Coral Watts was a serial killer from Michigan who murdered 13 women and admitted to killing a total of 93 women. He developed violent dreams as a child after contracting meningitis. As an adult, he began acting on these dreams by attacking and killing women, primarily stabbing them on Sunday mornings. He was eventually caught stalking a woman and put under surveillance, leading to his confession of 19 assaults and 13 murders. He pled guilty to one count and died in prison serving two life sentences.

1. Coral Eugene Watts
“The Sunday Morning Slasher”

2. Coral’s Childhood
• At the age of two Coral’s parents unhappy relationship led to a divorce which cause his
mother to move him and his sister to Inkster Michigan.
• In 1962 Coral’s mother married an Inkster Mechanic and the couple had two more
children.
• Coral had a difficult time adjusting to this because he did not like his stepfather.
• At the age of 8 Coral developed meningitis which almost killed him.
• The meningitis caused Coral brain damage and made him miss an entire year of school
which he was held back to make up what he missed.
• It was never clear whether his poor performance in the classroom was cause by brain
damage or chronic sleeping problems he developed after his illness.
• Coral began having very violent dreams that disturbed his sleeping patterns.
• He was restless at night because he would spend the night fighting off the evil spirits of
women and in fact was trying to kill them.
• A normal person would find these as nightmares but Coral said he enjoyed the dreams
• At the age of 15 Coral felt the urge to act upon his dreams and beat up a women by the
name of Joan Gave while doing his paper route and went on like it never happened.
• Shortly after the incident Coral was arrested and ordered to undergo a psychiatric
evaluation.
• Coral would return back to a clinic 9 times after his initial evaluation.

3. Coral’s Adult Life
• Coral Graduated high school at the age of 19 and although his academic performance
was poor he excelled in sports.
• Athletics were an acceptable way of helping Watt’s release his pent up aggression.
• He became a star football player and performed even better at boxing earning the
status of a golden glove fighter.
• Even with low grades Coral received a football scholarship to Lane College in
Jacksonville Tennessee.
• Coral would only stay in college for a few months before suffering some minor leg
injuries and returning home to his mother.
• After working for a Detroit wheel company for a year Coral enrolled at Western
Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
• Soon after enrolling at Western Michigan a rash of attacks began to plague the area
around campus and several would end in murder.
• Coral would be sentenced to one year in prison for some of the assaults and not long
after getting out he began dating a women named Delores.
• The Couple had a child together but never got married due to there split.
• Coral went on to marry a women named Valeria in 1979 but there marriage only lasted
6 months.

4. Gloria Steele
The first of many women killed by Coral Watts.

5. WHY AND HOW!
• Motives? • Methods and Rituals?
– Spirits of evil women – Stab to death in chest
attacking him with knife
– Wanted revenge for the
spirits – Knock them unconscious
– It made him feel good to kill then drown them in the
tub
– Many of the Murders
occurred on Sunday
Morning.

6. Characteristics
:Women between
the ages of 14 – 35.
:The Women lived
by there selves or
there were no men
besides him
around during the
murder.

7. Finally Found!
• One of the many factors leading to Coral being caught were all
the assault charges he had against women.
• Two policeman caught him stalking a women in Ann Harbor at
5 am.
• Coral was put under round the clock surveillance and a
tracking device was hidden under his car.
• Coral eventually admitted to attacking 19 women and killing
13 of them.
• After that he admitted to killing 80 more women in Michigan
and Canada.

8. Charges and Sentencing!
• Coral pled guilty only to one count of burglary
with intent to kill.
• His initial sentence was 60 years in the
penitentiary.
• He died in Prison in 2007 serving two life
sentences.

9. Elena Semander, and Linda Tilley
2 Women also killed by Coral Watts

10. Additional Questions
• Why are serial killers so difficult to spot?
– Serial Killers know what they are doing when it comes to leaving little
or no evidence at he seen so that’s why its difficult to spot.
List the characteristics that make up the four types of serial killer crime
scenes?
-Organized crime scene : Planned offence, Hide body ect…
-Disorganized crime scene : Spontaneous offence, Body left at scene
ect…
-Mixed crime scene : Characteristics of both scenes
-Atypical crime scene : Scene where the data can not be classified
What are the most surprising pieces of information you learned from
doing this web quest?
- I was really surprised this man got away with over 60 of the murders
he committed.

11. References
• http://serialkillr.tripod.com/SerialKillersExpose
d/crimescenes.html
• http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_kill
ers/predators/coral_watts/10.html