Henry Lee Lucas
Encyclopedia
Henry Lee Lucas was an American
criminal, convicted of murder
in 189 cases and once listed as America's most prolific serial killer
; he later recanted his confessions, despite professing information only the assailant would know and flatly stating "I'm a liar" in a letter to researcher Brad Shellady. Lucas confessed to involvement in about 600 murders, but a more widely circulated total of about 350 murders committed by Lucas is based on confessions deemed "believable" by a Texas
-based Lucas Task Force, a group which was later criticized by then-Attorney General of Texas, Jim Mattox
, and others for sloppy police work . Some critics believe his recantations were a tactic to brew reasonable doubt and evade execution.
Beyond his recantation, some of Lucas' confessions have been challenged as probable by a number of critics, including law enforcement and court officials. Originally being taken in on a firearms warrant, Lucas claimed to have been initially subjected to poor treatment and coercive interrogation tactics while in police custody and confessed to his crimes only to improve his living conditions. Amnesty International
reported "the belief of two former state Attorneys General that Lucas was in all likelihood guilty of the crimes for which he was sentenced to death".
Lucas's death sentence was commuted
to life in prison
in 1998 by then-Governor George W. Bush
. It was the first successful commutation of a death sentence in Texas since the re-institution of the death penalty in Texas in 1982. Lucas died in prison of natural causes. Lucas still maintains a reputation, in the mind of author Sarah L. Knox, "as one of the world's worst serial killers—even after the recanting of the majority of his confessions. ".
in Blacksburg, Virginia
, the youngest of nine children. His mother, Viola Dixon Waugh, was an alcoholic prostitute. His father, Anderson Lucas, was an alcoholic and former railroad employee who had lost his legs after being hit by a freight train. He would usually come home inebriated, and would suffer from Viola's wrath as often as his sons.
Lucas claimed that he and his brother were regularly beaten by Viola, often for no reason. He once spent three days in a coma
after his mother struck him with a wooden plank, and on many occasions he was forced by his mother to watch her having sex with men. Lucas also claimed that his mother would often dress him in girls' clothing. His sister Almeda Lucas supports his story, and she claims that she once had two pictures of Henry as a toddler dressed in girls' clothing. Lucas described an incident when he was given a mule as a gift by his uncle, only to see his mother shoot and kill it. Lucas also claimed that, at the age of eight, he was given a teddy bear by one of his teachers, and was then beaten by his mother for accepting charity.
When Lucas was 10, his brother accidentally stabbed him in the left eye while they were fighting. His mother ignored the injury for four days, and subsequently the eye grew infected and had to be replaced by a glass eye.
In December 1949, Anderson Lucas died of hypothermia
, after going home drunk and collapsing outside during a blizzard
. Shortly after, Henry dropped out of school in the sixth grade and ran away from home, drifting around Virginia
. Lucas claimed that he first practiced bestiality and zoosadism
while he was a runaway, and also began committing petty thefts and burglaries around the state. Lucas claimed to have committed his first murder in 1951, when he strangled 17-year-old Laura Burnsley, who refused his sexual advances. As with most of his confessions, he later retracted this claim. On June 10, 1954, Lucas was convicted on over a dozen counts of burglary in and around Richmond, Virginia
, and was sentenced to four years in prison. He escaped in 1957, was recaptured three days later, and was released on September 2, 1959.
In late 1959, Lucas traveled to Tecumseh, Michigan
to live with his half-sister, Opal. Around this time, Lucas was engaged to marry a pen pal
with whom he had corresponded while incarcerated. When his mother visited him for Christmas
, she disapproved of her son's fiancée and insisted he move back to Blacksburg. He refused, and they argued repeatedly about his upcoming nuptials.
She was not in fact dead, and when Lucas's half-sister Opal (with whom he was staying) returned later, she discovered their mother alive in a pool of blood. She called an ambulance, but it turned out to be too late to save Viola Lucas's life. The official police report stated she died of a heart attack precipitated by the assault
. Lucas returned to Virginia, then says he decided to drive back to Michigan, but was arrested in Ohio
on the outstanding Michigan warrant
.
Lucas claimed to have attacked his mother only in self-defense, but his claim was rejected, and he was sentenced to between 20 and 40 years' imprisonment in Michigan for second-degree murder. He filed for appeal immediately after. After serving 10 years in prison, he was released in June 1970 due to prison overcrowding.
