Corel watts serial killer

Watts is now suspected to have killed more than women, which would make him the most prolific serial killer in American history. He obtained immunity for a dozen murders as a result of a plea bargain with prosecutors in ; at one point it appeared that he could be released in He died of prostate cancer while serving two sentences of life without parole in a Michigan prison for the murders of Helen Dutcher and Gloria Steele. 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, and in , 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 that this was when he started to fantasize about torturing and killing girls and young women.

During adolescence, Watts began to stalk girls and is believed to have killed his first victim before the age of 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 He also suffered severe bullying at school.

On June 29, , Watts was arrested for sexually assaulting year-old Joan Gave. When Watts was tried, he was sentenced to the Lafayette Clinic, a mental hospital in Detroit. According to a psychiatric assessment, Watts was revealed to suffer from mild mental retardation, with a full scale I.

He was released from the Lafayette Clinic on November 9, Despite his poor grades, Watts graduated from high school in , and received a football scholarship to Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. He was expelled from Lane College after only three months because he was accused of stalking and assaulting women.

Another reason he was expelled was because 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 he moved to Houston, Texas. Watts' career as a serial killer began when he was 20 years old in , by kidnapping his victims from their homes, torturing them, and then murdering them.

On October 30, , Watts tortured and brutally murdered year-old Gloria Steele, who was believed to be his second victim. Watts, who was African American, almost always killed young white women. Watts killed females between the ages of 14 and 44 using methods such as strangulation, stabbing, bludgeoning, and drowning.

Watts had murdered dozens of women between and , and despite the many women he murdered, Watts was not discovered as a serial killer for almost eight years. There were several reasons for this. He attacked in several different jurisdictions and even different states. Even with the advent of DNA testing it was still nearly impossible because he rarely performed sexual acts on his victims, unlike most serial killers of women and girls, and his crimes were not thought to be sexually motivated.

Watts was also not suspected to be involved with any of the murders by the people who knew him, and was not a police suspect in any of the murders until his arrest in On May 23, , Watts was arrested for breaking into the home of two young women in Houston, and attempting to kill them.

While in custody, police began to link Watts with the recent murders of a number of women. Until early , he had lived in Michigan, where authorities suspected him of being responsible for the murders of at least 10 women and girls there. Watts was previously questioned about the murders in , but there had not been enough evidence to convict him. At that time, Watts had spent a year in prison for attacking a woman, who survived.

Prosecutors in Texas did not feel they had enough evidence to convict Watts of murder, so in they arranged a plea bargain. If Watts gave full details and confessions to his crimes, they would give him immunity from the murder charges and he would, instead, face just a charge of burglary with intent to murder. This charge carried a year sentence. He agreed with the deal and promptly confessed in detail to 12 murders in Texas. However, Michigan authorities refused to go in on the deal so the cases in that state remained open.

Watts later claimed that he had killed 40 women, and has also implied that there were more than 80 victims in total. He would not confess outright to having committed these murders, however, because he did not want to be seen as a "mass murderer". Police still consider Watts a suspect in 90 unsolved murders. Watts was sentenced to the agreed 60 years.

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 felons to have three days deducted from their sentences for every one day served as long as they were well behaved.

Watts was a model prisoner, and had enough time deducted from his sentence that he could have been released as early as May 9, The law allowing early release was abolished after public outcry, but could not be applied retroactively according to the Texas Constitution.

In , Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox went on national TV asking for anyone to come forward with information in order to try and convict Watts of murder to ensure he was not released. Joseph Foy of Westland, Michigan, came forward to say that he had seen a man fitting Watts' description murder Helen Dutcher, a year-old woman who died after being stabbed twelve times in December Foy identified Watts by his eyes, which he described as being "evil" and devoid of emotion.

Although Watts had immunity from prosecution for the 12 killings he had admitted to in Texas, he had no immunity agreement in Michigan. Before his trial, law enforcement officials asked the trial judge to allow the Texas confessions into evidence, which he agreed to. Watts was promptly charged with the murder of Helen Dutcher. A Michigan jury convicted him on November 17, , 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 Western Michigan University student Gloria Steele, who was stabbed to death in Watts' trial for the Steele murder began in Kalamazoo, Michigan on July 25, ; closing arguments concluded July The following day the jury returned a guilty verdict.

