Media Blames Metallica for Man’s Murder of Entire Family

I haven’t been the following the story of Christopher Watts, so if you missed it, too, here’s a quick catch-up. Earlier this year Watts, who lives in the Denver, CO area, killed his wife, Shan’ann, who was 15 weeks pregnant, and both of his daughters, Bella and Celeste, hiding the young girls’ remains in oil tanks at his place of work and burying his wife in the ground nearby. On November 6th he pleaded guilty to nine charges, including five counts of first-degree murder, one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body.

What’s this got to do with metal? In the police investigation that led to Watts’ arrest it was discovered that he’d Googled the lyrics to Metallica’s “Battery” shortly after committing the murders, and now certain media outlets are once again attempting to paint metal in a negative light. TV station KCNC was the first to find the mention of Metallica in the 2,000+ document of police findings, but their coverage was fair. It was People who ran with Metallica as the headline, seizing on the public’s perception of metal a nefarious influence.

The lyrics to “Battery” include:

Smashing through the boundaries, lunacy has found me
Cannot stop the battery
Pounding out aggression, turns into obsession
Cannot kill the battery
Cannot kill the family, battery has found in me
Battery

Whether or not Metallica “inspired” this man to lose his marbles, as the People article implies, is almost irrelevant: one man’s actions do not represent the millions of peaceful metalheads worldwide. And I can say with certainty that Metallica did not cause him to commit three ruthless murders anyway! The man clearly had issues, and the police documents point to problems in his marriage and generally erratic behavior leading up to the time of the murders.

I’m sure people will cry “pot calling the kettle” with regards to MetalSucks taking down People for their garbage headline, but jesus fucking christ: will the scapegoating of metal as the boogieman that inspires people to do bad things ever end?

Metallica have yet to comment publicly on the association. If I were them, I wouldn’t.

[via Metal Insider]