Julius Robinson was sentenced to death for a series of murders that took place in Texas. According to court documents Julius Robinson was the alleged leader of a drug ring that operated in Arlington Texas. Julius would be prosecuted on three murders: Dec. 3, 1998, fatal shooting of Johnny Lee Shelton and the May 9, 1999, slaying of Juan Reyes, both in Dallas; and the July 12, 1999, slaying of Rudolfo Resendez in Fort Worth. Julius Robinson would be convicted and sentenced to death for two of the murders and sentenced to life in prison for the third. As of 2021 he mains on Federal Death Row
Proving true to his Hollywood namesake, Robinson, also known by names such as “Scarface,” entangled himself in a sadistic world of narcotics and violence in which he personally committed at least two senseless murders. In December 1998, Robinson-a wholesale drug dealer then operating in five states-killed a man he mistakenly believed responsible for an armed hijacking that cost him $30,000. In May 1999, angered by a fraudulent drug transaction in which he paid $17,000 for a block of wood covered in sheetrock, Robinson retaliated by killing a man whose only connection to the fraud was that he was the brother-in-law of the fraudulent seller.
For these murders and his complicity in an ongoing criminal enterprise resulting in the murder of a third man, Robinson was convicted and sentenced to death on three separate counts, to life imprisonment on two others, and to a consecutive 300-month sentence on another. With one limited exception, Robinson challenges neither the sufficiency nor the admissibility of the evidence.
The murder of Johnny Lee Shelton is a case of mistaken identity. Shelton was similar in appearance to a man named “Big Friday,” whom Robinson blamed for a hijacking in a McDonald’s restaurant parking lot several months before. On the night he was murdered, Shelton and a friend, Jerell Gardner, spent the evening at a Dallas night club, where they were spotted by two of Robinson’s associates who mistook Shelton for Big Friday and called Robinson to tell him what they had seen.
Robinson quickly arrived at the club, whereupon he and two other men sat in a nearby parking lot, waiting for the man they thought was Big Friday to leave. They spotted Shelton and Gardner leaving the club in a car similar to the one Big Friday drove, and followed them onto a local highway. As they caught up to the car, Robinson yelled “that’s him,” leaned out the window, and opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle. One of Robinson’s companions, L.J. Britt, also known as “Capone,” did the same. Although most of the bullets missed their mark, Shelton was struck in the stomach and later died.1
C.
Juan Reyes was shot to death at close range on the driveway in front of his home. He and two companions, Isaac Rodriguez and Nicholas Marques, arrived there on the day of the murder, not suspecting that in a car parked across the street were three men-including Robinson and Angelo Harris-who were upset that they had been sold a $17,000 block of wood instead of narcotics. Robinson and Harris approached Reyes carrying automatic weapons, said something to him-the record is unclear whether it was a demand for money-then shot him in the foot. Rodriguez, who had been standing nearby, turned to flee and was shot three times, in the back and leg.
Reyes fell to the ground and lay there as Robinson and Harris shot him at least nine times. An autopsy revealed fragments of concrete in several of Reyes wounds, suggesting he was shot from a distance of less than five feet, causing the bullets to pass through his body, ricochet off the pavement, and re-enter his back. Before leaving, Robinson and Harris also fired several shots at Marques, who was still seated behind the wheel in the car in which he, Reyes and Rodriguez had just arrived. Marques managed to drive around the corner to safety, but his car was riddled with bullets.2
D.
Robinson also was convicted for involvement in a broad conspiracy that led to the murder of Rudolfo Resendez at the hands of Britt and Hendrick Tunstall. While engaged in this conspiracy, Robinson and other conspirators possessed more than five kilograms of cocaine and various firearms.3 Robinson was further convicted of possessing three firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime: a 9mm UZI pistol, a .357 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol, and an SKS 7.62×39 semi-automatic assault rifle.4 Finally, he was convicted on several other drug and weapons charges that the district court treated as lesser included offenses and for which no independent sentence was imposed.
Sherman Fields was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for the murder of an ex girlfriend during a prison escape. According to court documents Sherman Fields was serving a twelve year sentence for weapon possession when he escaped from the Waco jail. Soon after Sherman Fields would shoot and kill his ex girlfriend. Sherman would be convicted and sentenced to death. As of 2021 Sherman Fields remains on Federal Death Row
Sherman Lamont Fields was arrested in September 2001 for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and he was held in federal custody in a detention center in Waco, Texas. In November 2001, while Fields was in custody, he bribed a correctional officer, offering him $5,000 for a key to the detention center’s fire escape. He used the key to escape on November 6.