, he made the acquaintance of Ottis Toole
in 1976 and had a sexual relationship with Toole's 12-year-old niece, Frieda Powell, who had escaped from a juvenile detention facility. Lucas and Toole both called Powell "Becky," partly to disguise her identity and because Powell preferred it over her given name. In 1978, Lucas and Toole formed what has been called a "homosexual crime team" and embarked on a cross-country murder spree. Lucas would later claim that during this period he had killed hundreds of people, with Toole assisting him in 108 murders. The trio left Florida and eventually settled in Stoneburg, Texas
, at a religious commune
called "The House of Prayer." Ruben Moore, the commune owner and minister, found Lucas a job as a roofer and allowed Lucas and Powell to live in a small apartment on the commune.
Powell became homesick, so Lucas agreed to move to Florida with her. Lucas said they argued at a Bowie, Texas
truck stop and claimed that Powell left with a trucker. Lucas would eventually be charged with Powell's murder, although a waitress at the truck stop supported Lucas's account in court. Lucas allegedly carried out many of his later murders with Toole as an accomplice.
Phil Ryan, initially for unlawful firearm possession. He was later charged with killing 82-year-old Kate Rich in Ringgold, Texas
, and was also charged with Powell's murder. Lucas claimed that police stripped him naked, denied him cigarettes and bedding, held him in a cold cell, and did not allow him to contact an attorney. After four days of this treatment, Lucas claimed he decided to confess to the crimes in a desperate bid to improve his treatment. Lucas confessed to the murders and offered to take police to the victims' bodies. He closed out his confession with a hand-written addendum that read: "I am not aloud [sic] to contact any one I'm in here by myself and still can't talk to a lawyer on this I have no rights so what can I do to convince you about all this." When he was finally allowed counsel, Lucas's lawyer described his client's treatment as "inhumane" and "calculated solely to require the defendant to confess guilt, whether innocent or guilty".
The forensic evidence in the Powell and Rich cases has been criticized as inconclusive. A single bone fragment recovered from a wood-burning stove was said to be Rich's, and a mostly complete skeleton roughly matched Powell's age and size, but Shellady reports that the coroner
stopped short of positively identifying either remains. As with most of his alleged crimes, Lucas has confessed to these murders only recant later, presumably to evade another trial. The consensus seems to be that Lucas did indeed murder Powell and Rich. Lucas pleaded guilty to the charges, and in open court stated he had "killed about a hundred more women" as well. This was an unexpected confession, and Lucas later claimed to have been despondent over being suspected in Powell's disappearance. Shellady reports that Lucas said, "If they were going force me to confess I was going to confess full throttle." These claims were quickly seized upon by the press, and Lucas, accompanied by Texas Rangers
, was soon flown from state to state, to meet with various police agencies in an effort to resolve a number of unsolved murders.
In November 1983, Lucas was transferred to a jail in Williamson County, Texas
, where the Lucas Task Force was soon established. While in Williamson County, he was interviewed by then-Sheriff Jim Boutwell. Boutwell is said to have played an important role early in the task force as well as Bob Prince of the Texas Rangers. Shellady describes the task force as "a veritable clearinghouse of unsolved murder." Police officially "cleared" 213 previously unsolved murders via Lucas's confessions. Lucas reported that he would only confess to his crimes to improved his living conditions, and that he received preferential treatment rarely offered to convicts. Others have offered accounts that seem to support Lucas's claims, for example, that Lucas was rarely handcuffed when in custody or being transported, that he was often allowed to wander police stations and jails at will—including knowing the security codes for computerized doors—and that he was frequently taken to restaurants and cafés. It was later learned that Boutwell and other task force agents purposely deprived Lucas information about other unsolved murders so that Lucas's confessions would be reliable. Lucas was also granted favors while incarcerated that other inmates never received. On one occasion, in Huntington, West Virginia
, Lucas confessed to killing a man whose death had originally been ruled a suicide
. The man's widow received a large life insurance settlement that had been denied after the initial suicide verdict.
