Review: Cold Case Files, “The Sunday Morning Slasher”

on October 3, 2011 in Serial Killers, Video Reviews by Brian Combs

Tags: Coral Watts, Hedonistic Thrill

Right after Friday’s show on Alexander Pichushkin, Mrs. SK Podcast and I watched an episode of Cold Case Files on Coral Watts, the Sunday Morning Slasher.

Watts was convicted of sexual assault in the Detroit area in 1969 as a minor. He spent a few months in a mental health facility as a result.

A few years later, the police in Detroit suspected him of a number of murders in the area, but did not have enough evidence to charge him. They kept tabs on him until he moved to Houston. At that point, a detective from Detroit contacted the Houston PD to let them know what sort of man had moved into their area.

The police in Houston attempted to monitor Watts, but it was an impossible task. On May 23, 1982, Watts broke into the apartment of two women and attempted to kill them. One of the two got away, and Watts fled, but was soon arrested and identified.

Prosecutors in Houston felt he was likely guilty of murder in Texas, but had no real evidence. So they made a deal: if Watts gave them information on murders in Texas, he would not be charged for them, and his attempted murder of the two women would be reduced to burglary with intent to murder.

Watts agreed and gave evidence of twelve murders. Michigan prosecutors refused to go in on the deal, so Watts revealed nothing on his activities there.

Watts was sentenced to 60 years in prison, but the Texas Court of Appeals ruled that he had not been informed that his attempting to drown one of the women was considered the usage of a deadly weapon. As a result, his sentence was knocked down considerably, and he was eligible for release on May 9, 2006.

As that date approached, the public went understandably apoplectic.

The outcry against his impending release was both very public and very loud. But there was nothing the State of Texas could do. The law was the law.

But maybe the prosecutors back in Michigan could come up with something. In fact, that was the last option.

I’ll leave what happens next for you to watch and find out, but this was the point that the episode got very interesting. It dragged a bit up until then, but the last third (or so), really delivered, and made the show definitely worth watching.