Coral Eugene Watts, known as the “Sunday Morning Slasher,” was an American serial killer who murdered women in Michigan and Texas from the mid-1970s through 1982. He confessed to 13 killings under a 1982 Texas plea deal that granted him immunity from murder charges, nearly walked out of prison in 2006 on a technicality, and was kept locked up only after Michigan prosecutors convicted him of two additional murders. He died of prostate cancer in a Michigan prison on September 21, 2007, at age 53.1New York Times. Coral Eugene Watts, Serial Killer, Dies at 53 Investigators believe his real victim count was far higher than 13, with estimates running from 40 to more than 100.2Los Angeles Times. Coral Eugene Watts, Serial Killer
The Killings and the Pattern
Watts was born on November 7, 1953, at Fort Hood, Texas, and grew up in Inkster, Michigan. His first documented murder was Gloria Steele, a 19-year-old Western Michigan University student found in her Kalamazoo apartment on October 30, 1974, stabbed 30 to 35 times, with a piece of a woodworking tool lodged in her spine. There was no sexual assault and no biological evidence identifying the killer.3Michigan Courts. People v. Watts, No. 266959
Between April and September 1980, three women were stabbed to death in the Ann Arbor area in what police recognized as a connected pattern. All were killed in predawn hours on Sunday mornings, found near their homes, stabbed repeatedly in the chest, with no sexual assault. That pattern gave Watts his nickname. Ann Arbor police put him under intense surveillance and arrested him in November 1980, but released him for lack of evidence. He left Michigan in 1981.4MLive. Investigator Won’t Mourn Killer
In the Houston area, the killing accelerated. Between September 1981 and May 1982, Watts murdered at least a dozen women across Houston, Galveston, Austin, and Brookshire. His methods varied widely: stabbing, strangling, drowning, hanging. That variety was part of what kept investigators from connecting the crimes to one man. His victims ranged from a 14-year-old girl to a 34-year-old medical student.5Crime in Detroit. The Man Who Murdered Women
How He Was Caught
The spree ended on May 23, 1982. Watts broke into a Houston apartment shared by 21-year-old Lori Lister and 18-year-old Melinda Aguilar. He attacked Lister outside as she returned from work, choking her unconscious. Inside, he choked Aguilar, who survived by pretending to pass out. He bound her hands with a belt and dragged Lister upstairs to drown her in a bathtub. While he was occupied, Aguilar reached a second-floor balcony and jumped over the railing, landing on her knees below, then ran to neighbors screaming for help.6San Antonio Express-News. Sunday Morning Slasher Serial Killer Coral Watts7People. She Dramatically Escaped a Serial Killer’s Grasp Police arrived in time to save Lister and arrest Watts.
The Plea Deal That Gave Him Immunity
Harris County prosecutors had Watts on the Lister and Aguilar attack, but they had no physical evidence tying him to the unsolved murders piling up across Texas. District Attorney John Holmes said bluntly, “We did not have a stitch of evidence to go on in the killings.”8UPI. A Very Difficult Plea Bargain
In August 1982, Watts pleaded guilty to a single count of burglary with intent to commit murder and received a 60-year sentence. In exchange, he was granted immunity from prosecution for the killings he confessed to. He then admitted to murdering 13 women, and he led police to three victims’ remains in shallow graves and culverts.9Dallas Observer. Evil Eyes8UPI. A Very Difficult Plea Bargain The confessed murders included Linda Tilley, drowned in an Austin pool; Elizabeth Montgomery and Susan Wolf, stabbed on the same day in Houston; Phyllis Tamm, hanged while jogging; Rice University student Margaret Fossi; Elena Semander; 14-year-old Emily LaQua; Edith Ledet, stabbed 17 times in Galveston; Carrie Jefferson; Yolanda Gracia; Suzanne Searles; and Michele Maday.5Crime in Detroit. The Man Who Murdered Women The confessions also covered the 1979 Detroit-area killing of Jeanne Clyne, a 44-year-old former Detroit News food writer stabbed to death in Grosse Pointe Farms on Halloween.10Detroit Free Press. Coral Watts: Unknown Serial Killers in America
Watts offered to confess to an additional 22 murders in Michigan and other states, but authorities in those jurisdictions refused to grant him immunity, and he stopped talking.9Dallas Observer. Evil Eyes Prosecutor Ira Jones acknowledged the moral cost of the deal: “It is a very difficult case because you want the man to burn in hell for what he’s done.” He argued that recovering the victims’ bodies “meant a great deal” to the families.8UPI. A Very Difficult Plea Bargain Victims’ families called the 60-year sentence insufficient. They had been told Watts would serve at least two-thirds of it, keeping him locked up until roughly age 70.
