Carl Eugene Watts, also known as "Coral," was born on November 7, 1953, in Killeen, Texas. His early years were filled with change and movement. Just days after he was born, his family moved back to West Virginia. His parents divorced when he was very young, and Carl struggled with the changes, including his mother's remarriage and their relocation to Michigan. As a child, Carl faced challenges both at home and school. He was teased as a "mama's boy" and worried constantly about losing his mother's affection.

Carl's childhood included frequent visits to his grandmother's house in West Virginia. There, he learned to hunt and skin rabbits with his grandfather—an activity he genuinely enjoyed. Despite his difficulties in school, Carl managed to keep up academically until a severe case of meningitis at age eight set him back. This illness was so severe that it almost took his life and left him struggling with memory and attention, which significantly affected his personality and academic performance. After recovering, Carl started experiencing disturbing dreams where he fought off evil spirits.

By his teenage years, he began fantasizing about harming girls and acted on these thoughts before he was 15. His school performance plummeted, and he was often bullied. At 16, he brutally attacked a woman while working his paper route, leading to his arrest and a directive for psychiatric care. Despite assessments showing he had a mild intellectual disability and significant mental health issues, he displayed disturbingly calm responses to his violent fantasies.

Carl's life continued on a troubled path. He graduated high school with poor grades but managed to secure a college scholarship for football. However, his time in college was marred by aggressive behavior and suspicions of his involvement in violent crimes.

In 1974, at just 20 years old, Coral Eugene Watts began a terrifying spree, murdering several women over the next eight years across different states. Watts’ victims were often young, white women, whom he kidnapped from their homes, using brutal methods like strangulation, stabbing, and drowning to end their lives. These women ranged in age from 14 to 44, yet Watts managed to evade detection as a serial killer for almost a decade, partly because he left little DNA evidence behind, making it tough for police to link the crimes to him.

One of the eeriest unsolved cases linked to Watts involved 16-year-old Nadine Jean O'Dell, who vanished in Michigan in 1974. She was last seen walking to her boyfriend's house to babysit. That same year, Watts attempted to murder 23-year-old Lenore Knizacky. She survived, and her case, along with the murder of Gloria Steele five days later, marked the beginning of a string of violent attacks. Steele, found with multiple stab wounds, was one of the many women Watts attacked during his reign of terror. Although witnesses saw Watts and identified him in a police lineup, it wasn’t enough to connect him to the murders directly at the time.

Watts’s violent tendencies were temporarily halted when he was arrested and diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. After a brief time in prison, he returned to society, only to commit further assaults. Dubbed "the Sunday Morning Slasher," he continued his pattern of attacks, usually early on Sunday mornings, claiming the lives of several more women. It wasn’t until a series of attacks in Houston in 1982 that Watts was finally caught. Facing multiple charges, he struck a plea deal with Texas prosecutors, admitting to his horrific crimes but avoiding murder charges. He received a 60-year sentence for burglary intending to murder.

However, a legal loophole almost allowed Watts early release. Michigan authorities intervened, charging him with additional murders to ensure he stayed behind bars. In 2004, Watts was convicted of another murder and sentenced to life without parole. He died of prostate cancer on 2007, in a Jackson, Michigan hospital.