Robber targeting Arizona tanning salons

[Editor-in-Chief]

Robber targeting tanning salons

Joseph W. Cox
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 29, 2007 01:34 PM

Police are searching for a robber who has been targeting tanning salons throughout Scottsdale.

The robber struck at three different salons in less than five hours Wednesday night, making off with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.

The robber entered each of the businesses and demanded money saying that the brown paper bag over his hand was covering a gun. advertisementOAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1')http://gcirm.azcentral.com/RealMedia...030?_RM_EMPTY_

At the time of each robbery only one female employee was working.

The man is described as a thin, White male, 180 to 200 pounds, 27 to 30 years old, about 6-foot-1, appeared dirty, smelled of cigarettes and was wearing a white t-shirt or red plaid shirt, jeans and a baseball cap.

The first salon robbed was located on Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard near Shea Boulevard, the second was near Hayden Road and Via De Ventura and the third was near Hayden Road and Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard.

Businesses are encouraged to take precautions and report any suspicious activity to the police.


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[Editor-in-Chief]

'Salon Bandit' nabbed playing poker

Michael Ferraresi and Shea Drefs
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 2, 2007 06:57 PM

SCOTTSDALE - A former Valley journalist is suspected of being the "Salon Bandit" who robbed three Scottsdale beauty salons and as many as six other businesses, investigators said Monday.

Joseph William Watson III was arrested Friday at a poker table at Casino Arizona, Indian Bend Road and Loop 101.

Watson, 35, a former Phoenix New Times reporter and a former correspondent for the Arizona Republic, could face six counts of armed robbery in connection to a rash of March heists in Scottsdale, including the three salons robbed just hours apart. Other charges are pending.

Watson could not be reached for comment.

Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said that Watson admitted to the crimes and told detectives he was driven to steal to cover gambling debt.

Watson also worked as an editor at Arizona State University's State Press student daily newspaper, an editor at Phoenix's 944 magazine, and also was published in Food and Wine and the Cape Cod Times.

Investigators believe Watson robbed these Scottsdale businesses:


• March 28, Arista Curlz, 11162 N. Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd.


• March 28, Energy Tanning, 7349 N. Via Paseo Del Sur.


• March 28, Tan Factory, 14651 N. Northsight Blvd.


• March 24, Subway restaurant, 6977 N. Hayden Road.


• March 2, Leslie's Swimming Pool Supply, 32409 N. Scottsdale Road.


• March 1, Bath and Body Works, 32421 N. Scottsdale Road.

Watson was held on five counts of armed robbery. A sixth charge is pending, police said.

Police said he also is under investigation in connection with two other robberies, one in Phoenix and one in Tempe.

In the Scottsdale salon heists, Watson was seen on video surveillance cameras with one hand in a brown paper bag. Police said he was simulating a weapon.

An anonymous caller phoned police and identified Watson after seeing the video footage on a nightly TV news broadcast.

Watson reportedly quit the New Times nearly a year ago, an editor for the weekly paper said.

An editor at 944 magazine said Watson worked there for only a few months.

Friends of Watson said they were shocked by the robbery allegations and declined comment

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[Editor-in-Chief]

Video helps nail ‘Salon Bandit’ suspect

Mike Sakal, Tribune

The lucky number seven was not so lucky for a man arrested in the “Salon Bandit” case who police say has a gambling addiction.

Police are attributing their swift arrest to an elaborate video surveillance system with seven cameras inside a Scottsdale tanning salon, which they say led to the identification of Joseph William Watson III, a former Valley journalist.

Watson, 35, said he committed a string of robberies at salons and spas to help pay his gambling debts, according to police.

Watson was arrested Friday on five counts of armed robbery with a sixth charge p e n d i n g hours after Stephen Campbell , owner of The Tanning Factory at 14651 N. Northsight Blvd., provided police with video from seven cameras inside the shop featuring footage of the suspect’s mode of operation.

A former sports writer for the Tribune and a former writer for the Phoenix New Times, Watson was arrested Friday afternoon playing poker at Casino Arizona after police received an anonymous tip.

Campbell said that The Tanning Factory had not been robbed in its two and a half years in the Valley, but some of its 20 locations owned by him and his partner in Las Vegas have been, which led them to install video surveillance in some of their shops.

