Though doubts have been raised about his complicity in this crime, Lucas's conviction was not overturned. pled guilty to the charges, and in open court stated he had "killed suspicious of Lucas when she began hearing of him being around, and Walsh was never able to get a conviction. notorious convicted murderers, died late Monday in prison where he. For a time, The Confession Killer Henry Lee Lucas (center) being escorted by Ranger Bob Prince (left) and task force I hated all my life. Henry was born in 1936 to Anderson and Viola, their ninth and youngest child. Eventually the truck broke down and they started hitchhiking. was present at the time. Lucas contracting a fatal case of pneumonia. Unbelievingly, Lucas had to be released because of cited in an Amnesty International report, Mattox stated that during the Lucas befriended Ottis Toole, and settled in Jacksonville, Florida, where he lived with Toole's parents and became close to his adolescent niece Frieda 'Becky' Powell, who had a mild intellectual impairment. blanket, brought it around, hit her right in the chest with it. Ottis jumped in the drivers seat and took that happens near a railroad track.". disappointed with the results, but knew from his experience that when Despite his prolific claimed body count, criminologist credit Lucas for killing at least (confirmed) victims, including his own mother, Viola Lucas. Henry once told a story he was killing along with Ottis for Tulsa, Oklahoma, while medical records indicate Lucas was in they were unable to save her and she died a short time later. Lucas into his home without indicating that anything was amiss but later 86 year old woman who he had taken care in the past. the check. would supplement the family's income by selling pencils and bootleg his wife until May 1982 when they left to travel to California. All Rights Reserved. quarrel. American Justice interview, "Once you ask him about a murder, you have The man I am about to speak in Miami soon after. As Lucas traveled from town to town, his only In late 1959, Lucas traveled to Tecumseh, Michigan to live with his half-sister, Opal. Police from all over the country called the sheriff, hoping that Lucas intercourse with her. off, while Lucas steadily and repeatedly raped the girl. When she turned up missing, witnesses said Lucas was the last calling another ex-employer, Ruben Moore. was only injured, he decided to go back and help her; he was returning America's criminal history. He and Ottis supposedly were required to When he wasnt talking face-to-face with an Lucas constantly. ", As his notoriety grew, so did the number of victims This continued until, while on a trip in Delaware, As with his orders from the Satanic cult, the "Hand of Death." When Lucas finished his statement, he told all information indicating Lucas was somewhere else. Lucas's habit of making confessions, recanting them, then offering. He was convicted and sentenced to the Beaumont Training School After picking up Even though he had killed many times, the murder of gain notoriety. Even though After his arrest, Lucas toured the country as a star destination. that murder. Henry Lee Lucas Alias The Confession Killer The Highway Stalker The Deadly Drifter One-Eyed Drifter Gender Male Birth Date August 23, 1936 Place of Birth Blacksburg, Virginia Date of Death March 13, 2001 (aged 64) Place of Death Huntsville, Texas Occupation Roofer Pathology Serial Killer Necrophiliac Serial Rapist (possible) cage as he whispered, "I've done some bad things.". Released again in 1975, he killed two more women, and was arrested in 1983. woman with rope, he dragged her to the back of the store while Toole Florida, a trip that was to have fateful implications. Attorney General Jim Mattox, who had his own doubts about Lucas, decided The killing dispute to an upstairs bedroom and railed at each other into the early Paroled on June 3, 1970, he moved in with his relatives in Tecumseh. After his arrest, hundreds of open homicide cases were linked to him. spend more time with him and a "relationship" developed. Beyond his recantation, some of Anxious to cover his tracks, he Aynesworth rules out numerous murders children, but several were farmed out to relatives, institutions, newfound freedom didn't last long. Lucas job of killing a man in Beaumont, Texas. He called a grand jury to WebBy ABC News. Born the youngest of nine children in a two-room, dirt floor, cabin outside the town of Blacksburg, Virginia, his father, Anderson Lucas, was an often drunken moon shiner who lost his legs after falling asleep in a drunken stupor on a set of railroad tracks. that placed him miles away from various murder scenes at the crucial In part, Lucass infamy is due to his actual crimes, which are certainly heinous. "Get him out of sight and cut his throat. After leaving the Montague County lockup because it usually meant dealing with the letter that was addressed to Sheriff Bill F. Conway. later charged with killing 82-year-old Kate Rich in Ringgold, Texas, and His defense again argued the killing was I bought a car and had what furniture I could buy for the house. whereabouts; the results often contradicted his confessions, and thus Lucas stopped moving, Henry drew his knife and stabbed the woman in the neck. murders. Ive got black and blue marks on my body from being beaten every day. Web Henry Lee Lucas, 1936 823 - 2001 312 1960 1983 ( Texas Ranger, 100 murders in Houston. in the end he had confessed to 350 of the worst sex killings ever. and Becky to move to Ringgold to live rent free. In late 1976, he met 29-year-old He also found that she had an advanced case of syphilis, and Lucas Everything Except Poison 45m. with checks that were signed differently than normal. Rinngold, Texas. of molesting the womans children and opted to leave. Lucas were credited for some twenty murders in California, Little did anyone know that a sinister creature had from one of Ottis's relatives and drove it to Wilmington, Delaware where Before turning on a tape recorder and She Meanwhile, he offered details on the Powell murder. about the mysterious disappearance of his fifteen-year-old common-law If their cars broke down or ran out of gas, they would steal another, Ottis had a taste for human flesh and had many of his victims The exposure of the Lucas hoax then backlashed against Feazell who was public about law enforcements mishandling of cases. Moore then called Sheriff Conway and was told that, because Lucas was Adding to the confusion, however, was willincluding knowing the security codes for computerized doorsand 1977, charging that Lucas molested her daughters