A Reserved Seat in Hell
Please meet 72 year old Kenneth Henry of Proctor, Texas.
Kenneth Henry is one of those guys who makes the devil gleeful. He owns Henry’s Turkey Service, a business operating in Iowa and other states.
Henry is a slave owner.
He testified that over the decades, Henry’s sent 1,500 mentally disabled men to labor camps in seven states, including Iowa camps in Spirit Lake, Ellsworth and Atalissa.
These men we paid 41 cents an hour and housed in deplorable conditions in a rat infested converted bunkhouse where some were tortured and at least one froze to death.
Henry, of course, is a Christian man.
The government has imposed almost $5 million in fines over the years but none of them were paid.
The living conditions to the least, the last, and the lost were the things of nightmares, more commonly called “Ted Cruz’s and Rand Paul’s Vision for America”. A free market away from the nanny state and government interference.
Where God’s children are tortured to make a man rich.
There is a small measure of justice.
A jury on Wednesday awarded a total of $240 million to 32 mentally disabled turkey processing plant workers in Iowa for what an expert witness described as years of “virtual enslavement” by the Texas company that oversaw their care, work and lodging.
I say small because about half of the men died before the case got to trial.
But there’s more —
He also testified that it now appears the company might not have filed corporate tax returns in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Ayn Rand would be so damn proud that her tail feather would be flying.
Thanks to everybody for the heads up.
Putting him in hell would be a step up from where he belongs.
1Karma will fix this guy’s miserable life..just hope she gives me a front row seat…
2What, no grant from Perry’s Enterprise Fund to Kenneth Henry’s company?
Senate votes to audit Perry Enterprise Fund
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/texas_lege/senate-votes-to-audit-perry-enterprise-fund
3I would suggest that the reserved seats are in the same general area where the child molesters and republican politicians are toasting, but that would probably be tacky, right?
Nevermind…
4Karma’s a bitch and she’s gonna devour this a-hole!
5Thanks for putting this story out there, Juanita. Atalissa is nothing more that a truck stop off I-80. That’s how they do this; it wasn’t corn field heaven. The photos are after the clean-up. When this story broke in 2007, everything was filth and mud. Justice comes, but awareness for the rest of us wears heavy on the heart….
6He is on record as a contributor to the RNC. The Republican business model: slavery if you can turn a profit.
7Day-umn, JJ. I got nuthin’. NUTHIN’. Just when I thought I couldn’t be disgusted any further, I feel like I could upchuck into infinity at the description of this turd’s actions.
8The Worship of Mammon once again depletes all humanity from said “Christian” good Ole boy. but once again, if corporations are people, why isn’t the responsible party, the CEO criminally charged and locked away in Prison to do his on time at slave labor? Just don’t get it , never will…. that whole “Citizen’s united” thing seems to only swing one way….I’m thinking we need to fix that swing, if we have to live with the disaster it causes in elections, we should at least get the benefit, locking negligent, evil, corrupt CEO’s in prison. Betcha a nickel if we started doing that to say, this guy, Jamie Dimon, head of Exxon…. we could get that pesky CU ruling reversed right quick….
9Why on Earth did it take so many DECADES to discover this mess?
10“…paid 41 cents an hour and housed in deplorable conditions in a rat infested converted bunkhouse where some were tortured and at least one froze to death.”
Kenneth Henry should have to spend the rest of his stinkin’ life in this place.
11When hanging is too good for some folks.
12Now there’s one we should strip of citizenship and stick in the deepest hole we’ve got. “Christian” my left little toe’s corn!
13Karma is highly overrated, as recent history shows. Even Kenny-boy Lay just keeled over, he didn’t have to suffer. So what if they put Kenneth Henry in jail? He’d get medical care and 3 squares, he’d hide money for his family. Karma Schmarma.
14Sadly, the judgment is against the corporate entity and not against the person responsible for it. My guess is that any value in the company has already been looted (in a perfectly legal manner) and shipped to an account on Barbados.
Even the corporate failure to file tax returns doesn’t make Kenny responsible for doodley squat.
15Thanks for posting this, Juanita Jean. I remember reading about it several years when the situation was discovered. Nothing that can be done to Kenneth Henry will be bad enough to pay him back for the many awful crimes he has committed.
16@veegee, you’ll scoff, but that’s why I cling to my bronze-age myths like they are a sheet anchor: I WANT someone to mete out the most perfect form of justice! I WANT to see those poor abused little gentlemen, denied even full comprehension by genetics or teratogens, deliriously ecstatic and whole, shining with beauty, tenderly cradled in the bosom of Abraham, like Lazarus, while that lying —-er of a profiteer Henry has to watch and he gets NOTHING! Not the most basic acknowledgement. You can tell these people don’t really believe in God, either, because it so obviously doesn’t matter a damn to them that according to what they “believe” they are going to have to stand there, naked as the day they were born, in front of God, and EVERYBODY ELSE too, and give an account of themselves! That idea keeps me awake at night sometimes, with what I have been responsible for doing or ignoring. Happily, I don’t think I can be accused of making a fortune off the backs of others, but I’m guilty of plenty of other crap!
17I wish I believed in karma or hell. Since I don’t, I’d rather like it if this guy fell into a pen of hungry hogs.
18There is a book in this, JJ. If you don’t have time to write it–use contacts please and find someone who does. You are probably too young to remember the Edward R. Murrow TV documentary, “Harvest of Shame.” It led first to the Commodities Program where poor hungry people were given food that was purchased by US Gov and formerly destroyed to keep prices up. That led to the Food Stamp program, which now goes by another name. Before the FS program reached every state people were actually starving in the USA.
My only concern is that a large number of US citizens (mostly Republicans) are no longer able to feel shame.
19So, the Iowa Attorney General declined to file criminal charges, West Liberty Foods basically disowned the problem, and Henry’s Turkey Service is defunct and will not be able to pay the settlement, back taxes or penalties. In the meantime, it does not say so, but I am reasonably sure that it’s the taxpayers who are helping these men recover. I agree, it’s a very small measure of justice and a lot of folks congratulating themselves for making themselves look good on paper.
20How bout a pit full of rattlesnakes and Boa constrictors S/L?
21Kenneth Henry is the perfect example of why the NRA supports interstate concealed-and-carry legislation. The SOB may need it to save his own hide.
22But that’s how they do it in the Bible! What are y’all complainin’ about!
23Wait a minute. Didn’t they finally get Al Capone on tax evasion? If they can’t prove the slavery accusations, false imprisonment etc., why isn’t this guy at least being prosecuted for that? If he isn’t prison material, I don’t know who is.
24Who did that guy support for President – Perry or Ron Paul?
25Henry’s was fined $5 million over the years. and never paid the fine? Now Henry’s is fined $240 million. My bet would be the company will not pay the fine & stay in the business of “emplying the disabled”. I’m sure they have also reaped huge tax breaks for emplying these poor souls.
26Folks, this jury award was NOT justice… it was a travesty of justice! The State of Iowa can’t even execute on it in Texas so it doesn’t matter what amount the jury decided it was worth. Justice… REAL JUSTICE… would have been criminal charges against Kenneth Henry himself. My sense is that this jury would have agreed.
27Btw ~ If Mr. Moore in Houston wanted to die by ‘cop suicide’ it would have been real nice had he taken Mr. Henry with him.
28My friend in the construction biz says this happens all the damn time. Heard this on npr and it reminded me of couple of yrs ago when some migrants couldn’t get their pay from some ag a-hole. Since this appears to be happening more and more, something should be done, but what? and who cares? What happened to these jerks’ morals? they’re probably big Xhristians, but they AIN’T goin’ to heaven!
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