Carl Eugene Watts

Case identification

Carl Eugene Watts (born November 7, 1953; died September 21, 2007), also known by his nickname Coral, was an American serial killer dubbed “The Sunday Morning Slasher”.

Timeline

• June 29, 1969 — Watts was arrested for sexually assaulting 26-year-old Joan Gave.
• November 9, 1969 — Watts was released from the Lafayette Clinic.
• October 30, 1974 — Watts tortured and brutally murdered 20-year-old Gloria Steele.
• April 1980 — Ann Arbor police were called to the home of 17-year-old Shirley Small after she was attacked and repeatedly cut with an instrument resembling a scalpel; she bled to death on the sidewalk where she fell.
• October 31, 1979 — Jeanne Clyne was stabbed to death in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan.
• May 23, 1982 — Watts attacked roommates Lori Lister and Melinda Aguilar in their Houston apartment, tied them up, and attempted to drown Lister in the bathtub; Watts was caught and arrested.
• September 3, 1982 — Watts was sentenced to 60 years in prison in Texas.
• November 17, 2004 — A Michigan jury convicted Watts of the murder of Helen Dutcher.
• December 7, 2004 — Watts was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Helen Dutcher.
• July 25, 2007 — Watts’ trial began in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for the murder of Western Michigan University student Gloria Steele.
• July 26, 2007 — Closing arguments concluded in the Gloria Steele trial.
• July 27, 2007 — The jury returned a guilty verdict in the Gloria Steele case.
• September 13, 2007 — Watts was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
• September 21, 2007 — Watts died of prostate cancer in a Jackson, Michigan hospital.

Background

Carl Eugene Watts was born in Killeen, Texas to Richard Eugene Watts and Dorothy Mae Young. His father was a private first class in the Army, and his mother was a kindergarten art teacher. When Watts was less than two years of age, his parents separated and he was raised by his mother.

Watts and his mother moved to Inkster, Michigan. In 1962, Dorothy Mae married a mechanic named Norman Caesar, with whom she had two daughters. As a child, Watts was described as being strange. Around the age of twelve, Watts claimed this was when he started to fantasize about torturing and killing girls and young women. During adolescence, Watts began to stalk girls and was believed to have killed his first victim before the age of 15.

When Watts was 13, he was infected with meningitis, which caused him to be held back in the eighth grade. Upon his return to school, Watts had difficulty keeping up with other students. At school, he would often receive failing grades, and was reading at a third grade level by age 16. He also suffered severe bullying at school.

When Watts was convicted or sentenced in relation to his early conduct, an assessment revealed he suffered from mild mental retardation, with a full scale I.Q. of 68, and had a delusional thought process. A police officer interrogating Watts after his arrest later stated that he appeared to be “very, very intelligent” with an “excellent memory”.

Watts was also described as having a strong impulse to beat up women and as being dangerous. A later institutional evaluation stated: “This patient is a paranoid young man who is struggling for control of strong homicidal impulses. His behavior controls are faulty, and there is a high potential for violent acting out. This individual is considered dangerous.”

Early in life, Watts was described as being polite and soft-spoken, with athletic ability and participation in the Golden Gloves boxing program, though academically he was considered below average. By the age of 15, he demonstrated violent behavior. While doing his paper route, he knocked on the apartment door of a woman and attacked her when she opened the door. When arrested, he told police: “He just felt like beating someone up.”

Watts’ mother relocated to Detroit, and Watts remained with his grandmother for awhile. His grandmother told the Houston Chronicle that even as a young child, Watts enjoyed hunting and skinning rabbits. During childhood, Watts developed meningitis and suffered high fevers, resulting in learning disabilities.

Watts continued high school after his release from hospital institutional treatment. He was involved in sports but continued to decline academically. He was a drug user and a loner, and he was often disciplined by school officials for his volatile behavior with female classmates. He graduated at age 19. During this time, he rarely attended outpatient treatment.

Watts received a football scholarship to Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. Watts was expelled after only three months because he was accused of stalking and assaulting women. Another reason he was expelled was that many people at Lane College believed Watts was a suspect in the brutal murder of a female student; however, there was not enough evidence to convict him of the murder.

After his expulsion, Watts moved to Houston, Texas. At another point in his history, he had moved from Texas to Detroit-area areas and attended programs associated with Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

A later court-ordered evaluation at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ann Arbor described Watts as dangerous and found he would most likely attack again. The examining doctor found him competent to stand trial.

Watts entered a plea of “no contest,” received a one year sentence on the assault and battery charges, and was never charged in the murder of Steel.

The offence

Watts’ serial killing period is described as beginning when he was 20 years old in 1974. The account stated he kidnapped victims from their homes, tortured them, and then murdered them.

Watts tortured and brutally murdered 20-year-old Gloria Steele on October 30, 1974. Watts killed females between the ages of 14 and 44 using methods such as strangulation, stabbing, bludgeoning, and drowning.

