Chris Watts is making decisions behind bars that continue to shock those who knew him.
Watts is currently serving five life sentences plus 48 years in prison without the possibility of parole for the deaths of his wife, Shanann, daughters Bella and Celeste, and unborn child Nico. While no one knows for certain what drove Watts to take his family's lives on a summer night in 2018, many suspect that the affair he was having had something to do with it.
That summer, Watts had become involved with Nichol Kessinger. The two reportedly never spoke again after Watts' confession, with Kessinger even changing her name and moving out of Colorado. Now it seems the two are back in contact, as a fellow inmate at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin, alleged to the Daily Mail. It may have even had something to do with the recent Netflix documentary about the case.
Chris Watts is currently serving five life sentences plus 48 years in prison without the possibility of parole. Life still goes on behind bars, however, and the man who murdered his entire family is no exception. An inmate at the Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin, spoke with the Daily Mail in 2021 and shared some insights into Watts' life in jail.
David Carter alleged that Watts got back in touch with Nichol Kessinger. Watts' affair with Kessinger was believed to be the catalyst for all the actions that led to the murders, although Watts himself has denied it. After Watts' trial, Kessinger changed her name and moved out of Colorado.
"He told me she said that she needed to speak to him to clear some things up," Carter told the Daily Mail.
"He wouldn't tell me exactly what she had said."
In Letters From Christopher: The Tragic Confessions of the Watts Family Murders, Watts told pen pal Cheryln Cadle that he was still in love with Kessinger. He also said that he believed some of the letters he got in jail were written by her under assumed names. Carter says that it's unclear whether it's really Kessinger writing or if Watts simply thinks it is.
Watts told Carter that he was in contact with Kessinger in September 2020, a year after the book's release. Apparently, prison authorities discovered the two were in communication, and Watts was punished. His email account was suspended as authorities took a careful look at all his messages in and out.
Carter says that he talked to Watts about the motivation behind his crimes. Watts told Carter that he killed Shanann because he didn't want to pay child support. Watts reportedly was open about the fact he didn't want the baby Shanann was pregnant with and that he believed she'd take the house and a bit of money in a divorce.
"I don't buy any of that though," Carter noted.
"I couldn't ever kill my entire family just because I didn't want a child or didn't want to pay child support. I have a lot of things going on in my life, but I have never wanted to stop and kill my entire family because I wanted certain things to go my way."
Carter also says that Watts has pictures of his two little girls in his cell, but none of Shanann.
"He told me he has nightmares every night, always the same, of his two girls standing in his cell playing catch," he shared.
Watts shares a cell with another child murderer, Marcus "MJ" Johnson. Johnson was sentenced to 40 years in 2015 after killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old son. He put the little boy in scalding hot water after the boy had a bathroom accident.
"Their cell is about six feet by eight feet, so it's not very big for two people," Carter noted. The two were in the cell across from Carter's own.
"But MJ and Chris get on real well and they look out for each other. Chris sleeps on the bottom bunk, MJ on the top."
"Chris gets a lot of death threats from other prisoners and so does MJ because of what they both did. So they weren't able to put either of them in with just anyone," Carter explained of how the two ended up together.
Watts still gets plenty of letters and gifts from female admirers, too. Carter says women even send Watts money, half of which goes toward the $6 million he was ordered to pay Shanann's parents, Frank and Sandy Rzucek, in a wrongful death lawsuit.
"I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if he receives up to $1,000 a week," Carter said.
"He gets a lot of mail, probably from 10 or 20 people a day. Most of it is from admirers, both men and women, but he gets a lot of death threats too.
"He gets letters from people wanting to marry him, strangers who don't even know him personally. They just send him money. He doesn't reply to many and he passes some of the mail on to other inmates."
Carter also noted that Watts has gotten deeply involved in religion since being locked up.
"Chris has turned to God in a big way. He spends a lot of time reading the Bible and he's actually a very caring person."
Carter says Watts works as a butcher in the prison kitchen and spends a lot of time in the law library, where he's allegedly preparing an appeal.
"I think it's the one thing that keeps him going. He seriously thinks he is going to get out one day, although everyone else knows he never will," he said.
"He failed a lie detector, he admitted to police that he had killed Shanann and the girls, he admitted it to his father, he admitted it to correction officers in Dodge, he admitted it to me, but he still says he was framed for the murders and that he wasn't home when it happened."
