Henry Lee Lucas Research Paper
I. Introduction
Henry Lee Lucas, born in Blacksburg, Virginia in 1936 and his partner Ottis Toole born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1947 were a team of serial killers who from 1976-1982 were responsible killing about 100 victims together (Biography.com, editors). However both did kill their own victims when they were apart. Both of their childhoods were tough and they would experience many childhood traumas that would affect their own lives for years to come, along with these traumas and others, manifested them into being the serial killers that they both become.
Both killers are of interest in their own right as they're when they would team up with each other. Henry Lee Lucas is of note because according to Hickey (2013) “Within a few days of being arrested, Lucas had confessed to killing about 100 victims in several states. Within a few months the figure rose …show more content…
from 100 to 600 victims. He claimed to have killed in most of the 50 states and to have at least a dozen victims in Canada.” But this was never proven and one investigator Peyton is quoted as saying in Hickey that ‘This is a man who will confess to anything he wants’ and Hickey goes on to say that he confessed to these murders for publicity he would receive (Hickey, 2013). Toole is of interest because according to the editors of Biography.com, he was later found to have kidnapped and kill Adam Walsh which was one of the most famous murders in the country at the time. Toole is also of note because he was also said to have been a practicing cannibal (Biography.com editors). Although when they were teaming up, they are of note because of how many victims, they would each confess to killing when they were partners.
II. Sociological Assessment
Lucas and Toole childhoods were not the best by any image as they both were abused and picked on as children. Lucas family was poor and both his parents were alcoholics, his mother Viola was in control of the home and made a living as a prostitute (Greig, 2005). His mother did not like him much and would send him to school wearing dresses and shoeless at one point he was beat by his mother for taking shoes that the school give him (Greig, 2005). Another instance in his childhood where he was neglected by his mother was when “he cut his eye with a knife while playing around, Viola let the wound fester until he had to have the eye removed and replaced by a glass one” (Greig, 2005). Also at times his mother would force him to watch her have sex with other man (Greig, 2005). His father Anderson was not the best either as he would let him drink alcohol and was alcoholic by age ten, he would soon die from pneumonia (Greig, 2005). Lucas during his childhood was also “sexually assaulting animals and then killing them” (Greig, 2005). This all would lead to the first murder that he admitted to at age 14. In 1954 he spent six years in jail for burglary and during this time he would escape twice but was always caught (Greig, 2005). Released in 1959 he lived with his sister in Michigan which would lead up to his first murder that was proven he committed (Greig, 2005).
Ottis Toole childhood was much of the same. Toole was raised by his mother who was known to be a religious frantic (Biography.com, editors). He was classified as retarded and would later on drop out of school (Biography.com, editors). He was forced to wear dress much like Lucas was forced to do (line up.com, editors). He was sexually abuse by both family members and friends, his dad would even force him to have sex with his male friends (line up.com, editors). He was forced into the life of crime at an early age “Toole also claimed his grandmother was a member of a satanic cult and forced his hand in devil worshipping practices like animal sacrifice and grave robbing” (line up.com). Toole during his childhood become an arsonists and would claimed that he sexually aroused by the flames (line up.com, editors). He come out as gay to his family and would start visiting gay bars around the 9th grade when he drop out of school and would no longer live with his family (line up.com, editors). Toole than drifted around until he met Lucas (line up.com, editors).
Later on he met Lucas in 1976 who become his partner in crime as well as his homosexual one (Biography.com, editors).The two killers lived together along with Toole’s nephew and niece Becky Powell age 10, who he fall for and would later kidnap and kill (Greg, 2005). While the two lived together between 1978 and 1981, they worked for a roofing company and “if their stories are to be believed, they frequently took time off rape and slaughter (Greg, 2005).Lucas and Lee sociological development along with their psychological state and development would contribute to them becoming serial killers.
