Post by J Doe on Dec 15, 2017 20:34:11 GMT 8
www.murderpedia.org/male.L/l/lucas-henry-lee.htm
Lucas was born on August 23, 1936, in Blacksburg,
Virginia. He described his mother, Viola Lucas, as a
violent prostitute. His father, Anderson Lucas, was an
alcoholic and former railroad employee who had lost his
legs in a train accident, and who suffered from Viola's
wrath as often as his son. Lucas reports that Viola
regularly beat him and his half-brother, often for no
reason. He once spent three days in a coma when his
mother hit his head with a plank of wood, and on many
occasions he was forced by his mother to watch her have
sex with men. Lucas described an incident when he was
given a mule as a gift by his father's friends, only to
see his mother shoot and kill it.
When he was a teenager, Lucas claimed to have been
introduced to bestiality and killing animals for pleasure
(zoosadism)—the latter a common trait among sociopaths,
especially those who become serial killers—as well as
receiving convictions for petty theft. Lucas had also
damaged an eye during a fight with his half-brother. His
mother ignored the injury for three days, and
subsequently the eye grew infected and had to be replaced
by a glass eye.
Lucas kills his mother
On January 12, 1960, Lucas killed his mother, stabbing
her with a knife. He claimed to have returned home from a
night of drinking and gone to bed, only to be later woken
by his mother, who beat him with a broom. After killing
her, Lucas fled in a stolen car, returned to Virginia,
then says he decided to drive back to Michigan, but was
arrested in Ohio on the outstanding Michigan warrant.
Lucas claimed to have attacked his mother only in self-
defense, but his claim was rejected, and he was sentenced
to between 20 and 40 years' imprisonment in Michigan for
second-degree murder. He served fifteen years and was
released on August 22, 1975.
Lucas drifted around the American South, working a number
of mostly short-term jobs. In Florida, he made the
acquaintance of Ottis Toole sometime between 1976 and
1978 (sources disagree) and claims to have had a romantic
affair with Toole's pubescent niece, Frieda Powell, who
had escaped from a juvenile detention facility. Lucas and
Toole both called Powell "Becky" sometimes, partly to
disguise her identity and because Powell preferred it
over her given name. Lucas and Toole were also reportedly
lovers. Lucas would later claim that during this period
he had killed hundreds of people, sometimes as Toole's
partner. The trio left Florida and eventually settled in
Stoneburg, Texas, at a religious commune called "The
House of Prayer." Ruben Moore, the commune owner and
minister, found Lucas a job as a roofer, and allowed
Lucas and Powell to live in a small apartment on the
commune.
Powell became homesick, so Lucas agreed to move to
Florida with her. Lucas said they argued at a Bowie,
Texas truck stop and claimed that Powell left with a
trucker....a waitress at the truck
stop supported Lucas's account in court.
1983 arrest and multiple confessions
Lucas was arrested in June 1983, initially on a firearms
violation. He was later charged with killing 82-year-old
Kate Rich in Ringgold, Texas, and was also charged with
Powell's murder. Lucas claimed that police stripped him
naked, denied him cigarettes and bedding, held him in a
cold cell, and did not allow him to contact an attorney.
After four days of this treatment, Lucas claimed he
decided to confess to the crimes in a desperate bid to
improve his treatment.
Lucas confessed to the murders but claimed to be unable
to take police to the victims' bodies. He closed out his
confession with a hand-written addendum that read: "I am
not allowed to contact any one I'm in here by myself and
still can't talk to a lawyer on this I have no rights so
what can I do to convince you about all this" (sic). When
he was finally allowed counsel, Lucas's lawyer described
his client's treatment as "inhumane" and "calculated
solely to require the defendant to confess guilt, whether
innocent or guilty."
The forensic evidence in the Powell and Rich cases has
been criticized as inconclusive. A single bone fragment
recovered from a wood-burning stove was said to be
Rich's, and a mostly-complete skeleton roughly matched
Powell's age and size, but Shelladay reports that the
coroner stopped short of positively identifying either
remains. As with most of his alleged crimes, Lucas has
confessed to these murders only to later deny
involvement, but the general consensus seems to be that
Lucas did indeed murder Powell and Rich.
