Analysis of Psychiatric Assessment - Case Study Example

CARL EUGENE WATTS SOCIAL HISTORY: Carl Eugene Watts was born on November 7, 1953 in Killeen, Texas. His father, Richard Eugene Watts was a Private First Class in the army, and his mother, Dorothy Mae Young was a kindergarten art teacher. At a very young age, Coral (his nickname) suffered the divorce of his parents. He was then raised by his mother Dorothy in Inkster, Michigan. Seven years after the divorce, Dorothy married a mechanic named Norman Caesar. Coral had difficulty accepting the situation; maybe because he felt he would lose his mother. Even as a child, Coral was different from other children. Approaching the age of twelve, he started visualizing the torturing and killing of girls and young women. When he reached his teens he started stalking girls and there is a popular perception that he is believed to have killed his first victim before the age of fifteen. He was not a very good student and often received failing grades. He had also suffered a lot of harassment at school. During his eighth standard, he suffered from meningitis accompanied with extremely high temperature; which further affected his studies and he was unable to cope up with his class fellows. It is still not clear if this was the consequence of his brain damage or the persistent sleep problems that he faced after his illness. He was also having violent dreams in which he was trying to kill women, but these could not be considered nightmares because he enjoyed them. At the age of 15, he felt an urge to fulfill his dreams. During his psychiatric assessment, he admitted that he felt better after having one of those violent dreams. Coral finally graduated from high school in 1973, despite his poor result. He was brilliant in sports and found this an adequate way to release his built-up aggression. After graduation he got a football scholarship to Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. He got expelled only three months later on the charges of pestering and mugging women. He was also mix up in the atrocious murder of a female student but could not be convicted because of lack of concrete evidence. He was also arrested on the allegation of the sexual assault of Joan Gave aged 26 on June 29, 1969; while en route on his paper delivery and sentenced to a mental hospital in Detroit, the Lafayette Clinic. Upon evaluation he was found to have been enduring from a mild mental retardation. He had an I.Q. of 68 and has delusion thought processes. He was released from the Lafayette Clinic five months later. He worked for nearly a year at the Detroit Wheel Company as a mechanic. He then joined the Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. But within no time, there was news of women being stalked, attacked, and even murdered. CRIMES COMMITTED: Coral began his life as a serial killer when he was 20 years old in 1974. He used to kidnap his victims from their homes, and then after torturing them, used to kill them brutally. His victims were usually women of the ages between 14 and 44, and were mostly white. On October 25, 1974, there was a knock on the door of a 23 year old Lenore Knizacky. On opening the door, she found a young black man standing there; he asked for someone named Charles. Soon the man started to strangle her, but she was able to free herself. She called the police but they were unable to detain him. Gloria Steele a 20 year old girl was believed to be the second victim of Coral. She was murdered on October 30, the same year in Kalamazoo. There was a knock at her door too, and the same black man was standing, and asked for someone named Charles. The stranger attacked Steele with a knife and stabbed her to death. The same man was found to attack another woman at her apartment on November 12, 1974. She was lucky enough to escape and got a chance to note the assailant’s car number plate. After an initial investigation, the police found the car to have been belonged to Carl Eugene Watt. Coral was arrested in December that year, when the two women who were attacked but escaped, identified him. Coral divulged to a dozen other attacks on women, but never confessed to the killing of Gloria Steele. He was then sent to a psychiatrist for treatment and assessment before appearing in the court. He was never convicted for the murder of Steele because there was not enough evidence. He was officially assessed in the summer of 1975 and sentenced for one year in jail; and was released in the summer of 1976. The psychiatric evaluation revealed that Coral felt no guilt for his crimes and did not have any sort of emotional feelings. However, he did not suffer from any sort of psychological disorder and was able to differentiate between wrong and right. Although Coral murdered several women between 1974 and 1982, the police was unable to convict him for eight years, because there was no evidence on any of the crime scenes. His crimes were not sexually motivated and were done in many different areas and even states. He was not even a suspect for any of the murders and was not involved with any of the victims. Coral married a woman named Valeria in 1979. They broke up only six months later. Years after, Valeria while talking to the police admitted that Coral was an extreme violent person. He used to have violent nightmares and became very messy. In 1979 another woman, a News reporter Jeanne Clyne who was aged 44 was attacked on Halloween. She was assaulted in broad day light and was killed by eleven stabs wounds. On April 20, a high school student named Shirley Small aged 17 was killed by stab gashes to her heart. Similarly in that summer another woman Glenda Richmond was killed in Ann Arbor area near her home. Later a 26 year old diner manager was found dead due to 28 stab marks to her chest.  