Caso Abierto >> periodico digital especializado >> sucesos y cronica negra.: Henry Lee Lucas, America's most prolific serial killer

Henry Lee Lucas, America's most prolific serial killer
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Carlos Cabezas Lopez on 27 April, 2007 12:00:00
 
Unable to bear the torture, his father  committed suicide. Her abuse continued
and Lucas lost an eye in one of her  violent attacks. She killed all the
animals Lucas brought home as pets and even  dressed him as a girl and sent him
to school bare feet. One of his teachers  took pity on him and bought him a
pair of shoes for which poor Lucas was  thrashed by his mother.
He hated his mother but had no escape from her. His mothers clients  who
were known as uncles stayed with them from time to time and a few of  them
were kind to him. One of them took Lucas to the hills when he was 10 years  old
and showed him how to have sex with a goat after slitting its throat. All  these
traumatic and gruesome childhood experiences pushed him to become a  hardened
criminal.
Henry committed his first murder in 1951 at the age of 15. He met a 17 year 
old girl at a bus stop and propositioned her. When she refused he killed her.
He  then fled to Ohio to stay with his sister. He was arrested at the outskirts
of  Ohio. He accepted the murder only in 1954. After serving 6 years in prison
he  went back to live with his half sister Opal. There he met a girl whom he
wanted  to marry. His mother who visited them for Christmas disapproved of her
and took  him back toVirginia.Back in Virginia Lucas lived with his mother. He
killed her  in 1960 in self defense, thats what he claims and sexually abused
her after  stabbing her with a knife. He served 15 years in prison and was
released in  1975. He drifted around in the south of America doing odd jobs. He
met Ottis  Toole and had an affair with Tooles young niece. He even had a
relationship  with Toole who was a homosexual. Together, they claim to have
committed more  than hundred murders.
This relationship with Tooles young niece continued and this odd couple became
man and wife. Once on their way to Florida, hitch hiking in trucks, this
couple had an argument and she slapped him.
Out of habit Lucas pulled out his knife and stabbed her.        Later, he
dumped her body elsewhere. He told people that she had eloped        with a
truck driver. Three weeks later, an octogenarian was killed in a        fire at
her home under mysterious circumstances.
On June 11th 1983, he was arrested for possessing a gun. It was surprising     
  that this serial killer had a heart. He regretted murdering his wife, and     
  returned to the field where he had scattered her body parts to commune       
with the soul of his beloved. He then called the jailer and confessed to       
all the murders.
He confessed to 500 murders, individually and with Toole as his  accomplice.
Toole who was also languishing in jail corroborated Lucass  statements . Lucas
kept changing his statements and was awarded life  imprisonment due to his
mental condition. The then governor of Texas, George W  Bush, commuted his jail
term and allowed him to die in prison in March 2001.  Lucas has the distinction
of being the only man ever to have his death sentence  commuted by former Texas
Governor George W. Bush.
By: Carlos Cabezas López