Henry Lee Lucas

Henry Lee Lucas (August 23, 1936–March 13, 2001) was an American criminal, convicted of murder and once listed as America's most prolific serial killer. However, he later recanted his confessions. He once flatly stated "I am not a serial killer" in a letter to researcher Brad Shellady.

Orange Socks

Ultimately, Lucas was convicted of eleven homicides. He was sentenced to death for the murder of an unidentified woman, dubbed "Orange Socks" after her only clothing, who was discovered in Williamson County, Texas, on Halloween 1979. Lucas' confession was recorded on audio tape and videotape and, when presented at court, had been subject to significant editing, leading critics to speculate that the removed sections showed authorities coaching Lucas on details of the crime.

Related Topics:
Sentenced to death - Halloween - Audio tape - Videotape

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Dan Morales, Mattox' successor as Texas Attorney General, concluded that it was "highly unlikely" that Lucas was guilty in the "Orange Socks" case. http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/4.13/980624-innocence.html Though initially skeptical of the Lucas Report, he came to generally support its findings.

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Williamson County prosecutor Cecil Kuykendall discounted Lucas as a suspect in the "Orange Socks" case and has stated his opinion that Lucas' confession drew attention from a far more viable suspect, further noting evidence that Lucas was in Florida, working as a roofer, during the time that "Orange Socks" was killed. As cited in an Amnesty International report, Mattox stated that during the time "Orange Socks" was killed, "work records, check cashing evidence, all information indicating Lucas was somewhere else. e found nothing tying with the crime he confessed to and was convicted of." http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR510101998 Mattox' office decided not to intervene, so certain they were that the state appeals court would overturn Lucas' conviction in the "Orange Socks" case.

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Lucas told Shelladay that he confessed to the murder in an effort at "legal suicide," and that he "just wanted to die." Lucas expressed what Shellady describes as "deep regret and sorrow" for offering false confessions, stating that he "was not aware how crooked they were until it was too late." The Houston Chronicle article also notes that Lucas offered various motives for his confession spree: Improving his conditions, a desire to embarrass police, and feeling guilt over killing Powell and Rich.

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Adding to the confusion, however, was Lucas' habit of making confessions, recanting them, then offering more confessions, and again recanting them. Mattox, wary of Lucas' many false confessions, suggested in 1999 that in the case of Rafael Resendez-Ramirez "I hope they don't start pinning on him every crime that happens near a railroad track." http://www.ble.org/pr/archive/headline0625a.html

Related Topics:
1999 - Rafael Resendez-Ramirez

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Lucas' supposed confederate, Ottis Toole, died in September 1996 from heart failure. He was serving six life-sentences in a Florida prison. In 1998, the Texas pardons and paroles board commuted Lucas's death sentence to life imprisonment. Governor George W. Bush publicly supported the commutation. On March 13, 2001, 64-year-old Lucas died in prison from heart failure.

Related Topics:
1996 - Heart failure - Florida - 1998 - Texas - George W. Bush - March 13 - 2001

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