Confesses to thousands of murders
Lucas pled guilty to the charges, and in open court
stated he had "killed about a hundred more women" as
well. This was an unexpected confession, and Lucas later
claimed to have been despondent over being suspected in
Powell's disappearance. Shelladay reports that Lucas
said, "If they were going to make me confess to one I
didn't do, then I was going to confess to everything."
These claims were quickly seized upon by the press, and
Lucas, accompanied by Texas Rangers, was soon flown from
state to state, to meet with various police agencies in
an effort to resolve a number of unsolved murders.
In November 1983, Lucas was transferred to a jail in
Williamson County, Texas, where the Lucas Task Force was
soon established. Shelladay describes the task force as
"a veritable clearinghouse of unsolved murder, courtesy
of the Texas Rangers." They officially "cleared" 213
previously unsolved murders via Lucas's confessions.
Lucas reported that he confessed to murders only because
doing so improved his living conditions, and that he
received preferential treatment rarely offered to
convicts. Others have offered accounts that seem to
support Lucas's claims, for example, that Lucas was
rarely handcuffed when in custody or being transported,
that he was often allowed to wander police stations and
jails at will—including knowing the security codes for
computerized doors—and that he was frequently taken to
restaurants and cafés. On one occasion, in Huntington,
West Virginia, Lucas confessed to killing a man whose
death had originally been ruled a suicide. The man's
widow received a large life insurance settlement that had
been denied after the initial suicide verdict, and the
Texas Rangers hosted a party at a Holiday Inn, spending
$3,000 on drinks and prostitutes. It has been suggested
that such treatment demonstrates that the Lucas Task
Force did not consider Lucas a threat.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Henry Lee Lucas: Deadly Drifter
by Patrick Bellamy from Murderpedia
Joe Don Weaver liked the pre-dawn hours more than any
other. He hated the day shift in the Montague County
lockup because it usually meant dealing with the constant
noise and chatter of unruly inmates as they carried out
their daily routine. The nights weren't much better. It
wasn't until the early hours of the morning that the
place really settled down and became almost peaceful, a
peace only occasionally punctuated by louder than usual
snoring or inmates crying out in their sleep. On this
particular morning, 15th June 1983, his peaceful reverie
was shattered by shouting coming from a cell at the far
end of a hallway. Angry at the intrusion, Weaver strode
down the hallway to investigate. Locating the source, he
stopped before a cell door and shouted, " What do ya'
want?" A feeble voice answered through the heavy steel
door. "There's a light in here."
Weaver didn't have to look into the cell to know that it
was pitch black. "No there's not."
The voice became more insistent, almost fearful. "There's
a light. And it's talkin' to me."
"You're seein' things," Weaver answered, anxious to put
an end to this fantasy. "Now shut up and get some sleep."
Weaver returned to his office, ruminating over the reason
for the disruption. The occupant of the cell was a small,
scruffy man who was serving time for a minor weapons
offence as well as being a prime suspect in two murders.
Weaver convinced himself that the prisoner, still in a
weakened condition after a recent suicide attempt, was
hallucinating.
A short time later, another louder yell echoed down the
hall. "Jailer! Come here, quick!"
Weaver returned to the cell and unlocked the food-service
hatch in the door and peered inside. "What is it this
time?" He demanded.
The prisoner, Henry Lee Lucas, answered in a quiet,
feeble tone. "Joe Don, I done some pretty bad things."
Weaver, aware of the crimes that Lucas was suspected of,
answered brusquely. " If it's what I think it is Henry,
you better get down on your knees and pray."
After a long pause, Lucas asked weakly, "Joe Don, can I
have some paper and a pencil?"
Weaver agreed to the strange request and nearly an hour
later Lucas handed him a short letter that was addressed
to Sheriff Bill F. Conway.
