Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back friends. It's been a while hasn't it?
It's been so long. Well we have missed you guys. Like I said that the first week that we missed was just total crises on our part and then the second week Haley got to go on vacation and I got to work. Sorry.
Okay, I don't vacate. It was a long break. The last vacation I went on was with you four years ago. Oh my gosh.
Yeah. I don't vacation. That's crazy. Yeah, I don't go anywhere or do anything.
I'm extremely boring. That's wild to me. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. No, we were it was spring break so we took off and went to the Outer Banks. And he did body's wash up because that tends to be your MO. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. You have a time. I'm impressed. I'm impressed.
It's amazing. Yeah. Give it approximately three to five weeks and we'll see. No.
I don't like how that sounds. It sounds a lot more like you're doing something to make this like manifest. I don't know. It doesn't sound good.
Well, and if you if you guys also think we sound a little off or at least me, it's because we're on Zoom. Yeah, we're zooming. We're zooming. We're zooming because we couldn't zoom to each other because we're recording this midweek.
Yeah. And it's a you know, it's a school night and it's a for me and you know your kid. So yeah. Work night.
Yeah. Yeah. Work night. I got tons of things to reports and such to write up tomorrow.
Yeah. I need to file a bunch of things tomorrow. So part of my job that I get to do that I is like the most tedious part of my job is looking at school attendance for all my kids. So that's like, you know, 400 of them that I'm like monitoring.
Well, we are rounding the end of the year. So we need to see who we can get rid of. Yeah. Yeah.
It's pretty wild. So I, today I talked with my data manager and I was like, hey, so bets on if I can finish all the things I need to do with attendance by 1.30 p.m. today. And she was like, I think you can do it.
I did not. I didn't even get done because if I had no interruptions all day, I totally could have done it. But like, I would sit down and like start doing something and then a kid would come in and be like, I spilled stuff all over my sweatshirt. Can I have a new one?
I'm like, to the close class that we go. Or somebody's like walking into my room, like sobbing and I'm like, well, let's hear it. Yes. Yes.
That sympathetic as well. I'm like, what's wrong with you? Well, I similarly, I've had these assessments that I have to write and I have, I told my boss, I was like, I am trying so hard to get it done. And they're so lengthy.
They are so long. Anyway, I was like, every time like an email will pop up, somebody needs something from me. I need to do something administrative. Like, and she's like, I know, because I'm the same way.
She was like, but you need to just like put like, you know, for the next two hours on your calendar, block it out and everybody'll just know like, you know, she's busy. And I was like, I know, but then I feel guilty. It's so hard, you know? Yeah.
Like just go ahead and shut your door and I'm like, yeah, but then I have the children knocking on the door like the children. That's mean they need a new shirt for the little thing. Also, I've run out of the good snacks. So now they're all mad, because they've eaten all the good snacks.
And now they get apples and applesauce. And they're not. So what are what qualifies as a good snack? Like little like crackers or like cookie packs or like all these snacks that I go and get.
But we're kind of towards another year. So I don't want to like do another major runs. I'm trying to get rid of stuff that's gonna expire over the summer. So I'm like, well, I'll eat it if you know, if they're hungry enough, they'll eat it.
So hopefully they will, they will eat it. Hey, listen, if they're hungry, they'll eat it. If not, oh, well, yeah, be like, well, you're turning into the lady at like Halloween who gives out pencils. I know.
Well, I keep my snack bin right beside my like hygiene shelves. So directly beside all of the snacks is a like holding of toothbrushes and deodorant and tampons. Yeah, you can eat or nothing better than, you know, getting my cookies next to my tampons. Yeah, it's quite convenient.
It is. Students. So it's great. So what have you got for us today?
Because this week is your story. My week. Okay, so, um, fair warning to everyone involved in this. I wrote this weeks ago.
I have no idea what it's about anymore. I have a general idea, but like the nuances of it, not a clue. So. Ask questions.
Because I'm happy. I'll just look cute. Like I typically do. I'm fine.
Okay. So we're going to talk about Henry Lewis Wallace, who was a serial killer from South Carolina. Question. Yes.
Why do they always have to rename? I don't know, but they do. And it's wild. Yeah.
Yeah. So, yeah, Henry Lewis, Wallace. Henry Michelle Smith. Right.
See? Yeah. That's not your name, but it doesn't matter. You know, it's three names.
It is. They're not my names, but. No, the first one is the first one is. Yeah.
