Last Update on the Left - Episode 14 - Henry Lee Lucas Revisited - Part II
54m 28s
The transcript explores the controversial case of Henry Lee Lucas, a convicted serial killer whose numerous confessions—claiming hundreds of murders—are now widely regarded as false. Forensic DNA evidence has proven that Lucas was not responsible for the crimes he confessed to, linking most victims to other individuals. A key factor in the false narrative was systemic manipulation by law enforcement, particularly the Texas Rangers, who presented Lucas with fabricated case files to boost police clearance rates. This practice, driven by the desire for closure and public perception, revealed deep flaws in how cold cases were handled, especially in small towns with limited investigative resources. The conspiracy theories that Lucas was government-trained or part of a larger criminal network, popularized by books and figures like Dave McGowan, are dismissed as baseless, lacking credible evidence. The role of mental illness—particularly confabulation—explains how Lucas could invent detailed, believable stories. The story also highlights the human cost of false convictions, with victims' families enduring trauma and legal battles. Ultimately, the case underscores how media, institutional bias, and psychological factors can distort the truth, and how DNA testing has brought much-needed clarity. The episode ends by emphasizing the broader societal tendency to romanticize or simplify complex crime through narrative, and the importance of factual investigation over speculation.
I always kind of thought that the smells associated with Henry Lilucas and Otis' tool, one of the worst smells would be the habitual cigarettes. Now I'm starting to understand. I just recently was like watching footage of Otis' tool talking alone to a reporter in a room, chain smoking. It started to understand my brain. I was like, "Oh no, the smoke is good compared to them." Yeah, it covers up the body odor, the smell of Otis' tool. I think that the scent of Henry Lilucas. The smoke was like a tool, the A tool by Otis' tool. Yeah. Just sort of almost ingratiate him to people in a way. Yeah, do you really want to experience Essence of Otis? No, because if you experience Essence of Otis' Otis, you end up as a fucking child with no head. The only time Otis washed himself is when the police hit him with a hose. Thank you. We're going to last update on the left, everyone. My name's Marcus Parks. I'm here with Henry Zabaskin. No, you're not. You'll hear what Otis' tool is. I'm the most random tallest, oldest man you've ever seen who's also yet a boy. Oh, yeah. If you would join your time in prison. Oh, yeah. If they knew how good of a time I'd have, they'd let me out. Do you have any conjugal visits for me? Yeah, I hear you're quite the ladies' men. I push them on people. Sometimes people find out we're about to have one. Of course, at Larson. Hi, how you doing? What's going on? And I'm rooting for, I'm here despite the fact that the dolphins are playing today. Wow, Tennessee Titans three dolphins zero. Wow, good, really. You know, like you started like seconds ago. If there was one episode where it's appropriate to follow the dolphins as you record, it's today. What's incredible is that it's actually the second quarter, the second the show started the Titan score. And we'll be giving at updates on how the dolphins are doing throughout the episode. The reason why we're talking about Otis' tool is because we are returning to Henry Lee Lucas because we talked about him quite a bit in the last update, but there was a lot of information that we didn't get to. A lot of stuff that we didn't talk about in our first go round with Henry Lee Lucas because I believe our only sources back then were a trashy, supermarket true crime paperback and the book Hand of Death. That was co-written by the Christian lady who visited Otis' tool in prison. And it gave a birth to a world of conspiracy theory that now we're still dealing with. It's still very much in the present conversation. This program to kill was by David McGowan, which is a big part of the sort of, I would say, the black pilled world that does fully believe that serial killers are trained by CIA and that the CIA then uses a serial killers to kill and procure children in order to use their magical powers to fuel their reptilian overlords that are the actual US government. Come on, the reptilian stuff is that that's a bridge too far. It did spend a lot of time in Florida. There's lots of reptiles down there. Now, here's I'm going to admit something that's going to make me sound ignorant. I don't know the pill thing. The black pill, the red pill. It means nothing. Don't worry about it, Eddie. What pill am I? What pill did I take? You didn't green pill. The weed. I get home. I get bored when I smoke my goddamn pills. Fuck it. Stop with the pill. The case makes my lawns hurt. I'm out to it. It gets me fucking ripped. There is a large contingent of people that believe that Henry Lee Lucas along with a fair amount of other serial killers were trained by either the CIA or even some sort of organization that might even be above the CIA to loosely talk to a step on this. Yeah. I mean, and there was a hole, but that's the thing. There was this book. We were actually going to go into this maybe for the live show that we're touring right now. We said to go in a different direction, which I enjoy quite a bit more. Yeah. But we were thinking about going in a program to kill, but we realized that program to kill is mostly informed by hand of death, which was the book that Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toul. I guess you could say they kind of dictated it. They also, they yes, ended just any wacky shit that anyone said to them. They were like, Oh, yeah, I did that. And then also I took the little girl's guts and I put them into my pants. And the government said that that's what they wanted me to do. Hey, listen, we don't know. I don't know what half the forms of my taxes mean. So I don't know. Maybe that's why I was running up all these issues for all these years, is that I never once fucked a child's intestines. But the also program to kill also mentions Mark to talk. That's a different story altogether. But those are the things he sort of loosely ties together. But I, you know, this is sort of a hint that we might one of those little subjects I'd love to do is Dave McGowan. I'd love to go into his life. His life is actually very interesting. But that's the idea of the US being involved in the training of serial killers is I just don't think they need the training. They seem to kind of be self-starters. Yeah. Yeah. And if they were over in like other countries, if there's American serial killing in other places, then I'd be like, oh, maybe. Well, maybe that's where they go to vacation. It makes no sense. Why would