Jerry Mitchell

The Clarion-Ledger



LAKE CHARLES, La. — Before Felix Vail went to prison for the murder of Mary Horton Vail, her brother dared the suspected serial killer to tell what he did with two other women.

Felix Vail, a Mississippi native, is the last known person with her and two women he called his wives: Sharon Hensley, who disappeared in 1973; and Annette Craver Vail, who disappeared in 1984. District Attorney John DeRosier said he believes Felix Vail killed all three women.

RELATED: Read the story of Felix Vail's life

In a hearing Monday, Mary’s brother, Will Horton, told Felix Vail, “There is no decency in you, so I don’t expect you to ever reveal the truth about Sharon and Annette. You're not man enough to do that."

On Aug. 12, a jury here convicted Felix Vail of murdering his first wife, Mary, in 1962. It is the oldest conviction of a suspected serial killer in U.S. history.

Vail told Judge Robert L. Wyatt, "Your honor, the dramatic plausibility seem to interest the court about 95 percent more than the simple truth."

He said the truth is his wife, Mary, died in an accident and that the other two women "choose to disappear themselves from abusive mothers."

He called himself the "only expert on the truth" of the matter.

When the truth is known, the national press will want to know why The Clarion-Ledger's "Gone" story has been "treated as the King James Version of the gospel."

He called the newspaper's Jerry Mitchell "a professional negative spin doctor" and that "all of the stuff he plagiarized from James Patterson's crime novels."

He asked the judge to free him because of his age and an unspecified "medical condition."

Instead, Wyatt gave a life sentence to the 77-year-old Vail, who is expected to serve his time at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.

"You have been found guilty by a jury," Wyatt said. "The family has experienced the loss of life, the loss of a mother, the loss of a sister."

Wyatt pointed out to Vail that since this murder, he has "continued to live his life for 50 years."

The judge rejected the argument by Public Defender Andrew Casanave, who said Vail should be convicted of the lesser offense of manslaughter because of past Louisiana Supreme Court decisions related to the handling of capital cases prior to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1972 ruling that Georgia's death penalty statute was unconstitutional. Louisiana had a similar statute then.

On the evening of Oct. 28, 1962, Vail pulled up on the beach in Lake Charles, telling authorities that his wife, Mary, had accidentally fallen out of the boat and drowned in the Calcasieu River.

While the coroner ruled the death an accidental drowning, deputies weren’t so convinced.

They discovered Vail took out two separate life insurance policies on his wife, Mary, months before she died. One promised to double the payout in case her death was accidental.

Despite insurance companies paying him $10,000 in a settlement, he paid nothing toward her funeral, headstone and burial.

In 2012, The Clarion-Ledger shared her autopsy report with pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who concluded her death was a homicide. He pointed to the hematoma on the back on her head, bruises on her legs and a scarf 4 inches into her mouth.

Seven months after that story, "Gone," appeared, Louisiana authorities charged Vail with her murder.

Although her nephew, Allen Horton III, never knew his aunt, he and his family revered her.

He said Monday that the lack of justice in his aunt’s death ate at his family’s soul, “which I am confident led to my grandparents’ early deaths.”

He told Vail that although his “ruthless, unforgivable actions in 1962 gave you … satisfaction, in reality, you were not so successful.”

Over the past four years, he said many kind people have shared their memories, enabling him and other family members to see “flickers of Mary … Your conviction established my aunt’s immortal presence in all of us.”

He read from her obituary, recalling the elementary school teacher’s “smiling eyes and ready greeting,” winning “all hearts as the radiant Homecoming Queen at Eunice High …Mary the beautiful bride and fine young mother.”

He said his father, Allen Jr., is leaving the courtroom, knowing “this long ordeal has finally ended. No, he has not gotten the answers he needs or wants — none of the three families has. But at least our dad knows that his sister’s death has been publicly confirmed a murder rather than a mere, common accident.”

He told Vail, “We are all at peace, Felix — a feeling you will never have. And I look forward to that day when I will meet my aunt.”

Vail shook his head and smiled.

Will Horton spoke about how much he loved his sister, Mary, and how special she was to everyone who knew her, including her son, Bill, who was only 3 months old when Mary died.

“You say you love Bill,” he said, “but by depriving him of his mother, you devastated him, too.”

Bill Vail suffered a number of health problems, and before he died of cancer in 2009, he talked on tape about overhearing his father saying he killed his mother.

Because he wasn’t cross-examined, that tape wasn’t admissible at last month’s weeklong trial.

But prosecutors were permitted to introduce evidence of the two women’s disappearances. The Louisiana Supreme Court allowed the evidence under the doctrine of chances.

Felix Vail wrote letters to the families of Sharon Hensley and Annette Vail after their disappearances. In each, he insisted the women had gone away because they wanted to disappear, start over and leave their pasts behind.

Sharon’s brother, Brian Hensley, and Annette’s mother, Mary Rose, who each testified at trial, were unable to attend Monday, but sent statements addressed to Vail. Those statements were submitted to the judge, but were not read.

Hensley wrote that Vail may believe he destroyed these women, but he didn’t.

“Their love, personalities, and memories will live forever among those who knew them,” he wrote Vail. “There is nothing you can say or do to prevent that, you are now and always have been powerless.”

Rose, who had pushed for justice since her daughter’s disappearance, told Vail, “My prayer is that you will acknowledge your horrific actions, seek forgiveness and strive for the redemption of your eternal soul.”

RELATED: Watch a short documentary on Felix Vail's life

In the courtroom, Will Horton told Vail, “You are a killer, and you are headed to the place where killers deserve to go, Angola, and God will direct you after that."

Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@gannett.com or (601) 961-7064. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.