After reading the opening paragraph, Weaver returned to
his office and placed an urgent call to Sheriff Conway.
Even at such an early hour, Weaver was sure that the
Sheriff would want to hear what he had to tell him.
Henry Lee Lucas was born in the early hours of August
23rd, 1936. He was the youngest of nine children. His
mother, Viola Dison Wall Lucas, was a sadistic, alcoholic
whore who earned the bulk of the family's meager income
providing sexual favours to strangers. Henry's father,
Anderson, was also an alcoholic. Having lost both legs
after falling down drunk in the path of a freight train,
"No Legs," as he was known in the district, would
supplement the family's income by selling pencils and
bootleg whiskey.
Henry was reared in a four-room cabin in Montgomery
County, Virginia. The "house" was little more than a
rough shack, with earthen floors throughout and no power
or electricity. Sharing this cramped environment, apart
from the immediate family, was Viola's "boyfriend" and
pimp, a sleazy low-life by the name of Bernie.
All the occupants of the house shared a single bedroom.
The close sleeping environment meant that young Henry,
his brother and, at times his father, were witness to
Viola's sexual escapades with Bernie or whatever
"customer" was present at the time. At times Viola would
insist that Henry and his brother watch her having sex,
to the point where she would punish them if they
attempted to leave or look away.
Henry's mother refused to provide any domestic care to
her family. She never cleaned the house or prepared
regular meals for anyone except herself and Bernie. The
boys and their father were constantly abused, verbally
and physically, and left to scrounge whatever meals they
could. It wasn't long before the boys were stealing food
from neighbouring farms and stores in town. Viola treated
them as hired help, sending them to fetch water and
firewood.
As Henry grew the chores became harder and the beatings
more regular. He was forced to work from dawn to dusk.
One of his jobs was to guard the "still." During those
times, his father would let Henry taste the rough "moon
shine" that he produced. It wasn't long before Henry was
drinking the deadly brew on a daily basis until at the
tender age of ten, he was virtually an alcoholic.
Any deviation from his mother's instructions was usually
punished swiftly and violently. On one occasion, after he
refused to perform a menial task, Viola beat Henry over
the head with a log of wood. The attack was so severe
that his scalp was split open to the bone and the blows
knocked Henry into a coma that lasted for a full day.
Strangely, the only person who showed any concern after
the beating was Bernie. He was convinced that the police
would hear of the attack and come and arrest them.
Eventually he convinced Viola that they should take Henry
to the hospital. To avoid prosecution, Viola told the
doctor that her son had fallen from a ladder. Fearing
reprisal, Henry backed up her story.
When Henry was old enough for school, Viola further
taunted him by curling his hair and sending him to school
in a dress. He was ridiculed and teased by his classmates
until a concerned teacher took the initiative and cut his
hair and provided him with a shirt and pants to wear.
Viola was furious and went to the school and verbally
abused the teacher for interfering. The same teacher
would later recall Henry as being a seriously disturbed
child who was constantly filthy and malnourished with
distinct learning difficulties.
Despite the additional care and attention that Henry
received at school, the beatings and poor treatment at
home continued. Eventually, the beatings began to take
their toll. Henry was gripped by seizures and often
complained of noises and "voices" in his head. To further
exacerbate his difficulties an accident with a knife
robbed him of most of the sight in his left eye. Sometime
later, after being hit with a ruler at school, his eye
was irreparably damaged and had to be removed and
replaced with a glass eye.
Anderson Lucas, Henry's father, was the only person in
the family that showed any sign of tenderness towards the
boy. When Anderson later died from pneumonia, after
getting inebriated and lying out in the snow, Henry
became bitter and increasingly angry.
