BAD HENRY
THE MURDEROUS RAMPAGE OF
'THE TACO BELL STRANGLER'
by
Ron Chepesiuk
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
True Crime / Non-fiction
Publisher: WildBlue Press
Publication Date: July 9, 2023
Page count: 210 pages
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SYNOPSIS:
Henry Louis Wallace terrorized Charlotte, North Carolina, from May 1992 to March 1994. Wallace preyed on lower economic-class Black women between 17 and 35 years old. He knew most of his victims, some through his job at Taco Bell, and gained their trust with his friendly demeanor and gentle nature-concealing a monster fueled by drug abuse and rage against women.
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Carolyn Love MurderOn June 15, 1992, Love left her apartment and went to work. Bojangles was close, so she walked. At work, she asked her manager if she could change ones for quarters, which she planned to use at the laundromat after her shift ended. The manager agreed and Caroline left work, walking home.
On the way, she ran into her cousin Robert who offered to drive her home. Love accepted. Robert watched as she entered the apartment. Earlier that day, Wallace was at the apartment because his girlfriend, Sadie McKnight, was Love’s girlfriend and roommate. McKnight had cleaned the apartment. She had left her house key on the wall. When McKnight was not looking, Wallace took the key, made a copy, and put it back on the wall without McKnight noticing.
Later that day, Wallace was driving around when he decided to stop at his girlfriend’s apartment. When Love arrived home, she was surprised to see Wallace in her apartment, but she was not worried. After all, Wallace was her friend, her roommate’s boyfriend. He was harmless, or so she thought. He had let himself into her apartment using the key he had made from the key owned by girlfriend Sadie McKnight. Wallace said he was in the bathroom and would leave as soon as he came out. When Wallace came out of the bathroom, he went into the living room where Caroline was watching television.
Wallace came up to Love and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Love did not like it. She asked Wallace why he had kissed her. He did not really have a good answer. She told Wallace that if he promised not to do that again, she wouldn’t tell his girlfriend about it. Wallace blew up and attacked Love, violently putting her in a chokehold, which he would later describe to police as the “Boston choke.”
REVIEW:
4 stars!
A horrifically riveting tale of murder and the serial
killer who went undetected for far too long.
Bad Henry: The Murderous Rampage of the ‘Taco Bell Strangler’
is the latest true crime book by veteran author Ron Chepesiuk, and it is a
riveting and horrific tale of murder and the serial killer who went undetected
for far too long. The details of the murders are graphic and told from the
killer’s perspective, his confessions of the crimes, and readers will be
shocked by what he admits.
The amount of research that went into the writing of this
book is readily apparent. The number of reports, interviews, and transcripts
the author must have waded through is mind-boggling. Over 100 named individuals
(I lost count) are included in the work, all associated with the cases as
either a victim, family member, friend, law enforcement, government officials,
members of the court, and even public figures, almost all of whom weigh in on
one or more of the murders.
The events occurred over a couple of years, and there is
considerable overlap in the details leading up to each murder as Wallace
targets and grooms his prospective victims. Because of this overlap, Wallace’s
movements and thoughts were repeated at the time, and I had to pay particular
attention to the dates to maintain the chronology of events. Nevertheless, the
story was still easy to read, chilling, and incredibly compelling. The story
stayed with me when I wasn’t actively reading it, and I couldn’t wait to get
back to it to read further.
I recommend BAD HENRY: THE MURDEROUS RAMPAGE OF THE ‘TACO
BELL STRANGLER’ to readers of true crime or those who remember the case when it
happened.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ron Chepesiuk is an optioned screenwriter, documentary producer, and the award-winning author of more than 40 books. He is a former professor and head of the Archives at Winthrop University in South Carolina. He is a two-time Fulbright Scholar to Indonesia and Bangladesh and a former instructor in UCLA's Extension Journalism Department.
His articles, which number in the thousands, have appeared in such publications as FHM, USA Today, Black Enterprise, Woman's World, Modern Maturity, New York Times Syndicate, Toronto Star, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, among others.
His documentary on Frank Matthews, legendary drug Kingpin, which he produced and directed, won the Silver Doc award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival. Four of his screenplays are currently in development for feature movies, and four of his books have been optioned for movies. His script Death Fences was the grand winner of the Amsterdam, Holland-based 2019 New Visions International Film Festival.
As an expert in crime history, he is a consultant to the Gangland TV series and has been interviewed on numerous TV programs, including Discovery, NBC Dateline, History, Biography, ID, Reelz, Black Entertainment Television, Starz, and TV 1. As a journalist, Ron has reported from more than thirty-five countries, including Cuba, Northern Ireland, Colombia, Kenya, Hong Kong, and Nepal, and his 16, 000 plus interviews include such luminaries as Gerry Adams, Yasser Arafat, John Kerry, Evander Holyfield, Jimmy Carter, Andy McDow, Abbie Hoffman, a former president of Nicaragua, and three former presidents and two vice presidents of Colombia, South America.
Ron is also the radio host of CRIME BEAT Radio Show. The Crime Beat show has been on the air since January 2011 and has listeners in 160-plus countries. Guests have included Robert Kennedy, Jr., Henry Hill, Noam Chomsky, George Jung, Joe Piston (aka Donnie Brasco), F. Lee Bailey, and Chris Kyle, American sniper.
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