The Taco Bell Strangler : Henry Louis Wallace

Season 23 : No Theme 

Henry Louis Wallace may have had one of the worst criminal nicknames, but his crimes were still horrific. He terrorized young women in the Charlotte area for two years.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Not long ago, I made a list of ten criminals
with the worst nicknames, like the grocery bag Killer or
the Giggler. On the list was the Taco bell Strangler,
and though his nickname is terrible, his crimes were horrific.
He terrorized the city of Charlotte, North Carolina for two
years before finally being brought to justice. This is monsters.

(00:47):
Before we begin, I just want to make sure you
know that my other show, Sinister, is back up and
there are three episodes a week. They're dark stories from history,
and if you like this show, you'll probably like that one.
Give it a shot. There are links in the description. Thanks.
Henry Lewis Wallace was born on November fourth, nineteen sixty five,

(01:08):
in Barnwell, South Carolina, to Lottie May Wallace. His father,
a married school teacher, abandoned the family upon learning of
Lottie's pregnancy. That absence created a fundamental void in his
early development. The small, battered home he shared with his
older sister, Yvaughn, his mother and great grandmother, lacked basic

(01:30):
amenities like indoor plumbing and electricity. The family struggled financially
throughout Henry's formative years, even though his mother worked tirelessly
at a local textile mill. That economic hardship shaped many
aspects of his childhood experience and contributed to the household's
constant tension. While other children in Barnwell enjoyed relatively normal upbringings,

(01:55):
Henry's early life was marked by material deprivation and emotional
turbulace that would later surface in disturbing ways. Lottie's relationship
with her son was complex and frequently troubled. Working long
hours at the textile mill to support her family, she
had little patience or emotional energy left for her children.

(02:16):
Many accounts describe her as an exceedingly harsh disciplinarian who
employed both psychological and physical punishment. She constantly criticized Henry
for even minor mistakes, creating an environment where he could
rarely meet her standards. She would call Henry stupid, dumb,
or a son of a bitch, sometimes even telling him
she wished he was never born. In perhaps one of

(02:39):
the most disturbing parenting practices, when Lottie felt her children
needed discipline but was too exhausted to administer it herself,
she would make Henry and his sister fetch switches. From
the yard and then whip each other. That unusual and
traumatic punishment method likely contributed to his later issues with
power and control. As Henry outgrew his clothes, his mother

(03:02):
would give him his sister's hand me downs to wear,
an unusual practice that may have contributed to confusion and
ridicule in a small town where everyone knew each other's business.
A psychologist would later testify quote. Throughout his entire life,
Henry paid for the wrongs that had been done to
his mother by the men in her life. She made

(03:23):
him pay through a process of control, abuse, and intimidation.
It started during the earliest stage of his development and
continued through his adult years. The household was additionally strained
by constant arguments between Lottie and her own mother, creating
a multi generational cycle of conflict. Surprisingly given his troubled

(03:45):
home life, Henry managed to create a positive social identity
at Barnwell High School. In contrast to his home environment.
He became well liked among his peers. He was elected
to the student council, and when his mother prohibited him
from play football, he joined the cheerleading squad instead. In
his senior year, he was even put in charge of

(04:06):
driving a school bus to take some kids to and
from school. After graduating in nineteen eighty three, Henry briefly
pursued higher education at South Carolina State College and later
at a technical college, though he completed only one semester
at each institution. Instead, he seemed more drawn to his
part time work as a disc jockey at a local

(04:28):
Barnwell radio station. Many townspeople knew him for a seemingly
positive spirit and the kindness he showed around town. However,
that promising career path was cut short when he was
fired after stealing CDs. Behind the veneer of normalcy, troubling
behaviors were already emerging. According to some accounts, Henry witnessed

(04:50):
a gang rape at age eight, which he later claimed
triggered violent fantasies about dominating women. By sixteen, those fantasies
had manifested hi behavior when he allegedly attempted to sexually
assault a friend's younger sister. He would later tell an
investigator that he started reading his mother's detective novels that

(05:10):
would usually include a victim that was a woman who
was stalked and murdered. Psychologists believe he picked up a
lot of ideas from those stories. With nothing left to
keep him in barn Well, Henry enlisted in the U. S.
Navy at the age of twenty. Military service initially appeared
to provide the structure and direction his life had previously lacked.

