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Henry Lee Lucas

Reign of terror: 1959 - 1983

Motive: Lucas professes that it was to get revenge on society.

Crimes: Henry Lee Lucas has admitted to over 1000 murders. However, it is unknown how many of these are true and how many are products of his imagination. Listed below are some of the murders he has been convicted of.

Date Victim Method Place Sentence
1959 Nellie Viola Dixon (his mother) Stabbed Tecumseh, Michigan 20 - 40 years
August 1970 Linda Phillips Stabbed Kauffman County, Texas Life
August 1976 Police officer Clemmie E. Curtiss Shot Cabell County, West Virginia Life
November 1977 Lillie Pearl Darty Raped and shot Harrison County, Texas 66 years
October 1979 "Orange Socks" Strangled I-35, Willimson County, Texas Death penalty
    - Diana Bryant Strangled Brownfield, Texas 75 years
23 / 8 / 82 Frieda Lorraine "Becky" Powell Stabbed Denton, 37 miles north of Dallas -
16 / 9 / 82 "Granny" Kate Rich Stabbed Ringgold, Texas -
December 1982 Glenna Biggers Stabbed with a 14" knife and a 3 pronged fork Hale County, Texas Life
Before 17 / 3 / 83 Unidentified woman Raped and strangled Montgomery County, Texas Life
13 / 4 / 83 Laura Jean Domez Beaten and strangled Montgomery County, Texas Life

Lucas has also been charged with 20 other killings and faces trial in Florida for 4 more counts of murder.

Interesting facts: Lucas' childhood could be the root of all his problems. His mother was a prostitute, and forced Lucas to watch her working. She also beat him. Medical scans have shown that his brain is covered in lesions and abnormalities in areas that are related to control of emotion.

After killing his mother, who had tried to beat him like she had when he was a boy, he was sentenced to 20 - 40 years imprisonment. After 10 years he was released, due to over-crowding.

In 1975, after another spell in prison, Lucas met a man called Ottis Toole, who became his partner in crime. It is unsure who Toole killed and who Lucas killed, but it is certain that they committed many crimes together.

Lucas and Toole became friendly with Toole's 12 year old niece, Frieda Lorraine (Becky) and 10 year old nephew, Frank in 1979. They started cruising round together for weeks at a time. When the children's mother died in 1982, they were taken into care at a juvenile home, but Lucas and Toole helped Becky escape. Soon after this, Toole returned home on his own.

Lucas and Becky started to pose as husband and wife. They were taken in by Jack Smart, who gave them the job of looking after his elderly mother, Kate Rich. However, they were soon thrown out, for forging cheques. When the couple joined the religious community "The House of Prayer" near Stoneburg, Becky welcomed their doctrine. Lucas was worried she would confess everything he had done as well as her own sins, and so he killed her. Kate Rich, who had kept in contact with the couple did not believe his story that Becky had vanished, and so she also was killed. Lucas was arrested soon afterwards and started to confess.

Lucas has a condition called hypermnesia, and remembers events in great detail. For this reason, it is uncertain which crimes he has admitted to are real, as he has used details not known to the public in his confessions. However, many could have come from good guesswork, and piecing together clues from leading questions.

Lucas has admitted to being several things - among others, a cannibal, satanist, contract killer and born-again Christian. No-one will ever know the truth.

Lucas died of heart failure on 12th March 2001. Toole died of hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver on 21st September 1996.

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