Watts was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on September He was incarcerated at a maximum security prison in Ionia, Michigan. He died of prostate cancer on September 21 in a Jackson, Michigan hospital. Carl Eugene "Coral" Watts. His parents divorced in and Carl began spending a lot of his time with his grandmother. When his mother relocated to Detroit, Carl remained with his grandmother for awhile.

She told the Houston Chronicle that even as a young child, Carl enjoyed hunting and skinning rabbits. During his childhood, he developed meningitis and suffered high fevers, resulting in learning disabilities.

First Arrest: By the s, Watts was described as a polite and soft-spoken young man. He had athletic ability and participated in the Golden Gloves boxing program, although 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. Institutionalized: In September , prompted by his lawyer, Watts was institutionalized in a hospital in Detroit.

Within three months, he was evaluated and placed on outpatient treatment by Dr. Gary Ainsworth. In his final review of Watts, Dr. Ainsworth 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. He was involved in sports but continued to decline academically. He was a drug user, a loner, and was often disciplined by school officials for his volatile behavior with female classmates. He graduated at age During this time, he rarely attended outpatient treatment. He was accepted to Lane College on a football scholarship, but due to injuries he was unable to complete his first year, and returned home to Detroit.

Second Psychological Evaluation: Watts returned to college after being accepted into a special scholarship and mentoring program sponsored by Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Prior to attending the program, Watts was again evaluated at the outpatient facility, where it was determined that he was still a danger and had a "strong impulse to beat up women," yet due to the right to confidentiality policies, staffers were unable to alert authorities or the college Watts was attending.

She fought back and survived. On October 30, Gloria Steel, 19, was found dead with 33 stab wounds to her chest. Diane Williams reported being attacked on November 12, under the same circumstances.

She survived and managed to see the attacker's car and make a report to the police. First Confession: Watts was picked out in a line-up by Knizacky and Williams and arrested on assault and battery charges. He admitted to attacking 15 females, but refused to talk about the Steele murder. His attorney arranged for Watts to commit himself into the Kalamazo State Hospital.

The hospital psychiatrist investigated Watts' background and learned that at the previous institution, Watts was said to have possibly killed two women by choking them.

He diagnosed Watts with an anti-social personality disorder. The examining doctor described Watts as dangerous and felt he would most likely attack again and was found competent to stand trial. Carl, or Coral as he now called himself, pled 'no contest,' and received a one year sentence on the assault and battery charges but was never charged in the murder of Steel.

In June, , he was out of jail and back home in Detroit with his mother. She had been attacked and repeatedly cut with an instrument resembling a scalpel. She bled to death on the sidewalk where she fell. Glenda Richmond, 26, was the next victim. She was found by her doorway, dead from over 28 stab wounds.

Rebecca Greer, 20, was next. She died outside her door after being stabbed 54 times. A task force was formed, led by Detective Paul Bunten, to investigate the murders that occurred within five months of each other.

The task force was dealing with no evidence and no witnesses. Sergeant James Arthurs contacted the task force after reading about the murders. He told them of his past experience with Watts and the similarities of Watts' previous crimes to those now under investigation.

By this time, Watts was working with his stepfather at a trucking company, had a child, then later met another woman who he married. In October, , Watts was arrested for prowling around in Southfield, Detroit suburb. The charges were later dropped. Investigators did note, however, that during the previous year, five women in the same suburb were assaulted on separate occasions, but with similar circumstances.

None were killed, nor could any of them identify their attacker. By and , attacks on women in Detroit and surrounding areas became more frequent and violent and similar in style.

October 8, Peggy Pochmara, 22, strangled, Detroit. March 11, Hazel Connof, 23, strangled, Detroit. March 31, Denise Dunmore, 23, strangled, Detroit. April 20, Shirley Small, 17, Ann Arbor. May 31, Linda Monteiro, 27, strangled, Detroit. July, Glenda Richmond, 26, stabbed, Ann Arbor. September 14, Rebecca Huff, 20, stabbed, Ann Arbor.

By May , Watts was divorced. His wife stated that it was due to his strange behavior, which included his habit of leaving their home for hours, immediately after they engaged in sex. Within months, attacks in neighboring Wisteria, Ontario were being reported that were of the same nature as those in Ann Arbor and Detroit. Sandra Dalpe, 20, lived through being stabbed from behind.