“It minimizes theft and helps deter someone from even walking out with a bottle of lotion,” Campbell said. “The video cameras view any room that’s a common area of the shop.”

“By having them,” Campbell added, “I’m also able to log on to the computer at home and see what’s happening in any of our shops at anytime.”

Campbell estimated the suspect was inside the shop for about six minutes and could be seen on video ordering a clerk around the shop in search of money. Police say Watson placed a McDonald’s carryout bag over his hand, pointed it at the clerk and said he had a gun. The clerk was ordered to hand over money and then go to a back room.

Three salons and spas were hit within a few hours Thursday night. Store clerks told police they didn’t see a gun but, police say, Watson claimed he had one.

An undisclosed amount of cash was stolen from two of the salons, and Campbell said none was taken from his shop because the manager had made a cash deposit prior to the robbery.

Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said Tuesday, “The more cameras, the better.”

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[Editor-in-Chief]

Joe Watson, the Salon Bandit?

Mon Apr 02, 2007 at 09:55:54 PM


Joe Watson in custody...

Some Mondays are crazier than others, and this one was particularly whack, with the news that ex-New Times staff writer Joe Watson was popped Friday for allegedly sticking up six Valley businesses, including three salons in Scottsdale, hence the catchy sobriquet "the salon bandit."

Scottsdale detectives arrested Watson 1:40 p.m. on March 30, doing one of his favorite things -- playing poker at Casino Arizona. No surprise to that part of it, at least. Watson confided to having a gambling addiction to other New Times writers before he resigned his position with the paper a year ago.

According to Scottsdale PD flack, Sgt. Mark Clark, Watson admitted his problem to detectives, stating that he'd committed the robberies to feed his gambling habit. He's currently being held by the MCSO on five counts of armed robbery. A sixth charge is pending. And cops suspect Watson of robberies in Phoenix and Tempe as well.

During his tenure at New Times, Watson penned what's become one of the most popular NT cover stories ever, the tale of "Baby Man," a Phoenix eccentric who wears nothing but diapers 'round town and sleeps in a crib the size of a Volkswagen. Watson was well-connected in PHX journalism circles, having worked as an editor for ASU's State Press Magazine and State Press newspaper. He also worked on the East Valley Tribune's sports desk, until famously being fired for skipping work to attend the World Series, when he'd been emphatically warned not to do so by his boss, then sports editor Slim Smith, who, ironically, is currently doing four months for extreme DUI. He had a brief stint as the editor of the glossy Scottsdale mag 944, and once sat on the board of the Arizona Press Club. (He also did a spate of sports stories back in 2002/2003 for the Arizona Republic.)

In addition, Watson'd freelanced under the pseudonym "Zachary Best" for Phoenix magazine, where his fiancee Managing Editor Ashlea Deahl still works. Deahl declined comment when contacted for this post. They were engaged to be wed later this year.

According to Sgt. Clark, Watson wore a hat as some sort of disguise during the robberies, and used what may have been a simulated weapon in a paper bag or with a towel over it. Close friends of Watson's did not know whether or not he owned a gun. Video surveillance footage from one of the robberies was shown on a 10 p.m. newscast, Thursday.

Someone recognized Joe and dropped a dime. Clark stated that Watson didn't resist arrest at the casino. (Wonder what kind of hand he was holding?) Watson's made threats of suicide in the past. Hopefully, authorities are aware that his mental state can be volatile.

Personally, I'm in a state of shock. I knew Watson had been battling an obsession with gambling for some time (he once spoke rapturously of the seedy 1998 poker flick Rounders with Matt Damon and Ed Norton), and I know he'd sunk low in the past because of it. But I had no idea he'd go so far.

Watson's a talented guy, and had been working at some sort of medical publishing house in Phoenix of late. I kept in touch with him, and played pool with him once or twice. He was upfront about his addiction, and I told him that it was beyond me.

I can understand physical addiction to illicit substances, food or sex, but to gambling? It's all in your head, which perhaps makes it even more dangerous. The reality that he's facing some hard time if convicted is chilling. Nothing excuses what's been done. But I hope the dude finds a way to turn his life around and doesn't spend the rest of it in the pen.

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[Editor-in-Chief]

Ashlea Deahl squeals on Salon Bandit boyfriend, becomes editor of Phoenix Magazine

Wed May 16, 2007 at 07:00:41 PM



A pic of Ashlea Deahl from her www.faceofms.org profile. Deahl suffers from the affliction.

