Leslie Ray Charping died in late January, according to his obituary.
The 74-year-old’s brutally frank remembrance stated that that was “29 years longer than expected and much longer than he deserved.”
The obituary was posted to the Carnes Funeral Home website, according to multiplenewsoutlets. It did not appear to still be online Monday, but has been saved to Scribd by KHOU-TV, a CBS affiliate in Houston.
According to the Scribd post, the obituary noted that Charping left behind two “relieved” children, a son and daughter, along with “countless other victims,” including an ex-wife, family members, friends, neighbors, and “doctors, nurses and random strangers.”
“Leslie was surprisingly intelligent, however he lacked ambition and motivation to do anything more than being reckless, wasteful, squandering the family savings and fantasizing about get rich quick schemes,” it stated. “Leslie’s hobbies included being abusive to his family, expediting trips to heaven for the beloved family pets and fishing, which he was less skilled with than the previously mentioned.”
It continued: “Leslie’s life served no other obvious purpose, he did not contribute to society or serve his community and he possessed no redeeming qualities besides quick [witted] sarcasm which was amusing during his sober days.”
The obituary also indicated that Charping dealt with mental health issues.
The obituary was penned by Charping’s daughter, according to KTRK-TV.
“I told the truth,” that woman told the ABC affiliate. “I am not sorry for telling the truth, and I am not sorry for standing up for myself.”
The Houston Chronicle reported that, according to Harris County court records, Charping pleaded guilty in 1979 to an assault charge. The newspaper continued:
He also pleaded guilty in 2008 to assaulting a family member by pouring hot liquid on his then-wife of 40 years. The next year he pleaded guilty to violating the resulting restraining order by calling another family member and threatening to kill her.
Jay Carnes, owner of the funeral home, told The Post on Monday that the obituary led to a sharp increase in traffic on the website. Afterward, though, he discovered a lot of problems on the funeral home’s site, like nasty comments about the family, “vulgar” postings, and redirect links to pornography. The funeral home attempted to clean it up, Carnes said, but the crush of traffic was too much for the website.
“So to be fair to the other people that had posted obituaries on the website, I went ahead and pulled that one off,” he said. “It seemed to be it was out there, everyone else saw it at that point.”
He described the obituary as “pretty rough,” and said that the funeral home initially suggested that perhaps the obit shouldn’t be posted, but Charping’s daughter wanted it.
“I was kind of caught,” Carnes said. “You want to do the right thing. You want to help the family out at the same time. I don’t know. I was just caught.”
According to the Scribd post, Charping’s obituary noted that no funeral service would be held.
“With Leslie’s passing he will be missed only for what he never did; being a loving husband, father and good friend,” it states. “No services will be held, there will be no prayers for eternal peace and no [apologies] to the family he tortured. … Leslie’s passing proves that evil does in fact die and hopefully marks a time of healing and safety for all.”