Since entering prison in late 2018, Chris Watts has received a steady stream of letters from strangers, and his pen pal correspondence has produced some of the most detailed admissions he has ever made about killing his pregnant wife and two daughters. Most of the writers are women. One, author Cheryln Cadle, turned her letters into a book of written confessions. Another, former prison psychologist Christa Richello, insists he is innocent. A third category is hate mail. Together, the exchanges offer the clearest public picture of Watts’s life inside Wisconsin’s Dodge Correctional Institution.
How the Mail Started and How Much He Gets
Letters began arriving almost immediately after Watts’s arrest. By August 22, 2018, investigators had logged 17 pieces of mail. By September 7, they counted another 10. The pile mixed pen pal requests, media inquiries, and hate mail, including one note telling him to “die bitch.” Several early letters came from women expressing “seemingly amorous feelings,” and one included a bikini photograph with a note that he had “one of the kindest faces I’ve ever seen.”1Oxygen. Chris Watts Receiving Love and Hate Letters in Prison
The volume grew again after Netflix released American Murder: The Family Next Door in 2020.2People. Chris Watts Is Sending Racy Letters to Women From His Prison Cell The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has confirmed that Watts “spends time writing pen pals, many of whom are women.”3New York Post. Family Killer Chris Watts Is Prison Custodian, Has Female Pen Pals According to People, he has corresponded with several women for years, sending what sources described as “racy” replies to “sexy pictures,” and he buys stamps and paper from the commissary in bulk. Letter writing is reportedly his main outlet in protective custody.
What Wisconsin Prison Mail Rules Allow
Under Wisconsin Department of Corrections regulations, inmates may correspond with anyone, but incoming and outgoing mail is subject to inspection. Pornography is prohibited, though “suggestive photos” are permitted. The department can withhold mail that threatens criminal activity, contains contraband, or interferes with penological interests, and inmates can appeal any decision to hold their mail.4Cornell Law Institute. Wis. Admin. Code DOC 309.04 That framework is why so much of Watts’s correspondence has reached the public: writers can share his letters freely once they receive them.
Cheryln Cadle and the Written Confessions
The most consequential pen pal relationship has been with Cheryln Cadle, an author who wrote to Watts and visited him for at least one three-hour meeting.3New York Post. Family Killer Chris Watts Is Prison Custodian, Has Female Pen Pals She published their exchanges in Letters from Christopher: The Tragic Confessions of the Watts Family Murders.
According to Cadle, Watts wrote that he had been “thinking about killing” his family for weeks before the murders. He identified his affair with coworker Nichol Kessinger as the motive: “If I had not met Nikki, I would never have killed my family. All I could feel was now I was free to be with Nikki. Feelings of my love for her was overcoming me. I felt no remorse.” Cadle said he described the affair as “very sexual, very twisted, very mixed up,” with details she declined to repeat.5Yahoo News. Chris Watts Pen Pal Spills
The letters also walked through the killings. Watts told Cadle he first tried to smother four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste with a pillow but that they “woke back up” after Shanann had died. He described seeing Shanann’s “eyes fill with blood” and “mascara streaking down her face” as he strangled her. He told Cadle he preferred writing to talking because he believed his prison conversations were recorded.6The Tab. Chris Watts Makes Gruesome Admission in Detailed Letters
Cadle’s account tracks closely with the recorded confession Watts gave to FBI, CBI, and Frederick Police agents in February 2019, in which he admitted strangling Shanann, then driving the girls to the oil site and smothering Celeste first, then Bella, whose last words were “Daddy, no.”7CBS News Colorado. Chris Watts Confession Recordings
Christa Richello and the Innocence Camp
Not every correspondent treats Watts as guilty. Christa Richello, a 42-year-old former prison psychologist, sent fan mail to Watts and ended up engaged to his cellmate, Dylan Tallman, who first replied on Watts’s behalf.8Oxygen. Christa Richello Defends Intimate Relationship With Christopher Watts
