Howard Arthur Allen

Serial Killer

Howard Arthur Allen

Howard Arthur Allen was an American serial killer and repeat violent offender whose crimes centered on elderly residents of Indianapolis, Indiana. Born on February 10, 1949, in Indianapolis, Allen accumulated a criminal history involving robbery, burglary, assault, arson and homicide. He is generally associated with three deaths: Opal Cooper in 1974, Laverne Hale in 1987 and Ernestine Griffin in 1987. The cases were separated by more than a decade because Allen spent much of the intervening period in prison for Cooper's death. Allen's crimes were notable for the vulnerability of the people he targeted. His victims were elderly, and several were attacked inside their own homes, places where they should have been safe. Robbery was an important element in a number of the offenses attributed to him, but the level of violence inflicted on his victims went far beyond what was necessary to steal property.

The 1974 Killing of Opal Cooper

Allen's first known homicide occurred in Indianapolis in August 1974. His victim was 85-year-old Opal Inez Cooper. Available victim records give Cooper's date of death as August 19, 1974, while many summaries of Allen's crimes identify the date only as August 1974. Allen entered Cooper's home during a robbery and severely beat the elderly woman. Cooper died as a result of the attack. Allen was arrested and prosecuted, but rather than being convicted of murder, he was convicted on the reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter. He received a prison term of approximately two to twenty-one years. The conviction removed Allen from the community for more than a decade. He was eventually paroled in January 1985 and returned to Indianapolis. After his release he found employment, including work at an Indianapolis car wash. Within a little more than two years, elderly residents of the city again became the targets of a series of violent home invasions.

The 1987 Attacks on Elderly Residents

On May 18, 1987, a 73-year-old Indianapolis woman was attacked inside her home. The woman was choked and beaten but survived. Allen was subsequently connected to the assault and was convicted of burglary and felony battery. The May 18 survivor is sometimes confused in later accounts with Laverne Hale, but they were separate victims. Two days later, on May 20, 1987, 87-year-old Laverne Hale was assaulted in her Indianapolis home. Hale was badly injured and survived for several days before dying on May 29, 1987. Some abbreviated accounts incorrectly give May 18 or May 20 as her date of death; May 20 was the date of the attack, while May 29 was the date she died from her injuries. Hale lived near Allen, reportedly in a residence behind his own home. Her assault resembled the other attacks on elderly Indianapolis residents occurring during the same period. Allen became a suspect in Hale's killing, and the case has subsequently been included among the three deaths generally attributed to him. Unlike the Cooper manslaughter conviction and the later Griffin murder conviction, however, the Hale case should be distinguished as a homicide attributed to Allen rather than a separate murder conviction obtained against him. The violence continued. On June 2, 1987, the home of an elderly Indianapolis man was burglarized. The resident was not home, but the intruder ransacked the property and set the house on fire. Investigators ultimately connected Allen to the burglary and arson. Police were increasingly seeing a pattern of crimes involving elderly people and their homes. ...

Confirmed Victims: (3)

Opal Cooper Age: (85), Date of Death: 1974-08-19

Howard Allen - Wikipedia