Coral Eugene Watts

Carl "Coral" Eugene Watts (born November 7, 1953 in Fort Hood, Texas , † September 21, 2007 in Ionia, Michigan ) was an American serial killer who was known as "The Sunday Morning Slasher" . Between 1974 and 1982 he murdered at least 13 women. He is the prime suspect in 14 more murders. Investigators believe he could be responsible for up to 72 more murders. His untimely death prevented further charges and trials, which is why his true number of victims could never be determined.

Life

Watts was the first child of the American soldier Richard Watts and his wife Dorothy Mae Young in Fort Hood, Texas, where his father was stationed. When he was two years old, his parents divorced and his mother moved him to Inkster , Michigan . He nearly died of meningitis by the age of eight . His fever was so high that doctors feared he could have brain damage. After that, he wasn't the same. When he was 15 years old when he was delivering newspapers, he knocked 26-year-old Joan Gave down in her home for no reason. He was then arrested and tried. Because he downplayed the act as a triviality and showed no remorse, he was admitted to the Lafayette Clinic in Detroit for a psychiatric examination . According to the psychiatric examination, he was "a threat to society" but was released from the clinic on his 16th birthday anyway. He went back to high school, where he was particularly active in sports. He became a very good football player and boxer . At the age of 19 he left high school and went to Lane College in Jacksonville , Tennessee . In the meantime, he worked as a mechanic for a Detroit auto company and enrolled at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo .

Crime and Convictions

On October 25, 1974, he assaulted 23-year-old Lenore Knizacky in her apartment. The woman managed to pull away and alert the police, who could no longer catch the attacker. On November 12th of the same year, he assaulted another woman in her home, but she managed to escape. When the perpetrator got into his vehicle and drove away, she noted the license plate number of his car and informed the police. Carl Watts was arrested in December and clearly identified by the two women when they were compared. During questioning, he confessed to having committed 15 other attacks on women. He was admitted to the Kalamazoo State Hospital for a psychiatric examination, where psychiatrists attested to his lack of remorse, recklessness and numbness. He was sentenced to only one year in prison in 1975 and returned to his mother in the summer of 1976. He found a job as a mechanic, became a father and married in 1979. After only six months, his wife left him as Watts became violent. He was arrested on Sunday, May 23, 1982, after beating and handcuffing three women in their homes in Houston , Texas. Neighbors had alerted the police. By December 7, 2004, eight murders could be proven, whereupon he was sentenced to life imprisonment with no prospect of pardon. He died of prostate cancer on September 21, 2007 .