Inmate Close To Chris Watts In Prison Has A Lot To Say About Him

If there truly is honor among thieves, what acts might the thieves condemn? It's a question that's inspired its fair share of urban legends and dark gossip over the years. Journalists, lawmakers, and laymen have probed whether there are some crimes that will revolt even hardened criminals — things that will land you in prison that other prisoners can't abide.

The answer is a qualified "yes," according to anecdotal reports from ex-cons and investigations by the press. The incidence of abuse inflicted on, say, child molesters by other prisoners is exaggerated, and a convict's reputation and treatment behind bars is more likely to be affected by how they behave within the walls than what they did outside of them. But sexual criminals and people who inflict harm on children are often considered the lowest of the low by other convicts. Harsh treatment of such criminals can take them out of the general population, as many prisoners don't want to associate with them. And in the minds of at least some convicts, harming or even killing those who harm or kill children is a public service.

By almost all available accounts, convicted murderer Chris Watts has ended up a lowly and despised member of the Waupun, Wisconsin prison where he serves his life sentence. The notorious killer of his pregnant wife and two young daughters had to be moved from Colorado to Wisconsin for his own security. Sources told People that Watts goes days without speaking to anyone. And across multiple interviews, a former prisoner who spent time with Watts on the same cell block, David Carter, has painted an image of a loathed man who still shifts the blame for his horrible crimes.

Chris Watts and David Carter were not cellmates. But they were both in the same unit, Unit 11, of the Dodge Correctional Facility in Waupun, Wisconsin. "It's for people that can't fit in with the general population and people with medical issues," Carter told The Sun. He was in Unit 11 for self-harm and psychological distress. Watts was there because he wouldn't have been safe otherwise.

Watts has reportedly turned to Christianity in prison, and Carter recalled a religious conversation they had in October 2020. Carter, who served time for theft and possession of methamphetamine before his release, said that he was in no position to judge the killer for his crimes, but was curious about what he had to say. That's when Watts claimed that it wasn't he who had killed his children, but Nichol Kessinger, his former mistress. "[He] wasn't able to stomach killing his own kids," Carter told The Sun, "and he said that's why Nichol killed them." Watts also claimed that Kessinger helped him dig the grave for his murdered wife Shanann.

Watts' story contradicts his own previous confessions. Carter professed himself shocked by Watts' attempt to pass the buck, but was unequivocal when asked if he bought the former oil field operator's stated motive for killing his wife — that he didn't want to pay child support or risk losing his house in a divorce. "I don't buy any of that," Carter told the Daily Mail. He added that Watts kept photos of his kids in his cell, but none of his wife.

David Carter maintains that since he's been released, he has remained in contact with Chris Watts, and has produced handwritten letters by the killer as proof. Writing is one of Watts' chief past-times, being a man sentenced to life in prison without parole with few in the facility willing to speak to him. And according to Carter, one of the murderer's other correspondents is Nichol Kessinger, the woman he had an affair with and allegedly tried to blame for his own murders.

Carter told the Daily Mail that Watts and Kessinger were not allowed to be in contact with one another, but that she still wrote to him in his Wisconsin prison cell. This corroborates reported claims from Watts himself that he still kept in touch with his former mistress, who has changed her name and moved away from Colorado in the wake of the murders. Watts said the letters he receives from the woman he still loves come under assumed names. Carter claimed that prison authorities suspended Watts' email account and began monitoring his mail after discovering he and Kessinger were still speaking, but the Wisconsin Department of Corrections gave no comment to the Mail on the allegations.

If Watts does still love Kessinger, he might not be saving himself for her. Carter has also claimed that Watts receives dozens of letters, many of them from sympathetic women. He also alleged that Watts and inmate Dylan Tallman have become lovers in prison, though Tallman's girlfriend at the time denied the claims.