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Henry Lee Lucas | Netflix: The Confession Killer | Mental Health & Personality — Transcript

by Dr. Todd Grande · 3,423 words · 520 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00welcome to my scientifically informed
0:01insider look at mental health topics if
0:04you find this video to be interesting or
0:06helpful please like it and subscribe to
0:07my channel hello this is dr. grande
0:10today's question asks I can analyze the
0:12Netflix special the confession killer
0:15this was a series that described the
0:18life of convicted killer Henry Lee Lucas
0:21they also looked at certain members of
0:23law enforcement they talked to some of
0:26the families of murder victims and other
0:28people tied to his case Henry Lee Lucas
0:31of course was a real person as were all
0:33the people featured in the series so
0:36just to remind her I'm not diagnosing
0:37anybody only speculating about what
0:39could be happening in a case like this I
0:42will add the references to the sources
0:44that I used to the description of this
0:46video now many of those references are
0:49really from Henry Lee Lucas himself
0:51right many the references featured
0:54interviews with Lucas which of course is
0:56a problem because he seemed to have a
0:58poor relationship with the truth right
1:01so even though many of the references
1:03seem pretty good if they relied on Lucas
1:06that's a problem the story of Henry Lee
1:09Lucas is fascinating for a variety of
1:11reasons not only his mental health and
1:13personality characteristics but those of
1:16law enforcement specifically the law
1:18enforcement officers that believed his
1:20confessions and those who appeared to
1:23have conspired with him to create those
1:25confessions his story is a story of
1:27pathological lying confirmation bias
1:30illogical behavior manipulation
1:32corruption retaliation narcissism and a
1:36variety of other worrisome behavior
1:38again not just on the part of Lucas but
1:40on the part of other people as well so
1:42first I'll take a look at the timeline
1:43they don't analyze what could be going
1:45on in terms of mental health and
1:46personality characteristics for Lucas
1:48and also some of the other people
1:50involved in this case
1:52so first the timeline so we see that
1:55Henry Lee Lucas was born in 1936 in
1:57Virginia he was the youngest of seven
1:59children both his parents were
2:01alcoholics his father manufactured
2:04alcohol illegally and his mother was a
2:06prostitute
2:07the mother appeared to be particularly
2:09vicious in terms of her treatment of
2:11Lucas she allegedly
2:13that him frequently made him watch while
2:15she had sex with various men and forced
2:18him to crossdress
2:19although that would be put to an end by
2:21teachers who report that activity to law
2:24enforcement now he was beaten what they
2:26wouldn't plank by his mother when he was
2:288 years old he spent three days in a
2:30coma as a result of that assault when he
2:33was 10 years old he lost the use of his
2:35left eye he was in a fight with his
2:37brother whereas I was injured and
2:39subsequently it became infected it had
2:41to be replaced with a glass eye when he
2:44was in sixth grade he ran away from home
2:46and it's possible that at this time he
2:49killed his first victim he would have
2:51been around 15 at this time the possible
2:53victim was a 17 year old female who
2:55disappeared in March of 1951 but there's
2:58no way of knowing this for sure
3:00he confessed to this crime but of course
3:02recanted later this was a popular
3:04pattern that we see with Henry Lee Lucas
3:07in 1954 he was convicted of several
3:10counts of burglary he spent about five
3:12years in prison
3:13after he was released he went to live
3:15with his half-sister in Michigan in
3:17January of 1960 we see that Lucas's
3:19mother was visiting him in Michigan and
3:23Lucas's mother got into an argument
3:24about him returning to Virginia to take
3:27care of her he stabbed her to death in
3:30the midst of that argument now Lucas
3:33claimed it was self-defense but he was
3:34convicted and sentenced to 20 to 40
3:37years in prison
3:37but he was released in 1970 just ten
3:40years later about a year after this he
3:42was convicted of attempted kidnapping
3:44the victims were three girls he was
