Five Family Annihilators Who Predate Chris Watts
The new Netflix documentary, American Murder: The Family Next Door, has returned the Watts family murder to the national spotlight. Once again, people are trying to wrap their head around the idea of family annihilators. The idea of murdering your spouse is difficult to understand. The idea of murdering your children is almost unthinkable. Doing both at the same time seems unimaginable. But as these five cases prove, family annihilators are, sadly, nothing new.
Marty Bergen
Marty Bergen was a Major League Baseball player for the Boston Beaneaters. He was known for his erratic behavior off the field but was a well-respected player. Jesse Burkett, a left fielder for another team and future Hall of Famer called Bergen a natural. “As a catcher, Martin Bergen was the best the world ever produced,” Jesse said in 1900. “No man acted with more natural grace as a ballplayer. … [H]is movements [were] so quick and accurate in throwing that the speediest base runners … never took chances when Bergen was behind the bat.”
Rumors of Bergen’s bizarre behavior escalated in the summer of 1899. During a road trip during a pennant race, Bergen simply…