Take a gander at Sarah Fenske's story this week on everyone's fave jailbird Joe Watson, aka, the Salon Bandit. Fenske nabbed a scoop on what a lot of folks suspected from jump -- that Watson's fiancee Ashlea Deahl dropped dime on Joe after recognizing the dope in surveillance footage knocking over a tanning salon. (Talk about cherchez la femme!) Fenske also got Deahl to sing via e-mail. Other than a couple of brief e-mails I got from her, Deahl had ignored my requests for comment. Well, up until today.

Seems Deahl's now editor of Phoenix Magazine, picking up where her long-time boss Robert Stieve left off. Deahl was managing editor under Stieve until he left the mag recently. Stieve's the editor over at Arizona Highways as of this Monday according to publisher Win Holden. I don't think I ever realized this, but Arizona Highways is a division of the Arizona Department of Transportation. So Stieve's now a state employee. (I'm sure his mom's very proud.) The two pubs compete on the newsstand, but not for advertising, according to Holden, as Arizona Highways has none. Holden says his mag has something like 200,000 subscribers, and Phoenix Magazine has around 60,000. How this impacts Stieve's salary is unclear. But I'm sure the government benefits over at Arizona Highways are smashing.

Interestingly, Deahl herself had a hand in Joe's departure from New Times. As managing editor, she and her superiors allowed Watson to freelance stories for Phoenix Magazine under the pseudonym "Zachary Best." When Joe was confronted about the moonlighting by a fellow staffer, he denied it, then disappeared on deadline and never came back. You might say, in a way, Zachary Best killed off Joe Watson's New Times career.

The Watson-Deahl relationship had its ups and downs. They lived together on and off, so I don't know if they were living together at the time Watson left New Times. But Deahl certainly knew her then boyfriend was freelancing for her under an assumed name, while he maintained a full time staff writer gig with another local publication. Asked about it, Deahl had this to say in an e-mail to me:

It was Joe's decision to write under a pen name, and he did so with the knowledge and consent of myself AND the editor at the time. Joe pitched stories as any other writer would, and I assigned stories as any managing editor would, so yes, as an editor I facilitated his freelance work, but I did not give Joe work simply because I had a relationship with him.

Yeah, but would Deahl have "facilitated his freelance work" if Joe had not been her boo? I mean, does Phoenix Magazine normally let their scribes pen stuff under these circumstances? Deahl offered this as her "final comment on anything Joe related":

We don't consider New Times a competing pub simply due to different demographics, and while it's not common practice by any means, we have allowed a writer on the very rare occasion over several decades to write under a pen name as long as it does no harm to the reader, i.e., the writer's true identity doesn't introduce a bias to the story that the reader then isn't aware of due to a pseudonym.

Deahl put up with a lot of shit from Joe, or so I've heard second hand. And I'm sure it was rough having to turn the dood in. But the long-suffering jazz only works so much for me in light of the Zachary Best deception.

Is there an enduring lesson to the Joe drama? After all, as Fenske points out, his heists, though many, were penny-ante. And the only reason we in the press give a **** is because we worked with the guy. Phil Spector, Joe ain't. If he hadn't worked for nearly every pub in the Valley, he would've gotten a few graphs in the Rep, a segment on the local news, and that'd be it. So what's it all about, Alfie? What's the big pic?

Well, I'd personally be skeptical of any dood pulling the bag-over-the-hand trick in the future. I mean, why wouldn't someone show you the gat? Doesn't make any sense. Other than that, the whole thing makes me wanna whistle the theme song from Baretta (ironic in light of Robert Blake's far more serious brush with the law). You know, "Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time, yeah. Don't do it!" Or there's that classic tune from Bobby Fuller (also covered by The Clash), 'cept Joe had no "six gun":

Breakin' rocks in the ... hot sun
I Fought the Law and the ... law won
I Fought the Law and the ... law won
I needed money, 'cause I ... had none
I Fought the Law and the ... law won
I Fought the Law and the ... law won
I left my baby and I feel so bad
I guess my race is run
Well, she's the best girl ... I've ever had
I Fought the Law and the ... law won
I Fought the Law and the ... law won

For related Joe Watson crap, check Joe Watson, the Salon Bandit? and The Joe Watson Foundation: WTF?

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