Okay. So he was born in Barnwell, South Carolina, and he was the son of Laudie Mae Wallace. He grew up with his mother who worked a lot hours as a textile worker. He was, you know, pretty verbally abusive.
You know, really criticizing him for every little thing, just not a great mom. He attended Barnwell High School, and he was elected to the Student Council, and he was also a cheerleader. Oh, wow. You heard that that often.
He jumped. He graduated in 1983, and he became a disc jockey for a Barnwell radio station. Wow. It's kind of cool.
Yeah. It doesn't sound like a normal trajectory. No. I mean, like, yeah, he was verbally abused, but I mean, I don't know.
Sorry. Yeah. It's not. It doesn't, you know, when I read out as Rocky, go ahead.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So he actually tried to go to college several times and kind of like hopped around, and then kind of was like, not really for me.
So he joined the Navy in 1985. And then he also married his high school sweetheart, Marietta, in 1987. In 1988, he was honoredly discharged from the Navy. So it sounds like he went and served us like three or four years and got out, which is what a lot of people do.
Yeah. So when it served as like contract left, honorably did all the things. So during his time in the Navy, though, he began using drugs, particularly crack cocaine. Yeah.
In the Washington state, I guess he was stationed there, it seems like he was served warrants for several burglaries and then around the Seattle metro area. In January of 88, he was arrested for breaking into a hardware store. That June, he pled guilty to secondary burglary, a judge sentenced him to two years of supervised probation. And according to his probation officer, he did not show up for his meetings.
So okay. In 88, he was honorably discharged. He was doing all these things. Yeah.
No, because I think like he wasn't arrested until 88. So it kind of seems like he was discharged from the Navy, gets arrested. Okay. So I guess discharged from the Navy also in January of 88.
That's my assumption. Okay. Okay. This charge starts burglary.
Got you. For glory. But taking drugs during it, but I guess it's just crack cocaine. Okay.
I guess they just didn't notice. I guess not. Yes. Not.
Okay. So now we are going to talk about his victims and kind of go through that stuff. Okay. So March eight 1990.
So we're two years into, you know, probably pretty significant drug use two years plus what he started using in the Navy. So we've got some drug use going on. He murdered 18 year old Tashonda Bethy. She was a Barnwell High School student.
He dumped her body in a lake in his hometown. It wasn't until several weeks later that her body was discovered. Wallace was questioned by the police regarding her disappearance and death, but he was never formally charged with anything. He was also questioned about the attempted rape of a 16 year old girl, but was never charged for that either.
And by the time, you know, his marriage to Marietta was starting to fall apart. And he was also fired from working as a chemical operator at Sando's Chemical Company. I think that would be a pretty hard job to do if you're on crack. Yeah, probably not going to be really great with all the other chemicals.
Right. Just the one that's in your system. Yeah. So I don't know exactly why like he was questioned.
I don't know if he was like just in the area when things happened or maybe matched a description. Yeah. So yeah, he was questioned for all these things and then they were like, eh, guess not this guy. So I don't know.
I don't exactly how that all went down. Okay. So in February of 1991, so not even a full year later, he broke into Barnwell High School in the radio station where he used to work as a disc jockey. And he stole video and recording equipment and then was caught trying to pawn them.
So he's just like committing these weird crimes. Well, and it seems like he has an odd obsession with his high school, but first victim was going to his high school. There's just this odd connection. Yeah.
So those are kind of his like first dipping into murder kind of thing. Because we've got we've got a few more, which is so in November of 1991, he relocates to Charlotte, North Carolina. And he found some jobs at several different fast food restaurants at East Charlotte and kind of hopped around and worked at like different places. And then he became the manager at a Taco Bell near the Eastland Mall, which like doesn't exist anymore.
But back in the 90s, popular mall. So in 92, so he's moved to Charlotte. He's working with the Taco Bell, being a manager. In 92, he picks up 33 year old Sharon Nance, who was a convicted drug dealer and sex worker.
He beat her to death when she asked for payment for her services, and then dumped her body by the railroad tracks. And she was found a few days later. So sounds like he was soliciting, you know, share this is yeah, as a sex worker. And you know, when she's like, okay, you know, down to the pay, he didn't like that.
So not great. In June of 92, he raped and strangled Carolyn Love, who was 20 at her apartment and dumped her body in a wooded area. Caroline was actually a friend of Wallace's current girlfriend. So he has a girlfriend during all of this.
