Man Convicted in 1977 Klamath Falls Mass Shooting Dies in Custody
The 75-year-old was serving six consecutive life sentences for killing six people outside a Klamath Falls restaurant on South Sixth Street.
Updated, 9:40 p.m.: Historical reports identify the restaurant by two names: Uncle Albert’s and Kitty’s Steak Pit. Additional research found conflicting references to the restaurant’s name, so the article has been updated to refer more generally to a Klamath Falls restaurant located at 5711 South 6th Street.
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Dewitt C. Henry, who was convicted of killing six people in a 1977 mass shooting outside a restaurant in Klamath Falls, died Saturday at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario.
COVER PHOTO: Dewitt C. Henry, who was serving six consecutive life sentences for the 1977 murders of six people in Klamath Falls, died July 25 at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario. Photo courtesy of the Oregon Department of Corrections.
The Oregon Department of Corrections said Henry died the morning of July 25 at the prison. He was 75 years old.
Oregon State Police were notified, as is standard following an in-custody death. The state medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
Henry entered state custody from Klamath County on Dec. 19, 1979, and was serving a life sentence, according to DOC. Historical accounts show he was sentenced to six consecutive life terms.
Six People Killed in 1977 Shooting
Henry was 26 when he opened fire with a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle outside a restaurant at 5711 South 6th Street on July 23, 1977.
The six people killed were Robert and Carrol Seater, Michael Mortensen and Gary Anderson, all of Klamath Falls; Andrew Walker of Medford; and James Trueman of Kodiak, Alaska.
Henry was later convicted in Multnomah County Circuit Court of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder. Jurors rejected the defense’s argument that he suffered from a mental defect at the time of the shooting.
He was sentenced to six consecutive life terms. Henry was not eligible for a death sentence because Oregon did not have capital punishment at the time of the shooting. Oregon voters abolished the death penalty in 1964 and did not reinstate it until November 1978 through a ballot measure.
The attack remained Oregon’s deadliest mass shooting for 38 years. In 2015, a gunman killed nine people at Umpqua Community College near Roseburg before dying by suicide after exchanging gunfire with law enforcement.
Henry had spent more than 46 years in state custody at the time of his death.
