While there is no formal definition of “serial killer,” most people use the term to refer to a murderer who killed three or more victims on three or more separate occasions. (Someone who killed a large number of people all at one time would be a mass murderer.) The motives of serial killers are mysterious, often leading to public fascination with them. Charles Manson never lost his celebrity status during his decades in prison. Even Ted Bundy was something of a heartthrob in the 70s. If Henry Lee Lucas was to be believed, though, he had them both beat in terms of the number of victims. Although his confessions varied widely in credibility, Lucas confessed to committing about 3,000 murders in his lifetime.
The People Lucas Almost Certainly Killed
In Michigan in 1960, Lucas fatally wounded his mother during a fight. Although he claimed he had killed her in self-defense, he was convicted of second degree murder and served 10 years of a 20 to 40-year sentence. After his release, he moved to Florida with his friend Ottis Toole, who would also go on to become a serial killer. (Toole may have killed Adam Walsh, whose father founded the program America’s Most Wanted to help spread public awareness about unsolved crimes and criminals at large.) In 1982, Lucas convinced Toole’s niece Becky Powell to move with him to Texas. In 1983, Lucas was arrested on unrelated charges and soon after confessed to killing both Powell and Kate Rich, an elderly woman for whom Lucas and Powell had been working.
The Confessions Become Less and Less Credible
In late 1983, while incarcerated in Williamson County, Texas, Lucas began to confess to more and more unsolved murders. Police believed Lucas’ confessions because he had already been convicted, with compelling evidence, of several murders and because the details he filled in beyond what was already written in police reports tended to be believable. Because of Lucas’ confessions, the state of Texas was able to clear more than 200 previously unsolved murder cases. Because of his confession to the “Orange Socks” murder, so called because the victim, who remains unidentified to this day, was wearing only orange socks when her body was discovered in 1979, Lucas received a death sentence.
Eventually, though, the cracks started to show in Lucas’ convictions. In order for Lucas to have committed a certain series of closely-spaced murders, he would have had to drive at 70 miles per hour for several days without stopping. He also confessed to a murder in Texas that happened at a time when time sheets showed that Lucas was on the clock at his job in Florida. In 1998, Governor George W. Bush commuted Lucas’ sentence to life in prison. Lucas died in prison in 2001.
Contact Madrid Law About Felony Cases
Do not confess to a crime that you did not commit. Even when there is compelling evidence against you, consult a criminal defense attorney before deciding whether to plead guilty or not guilty. Contact Madrid Law in Houston to discuss your case.