Texas Ranger Phil Ryan reports that Lucas became so accustomed to such treatment that he began "dictating orders" that were often obeyed by Rangers. Ryan also reported that he became concerned about the veracity of most of Lucas's confessions, feeling confident in the accuracy of two of Lucas' confessions, and further stated to the Houston Chronicle
that "I'd bet a paycheck on the others." Shellady reports that in order to expose Lucas's claims, Ryan invented utterly fictional crimes, to which Lucas would generally "deny" involvement, a tactic also employed by Dallas
detective Linda Erwin. Ryan reports the manner in which Lucas typically confessed to a number of unsolved murders: If a police agency suspected Lucas, and if Lucas admitted involvement—and his total of some 600 confessions suggests he rarely denied complicity—they would send the Lucas Task Force a case file with information pertaining to the unsolved crime to quiz Lucas. Lucas would be questioned at length and prohibited to read police reports.
The same Houston Chronicle article reports that Erwin interviewed Lucas after he confessed to 13 murders in Houston. Erwin reports that "when I heard it got to be hundreds and hundreds (of confessions), it was unbelievable to me." Erwin further reports that, like Ryan, she assembled an utterly fictional crime: She "fabricated a case using random photographs from old murders long since solved and details pulled from her imagination ... He denied credit for the phony crime." Erwin admitted she was uncomfortable fabricating a crime, but felt it necessary in order to settle questions of Lucas's reliability. Lucas was not charged with any of the crimes he confessed to committing in Dallas despite knowing bits of information only the culprit would know.
Lucas' claims gradually became criticized as outlandish and less likely: He claimed to have been part of a cannibalistic
, satanic
cult
called "The Hand of Death", to have taken part in snuff film
s, to have killed Jimmy Hoffa
, and to have delivered poison to cult leader Jim Jones
in Jonestown
prior to the notorious mass murder
/suicide
of Jones' group.
In response to these claims, and to reports of the Lucas Task Force's questionable investigative methodology, the Texas Attorney General's office issued a study (sometimes called "The Lucas Report") in 1986. The bulk of the Lucas Report was devoted to a detailed timeline of Lucas' claimed murders. The report compared Lucas' claims to reliable, verifiable sources for his whereabouts; the results often supported his confessions, and thus cast no doubt on most of the crimes in which he was implicated. Attorney General Jim Mattox
wrote that "when Lucas was confessing to hundreds of murders, those with custody of Lucas did nothing to bring an end to this "fiasco," and "We have found information that would lead us to believe that some officials 'ignored cases' because they were being lazy."
s. He was sentenced to death for the murder of an unidentified woman dubbed "Orange Socks," as those were the only items of clothing found on her. Her body was discovered in Williamson County, Texas
, on Halloween
1979.
Dan Morales
, Mattox's successor as Texas Attorney General, concluded that it was "highly likely" that Lucas was guilty in the "Orange Socks" case. Though initially skeptical of the Lucas Report, he came generally to support its findings.
Williamson County prosecutor Cecil Kuykendall supported Lucas as a suspect in the "Orange Socks" case and has stated his opinion that Lucas was in the area, working as a roofer, during the time that "Orange Socks" was killed. As cited in an Amnesty International
report, Mattox stated that during the time "Orange Socks" was killed, there were "work records, check cashing evidence, all information indicating Lucas was nearby. We found nothing tying [Lucas] with the crime only his confession and vast knowledge of detail." Mattox's office decided not to intervene, so certain they were that the state appeals court would overturn Lucas' conviction in the "Orange Socks" case.
Lucas told Shellady that he confessed to the murder in an effort at "redeeming himself" and that he "felt obligated." Lucas expressed what Shellady describes as "deep regret and sorrow" for his crimes, stating that he "was not aware how much pain he caused until it was too late." The Houston Chronicle article also notes that Lucas offered various motives for his confession spree: Improving his conditions, a desire to embarrass police, and feeling guilt over killing others.
Adding to the confusion, however, was Lucas' habit of making confessions, recanting them, then offering more confessions, and again recanting them. Mattox, wary of Lucas' many confessions, suggested in 1999 that, in the case of Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, "I hope they don't start pinning on him every crime that happens near a railroad track."
, died on September 15, 1996, from cirrhosis of the liver. He was serving six life sentences in a Florida
prison. In 1998, the Texas
Board of Pardon and Parole voted to commute Lucas's death sentence to life imprisonment, in accordance with Governor George W. Bush
's request. It remains the only successful commutation of a death sentence in Texas since the restoration of the death penalty after Gregg v. Georgia
in 1976. On March 13, 2001, Lucas died in prison from heart failure at age 64.
