Transcript
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(upbeat music)
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Some people exaggerate to impress.
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Like claiming they caught a fish, this big.
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Then there's Henry Lee Lucas,
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who confessed to killing over 600 people.
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600.
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The guy had law enforcement running all over the country,
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trying to connect him to unsolved murders,
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feeding him burgers like he was some kind of drive-through
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profit.
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But was he America's most prolific serial killer?
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Or just a compulsive liar with a knack for reading the room?
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Today we're diving into the life of a man
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who went from a one-eyed kid in a dirt poor log cabin
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to one of the most controversial figures
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in true crime history.
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We'll talk about the confessions, the crimes,
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and about how a task force armed with milkshakes
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and optimism managed to botch at all.
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But before we get into that story,
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if you like your true crime brief and bingeable,
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you found the right podcast.
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Tap the follow button now for access
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to at least two episodes per week.
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Welcome to 10 Minute Murder.
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(upbeat music)
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(soft music)
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I killed him every way there is except poison.
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Strangulations, knifeings, shootings, hidden runs,
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I had no feelings for the people themselves.
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It was just like I say, as though I left my body,
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and you just keep stabbing them
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and imagining that person's not dying.
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Henry Lee Lucas, the man behind this bone dry confession
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of violence was born in 1936 as the youngest of nine children.
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Life in Blacksburg, Virginia wasn't just tough.
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It was borderline medieval.
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The Lucas family lived crammed into a single room log cabin
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that felt more like a leaky shoebox
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against the backdrop of harsh Appalachian winters.
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The patriarch of the fam Anderson Lucas had already lost
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both of his legs in a freight train accident.
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A detail that earned him the nickname around town,
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no legs Lucas, pause for laughter.
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Anderson got by selling pencils from a little wagon
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he'd rolled himself around in,
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though it barely paid for the family's bare necessities.
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Food and clothes weren't exactly high on the priority list
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for the Lucas kids, who often showed up to school
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dirty in barefoot.
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Obviously probably hungry as well.
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Local families stepped in with hand-me-downs
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as much as they could afford to give them,
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but most of Anderson's disability check
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and those charity donations went straight towards his drinking.
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He seemed determined to turn drowning sorrows
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into a full-time job.
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That left the bulk of the family's survival
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on the shoulders of Nelly Viola Lucas and her mother.
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And depending on who you ask, Nelly was either a hard working
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mountain woman or a woman with entrepreneurial tendencies,
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specifically the kind that involved,
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air quotes, entertaining clients,
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in the middle of that cramped one-room cabin.
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Either way, survival came at a steep cost for the Lucas children
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and Henry's upbringing was shaping into a perfect storm
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of trauma, poverty, and violence.
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Henry Lee Lucas's childhood reads like a tragedy no one would believe
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if it weren't so well documented.
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By his own accounts, his mother Nelly ruled the family
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with an iron fist, often resorting to abusive
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and demeaning behavior.
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Medical records paint a grim picture of Henry's early years.
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When he was eight years old, Nelly beat him so severely
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with a wooden plank that he ended up in a coma for three days.
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By the time he was 10, a freak accident with his older brother
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left him with an infection in his left eye.
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Whether out of neglect or indifference,
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Nelly refused to seek medical help,
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allowing that infection to worsen.
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The final blow came at school where a teacher disciplined Henry
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by striking him with a steel-tipped ruler,
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hitting that infected eye.
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The damage was so severe that the eye had to be surgically removed
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and replaced with a glass prosthetic.
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Adding insult to injury, Nelly reportedly sent Henry
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to school dressing girls closed during his early years.
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This cruel act left the lasting scar on him,
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both emotionally and socially.
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It wasn't until teachers intervened with complaints
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and legal action that the practice stopped.
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Reflecting on his childhood, Henry would later say,
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"I hated all my life.
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I hated everybody.
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When I first grew up and can remember,
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I was stressed as a girl by my mother.
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And it stayed that way for two or three years.
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After that, I was treated like what I would call
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the dog of the family.
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I was beaten.
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I was made to do things that no human being would ever want to do."
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End quote.
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The hardships didn't end with his abusive mother.
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Around the age of 14, Henry lost his father, Anderson,
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under bleak circumstances.
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Anderson, who had already endured a lifetime of hardship
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after losing both of his legs and that train accident,
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was found outside the house after a night spent in the cold.
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Some say he succumbed to pneumonia after drinking too much.
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While others believe he deliberately distanced himself
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from the chaos inside the home.
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Following his father's death, Henry began drifting
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through Virginia, engaging in petty crimes
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and struggling to find stability.
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This aimless wandering marked the beginning of a life
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steeped in violence and lawlessness.
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In 1954, Henry was arrested for spree of burglaries
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and sentenced to four years in prison.
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It was his first documented brush with the law,
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but certainly not his last.
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Henry Lee Lucas claimed that his killing spree began in 1951
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while drifting through Virginia.
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According to his accounts, his first victim
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was 17-year-old Laura Everlene Burnsley.
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Lucas alleged that he kidnapped Laura
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after she rejected him.
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Took her to a wooded area and killed her
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when she resisted his advances.
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However, no physical evidence or remains of Laura
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have ever been found to support this claim.
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After serving time for burglary and being released in 1959,
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Lucas moved to Michigan to live with his half-sister,
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Opal Reda Jennings.
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He began rebuilding his life and even planned to marry
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a pin-pow he had written to from prison.
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Those plans crumbled when his 71-year-old mother,
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Nelly Lucas, arrived for the holidays
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and discovered her son's intentions.