they want to kill just, you know, random girls all the time? Because they're upset. They're angry at me. They say it's so end game. Well, the end game is to create a fear state in America and allow us to be ruled by the CIA and ruled by, and it wraps up the government. That's the police reform. Yeah. But they would wrap them up and shoot. But that's what the CIA is trying to do. The wrapping up loose ends. They're procuring children for various blackmailing problems and blackmailing the use kids to blackmail other politicians are going to do what they want them to do. And then also just because they like it. That's black pill. Black pill just means you're sad all the time. And you think black pill means you're on Reddit and you think you know better because you don't go anywhere. But the hand to death stuff, like it's not only is it like ridiculous, but we also know it's not true just because of how much Henry Lucas lied. And that's kind of what we left off the last episode was all of Henry Lucas's false confessions and the aftermath of those false confessions and what happened when he finally said, actually, nah, I didn't kill no one but my mother. It was this guy's name was Vic Fiesel. We didn't really talk about this during our series. Vic Fiesel sounds like Vin Diesel trying to make up a fake name in the hotel. This guy's an actual hero. Vic Fiesel was DA and Waco. And he like everybody else in Texas. He had Henry Lucas fever. Yeah. Everyone did because Henry Lucas was closing cases left and right. The cops and Dallas though, like they were, I really got to give it to the Dallas PD because we're getting a lot of this stuff from the Netflix series, the confession killer. And they talked to a woman who was a co case detective had like a really high clearance rate. 94% 94% was fucking killing it. Yeah. And you know, and sometimes when someone has a clearance rate that high, especially homicide detective, we've actually, we've seen this. I think we saw it in New York City. I think there was actually one here as well where they had these detectives with these super high clearance rates and it turns out that they were just forcing people into false confessions. And that's how they got their really high clearance rates. Well, it makes sense because then that's how you get them. Yeah. But this woman was not doing that. She was actually solving cases because she went down to Georgetown. They had Henry Lucas down in and George freaky little jail. Yeah. It's the tiniest little like you easily could have, I mean, kill those who would have had no problem with this little jail. I actually feel like a god ram could have taken out the jail. I think he would have tried to drive the jail. And so this woman goes down to talk to Henry Lucas and gives him a couple of doubt, like three Dallas cases. And he's like, oh, yeah, I did that. Yeah, I did that. Yeah, I did that. Oh, yeah, I was there. I remember her screaming, yeah, that one I got ice cream after I did that. And that was always his big ones. I did that. I did that. But you know, she's damn good detective. She knows when someone's lying. She knows when someone's bullshit. So she goes back to Dallas and her cops are like, all right, well, here's what you do. Put together a bogus case file, like put together bullshit photos, a bullshit report, bullshit, everything. Take it back down to him. See what he says. And she did that. She did for three cases. And the thing is that she's having to go against the Texas Rangers at this point, because at this point, the Texas Rangers are the ones who have Henry Lucas in their care. They're the ones there in charge of the Henry Lucas task force, because what the Texas Rangers were doing, they were getting a real big fucking heart on bringing every police department from around the country to come down to this tiny little jail in Texas and talk to Henry Lucas and put their cold cases in front of him. Come on down. Get your cases clear. Just this weekend only. Henry Lucas is he said yeah you made a look by looking at it by
another idiot. Yes, that in two shirts are being made very suit and that in talk is actually the number one podcast currently where he's on there talking all your favorite Kardashians saying yes to their crimes as well. Do you have the parents of dead children banging down your door? Hey, the worst part man is that don't stop until it's just disease to come on down and get a hot pipe and play the justice. Make sure you grab them palmalls, y'all. In a strawberry milkshake. Damn, but they were having so many police departments coming down to bring their cold cases to Henry Lucas. They had a line and they would give each police department 20 minutes with Henry Lee Lucas. I just feel like it's like naked gun. You have like one is like, you know, the the head of police from Ghana. He's got like a crazy hat on him and a spear. Look at that. He's fucking like from China, lots of big hat. Yeah. Like like all the big old flowing robes. And every single person that came in, every single cop that came in with their case, they'd show them the photos and oh yeah, I did that. Yeah. I did that too. And you just got that. Yeah. Like a woman dead next to her like a washer machine. He'd be like, kill her by the washer machine. And they're like, wow, he knew the tea killer. Only the killer would know such a thing. No, can I ask honestly now this is probably one of those questions. I'm asking here with the poet and the comedian, which is now these big men, these big strong Texas rangers. No, my question is is that yes, it does clear their clearance rates, right? It's not even there. But they're not even their cases. They're doing it. But on some level, don't you as like a hardcore investigator or whatever, don't you like want to solve the crime for real? I think that some of these people, it's kind of like what you joked about earlier. It's like, do you have or is it like it's a dead children knocking down your door seriously? Or is it like looking to go into a psychic and trying to get questions? It almost kind of almost feels like that where it's like, you're looking to go talk to, I think they just want the W. That's it. Yeah. They want they want the W. They can sleep at night knowing that that case is all is done. The family can have a little bit of peace knowing that that's done. And I think they figure it's like, well, even if it doesn't all make total sense, like, well, maybe he's remembering something wrong, you know, you get they can justify anything. But yeah, it's just it's just getting it's turning the red to black. And that's it. And it also just seems like this is my own opinion that they were like just doing it to, I don't know, escape the actual work they were supposed to be doing. Because you know, because they're just hanging over the hand really Lucas all goddamn day. Well, the thing is about a lot of these