Maniac Henry Lee Lucas. Unconventional killer Henry Lee Lucas Photo of maniac Henry Lee Lucas

In this story, we want to tell the reader about the “legendary and bloody” maniac and serial killer Ottis Elwood Thule, who died of liver disease in an American prison, as well as about other cannibal monsters who left behind a bad memory for many years, such as Henry Lee Lucas.

Partner and lover of a maniac

The criminal career of the maniac Toole began in a Jacksonville soup kitchen, where our future hero, the owner of perhaps the lowest IQ among criminals of all time, met an outcast like himself, Henry Lee Lucas, while distributing free steaks.

Oh, if only they had some barbecue sauce for this rotten meat! - said Lucas, the owner of a damaged eyelid; in childhood, for some reason, this psychopath tried to cut out his own eye, turning to the thug who stood behind him in line at the distribution window.

  • And it would be even better - sauce with blood and fresh human flesh! – the answer of the maniac Tula readily followed.

The jokers looked at each other and realized that they had both found each other. That same night in a rooming house, after they drank a bottle of cheap whiskey, Ottis became the lover of Henry, who already had a couple of corpses behind him, left on the roads of Texas. And that same night, not only the physical, but also the spiritual unity of the couple followed.

Maniac Tula, who had long been concerned with issues related to necrophilia and cannibalism, but he still did not have the opportunity to carry out his grandiose plans alone, told his partner about his hobbies, who until now had killed people just like that, without spark or invention. And Lucas, who was already tired of the same type of murders of tramps and hitchhikers, lit up before him, as grandiose prospects for the future of criminal creativity suddenly opened up.

Well, how could it be otherwise, if the maniac’s crushed lover immediately offered him:

  • Come on, let's get out of this shelter! I have a beautiful 12-year-old niece living in the town of Montague. You can have fun with her. Well, my share will be the 82-year-old grandmother with whom Becky lives. In general, you can combine business with pleasure, and hang out in nature in a rural house, and yes, you yourself understand!

Lucas understood!

Becky Powell, murdered by maniac Henry Lee Lucas.

Soon, the murder of 82-year-old Kate Rich, as well as the subsequent group act of necrophilia with her body, became the first case of two freaks who had found mutual understanding. As for Becky Powell, this girl joined the gang, became the mistress of Henry Lee Lucas and ultimately she became a victim of this maniac.

High genre maniac

In numerous research monographs on Lucas and Toole, Ottis is usually paired with a more experienced criminal. They say, well, there was no way someone with low intelligence could be the leader in this bloody pair! They say that it was Henry Lee, who killed people before meeting Ottis, who was the leader in everything related to crime. In reality, everything was exactly the opposite. If the main criminal invention of the maniac Lucas was only hitting pedestrians on the road with his car, then it was Ottis who addicted his friend to the “heights of the genre”: to the same necrophilia, which began with the body of unfortunate Becky, and to cannibalism accompanied by his own barbecue sauce with blood. To cannibalism, first tested by friends on a boy, Adam Walsh, specially abducted by Toole for his lover.

Adam Walsh, a boy kidnapped and murdered by the maniac Ottis Toole.

It was the maniac Ottis Toole, for all his stupidity, who can be considered the opener of a new business for his friends. Having established contact with the priests of the black cult “Hand of Death”, which was located on the other side of the Texas border, Tool established the export of young virgins to Mexico. The kidnappers lured young girls into the car and transported them to sectarians - devil worshipers, for which they willingly paid and allowed the suppliers to participate in bloody orgies: after the ritual of sacrifice to the “horned deity” worshiped by the sectarians, Ottis and Henry committed acts of necrophilia over the dead bodies and devoured the corpses unhappy. Well, in the intervals between these exploits, the maniac Lucas had time to prove himself. It was then that the crimes of friends-lovers turned out to be spontaneous and devoid of any sharp “plot”: the victims of sadists, necrophiles and cannibals, in the literal sense of the word, became the first people they met.

