Confessed killer Watts tries prison escape

Confessed killer Watts tries prison escape

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HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Coral Eugene Watts, who confessed to killing 13 women in Texas and Michigan, will be moved to another Texas prison following an unsuccessful escape bid in which he rubbed hair lotion over his body and tried to slip through a broken window.

In addition to the 13 women, Watts is the only suspect in Ann Arbor’s three 1980 “Sunday Slasher” killings which claimed the lives of Shirley Small on April 20, Glenda Richmond on July 13, and Rebecca Greer Huff on Sept. 14.

Watts was ordered to spend the maximum 15 days in solitary confinenent after he tried Feb. 20 to escape from a recreation unit at the Texas

Department of Correction’s Coffield Unit, prison authorities revealed today.

He was to be released from solitary confinement later today and transferred to the TDC’s Eastham Unit.

Watts is serving a 80-year prison sentence for burglary with intent to commit murder as part of a controversial plea bargain in which he admitted killing 13 women in Texas and Michigan in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Washtenaw County Prosecutor William F. Delhey refused to grant Watts immunity for the Ann Arbor killings, and Watts has refused to provide Ann Arbor Police Department detectives with information on the killings without formal immunity.

According to Texas prison officials, Watts went into a recreation room with his commissary items in a pillow case, leather gloves attached to his belt and a tightly rolled blanket.

He rubbed hair lotion over his body and kicked out a pane in a small window in the room, then tried to slide out while other inmates watched for guards, the report said.

But the window was too small and he pulled himself back inside, the report said. As he tried to escape again, the report said, he was spotted by officers.

As a result of the escape attempt, officials said, Watts lost 181 days of “good time” he had accrued since his sentence began in September.