Carl “Coral” Eugene Watts
30 min read
Carl "Coral" Watts, aka "The Sunday Morning Slasher," implied during his confession that there were more than 80 victims. He would not confess outright to having committed these murders, however, because he did not want to be seen as a "mass murderer." Police now suspect Coral of having killed over 100 women, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in the United States. Yet, hardly anyone knows his name. Unlike other notorious killers such as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered on sexual impulses, Coral's modus operandi was extremely hard to understand. His killing were committed in various ways: stabbing, throat-slashing, strangulation, drowning, and bludgeoning. Coral also did not rape or rob his victims. When police eventually caught up to him, he explained he chose his victims because they had "evil eyes" and wanted to rid the world of their "evil spirits."
Introduction
On May 23, 1982, a man hid in the bushes outside the Hammerly Walk Apartments in Houston. He watched as a young, thin, white woman slid out of her car, and he quietly followed behind her. Then, just as she began her ascent up the staircase, he grabbed the woman's throat and squeezed. "Where do you live?" he asked. She pointed up to the second floor. "Is there anyone else inside?" Lying, she shook her head. The woman began to lose consciousness and went limp as he dragged her to the apartment. The door was unlocked, and he flung it open, feeling along the wall for a switch to illuminate the dark room. When he flipped on the light, an eighteen-year-old Hispanic woman, Melinda Aguilar, stood before him. She was frozen in fear, staring at the intruder. Melinda screamed to her roommate, Lori Lister, who he had clutched in his arms. The man, shocked to see someone else, snapped out of his daze and quickly grabbed Melinda, forcing her into one of the bedrooms. "If you scream, I'll kill you."
Hammerly Apt Complex
Credit: Evil Eyes
He forced her to her knees next to the bed and choked her. Thinking quickly, Melinda pretended to pass out, and the man let go as her body slumped on the side of the bed. He tied her arms and ankles behind her back using wire coat hangers. Then he exited the bedroom and used more hangers to restrain Lori. The intruder dragged her body to the bathroom and filled the tub with hot water. He was planning to drown Lori just as he had killed another woman earlier that morning. When Melinda heard the running water, she knew her roommate would die unless she did something. Still bound, she stood up and backed herself to the sliding glass door in her bedroom. Melinda managed to lift the latch to the door and unlock it. Instead of opening it immediately, she returned to her spot next to the bed and resumed pretending to be unconscious.
Wire hangers used to bound Lori and Melinda
Credit: Houston PD
A few moments later, the man returned to the bedroom to check on her. Luckily he did not approach Melinda and went back to the bathroom. She heard Lori scream and knew it was her only chance to escape. Melinda slowly slid the sliding glass door open a few inches and squeezed out onto the second-floor balcony. She backed up, took two steps, and propelled herself headfirst over the railing. Melinda somersaulted, hit her head, and landed hard on her shoulder on the concrete thirteen feet below. Full of adrenaline, she popped up, hands still bound, and began to run until she spotted one of her neighbors outside drinking coffee and told her what had happened and that her roommate was still inside. The neighbor frantically called 911.
Childhood
Carl Eugene Watts was born on November 7, 1953, in Killeen, Texas, to parents Richard and Dorothy Watts. Richard was a private first class in the army, and Dorothy was a kindergarten art teacher. Three days after his birth, they moved back to West Virginia to be closer to family, and a year later, their second child was born, Sharon. Shortly afterward, Richard left Dorothy, and she moved to Inkster, Michigan, about 15 miles from Detroit, with her children.
Dorthy, Carl, and Sharon frequently visited Coalwood, West Virginia, to visit Dorthy's parents. Their home was surrounded by forest, and his grandfather had taught Carl how to hunt and skin rabbits, an activity he immensely enjoyed. Carl's time in West Virginia also allowed him to develop the thick Appalachian accent common in the area and prevalent among his cousins. They liked to draw out the letters in his name until it sounded like "Coral"; he liked it so much that he went by this nickname for the rest of his life.
In 1961, when he was eight years old, Coral contracted meningitis, an inflammation of the membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord caused by a viral infection. At the same time, he was suffering from polio. As a result, Coral missed the entire third grade. In 1962, Dorothy met Norman Caesar, a Detroit mechanic with six children of his own. They married and had two daughters together, totaling ten children they were responsible for raising. It was often hard for Coral to stand out amongst his new siblings, and he was quiet and mainly kept to himself.
Coral struggled with keeping his grades up upon returning to school; the bout of meningitis and polio had caused his attention span and memory to fail him. When he was fifteen, he only read at a fourth-grade level. Despite the setbacks, Coral worked through his frustrations with sports and excelled in them. He was a gifted athlete at Northeastern High School, playing baseball, football, track, and boxing, going on to win a Golden Gloves boxing title in the middleweight division. Although he eventually quit the sport the first time he had gotten knocked out.
