Chris Watts now blames ‘control freak’ wife for murders

Killer dad Chris Watts continues to blame everyone but himself for his decision to horrifically murder his wife and two young daughters in August 2018.

In newly revealed letters, he labeled his pregnant wife Shanann a “control freak,” and claimed that he sought refuge with his mistress, who was “everything my wife wasn’t like with me.”

The Post has viewed several handwritten notes from the 39-year-old Watts, who is serving a life sentence in a small cell at Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.

Watts has admitted to strangling Shanann, 34, in their Colorado home on August 13, 2018. He then drove her body to a job site at the oil company where he worked and dumped her.

His two daughters — Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3 — were in his truck. He suffocated them as they begged for mercy, and stashed their bodies in oil drums.

His alleged motive: so that he could be with mistress Nichol Kessinger.

Watts pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Colorado prison officials soon arranged to have him transferred to Wisconsin for his safety.

In addition to his handwritten letters, Watts shared most of his thoughts with Dylan Tallman, a fellow prisoner at the Wisconsin lockup who befriended Watts. Tallman was in the cell next to Watts, and the two men became close. After Watts reneged on his commitment to co-write a prayer book, Tallman released a series of three books titled “The Cell Next Door.”

Watts confided to Tallman that his marriage to Shanann was unhappy, according to the letters.

“She was really busy with her job and everything it required,” Watts told Tallman, adding that he often was the primary caregiver to his daughters.

When Watts lost weight and started working out in 2017, he said that women started paying attention to him. “I met Nichol,” he said. “She was just everything my wife wasn’t like with me. She was just nice, and not a control freak. We could make decisions together.”

“We knew each other for awhile, but we didn’t start messing around until 6 weeks before,” he continued. “I was not thinking. We worked together, we had chemistry, and I fell into temptation. She was the forbidden fruit.”

But Watts has had some harsh words for the “forbidden fruit” of Kessinger, whom he told Tallman became “the death of me.”

In one letter previously obtained by the Post, he also called her a “harlot” and a “jezebel” who led him to destruction.

In one letter, dated March 2020, Watts wrote a prayer of confession. “The words of a harlot have brought me low,” he wrote. “Her flattering speech was like drops of honey that pierced my heart and soul. Little did I know that all her guests were in the chamber of death.”

Kessinger has not responded to the Post’s request for comment.