Serial Murderer Henry Lee Lucas

7 Pages 1820 Words

Henry Lee Lucas is one of America’s most notorious serial killers. He was convicted of eleven murders in Texas, West Virginia, and Michigan and is suspected in twenty-seven other states for up to one hundred and sixty-two murders (Egger, 1998). Lucas claims to have killed in almost every state in the United States and to also have killed individuals in Canada as well (Hickey, 1991). Although he has confessed to killing around three hundred people, the actual number of his victims is probably less than fifteen and Lucas has confessed to numerous crimes only to later recant his confessions (Egger, 1998).
In 1936, Henry Lee Lucas was born in Blacksburg, Virginia (Furio, 1998). He was raised in a small two-room cabin with his father, mother, brother, three half brothers, four half-brothers and his mother’s boyfriend (Egger, 1998). His mother, Viola Waugh, was an alcoholic and a prostitute who was also very abusive towards her son (Furio, 1998). While growing up, Lucas was even forced to watch his mother have sex with numerous strange men in their home (Giannongelo, 1996). Viola raised Lucas as a girl for about the first seven years of his life (Egger, 1998). She made him wear dresses, keep his hair long and even curl his hair and wear make up (Egger, 1998). Only after a teacher at school complained about his long hair did his mother finally cut it and let Lucas dress as a boy (Egger, 1998). After Lucas was allowed to dress like a boy, his mother became even more violent towards him, even making him eat from the floor and not at the table with the rest of the family (Egger, 1998). Lucas has stated that: “It’s a lot harder than what people can imagine. Growing up with hatred, without any kind of friendship, without any kind of companion to be around or anything” (Egger, 1998).
The man who Lucas thought was his father, Anderson Lucas, lost both his legs in an accident while he was working for the railroad and spent th...