. Several authorities and interested parties remained sure of his guilt in a number of murders, regardless of his recantations and the controversy surrounding his many confessions. Jim Lawson, a sheriff's department investigator in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska
, questioned Lucas in September 1984 regarding the unsolved 1978 murder of schoolteacher Stella McLean. Lawson says he asked deceptive questions to test Lucas, but insists Lucas offered compelling testimony to support his claims of killing McLean.
Texas General Land Office Commissioner Garry Mauro
, then standing for election of Governor of Texas
, stated his opinion that, "There is no doubt in my mind that Henry Lee Lucas is guilty enough of the murders he confessed to that he earned the death penalty."
The Houston Chronicle article quotes Harold Murphy of Marianna, Florida
, who remained convinced that Lucas killed his daughter Jerilyn in 1981.
As cited in the above Houston Chronicle article, Texas Ranger Phil Ryan—while strongly criticizing the Lucas Task Force for their questionable methods, and while rejecting the vast majority of Lucas's confessions—concluded that Lucas was a strong suspect in two cases (those of his 15-year-old traveling companion, Becky Powell, and Kate Rich), and thought Lucas was "at most ... responsible for 15 murders." This was still a considerable total, qualifying Lucas as a serial killer according to the FBI's definitions, but well below Lucas's claims. Eric W. Hickey cites an unnamed "investigator" who interviewed Lucas several times, and who concluded Lucas had probably killed about 40 people.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
criminal, convicted of murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
in 189 cases and once listed as America's most prolific serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
; he later recanted his confessions, despite professing information only the assailant would know and flatly stating "I'm a liar" in a letter to researcher Brad Shellady. Lucas confessed to involvement in about 600 murders, but a more widely circulated total of about 350 murders committed by Lucas is based on confessions deemed "believable" by a Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
-based Lucas Task Force, a group which was later criticized by then-Attorney General of Texas, Jim Mattox
Jim Mattox
James Albon Mattox was a Dallas lawyer and Texas Democratic politician who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives and two four-year terms as state Attorney General, but lost high profile races for Governor in 1990, the U.S. Senate in 1994, and again as attorney general...
, and others for sloppy police work . Some critics believe his recantations were a tactic to brew reasonable doubt and evade execution.
Beyond his recantation, some of Lucas' confessions have been challenged as probable by a number of critics, including law enforcement and court officials. Originally being taken in on a firearms warrant, Lucas claimed to have been initially subjected to poor treatment and coercive interrogation tactics while in police custody and confessed to his crimes only to improve his living conditions. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
reported "the belief of two former state Attorneys General that Lucas was in all likelihood guilty of the crimes for which he was sentenced to death".
Lucas's death sentence was commuted
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
to life in prison
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
in 1998 by then-Governor George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. It was the first successful commutation of a death sentence in Texas since the re-institution of the death penalty in Texas in 1982. Lucas died in prison of natural causes. Lucas still maintains a reputation, in the mind of author Sarah L. Knox, "as one of the world's worst serial killers—even after the recanting of the majority of his confessions. ".
Early life
Lucas was born in a one-room log cabinLog cabin
A log cabin is a house built from logs. It is a fairly simple type of log house. A distinction should be drawn between the traditional meanings of "log cabin" and "log house." Historically most "Log cabins" were a simple one- or 1½-story structures, somewhat impermanent, and less finished or less...
in Blacksburg, Virginia
Blacksburg, Virginia
Blacksburg is an incorporated town located in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 42,620 at the 2010 census. Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford are the three principal jurisdictions of the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford Metropolitan Statistical Area which...
, the youngest of nine children. His mother, Viola Dixon Waugh, was an alcoholic prostitute. His father, Anderson Lucas, was an alcoholic and former railroad employee who had lost his legs after being hit by a freight train. He would usually come home inebriated, and would suffer from Viola's wrath as often as his sons.
Lucas claimed that he and his brother were regularly beaten by Viola, often for no reason. He once spent three days in a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
after his mother struck him with a wooden plank, and on many occasions he was forced by his mother to watch her having sex with men. Lucas also claimed that his mother would often dress him in girls' clothing. His sister Almeda Lucas supports his story, and she claims that she once had two pictures of Henry as a toddler dressed in girls' clothing. Lucas described an incident when he was given a mule as a gift by his uncle, only to see his mother shoot and kill it. Lucas also claimed that, at the age of eight, he was given a teddy bear by one of his teachers, and was then beaten by his mother for accepting charity.
