Chris Watts now blames his controlling wife for the murders

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

In recently published letters, he called his pregnant wife Shanann a “control freak” and claimed he sought refuge with his mistress, who was “everything my wife was not to me.”

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

Watts admitted to strangling 34-year-old Shanann in her Colorado home on August 13, 2018. He then drove her body to a construction site belonging to the oil company where he worked and left it there.

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

His alleged motive: He wanted to be with his lover Nichol Kessinger.

Watts pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Colorado prison authorities soon arranged for his transfer to Wisconsin for his safety.

In addition to his handwritten letters, Watts shared most of his thoughts with Dylan Tallman, a fellow inmate at the Wisconsin Penitentiary who became friends with Watts. Tallman was in the cell next to Watts and the two men became close. After Watts reneged on a promise to co-write a prayer book, Tallman published a series of three books called The Cell Next Door.

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

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

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

“We had known each other for a while, but we only started making out six weeks before,” he continued. “I wasn't thinking. We worked together, we had great chemistry and I was tempted. She was the forbidden fruit.”

But Watts had harsh words for Kessinger’s “forbidden fruit,” which he told Tallman was “my death sentence.”

In a letter previously obtained by the Post, he also called her a “whore” and “Jezebel” who was leading him to ruin.

In a March 2020 letter, Watts wrote a prayer of confession. “The words of a whore have humiliated me,” he wrote. “Her flattering words were like drops of honey piercing my heart and soul. I did not know that all her guests were in the death chamber.”

Kessinger did not respond to The Post's request for comment.