Criminal History
Coral Watts had his first run-in with the law when he was fifteen. Coral had taken up a job as a paper delivery boy in Detriot. On June 25, 1969, at 7:30 a.m., he arrived at the apartment complex of one of his regular customers, twenty-six-year-old Joan Gave. Coral knocked on her front door, and as she opened it, he reared back his arm and punched her square in the face, completely unprovoked. Coral continued to punch her in the face until she screamed. Then, he ran from the scene and continued his paper delivery route as if nothing had happened. Four days later, police officers arrived at Coral's home and arrested him. When asked why he did it, he replied, "I just felt like beating someone up."
Coral was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment at the Lafayette Mental Clinic in Detroit. According to his patient evaluations, Coral had been experiencing disturbing fantasies of beating up and killing young women since he was twelve. Coral said he always felt better when he had these dreams. After several weeks of evaluation and treatment, Coral still had no remorse for attacking Joan Gave. Another assessment of Coral's mental state revealed he had an I.Q. of 75, and Dr. Gary Ainsworth stated that he was "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." The clinic recommended Coral attend outpatient treatment, and he was released from Lafayette Mental clinic on November 7, 1969, his sixteenth birthday.
Over the next five years, Coral returned to the Lafayette Mental Clinic less than ten times for outpatient treatment. He continued to struggle in school and often got in trouble for his behavior with girls; his only source of enjoyment seemed to come from sports. Coral said it was his way of dealing with his parents, claiming his mother was verbally abusive and his stepfather was a mean alcoholic. It should be noted, however, that all of Coral's siblings denied these accusations against their parents. In fact, his mother, Dorothy, assisted Coral with his studies, and with her help, he graduated from Northeastern High School in 1973 at nineteen.
Coral received a scholarship to play football at Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. But unfortunately, he got a knee injury and dropped out of college three months later when it was determined he could no longer play football. He moved back home with his parents in Detroit and began working as a mechanic for E&L Transport. In early 1974, Coral returned to the Lafayette Mental Clinic for a checkup. He stated that not much had changed and he still suffered from the same fantasies. An evaluation diagnosed Coral with antisocial personality disorder and it was noted that he had a "strong impulse to beat up women."
In 1974, Coral enrolled at Western Michigan University (WMU) as an engineering major and moved into the dormitory on campus. However, he soon began to slack off in class and would instead spend his time playing ping-pong or lounging on the couch at Vandercook Hall. Coral's new freedom left plenty of time for him to think about his dark desires, and his intense hatred for women only grew.
On October 25, 1974, WMU student Lenore Knizacky was in her apartment at 100 Catherine Street near campus. At 10:45 a.m., she heard a knock on her door and opened it to see a well-groomed, attractive black man who asked, "Is Charles home?" Lenore informed the man that no one lived there by that name; he turned away, only to return ten minutes later, knocking on her door with the same question. "Would you like to leave a note from Charles?" she asked. Lenore removed the chain from the slot and moved to retrieve a pen and paper. Instead, the man forced his way inside and instantly pounced on Lenore, putting his knee on her chest and his hands around her throat. He choked her until she passed out and then left. Four days later, Coral Watts was spotted loitering around the Stadium Drive Apartments at 1900 Howard Street, south of WMU. Several tenants complained that he had knocked on their doors asking for Charles. Charles happened to be the name of one of Coral's siblings.
The following day, October 30, 1974, a nineteen-year-old student and mother, Gloria Steele, was found dead in her apartment at the Stadium Drive complex. She had been stabbed 33 times in the chest and had a crushed windpipe. Police quickly discovered the murder weapon, a broken wooden carving tool still lodged in her spine. Gloria had not been raped or robbed. The only witness was a resident at the apartment complex who had passed a black man heading up the staircase; she watched as he knocked on someone's door, saying, "I'm looking for Charles."
On November 12, twenty-three-year-old Diane Williams noticed a black man absently walking around her apartment complex at 1600 Gull Rd in Kalamazoo. At 12:12 p.m., the man knocked on Diane's door, asking if she knew where Charles was. Like Lenore Knizacky, Diane gave the man a piece of paper to write on. He grabbed the paper from her hand and forced the door open, clutching his hands around her throat and dragging her into the living room. As Diane fought off her attacker, the telephone began to ring, and with quick wit, she managed to knock it off the hook and scream for help. The man panicked and took off; Diane ran to the window and saw him enter a brown Pontiac Grand Prix and speed away. She called the police, and they assembled a lineup of eight black men who drove the same car. Diane Williams and Lenore Knizacky picked Coral Watts out of the lineup.
