3. Henry Lee Lucas – Confessions Of A Serial Killer
Henry Lee Lucas was born in Blacksburg, Virginia, 1936. At just ten-years-old his brother attacked him with a knife which resulted in him losing an eye and his mother forced him into being a cross-dresser. His mother, a prostitute, would also force him to watch her have sex with clients. His father died of hypothermia after drinking to much and collapsing in a blizzard whilst trying to get home.
Lucas dropped out of school during sixth-grade and began drifting. He said the first person he murdered was 17-year-old Laura Burnsley when she refused to have sex with him. In 1960, his mother found where he was living and went to convince him to return home. This caused a violent argument which resulted in him killing her. He recalls, “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”.
Lucas was then arrested and charged with second-degree murder with a sentence of 20 to 40-years but he was released shortly after due to prison overcrowding. The following years saw him attempt to kill or successfully kill several others. He was captured and charged on eleven counts of murder although the police believed there were many more unrecovered bodies. He died behind bars in 2001 of heart failure. There have been three narrative movies made about his life including 1985’s Confessions of a Serial Killer, 1986’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and 2009’s Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas.
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