From random teenage couples caught making love in the woods by motorists, to hitchhikers trying to pick up Lucas and Toole's death car as it cruised the roads of Texas. From random women spotted in roadside bars to no less random drinking companions. There’s probably no point in telling how everyone who decided to have a blast in the company of cheerful guys ended their lives. Let us only note that the role of the main slaughterer of victims always remained with the maniac Ottis Toole. It was he who shot the victims in the back of the head. Or, depending on his mood, he cut their throat. It was he who skinned the corpses of victims and bled them out in order to cook “juicy steaks” on a forest fire. Beefsteaks, seasoned with a generous portion of barbecue sauce, according to our own recipe, made from the blood of the unfortunate.

Reckoning of the bloody couple

The accomplices, of course, were eventually arrested. First Tul was taken, then two years later Lucas. And then the secrets of the investigation began, which some people do not like to remember. What are the secrets? For example, Ottis alone took upon himself 600 victims, and for three years of his stay in custody, the police, who came to his lover Lucas from all over the country, managed to pin another 600 previously unrecorded corpses on him. Ottis had fun and, to the great joy of the investigators, took on more and more victims. As a result, the press molded the maniac Tula, who actually had 20-30 victims on his conscience, into the most bloodthirsty monster in human history. God bless him, but in those days they simply stopped searching for real criminals. Thus, the maniac effectively covered up hundreds of colleagues in the slaughterhouse, but corrected the statistics for hundreds of careless guardians of the law, who were in a hurry to blame everything and everyone on Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas. However, Tul also received a concession for his unique assistance to the investigation: he, unlike his accomplice, was never sentenced to death. And he would have continued to live well if the thing that saved him earlier, his talkativeness, had not let him down. Another secret, hidden behind seven seals, is connected with Tula’s death, which occurred “from natural causes.” The fact is that until 1996, Ottis, according to his own admission, was thriving in prison, was surrounded by lovers and did not experience any health problems and even got married.

Photo of maniac Ottis Elwood Toole with his wife.

But he prospered only until he gave an interview to one publication. An interview in which he not only promised to send everyone the recipe for “his sauce” for free, not only described his crimes in detail and with pleasure, but also, most importantly, allowed himself to mock stupid police officers and rejoice for his fellow craftsmen, and who remained free thanks to his confessions.

The end of the maniac

This weak-minded monster has never been forgiven. By a strange coincidence, immediately after the publication of “Interview with a Cannibal,” a group of cellmates hitherto loyal to Ottis, even in his prison bed, attacked the maniac. Attack! By a strange coincidence, it was not usually stopped by the always vigilant guards. As a result, Ottis Elwood Toole died on September 15, 1996 due to fatal liver failure. But the doctors who examined Tula forgot to indicate what caused this very violation.

Let us add to what has been said about Tula two more facts, usually unknown to his biographers. We don’t know what caused such forgiveness, but shortly before his mysterious death, the killer was visited in prison by the sister of his late niece, Becky. This matured girl not only forgave Uncle Ottis everything, but even sat on his lap, posing in front of the prison photographer. And here's another thing. Very few people know that the deeds of the maniac, who covered up many colleagues during his lifetime, unwittingly contributed to the exposure of hundreds of fanatics after his death. The father of Adam Walsh, one of Toole’s victims, who worked as a simple restaurateur before the boy’s death, became the founder of the television program “America’s Most Wanted” in memory of his son. Thanks to this program, popular in the United States, many criminals and murderers were exposed by viewers who called and reported Most Wanted to John Walsh's studio live.

The lover of the maniac Ottis Toole, Henry Lee Lucas, briefly survived him; he died at the age of 64 on March 13, 2001 from acute heart failure, although in fact he was beaten to death by his cellmates.