On November 16, he was arrested and charged with the assault and battery of both women. Coral admitted to investigators that he was at the Stadium Drive Apartments on October 29, 1974, but denied being involved in the death of Gloria Steele. However, he claimed he had attacked nearly fifteen others and averaged about two weekly attacks; his target was primarily young, thin, white women. On December 12, Detroit police issued a search warrant for Coral's home at 2200 Parker Street. They uncovered several carving tools but nothing that could tie him to the murder of Gloria Steele. He pleaded "no contest" to the two attacks he was charged with and received a one-year jail sentence.
About eight months later, Coral Watts was released from the Kalamazoo County Jail; he returned to Inkster to live with his parents. Coral hooked up with a childhood friend, Deloris Howard, and got her pregnant. Nakisha Watts was born on February 3, 1979; however, Coral wouldn't claim her as his own and left. Later that year, Deloris filed a claim against Coral and requested that he pay her $70 weekly for child support. A judge agreed and ruled that Coral was indeed the father of Nakisha. Deloris claimed she would have never filed a claim had she not learned from the local paper that Coral had run off with another woman.
Before Nakisha was born, Coral met a young woman named Valeria Goodwill, and the couple eventually married on August 17, 1979. During an interview, Valeria told investigators that Coral would often startle her awake in the middle of the night by beginning to fist fight with somebody in his sleep; if she tried to wake him, he would nearly jump out of bed. Coral told Valeria he was just nervous over his job, but she knew something much deeper than that was going on. Soon after their marriage, Coral lost his job due to sloppy work, and his behavior became erratic and unpredictable. For example, he would dump garbage on the carpet, destroy the houseplants with a kitchen knife, and melt pieces of candlesticks into the kitchen table. Valeria became furious when Coral started leaving the house in the middle of the night for hours and returning home with his clothes torn and in disarray. Finally, she had had enough of his behavior, and their marriage was over; unfortunately, Coral was just beginning to ramp up.
Watt’s home
Source: Michelle N. Hartmann
Michigan Murders
On September 21, 1979, thirty-four-year-old Malak "Mimi" Haddad's decapitated body was found in Allen Park, a suburb of Detroit. Her head was never found.
On October 2, 1979, twenty-year-old Dawn Jerome was found strangled in Taylor, Michigan, about 18 miles from Detroit.
On October 3, 1979, twenty-two-year-old Peggy Pochmara was found strangled in a neighbor's front yard. She had not been raped or robbed.
On October 31, 1979, forty-four-year-old Jeanne Clyne was stabbed thirteen times outside her home in an upscale neighborhood northeast of Detroit. It was 6:45 p.m., and children celebrating Halloween passed by her body without a glance as they thought she was part of the decorations. She had not been raped or robbed.
On December 1, 1979, thirty-six-year-old Helen Mae Dutcher was stabbed twelve times in the neck and back in an alleyway outside H&M dry cleaner at East Eight Mile Rd and Woodward Ave. Her murder was witnessed by Joseph Foy, who gave a sketch artist the description of a black man who strikingly resembled Coral.
Helen’s body found in an alleyway behind H&M Cleaners
Credit: Oakland County District Court
Composite sketch of Coral Watts based on Joseph Foy’s description
Credit: Oakland County District Court
On March 10, 1980, twenty-three-year-old Hazel Conniff was found in the driveway of her boyfriend's home in Detroit tied to a chainlink fence with her belt cinched around her neck. Her body was positioned seated and facing forward. She had not been raped or robbed.
On March 31, 1980, twenty-six-year-old Denise Dunmore was found strangled in a Detroit parking lot at 4:15 a.m. She had not been raped or robbed.
On April 20, 1980, seventeen-year-old Shirley Small was found on a sidewalk 70 feet from her family's townhome complex at Packard St and Page Ave in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at 6:54 a.m. She was stabbed in the heart between the second and third rib with a scalpel-like instrument that had been retracted and plunged back in. She also had six deep slices on her face; two on each cheek, one over the right eye, and one on her upper lip. Shirley's purse was lying on the ground next to her body; she had not been raped or robbed.
On May 31, 1980, twenty-seven-year-old Linda Monterio was found strangled outside her home in Detroit, only four blocks from where Hazel Conniff's body was discovered.
On July 13, 1980, twenty-six-year-old Glenda Richmond was found dead 27 feet from her apartment at East Ellsworth Rd and Braeburn Circle in Ann Arbor at 5:17 a.m. She was stabbed 28 times in the left breast with a screwdriver. Her keys were lying next to her, and she still had her purse slung over her shoulder with everything inside.