murders is, you know, these are a lot of these murders, like they're not coming from Milwaukee, you know, or or fucking Detroit or anywhere where murder is like a daily occurrence, like they're coming from small towns all over Texas where a fucking woman shows up with a fucking head chopped off and they're like, what do we do? Yeah, like they'd never investigated a murder in their lives. Yeah, no, I, they cops in the town. They don't, not help in my town. There was one. And he was also the school janitor. Yeah. So he needed his time really spent on grooming those kids. I can't pay the street, but there's all this poo to arrest, smaller cops. Hey Greg was all right. We had our, we had our differences, but he was all right. I'm mopping up this crime. You know what it is? The crime would be on the toilet seat, little Jimmy. You know, I could take you down to the station and put cuffs on you to sit you with rape is running. So yeah, these Texas Rangers, they're running the sasper and they're, they think that they're helping, but they're also very much enjoying being the people who are helping these cases to be solved. You know, their chests are puffed up and, you know, the Texas Rangers is a complicated organization. Oh, I think it's known to be highly racist extraordinarily so. It's known to be corrupt. It's known to have fucked up many things throughout the years. It's not a lot of I mean, yeah, they're used to be owned by a war criminal. Yeah, Texas Rangers, they got gray hats. Yeah, gray hats. Yeah, that's it. Love their hats. Yeah, two belts. Love their belts. They do wear two belts, but I don't want for the pants one for the gun. I think it was a huge, the badge sewn onto the shirt. Yeah, I don't like that. It's a come on. I know. You know, the metal bag. Texas Rangers, I, I, I like it. I like it. Texas Rangers. We also, we might have some Texas dates coming up soon, but just remember that. But if there's one, if there's one word I would use to describe a lot of the Texas, especially the Texas Rangers, they interviewed in the, the documentary series, arrogant. Yeah, the word that I'd use very, very arrogant, very full of themselves, very much full of purpose, and they don't really give a shit. If they know what's what, they know what's what, and they're going to tell you what's what. And you don't have, you ain't going to argue with me because I know, man, when he looks me in the, I, I know when he's telling the truth, Henry Lucas, he was telling me the truth. I know you tell me the truth because the devil can't lie to an angel. But the truth, I honestly think though I that it's a funny, funny joke, but I do think that there is a concept here of, so Henry, Lucas, I feel like a lot of media and even just life in general, do you see how far someone's willing to go if they see the role they're meant to take, right? So like Henry, Lucas, while he wasn't a savvy man, he did understand now 87 IQ 87. Yeah, he was, he was legally stupid. And so he went to understand he's getting good things out of this, right? So he has a very easy up and down name about why he is confessing to all these things, which we basically have considered, it's because he got to sit in a place where they gave him cigarettes and milkshakes. Yeah, and he got to stay off death row. And you got to stay off death row. And I think that's important. Anyone had field trips all the fucking time. But then we remember from the last episode, my dad saw him on one of the field trips. Yes. But then when he took the role of the world's worst serial killers, yeah, it's very important for the police to back up the role. Because then when they then do is see, this all fosters just how powerful and wise our justice system is. Not only have we effectively caught one of the worst monsters to ever live. And he's now spilling his guts because we've hacked him open. And he's here. And this shows you what just as does. Like this is. And so they're feeding into a fantasy as well that puffs them up. And it makes them want to work. It makes them like act big. And it also helps to I think it really for a lot of them help to alleviate, you know, the chaos of the 70s. Oh, yeah. Just how horrible, you know, the murder rates were and how horrible the crime rates were in the 70s. We I say it again and again, but we can't imagine how bad it really was in America during the 1970s. And I think with them taking Henry Lucas and having him say, like, I did this murder and that murder and that murder and him saying, like, I did over 300 murders. Like they could wrestle a little easier. No, it's like, okay, one of the, like, there's one guy. There's one guy out there that's responsible for all of this chaos. It's not like it's 360 guys that are responsible for all this chaos. It's one guy. It's just one bad apple. So that way they can also feel a little they can feel a little bit better about America. They can feel a little bit better about society. You know, if it's just one guy instead of, you know, 300. And that's why I think with the 300, I actually think a lot of the program to kill stuff got it shows the power of be careful who you pretend to be because we all we pretend to be because Henry Lucas, his series of confessions made somebody like Dave McGowan say, there's no way that idiot could have done all of this in one way. So now he's now definitely sure that he was trained by the fucking government to kill because how else could that moron kill that many people for such a long period of time and such a scattered sense of the MOs. It makes him feel more correct. So in the end, it's just like idiots being idiots being idiots going all the way down the road. Exactly. But that also being an idiot. I mean, remember famously Gary Ridgeway's IQ is lower. The thing is his is 82. Well, he was special. All right. And he was born just good at it. He was a prodigy. He was. But they say proof. You know, say my kill. Yeah. But you should drink Scotch. You need hot dogs for breakfast. And people were like, what a badass. And I was like, I think he just thought it was brown water. And that's what you ate. But Gary Ridgeway made sense. You know, he killed every one of his victims in one quarter in the Pacific Northwest. Henry Lucas didn't make any sense. You know, all the different ways that he killed people are supposedly killed people confessed to killing people. And he had, you know, there were 20 different victim types. That doesn't happen either. You know, just nothing about Henry Lucas made sense back to like way back to this cop that's coming out from dollars. She goes down and she shows him all these bogus case files. And he, of course, every single one of them, he's like, yep, yep, yep. And they're like, this guy's full of shit. And so the DA from Waco brings Henry Lucas up. And he's starting to see the same thing. Like he's asking questions to Henry Lucas. And he's also CN.