When Lucas was 10, his brother accidentally stabbed him in the left eye while they were fighting. His mother ignored the injury for four days, and subsequently the eye grew infected and had to be replaced by a glass eye.
In December 1949, Anderson Lucas died of hypothermia
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
, after going home drunk and collapsing outside during a blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
. Shortly after, Henry dropped out of school in the sixth grade and ran away from home, drifting around Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. Lucas claimed that he first practiced bestiality and zoosadism
Zoosadism
Zoosadism is a term coined by Ernest Borneman referring to pleasure derived from cruelty to animals. Zoosadism is part of the Macdonald triad, a set of three behaviors that are a precursor to sociopathic behavior.-Research:...
while he was a runaway, and also began committing petty thefts and burglaries around the state. Lucas claimed to have committed his first murder in 1951, when he strangled 17-year-old Laura Burnsley, who refused his sexual advances. As with most of his confessions, he later retracted this claim. On June 10, 1954, Lucas was convicted on over a dozen counts of burglary in and around Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, and was sentenced to four years in prison. He escaped in 1957, was recaptured three days later, and was released on September 2, 1959.
In late 1959, Lucas traveled to Tecumseh, Michigan
Tecumseh, Michigan
Tecumseh is a small city in Lenawee County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated where M-50 crosses the River Raisin, a few miles east of M-52. Tecumseh is about SW of Detroit, south of Ann Arbor and north of Toledo, OH....
to live with his half-sister, Opal. Around this time, Lucas was engaged to marry a pen pal
Pen pal
Pen pals are people who regularly write to each other, particularly via postal mail.-Purposes:A penpal relationship is often used to practice reading and writing in a foreign language, to improve literacy, to learn more about other countries and life-styles, and to make friendships...
with whom he had corresponded while incarcerated. When his mother visited him for Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, she disapproved of her son's fiancée and insisted he move back to Blacksburg. He refused, and they argued repeatedly about his upcoming nuptials.
First known murder
On January 11, 1960, in Tecumseh, Michigan, Lucas killed his mother during the course of an ongoing argument regarding whether or not he should return home to his mother's house to care for her as she grew older. He claimed she struck him over the head with a broom, at which point he struck her on the neck and she fell. Lucas then fled the scene. He subsequently said,She was not in fact dead, and when Lucas's half-sister Opal (with whom he was staying) returned later, she discovered their mother alive in a pool of blood. She called an ambulance, but it turned out to be too late to save Viola Lucas's life. The official police report stated she died of a heart attack precipitated by the assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
. Lucas returned to Virginia, then says he decided to drive back to Michigan, but was arrested in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
on the outstanding Michigan warrant
Warrant (law)
Most often, the term warrant refers to a specific type of authorization; a writ issued by a competent officer, usually a judge or magistrate, which permits an otherwise illegal act that would violate individual rights and affords the person executing the writ protection from damages if the act is...
.
Lucas claimed to have attacked his mother only in self-defense, but his claim was rejected, and he was sentenced to between 20 and 40 years' imprisonment in Michigan for second-degree murder. He filed for appeal immediately after. After serving 10 years in prison, he was released in June 1970 due to prison overcrowding.
Drifter
Lucas drifted around the American South, working a number of mostly short-term jobs. In FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, he made the acquaintance of Ottis Toole
Ottis Toole
Ottis Elwood Toole was an American serial killer, arsonist and cannibal. Toole was an accomplice of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas...
in 1976 and had a sexual relationship with Toole's 12-year-old niece, Frieda Powell, who had escaped from a juvenile detention facility. Lucas and Toole both called Powell "Becky," partly to disguise her identity and because Powell preferred it over her given name. In 1978, Lucas and Toole formed what has been called a "homosexual crime team" and embarked on a cross-country murder spree. Lucas would later claim that during this period he had killed hundreds of people, with Toole assisting him in 108 murders. The trio left Florida and eventually settled in Stoneburg, Texas
Stoneburg, Texas
Stoneburg is an unincorporated community in Montague County, Texas, United States. It had a population of approximately 51 in 1990.-History:Stoneburg sits at the intersection of U.S. Route 81 and Farm to Market Road 1806 in east central Montague County. Bowie Lake is southwest of the town...
, at a religious commune
Commune (intentional community)
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...
called "The House of Prayer." Ruben Moore, the commune owner and minister, found Lucas a job as a roofer and allowed Lucas and Powell to live in a small apartment on the commune.