Mary Angus, 30, of Windsor, 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. Detectives discovered that Watts' car was recorded as leaving Windsor for Detroit after each episode. Rebecca Huff's Book is Found: On November 15, , an Ann Arbor woman contacted police after she became frightened when she discovered that a man was following her.

The women hid in a doorway and the police observed their suspect as he frantically searched for her. When they pulled the man over in his car, he was identified as Coral Watts. Bunten took the opportunity to talk to Watts but the interview ended without any confession and the blood test failed to link him to any crimes.

By that spring, Coral had enough of Bunten and his task force, and made the move to Columbus, Texas, where he found work at an oil company. Houston was 70 miles away, and Watts began spending his weekends cruising the city. Houston Police Get a Heads Up, but Murders Continue: Bunten forwarded Watts' file to the Houston police, who were able to locate Watts, but unable to find any evidence linking him directly to any of the Houston crimes.

September 5, , Lillian Tilley was attacked at her Arlington apartment and drowned. Later that same month, Elizabeth Montgomery, 25, died after being stabbed in the chest while out walking her dogs. Shortly afterwards, Susan Wolf, 21, was attacked and murdered, as she got out of her car at her home. Watts is Finally Caught: On May 23, , he attacked roommates Lori Lister and Melinda Aguilar, tied them up, and then attempted to drown Lister in their apartment bathtub.

Aguilar was able to escape by jumping head first off of her balcony. Lister was saved by a neighbor and Watts was caught and arrested. The body of Michele Maday was found the same day, drowned in her bathtub in a nearby apartment.

Plea Bargain Time: Under interrogation, Watts refused to talk. Incredibly, he agreed to give him immunity to the charge of murder, if Watts would agree to confess to his murders. Jones was hoping to bring closure to the families of some of the 50 unsolved murders of women in the Houston area. Coral eventually admitted attacking 19 women, 13 of which he confessed to murdering.

Confession of 80 Killings: By the time it was over, Watts admitted to 80 additional murders in Michigan and Canada, but refused to give details because he did not have an immunity agreement for those murders. Coral pled guilty to one count of burglary with intent to kill. Judge Shaver decided that the water in the bathtub could be constituted as a deadly weapon, which would result in the parole board not being able to count Watts' 'good conduct time,' when determining his parole eligibility.

Slippery Appeals: On September, 3, , Watts was sentenced to 60 years in prison. In , after a failed attempt to escape prison by slipping through the bars, Watts decided to begin appealing his sentence, but his appeal lacked the support of his attorney. Watts Gets a Lucky Break: In , the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, decided that because the Judge failed to inform Coral that the bathtub water could be deemed a lethal weapon, that he would not be required to serve his entire sentence.

Watts was now eligible for retroactive 'good time earned' equaling three days for every one day served. This would mean he would be released from prison on May 9, Lawrence Fossi, whose wife was murdered by Watts, is fighting the release with every possible legal maneuver he can find. In the meantime, Michigan, having never agreed to the plea bargain, decided to try him for the Dec. Houston detectives are also reopening an old crime of year-old, Emily La Qua, who Watts confessed to killing but was not given immunity for that specific murder.

As reported by the Dallas Observer, last summer the families of several of Watts' victims met for a 20th memorial since his capture and incarceration. During the memorial, some learned for the first time, of the turn of events in regards to Watts' possible early release. Laura Allen, whose daughter Anna Ledet, was brutally murdered by Watts, has since found solace through God and suggested that it is time to forgive.

Joe Tilley, whose young daughter Linda fought so hard to live, but lost her battle against Watts as he held her under the water of the apartment complex swimming pool, summed up how most of the other families feel about Watts. Tilley said, "Forgiveness cannot be bestowed when forgiveness is not sought. This is a confrontation with pure evil, with principalities and the powers of the air.

Born at Fort Hood, Texas, during , Watts grew up on the move, attending public schools in Texas, West Virginia, and Michigan before finishing high school -- after a fashion -- in Inkster, a Detroit suburb.

Despite a tested IQ of 75, he was admitted to Western Michigan University, at Kalamazoo, and was enrolled there when he started acting out his violent fantasies against women in October His first two victims managed to survive when Watts came knocking on the doors of their apartments, starting on October Watts choked them both unconscious, leaving them for dead with no attempt at rape or robbery, but he was disappointed when the press reported both of them were still alive.

