It was with reluctance that Beverly Henderson departed her Washburn, Texas, home, approximately twenty miles east of Amarillo in the Texas panhandle, on the morning of May 11, 1991. Along with her daughter and granddaughter, she left to spend a week with relatives in Austin, over four-hundred miles away.

Beverly was concerned about her husband, Bill, a sixty-five-year-old retired banker. He had a number of health issues including heart problems and emphysema. Bill was not up to going to Austin with his family, but he assured them he would be fine at home by himself. Plenty of other family members lived in the Washburn area and assured Beverly they would check regularly on Bill.

Five days later, Bill’s son Garry discovered his father’s lifeless body lying in his bedroom. He initially believed his dad had suffered a fatal heart attack, but he soon learned the horror.

Bill Henderson had not succumbed to frail health; his death was caused by another. He had been brutally murdered, strangled and beaten to death.

Bill Henderson

Bill stayed in regular contact with his family for three days. On May 15, however, his loved ones grew concerned after repeated calls to his home were met with the busy signal. When Garry, his brother-in-law Frank Pohlmeier, and his stepdaughter Sheri arrived at the home the following day, they were surprised to find Bill’s pickup was not parked in the driveway.

Inside the home, the telephone was off the hook. Their concern escalated as the trio began searching the home. In the hallway to the bedroom, Garry found his dad’s broken glasses on the floor; farther down the hallway lay a shattered framed family picture.

Then, in the bedroom, Garry found his dad lying lifeless on the floor.

Garry Henderson

Bill’s Son

Bill’s shirt and chest were covered in blood. An autopsy determined he had been killed eight-to-ten hours before he was found, having been strangled and beaten to death with an electric iron. Despite his frail health, Bill had fought ferociously for his life.

Robbery appeared to be the motive. Along with his pickup, Bill’s wallet was missing.

Bill Is Beaten To Death

The only forensic evidence found was a bloody palm print on an art tablet. The print was not matched to any of Bill’s family or friends or to any of those in the police files.

Palm Print Found

Five days later, on May 21, a man walking along Interstate 40, approximately one-hundred-ten miles east of Washburn, found Bill’s wallet along the side of the road. All of his important cards and information was intact; the only thing missing was the money. It is not known how much money Bill had in his wallet when he was killed.

The following day, Bill’s pickup was found abandoned in Hazel Crest, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, more than one-thousand miles away. A search of the vehicle yielded nothing leading to a suspect.

Investigators, however, soon found that a man driving Bill’s vehicle had picked up two hitchhikers. A clerk at a truck stop near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, two-hundred-sixty-five miles east of Washburn, Texas, told them of an odd encounter with two young men on May 16, the day Bill’s body was found.

That morning, three young men had entered the truck stop. As one of them went to use a payphone, the other two men nervously approached the attendant and said they were hitchhikers who had been picked up by the third man. They told him they believed the man using the payphone had stolen the truck.

The hitchhikers gave the clerk the vehicle’s license plate number and insisted that he call the police. The clerk did so after the man using the payphone went to the restroom. The police, however, had no report of the vehicle’s being stolen.

After browsing through the truck stop and buying a few small items, the third man, alone, left fifteen minutes later. The two hitchhikers stayed, still insisting the driver had done something sinister. They themselves then called 911, but they too were told the vehicle had not been reported as stolen. The young men then left the truck stop, having not given their names.

At the time, Bill Henderson’s family had not discovered the crime; thus, the truck had not yet been reported as stolen.

The hitchhikers were located nine months later and, under hypnosis, provided additional details that helped authorities develop a composite drawing of the suspected killer of Bill Henderson. It would take, however, another fourteen years before investigators received the break they needed.

A Composite Of Bill’s Killer

The original investigators believed the call made by the suspect at the truck stop was to a shelter. In 2005, however, when a new team of detectives were assigned the case, they determined the call was instead made to a residence.

The occupant, a woman, told investigators that the man who had called her was named Larry. He had briefly been her roommate in 1991, the year Bill Henderson was murdered. She could not recall his last name and only remembered that he was from a town in New York with a strange name beginning with the letter “S.”

Investigators determined the man to be thirty-eight-year-old Larry Tutt, a transient native of Skaneateles, New York. His palm print was matched to that found on the tablet at the Henderson home.

Larry Tutt

Tutt was already incarcerated, serving a thirteen year sentence in Ohio on escape and robbery charges. Following the completion of that sentence, he was scheduled to serve a twenty-five-year-to-life sentence for murder and a one-year sentence for arson in New York.

Tutt apparently had a fondness for killing men named Bill.

Already Behind Bars

Tutt and Billie Freitag were childhood friends who had grown up in Skaneateles, New York, named for and located on the shores of Skaneateles Lake, one of the Finger Lakes in the central part of the state.

The twenty-nine-year-old Billie died in a December 1998 fire at his farmhouse which was initially thought to be an accident. Tutt was living with him at the time. He told investigators he had put Billie to bed early that morning after an evening of drinking, and that a drunken Billie had knocked over a lighted candle next to his bed, starting the fire.

Authorities, however, became suspicious after learning Tutt had used Billie’s identity when he was arrested five weeks earlier in New Mexico after attempting to smuggle one-hundred-eight pounds of marijuana into the United States from Mexico. The arrest report listed the name Billie Freitag but contained a picture of Larry Tutt. Billie had lent Tutt his license because Tutt said he would use it to get a job; he instead used it to steal Billie’s identity.

At Billie’ request, his mother flew to New Mexico. Falsely saying Tutt was her son Billie, she signed a $10,000 bail bond granting his release.

Five weeks later Billie was killed in the fire. Investigators found an accelerant had been used and that the smoke alarms and a carbon monoxide detector had been removed from the home. Under questioning, Tutt admitted intentionally starting the fire that killed his childhood friend.

Tutt probably thought the New Mexico drug charges against him would be dismissed if the real Billie Freitag were dead because he was charged under his friend’s name. Investigators, however, discovered the identity theft.

Billie Freitag

For the murder of Billie Freitag, Larry Tutt was sentenced to the maximum penalty of twenty-five-years-to-life in state prison. He was also convicted of identity theft and fined $5,000.

After he was connected to the murder of Bill Henderson, Tutt accepted a plea deal of forty-five years in prison.

In 2014, Tutt completed his sentence for robbery in Ohio and began serving his sentence in New York. He is currently incarcerated at the Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, New York. He will be eligible for parole in August 2039. Should he be granted parole, he will be sent to Texas to serve the forty-five-year sentence for the murder of Bill Henderson.

Tutt is being investigated for possible involvement in several other murders. Authorities believe he may be a serial killer.

Is Tutt A Serial Killer?

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59711185/e.-henderson

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/164607869/william-h_-frietag

SOURCES
• Amarillo Globe-News
• Brownwood Bulletin
• KFDA News Channel 10 CBS Affiliate
• My Plainview
• Poughkeepsie Journal
• Syracuse Post-Standard
• Unsolved Mysteries