The exact number of victims of the serial killer Henry Lee Lucas no one can name. His involvement in eleven murders was fully proven. The offender himself named a much larger number of victims. It is interesting for researchers of the psychology of serial killers to study each individual case and find similarities and patterns in it with other atrocities.
Born into a dysfunctional family
Henry Lee Lucas was born on August 16, 1936 in Blacksburg. The family was far from ideal. The mother's name was Viola. She was engaged in prostitution. Father's name was Anderson. It is known that he lost his legs while working on the railroad. As a result, the man became disabled and an alcoholic.
The head of the family was the mother. She was cruel to her son, however, as well as to her husband. The boy often beat her. Once she hit him on the head with a plank so hard that Henry lay unconscious all day. The woman not only did not hide her craft, but also forced her household members to watch her while working. All information is known frommemories of a criminal.
Girly dress instead of school uniform
Mother decided that Henry Lee should look like a girl. He had long uncut hair. When it was time to go to elementary school, she made her son wear a dress. This led to attacks on the boy by peers.
The teacher decided to cut the boy's hair. The mother's reaction was immediate. She stated that he had no right to interfere in family affairs. And yet the position of the school forced the woman to adhere to the generally accepted rules of dress.
Once the father's friends gave the boy a mule. The child became attached to the animal. The mother did not like it, she killed the mule in front of her son. She did not want him to have affection for anyone.
The father treated his son well, but with his own vision of the world. He treated the boy to moonshine of his own production. By the age of ten, Henry had become heavily addicted to alcohol.
Once a half-brother hurt Lucas's eye during another fight. The boy was not provided with timely medical care, the eye had to be removed. It was replaced with a prosthesis. The young man was very complex about this. A hole in his head and a glass prosthesis did not add to his self-confidence.
Even as a child, he showed a craving for zoosadism. He took pleasure in torturing animals. He didn't stop there.
First kill
The first time Henry Lee took a life was in 1951. A young girl was killed. At the same time, he was detained by the police for breaking and entering. Hisplaced in a juvenile detention facility. Lucas stayed there for a year, became addicted to drugs.
After his release, he took the life of an old prostitute by hitting the woman on the head with a hammer and running over with a van. Soon he was arrested for attempted robbery. He was sentenced to four years in prison. The offender did not serve his sentence, he managed to escape from prison in 1956. He was a car thief until he was arrested. He was sent to Ohio federal prison.
Murder of mother
In 1959, Henry Lee is released. He settles in Michigan, cohabiting with his sister. Viola's mother comes to visit. In another quarrel, her son kills her with a knife. While the woman was bleeding, he went for a walk around the city. At this time, Viola was taken to the hospital, where she died. Lucas was sentenced to forty years.
After a year, the offender is transferred to a psychiatric hospital. He is diagnosed with schizophrenia, psychopathy, sexual aberrations and other problems.
In the asylum, he makes several attempts to commit suicide. But every time he was rescued by workers. Then he decides to live in order to destroy the maximum number of people.
After a while he was returned to prison. There he receives permission to use the local archive. Henry studies criminal cases, he delves into the specifics of police work. The perpetrator contemplates murder options to avoid being caught.
Jail Release
In 1970, Michigan representatives hostthe decision to release Henry Lee despite opposition from the prisoner. The reason for this decision was the conclusion of psychiatrists that Lucas is he althy. He is forced to leave the prison. Henry was furious, after a couple of hours he kills a young girl.
Meeting Ottis Toole
Next, assassin Henry Lee Lucas meets Ottis Toole. It was he who offered all kinds of crimes. The new friend had a niece named Frieda Powell. However, everyone called her Becky. So the criminal trio was formed.
They set in motion Tool's worst plans. For this, a victim was selected who moved to another state to change residence. So the person did not rush to look for immediately.
The crime was committed according to the following algorithm:
- rape;
- murder;
- posthumous intercourse;
- dismemberment of a corpse;
- preparing his meat for eating.
Criminals even managed to earn extra money on their craft. They became mercenaries in a satanic community called the Hand of Death. The sectarians paid them ten thousand US dollars to kill people in the area, sowing panic. The police could not find traces of this cult. It is known that Satanists used the bodies of the victims for their rituals, and then they ate them.
Relationship with Becky
In 1981, Frida is arrested and sent to a juvenile detention center in Florida. The men help her escape. At this time, Henry and Becky, who turnedtwelve years old, become lovers. It is known that the girl was the initiator of such changes. She accused him of being homosexual until he changed his mind about her.
In 1983, Becky wants to return to the colony to serve her sentence and start life anew. She asks Lucas to help her with this. He agrees, although not immediately. They leave their hiding place in one of the Protestant sects and set off by car. The girl did not reach her destination. In one of the fights, Henry kills her with a knife. He removes the ring from her finger, dismembers the body and buries it in the ground. This greatly changes the inner world of the criminal. He no longer hides traces of his murders.
Recognition
Back in 1982, he killed an elderly woman who was a good friend of his. He had a fit of anger, as a result of which he stabbed her with a knife. On the chest of the victim, he carved an inverted cross and performed posthumous sexual intercourse. He hid the body in a drainpipe. A year after Becky's death, the police arrested Henry on suspicion of killing an elderly woman. Psychiatrists revealed a lot of deviations from him. The strongest intoxication of the brain also contributed to this, since the criminal smoked five packs of cigarettes during the day.
A few weeks after his arrest, he confesses to numerous murders. He plays with the police by providing information about new bodies every five or six days. Several dozen victims of Henry Lee Lucas have been discovered. He could not even always remember the circumstances of the committedkills.
The court needed irrefutable evidence. The accusation was made up of eleven cases. For them, the serial killer received a sentence, although there were more than forty victims. Some say that we are talking about hundreds of corpses. This cannot be verified.
World fame
Information about the brutal criminal stirred up all of America and Europe. His actions were talked about on television shows. Photos of Henry Lee Lucas were in all the newspapers. He even got fans.
The trial went on for a long time. It was held in Texas. During this time, Ottis Toole died of cirrhosis of the liver in a Florida prison. He was sentenced to six life terms.
Finally, in 1998, the criminal was sentenced to death. George W. Bush was then governor of Texas. He canceled the execution because it was not proven that at least one murder took place in the state. In 1999, the sentence was changed to life imprisonment.
End of the road
The life of the tramp Henry Lee Lucas ended on March 13, 2001, at the age of sixty-five. The cause of death was heart failure.
Many shows have been made about Lucas's life and brutal crimes. Three feature films were released in different years. The last picture appeared on the screens in 2009. The main role in the thriller was played by Antonio Sabato.
A man deprived of parental love has seen nothing in his life but bullying and violence. Since childhoodaccustomed to alcohol, drugs, he grew up as an asocial animal. He had flashes of humanity, but they did not last long. The society that gave birth to such a person made her famous, and then closed her behind iron bars.
