The Story Of The Serial Killer Who Terrorized This North Carolina City Is Truly Frightening
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Robin Jarvis
Author
Between the years of 1992 and 1994, the City of Charlotte was home to a man who would become the city’s most prolific serial killer. Between May of 1992 and March of 1994, Henry Louis Wallace would take the lives of at least 10 innocent women. His under-the-radar reign of terror is something residents of The Queen City will never forget.
Once they realized the crimes were related, Wallace was arrested on March 13, 1994 — just four days after authorities issued a warning to residents of east Charlotte that a serial killer was on the loose.
He was raised by a single mother who worked long hours in the textile industry.
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After graduating high school, he worked a few jobs, spent some time in the U.S. Navy, and then began using drugs. He eventually fell into some trouble with the law in his hometown and moved to Charlotte around the start of 1992. In early 1990, he was questioned by police in Barnwell about the death of a young woman whose body was found in a nearby lake. He was never formally charged in that murder.
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Within months, he had strangled two women — leaving the body of the first one near some railroad tracks. The remains of the second Charlotte victim would be discovered nearly two years later in a wooded area. Oddly enough, the second victim was a friend of his girlfriend, and after he killed her, he went to the police station with the victim's sister to file a missing persons report.
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Soon, Wallace began working at a local Taco Bell. It was here he would make connections with nearly all his victims. Many were co-workers, employees, or friends of people he worked with. This fact alone earned him the name the Taco Bell Strangler. He was also commonly referred to as the Charlotte Strangler. But Wallace's crimes were much more personal. He also raped most of his victims.
His attempts to inject himself into the wake of the aftermath of many of the victims deaths or disappearances have been regarded as deplorable. After strangling one victim he had been know to have a relationship with, he reportedly later went to her funeral.
He was caught shoplifting. The authorities had not made a connection between the murders yet and he was released. The freedom was short-lived.
He confessed to killing 10 women in the Charlotte area and is now on death row in Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Knowing a serial killer had free reign over The Queen City for so long made residents uneasy for years to come. Since being sentenced to deathrow, Wallace has made more than one unsuccessful appeal to overturn his death sentence(s).
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