A California prison ended up being the setting for a story as strange as it was disturbing. Jonathan Watson, a man serving a life sentence, said he asked to be transferred after discovering that one of his new cellmates had been convicted of sexual offenses against minors. According to his own account, he even warned that he could become violent.
Watson had been moved from a single cell to a shared, lower-security unit. Days later, one of his cellmates began watching children’s shows on a television, which Watson interpreted as a provocation.
As he later wrote in a letter, that night “he couldn’t sleep” because he felt he had to do something. The next day, he went to a prison counselor and asked to be returned to the previous security level.
Watson said his warning was direct: he needed to be transferred “before I actually hit one of these guys”. However, he said the counselor “mocked him and dismissed” his request.
Hours later, Watson returned to where he was housed. Seeing the man watching children’s television again, he wrote: “I remember saying, ‘I’ll take care of it’”. Then he picked up a baton and attacked him.
The man died that same day. Shortly afterward, Watson went to find a guard to turn himself in, but on the way he encountered another prisoner whom he identified as having been convicted of trafficking minors. “I thought I was doing everyone a favor”, he wrote.
That second man was also attacked and died three days later in a hospital. Both were serving life sentences for aggravated sexual assault of minors under 14 years old.
Later, Watson confessed to the murders in a letter and wrote a phrase that raised even more questions: “As a lifer, I’m in a unique position… I have very little to lose”.
The most disturbing part of the story didn’t happen during the attacks, but hours earlier: Watson says he had warned that it could happen and that his request to be transferred was dismissed.