True Crime Friday: Carl “Coral” Eugene Watts, the Sunday Morning Slasher

Carl “Coral” Eugene Watts is the first known serial killer in American history to have acquired immunity legally through the court. If not for the tireless work of detectives he may have been released to kill again. He was a different breed of serial killer because his chosen victims were white women. Serial killers rarely commit murders outside of their race. Watts said he killed white women because they had evil eyes. He began his reign of terror in the state of Michigan. He committed the majority of his crimes on Sunday mornings. Hence, the moniker of the Sunday Morning Slasher.

He was able to cover up his crimes by leaving very little to no DNA on or around his victims. He killed women and girls between the ages of 14 and 34 by stabbing, drowning and strangulation. It is reported that he first started killing when he was 20 years old. He did not sexually assault his victims. He got his thrills simply by murdering them. Since he did not sexually assault his victims and no DNA was connect to him at the time of some of these killings, he was paroled several time because of his good behavior.

Watts was sentenced to the agreed 60 years in prison for the murders in1982. The Texas Court of Appeals ruled that he had not been informed that the bathtub and water he attempted to drown Lori Lister in was considered a deadly weapon. Because of this ruling he was reclassified as a non-violent felon. This made Watts eligible for early release. At the time, Texas law allowed non-violent felons to have three days deducted from their sentences for every one day served as long as they were well behaved. Watts was a model prisoner. He had enough time deducted from his sentence that he could have been released as early as May 9, 2006. The law allowing early release was abolished after public outcry. In Watts’s case the new law was not retroactive meaning the murderer of women could be released early. Watts had no immunity agreement in Michigan. Before his 2004 trial, law enforcement officials asked the trial judge to allow the Texas confessions into evidence, to which he agreed.

The Early Childhood of Carl “Coral” Eugene Watts

He was born in Texas to Richard Eugene Watts and Dorothy Mae Young on November 7, 1953. Watts’s father was a solider in the Army and his mother was a school teacher. His parents were divorced when Watts was roughly two years old. Watts’s mother remarried and the family moved from Texas to Michigan to begin their new life. Watts disliked his stepdad who referred to Watts as a mama’s boy. With a new dad and siblings he became worried that he would lose his mother’s attention and love. He would visit his grandmother who lived in a rural region of Michigan. That is where he learn to hunt with his grandfather. The two became very close. Watts later adopted the nickname "Coral," which was the southern pronunciation of his name.

Watts contracted meningitis when he was eight years old. Watts was taken to the local hospital for spinal surgery. Watts' body temperature was so high that physicians worried it might have caused brain damage. After his illness, his family noticed a change in his personality, describing him as bashful, quiet, and introverted. His attention span dropped and he began to suffer from a poor memory. Watts said he started having violent dreams about battling off and killing the wicked spirits of women, which interrupted his sleep cycle.

The Victims of Carl “Coral “Eugene Watts

• Emily Laqua
• Margaret Everson Fossi
• Michele Maday
• Elena Semander
• Gloria Steele
• Jeanne Clyne
• Helen Dutcher
• Shirley Small
• Linda Tilley
• Suzie Wolf
• Anna Ledet
• Elizabeth Montgomery
• Lori Lester, Survivor
• Julie Sanchez, Survivor
• Melinda Aguilar, Survivor

Lady Justice

Watts was on the verge of being released in 2006, after he confessed to killing at least 80 women. He was tried in Texas for killing 13 women. Authorities had to think fast and act quickly because Watts was due to be paroled within a few years and it seemed nothing could be done to stop it. Texas authorities and Michigan authorities came together to keep Watts off the streets. He was tried and convicted in Michigan and sent to prison for the murders of Helen Dutcher and Gloria Steele. His reign of murders may have exceeded over a 100. He died in 2007, in a Michigan prison due to prostate cancer.

Reference

Carl Eugene Watts - Wikipedia

Carl Eugene Watts | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Microsoft Word - Watts, Coral Eugen _2008, spring_.doc (murderpedia.org)

How The Sunday Morning Slasher Was Eventually Caught (grunge.com)

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