| Notes |
- Also known as Walter Andrew Watson, Charles Newton Harvey, James R. Hilton-Huirt, and William B. Huirt.
"He must have been a winning gent who had a fascinating way. But no, he had a feline face, a wolfish mouth, a furtive air; as shy of beauty as of grace - yet he won brides most everywhere." - 1920 press account of "Bluebeard".
Boot Hill, San Quentin's old cemetery, was the end of the line for James P. "Bluebeard" Watson, the smooth-talking bigamist who murdered at least nine of the 22 women he married.
Also known in news reports of the time as "The Enigma" and the "Monster of the Western Coast," Bluebeard was sentenced to San Quentin in 1915 and served a life sentence. He was a model prisoner who died of pneumonia at 61, taking a final horse-and-buggy ride to the prison's hilltop cemetery.
From the The Idaho Post, May 14 1920:
A total of nine murders of his "wives" had been confessed last night by the man who, yesterday, under the names of James P. Watson, was sentenced to serve a life term in San Quentin penitentiary for the slaying of Nina Lee Deloney.
In making that statement, Thomas Lee Woolwine, district attorney, expressed the opinion the prisoner had laid bare all of the murders he was alleged to have committed. No additional information was obtainable on bigamous marriages charged to the confessed murderer, but officials declared the number was in excess of twenty.
Three of the alleged wife murders became known yesterday. They were the slayings of Mrs. W.A. Watt, Winnipeg, Canada, Marie Austin and Eleanor Frazier, both of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The first two were drowned in Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and the latter in the Spokane river, Washington, it was said.
In addition the man asserted his true name was Dan Holden and that he had been born and reared in Arkansas and was of a "respectable" family.
The nine murders to which the district attorney states Watson, or Holden, had confessed were:
Nina Lee Deloney of Eureka, Montana, married in San Francisco, Dec. 5, 1919; struck on the head with a hammer and smothered in a blanket at Signal hill near Long Beach, Los Angeles county, Jan. 26, 1920; buried on a rocky mountain side in Imperial valley where the grave was pointed out by the murderer himself to establish the crime in Los Angeles county so that he might received a life sentence in California in accordance with an alleged agreement with the district attorney and escape extradiction [sic] to and a possible death sentence in the state of Washington.
Elizabeth Prior of Wallace, Idaho, married March 15, 1919, at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, skull crushed with a sledge hammer and body buried near Plum station, Wash., where it was found.
Alice M. Ludvigson of Seattle, married at Port Townsend, Wash., October 6, 1917, drowned under heavy logs at the St. Joe river, Idaho.
Bertha A. Goodnish of Spokane, Wash., married at North Yakima, Wash., June 11, 1919, drowned in Lake Washington, Seattle.
Agnes Wilson of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, married at Vancouver, Sept. 20, 1918; drowned in Lake Washington.
Eleanor Frazier of Calgary, married in Seattle, 1919; thrown into the Spokane river, near Spokane city, believed by the murderer to have been carried over the falls and crushed on the rocks below.
Marie Austin of Calgary, beaten with a rock and drowned in Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
Mrs. M.A. Watt, Box 793, Winnipeg, Canada, drowned in Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
In telling his history to the district attorney the "modern Bluebeard," as he has been termed, said he was the son of John Gillam, a farmer, supposed to be living now near Paris, Kan. He said he believed he had been christened Joseph, but the first name he could remember being called was Dan Holden.
He explained his father and mother separated and he took the name of the man his mother married.
Successful in a small way with a mercantile agency in Chicago he later assumed the name of his father, John Gillam. Using this name, he married for the first time, he said, about 17 years ago. His wife was Mary Hollingsworth of Coffeyville, Kan. They had been boy and girl sweethearts, he said, but their marriage was unhappy. They were divorced.
In Moosejaw, Canada, where he arrived about 1912, he said, he adopted the name of James P. Watson. He went to Calgary and worked for a milling company, then he went into business for himself in Vancouver. At the beginning of the war he moved to Calgary, where he lost his savings through a slump in the markets.
His fourth marriage, he said, occurred at Nelson, Canada, where he married Katherine Kruse Watson. She is now living in Salem, Ore.
He said he did not always profit through his marriages and pointed out in taking Elizabeth Prior as a wife, he had selected a maid with no money.
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Birth name: Charles Gillam
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Hermaphrodite "Bluebeard" slayer of wives
Number of victims: 7 +
Date of murders: 1918 - 1920
Date of arrest: April 1920
Date of birth: 1870
Victims profile: Women (his wives)
Method of murder: Several
Location: Idaho/Washington/California, USA
Status: Sentenced to life in prison on confession of seven counts on May 10, 1920. Died in prison on October 15, 1939
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1871 - 1939 (68 years)
Set As Default Person 
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
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: Not Set