It was the beginnings of a behavioural pattern that would
last a lifetime.......... Henry's brother ran off and
joined the Navy. After he left, Henry spent less and less
time at home. Most of the time he wandered aimlessly
through the district looking for trouble. It wasn't long
before he found it and was subsequently arrested for
breaking and entering. He was convicted and sentenced to
the Beaumont Training School for Boys in Virginia. The
institution records indicate that while there, Henry was
disruptive and made numerous escape attempts. He later
formed an alliance with a black inmate and, according to
prison authorities, the relationship was "of a sexual
nature."
One year later he was released. The records of his stay
in Beaumont describe him as being friendly one minute and
broodingly dangerous the next........ After his release
in September 1959, he moved to Tecumseh, Michigan to live
with his half-sister Opal. While there, he contacted
Stella and after dating her for a short time, asked her
to marry him. She agreed and they announced their
engagement. Shortly after, Viola came to visit and tried
to persuade Henry to leave Stella and come back and live
with her, as she was getting on in years and needed
someone to look after her. Henry refused and a violent
brawl erupted. Stella, realising that this was a family
that she didn't want to be involved in, broke of the
engagement and left.
Henry stormed off and went back to Opal's apartment.
Viola followed and the argument continued. At one point
Viola hit Henry over the head with a broom and broke it
across his skull. Henry retaliated and struck Viola on
the neck. He later told police:
All I remember was slapping her alongside the neck, but
after I did that I saw her fall and decided to grab her.
But she fell to the floor and when I went back to pick
her up, I realized she was dead. Then I noticed that I
had my knife in my hand and she had been cut.
Thinking that he had killed his mother, Lucas panicked
and, after turning out the lights in the apartment, got
in his car and drove to Virginia. As it turned out, Viola
hadn't died after the attack. She was still alive forty-
eight hours later, when Opal returned to the apartment
and found her lying in a pool of blood. An ambulance was
called but, because of the length of time that she had
been bleeding and the resulting shock, they were unable
to save her and she died a short time later. The official
police report stated that she had died of a heart attack,
precipitated by the assault.
Henry was later picked up by police in Toledo, Ohio and
returned to Michigan and charged with second-degree
murder. Despite assuring police that he had acted in
self-defence, he later pleaded guilty and was sentenced
to 20-40 years in the State Prison of Southern Michigan.
Henry's would later describe his time in South Michigan
as a "nightmare that would not end." Almost from the time
he was imprisoned, he complained of hearing "voices" in
his head that taunted him day and night. The prison's
psychologists interviewed him in an attempt to settle him
down. Lucas talked freely about the voices inside his
head, including his mother's. "She wanted me to commit
suicide for what I done to her," he told them. He blamed
his destructive and undisciplined behaviour on her
influence. Weeks later, Henry wrote a letter to his
sister telling her that he couldn't stand it any more and
was going to kill himself.
Some time later he made good on his threats and slashed
his wrists and stomach with a razor blade on two separate
occasions. Jail staff thwarted both attempts and he was
transferred to Iona State Mental hospital for treatment.
What followed were four-and-a-half years of drug and
shock therapy, both of which only succeeded in making
Henry meaner and more prone to violence. At one stage he
told the doctors that if he were released he would
definitely kill again.....Even though they'd been on the
road many times, Henry and Becky found it increasingly
difficult to get a ride. Many vehicles would slow down
some out of curiosity others to openly leer at Becky.
Whatever their reason, it seemed that as soon as they saw
Henry, they would speed up and leave them in a cloud of
dust.....Lucas later related in a statement to police
that, after unpacking their bedrolls, he lay down and
started drinking heavily. Becky stripped down to her
underwear and lay beside him. As Lucas's level of
intoxication increased he started to abuse Becky for
insisting they leave the "House of Prayer." The result
was a violent argument with both of them yelling and
swearing at each other. Finally, Henry told her that he
had made the decision to return to Stoneburg the
following morning. Her response was to hit him on the
side of the head. "That was it," Henry recalled. "I just
stabbed her with my knife. I just picked it up, brought
it around, and hit her right in the chest with it. She
sort of set there for a little bit and then dropped on
over." ......After killing Becky, Lucas's first instinct
was to run, to get away from the one crime that
continually preyed on his mind. He claimed that he was
tormented by Becky's "voice from the grave,"
Lucas was born on August 23, 1936, in Blacksburg,
Virginia. He described his mother, Viola Lucas, as a
violent prostitute. His father, Anderson Lucas, was an
alcoholic and former railroad employee who had lost his
legs in a train accident, and who suffered from Viola's
wrath as often as his son. Lucas reports that Viola
regularly beat him and his half-brother, often for no
reason. He once spent three days in a coma when his
mother hit his head with a plank of wood, and on many
occasions he was forced by his mother to watch her have
sex with men. Lucas described an incident when he was
given a mule as a gift by his father's friends, only to
see his mother shoot and kill it.
