Coral Eugene Watts

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Coral Eugene Watts

Background information
Alias(es):	The Sunday Morning Slasher
Born:	November 7, 1953 Fort Hood, Texas
Died:	September 21, 2007
Cause of death:	prostate cancer
Penalty:	Life
Killings
Number of victims:	8-80
Span of killings:	1974 through 1982
Country:	U.S.
State(s):	Michigan, Texas
Date apprehended:	1982

Carl Eugene "Coral" Watts (November 7, 1953 – September 21, 2007) was an American serial killer. He obtained immunity for a dozen murders as a result of a plea bargain with prosecutors in 1982; at one point it appeared that he could be released in 2006 despite possibly having committed as many as 80 murders. He died of prostate cancer while serving a 60-year sentence.

1 Crimes
2 A new discovery
3 A new conviction
4 External links

[edit] Crimes

On May 23, 1982, Watts was arrested for breaking into the home of two young women in Houston, Texas, and attempting to kill them. While in custody, police began to link Watts with the recent murders of a number of women. Until early 1981, he had lived in Michigan, where authorities suspected him of being responsible for the murders of at least 10 women and girls. Watts was previously questioned about the murders in 1975, but there had not been enough evidence to convict him. At that time, he had spent a year in prison for attacking a woman, who survived.

Prosecutors in Texas did not feel they had enough evidence to convict Watts of murder, so in 1982 they arranged a plea bargain. If Watts gave full details and confessions to his crimes, they would give him immunity from the murder charges and he would, instead, face just a charge of burglary with intent to murder. This charge carried a 60-year sentence. He agreed with the deal and promptly confessed in detail to 12 murders in Texas.

[edit] A new discovery

Watts later claimed that he had killed 40 women, and then implied the total was as many as 80. He is now suspected to have killed more than 100 women, which would make him the most prolific serial killer in American history.^{[citation needed]} Several of the killings were not linked to each other. Serial killers normally select victims within a certain age group, and usually kill by the same method. Watts, on the other hand, killed females aged from 14 to 44, and they were killed in a variety of ways: stabbing, slashing, strangulation, drowning and bludgeoning. Watts used wood carving tools, knives and different implements to strangle his victims. Watts' attacks were so short in duration that no DNA evidence was ever found to compare to his DNA profile, sometimes killing a woman without even touching her while stabbing her. Also, serial killers usually kill people of their own race; Watts, who was African American, selected mostly white victims. Watts claimed that he saw evil in the eyes of the women he killed. Watts also claimed to have taken steps to prevent the souls of his victims from coming after him, like keeping some of their possessions and then burning them and drowning women in a bathtub to prevent the spirit's escape. Watts also would drive one to two hours away to commit his murders. He would stalk his intended victim in his car, park ahead of them and then get out and approach them. He is believed to have committed murders in Canada, Michigan, Ohio and Texas.

Watts was sentenced to the agreed 60 years, but the prosecutors did not take into account the rules for early release. Watts was a model prisoner, and under Texas law he could have up to three days deducted from his sentence for each one day served, as long as he was well behaved. This meant that Watts could have been released as early as May 9, 2006. Watts' release was predicated on a ruling that he had not been informed that the bathtub and water he attempted to drown Lori Lister in was considered a deadly weapon, which would have made him ineligible for parole.

[edit] A new conviction

In 2004, authorities made appeals to possible witnesses in order to try and convict Watts of murder to ensure he was not released, given that he had made it clear he would kill again if he ever got out of prison. Joseph Foy of Westland, Michigan, came forward to say that he had seen a man fitting Watts' description murder Helen Dutcher, a 36-year-old woman who died after being stabbed twelve times in December 1979. Watts then fled from the scene. Foy identified Watts by his eyes, which he described as being "evil" and devoid of emotion. Watts had immunity from prosecution for the 12 killings he had admitted to in Texas, but that did not apply in Michigan. Before his 2004 trial, law enforcement officials asked the trial judge to allow the Texas confessions into evidence, which he agreed to.

Watts was promptly charged with the murder of Helen Dutcher. On November 17, 2004, after hearing eyewitness testimony from Joseph Foy, a Michigan jury convicted him.

On December 7, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Two days later, authorities in Michigan started making moves to try him for the murder of Western Michigan University student Gloria Steele, who was stabbed to death in 1974. The case was featured in episodes of the TV programs Cold Case Files and The Investigators ^[1]^[2]

On July 25, 2007 Watts' trial for the Steele murder began in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Closing arguments concluded July 26. The following day the jury returned a guilty verdict. Watts was incarcerated at a maximum security prison in Ionia, Michigan. He was reportedly diagnosed with prostate cancer and died on September 21, 2007.