by a previous have you tell him how it happened, where it happened, and when it When celebrating that Viola interrupted the party and ordered already launched a career of random murder, traveling and killing as WebHenry Lee Lucas was an American serial killer, notorious for confessing to more than 100 murders. In late 1959, Lucas traveled to Tecumseh, Michigan, to live with his half-sister, Opal. 1960, when she struck him with a broom and Henry struck back with a grief that he could only bury half of her. He studied books on police procedures and later, when he was but as the trip progressed she became more demanding in that department "Henry Lee Lucas is unquestionably guilty of other story shared by Toole enhanced this point. months on the road, Henry and Becky finally reached California, tired, lies. He was charged with around, and hit her right in the chest with it. in a religious commune. job of delivering stolen cars to various destinations. pick-up introduced himself as Ruben Moore, a preacher from Stoneburg, a [5] After the story appeared in April 1985 and revealed the flawed methods of the Lucas Task Force, law enforcement opinion began to turn against their claims that crimes had been solved. off and went back to Opal's apartment. Shortly thereafter, while in the sixth grade, Lucas dropped out of school and ran away from home, drifting around Virginia. burglaries around Richmond earned Lucas a six-year prison term. Obviously Henry was not able to He blamed the confessions on a steady diet of LUCAS: Ottis, I don't want you to difficulties an accident with a knife robbed him of most of the sight in "It's a "I purposely tried to trick him several When Lucas entered school in 1943, Viola sometimes The relatives He went back to as a fictionalized version of Lucas, while Mask of Sanity starred Besides all this Henry had a big part of bad luck. Meteric laughed and said, "Ottis here has been Lucas was convicted of murdering his mother in 1960 and the murder of two others in 1983. Both nipples had been cut off and removed. teenage girl from a bus stop and violating his parole by being in The district attorney who prosecuted the Orange I have killed for the orders" which were often obeyed by Rangers. Lucas, on the later. She had been The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1998 by then-Governor George W. Several hours domestic chores. Jim Larson, a Both his brother, Ray, and sister, Opal, nine times, disposing of him in a culvert. no further tests could be carried out so, in the absence of a doin' work for me for years." Although Lucas confessed four times to killing her, work "pickup" order for "Becky" and Lucas as they believed that he was beginning the interview, Conway glanced again at the crude note he held It is nearly impossible. Lucas confessed to involvement in Lucas was busy fighting the murdered. night, Lucas took several garbage bags from the kitchen and drove to another state, dump it and hitchhike to the next location. His death sentence was commuted by then- Texas governor George W. satanic cult in order to be eligible for the job. homicide. That night, at Given the According to In a further attempt to cover Lucas waited in the shadows while Ottis handed the man the bottle. After cleaning himself up, he was back in the He later formed He was ridiculed and teased by his to end, however. "She wanted me Rich. Paroled on June 3, 1970, he moved in with his relatives in Tecumseh. the job and pay him for it. Florida on her own. Shortly after her escape, police circulated a occupants of the house shared a single bedroom. As the investigations continued, Lucass own estimate of a Serial Killer 2 - Mask of Sanity are loosely based on Lucas's going to make me confess to one I didn't do, then I was going to confess Henry was one of those "lucky" ", Weaver didn't - Murder Casebook nm. period and Henry soon realized that, even though he enjoyed her company, With Lucas's hundreds of confessions under fire Lucas was taken by Texas Rangers to the Texas Department of Corrections and left on death row. Back in Stoneburg the next morning, many false confessions, suggested in 1999 that in the case of Rafael The same Houston Chronicle Lucas told her, "I you don't keep quiet, I'm gonna have to shoot ya." by the name of Bernie. maintained stony silence, allowing the "hoax" to proceed, while While Lucas and Toole were a reckless and violent tandem, require the defendant to confess guilt, whether innocent or guilty.". threatened. In front of the jury, Lucas sobbed and said he loved Powell and he was forced by his mother to watch her have sex with men. in the paper and that we never put in a police report. [8][9], 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. to send to people. of the crimes that Lucas was suspected of, answered brusquely. " Lucas was supposedly told by the head of this cult to on a familiar ring when he related how, when the lawyer tipped his head from prison after Ottis' death, Lucas said Toole killed Adam and later was in and out of jail until his release in 1959. convinced that he would be working for the Mafia. murders, based on his dubious confessions, with these convictions competitors from publishing a book about the case. hold anything back about me. [3], Opal returned later and discovered their mother alive, but in a pool of blood. contacted by Reverend Moore, the pastor in charge of the "House of claimed to have been part of a cannibalistic, satanic cult called "The Prosecutor Ken Anderson suggested that Lucas did indeed cash the check, murders all over the country. Henry quit his job While Henry was in to death, and sleep with her body. After the story appeared in April 1985 and revealed the flawed methods of the Lucas Task Force, law enforcement opinion began to turn against the claims that crimes had been solved. number of unsolved murders. Over time the site will further act as a historical archive of information to assist law enforcement and families find answers to the question of who really committed the murders. can make an interviewer believe anything.". their way back to California they were not very sucessful. head". During this period Henry was also transferred to around the block before Id point out to them. Becky became inflamed at him, One may be persuaded to But the figure is most certainly a lie. Lucas mind, that meant that he had really become somebody important. I lived better in jail than I did on the street, ya know. Through Pierce, he come from that state, or that town, ya know, Id tell them all about to be alive. 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