and okay, this guy is absolutely full of shit, but this DA, Vic Fiesel, he is ambitious. Like, this is a guy whose, you know, DA is the first step in stone. Like, he's got ambitions possibly for a governor. You know, they said this guy could have been president. They said, like, one guy said he was Bill Clinton before Bill Clinton, but he could have got there. So he's looking for the photo op and president Fiesel, I don't know. Yeah, president Fiesel. I don't know if I like the names, Rhymes with Weasel. Yeah, Fiesel with Weasel, that's done. He's not even making it to governor. If he was an artist, you're gonna be Fiesel, the easel. Yeah, guess what, but he's not any, he's fucking not. He didn't choose that. That would help. He chose this, and that didn't help. But, yeah, he decided that Henry Lucas was gonna be what he made his name on, but that's the thing in order to do that, he had to go against the Texas Rangers. Yeah. And the problem with going against the Texas Rangers is that at the time, the head of the Texas Rangers, the job that man had, I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but the job he had before that was deputy FBI director under J. Edgar Hoover. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Co-intelpro had been one of his big things. I feel that he might not be a super reasonable man. He might have a strong sense of self. Yeah, he's definitely not a man that you cross. No. He's definitely not a man that you cross. No, this was the guy who was the programs that he was a part of, all the harassment of Martin Luther King, the harassment of John Lennon. Oh, yeah, no, it's all the break-ins. All the break-ins. RFK, all the black male, all the horrible shit. So he retired to being the head of the Texas Rangers? Yes, he went for it because I think he got, if I remember correctly, he went when Congress found out about Co-intelpro and they're like, this is bad, you shouldn't be doing this. He's like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go down to Texas. You know, I don't need the heat here in DC. I got to go down where it's easy and breezy. Central Texas. Yeah, if Florida is where horrible people go, where no one cares, Texas is where horrible people go and people are really into it. So yeah, this guy's the Texas, yeah, he was the head of Texas Rangers at the time. And so he basically destroyed Vic Fiezel's life. Yes, I mean, he, he, like, what did he do? Like, he killed his dog. Yeah, and then boys and his fucking dog. And then went through his whole house, right? Didn't he just like see, they threw a bunch of bullshit trowels on him? Yeah, and then they just like tore his house apart. Yeah. They went through, he said, everything in his freezer, they opened up and threw on the floor. Yeah. Because his essential job was that he would become Henry Lucas's lawyer, right? Eventually he becomes Henry Lucas's lawyer. He's the goal really was to prove that he was full of shit. Yeah, the goal was to prove that Henry Lucas was full of shit. That's so funny to go into because, let me remind me, because Henry Lucas, as he was going through, he ended up copying to the fact that he didn't maybe know, right? Yeah. Towards the end of his life where Henry Lucas was, he was saying, like, I don't know if I did that, man. Well, that's the thing is that when Vic Fiesel brought him to Waco, it's like 84, 85. He said then that I didn't kill nobody. And he's like, I killed my mother and that's it. And then Fiesel was trying to hide him from the Rangers. Yeah. Yeah, who were using him off. Yeah. And the Rangers were using him. So, well, that's what the Texas Rangers say is that, like, yeah, you put him in front of the Texas Rangers. He's going, well, I'm pleased the Texas Rangers. You put him in front of a DA who said that he'd have mom to be a murderer and he's going to try to please him. So he's going to say he didn't do it. I actually think that this is really wrong. I think he's just saying whatever. It's all because someone's smiling at him and not going like, "Henry, get out of that dumpster." He used to just be like, "He's my friend." Also, anything to stay off of death row. But that's the thing is that when the Texas Rangers took Henry Lucas back, he kept saying, like, no, I didn't do it. I lied about all that stuff. I didn't like it. Y'all just said, no, they didn't do that. Not all, no, not that. That wouldn't be. And then out of school, he was like, "Eep with me." He had, he had. Who didn't, I guess he just absolved everything. He just threw everything to Henry. Yeah. And Henry Lucas, he actually, from that point forward, he would say, like, yeah, I didn't do any of these. I did, he said, I killed my mother and that was it. But that was the weird thing about it is that he would say he killed his mother and that was it. But what kicked all this off, of course, was that he was able to take police to his, remember his little hitchhiker, Becky. Yes. Artistual's cousin, the 11-year-old girl that came along with him, is that he was able to take police directly to Becky's body. Yeah, he definitely did that. He definitely did that. But that was the weird thing is that after he talked to Vic Fiesel and came back from that, he's like, I'll only kill my mother. I never kill Becky. And that was one of the incredible fucking parts of the story later on. So, like, after, like, Vic Fiesel, he went through hell. I mean, they hit him with a bunch of bogus charges and, you know, it turned out-- Said he was taking bribes. Said he was taking bribes for DWI, like, lighter DWI sentences. Put them under racketeering, all that shit. Everything. And so he went to trial for it. Like, fully went to trial. Yeah, he went all, he exotterated himself. Well, he got, he was found not guilty. And then he decided to have a libel case, like, file a libel case against the television station that had run like a big eight-part investigative report about him. And through, like, a bunch of FOIA requests and subpoenas and all kinds of shit, he found out that the government had gone to a bunch of local lawyers in Waco, and it pressured them into testifying that Vic Fiesel had taken bribes from them. Like, they brought dudes from the IRS into the room and be like, so you give money to Vic Fiesel? And I'm like, no, I don't know, but they're like, this guy here at the IRS really wants to know if you took money from Vic Fiesel. And these guys ended up testifying, like, yeah, I took money from Vic Fiesel, or I gave money to Vic Fiesel, you know, 'cause-- No shit! To get their clients off. Yeah, to get their clients off. What the fuck? Yeah, and then they got caught. Yeah, and they got caught. And it was also discovered that the Texas Rangers were working in conjunction with the news channel, where the news channel had showed up and taken, like, the news channel had met the Texas Rangers at a hotel, and the Texas Rangers had given them all these bogus files on Vic Fiesel and said, like, go after him, and they ran this big 11-part series. Yeah, once a week, they would do like a special on the news about something evil that Vic Fiesel was doing. Yeah, and then after that, once the charges were brought up, like, the grand jury, the only evidence the grand jury was shown to indict Vic Fiesel for bribery and racketeering, was the fucking 11-part news report that was done on him. Oh, man. And so-- Five months! They were there. That's all he could really show to them. Yeah, five months. And-- These are hell-pen-re-ly-leukas. That's the fucking problem, Vic. That's the fucking problem, buddy. He's did a Houston for anybody else. Why, him? Why, this? Well, I don't know if he was wanting to help. I think it was a publicity. Honestly, I think it was a publicity something got out of hand. Oh, it sounds like it. He wanted the photo op, and he wanted the-- he wanted to be able to say, like, I'm going up against corruption. I beat the Rangers. Well, I'm going up against corruption in Texas. I'm not corruption in Texas. And he, you know, he stumbled on this something crazy. Yeah. But he's also 32 years old at the time. Yeah. Well, he's just a-- he's like, baby. Yeah, man, he doesn't know if the 32-year-old, baby. I know how that is. I'm just the 40-year-old child myself. I'm in with my wiener, pissin' my pants. Imagine taking on the fucking FBI and the Texas Rangers at 32-- 10 years ago. Where were you at? 10 years ago, just imagine. I could see me doing that, like, taking on both, like, from a 7-Eleven. You know what I mean? Like, being chained to a fucking history machine. Yeah. And so, Vic Fiesel, of course, he wins the liable suit and wins the largest liable settlement in history. It's in the Guinness Book of World Records. That's correct. What is it? 58 million? Yeah, 58 million. But that's from the news channel and the news reporter. He wasn't allowed-- you're not allowed to sue the Rangers or the FBI. No, good for them. Yeah, they have a governmental immunity. Oh, that's good for them. Yeah. Totally destroy your life and you can't do anything about it. Well, that's why we're big fans here of the Texas Rangers in New Mexico. And just so you know, you get 10% off your speeding ticket at the Texas Rangers website if you could put in the code last, pod 90. [LAUGHTER] And so Vic Fiesel, after he goes through all of this shit, like, he resigns from the DA's office. Like, I think he did, like-- Especially after you get that paycheck. Why am I putting myself through this? Oh, my god. He made himself an injury law firm. Yeah. But he said, fuck this. So I'm just going to go back to broken legs and try getting your vagina burnt. Well, he decided that he was going to represent Henry Lee Lucas for a little while. Like, I don't think he did it pro bono. Oh, me, of course, because what-- I mean, was he going to get paid in? Stories. No shakes. Fuck yeah. Teeth. [LAUGHTER] Oh, man. By the time Vic Fiesel came around, he only had three or four of them left. He's all right. Yeah. and sleep.
