Evil Eyes (21 page)

At approximately 7:00
P
.
M
., a body was located in a field about 150 yards off Interstate 10, at Bains Street. Crammed inside a two-foot-wide metal drainage pipe, which was used as a culvert, covered in dirt, lay the mangled body of Emily LaQua, the fourteen-year-old runaway from Washington State.

As the three men removed the young girl’s badly decomposed corpse, it broke apart in their hands. They were unable to determine at first whose body it was. They could not even tell what sex or what race it was. But they assumed it was Emily LaQua’s.

The clothes on the body had deteriorated. Also, a locket that contained a photo of Emily, her brother, her sister, and her mother, which was taken for the family’s 1981 Christ-mas card, was found near her body.

For the third day in a row, Coral Watts promised to lead detectives to the unmarked graves of three of his victims, and did as promised. Ira Jones commented that he “led us to three graves and he hits them bull’s-eyes.”

Later that night, Watts took a trip to the beach. He, along with Tom Ladd, who drove, Zinetta Burney, Detective Felix Bergara, and Galveston County investigator Felix Mares headed out in a car to the eastern end of Galveston Island, near the Bolivar Point Ferry. Other key figures out for the tour included Jack Frels, Harris County investigator Ken Rogers, Galveston County district attorney

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James Hury, and Houston police officers Ted Thomas and Jim Ladd.

Watts led Tom Ladd to the spot on Postoffice Road where he believed he killed Anna Ledet. He was allowed out of the car and pointed to the sidewalk where he believed the attack occurred.

He was right on.

Watts got back into the car and directed Ladd to another apartment complex just around the corner. Again he got out of the car and pointed to the spot where he believed he attacked Glenda Kirby.

Again he nailed it.

Watts then led the group to the general area where he believed he killed Patty Johnson.

By Thursday, August 12, 1982, officials from Michigan had hopped on a plane to Texas to speak with Coral Watts. The intuitive Sergeant Paul Bunten, who had tailed Watts after three suspicious murders in Ann Arbor and sent HPD officials a dossier that suspected Watts of being a serial killer, led the charge. He was joined by Ann Arbor Major Crimes lieutenant Dale Heath and Wash-tenaw County district attorney William Delhey.

Bunten was ecstatic. The time had finally come. He was going to catch his killer. The Sunday Morning Slasher would have to answer for his murderous deeds. The in-evitable confessions for the murders of Shirley Small, Glenda Richmond, and Rebecca Huff, as well as several other Michigan murder victims, were just around the corner.

“It was our understanding Watts was willing to talk,” declared Ann Arbor Executive Major police officer Walter Hawkins to the
Houston Post
. “We’re certainly willing to listen.”

Unfortunately, for the two detectives and the district attorney, the city of Houston was not ready to listen to them. When the three Michigan officials landed, they were

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told, in no uncertain terms, to buzz off. As the men departed their airplane at Hobby Airport, they were greeted by Harris County ADA Jack Frels, who was flanked by several Houston police officers. After the initial greetings, Frels came right out with the terms of their opportunity to sit and talk with Coral Watts: immunity in exchange for information.

The Michigan officials, however, had been clearly in-structed, in no uncertain terms, not to bargain with Coral Watts. DA Delhey was adamant that Watts would not receive any preferential treatment.

“I agree with what the Houston authorities have done,” Delhey diplomatically stated, “because they obtained two bodies that were unknown and solved nine cases.” That was where Ann Arbor drew the line. “But if I gave him immunity for killing three people, it would serve no purpose. Something could develop to prove the cases. At this time I am not ready to make an agreement.”

Detective Bunten was much blunter: “We told them there was no way we’d offer him immunity. . . . We don’t give immunity in our cases. I don’t think you can justify it.” The Michigan authorities’ firm stance kept them from their potential nemesis. “That was it,” Bunten lamented. “We spent two days in a hotel in Houston and we never got to see Watts. We finally gave up and [Houston police]

wouldn’t even give us a ride back to the airport.”