When he was a teenager, Lucas claimed to have been
introduced to bestiality and killing animals for pleasure
(zoosadism)—the latter a common trait among sociopaths,
especially those who become serial killers—as well as
receiving convictions for petty theft. Lucas had also
damaged an eye during a fight with his half-brother. His
mother ignored the injury for three days, and
subsequently the eye grew infected and had to be replaced
by a glass eye.
Lucas kills his mother
On January 12, 1960, Lucas killed his mother, stabbing
her with a knife. He claimed to have returned home from a
night of drinking and gone to bed, only to be later woken
by his mother, who beat him with a broom. After killing
her, Lucas fled in a stolen car, returned to Virginia,
then says he decided to drive back to Michigan, but was
arrested in Ohio on the outstanding Michigan warrant.
Lucas claimed to have attacked his mother only in self-
defense, but his claim was rejected, and he was sentenced
to between 20 and 40 years' imprisonment in Michigan for
second-degree murder. He served fifteen years and was
released on August 22, 1975.
Lucas drifted around the American South, working a number
of mostly short-term jobs. In Florida, he made the
acquaintance of Ottis Toole sometime between 1976 and
1978 (sources disagree) and claims to have had a romantic
affair with Toole's pubescent niece, Frieda Powell, who
had escaped from a juvenile detention facility. Lucas and
Toole both called Powell "Becky" sometimes, partly to
disguise her identity and because Powell preferred it
over her given name. Lucas and Toole were also reportedly
lovers. Lucas would later claim that during this period
he had killed hundreds of people, sometimes as Toole's
partner. The trio left Florida and eventually settled in
Stoneburg, Texas, at a religious commune called "The
House of Prayer." Ruben Moore, the commune owner and
minister, found Lucas a job as a roofer, and allowed
Lucas and Powell to live in a small apartment on the
commune.
Powell became homesick, so Lucas agreed to move to
Florida with her. Lucas said they argued at a Bowie,
Texas truck stop and claimed that Powell left with a
trucker....a waitress at the truck
stop supported Lucas's account in court.
1983 arrest and multiple confessions
Lucas was arrested in June 1983, initially on a firearms
violation. He was later charged with killing 82-year-old
Kate Rich in Ringgold, Texas, and was also charged with
Powell's murder. Lucas claimed that police stripped him
naked, denied him cigarettes and bedding, held him in a
cold cell, and did not allow him to contact an attorney.
After four days of this treatment, Lucas claimed he
decided to confess to the crimes in a desperate bid to
improve his treatment.
Lucas confessed to the murders but claimed to be unable
to take police to the victims' bodies. He closed out his
confession with a hand-written addendum that read: "I am
not allowed to contact any one I'm in here by myself and
still can't talk to a lawyer on this I have no rights so
what can I do to convince you about all this" (sic). When
he was finally allowed counsel, Lucas's lawyer described
his client's treatment as "inhumane" and "calculated
solely to require the defendant to confess guilt, whether
innocent or guilty."
The forensic evidence in the Powell and Rich cases has
been criticized as inconclusive. A single bone fragment
recovered from a wood-burning stove was said to be
Rich's, and a mostly-complete skeleton roughly matched
Powell's age and size, but Shelladay reports that the
coroner stopped short of positively identifying either
remains. As with most of his alleged crimes, Lucas has
confessed to these murders only to later deny
involvement, but the general consensus seems to be that
Lucas did indeed murder Powell and Rich.