That evening, Fields met with a friend, Edward Outley, who provided Fields with a car and a handgun. Fields then visited his ex-girlfriend, Suncerey Coleman, at Hillcrest Hospital in Waco, where she was caring for her newborn child. Fields was angry at Coleman for having seen other men while he was incarcerated. Fields convinced Coleman to leave the hospital with him that evening, and drove her to Downsville, Texas, outside Waco. Fields and Coleman had sexual intercourse,1 and then he killed her by shooting her twice in the head. Fields hid Coleman’s body in underbrush near the road. Coleman’s body was found two weeks later, on November 21.
Using a handgun, Fields later carjacked an employee of Hillcrest Hospital, Tammy Edwards, while she was exiting her car. Edwards managed to escape, and Fields drove away in her car.
The Texas Seven was a prison escape which would became a sensation as the seven men from the Texas Department Of Corrections would basically disappeared. However with the murder of police officer Aubrey Hawkins and the help of America’s Most Wanted this prison escape would come to a sudden end in Colorado. In this article on My Crime Library we are going to take a closer look at the Texas Seven and the murder of Officer Hawkins.
Texas Seven Members
George Rivas was serving a sentence of eighteen consecutive fifteen years to life for a series of armed robberies
Michael Rodriguez was serving a sentence of ninety nine years to life for the contract killing of his wife
Joseph Garcia was serving a sentence of fifty years for murder
Larry Harper was serving a fifty year sentence for sexual assault
Donald Newbury was serving a ninety nine year sentence for armed robbery
Patrick Murphy was serving a fifty year sentence for sexual assault
Randy Halprin was serving a thirty year sentence for injury to a child
Texas Seven Prison Break
The Texas Seven prison break took place on December 13, 2000. The seven members had been planning the prison break for months. On the day of the escape the seven members would overpower a series of Texas Department Of Correction employees including four prison guards, nine maintenance supervisors and three fellow inmates. The group had waited for lunchtime as it was notoriously slow and with less staff present. All of the hostages were stripped and their personal possessions were taken.
Three of the members of the Texas Seven dressed in stolen civilian clothing made their way to the back gate where they were able to enter the gatehouse under the guise of installing video cameras. Once inside they were able to overpower the guards and take control of the gatehouse. The four who had remained inside of the prison called other gatehouses to keep them distracted while the original three stole weapons and tied up their hostages. The remaining four would steal a truck, drive to the gatehouse, pick up the other three and drive out of the prison. It was later learned that Michael Rodriguez father had left them a vehicle near by and the Texas seven would switch vehicles and basically disappear.
The Murder Of Officer Aubrey Hawkins
The prison truck would be found in Kennedy Texas at a Walmart. The Texas Seven were short on cash so they robbed a Radio Shack in the Houston Texas area the next day.
On December 19, 2000 the Texas Seven members would check into a Econo Lodge in the Dallas Fort Worth area and planned their next robbery which was to take place on Christmas Eve
The target was Oshman’s Sporting Goods in Irving Texas. The Texas Seven would enter the store and quickly take over the store by tying up the employees. What they did not know is that an off duty employee was outside of the store and would call 911. While they were inside of the store the Texas Seven would steal forty different types of firearms plus a ton of ammunition.
Officer Aubrey Hawkins was the first responding police officer and he was immediately ambushed by the group. After being shot several times Officer Hawkins was run over at the scene. The Texas Seven would fall off the map until a month later in Colorado
Texas Seven Capture
The Texas Seven were featured on an episode of America’s Most Wanted on January 20, 2001. Several people would call in reporting a group that had been staying at the Coachlight Motel and RV Park in Woodland Park, Colorado. A SWAT team from El Paso Texas and local police officers would arrest George Rivas, Joseph Garcia and Michael Rodriguez sitting in a Jeep within the RV Park. Randy Halprin and Larry Harper were inside of a motorhome. Halprin would surrender peacefully however Larry Harper would take his own life.