III. Psychological Assessment
Not only were there affected by their sociological development, but also by their psychological state and development. Lucas IQ was below normal and was one of the factors that made him drop out of school (Hickey, 2013). Also the childhood traumas previously stated that Lucas experience such as being beaten by his mother, having to wear dresses, being forced to watch his mother have sex as well as him killing and having sex with animals would contribute to his unhealthy psyche by detaching him from society and lead to him killing people. He was also prone to exaggerations as he admitted to around 600 murders and he also said he killed in Spain and Japan and provided the poison to Jonestown (Greg, 2005). Although it was never proven, but some think that he suffered from a mental or emotional disorder that would make him confess to crimes that he was not a suspect in, to gain time in the spotlight (Holmes, 2009). In 1988 Joel Norris found excessive spinal fluid in brain scan and some think that this has an effect on behavior and could be argued that this caused him to kill the people he did (Fox, 2005).
Ottis Toole psyche was not the best either. As he was classified as retarded and drop out of school (Biography.com editors). He was raised by a religious fanatic mother who abused him as well and was forced to wear dresses being called Becky and among other traumas and with being forced to have sex with men at a young age would contribute to his bad psyche. He was influenced by Lucas, this factor along with the ones previously stated would produce the killer that the world would come to know.
IV. Biological Assessment
Lucas was a white male with dark, almost brown hair and had brown eyes. Alcoholism did run in his family and he himself was an alcoholic by the time he was ten (Greg, 2005). He was regularly beaten by his mother and this could have caused head trauma. In the fifth grade his brother cut his right eye with a knife that the two boys were playing with (Hickey, 2013). His mother left the wound alone until it had to be removed and replaced with a glass eye, this was another factor for him to drop out of school (Greg, 2005). According to Charlotte Greig “Lucas died of heart failure on 13 March 2001” (2005). Toole was a white male with dark, almost brown hair and eyes as well. In his childhood, he stuffed from epilepsy and had violent seizures because of this. He later died in prison from cirrhosis of the liver (Hickey, 2013).
V. The Killer
Lucas and Toole sociological and psychological factors would lead to their killing spree. Lucas first confirmed murder was his mother, Viola who he stabbed to death as he was being nagged and hit with a broom (Fox, 2005). According to authors of, Extreme: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder “Murder was payback for years of cruelty and mistreatment he received when he was a child” (Fox, 2005). His next confirmed Victim was Becky Powell age 14, who he supposedly loved and was living with (Fox, 2005). He stabbed her to death after she slapped him because the two were arguing about leaving Texas (Gregg, 2005). His mother, Powell, and “Orange Socks” were his only confirmed victims, but he would confess to other murders. Lucas was arrested on June 11th when he returned to the religious commune that he and Powell were leaving before he killed her, on an illegal handgun possession charge (Greg, 2005). He spent 4 days in jails before confessing to the murders of Powell and Kate Rich, whom he was rumored to kill (Greg, 2005). The only murder that he confess to and was convicted of, leading to a death sentence was an unknown victim known as ‘Orange Socks’ (Greg, 2013).
Toole first murders that police believe him to be the proprietor was the murders of Patricia Webb and Ellen Holman in 1974 although this was never proven (line up, 2016). The first murder that was linked to him was the murder of George Sonnenburg by locking him in his house and setting fire to it (Line up, 2016). Also in 1981 he was linked to the murder of Adam Walsh, whom he kidnapped from sears in Hollywood, Florida and later beheaded him with a machete, he the dump his body in a canal which was found by fishermen (Line up, 2016). After being caught by police and confessing to the murders he would later recant it, with the case remaining open (Line up, 2016). It would be years before police in 2008, “pieced together previously unconnected evidence with Toole’s initial confession and positively ascribed the murder to Ottis Toole” (Line up, 2016). When Lucas and Toole worked together they would claim to killing 600 people. Lucas said that many of the victims were female hitchhikers (Hickey, 2013). According to Hickey “Lucas perceived that women who hitchhike rides were like prostitutes and he harbored a real hatred for them” (2013). Hickey explains this by saying that these women remained him of his mother who forced him to watch her have sex with other men and also how bad he was treated by her (2013). He claimed that the other victims were killed in robberies or when Toole assaulted man (Hickey, 2013). As previously stated it was never proven that they killed up to 600 people as some believe it was for attention.
VI. Perspective:
I believe that Lucas would fit under the mother-hate theory and this is why he committed the murders that he did.
