Murder charge in oldest cold case

A man serving time in Illinois has been charged with first-degree murder in one of Omaha's oldest cold cases: the 1978 slaying of a Clarkson Hospital employee.

Jerry Watson, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the Oct. 17, 1978, slaying of Carroll Bonnet.

Bonnet, 61, was found dead in his apartment after co-workers called police, concerned that he hadn't showed up for work.

Chief Deputy Douglas County Attorney Brenda Beadle said fingerprints and DNA evidence connect Watson to the crime scene. She declined to comment further on the evidence.

Thirty-two years ago, police found Bonnet's naked body in a one-bedroom apartment on the second floor of a five-story brick building at 204 S. 25th Ave. The building was torn down in 1996 and today is a parking lot.

Bonnet was dead from a single stab wound. Police also found an ominous note. It read: “Die Pig.”

Police knew little about the victim. Bonnet was single and had no children and apparently no family in the area.

He owned a 1964 green Buick Wildcat — which was missing from his apartment.

The Wildcat was found days after the slaying, motor running and lights on, blocking an alley in Cicero, Ill.

Watson, who is from Cicero, has had his share of troubles in several states.

He is serving time in Illinois on a burglary conviction.

In the 1970s, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison on a sexual assault. He escaped from the Mississippi jail where he was serving time for that assault, Beadle said. Records from that sexual assault were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

Omaha Police Officers Doug Herout and Todd Kozelichki, detectives in the cold-case unit, have been interviewing witnesses since a crime-scene investigator last year ran fingerprints from the case and turned up a match in a national computer database.

The investigators have had difficulty finding people who knew Bonnet in Omaha. His contemporaries would be in their 80s and 90s now.

Contact the writer:

444-1275, todd.cooper@owh.com

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