Photo of the maniac and cannibal Ottis Elwood Toole:

Photo of maniac Henry Lee Lucas:

Henry Lee Lucas (August 23, 1936 – March 13, 2001) was a famous American serial killer. He has 11 proven murders to his name, although during the investigation he confessed to more than 3,000 murders, of which only 350 can be regarded as more or less plausible. The exact number of Lucas' victims is still the subject of debate and various speculative theories.

early years

Henry Lee Lucas was born on August 23, 1936 in Blacksburg, Virginia. His mother Viola was a violent prostitute, and his father Anderson was a disabled alcoholic - he used to work on the railroad, where he lost both legs in an accident. The father, like the son, often suffered from the harsh and unbridled nature of the mother. Henry said his mother often beat him for no reason and also forced him to watch her have sex with clients. One day, Viola hit her son on the head with a wooden board, which left him in a coma for the whole day. One day, according to Lucas, his father’s friends gave him a mule, and his mother almost immediately shot the animal. The mother constantly humiliated and tormented her son in various ways - when Henry started going to school, she curled his hair and forced him to wear a dress to make him look like a girl, which caused Henry to be bullied by his classmates.

When the teacher cut Henry's hair short at his request, his mother came to school and made a fuss, saying that the teacher was interfering in her family's affairs. The father was the only one who treated the boy kindly at that time. However, his kindness manifested itself in a very unique way - he treated Henry to moonshine, which he produced for his own consumption and for sale, as a result of which Henry became deeply addicted to drinking by the age of 10. The half-brother hit Henry hard in the eye during a fight, the mother did not take the boy to the hospital, as a result, the eye became inflamed, and it had to be removed and replaced with a glass prosthesis.

As a child, Henry showed a penchant for zoosadism, which is considered typical of serial killers.

Mother's murder

On January 12, 1960, Lucas killed his own mother by stabbing her to death with a knife. He claimed that his mother began beating him with a broom when he came home drunk late at night, became angry and stabbed her multiple times before running away in panic. Lucas' claims that the alleged murder was necessary self-defense were not found to be true at trial, and he was sentenced to prison. After serving 15 years in prison (of which he spent 4.5 years in a psychiatric hospital), Lucas was released on August 22, 1975.

Ottis and Becky

After his release, Lucas wandered around the country, doing odd jobs. During this period of time (approximately between 1976 and 1978) he became acquainted with Ottis Toole and moved into his house. In addition to Ottis himself, his mother and her husband, Ottis’s wife, as well as his two minor nephews, Frank and Frieda Powell, constantly lived in this house. Ottis's family was accustomed to the fact that he occasionally brought strangers home to have sex with them (Ottis Toole was bisexual), so the appearance of Henry Lee Lucas in their house did not come as much of a surprise to them. Ottis's mother dies some time later and he, along with Henry Lee Lucas and his nephews, begins to travel aimlessly around the country. According to Henry, it was at this time that he and Ottis committed numerous murders. During these travels, Lucas seduces Ottis's young niece, Frieda Powell, also known as "Becky".

Many modern scientists consider the relationship between a child and parents to be essentially the most important and perhaps the only source of the development of character pathology, which basically does not change, but is only revealed in the process of further influence of the environment on the individual.

One of the first psychoanalysts to put forward this theory was the Austrian psychiatrist and teacher August Eichhorn, who owns the famous aphorism: “Children renounce their instinctive claims only in exchange for love.”

The Austrian teacher argued that if a child is surrounded by care, affection and love in early childhood, then his negative instincts, as well as congenital mental anomalies, are in a semi-blocked, hidden state.

“The neurotic child in a good family, restraining his instincts, is in conflict with himself; the delinquent, whose instincts are not restrained by his family, is in conflict with his environment,” wrote Eichhorn. .

Henry Lee Lucas, the largest serial killer in US history, already under investigation, told psychiatrists about his mother, who may have been the reason for the degeneration of her boy into a mass murderer: “I was a pretty prominent guy, but there was a hole in my face instead of a knocked-out face.” "My eyes drove me into despair. I often looked in the mirror, thinking about why everyone considered me worthless. My mother was the most cruel, she called me the devil's spawn and the curse of her life."

And ultimately, her mother’s hatred and contempt cost her her life. Lucas killed his mother. He smashed her head with a bottle and cut her body into more than 100 pieces. He was only 16 years old then.

He was treated for a long time in an institution for the mentally ill. After he was declared healthy, he boarded a bus and went to seek his fortune in the West.

