Ok first off...
I searched the forum and not a thread about this man.
Secondly...what is scary to me is that where he did most of his murders is like 20 mins from my house in Ringgold TX which is super creepy.
Anyway, Enjoy!!!
With my comments in RED
Also, sorry so long, but its really interesting
Henry Lee Lucas (August 23, 1936 â?? March 13, 2001) was an American criminal, convicted of murder and once listed as America's most prolific serial killer. However, he later recanted his confessions. He once flatly stated "I am not a serial killer" in a letter to researcher Brad Shellady.[1]
Lucas confessed to involvement in about 3,000 murders, an average of about one murder per day between his release from prison in mid-1975 to his arrest in mid-1983.(ok 3000 murders, seriously?) 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 criticized by Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox for sloppy police work and taking part in an extended "hoax".[2]
Beyond his recantation, some of Lucas' confessions have been challenged as inaccurate by a number of critics, including law enforcement and court officials. Lucas claimed to have been initially subjected to poor treatment and coercive interrogation tactics while in police custody, and that he confessed to murders in an effort to improve his living conditions.(bullshit) This calls into question many of his alleged murders, since his confessions were often the sole evidence cited in favor of his guilt, especially his sole death penalty conviction. Amnesty International reported "the belief of two former state Attorneys General that Lucas was in all likelihood innocent of the crime for which he was sentenced to death." [3]
Lucas' sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1998 by then-Governor George W. Bush. His was the only death penalty case among the 153 that came across Bush's desk in his tenure as Texas Governor in which he intervened and commuted the death sentence. Lucas died in prison of natural causes. Though Lucas' death seemed to have removed the possibility of resolution in many instances, there are still a number of unresolved or open questions. Some authorities â?? while admitting that Lucas tended to exaggerate his accounts and told some outright lies, and also recognizing that the Lucas Task Force engaged in some very questionable tactics â?? insist that Lucas was a viable suspect in a number of unsolved murders. Despite these factors, Lucas still maintains a reputation, in the words of author Sarah L. Knox, "as one of the world's worst serial killers â?? even after the debunking of the majority of his confessions by the Attorney General of Texas." [4]
Lucas allegedly carried out many murders with an accomplice, Ottis Toole, whose reputation as a serial killer is mostly unaltered by Lucas' recantations.
== Lucas was born in Blacksburg, Virginia. He described his mother, Viola Lucas, as a violent prostitute. His father, Anderson Lucas, was an alcoholic and former railroad employee who had lost his legs in a train accident, and who suffered from Viola's wrath as often as his son. Lucas reports that Viola regularly beat him and his half-brother, often for no reason. He once spent three days in a coma after his mother hit his head with a plank of wood, and on many occasions he was forced by his mother to watch her have sex with men. (I cant imangine putting your child through this) Lucas described an incident when he was given a mule as a gift by his father's friends, only to see his mother shoot and kill it.
When he was a teenager, Lucas claimed to have been introduced to bestiality and zoosadism â?? the latter a common trait among sociopaths, especially those who become serial killers â?? as well as receiving convictions for petty theft. Lucas had also damaged an eye during a fight with his half-brother. His mother ignored the injury for three days, and subsequently the eye grew infected and had to be replaced by a glass eye.
Lucas claimed to have first murdered in 1951, when he strangled a girl who refused his sexual advances. Like most of his confessions, he later retracted this claim. In 1954, Lucas was convicted on several counts of burglary in and around Richmond, Virginia, and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment. He escaped, was recaptured, and was released in September 1959.
In late 1959, Lucas moved to Tecumseh, Michigan to live with his half-sister, Opal. Lucas was engaged to marry when his mother visited for Christmas. She disapproved of her son's fiancee and insisted he move back to Virginia. He refused, and they argued repeatedly about his upcoming nuptials. ==
On January 12, 1960, 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 claims 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.
She was not in fact dead, and when Lucas' 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' 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 served ten and a half years and was released in June 1970.
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Originally Posted by Katie