On July 31, 1980, twenty-eight-year-old Lilli Dunn was abducted from her driveway on Agnes St in Southgate near Lake Eerie. Two witnesses spotted her fight, kick, and scream as her attacker dragged her into his car around 3:00 a.m.
Later that day, on July 31, twenty-two-year-old Irene Kondratowitz was grabbed from behind by a man who slashed her throat around 3:43 a.m. in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She survived her attack but could not identify her assailant. At 4:15 a.m., soon after the reported time of Irene's attack, a 1978 brown Grand Prix was photographed crossing the border from Windsor into Michigan by the United States Customs authorities.
On September 14, 1980, twenty-year-old Rebecca Greer Huff was found dead outside her apartment at Pauline Blvd and South Maple St in Ann Arbor around 4:00 a.m. She was stabbed 44 times with a screwdriver.
Around this time, the Ann Arbor police department finally seemed to notice a connection between all the local murders: they were white women attacked outside of apartments at or around 4:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings. Thus the moniker "Sunday Morning Slasher" was born. When Sergeant James Arthur of the Detroit Police Department heard about the Sunday Morning Slasher murders, he recalled a similar attack in 1969. A fifteen-year-old newspaper delivery boy had assaulted a young white woman named Joan Gave. Arthur immediately contacted the Ann Arbor Police Department and informed them of the attacker, Coral Eugene Watts. His name was added to an extensive list of suspects.
On October 6, 1980, twenty-year-old Sandra "Sandy" Dulpe was attacked and stabbed on Lincoln Ave in Windsor, Ontario, and thankfully survived. She recalled walking home from nightschool and being two houses from where she lived when she heard footsteps behind her. Sandy was stabbed in the back, and the knife went through her left shoulder blade. The blow was so forceful that she had two broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a three-inch-wide wound a half inch from her heart. She also received a four-inch cut on the right side of her neck, a two-inch stab wound on her left shoulder, and two large slices on her face that stretched from mouth to ear. It severed her external jugular vein and the sternocleidomastoid muscle. The damage did not end there. Sandy's spinal accessory nerve and facial nerve were also severed. The attack paralyzed many of her muscles, and she now has difficulty eating, raising her arms, and moving her head. Sandy told investors that she had seen her attacker earlier that day sitting at a bus stop and again sitting in a brown car in front of her school as she was leaving. According to U.S. Customs, a brown Grand Prix was photographed crossing the U.S-Canadian border at 2:15 a.m.
On November 1, 1980, thirty-year-old Mary Angus returned home at 1:30 a.m. from a Halloween party in Windsor. Exiting her car, she noticed a well-built black man wearing a hooded sweatshirt. Mary kept an eye on him as she walked to her front door and took out her keys. The man knelt to tie his shoe but immediately switched directions and made a beeline for Mary. She screamed at the top of her lungs, and the man took off. When police showed her a photographic lineup, Mary immediately pointed to Coral Watts. Once again, U.S. Customs had records indicating a brown Grand Prix crossed over the border from Windsor into Detroit at 2:07 a.m., shortly after the near attack.
On November 15, 1980, police detective Paul Bunten was informed by two patrol officers that they had spotted a man stalking a young woman around 4:50 a.m. down Main Street in Ann Arbor. The man would slowly drive past the woman in his brown Grand Prix and pull over a block or so ahead of her. When she became aware she was being followed, she started darting around corners and ducking into doorways to evade the man. He would double back his car until he saw her again, and the dance continued for nine blocks. Officers witnessed the man become intensely frantic when the woman finally slipped away. He craned his neck around the car and finally threw open his door to run along the sidewalk in search of her. The officers finally confronted and arrested the man for driving with a suspended license and expired tags; his name was Coral Watts.
Searching his vehicle led to discovering an oversized dictionary in the backseat with the words "Rebecca is a lover" scratched on the cover. Detective Bunten was immediately reminded of the recent murder of Rebecca Huff. Wood-carving tools and blood evidence were also uncovered in their search. Yet, when twenty-seven-year-old Coral was brought in for questioning, he remained calm and spoke softly. Bunten was sure he had the prime suspect in the Sunday Morning Slasher killings, but with no evidence against him, Coral was free to go. However, investigators became relentless in their endeavors to pursue their suspicions.
Bunten started by calling every police jurisdiction in the area to find out anything he could about Coral Watts. Upon speaking to the Kalamazoo Police, he learned of the murder of Gloria Steele. The wound patterns inflicted on Gloria were reminiscent of the stab wounds on Glenda Richmond. Kalamazoo detectives told Bunten that Coral was a key suspect in her murder, but they could not secure any evidence to prove it. Bunten also learned of Coral's various times in mental institutions, and his former psychiatrist warned the detective he had probably found his killer.
