Bio

Larry Dale Potts was born on August 4, 1938. He grew up in the United States. He was a white male. He struggled with addiction to prescription narcotics and alcohol.

Potts was married but later divorced before the incidents that brought attention to him. The divorce happened about a year before the murders he committed. This time in his life included significant hardships, contributing to his mental health struggles with depression.

Murder Story

On October 12, 1987, Larry Dale Potts entered Oke's Lounge in Lake County, Indiana. He was upset with his girlfriend, Sharon Oke, and they began to argue. Potts had a troubled past with Sharon, as he had previously hurt her in a violent incident. That night, he confronted Sharon at the bar and tried to start a fight with her estranged husband, Jerry Oke. When Jerry refused to engage, Potts pulled out a handgun and shot him three times.

When Sharon approached Potts, he shot her in the heart. During the chaos, two other patrons were injured. One man, John Smith, was shot in the leg, and another, Robert Davey, was also shot and later died from his injuries. Potts did not stop firing. He continued shooting, hitting several more people, and ended up firing a total of fourteen shots.

After the shooting, Potts went behind the bar, called the police, and waited for them to arrive. When questioned about the shooting, he claimed that the victims were all trying to attack him. He was arrested the same day. Potts was later convicted of two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. On October 6, 1988, he was sentenced to death, but in 1996, his sentence was changed to 210 years in prison.