He found knives more efficient, claiming his first fatality on October 30, when year-old co-ed Gloria Steele was stabbed 33 times and discarded near campus. Identified as a suspect in the non-fatal assaults, Watts had himself committed to a state hospital on the advice of his attorney, refusing to answer any questions in the Steele murder case.

Fourteen months after the fact, he struck a bargain with Kalamazoo prosecutors, pleading guilty to one assault in return for dismissal of another similar charge, accepting a one-year sentence in the county jail. Upon release, he moved to Ann Arbor, marrying long enough to father a child, but his deep-seated hatred of women made the relationship impossible, and he was divorced in May Meanwhile, Watts was hunting.

When his marriage started showing signs of strain, he spent some time with relatives in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Farms, jogging by night to keep himself in shape. On October 31, , he invaded the home of year-old Jeanne Clyne, slashing her to death -- again without attempting rape or robbery -- before he fled.

Eyewitnesses described a black man jogging near the scene, but homicide detectives had no way of linking their case with a five-year-old series of crimes against women in Kalamazoo. Back in Ann Arbor, Watts entered criminal history as the "Sunday Morning Slasher," claiming at least three victims in motiveless, random attacks committed between 3 and 5 a. In April , year-old Shirley Small was hacked to death in her own apartment, followed by year-old Glenda Richmond in July and year-old Rebecca Huff in September.

Canadian authorities believe Watts may have crossed the border into Windsor that October, assaulting year-old Sandra Dalpe outside her apartment, leaving her near death with multiple wounds to the face and throat.

By that time, Watts had fallen under scrutiny from local homicide investigators. A task force was organized in July , to probe the Sunday slashings, and Watts was placed under sporadic surveillance, a November court order permitting officers to plant a homing device in his car.

Despite pursuit by squad cars and a helicopter, though, Watts managed to commit at least one murder while police were on his trail. Fired from his job as a diesel mechanic in March , he moved south to Houston, leaving the murder investigation at loose ends. Michigan authorities alerted their Texas counterparts, but Watts was accustomed to living under surveillance.

He found a new mechanics job and started visiting a local church, sometimes living with relatives, other times out of his car. And the murders continued. On March 27, , Edith Ledet, a year-old medical student, was stabbed to death while jogging in Houston. Six months later, on September 12, year-old Elizabeth Montgomery was attacked while walking her dog at midnight, staggering into her nearby apartment before she collapsed. Two hours later, year-old Susan Wolfe was knifed to death outside her apartment, nearby, presumed to be a victim of the same assailant.

The new year brought no respite from horrors in Houston. In January, year-old Phyllis Tamm was found on the campus of Rice University, hanged with an article of her own clothing, and another Rice student, year-old Margaret Fossi, was killed that same month, found in the trunk of her car, her larynx crushed by a powerful blow that produced death by asphyxiation.

On February 7, Elena Semander, a year-old co-ed, was found strangled and partially nude in a trash bin, not far from a tavern where she had spent the evening. In March , Emily LaQua was reported missing from Brookshire, Texas, 40 miles north of Houston, but authorities drew no immediate connection with the spate of unsolved murders. On March 31, year-old Mary Castillo was found, strangled and semi-nude, in a Houston ditch.

Three nights later, year-old Christine McDonald vanished while hitchhiking home from a booze party on the Rice campus. Suzanne Searles, 25, joined the missing list on April 5, her shoes and broken spectacles recovered from her car, in the parking lot of her apartment complex.

Carrie Mae Jefferson, age 32, vanished after working the night shift on April 15, and year-old Yolanda Degracia was killed the following night, stabbed six times in her home. High school student Sheri Strait disappeared with her mother's car on May 1, the car -- and her body -- recovered together on May 4. Two weeks later, Gloria Cavallis, a year-old exotic dancer, was found dead in a trash dumpster, her body wrapped in cast-off curtains.

On the morning of May 23, -- a Sunday -- Watts was caught while fleeing from the Houston apartment where he had assaulted tenants Lori Lister and Melinda Aguilar. Lister was half-drowned in the bathtub while Aguilar escaped by throwing herself from the balcony, calling for help. On the morning of Watts's arrest, another victim, year-old Michelle Maday, was found strangled to death in the bathtub of her Houston apartment.