Officer Hawkins reiterated the point. “I keep reading about the sixty-year sentence they talk about Watts getting down there. Well, when you count time off for good be-havior, and then parole, he’s not getting anywhere near sixty years.” Hawkins added, “We’re not going to grant immunity and have him come back here in a short period of time. Now, if the sentence was sixty years straight out,

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we’d take a look at it because he’d be eighty-eight years old when he got out.”

The Ann Arbor officials were not the only Michigan authorities to refuse to grant absolute immunity to Coral Watts in exchange for testimony of any murders. Kalamazoo County assistant prosecuting attorney James Gregart was also unwilling to make a deal with Watts in exchange for testimony of the murder of Gloria Steele. After conferring with Steele’s family, Gregart and Western Michigan University police chief John Cease decided not to negotiate with Watts.

“I don’t make deals with murderers,” the tough, no-nonsense district attorney declared. “I’m not going to sell my community a murder.”

According to Gregart, the opinion of the Steele family played a large part in his decision not to offer immunity. He added, “In essence, what Coral Watts wants is a free murder in Kalamazoo County and I won’t give it to him. There’s nothing to be gained by us giving him immunity from prosecution.”

Wayne County (Detroit), Michigan’s chief assistant prosecutor Dominick Carnovale, however, believed there was something to gain from a Coral Watts confession. Carnovale offered Watts immunity in return for his testimony of the murder of forty-four-year-old Grosse Pointe Farms resident Jeanne Clyne, who was killed on Hal-loween in 1979.

“There were sufficient details (given by Watts about the killing) that only someone who was involved in that would know,” Carnovale explained. Watts was considered a suspect in at least nineteen more Wayne County murders. Carnovale was unwilling to offer immunity in any of those cases.

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One person who was relieved that a deal was struck with Watts was Michael Clyne, Jeanne Clyne’s husband.

“In my own mind, I never thought the case would be solved,” Clyne stated. The remarried widower had been a prime suspect in the murder of his wife from the beginning. “I had just dropped off my wife at her psychiatrist’s and gone to do some errands. Jeanne was going to walk home, but she never made it. The next thing I knew, the police were at my door telling me she had been killed.”

Michael Clyne recalled being a suspect in what police called “a killing of passion.” He also mentioned that Jeanne Clyne’s psychiatrist was also a suspect in the murder. “The police questioned me, all my friends. They didn’t harass us, but they were looking at someone with a motive.”

The questioning made it difficult for Michael Clyne in Grosse Pointe Farms. “This is a small town; there was a lot of publicity with my name in the papers all the time. It made my life very complicated for a while.”

Needless to say, Watts’s admission took Michael Clyne off the hook. “This is all just sinking in, but I am relieved, that’s for sure. The police told me five days ago they thought Watts was their man, but I never thought he would confess.”

Clyne did not complain about the immunity deal either. “At least he’s in [prison] for a maximum sixty years.” Clyne was, however, concerned that Watts may get paroled before serving his entire sentence. “If the situation were different and immunity would have allowed him to be back out on the streets, it would be a different case. But I feel the citizens of Houston won’t forget him”—Clyne hoped—“and with what the parole board knows about him, he would not be let out on the street. Public sentiment wouldn’t allow it.”

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Grosse Pointe Farms police officer Timothy Morri-son stated that the immunity offer was imperative. “He was a suspect, but we had nothing hard to go on. Frankly, we’re trying to clear the case, if he did it.”

Once the confessions poured out of Watts’s mouth, other cities that suspected Watts in other killings stepped forward. They wanted to see if the Houston police had their killer in their midst and if they could clear their own unsolved cases. In addition to Gloria Steele and the three Ann Arbor victims—Shirley Small, Glenda Richmond, and Rebecca Huff—officials from Toledo, Ohio; Windsor, Ontario, Canada; College Station, Texas; and Indiana all had Watts on their radar for possible murders. Some of the victims included were Hazel Conniff, Peggy Pochmara, Denise Dunmore, Linda Monteiro, Connie Sue Thompson, Kristy Kozak, and even a Catholic nun from Detroit.

Houston police detective Tom Ladd foresaw the rush to clear cases, so he made certain that there was no mis-perceptions of wrongdoing on their behalf. He made sure that all the cases tied to Coral Watts were legit and thor-oughly documented. Watts’s confessions occurred months before alleged serial killer Henry Lee Lucas “confessed” to nearly three hundred murders. It was later proved that Lucas did not commit hundreds of murders. There was also an outcry against Texas authorities for encouraging Lucas to confess falsely so they could write off large portions of their caseload.