(05:32):
By most accounts, Henry performed well in his duties, or
receiving positive evaluations from his superiors. One report read quote,
Henry was described as an outstanding seaman who willingly followed
all orders given to him and accomplished his assigned tasks
in a timely manner. He was noted that his knowledge
level was higher than expected of a seaman. Through his

(05:55):
career in the Navy, Henry would serve on the USS
Nimics In the US S Life sal He was promoted
up to an E four or Petty Officer third Class,
but was demoted to E three or cman after being
charged with burglary. That same year, Henry married his high
school sweetheart, Moretta Brabham. That union represented more than just

(06:17):
a marriage. It thrust him into the role of stepfather
to Moretta's daughter. For a brief moment, it seemed Henry
might be establishing a stable adult life far removed from
his difficult childhood. Unfortunately, that period of a paranormalcy proved
sure lived. His marriage quickly deteriorated and ended after just

(06:38):
a few years. The relationship's failure marked yet another unsuccessful
attempt at building a conventional life. Beneath the surface of
Henry's military career, troubling behaviors began to emerge. In nineteen
eighty seven, while stationed in Seattle, Washington, he allegedly committed
his first sexual assault. His criminal acts activities soon expanded

(07:01):
beyond that. Though military officials discovered Henry had been involved
in a series of burglaries around the Seattle metropolitan area.
Those were in isolated incidents, but rather the beginning of
a pattern that would continue throughout his time in Washington.
In January of nineteen eighty eight, authorities arrested Henry for
breaking into a hardware store. Several months later, in June,

(07:25):
he pleaded guilty to second degree burglary and received a
relatively light sentence two years of supervised probation. Yet Henry
demonstrated little respect for the legal systems leniency. According to
his probation officer, Henry routinely skipped mandatory meetings concurrent with

(07:46):
his escalating criminal behavior, Henry developed a severe substance abuse problem.
Shortly after his marriage, he began using various drugs, ultimately
becoming addicted to crack cocaine. His growing dependence on the
highly addictive substance necessitated a steady stream of money, pushing
him deeper into criminal activities to fund his habit. His

(08:08):
burglary spree continued unabated. In February of nineteen ninety one,
Henry broke into two places with personal significance, his former
high school and the radio station where he had once
worked as a DJ. After stealing video and recording equipment
from those locations, police caught him attempting to pon the items.

(08:30):
The following year brought another arrest for breaking and entering. Remarkably,
despite his criminal record, Henry's military service record remained sufficiently positive,
so much so that he received an honorable discharge from
the Navy when his criminal activities finally forced his separation
from the service around nineteen ninety Upon his discharge, Henry

(08:51):
returned to South Carolina. His life continued its downward spiral
as his wife left him, forcing him to move back
in with his mother and sister, who had relocated to
the Charlotte Mecklenburg area. That period marked a critical juncture
in Henry's life, as he struggled with increasingly severe drug addiction,
unstable employment at various restaurants, growing financial pressures, and deteriorating

(09:15):
personal relationships. Throughout that time, Henry managed to keep his
drug problem hidden from his family, and they would only
learn of his addiction shortly before his eventual arrest for murderer.
That combination of addiction, financial depression, and psychological issues created
the perfect storm that would soon erupt into a series
of brutal murders across Charlotte, transforming Henry Lewis Wallace into

(09:39):
the notorious Taco Bell Strangler. After his marriage ended, Henry
tried to date a woman named Tashonda Bethea. Their families
had known each other for most of their lives, though
Tashonda was seven years younger than Henry. He used his
mother's car and offered her a ride as a means
of spending time with her, and they became He came close.

(10:01):
One evening they did kiss, but eighteen year old to
Shonda declined to go any further with Henry. Henry backed off,
but inside he was angry, and he quietly planned to
get revenge. In March of nineteen ninety, Henry sought to
Shonda walking to a high school baseball game and asked
her if she wanted to ride. He then drove her
out to a wooded area, where he sexually assaulted and

(10:24):
attempted to strangle her. When she came to, he tried
to strangle her again, but then slashed her throat and
wrists with a box cutter. After that, Henry dumped her
body in a lake, where it remained undiscovered for several weeks.
The autopsy revealed water in her lungs, which indicated that
she was still alive when she went into the water.