Psychiatrists declared Watts sane, but noted his pathological hatred of women, whom he regarded as evil incarnate. The feelings dated back to childhood, when a favorite uncle had allegedly been killed by female relatives. Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, Watts was said to view the world around him "as pure fantasies which revolve to a large extent around the struggle against the 'evil' he sees everywhere.

On August 9, , with jury selection under way for his trial, Watts struck a controversial bargain with the prosecutor's office. In return for his guilty plea on burglary charges and acceptance of a year sentence -- the equivalent of life imprisonment in Texas -- Watts would clear the books on several unsolved Houston murders while escaping trial for homicide.

With the deal complete, and Watts compelled to serve a minimum of 20 years before consideration for parole, the defendant confessed to ten Houston murders, including the cases of victims Wolfe, Jefferson, Montgomery, Fossi, Semander, Searles, Degracia, Tamm, Ledet and Maday.

He also threw in some surprises, including the non-fatal slashing of a Galveston year-old, attacked on January 30, , and the "accidental" death of year-old Linda Tilley, found floating in an Austin, Texas, swimming pool on September 5, Other nonfatal assaults were also cleared in Austin, Galveston, and Seabrook, Texas.

Watts led authorities to the remains of victims Searles and Jefferson in Houston, directing other searchers to the body of Emily LaQua, near Brookshire, and he was still talking when Michigan weighed in with charges in the murder of Jeanne Clyne.

Swapping testimony for immunity, Watts ran his score up to thirteen confessed murders with the Clyne case, but detectives suggest that his actual body-count includes a minimum of 22 victims. On September 3, , Watts received his year sentence, the judge declaring, "I hope they put you so deep in the penitentiary that they'll have to pipe sunlight to you.

November 12, - Serial killer Coral Eugene Watts was again been denied parole. Because of a quirk in Texas law, Watts is scheduled for mandatory release in May He could be discharged even before that -- after his next parole hearing in December -- if he continues to show good behavior, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Todd.

The Michigan Attorney General's office Thursday filed a murder charge against Texas prisoner Coral Eugene Watts, a move that could halt the release of the serial killer in two years. Attorney General Mike Cox said he filed the first-degree murder charge against Watts in the December stabbing death of a woman in Ferndale, a Detroit suburb. If convicted, Watts would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Otherwise he will be released in May , becoming the nation's only known serial killer to be released from prison. Watts, 50, a former Michigan resident, was sent to prison on an aggravated burglary charge as part of a plea bargain in which he provided information and confessed to the 13 killings in return for immunity from prosecution.

In addition to the confessed slayings, Watts is suspected of killing more than 80 others in Texas, Michigan and Canada. He was expected to serve 60 years, but a glitch in his sentencing left him eligible for "good time," giving him credit for three days for every day served and reducing his sentence to roughly a third of its original length.

When that was brought out by the Chronicle stories in June , interest grew in Michigan, where Watts was suspected of multiple killings. A state police task force was formed and began poring through old cases in an attempt to find one that might be brought against Watts. The case filed Thursday, however, was not one considered by the task force. Instead, it involved the killing of Helen Dutcher, 36, which came to light when a witness saw Watts' picture on television. Dutcher was found stabbed to death in an alley behind a Ferndale dry cleaners.

Then, he saw the guy drive away. The witness contacted police and helped them form a composite drawing, a drawing Hartley said closely resembles Watts.

Later, when Watts was arrested in Houston, the man saw Watts' picture on television and again contacted Ferndale police, saying that was the man he had seen attack Dutcher.

The witness also called Houston police, said Hartley, but was told that Watts had already agreed to plead to the burglary charge and would never be released from prison. The Ferndale detective originally assigned to the case died some years ago, Hartley said, and other police either assumed Watts was in prison for life or had never heard of him. After the Chronicle stories about Watts' impending release appeared in , other media outlets carried the account, including MSNBC, which aired a story with Cox in January.

Hartley said the witness again called police to tell them Watts was the man he had seen. Dutcher, a Detroit resident, had been working as a waitress but was not employed at the time of her death. Police said she had been in a restaurant near the cleaners minutes before she was killed. She was also seen talking to several men on the sidewalk. On April 20, Ann Arbor, Mich. A similar attack against Glenda Richmond took place outside her Ann Arbor area home that summer.

