I followed the case a bit because it was on DL, i got a little sucked in. I don't normally engage with true crime, esp. in the US.

Chris deserves to spend decades in jail.

Does he deserve to spend his whole life in jail - maybe 50+ years - with no possibility whatsoever of parole? That seems to me to be a form of torture, particularly if he is in solitary confinement for a large part of that time. I don't like torture.

I don't agree with the death penalty but a whole life term is no cakewalk. On the other hand, he took three other lives, and what's a just punishment for that? It's a tough call. Apparently he is wracked by guilt all the time, if we believe that.

On Shanann, it's awful that he killed her, but in his place I would have wanted to run far, far away. She was emotionally manipulative, demanding, and extraordinarily high-maintenance. She created drama (like with Chris' family) and forced him to choose a side. He was a naturally undemonstrative person and she kept demanding he perform the loving husband in various ways and to constantly prove he loved her. She may well have had some form of Munchhausen's (by proxy?). She was burning through money at an absolutely unsustainable rate.

Facebook sleuths complain that he 'traded down' to Nikki in terms of looks but I absolutely understand the attraction. Nikki had an understated prettiness to her and was a girl you could actually chill and go camping with without having to constantly prove how much you loved her, and how excited you were about xyz, and how awful your parents were to have done that thing, and..... He probably felt she would have been more like a partner.

I also find it absolutely fascinating how much anger Chris, Cindy and especially Nikki generate on the FB groups, and how deeply some women have internalised Shanann, her life and her fate, making her into some kind of saint or deity. It's also been kind of eye-opening to see how traditonal attitudes still are in some parts of the US - Nikki is a 'Jezebel', and a whore and so on. Some of the women on those groups are convinced she invoked Satan or used black magic.

Are other true crime cases like this? As I said this is the only one from the US I've really followed, because of DL. I know the name Casey Anthony of course but I didn't really read up on it at the time and so I don't know if the impact was similar.

Chris' hotness, even when he was at his peak, was overrated. If he were gay and in Miami or New York or LA would he be the most popular guy in the bar? Not even close, he's the guy that might get lucky as it shifted on towards closing time.