(10:46):
Her parents filed a missing person's report, and multiple people
said they saw the young woman with Henry that day.
Although police questioned him about her disappearance and death, they
never formally charged him with the crime. They had searched
his car, but couldn't find any evidence, as Henry had
thoroughly cleaned it after the murder. The day that Tashonda's

(11:08):
body was found, the mother of a sixteen year old
in Barnwell filed a report with the police. Artha Brown
had told her mother that Henry Wallace had held a
gun to her head and tried to sexually assault her
in a hotel room days earlier. She said she wouldn't
stop screaming, so Henry ended up stopping his attack and
took her home. Henry was arrested and held for eight

(11:31):
days before being released without being charged. At the beginning
of nineteen ninety one, Henry was questioned in two more
sexual assault cases. One was a woman who worked at
a doctor's office, and the other a fourteen year old.
He wasn't charged in either case. After a short stint
in county jail for burglary, he decided he needed a

(11:53):
change of scenery and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, with
his mother and sister. Relocating to Charlotte, Henry's violent tendencies
resurfaced in May of nineteen ninety two when he picked
up Sharon Nance, a thirty three year old woman with
a history of drug dealing and sex work. When she
requested payment for her services, Henry beat her to death

(12:15):
and left her body next to the railroad tracks near
the fifty eight hundred block of Rozales Ferry Road. Her
body was found a week later, just one month afterward.
In June of nineteen ninety two, Henry claimed his third victim,
twenty year old Carolyn Love. She was not just any victim,
though Carolyn was his girlfriend's roommate and the women worked

(12:38):
together at bo Jangles restaurant. Henry had gone to his
girlfriend's apartment and was there alone when Carolyn arrived home.
She wasn't worried because she knew Henry, but soon he
attacked her and put her into a choke hold. Then
he dragged her into the bedroom and sexually assaulted her
before strangling her to death. He wrapped her body in

(12:59):
sheets and dragged her out to his car, then dumped
her body in the woods like a true sociopath. After
murdering her, Henry joined his girlfriend and her sister and
filing a missing person's report. Her body wouldn't be discovered
until March of nineteen ninety four, nearly two years after
her murder. The connection to fast food restaurants, especially Taco Bell,

(13:21):
became a defining characteristic of Henry's murders. He had a
difficult time maintaining a job and worked at a variety
of fast food restaurants. Those establishments would be where he
found a number of his victims, because, unlike many serial killers,
Henry only killed women he knew personally. It was his
employment as a manager at a local taco bell that

(13:43):
ended up giving him his nickname. As he worked there
the longest. Throughout nineteen ninety three, Henry's killing frequency increased dramatically.
On February nineteenth, he killed his first coworker from Taco Bell.
Twenty year old SHAWNA. Hawk was a college student who
worked at the Taco Bell where Henry was her supervisor.

(14:04):
The two had become friends and were hanging out one
evening watching television when Henry later described quote suddenly getting
that feeling. He forced Shauna into the bedroom and sexually
assaulted her. Then he forced her into the bathroom, where
he choked her out. In the bathroom, he filled the
bathtub with water and placed her in to wash any

(14:25):
fibers off her body. Then he pushed her head under
the water until she was dead. She was found the
next day by friends in an act of extraordinary callousness.
He subsequently attended her funeral. Her murder would go unsolved
for a year, during which time her mother wrote a
letter to the killer that was published in the media.

(14:46):
It read quote, dear killer, I am the mother of
Shawna Denise Hawk. I am writing to you because you
murdered my only daughter in our home on February nineteenth,
nineteen ninety three, between the hours of one PM and five.
It is so hard to believe that an entire year
has gone by since that horrible Friday evening when Shawna's

(15:07):
dead body was discovered in the bathtub where you put her.
I do not hate you. What purpose would that serve?
I do want you to come forth and confess to
the horrible atrocity you have committed. D Sumpter. His next
victim came four months after he had killed shawn on
June twenty second. That was when he sexually assaulted and

(15:29):
strangled twenty four year old Audrey Spain, who worked with
Henry as the manager at a different taco bell. His
attack of Audrey was not just about the sexual assault, though.
He also wanted her to open the safe at the
restaurant because he believed she had the code. He went
to her apartment and the two smoked a joint and
talked for a little while before Henry jumped up and

(15:50):
put Audrey in a choke hold. He then threw her
to the floor and demanded the safe code. Unfortunately, Audrey
also didn't know the code, so Henry dragged her into
the bedroom where he sexually assaulted her. Then he used
some clothing to strangle her to death. Then he laid
her on the bed and found some of her ex
boyfriend's clothing and placed them near the bed. He pulled

