American Murder: The Family Next Door! “This is perhaps the most inhumane and vicious crime that I have had out of the thousands of cases that I have seen,” described Judge Marcelo Kopcow (American Murder: The Family Next Door 01:18:54-01:19:05). This quote from American Murder: The Family Next Door sums up this gruesome murder case and how hard it was for everyone to wrap their head around what Chris Watts' motive was after he was determined to be the murderer of his wife, Shanann, and two young daughters, Bella, and Celeste. American Murder: The Family Next Door was directed in 2020 by multiple-award winning, Jenny Popplewell, along with producer, James Marsh. Jenny Popplewell is also known for Head Over Heels in Rats and Gypsy Kids Our Secret World. Popplewell set out to make a film to give a voice to the victims, comprised of archival footage. This film earned …show more content…
Chris had a family that most dreamed of, but he ended up murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters after having an affair. He eventually admitted the truth to authorities that he buried his wife in a shallow grave near an oil-storage facility and dumped his two children into oil tanks at his work site. Chris Watts was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences, along with two life sentences to be carried out concurrently. This documentary further displays the behind the scenes, exploring the incident, from the suspicious behavior of Chris Watts and the affair to what really happened in the early hours of August 13, 2018. The director of American Murder: The Family Next Door, Jenny Popplewell, uses police footage, text messages, social media, and interviews with experts to appeal to ethos, logos, and pathos to provide raw emotion for viewers to understand the devastating truth of how Chris and Shanann’s relationship abruptly
In conclusion, it is known that the system operates from cradle to the grave. Each of these individuals all have the same mindset of “if nobody cares why should I?” Beecher Terrace is a high crime-rate neighborhood, where all the individuals either lived or grew up in. Thus, each person in this documentary can name at least five people that have been arrested, mainly immediate family members. They all have three main things in common which are they lived in Beecher Terrace, they have more than six charges, and they have some type of mental issue that needs to be resolved to better
On the night of November 28th 1976, 28-year-old Randall Adams was hitchhiking on a Dallas road when 16-year-old David Harris picked him up. Harris, a runaway from Texas had stolen the car along with his father’s shotgun. They spent the day together and that night went to a drive-in movie The Swinging Chandeliers. Later that same evening officer Robert Wood was shot and killed when he pulled a car matching the exact description as Harris’s over. Two witnesses-including Harris, named Adams as the murderer. Adams received a death penalty sentence that in 1979 that later was reduced to life in prison. It was early in the 1980’s when director Errol Morris happened upon Adams’s court transcripts whilst shooting a different documentary about a Dallas psychiatrist who was frequently consulted in death row cases. Convinced of Adams innocence and the false accusations made against him Morris began making a film on the subject.
Scott Peterson was an educated man from California Polytechnic State University where he graduated with a B.A. in Agricultural Business. He was married to his wife Laci Peterson who was also pregnant with their unborn son. In December of 2002 Laci Peterson went missing in the Modesto, California area where she shared a home with Scott. Once the investigation of Scott’s missing wife started authorities began to suspect Scott as a suspect in her disappearance. In April of 2003 a fetus and a female torso that was missing hands, feet, and a head were found on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco Bay area was where Scott was boating the day of Laci’s disappearance. The body was later identified as Laci Peterson and the fetus as Laci and Scott’s unborn son. Scott was also arrested in the month of April shortly after the discovery of Laci and their son’s body and was later sentenced to the death penalty. Over the course of this paper I will cover the whole event of the disappearance of Laci Peterson, relating it to a sociological theory, the impact the event had on our society and how the media had influence over this national event.
It was summer hot and humid July but all was not well for homicide was in the air. Jeremy Ringquist had, after a divorce and begin unemployed, had taken up residence with his parents once again. Thirty-eight years of age Jeremy, was charged with the death of his parents and attempting to hide the bodies in a freezer.
On June 20, 2001, a terrible tragedy occurred, as Andrea Yates drowned all five of her children in the bath. After drowning each child child, she picked them up, tucked them in her bed and called in her next victim until all 5 children were deceased. After she had successfully drowned each child, she calmly called her husband and notified local police that she was in need of an officer. As this case reached international news, many pondered what would make the mother of five do such an abysmal thing. Once the investigation began, it became acknowledged that Andrea Yates was influenced by several psychological perspectives and was not in her right mind when she committed the heinous crime.
In this case, there were multiple motives take in into deliberation, however the most interesting and promising motives for the crime belonged to John Byers. Byer has a criminal past with a history of domestic violence against his ex-wife Sandra Slone stated in the book Devil’s Knot “Byers came to the her house around 6 A.M, demanding to take the children, he then “began to threaten her, telling her he wanted full custody of the kids, that he was going to kill her” (pg 20)”. She also says “her ex-husband had threatened to kill her or have someone else kill her several times in the past; that she sought a restraining order against him (pg 21).” Not only was he violent to her, but to his own children. She told Lax the private investigator for the defense team that “he used to beat her and the children but did so in a way which left to visible marks or bruises when dressed” (pg 205). It is not only his blood related children he bea...
