DeWitt Charles Henry

DeWitt Charles Henry was born around 1951 and adopted as an infant in Bakersfield, California, by Andrea and DeWitt Henry. Raised in a presumably stable household, little is publicly known about his upbringing or early life. By the time he committed mass murder in 1977, Henry had become a large, physically imposing man—standing 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighing approximately 230 pounds.

He worked for a time as a truck driver, though he was unemployed by the summer of 1977. Notably, Henry had previously worked as a bouncer at Uncle Albert's Lounge, the very bar he would later attack. Prior to the shooting, he had also been convicted of negligent homicide, though details about that case remain sparse.

On the night of July 23, 1977, DeWitt Henry entered Uncle Albert’s Lounge, a bar near Klamath Falls, Oregon, armed with a Colt AR-15 Sporter semi-automatic rifle. A former bouncer at the establishment, Henry reportedly became involved in a verbal dispute with a patron, Bill Ransom, over a bar tab. The argument escalated quickly, and Ransom is said to have struck Henry during the confrontation.

According to witnesses, Henry then turned to James Williamson, the bar’s dishwasher, and told him, “I always liked you – just get on out of here.” Williamson exited the building—and likely saved his own life. Moments later, Henry opened fire on the patrons inside the lounge. He killed six individuals, including Carrol Ann Seater, a pregnant woman. The victims were:

• Robert Dale Seater (Klamath Falls, OR)
• Carrol Ann Seater (Klamath Falls, OR)
• Michael Mortensen (Klamath Falls, OR)
• Gary Lee Anderson (Klamath Falls, OR)
• Andrew Walker (Medford, OR)
• James Trueman (Kodiak, Alaska)

After the killings, Henry engaged in a gunfight with two Oregon State Troopers, who responded to the scene. During the confrontation, Henry was wounded and arrested on the spot.

His trial was held two years later, in November 1979, at the Multnomah County Circuit Court. He entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental defect, a common defense in mass shooting cases. However, the jury rejected this argument and found him guilty on six counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder (for firing on the state troopers). Because Oregon had no death penalty at the time, Henry was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without parole.

As of 2002, Henry remained imprisoned at Oregon State Penitentiary. According to the Oregon Department of Corrections, by July 2025, he had been transferred to Snake River Correctional Institution, a medium-security facility. The corrections site listed him as 74 years old, standing 6 feet 5 inches tall, and weighing 459 pounds.

Despite the horrific nature of the crime and the passage of nearly five decades, DeWitt Henry remains incarcerated, serving out his life sentences for one of the deadliest bar shootings in Oregon's history.