A meeting was held the following day at the Detroit Police Department that included Detective Bunten, Sergeant James Arthurs, Detroit Police Internal Affairs, the state of Michigan police force, Windsor authorities, and Homicide Squad Seven. Air was decided that 24/7 surveillance be placed on Coral, and they followed his every move. A few days later, on November 26, 1989, Bunten secured a tracking device for Coral's Grand Prix. After that, he knew he was being watched and became extremely paranoid, rarely leaving his neighborhood. As a result, the killings and attacks in the Detroit area, Ann Arbor, and Winsor stopped for the next two months. The warrant for the tracking device ended on January 29, 1981, and that same day Bunten moved in for the kill.
Coral Watts’s Grand Prix
Credit: Houston PD
Coral was corned at his parent's home on 28000 Avondale St, and he was brought into the Detroit Police Department for questioning. The interrogation lasted five hours, and investigators were again surprised by Coral's easygoing demeanor. Toward the end of the interview, detective Bunten walked around the table and stood directly behind Coral, thrusting his left arm around his neck, attempting to imitate what he believed to be his preferred method of attack. "I got up and walked behind him and said, 'You grabbed them like this. Then you pulled their heads back like this, and you reached over with your right arm and stabbed them like this!'" Coral began to cry and told the investigators in the room he wanted to see his mother. Officers drew blood from Coral, which failed to tie him to any of the crimes; thus, he was again free to go. Detective Paul Bunten had driven Coral Watts out of Michigan. Coral packed his bags and bought a one-way plane ticket, not telling anyone where he was headed.
Texas Murders
Coral flew to Houston, Texas. When he arrived, his friend Garland Silcox and his wife Pat picked him up from the airport. They had met five years earlier while working together at E&L Transport Company in Michigan. Garland offered to let Coral stay at his home at 7600 Lemma Dr on the northwestern side of Harris County until he found a job and place to live; however, Coral declined because he did not want to impose. Subsequently, Coral slept in the Silox's car for several weeks, and they allowed him to use their home address to retrieve his mail. Finally, toward the end of March 1981, Coral applied for a job as a diesel mechanic at Coastal Transport, a Houston trucking firm where Garland Silcox was also employed. Coral secured the 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift and moved into the Liberty Courts Motel off Highway 90 and Interstate 10. A few days later, he trekked back to Michigan to retrieve his brown 1978 Grand Prix.
In Ann Arbor, Paul Bunten continued his search for Coral. He called Coral's friends and family, who claimed they did not know where he had gone. Finally, Bunten contacted Coral's former employer at E&L Transport and learned that Coral had left a forwarding address to receive his final paycheck: 7600 Lemma Dr, Houston, Texas. Bunten knew he needed to act quickly and created a nineteen-page dossier, or case history, on Coral Watts, including a letter that stated he believed Coral was a serial killer - but he had no physical evidence to prove it. On April 8, the dossier was mailed to the Houston Police Department's homicide division, where Detective Doug Bostock received it.
On April 15, Bostock dropped in at Coral's new job at Coastal Transport and informed manager Jim Coats that Coral was a suspect in several murders in Michigan. Bostock asked Coats to keep an eye on Coral so the police could keep track of his movements. After two months with no progress made on the police's behalf, Coats fired Coral. Coral claimed he already had a job at J-R Trucking in Dallas. Coats informed Bostock, who immediately sent a copy of Bunten's dossier to the Dallas Homicide Division. However, Coral did not move to Dallas and continuously moved six times over the Houston area, throwing police completely off his trail.
One of many residences in Houston where Watts lived
Credit: Evil Eyes
On May 26, 1981, Coral landed a job at Welltech in Columbus, Texas, about 73 miles west of downtown Houston. He worked as a mechanic and helped haul well-service rigs. Despite working in Columbus, Coral continued to visit Houston on his days off, Fridays and Saturdays, picking up several speeding tickets on his many trips. Coral lived in an apartment in Columbus for about two months before moving into another apartment in nearby Eagle Lake. On August 25, Coral was hired to work for the Houston Metro bus system as a mechanic at the Milby Maintenance Facility. He worked the graveyard shift from 11:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., with Fridays and Saturdays off. He kept his job at Welltech and his apartment in Eagle Lake, commuting between Columbus and Houston in his Grand Prix.
Detective Doug Bostock continued his search for Coral and finally learned where he had relocated, but nothing further was done to follow up on him. One of the reasons for this was the need for more police officers and underfunding. In addition, Houston was the nation's fourth-largest city and had recently gained the title "Murder Capital of the World," ironically a title that Detroit, Michigan, formally owned.