The mother-hate theory according to James Fox and Jack Levin, is that serial killers get even with their mothers for the abuse and mistreatment that they experience by targeting a victim how is similar to their mother (2005). They may target prostitute because the killer may think that their mother was a slut (Fox, 2005). In some cases serial killers who fit under this theory may kill their own mother and will be one of their first victims such as Lucas did in 1959 (Fox, 2005). The reason why I think Lucas fits under theory is because first of all he killed his mother and when he was traveling with Toole, he claimed that he killed female hitchhikers and made the connection that they may be prostitutes, which reminded him of his mother who was one and then forced him to watch her have sex with other men. He also was beaten, forced to look like a girl, and was also neglected at times as well. These factors would force him to kill not only his mother, but according him female hitchhikers as
well.
Toole on the other hand, I think fits the Sutherland’s Differential Association theory. The Sutherland of Differential Association theory states an offender learns deviate behavior through interactions with other people such as friends and family and they learn criminal behavior which may be how to commit and reasons for doing it. A person in this theory believes that the reward of crimes is greater than the risk. Finally a person in this theory will start doing crimes when they can give themselves acceptable reasons to commit crimes. Ottis Toole fits under this theory because he was abused by his mother and bullied by other kids at a young age, this would teach him that violence was ok. Also he fits this theory because he would go grave robbing with his grandmother and thus his grandmother encouraged criminal activity. He also was around Lucas, who is another bad influence and is another reason why he fits this theory. Because he was around so much criminal activity, he himself drifted towards a life of crime and eventually become the serial killer we know today.
VII. Conclusion
Both Lucas and Toole were caught and sentenced to death. Lucas was found guilty in ten murders, but he would later recant most of them. Lucas death sentenced was for the murder of “orange socks” (Greig, 2005). However President Bush than Governor of Texas would lower his sentence to life in prison and he later died of natural causes due to problems with his kidneys in 2001 (Hickey, 2013). Toole was sentenced to death for the murders of George Sonnenberg and Ada Johnson in 1984 (Line up.com, editors). He would confess to more murders before dying due to Kidney problems in 1996 (Line up.com, editors). Both leave behind a legacy of being serial killers and liars.
Henry Lee Lucas, born in Blacksburg, Virginia in 1936 and his partner Ottis Toole born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1947 were a team of serial killers who from 1976-1982 were responsible killing about 100 victims together (Biography.com, editors). However both did kill their own victims when they were apart. Both of their childhoods were tough and they would experience many childhood traumas that would affect their own lives for years to come, along with these traumas and others, manifested them into being the serial killers that they both become.
Both killers are of interest in their own right as they're when they would team up with each other. Henry Lee Lucas is of note because according to Hickey (2013) “Within a few days of being arrested, Lucas had confessed to killing about 100 victims in several states. Within a few months the figure rose …show more content…
from 100 to 600 victims. He claimed to have killed in most of the 50 states and to have at least a dozen victims in Canada.” But this was never proven and one investigator Peyton is quoted as saying in Hickey that ‘This is a man who will confess to anything he wants’ and Hickey goes on to say that he confessed to these murders for publicity he would receive (Hickey, 2013). Toole is of interest because according to the editors of Biography.com, he was later found to have kidnapped and kill Adam Walsh which was one of the most famous murders in the country at the time. Toole is also of note because he was also said to have been a practicing cannibal (Biography.com editors). Although when they were teaming up, they are of note because of how many victims, they would each confess to killing when they were partners.
II. Sociological Assessment
Lucas and Toole childhoods were not the best by any image as they both were abused and picked on as children. Lucas family was poor and both his parents were alcoholics, his mother Viola was in control of the home and made a living as a prostitute (Greig, 2005). His mother did not like him much and would send him to school wearing dresses and shoeless at one point he was beat by his mother for taking shoes that the school give him (Greig, 2005). Another instance in his childhood where he was neglected by his mother was when “he cut his eye with a knife while playing around, Viola let the wound fester until he had to have the eye removed and replaced by a glass one” (Greig, 2005). Also at times his mother would force him to watch her have sex with other man (Greig, 2005). His father Anderson was not the best either as he would let him drink alcohol and was alcoholic by age ten, he would soon die from pneumonia (Greig, 2005). Lucas during his childhood was also “sexually assaulting animals and then killing them” (Greig, 2005). This all would lead to the first murder that he admitted to at age 14. In 1954 he spent six years in jail for burglary and during this time he would escape twice but was always caught (Greig, 2005). Released in 1959 he lived with his sister in Michigan which would lead up to his first murder that was proven he committed (Greig, 2005).
