THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Early Summer 2018 35 TheCoastalBend.com Editor’sPrologue I n 2018 this publication took a drastic editorial turn in response to the devastation that Hurricane Harvey brought to the Coastal Bend, specifi- cally Port Aransas, Mustang Island and North Padre. With our tourism audience cut in half, along with our base of advertisers and delivery lo- cations, this editor faced the challenge of reviving my journalism skills, and to first apply them to the hurricane story itself. Our distribution shifted significantly to reach an audience of local residents in addition to visitors, and with the welcomed praise of lifelong Coastal Benders over the quality and depth of our content has come a responsibility to continue to deliver honest, unbiased reporting. Anyone familiar with the old Texas Coastal Bend Tour Guide remembers our close association with Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi—we strongly supported the proj- ect with positive reporting through its long construction process, and we published a full, two-page map of the park, at our cost, in the sole interest of promoting Schlit- terbahn and guiding their visitors to all the great places and activities in the Coastal Bend. Even when Jeff Henry and Schlitterbahn were being openly and aggressively criticized for running late on construction and missed opening dates, we stuck by them in the interest of our tourism economy, and it is a choice that I do not regret. When I first heard of the August 2016 incident at Kansas City Schlitterbahn, in which a 10-year-old boy died on the Verrückt waterslide, I immediately thought of the Travel Channel’s Xtreme Waterparks series that tracked the progress of the slide’s construction and testing. While reality shows are not known for accurately portraying reality, the drama that played out on the show surrounding the testing of the ride seemed in no way conjured up—as one test raft after another, loaded with sandbags to simulate human riders, flew off the slide after ascending its second hill, the mental image of who those sandbags represented stayed with me. Then I learned how Caleb Schwab died. If the Schlitterbahn corporate expla- nation is to be believed—that the drama on Xtreme Waterparks was fabricated for entertainment purposes, that Jeff Henry’s worries about dying on his own ride was “acting,” and that Caleb’s death was a freak accident that could not have been fore- seen—then all that video of the ride malfunctioning in the precise way that caused the boy’s death must be the worst case of bad luck coincidence in the history of humanity. But it’s not. While I had no intention of covering this story until the case goes to trial, the assertions claimed in the indictment of Jeff Henry, his lead designer John Schooley, the Kansas City park General Manager, 29-year-old Tyler Miles, along with Henry & Sons Construction and Schlitterbahn Kansas City, are so outrageous and egregious that they cannot be ignored. In addition to Henry’s statements about the danger of the ride as it was being built and tested, we learn that neither he nor Schooley possess any engineering education or certification whatsoever, that they violated virtually every industry safety standard that applied to the project, that they failed to maintain and repair the ride on an ongoing basis, that they followed a standing policy to cover up injuries on Verrückt, especially the kind that led to the boy’s death, that they were willing to coerce and intimidate a 17-year-old whistle- blower while lying to police, and that they were willing to conceal and destroy evi- dence during the course of the death investigation. This story is not about Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi, per se, or any of the com- pany’s Texas parks, but it affects them all. The lender that holds $174 million in Schlitterbahn corporate debt issued an official statement this spring warning that the Kansas criminal indictments could result in default, putting three of the com- pany’s remaining parks—in New Braunfels, South Padre Island, and Kansas City— into foreclosure. The Corpus Christi park was purchased at auction by International Bank of Commerce after being foreclosed upon and is currently operating under the Schlitterbahn name. I know that some of our readers will find distaste in our presentation of this story, and the fact that we are presenting it at all. I also know that millions of my fellow Texans love Schlitterbahn and have made wonderful family memories at its parks. And to be sure, it is in no way in this publication’s direct business interests to go after Jeff Henry and Schlitterbahn by fully reporting what is alleged in Kansas. It is also not in the best interest of the Coastal Bend’s tourism economy for Schlit- terbahn Corpus Christi to close or fall into decay. However, sometimes we must consider the bigger picture, and I believe we are at the end of an era when monied corporate interests—even ones that started off as a small, family business—can prey on the public, their own customers, by willingly endangering their lives for profit, and then getting away with it. An era of account- ability is in full swing and we are responsible to play our part, but the motive starts with the fact that we love our children—and it’s our duty as adults to protect them. Caleb Schwab was a wholesome, all-American kid who loved his family along with baseball, and yes, spending summer days at Schlitterbahn. But when I think about his 12-year-old brother witnessing the decapitation of his little brother in front of him, it was all the motive I needed to do the right thing—and tell you what I learned about Jeff Henry and Verrückt. TheMadGenius T he Henry family moved from Houston to New Braunfels in the late 1960’s to purchase Camp Landa, a popular va- cation spot located on the Comal River that offered 34 cabins and tubing on the river. By the late 1970’s the wa- terpark concept had taken hold in America, including the opening of Orlando-based Wet-n-Wild in Arlington, Texas, when Schlitterbahn was born. Translated “slick road,” the tedious foreign label identified the new park with New Braunfels’ German heritage, and the Henry family went to work on what would become one of the state’s favorite summer playgrounds. Jeff dropped out of high school to work on Schlitterbahn full time—and while no responsible adult would encourage a youngster to follow such a path—it really did end up well for Jeff. In 1979 Schlitterbahn opened with four water slides built around a six-story replica of a German castle’s guard tower that could be easily seen The Original Schlitterbahn FamilyWater Park opened in New Braunfels in 1979 with four water slides built around the park’s iconic German castle guard’s tower replica.