Henry Lee Lucas was a well-known serial killer for many reasons. Not only was he extremely hard to profile but he confessed to many of his killings. One would think that these confessions would help investigators solve many murders, but unfortunately there were many holes in Lucas’s confessions. Henry was known for committing his murders in acts of rage or anger. He never planned anything and he had no signatures. These aspects of Lucas make him an extremely interesting serial killer to study. Henry Lee Lucas was born on August 23, 1936 in Blacksburg, Virginia. His mother was Viola Lee Lucas, who was said to have an alcohol problem, and often prostituted herself (Biography). He became sexually deviant at a young age due to …show more content…
He was trying to become sexually intimate with a 17-year-old girl, and when she refused he became angry and strangled her to death. He then buried her body. (House of Horrors) He was obviously not convicted of this murder considering he confessed to it in 1983. A few years later he was sent to prison for burglary for six years. He tried to escape from the prison twice, but was caught both times. January 12th of 1960 had to be Lucas’s favorite murder of all. On this day his mother arrived home after a night of drinking and woke Lucas up, beating him with a broomstick. Out of anger, he grabs a knife and stabs the woman to death. He claims that it was self-defense, but the prosecution doesn’t but it. Lucas was sentenced to prison for 20 to 40 years, but because of multiple attempts at suicide, he was sent to a state hospital and only remained there for 6 years until he was paroled. He only ended up serving 10 years for the murder of his own mother (criminal minds). Another confessed murder of Lucas was the murder of one of his lovers, Frieda Powell. He explained how he was having an argument with her, and she slapped him in the face. Here he became extremely angry and as he did with his mother, he stabbed her with a knife. He then dismembered her corpse, and threw her remains in a field (Hopwood). His next murder was an elderly woman that had gone missing. He also …show more content…
He was an ex-convict who owned a handgun (Hopwood).After his arrest, he felt like he needed to confess to everything that he had done. He stated saying “I’ve done some bad things.” (Hopwood). For an entire year and a half, he confessed to hundreds of murders. Many to which there was actually no forensic evidence towards, which led Lucas to called a serial liar, as well as a serial killer. He said that the only reason he committed to so many murders was so he could have better living conditions while in prison. Most of the murders he confessed to, he later retracted. After his confessions, detectives from about 40 different states questioned him in regards to an estimated 3,000 homicides (Mayhem). Later Lucas said that detectives would bribe him with food and other things so he would confess to their unsolved murders. (Hopwood) They would teach him about the cases so then when he would “confess” to them, he knew them