How He Almost Walked Free
That expectation collapsed in 1989. A Texas appeals court ruled that Watts had not been properly informed that the bathtub and water used in the attack on Lister constituted a “deadly weapon.” Without that finding on the record, Watts was reclassified as a non-violent offender, which made him eligible for mandatory “good behavior” credits under Texas law.6San Antonio Express-News. Sunday Morning Slasher Serial Killer Coral Watts Combined with overcrowding-reduction laws, his effective sentence dropped from 60 years to roughly 24. His mandatory release date landed in the spring of 2006, when he would be 52.11NBC News. Serial Killer Nearing Release Faces New Trial
The prospect of releasing a confessed serial killer triggered a campaign led by Andy Kahan, director of victim services for Houston Crime Stoppers, Harriet Semander (whose daughter Elena had been among the victims), and the group Justice for All. They organized a 20th-anniversary memorial in 2002 and pushed a nationwide media effort. As Kahan put it, “If we were going to legally release a serial killer, we’re going to go down kicking and screaming.”12KPRC-TV (Click2Houston). The Evidence Room: The Sunday Morning Slasher
The Michigan Convictions That Kept Him Locked Up
The campaign produced an unexpected break. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox appeared on national television in January 2004 asking for information about the unsolved 1979 stabbing of Helen Dutcher in a Ferndale alley. A man named Joseph Foy saw the broadcast and recognized Watts as the person he had seen commit the murder from his back porch 25 years earlier. Foy contacted the Attorney General’s office.13NBC News. Watts Convicted of First-Degree Murder
Watts went to trial in Oakland County Circuit Court in November 2004. Physical evidence was thin, but Judge Richard Kuhn ruled that Watts’ 1982 confessions to 13 other killings could be admitted to show a pattern. Assistant Attorney General Donna Pendergast displayed photographs of those victims during opening statements and argued Dutcher had been “literally butchered alive” in a manner fitting the pattern.14Plainview Herald. Prosecutor Tells Jurors Brutal Slaying Fit Serial Killer Pattern Watts was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced to life without parole.15NBC News. Serial Killer Convicted of Murder
Kalamazoo prosecutors then reopened the Gloria Steele case and charged Watts with her 1974 murder. In April 2006 the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that evidence of his other crimes could be introduced to establish identity and a common scheme.3Michigan Courts. People v. Watts, No. 266959 A jury convicted him of first-degree murder in July 2007. On September 12, 2007, Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge Gary Giguere Jr. imposed a second life sentence without parole.16Michigan Daily. Killer Gets One More Life Term
Death and What Remains Unknown
Nine days after that second sentence, Watts died of prostate cancer on September 21, 2007, in a secure area of Foote Hospital in Jackson, Michigan, in the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections.1New York Times. Coral Eugene Watts, Serial Killer, Dies at 53 He was formally convicted of only two murders: Dutcher and Steele. The 1982 immunity deal shielded him from prosecution for the 13 killings he confessed to in Texas and for Jeanne Clyne’s murder. No charges were ever filed for the Ann Arbor killings of Glenda Richmond, Rebecca Huff, and Shirley Small, despite investigators’ certainty that Watts was responsible.4MLive. Investigator Won’t Mourn Killer
The full scope of his crimes is unknown. After his 1982 arrest, Watts told detectives, “There aren’t enough fingers and toes in this room for the number of women I’ve killed.”17Laredo Morning Times. Oxygen: Texas Serial Killer Watts At different points he told police the number was 40, and at others suggested it exceeded 80. True-crime author Corey Mitchell, who wrote Evil Eyes about the case, concluded Watts may have killed more than 100.2Los Angeles Times. Coral Eugene Watts, Serial Killer Law enforcement agencies in Michigan, Texas, and Canada suspected him in dozens of additional murders that were never resolved.15NBC News. Serial Killer Convicted of Murder Whatever else he knew died with him.