Killer Chris Watts reveals awful new nickname for mistress in prison letters

Chris Watts murdered his whole family to be with another woman – but six years on, he’s made bombshell claims about their romance.

Killer dad Chris Watts is blaming his former mistress for his decision to brutally murder his wife and two little girls — and only refers to her as “Jezebel.”

Several handwritten notes from the 39-year-old murderer, who is serving a life sentence in a small cell at a notorious maximum security prison in Wisconsin, have been obtained and published by the New York Post.

Watts pleaded guilty to killing his wife Shanann, 34 – who was carrying his unborn son, Nico – and two daughters, Bella, four, and Celeste, three, so he could be with his lover, Nichol “Nikki” Kessinger in August 2018.

The case made headlines around the world after he dumped the girls’ bodies in oil storage tanks and buried his wife in a shallow grave nearby.

A notorious and shocking crime, it became even more widely known after Netflix released its 2020 doco American Murder: The Family Next Door.

It featured chilling police bodycam footage showing Watts’ behaviour in the hours after his entire family “disappeared”.

Watts, now 39, has never spoken publicly about why he committed the unthinkable act, but an inmate “close” to the brutal murderer has shared some insights after being locked up together at Dodge Correctional Institution.

Chris Watts is currently serving life with no chance of parole for murdering his pregnant wife Shanann in 2018. Picture: Supplied

He also killed their two daughters, Bella, four, and Celeste three. Picture: Supplied

Christopher Watts in a courtroom hearing in 2018. Picture: RJ Sangosti – Pool/Getty Images

Dylan Tallman, a fellow prisoner at the male-only lockup, befriended Watts after being allocated the cell next door to the child killer.

“We started talking,” Tallman, who was inside for possession of drugs, told the New York Post. “We had a lot of very long conversations, spiritual conversations.”

They began studying the Bible together, with Watts even calling Tallman his “spiritual twin”.

While tabloids speculated that their relationship had turned sexual, Tallman flatly denies that.

“No, that was someone just making things up. We were studying the Scriptures together,” he said.

Dylan Tallman was in the cell next to the dad killer and has recently exposed some of the letters the murderer penned to him. Picture: Supplied

For more than a year, Watts had planned to write a book with Tallman. When Watts changed his mind, Tallman released a series of three books, titled “The Cell Next Door”, which details how their lives intersected in prison.

In the first book, Tallman said he and Watts called Nichol Kessinger “Jezebel” as they talked about her — a reference to a biblical woman who “mislead servants into sexual immorality”.

“I was having an affair with this girl and I ended up in love with two women at the same time,” Watts told Tallman, according to the book.

“It’s what led up to what happened. She is of evil spirits, like Jezebel.”

Several letters Watts wrote Tallman have also been published in the books.

In one handwritten note, dated March 2020, Watts wrote a prayer of confession.

It read: “The words of a harlot have brought me low. 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.”

He continued: “How did I let this happen? The blessings you have bestowed upon me were right in front of me, and still I followed the perfume of a strange woman.”

Watts admitted killing his entire family so he could be with his mistress Nichol Kessinger. Picture: Weld County District Attorney's office

But the killer now claims it was Ms Kessinger’s fault he killed his family, according to letters allegedly written by him. Picture: Weld County District Attorney's office

Watts claimed to Tallman that Ms Kessinger told him to choose between her and his family on the night of the murders.

“Jezebel was the forbidden fruit,” he allegedly said, “and it was costly”.

“He admitted that he was stupid to cheat on his wife, and he asked God’s forgiveness every day for his infidelity,” Tallman writes in the book, the New York Post stated.

Watts admitted to strangling his pregnant wife, Shanann, in their Colorado home in August 2018.

He then drove her body to a job site at the oil company where he worked and dumped her while his two daughters were in his truck.

He then suffocated them as they begged for mercy and stashed their bodies in oil drums.

The then 34-year-old initially denied any wrongdoing, even going on live TV shortly after burying their bodies, begging anyone with information to come forward.

Watts admitted to strangling his pregnant wife, Shanann, in their Colorado home. Picture: Weld County District Attorney's office

Before then killing his two daughters in his truck and stashing their bodies in oil drums. Picture: Supplied

But investigators saw red flags in how Watts referred to his family as he kept describing them in past tense, according to the 2019 documentary Criminal Confessions.

Cops were suspicious when the killer dad said Celeste “loved” a certain pair of shoes and that the four-year-old “was a girly girl”.

After later failing a polygraph test, Watts pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

His mistress still lives in Colorado, but now goes by a different name. She has not spoken publicly for several years about her relationship with Watts.