Confesses to thousands of murders
Lucas pled guilty to the charges, and in open court
stated he had "killed about a hundred more women" as
well. This was an unexpected confession, and Lucas later
claimed to have been despondent over being suspected in
Powell's disappearance. Shelladay reports that Lucas
said, "If they were going to make me confess to one I
didn't do, then I was going to confess to everything."
These claims were quickly seized upon by the press, and
Lucas, accompanied by Texas Rangers, was soon flown from
state to state, to meet with various police agencies in
an effort to resolve a number of unsolved murders.
In November 1983, Lucas was transferred to a jail in
Williamson County, Texas, where the Lucas Task Force was
soon established. Shelladay describes the task force as
"a veritable clearinghouse of unsolved murder, courtesy
of the Texas Rangers." They officially "cleared" 213
previously unsolved murders via Lucas's confessions.
Lucas reported that he confessed to murders only because
doing so improved his living conditions, and that he
received preferential treatment rarely offered to
convicts. Others have offered accounts that seem to
support Lucas's claims, for example, that Lucas was
rarely handcuffed when in custody or being transported,
that he was often allowed to wander police stations and
jails at will—including knowing the security codes for
computerized doors—and that he was frequently taken to
restaurants and cafés. On one occasion, in Huntington,
West Virginia, Lucas confessed to killing a man whose
death had originally been ruled a suicide. The man's
widow received a large life insurance settlement that had
been denied after the initial suicide verdict, and the
Texas Rangers hosted a party at a Holiday Inn, spending
$3,000 on drinks and prostitutes. It has been suggested
that such treatment demonstrates that the Lucas Task
Force did not consider Lucas a threat.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Henry Lee Lucas: Deadly Drifter
by Patrick Bellamy from Murderpedia
Joe Don Weaver liked the pre-dawn hours more than any
other. He hated the day shift in the Montague County
lockup because it usually meant dealing with the constant
noise and chatter of unruly inmates as they carried out
their daily routine. The nights weren't much better. It
wasn't until the early hours of the morning that the
place really settled down and became almost peaceful, a
peace only occasionally punctuated by louder than usual
snoring or inmates crying out in their sleep. On this
particular morning, 15th June 1983, his peaceful reverie
was shattered by shouting coming from a cell at the far
end of a hallway. Angry at the intrusion, Weaver strode
down the hallway to investigate. Locating the source, he
stopped before a cell door and shouted, " What do ya'
want?" A feeble voice answered through the heavy steel
door. "There's a light in here."
Weaver didn't have to look into the cell to know that it
was pitch black. "No there's not."
The voice became more insistent, almost fearful. "There's
a light. And it's talkin' to me."
"You're seein' things," Weaver answered, anxious to put
an end to this fantasy. "Now shut up and get some sleep."
Weaver returned to his office, ruminating over the reason
for the disruption. The occupant of the cell was a small,
scruffy man who was serving time for a minor weapons
offence as well as being a prime suspect in two murders.
Weaver convinced himself that the prisoner, still in a
weakened condition after a recent suicide attempt, was
hallucinating.
A short time later, another louder yell echoed down the
hall. "Jailer! Come here, quick!"
Weaver returned to the cell and unlocked the food-service
hatch in the door and peered inside. "What is it this
time?" He demanded.
The prisoner, Henry Lee Lucas, answered in a quiet,
feeble tone. "Joe Don, I done some pretty bad things."
Weaver, aware of the crimes that Lucas was suspected of,
answered brusquely. " If it's what I think it is Henry,
you better get down on your knees and pray."
After a long pause, Lucas asked weakly, "Joe Don, can I
have some paper and a pencil?"
Weaver agreed to the strange request and nearly an hour
later Lucas handed him a short letter that was addressed
to Sheriff Bill F. Conway.
