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The Perfect Father

The True Story of Chris Watts, His All-American Family, and a Shocking Murder

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The Perfect Father

By: John Glatt
Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
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About this listen

In the early morning hours of August 13, 2018, Shanann Watts was dropped off at her Frederick, Colorado, home by a colleague after returning from a business trip. It was the last time anyone would see her alive. By the next day, Shanann and her two young daughters, Bella and Celeste, had been reported missing, and her husband, Chris Watts, was appearing on the local news, pleading for his family's safe return.

But Chris Watts already knew that he would never see his family again. Less than 24 hours after his desperate plea, Watts made a shocking confession to police: He had strangled his pregnant wife to death and smothered their daughters, dumping their bodies at a nearby oil site. Heartbroken friends and neighbors watched in shock as the movie-star handsome, devoted family man they knew was arrested and charged with first degree murder.

The perfect mask Chris had presented to the world in his TV interviews and the family's Facebook accounts was slipping - and what lay beneath was a horrifying image of instability, infidelity, sexual ambivalence, and boiling rage.

In this first major account of the case, best-selling author and journalist John Glatt reveals the truth behind the tragedy and constructs a chilling portrait of one of the most shocking family annihilator cases of the 21st century.

©2020 John Glatt (P)2020 Tantor Murder True Crime Marriage Crime
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4 stars
I knew a lot about the Watts family murders before reading this, but it offered a little more detail than what I had previously encountered.

As an Australian, I did not experience the media storm that occurred when Shanann Watts and her two daughters went missing. I first encountered their story back in 2020 through the Youtube channel of Stephanie Harlowe who discussed the case. Therefore, before reading this I had a preconceived idea of the kind of monster that Chris Watts was.

I still don't understand what exactly happened. By all accounts Chris Watts was a loving father, what makes someone kill their pregnant wife let alone their children?

The text message exchanges that were included in the book were insightful and gave me a better understanding of the different relationships between the different key participants. It also helped me better understand the animosity between Shanann and Chris Watt's family.

This book is truely heart breaking. The moment the discuss pulling poor Bella and CeeCee's bodies out of the oil containers made me cry. These poor girls were innocent and they did not deserve to die scared and alone by the hands of their father.

This was well written, although quite short. Great place to start if you are interested in learning more bout the case.

This was well written, although quite short. Great place to start if you are interested in learning more bout the case.

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Chris Watts is pure evil what he did to those beautiful children and his wife is disgusting.

Wow !!! What a monster

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I already knew a lot about this case having listened to lots of podcasts, watched a few documentaries and lots of other stuff on YouTube.
I still found this very worthwhile, especially in terms of filling in some backstory on the issues between Shanann and the Watt's family, and the deterioration of their marriage leading up to his affair.
No matter how much I read about this case though, Watt's still takes my breath away with his sheer cruelty and indifference to his wife, girls and unborn son. And nothing will ever convince me that Kessinger was properly investigated. Watts will sing like a canary when it finally sinks in he's not getting out of jail, so that should be interesting.
A chilling lesson on what happens when a covert malignant narcisisst does the ultimate discard, and completely loses the plot.
Great book overall, the narration is a bit irritating but I could get over that pretty easily.

A deeper dive

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This book offers really comprehensive information about the case. So much has been written but this book distills the background and the information about the investigation and trial in detail and without diminishing it with melodrama. It’s a fascinating case and this book covers it very well, but I think most readers will end up like me - still wondering why.

So much information

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This book sent me through a whirl wind of emotions from anger to sadness to even shedding tears for a family that has been torn apart, still so many unanswered questions. I can only pray for Shannan, Bella CC and Nico along with their family and hope they can find peace knowing their angels are watching over them. truly heart wrenching.

heart breaking

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I’ve read a few books on the case and this one lacked the details that I was more interested in hearing.

Good book but lacks details.

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Learned more about the case in this book a few things surprised me, still a shocking case..

How shocking one beautiful family taken far too soon

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I have listened to a few books now and podcasts about this tragic event and this book is by far the best. It has lots of details and heaps of research has obviously been done to try and get a clearer back story to the lead up and reason for this tragedy. Highly recommend.

Well narrated and very informative

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The detail they go into about this case was outstanding..Lots of things I never knew. It was shocking. What a human being can do to other human beings even your own blood.

So terrible but so interesting. Highly recommend.

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Personally for me there wasn’t anything new in this podcast that I haven’t already heard from Netflix documentaries and reading articles about the case.

That being said, I think this is still a great book and its covers everything quite well. I am a fan of John Glatt and I have listened to quite a few books now narrated by Shaun Grindell and I do enjoy his narration.

One thing that slightly rubbed me the wrong way was the portrayal of Shanann being overbearing and dominant in the relationship. I think it was touched on quite a lot, maybe a bit too much.

I think with all her messages to Chris when she was away in NC, it almost portrays her as somewhat obsessive. I’m not married so I can’t say what I would do in that situation, but if I was in another state to my husband who was acting so unusual I think I would go home and make sure things are alright rather than just sit there and have him ignoring me and the kids.

My heart honestly breaks for Shanann and I spend a lot of time thinking about what her last moments were like. Did she think he would keep the kids safe? She couldn’t have possibly even begin to imagine what he was going to do to them because it absolutely defies belief. The fact he would discard his babies like he did is one of the most heartbreaking and heartless things I have heard in recent memory. The video of the girls singing “you are my hero” is almost impossible to watch knowing what he would end up doing to them.

At the end of the day, family annihilators are always going to exist, and I have heard of a few cases but this one will always be the most difficult for me due to the disposal and the fact he just went to work as normal like he didn’t do the most horrific thing imaginable.

good account of the case

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