- Yeah, I feel like he just keep it to the soup. - Happy, pretty good. Can we stop by Helen Hardy? - That's the amazing thing about Henry Lucas. When he got to be an old man, he looked like, you know how some old men look like massive babies? - He does. - He looks like a huge toothless baby. - He looks like a shaved bear. - It really is gross. (laughing) - He's winning the ooo. (laughing) - That's what he looks like. - He is gross. - And it's hard because, I mean honestly, even in, I think in jail they get you dentures. - You know what I'm talking about with the middle of Texas. I don't know what they give you. - What is it about some people just-- - Well, you went to Huntsville right after-- - Yeah. - Can I ask site stories LPLGML.com. Why do some people just choose not to get dentures? - Yeah. - And just go full on mouth bone to mouth bone? - They could be very uncomfortable. - Yeah. - And you know, maybe if they weren't so lazy, they'd still have teeth. (laughing) - That's true. - I don't think so. Unless you've lost your teeth due to some form of accident, poisoning, I guess drug use. - But if they're just popping out, man, that's not good. - He was concerned with-- - No, he was not, no, he wasn't. - Either because you know who didn't complain. - Otis. - Yeah. - Otis just knew that teeth were just getting the way of dick. - He was, that's why he was a fucking proper man. - Oh my God. Well that's the thing. Is that Vic Fiesel, he got to be Henry Lee Lucas's defense attorney and they were eventually contacted by a woman who claimed to be Becky Powell. Supposedly, the little girl that Henry Lee Lucas murdered all those years before. And since Henry Lee Lucas had been proven a liar on so many of his confessions, it seems like, well maybe he lied about killing Becky as well. So let's check this woman out. So they go down that Vic Fiesel interviews this woman. She's very convincing. She knows all these details about Henry Lee Lucas's childhood. And she knows all these details about Becky Powell's childhood, about her relatives or house, everything. And then they bring her to Texas and there's this massive, they bring CNN to talk to this woman. And say like, they bring her in because she does a lie detector test and the guy who runs the test is like, this is Becky Powell, 100%. They bring CNN, huge deal, massive deal. And so Vic Fiesel figures, I'm going to make another run of the Texas Rangers. Like I'm going to make them look like fucking idiots with this woman. And then the Texas Rangers say like, all right. Let's put her under oath. See what she says. And when he said, when he heard put her under oath, he's like, let's double check this one thing about it for a second. Are we really going to make this official? Don't we just like planning? Yeah. Don't we just like the meetings? That's really why I even email so I can talk to you. Sheriff Anderson. [LAUGHTER] So he sits Becky down for a quote unquote, "becky down" for a real serious conversation. And while he's talking to Becky trying to get her to tell the truth, his wife goes through Becky's luggage and finds a big stack of letters from Henry Lee Lucas. Now, who's the real detective here? Seems like that's real detective work. That's how you find out, because it's hard. We keep threatening it. But I'm just really kind of hooked it up. Like the idea of professional liars, like people who lie, even if it hurts you, are so fascinating to me. Like the people that do it just straight up for-- Essentially attention. Yeah. Like they don't know why. Like just stick yourself into the story. Like there's something about it. Maybe it's because like, maybe you look at Henry Lee Lucas. Maybe it's like you think he reminds you of grandpa or your mind to use something. There's just something about him that you want him. He thinks he's cute. Now, when he was confessing, he didn't look like grandpa. He looked like Uncle. Oh, yeah. I mean, he looked like Uncle Henry, but not in a good way. He had Kevin Klein hair for a while. [LAUGHTER] He was very wavy. He had very wavy hair. We had kind of a Christopher Stofferson dental. Now, he did. Well, there was a really interesting part of that documentary that it talked about his-- like what psychiatrist said about him and what they found out about Henry Lucas mentally. And like what his mental illnesses were. And they said that there's a concept called confabulation, where some people that suffer from this have gaps in their memory, like massive gaps in their memory. Can't do anything about it. Can't see anything like they just have these massive gaps. And what they do is they fill in the gaps with stories. They fill in gaps with fantasy that comes from themselves. They'll fill in the gaps. Like, especially if they're wanting to please someone. If someone is telling them a story, they'll fill in the gaps to please the person that they're talking to. Of course. Because that makes that other person happy. And they said, like, Henry Lucas's rate of confabulation was off the charts. They said it was like just-- they'd never seen anything like seen a person like that, where they just, you know, they just pop in the details. And that's why he was so convincing for so long for these people. And that's the thing is it's that he had that convincing or about him, but the Texas Rangers, like, they-- I don't think they-- the men-- I think the men that were really involved in this and the sheriff-- there was text strangers. There was also sheriffs. There was one sheriff that had fucking, like, five murders in his county that were just sitting there on his conscience that couldn't do anything about him. At all, just five fucking murders in a place where like, murders did not happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you do? And so Henry Lucas became like-- they became friends because Henry Lucas would conf-- he confessed to all of these murders. You know, and it came out that one of the murders was-- not a murder at all. The woman had a seizure while she was driving. Oh, yeah, so that didn't happen. She had a seizure while she was driving and she drove her car into a fucking quarry or something like that. Yeah, because they found her body in the water. Yeah, they found her body in the water and they found the necklace