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| rdfs:comment | - Henry Lee Lucas, a.k.a. "The Confession Killer", was a serial killer who claimed responsibility for over 600 murders.
- 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; he later recanted his confessions, and flatly stated "I am not a serial killer" in a letter to researcher Patrick Poff. Lucas confessed to involvement in about 600 murders, with an average of about one murder per week between his release from prison in mid-1975 to his arrest in mid-1983. A more widely circulated total of about 350 murders committed by Lucas is based on confessions deemed "believable" by a Texas-based Lucas Task Force, a group which was criticized by the Attorney General of Texas, Jim Mattox, and others for sloppy police work and taking part in an extended "hoax".
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| Alias | - One-Eyed Drifter
- The Confession Killer
- The Deadly Drifter
- The Highway Stalker
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| Signature | - Having sex with victims' corpses
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| abstract | - 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; he later recanted his confessions, and flatly stated "I am not a serial killer" in a letter to researcher Patrick Poff. Lucas confessed to involvement in about 600 murders, with an average of about one murder per week between his release from prison in mid-1975 to his arrest in mid-1983. A more widely circulated total of about 350 murders committed by Lucas is based on confessions deemed "believable" by a Texas-based Lucas Task Force, a group which was criticized by the Attorney General of Texas, Jim Mattox, and others for sloppy police work and taking part in an extended "hoax". Beyond his recantation, some of Lucas' confessions have been challenged as inaccurate by a number of critics, including law enforcement and court officials. Lucas claimed to have been initially subjected to poor treatment and coercive interrogation tactics while in police custody, and to have confessed to murders in an effort to improve his living conditions. Amnesty International reported "the belief of two former state Attorneys General that Lucas was in all likelihood innocent of the crime for which he was sentenced to death." Lucas's sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1998 by then-Governor George W. Bush. It remains the only commutation in Bush's entire history as Governor of Texas and the only successful commutation of a death sentence in Texas since the re-institution of the death penalty in Texas in 1982. Lucas died in prison of natural causes. Because Lucas' death removed the possibility of resolution in many instances, a number of questions remain unresolved. Some authorities—while admitting that Lucas tended to exaggerate his accounts and told some outright lies, and also recognizing that the Lucas Task Force engaged in some very questionable tactics—insist that Lucas was a viable suspect in a number of unsolved murders. Despite these factors, Lucas still maintains a reputation, in the words of author Sarah L. Knox, "as one of the world's worst serial killers—even after the debunking of the majority of his confessions by the Attorney General of Texas." Lucas allegedly carried out many murders with an accomplice, Ottis Toole, whose reputation as a serial killer is mostly unaltered by Lucas' recantations.
- Henry Lee Lucas, a.k.a. "The Confession Killer", was a serial killer who claimed responsibility for over 600 murders.
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