Powell became homesick, so Lucas agreed to move to Florida with her. Lucas said they argued at a Bowie, Texas
Bowie, Texas
Bowie is a city in Montague County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,219 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, Bowie has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water.-Demographics:...
truck stop and claimed that Powell left with a trucker. Lucas would eventually be charged with Powell's murder, although a waitress at the truck stop supported Lucas's account in court. Lucas allegedly carried out many of his later murders with Toole as an accomplice.
"The Lucas Report" confessions and controversy
Lucas was arrested on June 11, 1983 by Texas RangerTexas Ranger Division
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
Phil Ryan, initially for unlawful firearm possession. He was later charged with killing 82-year-old Kate Rich in Ringgold, Texas
Ringgold, Texas
Ringgold is an unincorporated town in Montague County, Texas, United States, with an estimated population of 100 people. It is located approximately 20 miles northwest of Montague, the county seat.The town's major industry is cattle ranching.-Schools:...
, and was also charged with Powell's murder. Lucas claimed that police stripped him naked, denied him cigarettes and bedding, held him in a cold cell, and did not allow him to contact an attorney. After four days of this treatment, Lucas claimed he decided to confess to the crimes in a desperate bid to improve his treatment. Lucas confessed to the murders and offered to take police to the victims' bodies. He closed out his confession with a hand-written addendum that read: "I am not aloud [sic] to contact any one I'm in here by myself and still can't talk to a lawyer on this I have no rights so what can I do to convince you about all this." When he was finally allowed counsel, Lucas's lawyer described his client's treatment as "inhumane" and "calculated solely to require the defendant to confess guilt, whether innocent or guilty".
The forensic evidence in the Powell and Rich cases has been criticized as inconclusive. A single bone fragment recovered from a wood-burning stove was said to be Rich's, and a mostly complete skeleton roughly matched Powell's age and size, but Shellady reports that the coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
stopped short of positively identifying either remains. As with most of his alleged crimes, Lucas has confessed to these murders only recant later, presumably to evade another trial. The consensus seems to be that Lucas did indeed murder Powell and Rich. Lucas pleaded guilty to the charges, and in open court stated he had "killed about a hundred more women" as well. This was an unexpected confession, and Lucas later claimed to have been despondent over being suspected in Powell's disappearance. Shellady reports that Lucas said, "If they were going force me to confess I was going to confess full throttle." These claims were quickly seized upon by the press, and Lucas, accompanied by Texas Rangers
Texas Ranger Division
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
, was soon flown from state to state, to meet with various police agencies in an effort to resolve a number of unsolved murders.
In November 1983, Lucas was transferred to a jail in Williamson County, Texas
Williamson County, Texas
Williamson County is a county located on both the Edwards Plateau to the west, consisting of rocky terrain and hills, and Blackland Prairies in the east consising of rich, fertile farming land, The two areas are roughly bisected by Interstate 35...
, where the Lucas Task Force was soon established. While in Williamson County, he was interviewed by then-Sheriff Jim Boutwell. Boutwell is said to have played an important role early in the task force as well as Bob Prince of the Texas Rangers. Shellady describes the task force as "a veritable clearinghouse of unsolved murder." Police officially "cleared" 213 previously unsolved murders via Lucas's confessions. Lucas reported that he would only confess to his crimes to improved his living conditions, and that he received preferential treatment rarely offered to convicts. Others have offered accounts that seem to support Lucas's claims, for example, that Lucas was rarely handcuffed when in custody or being transported, that he was often allowed to wander police stations and jails at will—including knowing the security codes for computerized doors—and that he was frequently taken to restaurants and cafés. It was later learned that Boutwell and other task force agents purposely deprived Lucas information about other unsolved murders so that Lucas's confessions would be reliable. Lucas was also granted favors while incarcerated that other inmates never received. On one occasion, in Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at...
, Lucas confessed to killing a man whose death had originally been ruled a suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. The man's widow received a large life insurance settlement that had been denied after the initial suicide verdict.
