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Carl Watts, the "Sunday Morning Slasher," is ranked among the most active serial killers in American history. From 1974 to 1982, Watts killed many women, officially confessed to 13 murders, and was alleged to have committed as many as 40, with over 100 women suspected of having been killed by him according to authorities.
Watts preyed chiefly on young white females, employing means of strangulation, stabbing, bludgeoning, and drowning. His offenses were spread across several states, mainly Michigan and Texas, and his potential for going undetected for close to a decade rested partly on a lack of s*xual intent behind his crimes, which rendered forensic linkage challenging.
Carl Watts was finally caught in 1982 following a botched assault in Houston, Texas. He passed away in prison in 2007, serving two life terms of imprisonment without parole for the killings of Gloria Steele and Helen Dutcher.
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The true-crime documentary series, Unknown Serial Killers of America, will debut on the Oxygen network on Sunday, May 18, 2025, at 7 PM EST. It features serial killers who worked underground, escaping public and law enforcement notice for years. Each episode is about a different killer, with the first being Carl Watts.
Carl Watts' early life and history
According to reports, Carl Watts was born on November 7, 1953, in Killeen, Texas. His parents separated when he was young, and he relocated with his mother to Michigan. Watts did poorly academically, having read at a fourth-grade level by age 1, and having been severely bullied while at school. He was diagnosed with depression and antisocial personality disorder.
Watts started experiencing violent thoughts about torturing and murdering women at an early age and was investigated for attacking a woman as young as 15. He spent time in psychiatric facilities as a teenager but never managed to overcome violent urges.
Timeline of Crimes
1974–1979: Early murders in Michigan
As per the reports, Watts' earliest confirmed killings were in 1974 when he was 20 years old. He would enter the houses of victims, kidnap, torture, and murder them. In October 1974, he killed Gloria Steele, a crime for which he would be given a life sentence.
Several women in the Detroit area were killed in assaults that came to be referred to as the "work of the Sunday Morning Slasher" because they tended to happen in the early hours of Sunday mornings. Targets ranged from the ages of 14 to 44, and they were stabbed, strangled, or bludgeoned to death.
1980–1982: Texas expansion
As per the reports, Watts relocated to Texas in the early 1980s, where his assaults persisted. He murdered and r*ped women in Houston, frequently employing identical violent techniques. He committed prominent crimes such as drowning Linda Tilley in a swimming pool and stabbing Elizabeth Montgomery.
Carl Watts was also known to assault women who survived, including Julia Sanchez and Patty Johnson, who were abandoned for dead but escaped or survived their wounds. His offenses at this time were characterized by a mounting intensity and brutality.
May 1982: Arrest and Confession
Watts was arrested in Houston on May 23, 1982, following a botched assault on Melinda Aguilar and Lori Lister, as per the reports. Aguilar was able to flee and raise an alarm, which resulted in Watts' arrest. While in police custody, authorities connected him to a string of unresolved murders.
But because there was no physical evidence, the Texas prosecutors made Watts a plea deal: he would plead to his crimes in return for immunity on the murder charge and a 60-year sentence for burglary with intent to murder.
As per the reports, Carl Watts took officers to three victims' graves and admitted to assaulting 19 women and murdering 13. Cases in Michigan were left open as authorities there did not take part in the plea agreement.
Legal Proceedings and Imprisonment
Although Watts confessed to many murders, he wasn’t prosecuted for most of them because of his plea deal. Later, improvements in forensic technology and changes in the law allowed Michigan to charge him with more murders. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing Gloria Steele and Helen Dutcher. Watts died of prostate cancer in a Michigan prison on September 21, 2007.
Watch Unknown Serial Killers of America on Oxygen for more details about Carl Watts.