But she was a friend of like a mutual friend. And she was also his girlfriend's roommate. So I guess their girlfriend wasn't there. She was he knew she was working or something.
Right. Oh, yeah, great. Yeah. She had actually worked at a Bojangles at the time of her disappearance.
So after he killed her, Wallace, his girlfriend, and her sister filed a missing person's report. So he's just like, oh my gosh, where is she in the role? Right, like this happens. The girlfriend comes home.
She's like, I can't find, you know, Caroline's not here. Like, you know, like, oh, dear, right? Oh my gosh, like, let's go file this report. What a sociopath.
Absolutely. Awful. Her body was not found for almost two years in a wooded area in Charlotte. On February 19th of 93, he strangled another 20 year old woman named Shauna Hawk.
She was a college student and she was at home at her home. He first raped her and then murdered her and attended her funeral. Yeah. She had worked at the Taco Bell where he was her supervisor.
Oh, this guy is wow. So he got like a whole lot of cohenas just to like show up at these places and I don't know. I guess it's part of his thought, like who would know? Yeah, it's pretty wild.
Okay, so we got a couple more to get through. On August 10th of 93, so we're not having a big going off period here. We got February, we got June and now we're in August. Yeah.
So he's, you know, every couple of months he's ready. Fast. Yeah. So he raped and strangled Valencia jumper who was a 21 year old college student from Columbia, South Carolina and was his sister's friend.
He then set her body on fire to try to cover up the crime. A few days after her murder, he and his sister went to the funeral. Of course. He even sent like condolences to the family.
No, he's saying all these people are sort of dying around him. Yeah, that's not weird. Right? Like you would think like this is crazy.
And it's like horrific murders. Right. Like it's not like, oh, you know, they were battling cancer or they had a heart attack or oh, they were 97. Right.
They died in their sleep. No, this is like horrific deaths of girls who shared some commonalities. They were all young. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Not good.
Okay. A month later, the one month later, on September 14th in 93, he went to the apartment of 20 year old Michelle Stinson, who was a college student and a friend from his from Taco Bell. He raped her and later in the evening, strangled her and stabbed her in front of her child. Oh my God.
We had a young, a young kid. Yeah. I mean, sick anyway, but for all the things. Yeah.
Okay. On February 4th in 94, he was arrested for shoplifting. But police made no connection between him and the murders. I mean, why really why would they?
Right. You know, like shoplifting does not equal murder. Right. Right.
Right. Right. You know, either one does things so they didn't make any connection there. And this is the 90s.
I guess this is before they were doing DNA. Anytime you were arrested. Yeah. Yeah.
Before the code is in place, then perhaps maybe there would have been a connection there. Yeah. Yeah. You know.
So I think right for these are whether we're shoplifting February 20th, a day after Shawna's mother appealed to the public to find her daughter's murder. He then raped and strangled Vanessa Mack, who was 25 in her Charlotte apartment. He knew her through her sister, who was a coworker at the Taco Bell? Nobody said and he's still employed there, right?
Like Rob's time. Yes. Yeah. Okay.
Nobody says, gee, that's kind of weird that all these Taco Bell employees under this man are just dying off. Yeah. Nobody says anything. Okay.
Right. Yeah. Wow. Okay.
Yeah. Okay. On March 8th of 94. So again, not even a month later, he robs, rapes and strangles 24 year old Betty Jean Bocum a day after her birthday.
Bocum and Wallace's girlfriend were coworkers at the Bojangles where she was the assistant manager. After he murdered her, he took several things from the house, valuables from the house, and then left the apartment with her car and pond everything except for the car, which he left at a local shopping center. Yeah. So he then returns to that same apartment complex the same day, knowing that Bernice Woods would be at work, who was this other guy that he knew from, I don't think maybe from the Taco Bell as well.
Like somehow they're all friends, like everybody knows everybody. So he goes back because he knows that this guy has left to go to work and he's like, great, I'm gonna go murder his girlfriend. So Brandy Henderson, she's 18 years old. She was a high school student, a homemaker, and she was the mother of Bernice's child.
So she, you know, sounds like, got pregnant in high school, they're living together, she's trying to finish school, you know, stay home with the baby, like doing all the things. So Wallace rapes her while she held her baby, cringles her, also strangles her son. Her son survives. Wow.
Like, crazy, awful. It's even the point of that, I mean, the baby's not gonna tell it's a baby. I know. Like, oh my god.
