Henry Lee Lucas: A Serial Killer or Police Victim?

Serial killers throughout history have always had one thing in common. They all have a love for the morbid side of life. Looking deeper I find many with more gore and bodies and less humanity. One such killer is Henry Lee Lucas.

Lucas was a man with little to live for. His trails and confessions where questioned by everyone including the Attorney General of Texas. The police in charge where put under a microscope. Why was this criminal so different than others? Henry Lee Lucas admitted to being involved in over 600 murders and then recanted his confessions. Of those 600 only around 350 were considered “believable.” Many people in law enforcement thought it was a hoax.

Never the less, Lucas was sentenced to death based solely on his confessions. However, the governor of the State of Texas, George W. Bush (at the time), commuted the sentence to life in prison. Three years later in 2001, Lucas died in prison from natural causes.

The killing for Lucas began with his mother in 1960, when he assaulted her with a knife. The result was her untimely death which happened hours after the assault had ended. Lucas’s sister had found her mother and called for help. It was too late; the death was ruled as heartache brought on by assault. Lucas was arrested and placed in prison. He was then released in 1970.

In 1983, Lucas was arrested for 11 different murders and began to confess. These confessions were said to be his plan to gain some luxuries the police weren’t allowing him while in custody. The lawyer representing Lucas stated that the police treatment was “inhumane” and “calculated solely to require the defendant to confess guilt, whether innocent or guilty.”

The controversy is exists, whether Henry Lee Lucas was guilty or innocent, if his confessions were brought on by police mistreatment, and if any of the murders were really committed by Lucas. With his death, the truth of the murders died as well.