A “gay” Tennessee death row inmate has cut off his own penis with a razor blade and broken glass in his prison cell after he was denied a special food package by prison guards who stopped feeding the inmate because he smeared feces in his cell.
Henry Eugene Hodges, 56, began the shocking act of self-harm at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution earlier this month after being refused a special food package he had ordered.
Hodges was eligible to receive it for six months of conduct. He ordered the package after five months of pristine files and is said to have fumed after being denied it.
That prompted a dirty protest from Hodges in his cell, who slashed his wrists and was taken to the prison infirmary. He later severed his manhood during a two-hour self-harm session using broken window shards and razor blades he had kept hidden.
Hodges’ penis was later reattached by surgeons. It is unclear how successful this operation was.
He was convicted of strangling and robbing Nashville phone repairman Ronald Bassett in 1990. For this he was sentenced to death in 1992.
He was later found guilty in Fulton County, Georgia, of the murder of a North Carolina chemical engineer, Michael Whisnant, at an Atlanta hotel.
The known killer received another life sentence in 1992 after pleading guilty to stabbing Inglewood nurse Barry McDonald to death in 1989.
Reports at the time of the killings claimed the crimes were linked to his repressed homosexuality and a deep desire for revenge after being sexually abused as a child. Hodges, who is bipolar, denies he is gay despite reports of multiple sexual relationships with men.
According to his attorney, Kelley Henry, Henry Eugene Hodges (pictured), 56, chopped off his penis with broken glass and a razor blade
Hodges is said to have been a gay rental boy in Nashville in his 20s who dazzled locals with his handsome looks – but who later developed a reputation for violent behavior, prompting local gay bars to warn potential lovers about him.
When visited by his attorney, Kelley Henry, in the infirmary at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, Hodges was allegedly held naked in four-point and six-point restraints for a week, Yahoo News reported.
Henry plans to file a lawsuit in state court on Friday alleging violations of Hodge’s constitutional rights.
“He needs competent mental health care,” she said.
“The prison can safely find a place where he is not a danger to himself or others and does not need to be tied like an animal.”
He is on death row in connection with three murders from late 1980 to early 1990, believed to be related to his suppressed sexual orientation and desire to avenge his abuse as a child
She said Hodges was upset earlier this month and began smearing faeces in his cell after prison officials refused him his special food package.
The known killer was then denied food to keep him from smearing faeces – his response was to slash his wrists with a razor.
As Henry was taken to the infirmary, he told Yahoo News he asked to be put on suicide watch when a “senior correctional officer” told the person treating Hodges that he was being manipulated.
Hodges was then taken back to his cell where within 2 hours he was using broken glass from a window he had smashed and using concealed razors to chop off his penis.
Hodges was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where surgeons reattached his penis.
“He suffers ongoing psychiatric damage from these conditions,” Henry said.
Hodges is also on hunger strike, she added.
The Tennessee Court of Appeals in Nashville heard in 1995 that Hodges had been sexually abused by a stranger when he was 12 years old.
Court documents show that he never disclosed the abuse “because his father was homophobic and the applicant believed his mother would blame him for the incident”.
At the time of the 1990 murders, Hodges had been “engaged in homosexual male prostitution,” the documents revealed.
Hodges, who has been incarcerated since the 1990s, has been diagnosed with mixed-type bipolar disorder with psychotic episodes
Reports at the time of the murders described Hodges as “sexually confused”
The documents state: “The applicant wanted revenge for the sexual abuse he was subjected to during his childhood and viewed homosexuals as a class rather than as individuals.”
A September 1990 Atlanta Constitution report described Hodges as “sexually confused”.
“Once the drag queens and gays along the seven blocks of Broadway swooned at the muscular muscles, piercing eyes and calm demeanor of the streetwalker,” it said.
“Now they know he’s an accused serial killer who has pled guilty to a murder in Atlanta.”
Anthony Odems, one of Nashville’s top drag queens, told the paper he was “amazed” by the news.
“He had been sitting in my house and on my furniture and could have killed me and my children,” they said.
The report claims Hodges has denied to police that he is gay, while a former lover told the newspaper he often suppressed his sexual orientation.
“He liked to get drunk and high, and when he started coming down, something broke and he felt like he shouldn’t be doing this — that he was wrong,” he said.
“He had to be high to be gay.”
The former lover, who asked not to be named, said he was “gay to an extent”.
Hodges mixed the diagnosis of bipolar disorder with psychotic episodes, Henry said.
He had taken medication after a psychotic episode in the past but then stopped, she continued.