The two remaining members were hiding at a Holiday Inn in Colorado Springs. The two would agree to turn themselves in after speaking to the media. Donald Newbury and Patrick Murphy would tell the news reporter on what they fell were abuse and corruption in the Texas Department Of Corrections.
Eventually the six remaining members of the Texas Seven would be extradited back to Texas where they were all charged and later convicted of the Capital Murder of Officer Hawkins and sentenced to death.
Texas Seven Executions
Michael Rodriguez was the first member of the Texas Seven to be executed as he said he was tired of prison life and stopped all of his appeals. Rodriguez would be executed on August 14, 2008. George Rivas would be executed on February 29, 2012. Donald Newbury was executed on February 4, 2015. Joseph Garcia was executed on December 4, 2018.
Randy Halprin and Patrick Murphy are still on Texas Death Row as of 2021. The two remaining members have argued that they served as lookouts and were at the back of the store when Officer Hawkins was murdered.
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The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the case of a Texas death row inmate who argued he should get a new trial because the judge who presided over his case was biased against Jews.
The justices said they would not hear the case of Randy Halprin, one of the so-called Texas 7, but Halprin’s claims of bias and that he should get a new trial are still under review by a Texas court.
Halprin and six others escaped from prison in 2000. The group later robbed a sporting goods store in Irving, Texas, fatally shooting responding police officer Aubrey Hawkins as they fled.
Lawyers for Halprin, who is Jewish, said an investigation found that Judge Vickers Cunningham, who presided over his trial, was anti-Semitic and frequently used racial slurs.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the facts Halprin presented are “deeply disturbing” but she nonetheless agreed with the decision not to hear his case. Sotomayor noted that Halprin’s execution has now been stayed while state courts consider whether “bias infected his trial.”
Sotomayor wrote that the Constitution clearly requires a fair trial before an unbiased judge.
“I trust that the Texas courts considering Halprin’s case are more than capable of guarding this fundamental guarantee,” she wrote. She suggested the Supreme Court could still take the case at a later date.
Tivon Schardl, a lawyer for Halprin, said in a statement that lawyers would “continue to seek a new, fair trial.”
A Dallas Morning News story revealed in 2018, when Cunningham was running for county commissioner, that he had created a trust for his children that withheld money if they chose to marry someone who was not white or not Christian. The story also quoted a former campaign worker who said Cunningham used a racial slur to describe black defendants. In response, Cunningham denied ever using the racial slur and said in a statement that his “views on interracial marriage have evolved” since he set up the trust in 2010.
Halprin’s lawyers followed up with an investigation of their own which found that Cunningham used racial slurs not only to talk about African Americans but also to talk about Jews and Latinos. The investigation also found he allegedly threatened not to pay for his daughter’s law school tuition unless she broke up with a Jewish boyfriend.
Halprin and death row inmate Patrick Murphy are the only members of the Texas 7 that are still alive. One of the men committed suicide as authorities closed in on the group following their escape. Four others were convicted and executed. Murphy’s execution has also been stayed.
Taylor Rene Parker a woman from Texas has been charged with two counts of Capital Murder for the death of a woman and her unborn child. According to police in Bowie County Texas Taylor Rene Parker would murder the woman and then use a small scalpel to cut the unborn child from the woman. Taylor Rene Parker would be pulled over by police soon after as she was weaving in traffic. The police officer found Parker performing CPR on the child and Taylor would tell the officer that she just gave birth.
Taylor and the child were brought to a hospital where the doctors were unable to revive the baby. The doctors would also determine that Taylor Rene Parker had not given birth recently. The body of the baby’s mother, Reagan Hancock, would be found dead in her home. Taylor Rene Parker has been charged with two counts of Capital Murder plus a host of other charges if convicted she could be executed.
This case of course has a ton of similarities to that of Lisa Montgomery who was recently executed.
A woman accused of killing a New Boston, Texas, woman and taking her unborn baby was indicted by a Bowie County grand jury today for capital murder and kidnapping.
Taylor Rene Parker, 27, aka Taylor Morton, faces life without parole or the death penalty if convicted of capital murder.
Parker is accused of attacking 21-year-old Reagan Simmons Hancock at her home in New Boston on the morning of Oct. 9. Parker was stopped by a Texas state trooper near DeKalb, Texas, at 9:37 a.m., according to a probable cause affidavit.