3:46sentenced to three and a half years
3:48after he was released from this sentence
3:50he moved to Pennsylvania and was married
3:52to a woman named Betty Crawford that
3:54lasted about two years but Lucas had to
3:57leave after he was accused of assaulting
3:59her two daughters he started drifting
4:01through various states at this point
4:03mostly in the South eventually ending up
4:06with a man named Otis O'Toole in Florida
4:09O'Toole had a niece named Frieda Powell
4:11otherwise known as Becky Powell at this
4:14time she would have been about ten years
4:15old
4:16Lucas worked with O'Toole at a roofing
4:18company from 1979 to 1981 during this
4:21time he allegedly committed over a
4:23hundred murders some of them were with
4:25O'Toole
4:26but again we see that Lucas recanted he
4:29claims that he fell in love with Becky
4:31and they moved to Texas where they ended
4:34up caring for a woman named Kate rich in
4:36August of 1982 in Texas we see that
4:39Lukas killed Becky Powell three weeks
4:42later he killed Kate rich in June of
4:451983 he was arrested by a Texas Ranger
4:48for illegally possessing a firearm Lukas
4:51claimed that he was abused by the Texas
4:53Rangers and ended up confessing because
4:55of that to the murders of Powell and
4:58rich he led the Rangers to the place
5:01where he allegedly killed those two
5:03victims and in each place the police
5:05found bone fragments the remains they
5:08found were human but they were never
5:09identified as belonging to the victims
5:11so at this point we see that Henry Lee
5:13Lucas has an extensive criminal history
5:15including three homicides there seems to
5:17be no doubt about the homicide committed
5:20against his mother right he clearly
5:22killed his mother and he probably
5:23committed the other two homicides as
5:25well Powell and rich while pleading
5:27guilty to these two murders in court we
5:30see that Lucas announced that he had
5:32committed over a hundred murders after
5:34this we see that Williamson County
5:36Sheriff Jim Boutwell sets up a task
5:39force led by the Texas Rangers that was
5:42supposed to facilitate access to Lucas
5:45by other law-enforcement professionals
5:47so the task force really wasn't designed
5:49to investigate just to arrange
5:52interviews essentially with these other
5:54law enforcement agencies that are trying
5:56to close cold cases or cases where
5:59they're struggling to find leads
6:01so essentially law enforcement officers
6:03could visit Lucas get a confession and
6:06closed cases and this is what happened
6:08Lucas eventually confessed to 213
6:12unsolved murders one of those murders he
6:15confessed to was that of Deborah Jackson
6:17at that time she was known as orange
6:20socks because there was no other
6:23identity just the fact that she was
6:25wearing orange socks when her body was
6:26found now this was a capital murder case
6:29that resulted in a death penalty for
6:31Lucas eventually the texas governor at
6:33that time George Bush commuted the
6:36sentence for Lucas so he ended up dying
6:39in prison in
6:402001 of heart failure he was 64 years
6:43old so now taking a look at the mental
6:45health and personality characteristics
6:47here for Henry Lee Lucas now the problem
6:50with the pathological lying that we see
6:52with Lucas is there's no real way to
6:54know the truth
6:55it seems fairly clear he had a terrible
6:58history of abuse terrible boundaries
7:00impulse control problems a tendency to
7:03commit criminal acts and again he
7:05probably committed at least three
7:07homicides what was going on all this
7:09time in terms of mental health and
7:10personality well we see some evidence
7:12that there was disorganized thinking and
7:15in some of the interviews we see with
7:18Lucas he reports experiences that appear
7:21to be consistent with delusions and
7:23hallucinations also he was diagnosed
7:25with schizophrenia several times while
7:28in custody so it seems likely that he
7:30had schizophrenia or at least had some
7:31of the symptoms of schizophrenia he
7:34certainly seemed to have alcohol use
7:35disorder although technically when he
7:38was in custody it would have been a
7:39remission because he wouldn't have had
7:41access to alcohol but either way
7:43substance use disorders specifically
7:45alcohol use disorder seemed to be a