(16:13):
some of Audrey's pubic hairs and put them in her
ex boyfriend's clothes to make it look like he had
been the attacker. He turned the ac on to keep
her body from decomposing too quickly, and even returned to
her apartment to make some phone calls to make it
seem like she had still been alive. Then, after not
showing up at work two days in a row, her
boss called and even went to her apartment, but got

(16:35):
no answer. She called the police, who also knocked but
got no answer. It was a few days later that
the apartment maintenance finally entered the unit and found the body.
On August tenth, nineteen ninety three, Henry sexually assaulted and
murdered Valencia Jumper, a twenty one year old college student
from South Carolina who was friends with his sister. After

(16:58):
strangling her, Henry set fire to her body in an
attempt to make it look like she had died in
an accidental fire. Once again, he attended the victim's funeral,
even sending condolences to her family. Of course, the medical
examiner found no suit in Valencia's airway, but he still
listed her death as accidental, so her death was not

(17:19):
investigated further. September brought yet another murder, as Henry attacked
and Michelle's stints in a twenty year old college student
and former Taco Bell colleague. In a particularly horrific twist,
he sexually assaulted and murdered Michelle in front of her
oldest son. Henry left Michelle dead on the floor with
her children still in the apartment. The following day, a

(17:42):
friend stopped by and found the body, with the two
young boys fending for themselves. By the beginning of nineteen
ninety four, Henry must have believed he would never get caught,
and his killings became more frequent. On February twentieth, he
raped and strangled twenty five year old Vanessa mac whose
sister worked with Henry at Taco Bell. He tried to

(18:03):
have a sexual relationship with her previously, but she turned
him down. Then she got pregnant and moved away for
a while, but when she moved back, they reunited. One night,
Henry was at Vanessa's apartment when he began strangling her
and asked her how much money she had in the bank.
He demanded her bank card and pen, which she gave
to Henry. Then he sexually assaulted her before strangling her

(18:27):
to death. Her four month old baby was in the apartment,
and Henry would tell the authorities that he sat with
the child until they fell asleep and then left. He
tried to use her bank card at three different ATMs,
but the pin she gave him was fake. He made
sure to keep his head down so the camera wouldn't
see his face. The following morning, a relative found Vanessa's

(18:49):
body in her apartment. March of nineteen ninety four became
the deadliest month in his murderous timeline. On March eighth,
Henry killed two women at the same apartment complex in
a single day. First, Henry sexually assaulted and strangled twenty
four year old Betty Jane Bocham, who was a coworker
of his girlfriend at the local Bojangles restaurant. When he left,

(19:13):
he stole Betty's car. Then later the same day, Henry
returned to the apartment complex where he sexually assaulted and
strangled eighteen year old Brandy Henderson. She was the girlfriend
of one of Henry's best friends, yeah great friend. Henry
strangled Brandy while she held her ten month old baby.

(19:34):
Then he tried to quiet the screaming child with a bottle.
When the baby continued crying, he attempted to strangle him
with a towel. Fortunately, the child survived. Charlotte's police chief
didn't recognize that they were dealing with a serial killer
until early March of nineteen ninety four, after three young
black women were murdered within four days. By then, Henry

(19:58):
had already claimed most of his The investigation suffered from
a lack of information sharing among detectives, who rarely discussed
cases with each other. That siloed approach meant obvious connections
were missed. Most victims were strangled in their homes with
no signs of forced entry, indicating they trusted their killer.

(20:20):
He wasn't until March twelfth, and investigators all shared notes
and realized that some of the victims knew each other,
and they finally started realizing that every woman had some
connection with Henry Wallace. They had either worked with him
or his girlfriend, or had dated one of his friends.
Then they found Betty Bocham's car and they lifted a
palm print from the trunk lid, which came back as

(20:42):
a match for Henry. Unfortunately, the police would not be
able to arrest Henry soon enough, and he was able
to kill one last time. On March twelfth, nineteen ninety four,
Henry claimed his final victim, thirty five year old Deborah
and slaughter, another who had worked with his girlfriend. She

(21:03):
fought back fiercely as Henry sexually assaulted, strangled, and stabbed
her thirty eight times. Henry took forty dollars from Deborah,
and after killing her, he went out and bought crack.
Then he went back to her apartment and smoked it
in her bathroom. He hadn't slept in three days and
was in rough shape when he left. He was paranoid