On September 5, 1981, Coral was aimlessly driving around Houston when he spotted a young woman alone in her car. He followed her 160 miles to an apartment complex at 4500 Speedway in Austin, just 19 blocks from the University of Texas campus. The woman was twenty-two-year-old Linda Katherine Tilley. Coral silently followed her inside the apartment building and snatched her from behind. Linda struggled with her attacker and flung them into the complex's swimming pool. Coral was much too strong for her to fight off and held her head underwater until she drowned. Once he determined she was dead, he quietly exited the pool and drove back home to Eagle Lake. The following morning, Austin Homicide sergeant Bob Jasek stated that there were no indications of struggle; her clothed body was found floating in the pool with no cuts, bruises, or witnesses. The toxicology report determined that Linda was intoxicated, and the assessment was that she had likely tripped, fallen into the pool, and drowned.
Linda Tilley
Credit: Evil Eyes
On September 12, 1981, twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth Ann Montgomery was walking her dogs outside of her Houston apartment when she was stabbed in the heart with a knife. The single infliction killed her.
Elizabeth Montgomery’s apt complex
Credit: Evil Eyes
On September 13, 1981, twenty-one-year-old Susan (Suzi) Wolf walked into a Safeway Grocery Store at 8700 Bellaire Blvd, less than 3 miles from where Elizabeth Montgomery was murdered. Unbeknownst to her, Coral had followed her there from a party and waited. Suzi left the store at 1:40 a.m. with a half gallon of ice cream, a package of Oreos, milk, and cigarettes. She drove to her apartment at 9200 Clarewood St, one block north of Bellaire Blvd, and walked 125 feet up the sidewalk to her front door. As Suzi reached for her keys, Coral snuck up behind her and stabbed her nine times in the arm and chest. Most of her wounds were in the left breast, and one was six and a half inches deep. She was discovered still clutching her keys with the bag of groceries lying next to her.
Suzi Wolf
Suzi Wolf’s apt complex
Credit: Evil Eyes
Later that month, Coral Watts left his job at Welltech and secured a new position as a mechanic in Houston, working the pre-graveyard shift from 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. He left his home in Eagle Lake and moved to the Idylwood Apartments at 6600 Sylvan Rd in Houston. On November 19, Detective Bostock was finally able to track down Coral. Investigators headed to the bus barn where he worked on Milby Street and attached a tracking device to his Pontiac Grand Prix. Unfortunately, Coral discovered the tracker and took his car to a garage to have it removed. It would be several months before Houston authorities could locate him again.
On January 4, 1982, twenty-seven-year-old Ellen Tamm was jogging alone early in the morning. A passerby discovered her body at 1600 Bissonnet St around 7:45 a.m. Ellen had been hung with her brown tube top from a tree branch four feet off the ground. Police were unsure what to make of her death; there were no signs of struggle, no drag marks, no disturbed grass, and no cuts or bruises to her body. The medical examiner ruled her death a suicide, though her family disagreed.
Tree where Ellen Tamm’s body was found hanging
Credit: Evil Eyes
On January 16, 1982, twenty-five-year-old Margaret "Meg" Fossi was headed back home after a night out with her classmates at Rice University in Houston, unaware of the brown Grand Prix that was following her. As she got closer to home, the car closed in, and the headlights in the review window temporarily blinded her. Meg overcorrected and drove her car into a concrete curb, popping both tires on the car's left side. Coral parked his car directly behind her, got out of his vehicle, and slowly approached her. Meg rolled down the window, and Coral quickly punched her in the throat, killing her instantly. He pulled her limp body out of the car, grabbed her keys, and tossed her body into the trunk.
Margaret Fossi’s residence
Credit: Evil Eyes
Later that same morning, Coral drove along Loop 610 at the Stell Link exit near Astrodome and Astroworld. He saw a woman pulled over on the shoulder of the highway fixing a flat tire. Coral walked up behind the woman, grabbed her hair to pull back her head and slit her throat twice. The woman managed to survive; her name was Julia Sanchez.
Highway where Julia Sanchez’s throat was slashed
Credit: Evil Eyes
On January 29, 1982, nineteen-year-old Alice Martell exited her car at her apartment at 700 Gale St in Seabrook, right off Galveston Bay. As she walked towards her door, she was stabbed two times in the left chest and once on the chin with what appeared to be an icepick. Alice woke up in a hospital bed, only able to remember her attacker had grabbed her from behind and choked her.
Alice Martell’s apt complex
Credit: Evil Eyes
On January 30, 1982, nineteen-year-old Patty Johnson was attacked as she walked up to her apartment at 14th St and Ave M in Galveston. The man tackled her to the ground, straddled her chest, and slashed her throat with a knife. A man on the second floor heard a commotion and stepped out on the balcony. He yelled at the attacker to get off Patty, and the man fled. She survived and told police he was a black man, about 5'11 and 160 pounds.