Texas Ranger Phil Ryan reports that Lucas became so accustomed to such treatment that he began "dictating orders" that were often obeyed by Rangers. Ryan also reported that he became concerned about the veracity of most of Lucas's confessions, feeling confident in the accuracy of two of Lucas' confessions, and further stated to the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
that "I'd bet a paycheck on the others." Shellady reports that in order to expose Lucas's claims, Ryan invented utterly fictional crimes, to which Lucas would generally "deny" involvement, a tactic also employed by Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
detective Linda Erwin. Ryan reports the manner in which Lucas typically confessed to a number of unsolved murders: If a police agency suspected Lucas, and if Lucas admitted involvement—and his total of some 600 confessions suggests he rarely denied complicity—they would send the Lucas Task Force a case file with information pertaining to the unsolved crime to quiz Lucas. Lucas would be questioned at length and prohibited to read police reports.
The same Houston Chronicle article reports that Erwin interviewed Lucas after he confessed to 13 murders in Houston. Erwin reports that "when I heard it got to be hundreds and hundreds (of confessions), it was unbelievable to me." Erwin further reports that, like Ryan, she assembled an utterly fictional crime: She "fabricated a case using random photographs from old murders long since solved and details pulled from her imagination ... He denied credit for the phony crime." Erwin admitted she was uncomfortable fabricating a crime, but felt it necessary in order to settle questions of Lucas's reliability. Lucas was not charged with any of the crimes he confessed to committing in Dallas despite knowing bits of information only the culprit would know.
Lucas' claims gradually became criticized as outlandish and less likely: He claimed to have been part of a cannibalistic
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
, satanic
Satanism
Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
called "The Hand of Death", to have taken part in snuff film
Snuff film
A snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...
s, to have killed Jimmy Hoffa
Jimmy Hoffa
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa was an American labor union leader....
, and to have delivered poison to cult leader Jim Jones
Jim Jones
James Warren "Jim" Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip.Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in...
in Jonestown
Jonestown
Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby...
prior to the notorious mass murder
Mass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
/suicide
Mass suicide
- Examples :Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious or cultic settings. Defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide unconnected to cults or war that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of frustrated people...
of Jones' group.
In response to these claims, and to reports of the Lucas Task Force's questionable investigative methodology, the Texas Attorney General's office issued a study (sometimes called "The Lucas Report") in 1986. The bulk of the Lucas Report was devoted to a detailed timeline of Lucas' claimed murders. The report compared Lucas' claims to reliable, verifiable sources for his whereabouts; the results often supported his confessions, and thus cast no doubt on most of the crimes in which he was implicated. Attorney General Jim Mattox
Jim Mattox
James Albon Mattox was a Dallas lawyer and Texas Democratic politician who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives and two four-year terms as state Attorney General, but lost high profile races for Governor in 1990, the U.S. Senate in 1994, and again as attorney general...
wrote that "when Lucas was confessing to hundreds of murders, those with custody of Lucas did nothing to bring an end to this "fiasco," and "We have found information that would lead us to believe that some officials 'ignored cases' because they were being lazy."
Orange Socks murder
Ultimately, Lucas was convicted of 189 homicideHomicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
s. He was sentenced to death for the murder of an unidentified woman dubbed "Orange Socks," as those were the only items of clothing found on her. Her body was discovered in Williamson County, Texas
Williamson County, Texas
Williamson County is a county located on both the Edwards Plateau to the west, consisting of rocky terrain and hills, and Blackland Prairies in the east consising of rich, fertile farming land, The two areas are roughly bisected by Interstate 35...
, on Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
1979.
Dan Morales
Dan Morales
Daniel C. "Dan" Morales served as the 48th Texas Attorney General from January 15, 1991 through January 13, 1999, during the administrations of Governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush. As attorney general, Morales reached a $17 billion settlement with big tobacco companies. He also authored...
, Mattox's successor as Texas Attorney General, concluded that it was "highly likely" that Lucas was guilty in the "Orange Socks" case. Though initially skeptical of the Lucas Report, he came generally to support its findings.
Williamson County prosecutor Cecil Kuykendall supported Lucas as a suspect in the "Orange Socks" case and has stated his opinion that Lucas was in the area, working as a roofer, during the time that "Orange Socks" was killed. As cited in an Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
report, Mattox stated that during the time "Orange Socks" was killed, there were "work records, check cashing evidence, all information indicating Lucas was nearby. We found nothing tying [Lucas] with the crime only his confession and vast knowledge of detail." Mattox's office decided not to intervene, so certain they were that the state appeals court would overturn Lucas' conviction in the "Orange Socks" case.