(21:24):
and thought the police were following him when he went
to a friend's house. On March thirteenth, nineteen ninety four,
police arrested Henry hiding in the bathroom at his friend's home.
During a twelve hour interrogation, he confessed to murdering ten
women in Charlotte, plus's earlier victim in South Carolina. His
devastating timeline of violence had finally come to an end,

(21:47):
leaving behind a city in shock and multiple families forever changed.
The police were harshly criticized for taking so long to
connect the cases and stop Henry's killing spray. Indeed, the
Charlotte Police Department faced significant resource constraints. The department was
severely understaffed, with about six homicide detectives handling a record

(22:09):
breaking number of murders. In nineteen ninety three, Charlotte Mecklenburg
set an all time high of one hundred and thirty
two homicides. Following Henry's arrest, the department implemented crucial reforms,
including adding more staff to the homicide unit, establishing mandatory
regular meetings for homicide detectives to discuss cases, creating a

(22:31):
crime analysis unit to identify patterns, and developing better protocols
for victim family interactions. The Charlotte Police ultimately apologized for
not connecting the murder sooner, yet maintained the varied nature
of the cases threw them off Henry's trial. Henry's trial
finally began in September of nineteen ninety six, after two

(22:53):
years of delays involving venue selection, DNA evidence disputes, and
jury selection complications. In opening statements, prosecutor Marsha good Now
pursued the death penalty, while defense attorney Isabelle Day requested
life imprisonment, arguing Henry suffered from mental illness. Day insisted
the murders weren't first degree because they lacked premeditation and deliberation.

(23:17):
Psychologist Fai Salton testified that Henry had endured lifelong physical
and mental abuse from his mother, resulting in severe mental
illness at the time of the killings. She advocated for
life imprisonment without parole instead of execution. Contradicting that assessment,
FBI profiler Robert Wrestler described Henry as disorganized yet calculated,

(23:39):
saying quote, if he elected to become a serial killer,
he was going about it the wrong way. Mister Wallace
always seemed to take one step forward and two steps back.
On January seventh, nineteen ninety seven, the jury found Henry
guilty of nine counts of first degree murder. His conviction
included eight counts of first degree rape, count of second

(24:00):
degree rape, multiple sexual offense charges, and five counts of
robbery with a dangerous weapon. Henry Wallace received nine death sentences,
plus multiple consecutive life sentences and forty year terms for
his additional crimes, and is currently still on death row
in Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. Though seemingly charming

(24:22):
and helpful, Henry exploited personal relationships to commit unimaginable acts
of violence against women who trusted him. His methodical approach
building connections through workplace environments before targeting victims demonstrates the
calculated nature that made him particularly dangerous. Arguably, Henry's crimes
reveal as much about systematic failures as they do about

(24:45):
his own depravity. Law enforcement missed critical connections between murders
for nearly two years while bodies of young black women
accumulated across Charlotte. Their deaths might have been prevented had
detectives communicated effect lee or recognize the pattern linking victims
to Henry's employment at Taco Bell. At the end of

(25:06):
the day, it's another story of a charming monster gaining
trust and taking life. Fortunately, Henry was finally Causets claimed
he was planning to move back to his hometown, where
he could have continued to go unnoticed for years. Instead,
he was locked up for good. If you're the victim
of domestic abuse, please reach out to someone for help.

(25:28):
Please talk to your local shelter, Call the National Domestic
Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred seven nine nine safe
that's one eight hundred seven ninety nine seven two three three,
or you can go to the hotline dot org to
chat with someone online. If you're having feelings of harming
yourself or someone else, or even just need someone to
talk to, please contact your local mental health facility call

(25:50):
nine one one, or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline
by simply dialing nine eight eight in the United States.
They're available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week,
and we'll talk to you about any mental health issue
you might be facing. If you're a member of the
LGBTQ plus community and suffering from discrimination, depression, or are
in need of any support, please contact the LGBT National

(26:12):
Hotline at one eight eight eight eight four three four
five six four, or go to LGBT hootline dot org.
Thanks so much for letting me tell you this story.
If you're a fan of true crime, you can subscribe
to this show so you don't miss an episode. My
other show, Somewhere Sinister is no longer getting new episodes,
but you can check it out if you like interesting

(26:32):
stories from history that aren't necessarily true crime, but true
crime adjacent. It's available anywhere that you listen to podcasts.
You can also check out my personal vlog, Giles with
a Jay, which is sporadically updated with stuff about my
personal life, travel and music. It's available on YouTube. If
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(26:53):
at thisismonsters dot com. A link is in the description.
Thanks again, and be safe.