Who is Henry Eugene Hodges? Death row rapist and murderer cuts off penis after being denied food package
Warning: Graphic content. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers. Discretion is advised.
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: Death row inmate Henry Eugene Hodges used a hidden razor blade to cut off his penis after officials didn’t let him have a special food package he ordered, according to his attorney Kelley Henry. The attorney visited Hodges, 56, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Thursday, October 27, 2022, where he has been kept naked in 4-point and 6-point restraints for a week, reports Associated Press. Hodges reportedly became upset earlier in October and began to smear his feces around his cell after guards refused to let him have a special food package he ordered.
Hodges was denied the special food package as he only had a five-month clear conduct record. A six-month clear conduct record is required to receive special packages. Following this, he began smearing feces in his cell. Therefore, a guard allegedly decided to stop feeding him. Then, on October 7, he slit his wrists and cut off his penis with a razor. The attorney now plans to proceed with a complaint in state court alleging violations of Hodge’s constitutional rights. She said, “He needs competent mental health care. Surely the prison can find a place to put him where he is not a danger to himself or others and does not have to be tied down like an animal.”
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Prison officials have moved Hodges to the infirmary where he requested to be placed on suicide watch, Henry told Associated Press. That is when a “high-ranking correctional officer” reportedly told medical personnel that Hodges was merely manipulating them and further suggested that Hodges be put on suicide watch but remain inside his cell. "He is enduring ongoing psychiatric harm as a result of these conditions,” the attorney said and added that Hodges is also on a hunger strike.
Who is Henry Eugene Hodges?
Hodges was convicted of the May 1990 strangulation and robbery of Nashville phone repairman Ronald Bassett. According to court documents, Hodges “on occasion engaged in homosexual prostitution,” and propositioned Bassett as part of a plan to rob and kill him. A then-24-year-old Hodges then had his 15-year-old girlfriend Trina Brown follow him back to Bassett’s house on the evening of May 14, 1990. The 2000 criminal appeals court ruling states, "Upon entering the residence, Miss Brown observed the victim, alive, laying face down on the bed in his bedroom with a pillow over his head. The appellant had bound the victim’s feet together with duct tape and had handcuffed his hands. While the victim lay helplessly, the appellant and his girlfriend ransacked the house."
After obtaining the “personal identification number” of the victim’s automated teller card, the couple took a break, drank a Coke, and discussed whether to kill the victim. The appellant’s girlfriend told Hodges to kill Bassett so they could not be identified. The appellant then went into the bedroom and, ignoring the victim’s pleas not to kill him, strangled Bassett to death with a nylon rope. Brown testified that she heard Bassett moan and make a choking sound. She stated that it took about five minutes for the victim to die. In addition to this, Hodges received another life sentence in December 1992 after pleading guilty to the 1989 stabbing death of Inglewood nurse Barry McDonald, according to Murderpedia.