7:47factor there's been a lot of speculation
7:48about psychopathy he seems to have had
7:52features of both factor 1 and factor 2
7:56psychopathy and of course both are
7:58associated with criminality
7:59now both factor 1 and factor 2
8:01psychopathy are dividing the two parts
8:03with factor one the two parts are
8:05interpersonal and affective so on the
8:08interpersonal side we see that Lucas
8:11appeared to have a grandiose
8:12sense of self to have killed over 3,000
8:16people including Jimmy Hoffa we see that
8:19he had pathological lying that seems
8:21pretty clear he actually confessed to
8:23fictitious crimes and he admitted that
8:25he lied he had superficial charm
8:28although this feature I don't think is
8:29quite as strong as some of the others
8:31and he was manipulative this seems
8:33pretty clear I think he was also being
8:35manipulated though too so he was
8:37manipulative and being taken advantage
8:40of at the same time now looking at the
8:42factor one effective side we see he has
8:44a lack of guilt shallow effect and
8:46certainly a lack of empathy the question
8:49really becomes did he have the failure
8:51to accept responsibility for actions
8:53interestingly it appears that he
8:55accepted responsibility for everything
8:57even crimes he didn't commit but there
8:59are other times when he failed to take
9:01responsibility so I think he still
9:02qualifies in terms of this
9:04characteristic now moving over to the
9:06factor to side we see this is sometimes
9:08called sociopathy or secondary
9:11psychopathy this factor is more
9:14associated with antisocial personality
9:15and again it's dividing the two parts
9:18lifestyle and anti-social on the
9:21lifestyle side he seems to have
9:23sensation-seeking
9:24we see evidence of a parasitic lifestyle
9:27he didn't seem to have realistic
9:28long-term goals
9:30he was impulsive and irresponsible so
9:32all the traits from lifestyle on the
9:35anti-social side of factor 2 he clearly
9:38had early behavioral problems juvenile
9:40delinquency poor behavioral controls and
9:42criminal versatility now in terms of
9:45revocation of conditional release this
9:48is one of the traits of factor 2
9:50antisocial we see that he did actually
9:53escape from jail briefly in 1957 while
9:56serving time for burglary that would
9:58probably count as meeting this
10:00characteristic although of course
10:02technically it wasn't conditional
10:03release again he escaped but the idea
10:06here is that somebody doesn't follow the
10:09rules of being punished right so we
10:12didn't follow the rules of being in
10:13prison so essentially it appears as
10:15though Lukas has all the characteristics
10:17of both factor 1 and factor 2
10:20psychopathy and this is actually highly
10:22unusual usually somebody if they are
10:25psychopathic will lean more strongly to
10:27factor 1 or factor 2 many have traits
10:31from both but again one kind of really
10:32stands out and here we don't really see
10:35that he seems to be somehow in both
10:37categories at the same time it's my
10:39guess though that Lukas is more on the
10:41factor-2 side so again we see all the
10:44characteristics met but I think he fits
10:48more strongly with antisocial
10:49personality disorder with sociopathy
10:51than he does with factor 1 psychopathy
10:54now psychopathy also has some overlap
10:57with narcissism we see several
10:59narcissistic characteristics with Lukas
11:01not just what we see from the overlap
11:03with psychopathy like manipulation lack
11:05of empathy and
11:07Oh sense of self but also with other
11:09narcissistic traits like believing
11:11oneself to be special or unique
11:13resistance to criticism and fantasies of
11:16success and power so we not only see
11:18psychopathy but some narcissism as well
11:20so was Lucas really a serial killer I
11:23think in looking at all the evidence to
11:25me at least it seems pretty clear he did
11:27commit several murders but was he the
11:29serial killer that many people believe
11:32that he was did he kill over 200 people
11:34or even much more than that I don't
11:37think he did I think the best evidence
11:38points to this idea that Lucas was lying
11:41to satisfy the demands of the police to
11:44get better treatment from them to be
11:46famous or to be wanted or it could have
11:49been all these things he was never like