The year-old manager of a diner was found dead with 28 stab wounds to her chest. There was not enough evidence at either scene to convict anyone. On September 14, University of Michigan graduate student Rebecca Huff, 20, was found murdered outside of her home.

She had been stabbed approximately 50 times. Her case was unique because it was one of the first murders to be directly linked to Coral. Moreover, it prompted one of Ann Arbor's largest murder investigations. It took two months before the link between Coral and Rebecca was made. A task force was formed to increase the patrols in and around the town and catch the 'Sunday Morning Slasher. Two policemen patrolling noticed a man in a car slowly following a woman walking home. She noticed that she was being followed and ducked into a doorway hoping the follower would lose sight of her and give up.

The police pulled him over and arrested him for driving with expired license plates and a suspended license. They found in the car a book belonging to one of the victims, but that was not enough proof to convict.

They put a tracking device in his car and began surveillance. Coral knew he was being watched so he didn't kill for two months. With nothing to go on, the surveillance was suspended. On Sunday, May 23, — Watts knocked at the apartment door of Michele Mayday, 20, and beat and choked her into unconsciousness.

He ran a bath and the drowned her before he ran away. Lori Lister, 21 walked towards her front door, not knowing she was being followed. A man with a red hooded sweatshirt came up behind her and strangled her into semi-unconsciousness. She made some noise that the neighbors heard and they called the police.

Meanwhile, the man pulled her up the stairs to her apartment where he found her roommate Melinda Aguilar, The attacker choked her until her body went limp. She was pretending to be unconscious. He tied them both up with hangers. While he was running bath water, Melinda jumped out of the window and called for help. The intruder heard the sirens and tried to run but the police got him in the apartment complex courtyard. A neighbor found Lori with her head submerged in the bath water, and pulled her to safety.

After arresting Carl 'Coral' Eugene Watts, they asked him why he tried to kill the women and he told them that the women had evil eyes and he was trying to release their spirits. During further questions, he told them he claimed responsibility for up to 80 murders. Coral told investigators, "If they ever let me out, I'll kill again. Watts later claimed that he had killed forty women, and then implied the total was as many as eighty. Several of the killings were not linked to each other.

Serial killers normally select victims within a certain age group, and usually kill by the same method. Watts, on the other hand, killed females aged from 14 to 44, and they were killed in a variety of ways: stabbing, slashing, strangulation and bludgeoning. Also, serial killers usually kill people of their own race; Watts, who was African American, selected mostly white victims. Watts was sentenced to the agreed 60 years, but the prosecutors did not take into account the rules for early release.

Watts was a model prisoner, and under Texas law he could have up to two days deducted from his sentence for each one day served, as long as he was well-behaved. This meant that Watts could be released as early as April In , authorities made appeals to possible witnesses in order to try and convict Watts of murder to ensure he was not released, given that he had made it clear he would kill again if he ever got out of prison. Several months after Coral was imprisoned he attempted an escape.

He greased himself with hair gel and tried to squeeze out of his jail cell window. However, his attempt failed when he got stuck. Moor said that the judge failed to inform Coral that, "the bathtub water he attempted to drown Lori Lister in was construed as a lethal weapon. After serving 36 years, he could get out. Twenty-two years after Coral's initial sentencing new evidence was exposed that linked him to a murder.

In , Joseph Foy came forward claiming that he witnessed Coral kill a woman in December According to a March Dallas Observer article by Whitley, year-old Foy responded to a popular television news program that appealed to viewers for any information concerning Coral's crimes. He immediately contacted the police and told them what he witnessed approximately 25 years earlier.

Whitely claimed that the Foy saw Helen Mae Dutcher, 36, struggling in an alleyway outside a Ferndale dry cleaners with a man who repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and back. Dutcher died moments later from 12 stab wounds. Foy went to the police station to report the crime and a composite of the attacker was drawn up. However, after an investigation the authorities were unable to identify the attacker. He hoped that his story might be able to prevent Coral's early release.

Foy provided the big break that surviving victims and families of those murdered by Coral wished for. Coral was finally charged with murder. If he was found guilty he would have to serve a mandatory life sentence without parole. It would be the very least he deserves. On Friday September 21, , Watts died in a Michigan hospital of prostate cancer. He was years-old.