that she was wearing. And that was the things that that's how they knew that the cops were feeding him information is, and I mean, this is just one example out of, you know, a dozen, but, you know, them catching cops feeding him information is that this woman, you know, had a seizure while she was driving and drove into a fucking lake. And Henry Lucas was able to describe the necklace that she was wearing that day, which there was-- It would have been completely impossible. Completely impossible. Yes. For him to know what that woman was wearing. When she had a seizure and drove into a fucking quarry. Like there's no-- And that happened again and again. And he was probably on the other side of the country at that point. Yeah, I think he was in Tallahassee. And it's just like, I feel all these time where he's like claiming where he's doing murders and he doesn't remember what he did on those days. It's probably just on the side of the road drinking with all his tools. He literally was just getting horn-hold man. He was just getting turned over and over again by that horrible, horrible man and two of them together. You know what? Love's never horrible. And I have to remember that love. If there's love there and there's so much violence, that we celebrate, Marcus celebrates. [LAUGHTER] Marcus celebrates. And that's not celebrated. The fact that love can't be celebrated. Celebrated by. Yeah, this is the thing. But the fact that we don't-- because that's what they should all be about. This entire series should be about honest tool finding Henry Lee Lucas and what that was like for him. I mean, when you see videos of the two of them together talking, the way they look at each other. They're the only-- it's almost like the Eiffel Tower to a dead girl next to each other. Yeah. It's the only way that bond comes. Oh, yeah. It's like two bus boys who get too close. You're like, we're going to have to fire one of these guys. They're plotting. They're plotting now. See, on his tool, what I also like when I was watching when your interviews of him, he sits like Dave Maggie Grace. Like, he sits like, what's her name? Maggie Smith. Maggie Smith. Stead. Yeah. But he slides like her. Yeah, she's fucking dead. You know, because that had really little-- Yes. Yep. She could pass. He came back from the dead. He's killed her. Yeah. Killed Chris Christopherson. Killed the guy from Beverly Hills Cop that just-- Tiger. He killed Tiger. Yeah, without his final vindication about how cheating is OK. Speaking of sports, Tennessee Titans 6, Miami Dolphins 3. Oh, out of two. He's in four out of it. Fucking game. Two minutes left in the second-- wow, two minutes left in the second quarter, and it's 6 to 3. Between a team that's 0 and 3 and a team that's 1 and 2. God damn. What a heart. Monday night football. What is it? What does it come to? You kind of look like Taggart. Rob. Yeah, you look a little bit like Taggart. Like a young Taggart? I don't know if this is a compliment. What is it? Oh, it is. It's family else cop one, Taggart. I'm telling you, we get you a tan suit. Yeah, would you dress up like a little police detective? Actually, if we ever need to pretend like someone's a police detective, it's going to be you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he does. - Yeah, good. - Hey. (laughing) - I'm Eddie Murphy. That's right.
(laughing) Well, the big thing that came out of all of this, as far as I hand really Lucas goes, that really like that the nail in the coffin for Henry Lucas being the most prolific serial killer of all time, was the advent of DNA testing. Oh, sure. You mean proof? Yes, proof and evidence, yes, sure. Because there was not a single bit of forensic evidence to tie him to any murder. 'Cause another thing, going back to Dave MacGown for a bit, and the program to kill people, the only person whose death sentence he committed, while he was governor, was Henry Lee Lucas. Oh, and no sum up and none. (laughing) Okay, we just threatened him and paid him and gave him stuff and taught him how to be really good at what he did. Okay, as all he did, as all he did, as all he did. That's all he did, that's all I didn't do it. And provided incredible aviation schools in Florida for his team, honestly, it's huge. Yeah. But the reason why George W. Bush, community's sentence, he actually held a press conference, was because the evidence against Henry Lee Lucas for the crime that he was convicted for, the orange socks killing, the one that he, that was the one that he was sent to death row for. The evidence was not there. All they had was his confession and that was it. And it was actually provable that he was in Florida at the time of the orange socks killing. There was like a, I think with that one, I think it was, it might have been a paycheck or something like that. Yes, that was the one with the paycheck that pretty much showed that he could not have physically been where the murder happened. Yeah, yeah, so he did sort of, but that, but he did it, I guess, right. I mean, of all the people. But you know, Henry Lee Lucas again, he's just sitting there just running for president at the time. He wants to look like a good guy. He was just about someone tipped him off of all the people. The look like a good guy. There's so many, there's just other people. Yeah, Carla Faye, you could have pardon Carla Faye talk. We talked about this. But the black pilled folk, the Dave McGowan folk, the program to kill folk say that the reason why George W. Bush Community's sentence was because Henry Lee Lucas was the work of the government. Yeah, you see, yeah, you see, yeah. But guess what, if they wanted to help Henry Lee Lucas, you know what they would have done. They would have shot him in the back of the head 30 years ago. That's what they would have. They would have shot him in the back of the head because guess what, if there's one thing that that man says, I love a strawberry milkshake, but it doesn't make you a good assassin. I feel like there's something about him being probably one of the most flippable people that ever, he's like, Trump, where you go at every movement, every, he believes the last thing anybody says to him. Yeah. Otis tool, he thought Otis tool was sexiest man in the world. That's who you want