11:51to recognize for anything positive in
11:53his life so maybe it seemed like a good
11:55deal to him to be liked for something
11:57negative we know that 20 of the murders
11:59that he confessed to have actually been
12:01linked to other people so clearly he was
12:03lying there I mentioned before he
12:05confessed two fictitious murders so
12:06clearly lying there and for many of the
12:09murders he simply could not have
12:11committed them because he was at a
12:12different location when the murder took
12:14place Lucas had an IQ of 87 so that's
12:18almost one standard deviation below the
12:20mean that would be 85 so again close to
12:23that and this puts him at about the 19th
12:26percentile so about 19% of population
12:29would have an IQ equal to his or less
12:33than his but Lucas did have an
12:35exceptional memory we see that many
12:37people noted this including some of the
12:39law enforcement officers who interviewed
12:41him so somebody was feeding him
12:43information he could recall what he
12:46needed to recall I think the best
12:47example of this in the series was when
12:49Sheriff Jim Boutwell Lucas and few other
12:51people or at the site of the murder of a
12:54young man whose girlfriend was also
12:57murdered around the same time we see the
12:59sheriff asking Lucas questions designed
13:01to help Lucas recover a specific memory
13:04about the murders this is referred to as
13:07cued recall the sheriff asked Lucas how
13:10far away the girlfriend's body would
13:12have been right so the male's body was
13:15left in one place and the female's body
13:17was left in another so he was really
13:19asking
13:20Lucas what was the distance between them
13:22and Lucas said 55 miles later the
13:26sheriff said it was 56 so it was amazing
13:28how accurate
13:30Lucas was not confirmed that Lucas
13:33committed the murder
13:34Lucas was clearly confessing to a crime
13:37he didn't commit
13:38nobody would confess in that manner no
13:41one would remember exactly how many
13:42miles between one body and another are
13:46we supposed to believe that Lucas wrote
13:47down the mileage on the odometer when he
13:49killed the male and then when he killed
13:52the female he wrote the mileage down
13:53again again I don't think anyone would
13:55do that doesn't make any sense
13:56of course with those two murders we see
13:58that the real killer was apprehended
14:00because of the DNA evidence I think
14:02Lucas had the right combination of
14:05personality traits and abilities to pull
14:08off his manipulation of law enforcement
14:09and at the same time to be a victim of
14:13manipulation which brings me to taking a
14:15look at the personality characteristics
14:17of the law-enforcement officers involved
14:19in this case we see different levels of
14:21involvement here in terms of somebody
14:23like sheriff Boutwell
14:24his odd handling of Lucas's confessions
14:27and other things like letting Lucas
14:31wander around the jail giving him codes
14:33some of the internal doors buying him
14:35milkshakes all the time none of these
14:37things I guess are technically criminal
14:39I don't know but it seems like there's
14:42more going on here than just incompetent
14:45performance rather there seems to be
14:47evidence at the sheriff or somebody in
14:49that office fed information to Lucas it
14:52really seems to be nothing short of a
14:54criminal conspiracy a desire to close
14:56cases while knowing that the real
14:59killers are still free now I was
15:01specifically curious about this point to
15:03this relationship between Boutwell
15:05and Lucas this is featured prominently
15:06in the series it seemed obvious that
15:10this was highly peculiar it seemed
15:12unlikely that Lucas could have killed
15:14over 200 people and that the credit for
15:17catching him and collecting all of his
15:19confessions could go to so few people
15:22including to sheriff Boutwell
15:24usually if somebody does something
15:25criminal or dishonest and you catch them
15:28you find out that they did the same
15:29thing before or you see that they engage
15:31in the same behavior or similar behavior
15:34in the future while I was watching the
15:36Netflix special about Lucas
15:38I remembered another case I researched
15:40not long ago about a man named michael
15:43morton i don't believe he was mentioned