Carlos Deluna was an American man who was convicted of first degree murder. Carlos was executed by the state of Texas for the killing of a 24 year old woman at the Shamrock gas station. The victim Wanda Lopez was stabbed multiple times apparently from a buck knife. Wanda Lopez was the attendant of the gas station and the police was senseless and oblivious to the tape at the gas station and only saw when she was giving the murderer the money yelling “You want it? I’ll give it to you. I’m not going to do nothing to you. Please!!!” There were only four eyewitnesses that was nearby when Wanda Lopez was murdered.
The murder of JonBenet Ramsey was very shocking and caused a huge investigation that is yet unsolved. Family was one of the things that contributed to JonBenet’s murder. JonBenet Ramsey is a very special six-year-old girl with a successful family. She was a little pageant girl with blond curly hair and blue eyes; she was a very well known competitor since she had won many pageants (SV;SV) (Schneider). Her mother, Patsy Ramsey, was a former beauty queen; her father, John Ramsey, was a millionaire businessman (SV; SV) (Bardsley, and Bellamy).
At any point in time, someone’s world can be turned upside down by an unthinkable horror in a matter of seconds. On June 20th, 2001 in a small, suburban household in Houston, TX, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub after her husband left for work. The crime is unimaginable, yes, but the history leading up to the crime is just as important to the story. Andrea Yates childhood, adulthood, and medical history are all potent pieces of knowledge necessary to understanding the crime she committed.
It’s not easy to build an ideal family. In the article “The American Family” by Stephanie Coontz, she argued that during this century families succeed more when they discuss problems openly, and when social institutions are flexible in meeting families’ needs. When women have more choices to make their own decisions. She also argued that to have an ideal family women can expect a lot from men especially when it comes to his involvement in the house. Raymond Carver, the author of “Where He Was: Memories of My Father”, argued how his upbringing and lack of social institutions prevented him from building an ideal family. He showed the readers that his mother hide all the problems instead of solving them. She also didn’t have any choice but to stay with his drunk father, who was barely involved in the house. Carvers’ memoir is relevant to Coontz argument about what is needed to have an ideal family.
The book Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?, written by independent journalist and private investigator Ethan Brown, tells the horrific true story of the bayou town of Jennings, Louisiana located in the heart of the Jefferson Davis parish. During the four year duration between 2005 and 2009, the town of Jennings was on edge after the discovery of the bodies of eight murdered women were found in the filthy canals and swamps. The victims became known as the “Jeff Davis 8.” For years, local law enforcement suspected a serial killer, and solely investigated the murders based on that theory alone. The victims were murdered in varying manors, but when alive they all shared many commonalities and were connected to
On June 20, 2001 a woman by the name of Andrea Yates, stunned the whole country with one of the most bizarre acts of violence that a parents could ever do to their own children. She called her husband at work and told him “I did it” confused by what was going on, he rush home only to find his house filled with officers of the law. The husband asked, “What is going on?”, and only to found out that his wife had drowned all five of their children.
July 15, 1999, was an ordinary night for Kristopher Lohrmeyer as he left work at the Colorado City Creamer, a popular ice cream parlor. Kristopher had no idea that his life was about to end. When Michael Brown, 17, Derrick Miller and Andrew (Andy) Medina, 15, approached Kristopher and demanded his money and his car keys. Before the boys knew it shots had been fired and Kristopher was dead. About an hour after the fatal shooting of Kristopher Lohrmeyer, all three men were in custody and telling their version of the night’s events. Michael and Derrick who had run away after the shooting confessed to police and named Andy as the shooter. According to the three boy’s testimony, they had only recently met and needed away to get some quick cash, so they developed a carjacking scheme and headed to Andy’s house to pick up 2 stolen handguns. The three boys were uneducated and had spent most of their time on the streets in search of drugs. The judge ruled that they would be held without bail and there was probable cause to charge them all with first-degree murder (Thrown Away, 2005).
MacAskill, Ewen. "Families Rebuke NBC for Broadcast of Killer's Rant." Guardian.co.uk. 20 Apr. 2007. Web. 26 Apr. 2010. .
In Corsicana, Texas Cameron Willingham and his family’s home was burned down the twenty-third of December is 1991. According to the report Cameron was asleep when the fire started and survived the accident with only a few injuries, as for his children they were not so lucky, they lost their lives to the tragic accident. At the time of the accident Cameron’s wife was buying presents for their children for Christmas. According to a witness and her Daughter Diane and Buffie from a few houses down went outside and saw Cameron screaming, “My babies are burning up!” Diane and Cameron tried countless attempts to rescue the girls from their room until the fire department could get there. According to the New Yorker “The house, in short, had been deliberately transformed onto a death trap.” According to the reports on December twenty-fourth and twenty-seventh of 1991 the fire was declared arson and they later decided to conduct a criminal investigation. Cameron was questioned by the investigators on December 31st and was then later arrested on January 8th of 1992 for the death his three daughters.