b'change the tourism landscape of the Coastalon a live tour of the new resort and announcedthat resulted from rafts going airborne after Bend, and that would serve as the anchor of athat it would be open in two weeksto thecrestingtherides55-foot,secondhill.The major new resort development on the island shock of every employee on site, none of whomcover-up conspiracy, allegedly orchestrated by but by the time it opened in 2015, it was late.had any notice of the announcement, and all ofHenry and carried out by park manager, Tyler Very late. whom knew it was an impossible, ridiculousMiles, involved the alteration and destruction Asconstructiondraggedon,andonepromise. The park was nowhere close to beingof rider injury reports, the coercion and in-promisedopeningdateafteranotherwasready, and ultimately half of the park openedtimidation of park staff, including lifeguards missed, some people who knew Jeff and his his- in the middle of the summer. and medical personnel, into changing incident tory in the businessgood and badwere notTherewereepisodesofSchlitterbahnreports, lying to police and state investigators, particularly worried about whether the parkstaff headhunting workers out of the islandsand intentionally ignoring warnings by certi-would open. They knew Henry as an eccentricmost popular establishments, at a time whenfied engineers and maintenance staff about the genius who always over-promised on deliveryseasonal employees were in short supply, anddangers of Verrckt. Before the alleged con-dates, but never disappointed on product andhorrorstoriestoldbyworkersattheparkspiracy was discovered, Henry and Schlitter-visitorexperience.Hisconservative-mindedspread like a windblown grass fire, with Jeffbahn paid a reported $19.7 million civil settle-local partners, however, led by developer andHenry ultimately at the center of all of them.ment to Caleb Schwabs family.apartment owner Willard Hammonds, pulledBefore long, the ugliest rumors of drug use,In the winter of 2017, four months after their reported $11 million investment out ofheavy drinking and other nefarious activity byCalebs death, hundreds of daily incident re-the Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi partnershipHenry, personally, bled into the fabric of islandportsfromSchlitterbahnKansasCitywere after Henry missed yet another promised com- society, although his defenders chalked thosediscovered to exist, originally denied by Miles pletion date. stories up to hater-ism. when questioned by Kansas City (KS) police At what point is eccentric behavior con- JustasHenryhadmadeinternationaldetectives the day of the incident. The Daily sidered erratic behavior? The answer is in thenews, while scoring a Travel Channel realtyOps reports, which Miles had packed up and eye of the observer. As Henry became more fa- series based on Verrckt, his most outrageousdriven from Kansas to New Braunfels in No-miliar to islanders, and his reputation spreadprofessional accomplishment, his personal lifevember 2016, revealed eleven incidents of seri-SETTREE CLAIMED THAT SHE SUFFERED HORRIFIC ASSAULTS AT THE HAND OF HENRY, FUELED BY OUT-OF-CONTROL ALCOHOL AND DRUG USE, AND THAT OVER THEIR FIVE-YEAR MARRIAGE, HE HAD ASSAULTED, BATTERED, BEAT AND TORMENTED HER ON A REGULAR BASIS.through the restaurants and taverns frequent- was starting its downward spiral. He paid aous injuries on Verrckt over its three seasons edbySchlitterbahnemployeesandcontrac- divorce settlement to his second ex-wife, Lou- in operation, a fact also originally denied to tors, it was hard to find anyone who didntise Settree, of a reported $6.7 million. In herpolice by Miles. The information in the reports have a strong opinion about him, one way or2013 court filing, Settree claimed that she suf- led to a lengthy list of witnesses, victims, and the other. Kind of like the Cowboysfootballfered horrific assaults at the hand of Henry,possible conspirators in Schlitterbahns ongo-fans either love em or hate em, but no onefueled by out-of-control alcohol and drug use,ing effort to conceal the exact type of injuries, lacks an opinion. and that over their five-year marriage, he hadcaused by the exact malfunction, that resulted By the summer of 2014, just as Jeff Hen- assaulted, battered, beat and tormented herin the decapitation death of Caleb Schwab.ryeclipsedthesummitofhisgreatest,andon a regular basis. Settree stated that HenrysTheinvestigationbytheKansasAttor-mosttumultuousprofessionalaccomplish- abusive treatment of her was, atrocious andney Generals office was concluded by March mentVerrckt in Kansas Cityhe was beingutterly intolerable in a civilized community. 2018, and felony indictments were delivered both cursed and defended at high volume byA man who lived like jet fuel ran throughby a grand jury against Jeff Henry, his lead many interested parties in Corpus Christi. Athis veins, capable of extreme genius and ex- designerJohnSchooley,parkmanagerTyler least a contractor or two were unhappy abouttreme ugliness on any given day, was in no wayMiles, as well as Schlitterbahn Kansas City and not being paid on time, or at all. More than aequipped to deal with the stresses common toHenry & Sons Construction. Henry was taken few very confused job aspirants showed up atall our lives, like the death of elderly parents.into custody in South Padre Island, in Cameron Schlitterbahn ready to work as lifeguards butThe backbone of Schlitterbahn and patriarchsCounty, and extradited to Kansas where he was were instead handed hardhats and shovels andof one of Texas most successful family busi- arraigned and released on $500,000 bail. On told to start digging. Henrys workers wouldnesses, died within a year of each other, BobApril 6, having arrived home to Texas on one take days or weeks building a design feature,Henry in October 2016, and his widow Billyeof his private planes, and less than 24 hours af-at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars,in 2017. ter being released from the Wyandotte County only to be told to tear it down and start overAfter the horrifying, decapitation death of(KS) Jail, police were called at 2 a.m. to a house using a different plan. 10-year-old Caleb Schwab on Verrckt in Au- on Henrys New Braunfels ranch where Terri One of the most cringeworthy episodes ofgust 2016, an elaborate cover-up policy was de- Lange was living with her son, C. J. Conn, who Jeff Henrys eccentricity occurred in spring ofscribed to have been in place at Schlitterbahnwas employed by Henry but in jail for a proba-2015 when he took KIII-TV anchor, Joe Gazin,Kansas Citya concerted effort to hide injuriestion violation.34 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFall 2018 TheCoastalBend.com92 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFEATURED: The Stories that Mattered TheCoastalBend.com'