Henry Lee Lucas
Last week I discussed Aileen Wuornos and how she killed seven men along the coast of Florida. This week I will be analyzing the sixth most well-known serial killer: Henry Lee Lucas. He was cited as being known as the “Confession Killer” due to the fact that he confessed to hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths over his lifetime. With this specific killer, life was not too kind to him.
Henry Lee Lucas’ life started when he was born on August 23, 1936 in Blacksburg, Virginia and he was the youngest of nine children. His mother was an undiagnosed psychotic and alcoholic and his father was an alcoholic. His mother was also a prostitute that would cross dress Henry in public and often make him watch her with her clients. After Henry had gotten into a fight with his brother and had gotten stabbed in the eye, Viola, his mother, ignored the wound for three days which lead to it becoming infected and it’s eventual removal. Viola would often beat not only her children, but her husband as well. Young Henry had become an alcoholic by age ten and by his teens he was involved with an older half brother, killing animals and violating their bodies out of curiosity and for enjoyment. His father, Anderson, had lost his legs due to a railroad accident and froze to death when Henry was thirteen after drunkenly falling asleep outside during a blizzard.
His first murder was said to have been committed when he was only fourteen/fifteen years old. His testimony revealed to be very unreliable and he later withdrew the confession; however, this was only the beginning for Henry Lee Lucas. He continued to act in such ungodly manners which landed him in and out of jail for pretty much the rest of his life. When Lucas was released in 1959, his aging mother required his help. Lucas agreed but apart of his terms was that he was not going to stay long. On January 11, 1960 the two had gotten in a drunken fight which lead Henry to stab his mother in the neck which brought on a fatal heart attack. He was arrested for second degree murder and sentenced twenty-forty years. Even though this was one of the more serious crimes Lucas was charged with, he only served ten years for the murder of his mother. He was let out in 1970 due to prison overcrowding and went back to the only lifestyle he knew of to only be imprisoned eighteen months later for the attempted kidnapping of three schoolgirls. He then got engaged and married to a prison pen pal, however he fled when his step daughter accused him of abuse.
This then lead to a drifting period of Lucas’ life where he found Ottis Toole who would become both his romantic and killing partner. Despite their relationship, Lucas had become common law spouses with Toole’s mentally challenged young niece. Eventually they would move from Florida to Texas, which is unfortunately where he ended up killing her. When Lucas was finally brought in, he confessed to hundreds of murders, what he claimed to be for attention, yet there were instances where he shared details only the killer would have known. He might not have killed hundreds, but he definitely proved his ability to kill numerous individuals. He was convicted of eleven murders and sentenced life in prison in 1998 and then died of heart failure in prison in 2001.
Henry Lee Lucas claimed to be one of the most notorious serial killers in the United States. From the beginning, things were not promising and his life ended up being shaped by the nurturing events of his childhood and adolescence. He truly didn’t deserve the amount of chances at reality he got by being released multiple times. The fact that he was even able to confess to the killings of hundreds speaks wonders about his character and his mental state. If a creature like Henry Lee Lucas was able to be created within the walls of the house of his parents, I wonder how the other eight children turned out. I hope his victims and their families are at peace.
If you want to learn more about Henry Lee Lucas, be sure to check out the links below. I hope you learned something from this analysis of one of the most inhumane human beings in United States history. Thank you so much for reading, if you have no plans this weekend, check out THON at the BJC! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
http://www.therichest.com/featured/top-10-most-notorious-serial-killers-of-all-time/
http://www.the-line-up.com/henry-lee-lucas-confession-killer/
Rhonda Graham
TRUE STORY
Fall/1982, during my lunch hour, I was seated in Travis Park in downtown San Antonio reading “The Vitamin Bible” when a pitiful man wearing a filthy CPO jacket sat on the opposite end of the park bench. The man asked me if I believed in God and, not feeling the least bit threatened by him, I said “Yes.” He then told me that I was beautiful and that he would like to take me to meet his mother. Of course, I was not going anywhere with this pitiful stranger but, because I am kind, I engaged him in a brief conversation. He said he was homeless, traveled all over, slept anywhere he could and fed himself by day-to-day being a dishwasher in restaurants; he said he always easily found such work. After a brief exchange with this pitiful man, I politely excused myself and walked back to my office. As time went on, I forgot all about that pitiful homeless man who said he wanted to take me to meet his mother.
Then, in the second half of 1984, one Sunday evening I was watching 60 Minutes when a story aired about a serial killer. When the serial killer opened his mouth to speak, INSTANTLY I was stunned to recognize that the serial killer who was being interviewed from prison was HENRY LEE LUCAS and he was the forgotten pitiful homeless man who, two years earlier, had sat on that park bench with me in downtown San Antonio.
In that 60 minutes interview, I recall that the claim was made that Lucas’ mother was a prostitute and that, as a boy, he watched her intimate interactions with men. I believe the claim was also made that his mother was the first woman he murdered. Per the reporter, Lucas confessed to so many murders that the authorities took him to be a liar. But Fall/1982, a woman named Bobby Lee Barker and her housekeeper Frances Machado were murdered in Barker’s San Antonio home and, even though Lucas confessed and told investigators SECRET DETAILS about that murder scene, because Lucas confessed to so many murders, the investigators chose to disbelieve that he was the killer of Barker and Machado. The 60 Minutes interview also brought to light the murder of ANOTHER woman who Lucas confessed to killing (I believe she was found in/near a creek somewhere between San Antonio and Austin) and, there again, even though Lucas confessed to her murder also, the investigators once again chose not to believe Lucas.
While watching the interview, I knew that Lucas was the man who sat on that downtown San Antonio park bench with me Fall/1982 proving that Lucas was indeed in the area during the time of “unsolved” murder scenes in Texas mentioned by the reporter. I knew that the investigators were WRONG with their assumption that Lucas was “showboating” with all of his numerous confessions. Therefore, I called the San Antonio Police Department and, after being transferred numerous times, a man finally listened to my report but I could tell that he put no weight whatsoever to my report. I know it is not a seemingly meaningless coincidence that Lucas approached me IN San Antonio Fall/1982 and then that IN San Antonio Fall/1982 Barker and her housekeeper Frances Machado were murdered and that Lucas confessed telling investigators SECRET DETAILS about his crime scenes such as the fact that Bobby Lee Barker’s body was found rolled-up in a braided rug that was then dragged from the kitchen to the garage.
Because HENRY LEE LUCAS confessed to killing Bobby Lee Barker and her housekeeper Frances Machado and because Lucas told investigators SECRET DETAILS of murder scenes and because Lucas approached me IN San Antonio Fall/1982, I believe that Lucas not only committed the Barker/Machado murder IN San Antonio Fall/1982 but I believe that the serial killer HENRY LEE LUCAS committed ALL of the murders that he confessed to.