Ottis Toole childhood was much of the same. Toole was raised by his mother who was known to be a religious frantic (Biography.com, editors). He was classified as retarded and would later on drop out of school (Biography.com, editors). He was forced to wear dress much like Lucas was forced to do (line up.com, editors). He was sexually abuse by both family members and friends, his dad would even force him to have sex with his male friends (line up.com, editors). He was forced into the life of crime at an early age “Toole also claimed his grandmother was a member of a satanic cult and forced his hand in devil worshipping practices like animal sacrifice and grave robbing” (line up.com). Toole during his childhood become an arsonists and would claimed that he sexually aroused by the flames (line up.com, editors). He come out as gay to his family and would start visiting gay bars around the 9th grade when he drop out of school and would no longer live with his family (line up.com, editors). Toole than drifted around until he met Lucas (line up.com, editors).
Later on he met Lucas in 1976 who become his partner in crime as well as his homosexual one (Biography.com, editors).The two killers lived together along with Toole’s nephew and niece Becky Powell age 10, who he fall for and would later kidnap and kill (Greg, 2005). While the two lived together between 1978 and 1981, they worked for a roofing company and “if their stories are to be believed, they frequently took time off rape and slaughter (Greg, 2005).Lucas and Lee sociological development along with their psychological state and development would contribute to them becoming serial killers.
III. Psychological Assessment
Not only were there affected by their sociological development, but also by their psychological state and development. Lucas IQ was below normal and was one of the factors that made him drop out of school (Hickey, 2013). Also the childhood traumas previously stated that Lucas experience such as being beaten by his mother, having to wear dresses, being forced to watch his mother have sex as well as him killing and having sex with animals would contribute to his unhealthy psyche by detaching him from society and lead to him killing people. He was also prone to exaggerations as he admitted to around 600 murders and he also said he killed in Spain and Japan and provided the poison to Jonestown (Greg, 2005). Although it was never proven, but some think that he suffered from a mental or emotional disorder that would make him confess to crimes that he was not a suspect in, to gain time in the spotlight (Holmes, 2009). In 1988 Joel Norris found excessive spinal fluid in brain scan and some think that this has an effect on behavior and could be argued that this caused him to kill the people he did (Fox, 2005).
Ottis Toole psyche was not the best either. As he was classified as retarded and drop out of school (Biography.com editors). He was raised by a religious fanatic mother who abused him as well and was forced to wear dresses being called Becky and among other traumas and with being forced to have sex with men at a young age would contribute to his bad psyche. He was influenced by Lucas, this factor along with the ones previously stated would produce the killer that the world would come to know.
IV. Biological Assessment
Lucas was a white male with dark, almost brown hair and had brown eyes. Alcoholism did run in his family and he himself was an alcoholic by the time he was ten (Greg, 2005). He was regularly beaten by his mother and this could have caused head trauma. In the fifth grade his brother cut his right eye with a knife that the two boys were playing with (Hickey, 2013). His mother left the wound alone until it had to be removed and replaced with a glass eye, this was another factor for him to drop out of school (Greg, 2005). According to Charlotte Greig “Lucas died of heart failure on 13 March 2001” (2005). Toole was a white male with dark, almost brown hair and eyes as well. In his childhood, he stuffed from epilepsy and had violent seizures because of this. He later died in prison from cirrhosis of the liver (Hickey, 2013).
