The text below was sent to CrimeRocket by a spokesperson who has [had?] regular contact with Chris Watts, and often liaises with the Watts family. The message below is unedited, and does not necessarily represent the views of CrimeRocket.

In light of the recent book release of ‘Letters from Christopher,’  I’m feeling compelled to point out the not-so-hidden agenda of the author and her subject, because I was absolutely horrified by the constant victim-blaming that I saw scattered throughout the pages of this book.

I’ve heard it said that, “The more subtle you are at hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.” Maybe Cherlyn Cadle has heard this as well, however Cadle may be many things, but subtle isn’t one of them.

In the book, Cadle went to great lengths to point out how Shan’ann Watts emasculated Christopher Watts at every turn. Bits and pieces detailing a story of a domineering wife and a weak man are littered throughout. But I’m going to save that particular discussion for another time.

The topic I’m more interested in at this moment is the dynamic of the independent single woman and the craven man who pursued her. Well, that’s how I see it anyways. However, Cadle and Watts would ‘subtly’ (see ‘train wreck,’ see ‘shipwreck’) have you believe that Nicole Kessinger, who entered into an affair with Watts just six weeks before his family was brutally murdered and she was subsequently discarded, was a major reason Watts murdered his family. Kessinger is portrayed as a modern day Jezebel in this book, what with her seamy taste for practicing yoga and her unhealthy interest in healing stones. And to be clear, that implication was actually about as blatant as it gets.

Watts and Cadle even included a Bible passage describing a woman who goes to great lengths to seduce a poor innocent man into being physical with her. Then Cadle attempted to drive their point home about Kessinger by saying, “She lured him with lewd sex and nude pictures.” No mention whatsoever was made of the lewd pics that Watts was also sending to Kessinger or the love notes he wrote to her; nothing about the fact that Watts told her he was separated from his wife; nothing about the fact that the lewdest aspects of the sex were at Chris’s insistence. But I digress …

A beautiful, well-educated, and driven woman made a mistake when she became involved with a married man she had been led to believe was separated from his wife. It’s a tale as old as time. However, that does not make her to blame for the actions of a monster. She shouldn’t have to live her life feeling like she was the instigator, or at least the catalyst, of someone else’s heinous crimes. She’s merely guilty of falling, innocently, for the toxic and narcissistic Christopher Watts.

Watts and Cadle’s attempt to shift blame onto the women in Watts’s life is startling. While they both admit that the murders were committed by Watts alone, they are heavily attempting to shift the blame and the build-up to the murders on anyone other than Watts, preferably any woman, preferably several women.

One question that people always ask repeatedly is, “WHY did this happen?” and we were told repeatedly in advance by Cadle that the answers would be in this book. But I saw no answers here, only conjecture, victim-blaming, and ever larger doses of misogyny.

I reached out to Christopher Watts in an attempt to help clear up some of the accusations made about Kessinger in this book, yet Watts categorically declined to absolve Kessinger at this time, insisting instead upon releasing his own statement, in his own words, according to his own agenda, no doubt in another book.

All I can say to that is, after ‘Letters from Christopher,’ one thing is certain: most of us are appalled at the thought of reading another one of Chris’s cringe-worthy letters. There was hardly enough water in the world to shower ourselves clean after the last lot.