Richello publicly maintains Watts is innocent despite his guilty plea and multiple confessions. She has questioned how quickly he accepted the deal: “I’ve never seen a case in history that somebody took a plea agreement so quickly, a case was completely ended and not investigated.”9E! Online. Meet the Woman Who Defends Intimate Relationship With Chris Watts Her belief rests largely on what she describes as his devotion to religion. She has also acknowledged a family pattern, telling reporters, “my mom did stand up for Charles Manson and I’m standing up for Chris Watts.”8Oxygen. Christa Richello Defends Intimate Relationship With Christopher Watts She and Tallman reportedly started writing a book with Watts.10Yahoo Entertainment. Former Prison Psychologist Defends Intimate Relationship
Both Cadle and Richello appeared in the Lifetime docuseries Cellmate Secrets, which premiered June 4, 2021, with Angie Harmon narrating. The episode set Cadle’s confession account against Richello’s insistence on innocence.11Deadline. Angie Harmon to Narrate Cellmate Secrets Docuseries for Lifetime
What the Letters Say About His Prison Life
Dylan Tallman, Watts’s cellmate from 2018 to 2020, described himself as Watts’s “only friend” inside. When other inmates learned Watts had killed small children, Tallman said, “they wanted to kill him. He had nowhere else to turn.” According to Tallman, Watts keeps photos of Bella and Celeste in his cell and “prays for forgiveness every day. But he knows he can’t undo what he did.”12New York Post. Killer Dad Chris Watts Lives in Fear in Wisconsin Prison The two worked on an unpublished devotional book together.
Watts’s letters have also marked a sharp turn against Nichol Kessinger, the woman he once named as his reason for killing his family. He and Tallman reportedly started calling her “Jezebel,” and in a March 2020 letter Watts wrote: “The words of a harlot have brought me low. Her flattering speech was like drops of honey that pierced my heart and soul.” He now alleges that Kessinger told him to choose between her and his family on the night of the murders, and blames her, reversing his earlier admissions of sole responsibility.13News.com.au. Killer Chris Watts Reveals Awful New Nickname for Mistress in Prison Letters
As of the most recent reporting, Watts remains at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, Wisconsin, where he was transferred on December 3, 2018, under the Interstate Corrections Compact for his own safety.14WMTV. Chris Watts Serving Sentence in Waupun Prison He works as a prison custodian, has no scheduled visitors beyond occasional pastoral calls, and spends much of his time reading the Bible and attending Bible studies where he keeps to himself. Prison officials provide protection because other inmates continue to pose a threat.12New York Post. Killer Dad Chris Watts Lives in Fear in Wisconsin Prison He has received two conduct reports: one in 2020 for unauthorized communication and property transfer, and another in 2021 for possessing contraband and disobeying orders.15People. Chris Watts Birthday in Prison, No Special Privileges
Why Women Write to Killers Like Watts
The attention Watts receives is not unusual among notorious inmates, though the volume is. Psychologists use the term hybristophilia, coined by sexologist Dr. John Money in 1986, for a sexual attraction to people known to have committed violent crimes. The condition runs on a spectrum from casual fascination to deep romantic attachment.16MagellanTV. Romancing the Monster: What Is Hybristophilia
Experts cite overlapping motivations. Some writers are drawn to the perceived danger. Others see a chance to nurture or reform the inmate. Others find safety in knowing exactly where their partner is and that he cannot pursue other women.16MagellanTV. Romancing the Monster: What Is Hybristophilia Criminologists have cautioned that inmates are often skilled manipulators who project a sympathetic image while locked up. Former U.S. Probation Officer Sally Keglovits has said correspondents frequently “fall in love with an image that an inmate created” and can be used as proxies for activity outside the walls.17Psychology Today. Killer Pen Pals Watts is serving five consecutive and concurrent life sentences without parole, so the physical risk documented in other pen pal cases does not apply here. The emotional dynamic, and what it produces on the page, does.