On February 7, 1982, twenty-year-old Elena Semander was going to visit a friend who lived at 1000 Fondren Rd in Houston after a late night of partying. Around 2:45 a.m. Gregory Rhodes, sleeping in his car parked at the apartment complex next to a dumpster, woke to see Elena stepping out of her car. He watched as a black man walked up behind her, put his arm around her, and pulled her back behind the dumpster. Rhodes didn't think anything of it and fell back asleep. A few moments later, he heard the sound of a moan coming from behind the dumpster, followed by a loud thud as if something had been tossed inside. Rhodes again went back to sleep. The following day, Guillermo Shaw, a trashman, hooked the dumpster up to the back of his truck to dispose of the contents and activated a switch to begin the compacting process. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something that immediately caught his attention, a human leg. When the police arrived, they determined the body was Elena's; her shirt had been used as a gag in her mouth.
Elena Semander
Credit: Find a Grave
Apt complex where Elena Semander was killed
Credit: Evil Eyes
On March 20, 1982, fourteen-year-old Emily LaQua moved from Seattle to Houston to live with her father. She was last seen hitchhiking along Interstate 10, and it was assumed she had run away, as she had only been there for a week and was fighting with her father over boys. Five months later, her body was found stuffed inside a draining ditch.
Emily LaQua
Draining ditch where Watts buried Emily LaQua
Credit: Evil Eyes
On March 27, 1982, thirty-four-year-old Edith Anna Ledet was jogging when she was attacked and stabbed in the chest 17 times. She was found sprawled across the sidewalk at 200 E Postoffice Rd and Ferry Rd.
Edith Ledet
Later that same day, Coral approached a woman named Glenda Kirby. He sprinted towards her and tackled her to the ground. He grabbed at Glenda with his hands still bloody from Edith Ledet's murder. She managed to slip from his grasp and fled for safety.
On April 15, 1982, twenty-one-year-old Yolanda "Yollie" Garcia was returning home from work when she was stabbed four times. Her body was found lying between two residents near her home at 7200 Moline St.
On April 17, 1982, thirty-two-year-old Carrie Mae Jefferson returned home from work and parked her car in her driveway at 12600 S Spring Dr. As she reached for her keys to unlock the door, Coral grabbed her from behind, placed a hand over her mouth, and drug her through the front yard. A patch of dirt in the front yard showed where her heels had dug in. Coral grabbed Carrie's keys and threw her into the car's trunk. The following day her car was found five blocks from the house at the corner of Rubin St and Marchant Rd. The trunk had protrusion marks from the inside out, and blood smears were on the inside. Coral buried her body near White Oak Bayou in north Houston.
Carrie Jefferson’s residence
Credit: Evil Eyes
Area where Watts buried Carrie Jefferson
Credit: Evil Eyes
On April 21, 1982, twenty-five-year-old Suzanne "Suzi" Searles was abducted as she returned home from a party. Coral strangled her and held her head in a flower pot filled with water to ensure she was dead. Coral buried her body at 700 Antoine Dr in a vacant lot just south of the Katy Freeway on the western side of Houston.
Suzanne Searles
Suzanne Seales apt complex
Credit: Evil Eyes
On May 23, 1982, twenty-year-old Michelle Maday was celebrating her birthday with friends; she returned home at 4:00 a.m. to her apartment complex at 6400 Ella Lee Ln. Coral followed her home and approached her from behind as she unlocked her door. He choked her and threw her inside the apartment. Coral then removed her clothes and drowned her in the bathtub. Finally, he went into her bedroom and ransacked the room. Less than two hours later, Coral Watts attacked Melinda Aguilar and Lori Lester.
Capture
Two Houston police officers, Donnie Schmidt and Luther Domain, responded to the Hammerly Walk Apartments for what was considered a "domestic disturbance." When they arrived, they knocked on the wrong door. Twenty-three-year-old Patricia Kay McDonald greeted them, the downstairs neighbor of Lori and Melinda. Patricia told them everything was taking place upstairs.
Melinda Aguilar
Then they heard what sounded like an explosion. Apparently, the intruder had discovered that Melinda had locked the bedroom door and he kicked the door down, realizing she was missing. The man noticed the open sliding glass door and looked outside, seeing two police cars. He took off through the front door, and the officers watched as a black man leaped halfway down the staircase and started sprinting. Officer Schmidt ran after the man as Officer Domain ran to the police car to request backup.