“I didn’t know how to do anything, and my artificial eye and prison jacket looked suspicious. I settled in a holiday trailer in an abandoned parking lot, ate garbage. At that time, an old prostitute Betty arrived. She reminded me of my mother, so I killed her with a hammer, and then ran her over with a car ".

The turning point for Lucas was meeting Ottis Toole at a gay bar in St. Louis. The thirty-year-old friend had a rich criminal past. The lovers together lured the tanker driver to a deserted place, killed the unfortunate man and went south in his car.

A terrible journey across the country began, costing many their lives. It was later called the “Wild Route” - already at the trial.

The cab of the stolen truck had a bed, air conditioning, a refrigerator, and the inventive Ottis designed a shower that was used not only for its intended purpose, but also to wash away blood stains. The friends drove hundreds of miles every day, picking up “voters” who did not know that this was their last journey.

"Ottis was a generator of ideas. He stole a book somewhere describing the customs of cannibals, thanks to which we were able to expand our modest menu. We usually raped our victims twice: before and after the murder, and then cut out long strips of meat and fried them in a frying pan. Not all people were to our taste, but if you seasoned the meat with ketchup, the dish was not much worse than a hamburger."

Impunity was relaxing, so the cannibals acted more and more sophisticatedly. Their appetites were enormous and grew with each murder, this is confirmed by the fact that during the year of wandering they killed 97 people. The age or gender of the victim did not matter, and the death penalty was imposed after they were satisfied that the passenger was planning an extended trip to another state. They committed violence and murder in secluded places, then, after a meal, they buried the remains. Usually they cut off the head, crushed the face with a hammer and hid it in a place other than the corpse.

Among the victims of Lucas and Ottis, the last victim was Ottis himself, “sentenced” to death by a friend for treason.

"I was afraid he would kill me and continue on with the Mexican bandit. They both knew how to drive. Unfortunately, I had to leave the truck in the outskirts of Mettle Rock because it was covered in blood."

The “wild route” was not interrupted - Lucas moved on alone, leaving terrible tracks on the sides of highways and freeways. The victims were men, women and children, mercilessly killed with a hammer, knife or wire loop.

“I was constantly getting chills, and the despair and suffering of the victims brought some relief. I looked them in the eyes and killed them as soon as, having resigned themselves, they stopped being afraid. I understood that I was doing evil, but the feeling of revenge for a ruined childhood was stronger. I wanted their lives , warmth and meat."

In 1981, he fell ill with pneumonia, which resulted in partial paralysis of his arms and the need for nursing. The search for her friend continued for several months, and the terrible result was 30 missing women.

At this time, he had the idea to take a girl from the orphanage, and for this it was necessary to collect documents about work activity and a bank account. The acquisition of the papers cost the lives of ten men.

It was not difficult to deceive the head of the orphanage.

And soon Lucas drove onto the highway with his fourteen-year-old adopted son Betsky. We passed several states and reached Texas. There they lived with an elderly woman, Catherine Rich, for several weeks, helping her take care of her mountain garden, then they joined a Protestant sect.

“They accepted us into the community without any questions. Betsky sang psalms all day long and began to forget about me. She didn’t deserve to stay alive. I gave her cactus decoction to drink, and we went out onto the highway...”

The girl's body was not found because the killer scattered the dismembered corpse at a distance of 40 miles along the highway. Two days later, Lucas returned to the commune, saying that Betsky had gone to an unknown location. No one checked his words.

“In September it started to freeze again, but the death of some random person was not able to give me warmth for a long time. I came to the old woman and shot her in the grove.”

Ms. Rich's remains were found on June 7, 1983. Two days later Lucas lost his revolver. Analysis of the bullets and fingerprints led to an arrest. Lucas went on trial in December on three counts of murder.

The trial of Henry Lee Lucas was very loud. Since the death penalty was abolished in Texas, this led to its restoration in the state.

The accused finally confessed to another murder. They didn’t believe him, but they checked and found the body. At the next trial he was again sentenced to death, but the ending was similar - indicating the next place of murder and the corpse. Until February 1991, Lucas confessed to 357 murders and indicated the places where the bodies were hidden.