After reading the opening paragraph, Weaver returned to
his office and placed an urgent call to Sheriff Conway.
Even at such an early hour, Weaver was sure that the
Sheriff would want to hear what he had to tell him.
Henry Lee Lucas was born in the early hours of August
23rd, 1936. He was the youngest of nine children. His
mother, Viola Dison Wall Lucas, was a sadistic, alcoholic
whore who earned the bulk of the family's meager income
providing sexual favours to strangers. Henry's father,
Anderson, was also an alcoholic. Having lost both legs
after falling down drunk in the path of a freight train,
"No Legs," as he was known in the district, would
supplement the family's income by selling pencils and
bootleg whiskey.
Henry was reared in a four-room cabin in Montgomery
County, Virginia. The "house" was little more than a
rough shack, with earthen floors throughout and no power
or electricity. Sharing this cramped environment, apart
from the immediate family, was Viola's "boyfriend" and
pimp, a sleazy low-life by the name of Bernie.
All the occupants of the house shared a single bedroom.
The close sleeping environment meant that young Henry,
his brother and, at times his father, were witness to
Viola's sexual escapades with Bernie or whatever
"customer" was present at the time. At times Viola would
insist that Henry and his brother watch her having sex,
to the point where she would punish them if they
attempted to leave or look away.
Henry's mother refused to provide any domestic care to
her family. She never cleaned the house or prepared
regular meals for anyone except herself and Bernie. The
boys and their father were constantly abused, verbally
and physically, and left to scrounge whatever meals they
could. It wasn't long before the boys were stealing food
from neighbouring farms and stores in town. Viola treated
them as hired help, sending them to fetch water and
firewood.
As Henry grew the chores became harder and the beatings
more regular. He was forced to work from dawn to dusk.
One of his jobs was to guard the "still." During those
times, his father would let Henry taste the rough "moon
shine" that he produced. It wasn't long before Henry was
drinking the deadly brew on a daily basis until at the
tender age of ten, he was virtually an alcoholic.
Any deviation from his mother's instructions was usually
punished swiftly and violently. On one occasion, after he
refused to perform a menial task, Viola beat Henry over
the head with a log of wood. The attack was so severe
that his scalp was split open to the bone and the blows
knocked Henry into a coma that lasted for a full day.
Strangely, the only person who showed any concern after
the beating was Bernie. He was convinced that the police
would hear of the attack and come and arrest them.
Eventually he convinced Viola that they should take Henry
to the hospital. To avoid prosecution, Viola told the
doctor that her son had fallen from a ladder. Fearing
reprisal, Henry backed up her story.
When Henry was old enough for school, Viola further
taunted him by curling his hair and sending him to school
in a dress. He was ridiculed and teased by his classmates
until a concerned teacher took the initiative and cut his
hair and provided him with a shirt and pants to wear.
Viola was furious and went to the school and verbally
abused the teacher for interfering. The same teacher
would later recall Henry as being a seriously disturbed
child who was constantly filthy and malnourished with
distinct learning difficulties.
Despite the additional care and attention that Henry
received at school, the beatings and poor treatment at
home continued. Eventually, the beatings began to take
their toll. Henry was gripped by seizures and often
complained of noises and "voices" in his head. To further
exacerbate his difficulties an accident with a knife
robbed him of most of the sight in his left eye. Sometime
later, after being hit with a ruler at school, his eye
was irreparably damaged and had to be removed and
replaced with a glass eye.
Anderson Lucas, Henry's father, was the only person in
the family that showed any sign of tenderness towards the
boy. When Anderson later died from pneumonia, after
getting inebriated and lying out in the snow, Henry
became bitter and increasingly angry.
It was the beginnings of a behavioural pattern that would
last a lifetime.......... Henry's brother ran off and
joined the Navy. After he left, Henry spent less and less
time at home. Most of the time he wandered aimlessly
through the district looking for trouble. It wasn't long
before he found it and was subsequently arrested for
breaking and entering. He was convicted and sentenced to
the Beaumont Training School for Boys in Virginia. The
institution records indicate that while there, Henry was
disruptive and made numerous escape attempts. He later
formed an alliance with a black inmate and, according to
prison authorities, the relationship was "of a sexual
nature."