Yeah. Wow. So after, you know, we now have two young women that have been found murdered outside this apartment complex. So Charlotte police increased their patrols.
Even with that though, Wallace snuck in to Rob and Strangle, Deborah Ann Slaughter, who was 35, who had been his girlfriend's coworker, another one, he raped Strangle and stabbed her 38 times in the stomach and chest before taking money from the apartment floor drops. And her body was found on March 12th of 94. So police have increased their patrols and he's still able to get back in this apartment complex. I think he's escalating now to almost every week.
Yeah. Yeah. It's insane. So police were able to kind of zero in on him after they located Bocum's car, the one that was left in the shopping center parking lot.
And they found his palm print on her trunk. So they were able to run that. They pulled his mugshot in which he wore a cross-shaped earring. And this was identical to they had him on camera using Max ATM card after her death.
So they were able to match that. So police arrested him on March 13th, 94, the day after he murdered his last victim, he confessed to 11 murders. And police, you know, were obviously stunned to find out that this had all happened. I mean, really knowing about it.
He wrote down all the names of his victims except for Nancy's who was the sex worker he beat to death. And he said he didn't know her name. I say he didn't know her name. He also led police to Love's Body who had still been like listed as a missing person.
Yeah. So one of the detectives on the case said that Wallace would form this friendship or establish some kind of trust with his victims before he would kill them. Victims felt comfortable with him because he portrayed himself as his big brother and a good friend. So the detective.
He said that he was like the perfect human predator. He walked into their life knowing that at some point he was going to take their lives. A true sociopath? Right.
In 97, he was found guilty of nine murders and given nine death sentences. Apparently he was still trying to convict or appeal his sentences in North Carolina, under North Carolina's Racial Justice Act, but remains on death row as Central Prison and Raleigh awaiting execution. As the time that article was written, he was still waiting on execution. So my question and reading all of this was how the heck did 11 people get murdered?
And there wasn't any kind of like anything. Like, like, how would we not know what's going on? So and you think about even those old cop shows, right? Where they take like a picture of the victim and they're like, okay, what is the link to the next victim and you see them with a little string and a right like underneath it, like work to Taco Bell.
And then this victim also worked to Taco Bell or the sister of Taco Bell employee. This one worked at Bojangles like what's the connection and nobody in a the connection that this man is a part of all these people's lives in some way. Yeah, nobody made that connection. Wow.
I think they needed some string and a whiteboard. Yeah. To like, note all this stuff. Yeah.
So in 1988 or 1998, he married a former prison nurse, Central Prison and Raleigh. Of course he did. Yeah. So there are lots of them, you know, like we talked about things with why did they not know this?
So one of the big things that, you know, I haven't mentioned yet, but want to point out all of these victims are black women. So why is he saying it's racial? Because he is also black. But okay.
Yeah, I don't know. So he's, I think trying to pull at literally anything he can to get off the road. And obviously it's not going to work. But that's kind of been stated as like, you know, could be a reason why these weren't linked or taken as seriously as if you know the victims were to look like, you know, you were me.
Right. So there's been a lot of critique on the investigation. People have said that investigators should have recognized pretty early on that they were dealing with a pretty methodical serial killer because of, you know, common elements of crimes. The victims were all strangled, which is apparently accounts for under 10% of all murders.
Strangled. I didn't know that. I thought it would be more frequent. Same.
The crimes, it's apparently were all very neat. And there were no signs of force entry, which pointed to the fact that they knew they're attacker. Yep. So the medical examiner actually wrongly ruled jumper's death as carbon monoxide poisoning after the fire at her home, while it's best to killing her and setting the fire.
So it seems like, I mean, I don't know how badly the body was burned. Like maybe there was, you know, if you've strangled her, maybe there was no like skin left to look at or something. So but you can probably in the particular. I mean, I've heard that.
Yeah, that's true. Right. You know, I don't know how badly the body was burned. So one of the detectives who was also black stated that, you know, there were some undertones of the victims race playing a role in the failure to casualist sooner, like kind of acknowledge that.
He believes though it's because, you know, the society is a whole really devalues about black lives and compares into white lives. And law enforcement's efforts are unduly pressured by media coverage of white crimes. He though really felt like, you know, the biggest culprit of why this happened the way it did was because the homicide unit was horrifically understaffed at that time. So that's kind of where he is following his, I guess there were issues.