“I have to play for time,” he said with a smile at a press conference, “because I am accused too quickly. It will be enough to identify one corpse a month. I killed more than 600 people. They won’t have time to execute me...”

Ottis Toole(eng. Ottis Elwood Toole; March 5, 1947 - September 15, 1996) - American serial killer, cannibal and arsonist. He is one of the most famous perverted serial killers of the 20th century. Accomplice and lover of the famous serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. It can be said about him and his partner Henry Lee Lucas that they are not only fiends of Hell, but they were Hell itself on earth. Toole confessed to multiple murders, rapes, cannibalism and was a suspect in several unsolved murders. He also confessed to the murder of Adam Walsh. Died in a Florida prison from cirrhosis of the liver on September 15, 1996.

Biography of Ottis Toole

Toole was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. Mother was a religious fanatic; Toole later claimed that she abused him, including dressing him in women's clothing and calling him Becky. As a child, Toole was a victim of incest at the hands of many close relatives, including his older sister and neighbor. His maternal grandmother was a Satanist, she subjected him to various satanic practices and rituals, including self-mutilation, and called him "The Devil's Child". Had an IQ of 75. It is believed, however, that his IQ was probably higher, and that he received such low scores due to teaching children with disabilities (including dyslexia and ADHD) and being illiterate. He also suffered from epilepsy, resulting in frequent epileptic seizures. Throughout his childhood, he often ran away from home and slept in abandoned houses. He was a serial arsonist from a very young age and was excited by fire. In the documentary, Toole claimed that he was forced to have sex with his father's friend when he was five years old. At age 10, he felt gay, and claimed to have had a homosexual relationship with a neighbor boy when he was 12. Toole dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and began frequenting gay bars. He also claimed to be a male prostitute. Toole claimed to have committed his first murder at the age of 14. Toole was first arrested at age 17 in August 1964 on charges of vagrancy. Much information about Thule between 1966-1973 is unclear, but it is assumed that he began to drift into the southwestern United States, and that he continued to engage in prostitution and begging. Living in Nebraska, Toole was one of the main suspects in the 1974 murder of 24-year-old Patricia Webb. Shortly thereafter he left Nebraska and settled briefly in Boulder, Colorado. A month later, he became the prime suspect in the murder of 31-year-old Elena Holman, who was killed on October 14, 1974. Toole left for Boulder and headed back to Jacksonville. In early 1975, Toole returned to Jacksonville after drifting. On January 14, 1976, he married a woman 25 years older than him. She left him just three days after she found out about his homosexuality.

Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas

The turning point in Ottis Toole's life was when he met Henry Lee Lucas in a gay bar in 1976. Since then, the couple has not been separated, traveling in a van across the United States and constantly killing traveling people in a perverted way. The generator of ideas in their tandem was Ottis, the main performer was Lucas. They organized the so-called “Hands of Death” cult - first they raped the victim, then killed him with a knife, hammer or wire, posthumously raped him, cut him into small pieces and prepared food from them. They also taught a girl, Ottis’ niece, to their “craft.” A terrible journey across the country began, costing many their lives. It was later called the “Wild Route” - already at the trial. The cab of the stolen truck had a bed, air conditioning, a refrigerator, and the inventive Ottis designed a shower that was used not only for its intended purpose, but also to wash away blood stains. The friends drove hundreds of miles every day, picking up “voters” who did not know that this was their last journey. "Ottis was a generator of ideas. He stole a book somewhere describing the customs of cannibals, thanks to which we were able to expand our modest menu. We usually raped our victims twice: before and after the murder, and then cut out long strips of meat and fried them in a frying pan. Not all people were to our taste, but if you seasoned the meat with ketchup, the dish was not much worse than a hamburger." Impunity was relaxing, so the cannibals acted more and more sophisticatedly. Their appetites were enormous and grew with each murder, this is confirmed by the fact that during the year of wandering they killed 97 people. The age or gender of the victim did not matter, and the death penalty was imposed after they were satisfied that the passenger was planning an extended trip to another state. They committed violence and murder in secluded places, then, after a meal, they buried the remains. Usually they cut off the head, crushed the face with a hammer and hid it in a place other than the corpse. Among the victims of Lucas and Ottis, the last victim was Ottis himself, “sentenced” to death by a friend for treason. "I was afraid he would kill me and continue on with the Mexican bandit. They both knew how to drive. Unfortunately, I had to leave the truck in the outskirts of Mettle Rock because it was covered in blood." The “wild route” was not interrupted - Lucas moved on alone, leaving terrible tracks on the sides of highways and freeways. The victims were men, women and children, mercilessly killed with a hammer, knife or wire loop. Lucas later retracted his confession, saying that he only made such statements to improve his living conditions in prison.

