Criminologist explains why people become attracted to killers as Chris Watts’ girlfriend applies to marry him
Chris Watts has reportedly applied to marry a woman who has met him 23 times in 15 months in prison.
Lizzie Henderson has reportedly started going by ‘Lizzie Watts’ and has applied for a confidential name change.
She is reportedly a realtor from Cleveland, Ohio who moved to Wisconsin to be closer to him.
The convicted murderer, 41, meanwhile, remains incarcerated at the Dodge Correctional Institution, having confessed to smothering his daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three, in the backseat of his truck after strangling his wife Shanann, 34, in August 2018.
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Watts said he and Shanann were arguing at their home in Colorado about his extramarital affair with co-worker Nichol Kessinger.
He received five life sentences without the possibility of parole in November 2018 after pleading guilty to nine criminal charges, including five counts of first-degree murder and one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy.
Bonnie and Clyde syndrome
Criminologist David Wilson says being attracted to serial killers and other dangerous criminals is called hybristophilia.
Also known as ‘Bonnie and Clyde syndrome’, it means that someone feels romantic or sexual attraction towards a person who has committed serious or violent crimes.
Wilson explained to Birmingham City University (BCU) that hybristophilia can happen to both men and women and can also happen in same-sex relationships. There are two main types: aggressive and passive hybristophilia.
“Hybristophilliac relationships are not just the from the point of view of a woman forming a relationship with a dangerous man, but there are equally men who will have Hybristophilliac relationships with women. There are also same sex Hybristophilliac relationships,” said the Emeritus Professor of Criminology.
“It is also important to differentiate between aggressive Hybristophillia and passive Hybristophillia.
“A more aggressive example of the philia is when a person is not just sexually attracted to what the violent person does but wants to work with the violent person in the commission of their violence.
He added: ”That's sometimes popularly known as Bonnie and Clyde syndrome, after the famous American couple who committed bank robberies in the 1930s.
“A more passive outburst of Hybristophillia, is where a person just forms an idealised or romantic attachment to a murder or serial killer.”
Why are people attracted to serial killers?
One reason for this attraction could be control, Wilson says.
When a criminal is in prison, their partner knows where they are and can choose when to contact or visit them.
The prisoner is also controlled by the prison system, which may make the relationship feel safer.
Wilson says that some people who are attracted to prisoners may have experienced difficult or traumatic childhoods where they had very little control. A relationship with someone in prison may therefore give them a greater feeling of control.
“Another instrumental reason is if you form a relationship with a convicted murderer or notorious serial killer person you gain attention. You are interviewed, you may write a book, so there is a way to gain status which is perhaps something you were denied in your childhood,” he added.
Anish Vij