As the pursuit commenced, Patricia darted upstairs to check on her neighbor. She looked around the small apartment and eventually found Lori submerged in the bathtub with the water still running; her skin was turning blue. Patricia pulled Lori from the bathtub and pounded on her back. Eventually, the method worked, and she began coughing up blood and water, gasping for air.
Entrance to Lori and Melinda’s bathroom
Credit: Houston PD
As Officer Schmidt chased the man through the apartment courtyard, he suddenly switched directions and headed toward his car, a brown 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix that just so happened to be parked near the police cruisers. The man spotted Officer Domain next to his car, and he took off in another direction, eventually running into a dead end. Schmidt pulled out his pistol and yelled at the man to get down on the ground; he immediately raised his hands and fell to his stomach. The man was restrained and placed in handcuffs. The officers still had no idea what had happened upstairs. When Schmidt returned to the apartment and saw Lori Lister's state, he suddenly realized something much bigger than a domestic disturbance had occurred.
Lori Lister
Trials
While Coral Watts was in police custody, investigators began to connect him to several recent killings of women in the Houston area. However, prosecutors did not believe they had enough evidence to find Coral guilty of murder. In May 1982, after the attacks on Melinda Aguilar and Lori Lister, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Ira Jones brokered a plea bargain. Coral would only be charged with burglary with intent to murder if he confessed fully to his crimes, and he would receive immunity from prosecution on the murder accusations. A 60-year sentence was imposed for this offense.
The deal was accepted, and Coral later led the detectives to the graves of three of his victims, Suzanne Searles, Carrie Jefferson, and Emily LaQua. He finally acknowledged attacking 19 women, murdering 13 of them. Coral admitted to killing 44-year-old Jeanne Clyne in Detroit in 1979, but he refrained from confessing to the deaths of Glenda Richard, Shirley Small, or Rebecca Huff. However, Michigan authorities refused to go in on the deal, so the cases in that state remained open.
Coral was never put on trial for the majority of the murders despite his confessions due to the agreement he made. Instead, Coral was sentenced to the agreed 60 years in 1982. However, shortly after he began serving time, 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. The ruling reclassified him as a nonviolent felon, making him eligible for early release. At the time, Texas law allowed nonviolent offenders to have three days deducted from their sentences for every one day served as long as they were well-behaved. Coral was a model prisoner with enough time removed from his conviction that he could have been released as early as May 9, 2006.
The law allowing early release was abolished after a public uproar but, unfortunately, could not be applied retroactively according to the Texas Constitution. In 2004, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox went on national television asking anyone to come forward with information to try to convict Coral of murder to ensure he was not released. Joseph Foy of Westland, Michigan, came forward to say that he had seen a man fitting Coral's description murder Helen Dutcher, who died on December 1, 1979. Foy identified Coral by his eyes, which he described as evil and empty of emotion. Although Coral had immunity from prosecution for the 13 killings he had admitted to in Texas, he had no immunity agreement in Michigan.
Before his 2004 trial, law enforcement officials asked the judge to allow the Texas confessions into evidence, to which he agreed. Coral was promptly charged with the murder of Helen Dutcher. A Michigan jury convicted him on November 17, 2004, after hearing eyewitness testimony from Joseph Foy. 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 Gloria Steele, who was stabbed to death in 1974.
Julie Sanchez demonstrates on prosecuting attorney Thomas Cameron how convicted killer Coral Eugene Watts attacked her on the side of a Texas highway more than 20 years ago as she tried to fix a flat tire on her car
Credit: AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
Coral's trial for the Steele murder began in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on July 25, 2007; closing arguments concluded on July 26. The following day the jury returned a guilty verdict. Coral was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on September 13. He was incarcerated at a maximum security prison in Ionia, Michigan. Coral died of prostate cancer on September 21, 2007.
If you want to learn more about Coral, I highly recommend the novel Evil Eyes by Corey Mitchell. It includes detailed transcripts of the murder confessions during his interrogation and I gathered most of my research for Coral Watts’s case through this book. The author notes that the writing was made possible due to the huge role Elena Semander’s mother played throughout the trial.
Sources
Mitchell, Corey. Evil Eyes. New York City, NY. Kensington Publishing Corp. April 2006.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Eugene_Watts
https://www.thenewsherald.com/2004/11/13/mother-talks-of-daughters-murder-by-serial-killer/
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/us/22watts.html
https://www.thenewsherald.com/2004/12/04/brother-sister-still-seek-answers-in-brutal-death/
https://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/watts-carl-eugene.htm
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6417091
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-deal-with-the-devil-14-10-2004/
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/evil-eyes-6388157?showFullText=true
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/12/us/suspect-in-texas-slayings-was-under-police-surveillance-in-2-states.html
https://abc13.com/coral-eugene-watts-serial-killer-killed-nine-women-timely/5456125/