Passionate love, treacherous betrayal, furious jealousy and cruel revenge - dozens of famous folk ballads are based on this simple storyline, including the song Henry Lee by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds featuring PJ Harvey, discussed below.

The history of the Henry Lee song began, according to researchers, no later than the fifteenth century. It is generally accepted that its homeland is Scotland, but subsequently the ballad was well known in England and the USA. As is usually the case in folklore, the song had several versions of the lyrics and was found under different names: Henry Lee, Proud Girl, Earl Richard, Young Hunting, Love Henry and others.

They all talked about a young man who wants to leave his beloved for another, more beautiful woman. The insulted girl gets him drunk, kills him and throws his body into the river. Sometimes the song mentions a witness to a crime - a small bird. As a rule, most versions ended the same way: the truth came out, after which the woman was executed.

It is possible that the song would not have survived to this day if Richard “Dick” Justice had not recorded it in 1929. His version of the song was included in the collection English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child. Henry Lee was later sung by many artists, including Bob Dylan.

Modern music lovers who are not interested in folk music know the song thanks to Nick Cave, who performed it in a duet with PJ Harvey. They took Richard Justice's composition as a basis, but musically changed it so much that it is not easy to recognize the original.

Henry Lee is included in , the ninth studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It was also released as a single in Australia.

The video for the song Henry Lee - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds was directed by Rocky Schenk.

  • Music lovers eager for sensation claim that the song is about the American serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.
  • and PJ Harvey were dating at the time of the recording of Henry Lee.

Henry Lee Lyrics

Get down, get down, little Henry Lee
And stay all night with me
You won't find a girl in this damn world
That will compare with me

La la la la la
La la la la lee

I can't get down and I won't get down
And stay all night with them
For the girl I have in that merry green land
I love far better than you
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee

She leaned herself against a fence
Just for a kiss or two
And with a little pen-knife held in her hand
She plugged him through and through
And the wind did roar and the wind did moan
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee

Come take him by his lilly-white hands
Come take him by his feet
And throw him in this deep deep well
Which is more than one hundred feet
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee

Lie there, lie there, little Henry Lee
Till the flesh drops from your bones
For the girl you have in that merry green land
Can wait forever for you to come home
And the wind did howl and the wind did moan
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on Henry Lee

Henry Lee Lyrics

Lay down, lie down, little Henry Lee
And stay with me all night
You won't find a girl in this damn world
What can compare to me

La-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-li

I can't lie down and I don't want to lie down
And stay with you all night
After all, the girl who is waiting for me in the cheerful green land,
I love much more than you
And the wind kept howling, and the wind kept blowing
La-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-li
A little bird flew to Henry Lee

She leaned on the fence
To kiss him once or twice,
And a small penknife
She hit him several times
And the wind kept howling, and the wind kept blowing
La-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-li
A little bird flew to Henry Lee

Take him by the pale hands,
Take him by the feet
And throw it into a deep, deep lake,
Which is more than a hundred feet to the bottom
And the wind kept howling, and the wind kept blowing
La-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-li
A little bird flew to Henry Lee

Lay there, lie there, little Henry Lee
Until the flesh leaves the bones
And the girl you got in the cheerful green land,
Can wait forever for your return home
And the wind kept howling, and the wind kept blowing
La-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-li
A little bird flew to Henry Lee

Quote about the song

A Tale of the Fury of a Spurned Woman

 

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