Nathanial J. Watson, a 65-year-old Black man, died on April 8, 1986, while a patient at Drake Memorial Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. Subsequent investigation identified his death as one of the killings carried out by hospital orderly Donald Harvey during a years-long series of patient deaths at Drake and other facilities.

Accounts state Watson was deliberately suffocated when Harvey placed a wet plastic garbage-can liner over his face, forcing the material into his mouth and nostrils. Harvey reportedly had made several unsuccessful attempts to kill Watson before finally causing his death. At the time Watson died, there was no immediate arrest connected to the death; the broader pattern only began to unravel after a March 1987 cyanide death prompted a homicide investigation.

Harvey later admitted to numerous patient killings, and prosecutors in Cincinnati secured guilty pleas to multiple counts of aggravated murder, including the deaths from the period when Watson was killed. No other suspect has been identified in Watson’s death. If anyone knew Nathanial Watson or had information about his care at Drake Memorial Hospital, please share what is known.