to work for you. He looked at Otis tool and he was like, yes, please, I want two slices of it. Come in my mouth. Is Otis tool still alive? No, he died 96. He died 49 is cirrhosis and he died, man, it is he just is such a fancy Southern mentally handicapped woman. I've never seen, he looks like if what's her name from fucking gone with the wind, but the big hat and stuff, she was like, if she was special needs, like that's how he sits. Like a big fucking like Lacey. What's it? I'm braille, we're like, call a parasite. Yes, I do declare. I will kiss the snake. Yes. I knew I was gay when I was in embryo. I slid out my mama's pussy and I said, you. And really Lucas, eventually they started testing all of these DNA samples that they found, all these DNA samples that have been around for, you know, 30 years. And they started testing them against prisoner databases in Texas and various other states. And they just started getting hits, just hit after hit after hit. You know, and really famous cases too, like big ones that people made a really big deal about when Henry Lee Lucas's sentence was commuted. There was a group they called themselves Volt, like victims of Lucas tragedies. And they were like very much like they were pissed off at George W. Bush for commuting his sentence, like this guy needs to fucking die. He killed my sister, he killed my mother, so on and so forth. Yeah, we've already propped up this whole thing that he's quote, quote, murdered hundreds and hundreds of people. Now you're saying sorry. Yeah. There were literally people like family members who had appointments to watch them die. Yes. Of course. Yes. Very much so. And that gets so hard. They never rebook. So hard. COVID pushed so many executions. They're still. They're still making them up. It's so hard. 30% recidivism and a lot of bring these back out doors. So these people, like these poor people, like they had to be told like, hey, so yeah, it wasn't Henry the Lucas. It was actually this other guy. But we caught this other guy. Sometimes they would catch them, not every time, but they would have to say like, no, it wasn't Henry the Lucas. And then when one woman, like her sister, when it was said, like, no, it wasn't Henry the Lucas, like the other people started looking into their own family members cases. And they started seeing like this one woman. So it's like it was kind of like with the necklace. She started reading through Henry Lucas's confession. And she saw that he said that the woman, her mother had a watch bracelet on when he killed her. And then she remembered, no, we told the police that she was wearing the watch bracelet when she left that day, but they had actually found the watch bracelet in a jewelry box, like a couple of years later. So it shows it's a part of the reason why we talk about a lot on last podcast that serial murder. It's extremely difficult to prosecute and put together a case because it shows the gap and how hard it is to figure out a quote unquote, mode of less crime because 95% of homicides are done for direct specific practical reasons. And they're done by people that know you. It is such a small percentage of people that get murdered by somebody that they don't know. And it's an even smaller percentage that it was done by a CIA trained assassin with 14. Like it's legitimately like it's extremely small. So it's funny in that way. They were trying to, it actually speaks just much forward. It was because it wasn't one man killing 300 people. It was 300 people killing one person each much worse, and it's much, it's much more difficult to do. And also it shows how many times, you know, we, how many times does somebody kill somebody badly and like get it out of their system? How many times that happened? How many times is like they don't become a serial killer? They're like Eddie Kemper talked about when he first killed, he was so disturbed at first at how difficult it was that it challenged him, it challenged his, his urges. And so like you kind of wonder how many people are straight up just serial killers, wannabes, and they walk around and they kill somebody and then you'd like their corpse into the end of it. They're like, and this isn't either. Yeah. God, I thought it was going to be golfing. I thought it was going to be mandalas, but it's not, and it's not this either. Yeah. And then they just leave and they leave town. There's just some drifter and all the trucker killers, all the shit. Well, there was actually one of those guys. It was exactly what you're talking about that they found him through DNA. They found, you know, he was semen in the panties and they test his DNA and there was a hit on the, you, I don't know why, like you're trying so hard to not laugh right now. It was just something. Semen in the panties. I also, I mean, I know. It's something. It's something. It's like, it's just came out too smoothly. I don't know. I don't know. I heard it I was, I was, I was, I was, I laughed at my hand telling each other and it's knifled. I don't look into my father. Don't put it to semen in the panties. That's what it is. I think. Yeah. You want to semen in the panties? Yeah. You know, you got to do the bill. It cost me an accident. I know. There's no other way. There's no way. Yeah. It's just no other way to say underwear. Underwear. It's the pants, the word panties. It shouldn't be. It's just that's what I can do about it. It's just that's what they said over and over. You know, semen in the panties. I can't wait for the someone to clip that out and make it with the EDM song. So through that evidence, evidence, they were able to find a guy who had gone to prison for something else and you know, in Texas when you go to prison, you know, they do the swab and they put you in the database and they brought him in saying like, Hey, you need to do a meeting with your parole officer and turns out, Hey, here's a couple of cops. And so they start talking to him about it. And the guy is like visibly starting to get like once he knows what he's there for, he's like visibly upset because what the crime it bends at he, these kids had run out of gas, a girl or boyfriend and they were walking down the road. This guy picks them up. He drives them down the road. The kid tries running. He shoots them.