15:45in the series that I remember hearing
15:46his name there he was accused of killing
15:48his wife Christine Morton in 1986 and
15:52the case was handled by sheriff Boutwell
15:55michael Morton was wrongly convicted of
15:57that murder and served 25 years before
16:00being exonerated they eventually caught
16:02the person who did it several people
16:04broke the law in terms of the
16:06investigation and prosecution of michael
16:09morton it seems possible that sheriff
16:11Boutwell would have been held
16:13accountable if he were still alive
16:15Jim Bell died in 1993 of lymphatic
16:18cancer the prosecutor of that case Ken
16:21Anderson was convicted of a felony for
16:23falsely prosecuting michael Morton
16:26although Anderson only had to serve 10
16:28days in jail which is an incredibly
16:30light sentence considering Michael
16:32Morton's spent 25 years in prison
16:33Ken Anderson was also the district
16:35attorney that prosecuted Lucas for the
16:39murder of Deborah Jackson the orange
16:41socks murder and this is particularly
16:43important because Lucas was sentenced to
16:45death for that murder so it seemed that
16:48bad behavior was not limited here to
16:50just Henry Lee Lucas Lucas stumbled upon
16:53law enforcement officials that had
16:55difficulty following the law now what
16:58about the other law enforcement officers
17:00that encountered Lucas well many were
17:02fooled by Lucas however many were not
17:04what's amazing to me is how many didn't
17:07really say a whole lot when they knew
17:08that something wasn't adding up again it
17:11seemed clear that Lucas really didn't
17:12kill over 200 people or 360 people or
17:163,000 people all these kind of numbers
17:18that were thrown out there yet many law
17:20enforcement officers were willing to
17:21believe that all the Texas Rangers
17:23involved and the district attorney were
17:25simply working in good faith maybe Lucas
17:28was lying about some of the murders but
17:30not about others but if this were true
17:32then how could you trust Lucas about
17:34anything this is really quite illogical
17:36I think the only most frightening things
17:38we see on this series on Henry Lee Lucas
17:40was really about how few people were
17:45willing to stand up and say this doesn't
17:47seem right
17:48and how those that did were retaliated
17:50against for example Vik gazelle right he
17:53was a DA who had Lukas testify about the
17:55false confessions and he was falsely
17:58accused of a number of crimes now
18:00eventually of course he was found not
18:02guilty and won a lawsuit against a news
18:05media outlet that covered the story but
18:07either way he was in jeopardy a long
18:09time because of his willingness to take
18:12on the law enforcement officers
18:14including Jim bow-wow
18:16what we see with a lot of the people who
18:18dealt with Lucas is these people
18:20believed what they wanted to believe or
18:22what they needed to believe and there
18:24was a lot of confirmation bias going on
18:26they wanted to believe Lucas was the
18:29killer they wanted to believe that he
18:30was the person involved in the case that
18:32they were looking at and anything that
18:34they saw that pointed to him being
18:36guilty they believed and evidence that
18:39pointed to him not being involved they
18:41ignored this is actually a fairly common
18:43problem we see with any type of
18:45investigation we also don't see much in
18:47the way of flexible thinking I think
18:49this was particularly disturbing this
18:50really stood out in the series it didn't
18:52seem like many people were willing to
18:54look as situation say even though I want
18:57one particular outcome the evidence
18:59seems to point to another
19:01the motto of made the people involved in
19:03this case seem to be somebody has to pay
19:05for a crime that's committed as opposed
19:08to the person who's actually guilty has
19:11to pay now I know whenever I talk about
19:13cases like the Lucas case there will be
19:15a variety of opinions please put any
19:17opinions and thoughts in the comment
19:18section
19:18they always generate a really
19:20interesting dialogue as always I hope
19:22you found this description of the Henry
19:24Lee Lucas case to be interesting thanks
19:26for watching

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