Ladd, along with brother Jim, drove Watts out to the crime scene locations and had Watts point out everything he could remember about a murder. “We didn’t want some dickhead saying we were trying to dump cases on this poor little black boy.”

Ladd was amazed at Watts’s ability to recollect. “He

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came across as articulate and very smart. He’d never get the details of one murder mixed up with another.” Two unsolved cases near Detroit also seemed to be tied to Coral Watts. The murder of sixty-three-year-old Lena

1. Bennett, whose nude body had been discovered hanging in her garage in Harper Woods, and Helen Mae Dutcher, the thirty-six-year-old waitress who had been stabbed multiple times in a back alley near Eight Mile Road.
   

   Ferndale police chief R. Russell Rey stated that his office had “reactivated the [Dutcher murder] investigation. Actually, the case was never closed.” Rey stressed that he would not offer an immunity deal for Watts. “We’re going to develop this case further and see where it leads. We have some evidence and we’re working on it to see if it will connect Watts to the slaying.”
   

   CHAPTER 33
   

   Once word of the immunity deal offered to Coral Eugene Watts got out through the media, the Houston citizenry went into an uproar. Judge Doug Shaver received numerous phone calls from outraged Houstoni-ans who could not believe that Watts would not receive the death penalty. Some of the callers wished death on Judge Shaver for the decision.
   

   In addition, several letters were sent to the editors of the
   Houston Chronicle
   that expressed total disbelief in the decision. Here is a sample of some of the letters:
   

   • A guy with an IQ of 68 getting hired as a Metro bus me-chanic may give some insight to their problem. But how was he able to kill 10 women while under surveillance by the HPD?
     

   • Coral Eugene Watts kills . . . women because he “thought
     

     they were evil.” A typical example of a confused, de-luded, irrational Christian mind. “Put women in their place.”
     

   • Reasons why Coral Eugene Watts should be executed:
     

Because he admitted to have killed 10 women and possibly more. Because you should do unto others as you

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would have them do unto you. To set an example. Because 60 years is too short, expensive and useless in his case. Because everything short of death is an insult to the victims’ families. Because if the authorities do not, someone else will (Watts will not die a natural death in prison).

Some of the victims’ surviving family members also had something to say about the plea bargain offered to Watts. The same plea bargain that DA John B. Holmes Jr. claimed that he spoke with all of the families about and that they agreed was a worthy deal.

Harriett Semander, mother of Elena Semander, wrote a letter to the editors of the
Houston Chronicle:
“Watts deserves the death sentence. His oral confession should be allowed to stand up in court. At what point did his rights violate Elena’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

“If I were Jack Frels, I would tell Watts: ‘Fooled you! I had my fingers crossed the whole time’ when he finally confesses.

“Then give him the death penalty.”

Marta Ryals, a good friend of victim Elizabeth Montgomery, had mixed emotions on Watts’s plea bargain. “On a personal level, I want to see him suffer as much as possible. I don’t think any human can get revenge from him. But I’d like to see it tried.”

Montgomery’s fiancé, Bill Daigle, stated, “I don’t know if he’s going to be crazy when he gets out, but he’ll be back. It seems a little much that you would kill nine people at least and then walk away with a burglary and attempted murder charge.”

Garry Montgomery, Elizabeth’s brother from North Reading, Massachusetts, concurred. “I have a brother who

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occasionally does things wrong and goes to jail. But if he went off killing innocent people, I’d say, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’”

Flo Maday summed up the families’ discontent when she responded to Watts’s accusations that the women he killed had “evil eyes.” She blasted Watts. “Khomeini is evil,” referring to the former ayatollah of Iran who over-saw the hostage situation in the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, from 1979 to 1981. Originally ninety people, including sixty-three Americans, were held captive, with fifty-two Americans that were held for 444 days. Maday continued her justified tirade: “The Mafia is evil. He (Watts) didn’t let these girls live long enough to find out if they were evil. The man does not know what the word evil means.”