the boy, uh, and then six times in the head, six times in the head, and then he rapes and shoots the girl. And this guy was just fucking more like he was, it was like weighing on him. It was the only time he done it. He's the only it was in, it was 30 years before. It was like 1978 or something. It's 30 years before. And he was like, we probably fantasized about it for so long. And then we'll quote unquote, fill in his lap. And then he did it. And then he was like, Oh, no, I know. This is it. He actually is at me. This is a very bad thing to do. This, this feels really bad. Yeah. I don't, I don't like this. But that's not good. That's good. That's good. But you got to, you got to think about that before you kill two children. Yeah. So I'd say, yeah, you got to go ahead. I think about, you just got to go ahead and decide like, okay, I know, like you're not going to, let's not roll the dice. Yeah, on whether or not it's going to be a book hunter. Like that'll get it out of your system. Maybe I think that's like one of those things that could help. I wonder how many people are alive because of book hunter today. I mean, just ask me, you know, how many people that I haven't killed the things about country disturbed me about that story or the semen and the panace was the, was the fact that her father drove by the two of them walking on the highway. Yeah. And then he, he didn't think anything of it because he didn't recognize it as his daughter. But later on, he realized that he did drive past them. Yeah. It's extremely sad, Eddie. Yeah. And a great way to end. Well, I will, I'll end it on maybe a better note. Okay. Actually, I don't know if this is a better note. But it's a, they so far have found 20 cases that Henry Lee Lucas confessed to that have now been linked to other people through DNA. No, that's not news. I think it's 20 out of 200. 20 out of 20. Yeah, between two and 300, I think is how many cases they actually closed. But in terms of closure rates, that's not too bad. That's crazy. 20. Yeah. 20%. But it's just, but it's just, yeah, but that's just murders, you know, like they just, that's just hits that they fucking dead. But the vast majority of the Henry Lee Lucas cases have not been reopened and never will be, you know, that they never will be in 2022. The average clearance rate for homicides of police departments across the country is 52.3. Yep. Wow. Straight up half get solved. So 20%. I mean, especially for something that from fucking 40 years ago, based off the lies of a bucktoothed, but that's a thing. You know, they're just running DNA. Yep. That's it. It's not even there. They wasn't even investigating. And we do want to come air a DNA and we find that we actually have only one set of DNA or not. We'll find that out soon, probably at some point. That's so exciting. Picture in dot com slash last podcast on the left. I don't know if that serves you here. But then you go to Tik Tok at Instagram. We've got LP on the left. You see your shit. We got, this is now available all over the world. Yes. Yes. Welcome. Check it out. Go see. Hello is Istanbul. Hello, Japan. Hello North Korea. Yes. We're now doing this in North Korea. Seven listeners in North Korea. It's been huge, man. One's named Kim. Pretty amazing. And go to last podcast and let that come to check out our live shows. Watch us live. We're funny or even there. Mm hmm. You can go to last podcast and let that come for all of our dates. We got Los Angeles, Brooklyn, London and Iceland coming up. Yeah. Yeah. Come on out. Check it out. And listen to the brighter side when you get a chance. My other show in the last podcast that worked with the great Amber Nelson is working. He's working in torque. And listen to no dogs. Oh, low dogs in space. Hell, yeah, brother. No dog. We're working hard on the new series. They have part one coming out real soon. Space. No one can hear you. How? Yeah, because most dogs die up there. They burn up in the atmosphere. Yeah. They all did. Like as a very sad story. Hell, Satan. Hell, game. Chris Christopher. Thank you for enjoying the last update on the left. You can find other shows that you'll enjoy from the last podcast network on last podcast on the left dot com. See you there. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Henry Lee Lucas’s numerous confessions, including claims of killing over 300 people, were largely based on false narratives and confabulation, with no forensic evidence linking him to any murders.
DNA testing has exonerated Lucas in multiple cases, proving that the victims were killed by other individuals, and has led to the closure of at least 20 of the cases he confessed to.
The belief that serial killers like Lucas were trained by government agencies (such as the CIA) is rooted in conspiracy theories, particularly promoted by books like *The Hand of Death* and figures like Dave McGowan, but lacks credible evidence.
Texas law enforcement, especially the Texas Rangers, played a central role in promoting Lucas’s confessions by presenting him with fabricated cases, which inflated clearance rates and created a false sense of justice.
A key turning point was the investigation by DA Vic Fiesel, who discovered evidence of corruption within the Texas Rangers and media, leading to a massive libel lawsuit and a $58 million settlement—highlighting systemic misconduct.
The story reveals how police departments and media may exploit the narrative of a single serial killer to simplify complex crime rates and provide a sense of closure to grieving families.
Henry Lucas’s mental condition, characterized by confabulation and memory gaps, explains his ability to fabricate detailed stories that seemed plausible to others, especially under pressure.
The public fascination with Lucas reflects broader societal patterns of seeking simple explanations for complex crimes, often fueled by media, conspiracy theories, and the desire for narrative control.
Summary:
The transcript explores the controversial case of Henry Lee Lucas, a convicted serial killer whose numerous confessions—claiming hundreds of murders—are now widely regarded as false. Forensic DNA evidence has proven that Lucas was not responsible for the crimes he confessed to, linking most victims to other individuals. A key factor in the false narrative was systemic manipulation by law enforcement, particularly the Texas Rangers, who presented Lucas with fabricated case files to boost police clearance rates.
This practice, driven by the desire for closure and public perception, revealed deep flaws in how cold cases were handled, especially in small towns with limited investigative resources. The conspiracy theories that Lucas was government-trained or part of a larger criminal network, popularized by books and figures like Dave McGowan, are dismissed as baseless, lacking credible evidence. The role of mental illness—particularly confabulation—explains how Lucas could invent detailed, believable stories.
The story also highlights the human cost of false convictions, with victims' families enduring trauma and legal battles. Ultimately, the case underscores how media, institutional bias, and psychological factors can distort the truth, and how DNA testing has brought much-needed clarity. The episode ends by emphasizing the broader societal tendency to romanticize or simplify complex crime through narrative, and the importance of factual investigation over speculation.
FAQs
Henry Lee Lucas likely confessed to murders to gain attention, stay off death row, and enjoy amenities like cigarettes and milkshakes. His confessions were largely based on confabulation, a mental condition where individuals fill memory gaps with fabricated stories to please others.
No, there is no forensic DNA evidence linking Henry Lee Lucas to any murder. DNA testing has shown that many of the cases he confessed to were actually committed by other people, with only 20 out of hundreds linked through DNA evidence.
Confabulation is a mental condition where a person fills memory gaps with false or invented stories. Henry Lee Lucas exhibited extreme confabulation, which allowed him to convincingly fabricate details about murders, especially when he was being questioned by law enforcement.
Yes, the Texas Rangers were heavily involved in bringing cold cases to Henry Lucas, using him as a tool to create false convictions and boost their clearance rates. They were later criticized for their arrogance and corruption, especially in their treatment of DA Vic Fiesel.
Yes, Vic Fiesel was a real Dallas County District Attorney who investigated Henry Lee Lucas. He became suspicious of Lucas's confessions and worked to expose the falsehoods, eventually leading to a major legal battle and a $58 million libel settlement.
DNA testing revealed that Henry Lee Lucas was not responsible for most of the murders he confessed to. Instead, it linked the actual crimes to other individuals, proving that the claims of hundreds of murders were fabricated and debunked by scientific evidence.
Chat with AI
Loading...
Pro features
Go deeper with this episode
Unlock creator-grade tools that turn any transcript into show notes and subtitle files.