Several separate victim cases were described, including:

• October 31, 1979 — Jeanne Clyne, 44, was stabbed in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan.
• March 31, 1980 — Denise Dunmore, 23, was strangled in Detroit.
• April 20, 1980 — Shirley Small, 17, was attacked in Ann Arbor.
• September 14, 1980 — Rebecca Huff, 20, was stabbed in Ann Arbor.
• July 1980 (Windsor, Ontario) — Irene Kondratowiz, 22, was attacked in Windsor and lived after her throat was slashed; Sandra Dalpe, 20, lived through being stabbed from behind; Mary Angus, 30, escaped attack by screaming when she realized she was being followed. She picked Watts out of a photo line-up but was unable to say for sure the attacker was him.
• May 23, 1982 — Watts attacked roommates Lori Lister and Melinda Aguilar in their apartment; he tied them up and attempted to drown Lister in the bathtub. Aguilar escaped by jumping head first off her balcony. Lister was saved by a neighbor, and Watts was arrested. The body of Michele Maday was found the same day, drowned in her bathtub in a nearby apartment.

Watts was charged in Michigan with the murder of Helen Dutcher. The described conduct included stabbing Dutcher, 36, a dozen times in her neck and back, with her death described as occurring in Ferndale behind a dry cleaners.

Watts was later charged and tried in relation to the murder of Western Michigan University student Gloria Steele, who was described as stabbed to death in 1974.

Investigation

A task force was formed to investigate murders that occurred within five months of each other. The task force had no evidence and no witnesses. Sergeant James Arthurs contacted the task force after reading about the murders and told them of his past experience with Watts and similarities to Watts’ previous crimes.

Detective Paul Bunten led an investigation into murders occurring in Ann Arbor. A witness identified as Joseph Foy came forward in 2004 regarding the murder of Helen Dutcher. Foy identified Watts by his eyes and described them as “evil” and devoid of emotion.

There were also references to ongoing investigations linking Watts to unsolved murders, and investigators considered Watts a suspect in multiple unsolved murders.

Authorities requested that a court allow the Texas confessions into evidence for the Michigan trial, and the judge agreed to allow the confessions into evidence.

Arrest

On May 23, 1982, Watts was arrested for breaking into the home of two young women in Houston and attempting to kill them. Watts attacked roommates Lori Lister and Melinda Aguilar, tied them up, and attempted to drown Lister in their apartment bathtub. Aguilar escaped by jumping head first off of her balcony. Lister was saved by a neighbor, and Watts was caught and arrested.

Before the 1982 arrest, Watts was previously questioned about murders in 1975 but there had not been enough evidence to convict him. In 1979 he was arrested for prowling around in Southfield, Detroit suburb; the charges were later dropped.

A separate arrest context included earlier assault and battery charges after victims survived attacks and Watts was picked out in a line-up.

Trial

Michigan: Helen Dutcher

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

On December 7, 2004, Watts was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Michigan: Gloria Steele

Watts’ trial for the murder of Western Michigan University student Gloria Steele began in Kalamazoo, Michigan on July 25, 2007. Closing arguments concluded July 26. The following day the jury returned a guilty verdict.

On September 13, 2007, Watts was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

Sentencing

Watts was sentenced to 60 years in prison in Texas on September 3, 1982.

In Michigan, Watts was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 7, 2004 for the murder of Helen Dutcher.

In Michigan, Watts was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on September 13, 2007.

The record described Texas sentencing as related to a plea bargain in which he pled guilty to burglary with intent to kill, and it described an appellate ruling affecting how “deadly weapon” findings and “good conduct time” could be applied.

Appeals

The Texas Court of Appeals ruled that Watts had not been informed that the bathtub and water he attempted to drown Lori Lister in was considered a deadly weapon. The ruling reclassified him as a nonviolent felon and made him eligible for early release under the described early release rules.

The record described public outcry over the early release and noted it could not be applied retroactively according to the Texas Constitution.

It also described Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox going on national TV asking for information, leading to Joseph Foy’s identification.

Outcome

Watts died of prostate cancer on September 21, 2007 in a Jackson, Michigan hospital while serving two sentences of life without parole in Michigan.

Other details

Watts was also described as having obtained immunity for a dozen murders as a result of a plea bargain with prosecutors in 1982. The plea bargain described in the record involved immunity from murder charges in exchange for providing confessions and details, with the alternative charge being burglary with intent to murder carrying a 60-year sentence.

Watts later claimed he had killed 40 women, and implied there were more than 80 victims in total, with police considering him a suspect in 90 unsolved murders.

Watts was described as an American serial killer dubbed “The Sunday Morning Slasher.”

The record also described Harris County Assistant District Attorney Ira Jones making a deal with Watts to obtain a confession, and it described Judge Shaver deciding that the water in the bathtub could be constituted as a deadly weapon, affecting parole eligibility.

Two additional verbatim quotes from the record were:

• “Very, very intelligent” and “excellent memory” (attributed to a police officer interrogating Watts after his arrest).
• “I hope they put you so deep in the penitentiary that they'll have to pipe sunlight to you.” (attributed to a judge at sentencing).