We know that’s happened to the lead detective. Has it happened to anyone else. Have you been so afflicted by it you haven’t been able to think logically or scientifically about it?

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Original Article:

Chris Watts case investigators are still reeling: ‘How does this happen?’ – NBC

Now, remember that saying by Twain?

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

It’s also been attributed to Churchill, Thomas Jefferson, Ann Landers and others. The quote itself isn’t even authentic, but derived from something similar written by Jonathan Swift [Irish poet, and author of Gulliver’s Travels]:

Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.

Perhaps that’s why there are so many ums and TCRS is accused of being slow to get to the point. The truth takes time, it’s subtle, and complicated, and sensitive to distortions, misreadings and derivations. But coming back to Watts, think about the psychology of his storytelling. This idea that if something is worse it must be true, and we should accept it.

Now connect that psychology to the psychopathology of this crime. Connect that psychology of fear to the psychology of the introvert who wants to be well thought of, including in the context of a crime, including by his interrogators.

Chris Watts committed murder because he believed the pregnancy and divorce was “worse than I thought committing murders would be”, so I’d rather do that.

Makes sense now, doesn’t it?

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“Shan’ann had no defensive wounds…” But if she was murdered in her bed, there’s a problem. Can you see what it is?

The premise in the TWO FACE trilogy has been:

  1. The triple murders were all premeditated.
  2. The children were murdered first.
  3. Shan’ann wasn’t murdered in her bed – she never made it up the stairs.

But the trilogy was written months before the Discovery Documents came out. The trilogy was written before it emerged what clothes Shan’ann was buried in, or the 02:30 credit card purchase, or the stains on the sheets dumped into the trash were revealed.

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So do the scenarios presented in the first three books still hold up now that we’ve seen the inside of the house in vivid video detail? Thanks to the latest release of evidence, we’ve been able to see into the crime scene literally hours after the cover up was completed, through the eyes of Officer Coonrod on the 13th and Officer Katherine Lines [the dog handler] on the 14th [after Watts had time to do more cleaning and covering up].

With RAPE OF CASSANDRA, the 4th book in the TWO FACE series, I’ve been able to integrate vital aspects within the enormous tranches of Discovery Documents and video and audio of the actual confession. These insights have moved the narrative forward, allowing for the fine-tuning of the original hypothesis.

For example, there’s an important clue in the screengrabs below that shows Watts wasn’t only lying about Shan’ann killing the children [that part of his so-called “confession” is false], but he was also manipulating his interrogators in terms of telling them when and how he killed Shan’ann.

Can you see where that it and why that is?

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AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON.COM

Cassandra

Chris Watts: If you were living a lie, a lie detector test would tend to show that, right?

Chris Watts has been called many things, but I’m not sure whether his reputation for a photographic memory or being a number’s guy is deserved. Liars need to have good memories, and Watts is a terrible liar. What does that tell you?

Things start to really happen from this point onwards.

At around the 30 minute mark in Part 5 below, Watts actually takes the test, a critical step in his brief but spectacular undoing.

Full Confession Video: Chris Watts Re-enacts Shan’ann’s Murder – but there’s a problem

At 18:04:56 on the CCTV counter in Squad Interview Room 2 Chris Watts begins to “sympathize” with the events that played out that night. By that I mean he begins to make gestures to explain what he’s saying.

The entire “re-enactment” lasts about 45 seconds.

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It should be seen and listened to in context, however. Watts is being asked what it felt like [killing his wife], how long it took and what he was doing. This is worth reviewing from 1:26:20 in the video along with the transcript.

Special Agent Grahm Coder asks Watts whether Shan’ann screamed.

CODER: Was she talking? Was she scratching you?

WATTS: I-I-uh-I-I didn’t…I just felt…such anger…that…none-nothing-I didn’t feel anything.

CODER: Oh yeah. Alright. Was it quick or slow? Was it…?

WATTS [Gesturing]: I felt so numb I felt like it was over [gestures with his hands]…

CODER: Fast? Over fast?

WATTS [Gestures]: Felt like…

CODER: Was it a choke like this [gestures] or was it a head lock [gestures]?

Agent Tammy Lee who also did his polygraph test, interrupts and gesturing, asks Watts to hold out his hand and show how he choked Shan’ann [in his scenario to them] on the bed.

She also asks Watts to describe how Shan’ann killed the children, and Watts objects, saying the monitors were black and white, but also that it was dark.

There’s a serious problem in Watts’ description here? Do you see it?

I provide deeper analysis and an answer to this puzzling aspect in RAPE OF CASSANDRA, my fourth book on the Watts case, coming in early December.

Cassandra