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Nelly disapproved, insisting that Henry abandoned his plans
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and returned to Virginia to care for her instead.
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What followed was a toxic cocktail of old grudges
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and alcohol-fueled arguments.
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On January 11, 1960, witnesses saw
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Henry and Nelly drinking and arguing at a local bar.
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Back at home, things escalated when
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Nelly allegedly struck Henry with a broom.
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According to Henry, he retaliated, slapping her
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and the altercation ended with her collapsing.
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He later recounted, "All I remember was slapping her
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alongside the neck that I noticed my knife in my hand
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and she'd been cut."
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Nelly's death was officially ruled as a heart attack,
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exacerbated by the physical fight.
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Henry fled, but he was arrested shortly after in Ohio.
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He claimed self-defense, but the courts were not convinced.
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Convicted of second-degree murder,
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he received a 40-year prison sentence,
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but served only 10 due to overcrowding.
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After his release, Henry's criminal activities escalated.
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He was convicted of attempting to kidnap a 15-year-old girl
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and served another five years.
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Upon this release, he drifted again,
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marrying briefly and living with a cousin's widow,
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who later accused him of abusing her daughters.
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Lucas then moved to Jacksonville, Florida,
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where he met Otis Toul at a soup kitchen,
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a meeting that would cement their infamy.
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Henry and Otis quickly became close,
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moving in together with Otis's mother
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and 11-year-old niece, Frida Becky Powell.
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During this time, they appeared to maintain stable jobs,
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but Henry later claimed that they were carrying out
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multi-state killing sprees,
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targeting vulnerable individuals like hitchhikers,
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sex workers, and the homeless.
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According to Lucas, Otis had a particular pension
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for dismemberment, and Lucas alleged
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that his accomplice sometimes consumed parts of their victims.
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These claims remain largely unverified.
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Henry's life took another dark turn
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when he began a relationship with Becky Powell,
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who was just 15 years old and intellectually disabled.
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Knowing the relationship with Lan Henry back in prison,
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the pair of them fled Florida.
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A minister in Texas mistaking them
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for a struggling married couple,
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provided them with an apartment,
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and helped Henry find work.
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But Becky's homesickness soon led to friction.
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Lucas claimed that he left her at a truck stop
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to make her own way back to Florida.
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Later, he told law enforcement a much darker story.
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He had killed Becky, assaulted her post-mortem,
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dismembered her body, and scattered her remains
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in a field.
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He also confessed to killing their elderly roommate,
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disposing of her body in the same field.
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Investigators did find human remains in the area,
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but identification proved inconclusive.
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Once in custody, Lucas claimed that he was subjected
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to harsh conditions, including isolation
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and freezing temperatures until he confessed.
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And confess, he did, starting with Becky,
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his mother, and Laura Burnsley.
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Encouraged by Texas Rangers
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who reportedly treated him to burgers and milkshakes
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while reviewing unsolved cases,
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Lucas confessed to over 600 murders nationwide.
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His confessions became increasingly absurd.
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Investigative journalists at the Dallas Times herald
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uncovered that for Henry's claims to be true,
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he would have needed to drive over 11,000 miles
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in a month without stopping to sleep,
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a logistical impossibility.
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Despite glaring inconsistencies,
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Henry was convicted of 11 murders,
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including Becky's, his mother's,
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and a Jane Doe known as Orange Sox.
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Notably, Lucas had an alibi for the Orange Sox case.
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His work punch card showed that he was on the clock
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at the time of her murder.
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Sentence to death, Lucas's penalty
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was later commuted to life in prison
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after widespread doubt arose about his confessions.
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He died in 2001 of natural causes,
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leaving behind a legacy clouded by lies, manipulation,
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and so many unanswered questions.
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The math never, mathed.
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It was simply impossible for Henry Lee Lucas
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to have committed the hundreds of murders he confessed to.
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Even Henry himself later admitted as much,
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recanting all but one of his confessions,
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the murder of his mother.
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Lucas left behind a legacy as polarizing as it is perplexing.
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To some, he remains a boogie man of unfathomable evil,
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a man capable of killing with the casualness
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of flipping a light switch.
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To others, he was a deeply disturbed individual
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with a pinchant for fabricating grandiose lies,
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exploited by a law enforcement team
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more interested in closing cases than uncovering the truth.
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Either way, one thing is certain.
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Few criminal cases in American history
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have been as shrouded in myth and manipulation
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as the strange saga of Henry Lee Lucas
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and his peculiar fondness for milkshakes.
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(dramatic music)
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That is 10 Minute Murder for Today,
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grief and bingeable true crime.
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I'm Joe, I'm the host, and thank you for listening.
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And hey, if you're a new listener
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and you're into stories like this,
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ones that make you question everything,
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including your faith and humanity,
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make sure you hit subscribe and leave a review.
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Or don't, you know, I'm not here to nag,
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There's all kinds of stuff there.
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I'm not gonna go into detail about everything
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that you will find there, but there's a bunch,
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10minutemurder.com.
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Also, if you're a listener to this podcast,
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you wanna keep up to date with what's happening,
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not just with the podcast, but like with true crime cases
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around the country and around the world,
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you can follow me on social media.
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Links for that, or also at 10minutemurder.com.
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And if you just wanna send me an email,
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touch base with me for whatever reason,
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jo@10minutemurder.com.
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That's my email address.
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And that's gonna do it.
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That is your episode for today.
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Thanks for sticking around,
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and if you're off to binge more episodes,
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don't let me stop.
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You keep right on cooking.
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Thank you again for listening to 10minutemurder.