V. The Killer
Lucas and Toole sociological and psychological factors would lead to their killing spree. Lucas first confirmed murder was his mother, Viola who he stabbed to death as he was being nagged and hit with a broom (Fox, 2005). According to authors of, Extreme: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder “Murder was payback for years of cruelty and mistreatment he received when he was a child” (Fox, 2005). His next confirmed Victim was Becky Powell age 14, who he supposedly loved and was living with (Fox, 2005). He stabbed her to death after she slapped him because the two were arguing about leaving Texas (Gregg, 2005). His mother, Powell, and “Orange Socks” were his only confirmed victims, but he would confess to other murders. Lucas was arrested on June 11th when he returned to the religious commune that he and Powell were leaving before he killed her, on an illegal handgun possession charge (Greg, 2005). He spent 4 days in jails before confessing to the murders of Powell and Kate Rich, whom he was rumored to kill (Greg, 2005). The only murder that he confess to and was convicted of, leading to a death sentence was an unknown victim known as ‘Orange Socks’ (Greg, 2013).
Toole first murders that police believe him to be the proprietor was the murders of Patricia Webb and Ellen Holman in 1974 although this was never proven (line up, 2016). The first murder that was linked to him was the murder of George Sonnenburg by locking him in his house and setting fire to it (Line up, 2016). Also in 1981 he was linked to the murder of Adam Walsh, whom he kidnapped from sears in Hollywood, Florida and later beheaded him with a machete, he the dump his body in a canal which was found by fishermen (Line up, 2016). After being caught by police and confessing to the murders he would later recant it, with the case remaining open (Line up, 2016). It would be years before police in 2008, “pieced together previously unconnected evidence with Toole’s initial confession and positively ascribed the murder to Ottis Toole” (Line up, 2016). When Lucas and Toole worked together they would claim to killing 600 people. Lucas said that many of the victims were female hitchhikers (Hickey, 2013). According to Hickey “Lucas perceived that women who hitchhike rides were like prostitutes and he harbored a real hatred for them” (2013). Hickey explains this by saying that these women remained him of his mother who forced him to watch her have sex with other men and also how bad he was treated by her (2013). He claimed that the other victims were killed in robberies or when Toole assaulted man (Hickey, 2013). As previously stated it was never proven that they killed up to 600 people as some believe it was for attention.
VI. Perspective:
I believe that Lucas would fit under the mother-hate theory and this is why he committed the murders that he did.
The mother-hate theory according to James Fox and Jack Levin, is that serial killers get even with their mothers for the abuse and mistreatment that they experience by targeting a victim how is similar to their mother (2005). They may target prostitute because the killer may think that their mother was a slut (Fox, 2005). In some cases serial killers who fit under this theory may kill their own mother and will be one of their first victims such as Lucas did in 1959 (Fox, 2005). The reason why I think Lucas fits under theory is because first of all he killed his mother and when he was traveling with Toole, he claimed that he killed female hitchhikers and made the connection that they may be prostitutes, which reminded him of his mother who was one and then forced him to watch her have sex with other men. He also was beaten, forced to look like a girl, and was also neglected at times as well. These factors would force him to kill not only his mother, but according him female hitchhikers as
well.
Toole on the other hand, I think fits the Sutherland’s Differential Association theory. The Sutherland of Differential Association theory states an offender learns deviate behavior through interactions with other people such as friends and family and they learn criminal behavior which may be how to commit and reasons for doing it. A person in this theory believes that the reward of crimes is greater than the risk. Finally a person in this theory will start doing crimes when they can give themselves acceptable reasons to commit crimes. Ottis Toole fits under this theory because he was abused by his mother and bullied by other kids at a young age, this would teach him that violence was ok. Also he fits this theory because he would go grave robbing with his grandmother and thus his grandmother encouraged criminal activity. He also was around Lucas, who is another bad influence and is another reason why he fits this theory. Because he was around so much criminal activity, he himself drifted towards a life of crime and eventually become the serial killer we know today.
VII. Conclusion
Both Lucas and Toole were caught and sentenced to death. Lucas was found guilty in ten murders, but he would later recant most of them. Lucas death sentenced was for the murder of “orange socks” (Greig, 2005). However President Bush than Governor of Texas would lower his sentence to life in prison and he later died of natural causes due to problems with his kidneys in 2001 (Hickey, 2013). Toole was sentenced to death for the murders of George Sonnenberg and Ada Johnson in 1984 (Line up.com, editors). He would confess to more murders before dying due to Kidney problems in 1996 (Line up.com, editors). Both leave behind a legacy of being serial killers and liars.