Serial Killer Sunday, a series highlighting when True Crime Meets the Gridiron, will be discussing the Sunday Morning Slasher this week.
Although the NFL has many instances of true crime, they have a limited number of serial killers (that we know of!) and so we will traverse to college football.
It was the meningitis
The Texas native, Carl “Coral” Eugene Watts was born to his mother Dorothy and his father Richard Watts in 1953. His mother was a Kindergarten teacher and his father was in the army. In 1954, Carl would be joined by a sister, Sharon Watts. The following year, Carl’s parents would divorce. Coral would live with his grandmother in Texas, and his mother in Detroit as a child. At age nine, Coral’s mother remarried and had two more daughters.
If you asked Mrs. Dorothy Mae Young what she remembers most about her son Coral’s childhood, she would mention the meningitis. He contracted this disease at age 13, and nearly died. Watts would have brain damage that made learning more difficult. Between this, and missing a year of school, Coral was struggling at school both educationally and socially. He was the victim of bullies often.
Carl’s acts could be attributed to meningitis – it’s a convenient explanation at the least. One other serial killer did have meningitis at a young age, Tommy Lynn Sells, which is roughly the same number of parents who blamed their child’s problems to a medical event (that means you, Dr. Dahmer). This condition could have an impact, but Watts was described as always being a strange child and he confessed to having problematic fantasies at age 12 about laying hands and stalking women. He also really liked hunting and skinning rabbits as a young boy.
Coral was a busy teen – he committed his first crime, was an talented boxer, went to a mental institution, and graduated all by age 19. The young man was talented at playing football in high school and despite poor grades, he was awarded a football scholarship to Lane University. He was suspended in just three months due to being tied to many crimes against women. Other sources said he had a serious injury and went home to mom. He got another grant the following year and attended Western Michigan University until he went to jail for a crime against a lady.
Sunday Morning Slasher and… father?
As a side note before we dig into the debauchery, Coral Watts did do a few things while being one of the most prolific serial killers in the US. Carl was a truck driver with his stepfather by day, and moonlighting as a murderer. He had one daughter in 1979 with a childhood friend, and then tried marriage for the long haul – six months, with another woman that same year. It doesn’t seem like he was ever much involved in his daughter’s life which is almost surely for the best.
Valerie Goodwill held on as long as she could, frankly six months feels like a long time all things considered. She described Coral as strange – he would rearrange furniture constantly, cut up houseplants, and decided to become a atheist, panicking when his wife brought home a Christmas tree. She also noticed he always left after they knew each other in that biblical way, taking the car, and not returning for hours. They must have a preference for Saturday salutations considering the whole Sunday morning thing.
Coral “Sunday Morning Slasher” Watts
The Sunday Morning Slasher committed his first crime when he was 15 in 1969. That we know of. Allegedly, he took lives before age 15. Coral had a job as a newspaper deliverer, laying hands on 26-year-old Joan Gave when she opened the door to get her paper. He abruptly left and continued going about his paper route.
This little stunt won him a forensic psychiatry evaluation. The professionals found he was dangerous and prone to violence, remorseless, and impulse driven. They didn’t think he was experiencing any type of psychosis, and knew the concept of right and wrong. He spent a few months in the facility and was let out.
A trail of dead women and ladies who caught hands followed behind Coral as he attended college in two different states. He received his first jail sentence when he was suspected of taking the life of a young women, Gloria Steele. He checked himself into an mental hospital until the courts charged him for one year of jail for laying hands on 15 women. A pre-court mental evaluation diagnosed him as having anti-social personality disorder, the modern term for psychopathy. The worst part? He was doing out-patient therapy with his university and admitted to enjoying certain violent crimes prior to his arrest, but they couldn’t tell at that period of time due to confidentiality.
Between 1974 and his eventual arrest in 1982 he confessed to taking 15 lives and hurting many other women The women who were named will be remembered here:
Lori Lister. Melinda Aguilar. Joan Gave. Helen Dutcher. Gloria Steele. Lenore Knizacky. Diane Williams. Jeanne Clyne.
The lives of the unknown number of women and child who’s lives were ended or physically harmed by Coral Watts that did he did not confess to, or was not convicted of, are remembered here.
But… why be the Sunday Morning Slasher?
An motive that Coral offered was that he hated women – absolutely despised them. Evil Incarnate was one descriptor he used. Allegedly, the women in his family took the life of his favorite uncle when he was a child. What is even going on with this family??? To be fair, despising women is a pretty common thread for many serial killers, usually their mother (Ed Gein, Mary Bell, Henry Lee Lucas, Ed Kemper). Watts also targeted women who had “evil eyes.” This seems unlikely though due to the sheer number of alleged victims.
Watts victims were all white women between 14 and 44 He had many different methods he used to end lives, which is a little unique. Although his timing was linked to relations with his wife, there was no obvious enjoyment of that type that motivated his life ending crimes. He left little DNA behind for this reason. He also committed crimes in different jurisdictions and states, which made it harder to trail him. He was on the prowl for eight years, which is a long period of time, even for the 70’s and 80’s.
When asked how many lives he took, he said there wasn’t enough “fingers and toes in the room” to count them. Five people were in the room. Another time he confessed to 80 murders, and the police have nearly 100 cold cases connected to him still. Coral was a little tight lipped because he didn’t want to be considered a mass murderer. The logic of a psychopath. He hated the ladies so much he let detectives know that he can’t stop, won’t stop. If he was out, he was taking lives. That nearly became a reality.
Sunday Morning Slasher his way out of jail?
A hiccup in this case nearly set this man free.
Watts crime spree ended in 1982. He was caught breaking into a house, attempting to end the life of both women in the home in Houston, Texas. The police there didn’t think they could convict him of any of the 12 murders he was suspected of, so they agreed to trade immunity for information on his crimes and a 60-year sentence for committing a burglary with ill intentions using a weapon.
This weapon was the water in the bathtub he used to try to take one of the women in a permanent swim in. This serial killer was now considered a nonviolent felon, because water is not a violent weapon. Game of Thrones fans know that’s not true He was set to get out in 2006. He tried to escape before his time was up, covering himself in grease and trying to slip between the bars. The prison officials found him wedged between the bars.
Michigan said no sir, and brought him to trial in their state in 2004. No immunity was offered, but the judge allowed the evidence in Texas to be used in the Michigan trial. The Sunday Morning Slasher was behind bars for life after his third trial in the state, in 2007. He died a week after sentencing of prostate cancer.
For the first three editions of Serial Killer Sunday: When True Crime Meets the Gridiron, look here, here, and here.