Rebecca Huff a 20 year old graduate student of the University of Michigan was found murdered near her home on September 14 and she had nearly 50 stab injuries to her body. This was the first case in which after two years of investigation a link was developed between Coral and Rebecca. He also confessed to killing of a student named Linda Tilley from the University of Texas. She was 22 years old, and was killed by being drowned in her apartment swimming pool. He also agreed to the killing of Elizabeth Montgomery, aged 25 a week later by stabbing her to death. He also killed another woman Susan Wolf the same day. Coral also choked another 27 year woman Phyllis Tamm and then hung her on a tree branch. Two days later the body of Margaret Fossi was found in the trunk of her own car. She was believed to have been killed by a blow to her throat. He had also killed Elena Semander, 20; Emily LaQua, 14; Anna Ledet, 34; Yolanda Gracia, 21; Carrie Jefferson, 32; Suzanne Searles, 25, and Michele Maday, 20; between February and May 1982. He had reportly killed almost 80 women; but was convicted for any of the murders. CAPTURE: When within a period of just five months, 3 girls were found murdered of the Ann Arbor Police; it caused a huge upheaval in a small and peaceful college town. An investigator named Paul Bunten took up the investigation and increased the day and night patrol. At 5 one morning, they found a suspicious looking car following a woman walking down the street. The woman hid in a doorway when she realized she was being followed. The police stopped the car and found it to be driven by Coral. He was arrested on the charges of having an expired license plate and suspended license. On searching his car the police finally found one clue that could link him to the murder of Rebecca. It was a dictionary engraved with the words, “Rebecca is a lover”. Coral was placed under strict continuous observation, using a tracking device placed in his car. Coral knew he was being watched and he did not kill or assault any woman for nearly two months. The police then questioned Coral but he refused to reveal any information; and had to be released because of lack of evidence. Coral was finally arrested on May 28, 1982 on the charge of breaking into the houses of two women in Houston and attempted murder. The police agreed to a strike a deal with Coral; in return for the information about all his crimes and murders, he would be given immunity for murder. Coral then took the police to three burial sites of his victims and eventually confessed to having attacked 19 women, out which he killed 13. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison; he told an investigator before going to jail, that if they ever let him out, he would kill again. He admitted that he only killed women because they have ‘evil eyes”. An eye witness Joseph Foy from Michigan convicted Coral for the murder of a 36 year old woman Helen Dutcher; who was killed by multiple stabs in December 1979. This testimony earned Coral a life imprisonment in December 2004, as he had no immunity in Michigan. He was then also tried for the murder of Gloria Steele who was murdered in 1979; for which he was sentenced to a life imprisonment with parole on September 13, 2007. He eventually died on September 21, 2007 in a Michigan hospital due to prostate cancer. CRIMINAL THEORY OF BEHAVIOR: One of the theories of crime suggested by Dr. William Glasser, MD is the ‘Rational Choice Theory’. This theory says that the criminals have a reason for committing crimes. They are completely rational and may have personal reasons for committing crimes such as greed, lust, jealousy, hunger, need, thrill etc. This theory also suggests that at times the criminals decide whether to commit a crime or not, while at other times they are helpless in front of their own urges and desires. Some criminals are thought to be extraverts, who need a higher level of motivation and excitement, and this leads to a conflict with the law. Neurotic criminals are mostly emotional disturbed; they usually had family problems when they were young, and in majority of the cases the Father as a figurehead was missing. This was exactly what happened with Coral. He lost his father due to the divorce, and then lived in continuous fear of losing his mother, and was unable to accept his step-father and his step-sisters. He had an extremely disturbed family live during his childhood. Most serial killers have sexual satisfaction as the major factor for their committing crimes. They commit crimes in a similar fashion which becomes their trade mark. There is usually a connection between the different acts of murder and could be linked together; this could be the gender of the victims, their appearance or even their profession. In the case of Coral, it was the gender; that is his victims were all females. Research has shown that serial killers generally have a high I.Q. but they cannot keep a steady job. The Policeman interviewing Coral admitted that he found him to be a person with a very high I.Q. and extremely intelligent and had a brilliant memory. Most of the serial killers are victims of abuse themselves. Coral was harassed a lot at school and suffered abuse at the hands of fellow students. Some researchers believe that crimes are committed due to some biological or psychological disorders. REFERENCES: Crime Library criminal minds and methods – Coral Eugene Watts: “The Sunday Morning Slasher” [Online] Available at: (http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/coral_watts/) Accessed on: December 11, 2011 Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia “Carl Eugene Watt” [Online] Available at: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Eugene_Watts) Updated on October 2011. Accessed on December 11, 2011 Buzzel.com: “Serial Killers List”. [Online] Available at: (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/serial-killers-list.html) Updated in September 2011. Accessed on December 11, 2011 “The Psychology of Criminal Behavior: Theories from Past to Present” by Arista B. Dechant for Fort Hays State University, Kansas. [Online] Available at: (http://coastline.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/theories-of-criminal-behavior.pdf) Accessed on December 11, 2011. Read More