Fleet C. Watkins was born in Black Mountain (Buncombe County), North Carolina, on June 3, 1866. Watkins was a farmer who was arrested for the murder of John H. Bunting of Wilmington in 1913. While an inmate, he received special privileges, including being allowed to wear civilian clothes, receiving a shipment of whiskey, and returning home without a guard escort. The controversy brought criticism down upon the superintendent of the convict camp, Joseph Harvey Brittain. Watkins died in Asheville on October 13, 1917.