Lucas told Shellady that he confessed to the murder in an effort at "redeeming himself" and that he "felt obligated." Lucas expressed what Shellady describes as "deep regret and sorrow" for his crimes, stating that he "was not aware how much pain he caused until it was too late." The Houston Chronicle article also notes that Lucas offered various motives for his confession spree: Improving his conditions, a desire to embarrass police, and feeling guilt over killing others.
Adding to the confusion, however, was Lucas' habit of making confessions, recanting them, then offering more confessions, and again recanting them. Mattox, wary of Lucas' many confessions, suggested in 1999 that, in the case of Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, "I hope they don't start pinning on him every crime that happens near a railroad track."
Clemency and death
Lucas's supposed confidant, Ottis TooleOttis Toole
Ottis Elwood Toole was an American serial killer, arsonist and cannibal. Toole was an accomplice of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas...
, died on September 15, 1996, from cirrhosis of the liver. He was serving six life sentences in a Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
prison. In 1998, the Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
Board of Pardon and Parole voted to commute Lucas's death sentence to life imprisonment, in accordance with Governor George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's request. It remains the only successful commutation of a death sentence in Texas since the restoration of the death penalty after Gregg v. Georgia
Gregg v. Georgia
Gregg v. Georgia, Proffitt v. Florida, Jurek v. Texas, Woodson v. North Carolina, and Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 153 , reaffirmed the United States Supreme Court's acceptance of the use of the death penalty in the United States, upholding, in particular, the death sentence imposed on Troy Leon...
in 1976. On March 13, 2001, Lucas died in prison from heart failure at age 64.
Differing opinions
Lucas was a diagnosed psychopathPsychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
. Several authorities and interested parties remained sure of his guilt in a number of murders, regardless of his recantations and the controversy surrounding his many confessions. Jim Lawson, a sheriff's department investigator in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska
Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska
-National protected area:* North Platte National Wildlife Refuge* Scotts Bluff National Monument-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 36,951 people, 14,887 households, and 10,167 families residing in the county. The population density was 50 people per square mile . There were 16,119...
, questioned Lucas in September 1984 regarding the unsolved 1978 murder of schoolteacher Stella McLean. Lawson says he asked deceptive questions to test Lucas, but insists Lucas offered compelling testimony to support his claims of killing McLean.
Texas General Land Office Commissioner Garry Mauro
Garry Mauro
Garry Mauro is an American Democratic Party politician from Texas, most noted for being the four-term commissioner of the Texas General Land Office from 1983 to 1999 during the administrations of Governors Mark White, Bill Clements, Ann Richards, and George W...
, then standing for election of Governor of Texas
Governor of Texas
The governor of Texas is the head of the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to convene the legislature...
, stated his opinion that, "There is no doubt in my mind that Henry Lee Lucas is guilty enough of the murders he confessed to that he earned the death penalty."
The Houston Chronicle article quotes Harold Murphy of Marianna, Florida
Marianna, Florida
Marianna is a city in Jackson County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,230 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 6,200 . It is the county seat of Jackson County and is home to Chipola College...
, who remained convinced that Lucas killed his daughter Jerilyn in 1981.
As cited in the above Houston Chronicle article, Texas Ranger Phil Ryan—while strongly criticizing the Lucas Task Force for their questionable methods, and while rejecting the vast majority of Lucas's confessions—concluded that Lucas was a strong suspect in two cases (those of his 15-year-old traveling companion, Becky Powell, and Kate Rich), and thought Lucas was "at most ... responsible for 15 murders." This was still a considerable total, qualifying Lucas as a serial killer according to the FBI's definitions, but well below Lucas's claims. Eric W. Hickey cites an unnamed "investigator" who interviewed Lucas several times, and who concluded Lucas had probably killed about 40 people.
See also
- List of serial killers by number of victims
- List of horror film serial killers
Further reading
- Sara L. Knox, "The Productive Power of Confessions of Cruelty" 2001
- Brad Shellady, "Henry: Fabrication of a Serial Killer", included in Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies, 2002; Russ Kick, editor.
- Michael A. Kroll, "Condemned in Texas: When Innocence Doesn't Matter", 1998
- "The Death Penalty In Texas: Lethal Injustice", Amnesty International, 1998
- "Failing the Future: Death Penalty Developments, March 1998 – March 2000" Amnesty International, 2000
- "Henry Lee Lucas able to confuse authorities and then beat death", Jim Henderson, 1998 Houston Chronicle
- "Sheriff's wife among 4 dead in shooting", Melissa Nelson, 2007 Associated Press (Yahoo News)