Yes, race probably definitely played a role, but he's still leaning more towards the, it was because of stabbing. So I don't know if I buy that totally, but, you know, so people have also said that Wallace's race might have played a role in allowing him to prey on women undetected. According to a 2004 case study on Wallace published in Free Inquiry of Creative Sociology, which was kind of interesting. So this is a quote from that article.
It says a common misperception exists which suggested that few serial killers have an African American, at least according to media sources and many scholars. So data does generally indicate that most serial killers are white, but there's still between 13 to 20 percent who are black. Oh, that is a much higher percentage than I thought. Me too.
Like I would have thought like five percent. Yeah. But then 13 to 20 is not insignificant. Oh definitely not.
Yeah. So Shanna Hawkins Hawks mom really, she actually started this organization called Mothers of Murdered Offspring. And it's like a group of women who like get together and raise awareness and they do all of these things. And they, it's like a big advocacy group and they help other, you know, victims.
And it's just a really, really cool organization. She started that and was really kind of poured into it. But she, you know, over the past couple of years was like, you know, I've got to step back from that because, you know, one of the articles I read about her was, you know, her saying that after her daughter was killed, she really jumped into that and didn't take the time to like process everything and truly grieve. So she is taking a step back from that.
She continues to support but isn't actively involved in that organization anymore. And she said, you know, I just wanted mothers to come together and join our forces in our hearts, not allow the anger and violence to rule our lives. I fight for my own breath sometimes. I fight to be here living right now.
So. That's just heartbreaking. Kind of leader there. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I hope that these parents are able to find some kind of peace. I mean, how do you when your child is tragically and horrifically taken from you in the ways that these daughters were, you know, right? And hopefully, you know, he finds his justice.
Yeah. Hope so. So. Yeah.
You heard every one of those death sentences. You sure did. I was looking to make sure he hadn't been executed since that article was published. He's still there.
I always forget to look that up. I can look up. Let's see. I don't think he has been executed yet.
No. So he's still sitting there. You know, a good name for this episode would be a killer among us. Yeah.
Because it kind of seems like he has what's his last name? Wallace. What's his first name? Henry.
Middle initial. L. Thank you. You're welcome.
Yeah, they call him the Taco Bell Strangler, his kind of his name. So same. Oh, yeah, there he is. You know, honestly, he seems kind of unassuming if you look at his, you know, picture.
Like you know, he doesn't seem scary. I think he definitely used that, you know, to his advantage. Yeah. I mean, he's definitely got a lot of infractions in prison.
Oh, like why? So he has illegal clothing, linen sheets, misuse of medicine, bartering, trading, and loaning money, weapon possession, assaulting a person with a weapon, fighting, unauthorize funds, and again, fighting. So it starts in 97. It goes all the way up 2010.
I mean, he's already on death row. Was he able to lose? Very much true. Yeah, he was convicted of Mevon News and you were a baby.
That's true. That's true. Mothers of murdered offspring is still operational. I just want to let their website.
So they are still operational and, you know, they work with, you know, survivors and families and do like all kinds of support programs and prevention services. So it's pretty, pretty incredible. Absolutely. What they do and, you know, work on.
Yeah, for sure. So, yeah. Well, what a dark note to you. But when it's like hopeful that at least someone is taking their pain and channeling it into helping other people.
Right. Yeah. Agreed. So.
Well, if you want to send us an email, you're welcome to do so at mountain mysteries.appollection. gmail.com. You can find us on Instagram at mountain mysteries.appollection. Find us on Facebook at mountain mysteries.
Tales from Appalachia. Find us on patreon at mountain mysteries. Nope, that's not it. Find us on patreon at patreon.com.
It's been a while since I said this. I know. Yeah, Haley, do you have a shout out this time? I do.
Give me a minute. I had to walk back in. Oh my gosh. It's loading.
I know, right? It's taking a sweet time. Bless her little heart. Yeah.
Yeah. She's really dry in here. She's precious though. She really is.
Yeah. She's a we're about halfway there. We're almost there. Almost there.
Oh, I click the button again and it send me back. Well, um, oh, oh, oh, we're getting closer. We're getting closer. Almost there.
Here we go. Hang on. Let me find locations. Oh, there we go.
Got this. I got it. Hang on. Let's go.
Garner, North Carolina. Ooh, that's outside of Charlotte, isn't it? Sure. I don't know.
Maybe. I just rolled in wherever it stops. What is it? We're sure.
All right. Well, we will plan to see you next week. I've got a crazy story for you all. Bye.
Bye.