A prison inmate has confessed to the murder of two child-molesters in a letter to a news organisation. Jonathan Watson, who is serving a life sentence for a murder in 2009, said he killed the two because he thought it was the right thing to do and that he was doing the world a favour.
He confessed to the murders in a letter to the Bay Area News Group in Northern California. He apparently beat the two men to death using a cane while incarcerated at Central Valley prison.
The murders were committed just hours after Watson asked to be moved to a higher-security area of the prison as he had warned prison authorities that he would be forced to carry out the attacks. The first victim was David Bobb, who was 48-years-old. Watson said in his letter:
"I was mulling it all over when along came Molester #1 and he put his TV right on PBS Kids again […] But this time, someone else said something to the effect of 'Is this guy really going to watch this right in front of us?' and I recall saying, 'I got this.' And I picked up the cane and went to work on him."
After the killing, he headed to his cell but saw another child molester. He then carried out a second viscous attack which led to the death of 62-year-old Graham De Luis-Conti. Both victims were imprisoned for life for the rape of a child under 14.
Speaking of the second attack, Watson said:
"I figured I'd just do everybody a favour […] In for a penny, in for a pound. Being a lifer, I'm in a unique position where I sometimes have access to these people and I have so little to lose. And trust me, we get it, these people are every parents' worst nightmare."
It is likely that Watson will now be convicted of the two crimes and given additional life sentences, though it is possible that he could in fact be sentenced to death given that California still has the death penalty in place.
While prisons remain extremely dangerous places, it is a fact that in California, you are much more likely to be murdered in the streets than in a prison. While the murder rate in the state is 17.5 per 100,000, the prison murder rate is only 3 in every 100,000 inmates meaning that, statistically, it is five times more dangerous day-to-day for a free-person than for a prison inmate.
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