The Most Serful Serial Killer: Henry Lee Lucas

Introduction

Henry Lee Lucas is widely regarded as one of the most prolific serial killers in recent history. Since his arrest, Lucas has confessed to killing more than 100 people. Lucas’s killing history is long and complex, starting early in his life, and continuing in a manner that lacked any real pattern. Lucas’s adolescence and early adulthood were riddled with violence, crimes and prison sentences. In 1951, by the age of 15 Lucas reported having already committed his first murder. His victim's name, Laura Burnsley was 17 years old at the time; Lucas killed her due to her refusal of his sexual advances.

A year later, after being arrested for burglary, Lucas was sent to a school for juvenile delinquents. During his stay at the school,

His mother verbally abused him and the drunken fight resulted in Henry killing his mother by stabbing her in the neck after supposedly being hit over the head by her with a broom stick, which broke on impact. Although he pleaded that her death had been due to self-defense, Lucas was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison. After ten years of serving his sentence, Lucas was released due to prison overcrowding in 1970. Only one year after being released, Lucas was once again put in prison for attempting the kidnap two young girls; he was released for this offense in

After being fired for stealing money, Lucas killed Becky, dismembering her body, storing it in a pillowcase and then scattering her remains in a field. He followed Becky’s murder by killing Rich as well and stuffing her body into a drainage pipe, which he later returned to.

In 1983, Lucas was arrested for the possession of a firearm. During the arrest, evidence of the two murders was found, resulting in two murder charges being brought against him as well. At the time of his arrest, Lucas also began his confession spree, during which time he confessed to more than 3000 murders. However, the truth and accuracy of his confessions have since been questioned, many of the confessions being discredited.

Due to Lucas’s pathological lying and deception, it is very difficult to track the manner in which he killed his victim; he has been quoted, saying, “I killed 'em every way there is except poison. There's been strangulations, there's been knifings, there's been shootings, there's been hit-and-runs…”. However, a common thread among his confirmed kills has been multiple stab wounds and rape, which occurred both before the deaths as well as postmortem. Lucas, after much speculation and investigation into his confessions, including meticulous research into the timelines of the murders, was finally convicted of only 11 murders and sentenced to