One year later he was released. The records of his stay
in Beaumont describe him as being friendly one minute and
broodingly dangerous the next........ After his release
in September 1959, he moved to Tecumseh, Michigan to live
with his half-sister Opal. While there, he contacted
Stella and after dating her for a short time, asked her
to marry him. She agreed and they announced their
engagement. Shortly after, Viola came to visit and tried
to persuade Henry to leave Stella and come back and live
with her, as she was getting on in years and needed
someone to look after her. Henry refused and a violent
brawl erupted. Stella, realising that this was a family
that she didn't want to be involved in, broke of the
engagement and left.
Henry stormed off and went back to Opal's apartment.
Viola followed and the argument continued. At one point
Viola hit Henry over the head with a broom and broke it
across his skull. Henry retaliated and struck Viola on
the neck. He later told police:
All I remember was slapping her alongside the neck, but
after I did that I saw her fall and decided to grab her.
But she fell to the floor and when I went back to pick
her up, I realized she was dead. Then I noticed that I
had my knife in my hand and she had been cut.
Thinking that he had killed his mother, Lucas panicked
and, after turning out the lights in the apartment, got
in his car and drove to Virginia. As it turned out, Viola
hadn't died after the attack. She was still alive forty-
eight hours later, when Opal returned to the apartment
and found her lying in a pool of blood. An ambulance was
called but, because of the length of time that she had
been bleeding and the resulting shock, they were unable
to save her and she died a short time later. The official
police report stated that she had died of a heart attack,
precipitated by the assault.
Henry was later picked up by police in Toledo, Ohio and
returned to Michigan and charged with second-degree
murder. Despite assuring police that he had acted in
self-defence, he later pleaded guilty and was sentenced
to 20-40 years in the State Prison of Southern Michigan.
Henry's would later describe his time in South Michigan
as a "nightmare that would not end." Almost from the time
he was imprisoned, he complained of hearing "voices" in
his head that taunted him day and night. The prison's
psychologists interviewed him in an attempt to settle him
down. Lucas talked freely about the voices inside his
head, including his mother's. "She wanted me to commit
suicide for what I done to her," he told them. He blamed
his destructive and undisciplined behaviour on her
influence. Weeks later, Henry wrote a letter to his
sister telling her that he couldn't stand it any more and
was going to kill himself.
Some time later he made good on his threats and slashed
his wrists and stomach with a razor blade on two separate
occasions. Jail staff thwarted both attempts and he was
transferred to Iona State Mental hospital for treatment.
What followed were four-and-a-half years of drug and
shock therapy, both of which only succeeded in making
Henry meaner and more prone to violence. At one stage he
told the doctors that if he were released he would
definitely kill again.....Even though they'd been on the
road many times, Henry and Becky found it increasingly
difficult to get a ride. Many vehicles would slow down
some out of curiosity others to openly leer at Becky.
Whatever their reason, it seemed that as soon as they saw
Henry, they would speed up and leave them in a cloud of
dust.....Lucas later related in a statement to police
that, after unpacking their bedrolls, he lay down and
started drinking heavily. Becky stripped down to her
underwear and lay beside him. As Lucas's level of
intoxication increased he started to abuse Becky for
insisting they leave the "House of Prayer." The result
was a violent argument with both of them yelling and
swearing at each other. Finally, Henry told her that he
had made the decision to return to Stoneburg the
following morning. Her response was to hit him on the
side of the head. "That was it," Henry recalled. "I just
stabbed her with my knife. I just picked it up, brought
it around, and hit her right in the chest with it. She
sort of set there for a little bit and then dropped on
over." ......After killing Becky, Lucas's first instinct
was to run, to get away from the one crime that
continually preyed on his mind. He claimed that he was
tormented by Becky's "voice from the grave,"