Parker was allegedly attempting to perform CPR on the infant in her lap and allegedly claimed she gave birth to the baby on the side of the road. Parker and the infant were transported by ambulance to a hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma. The baby was pronounced dead and doctors there determined Parker had not given birth.
Parker was arrested in Oklahoma after Hancock’s mother discovered her body and paramedics determined the baby had been cut from the mother’s body.
Parker had allegedly been faking a pregnancy and was a friend of Hancock’s. Parker’s boyfriend told investigators he and Parker had a gender reveal party and that he believed she was pregnant with his child. The boyfriend said he expected to meet Parker at the Idabel hospital that day at “about lunch time” for an induced delivery.
Parker allegedly confessed to the phony pregnancy and admitted to using a small scalpel to remove the unborn infant from Hancock’s body. The scalpel was found lodged in Hancock’s neck during an autopsy performed at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas.
Parker is being held in the Bowie County jail with bail at $5 million. Texarkana attorney Jeff Harrelson has been appointed to represent her and the case is assigned to 202nd District Judge John Tidwell. First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp is the assigned prosecutor.
Bowie County District Attorney Jerry Rochelle announced Friday at a hearing in New Boston that his office will seek the death penalty for Taylor Rene Parker in the death of Reagan Simmons Hancock.
Texarkana attorney Jeff Harrelson entered pleas of not guilty on Parker’s behalf to capital murder and kidnapping. First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp asked 202nd District Judge John Tidwell to revoke Taylor’s current $5 million in bail due to the charges and possible death sentence.
Harrelson said it is unlikely Parker can make the $5 million bond but objected to her having no bond set at all. Tidwell scheduled a hearing for March 5.
Crisp said she expects to ask a Bowie County grand jury to indict Parker for murder in the death of Baby Hancock in February. Crisp said those charges were not presented to the grand jury that indicted Parker for capital murder and kidnapping in December because a report from the medical examiner had not been received at that time.
Rochelle said his office decided to seek the death penalty after “deliberations” with his staff and the victim’s family. Rochelle called the crime “horrific” and said Parker planned the murder for months.
Parker is accused of attacking 21-year-old Reagan Hancock at her home in New Boston on the morning of Oct. 9. Parker was stopped by a Texas state trooper near DeKalb, Texas, at 9:37 a.m., according to a probable cause affidavit.
Parker was allegedly attempting to perform CPR on the infant in her lap and allegedly claimed she gave birth to the baby on the side of the road. Parker and the infant were transported by ambulance to a hospital in Idabel, Oklahoma. The baby was pronounced dead and doctors there determined Parker had not given birth.
Parker was arrested in Oklahoma after Hancock’s mother discovered her body and paramedics determined the baby had been cut from the mother’s body.
Parker had allegedly been faking a pregnancy and was a friend of Hancock’s. Parker’s boyfriend told investigators he and Parker had a gender reveal party and that he believed she was pregnant with his child. The boyfriend said he expected to meet Parker at the Idabel hospital that day at “about lunch time” for an induced delivery.
Parker allegedly confessed to the phony pregnancy and admitted to using a small scalpel to remove the unborn infant from Hancock’s body. The scalpel was found lodged in Hancock’s neck during an autopsy performed at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas.
Capital murder is punishable by death or life without parole
Henry Lee Lucas was a serial killer from Texas who would ultimately be convicted of eleven murders however he would confess to over a hundred. Henry Lee Lucas case would change how authorities looked at confessions. In this article on My Crime Library we will take a closer look at Henry Lee Lucas.
Henry Lee Lucas Early Years
Henry Lee Lucas was born in Blacksburg Virginia on August 23, 1936. Henry whose mother worked as a prostitute was forced to watch her with her clients and reports were made that she made Lucas to dress in drag and attend school.
Henry Lee Lucas would lose his left eye after getting into a fight with his brother and the eye would get infected.
When Henry Lee Lucas was thirteen years old his alcoholic father would die from hypothermia after he got lost walking home in a blizzard. Lucas would drop out of school and began drifting around the country at the age of thirteen.
Lucas would be arrested in 1954 for a number of robberies in Virginia and would be sentenced to four years in prison. Henry Lee Lucas would briefly escape from prison but would be recaptured days later. In 1959 he would be paroled.
Henry would meet a woman through correspondence while in prison and would travel to Michigan to live with his half sister and his new fiance. When Henry mother came to visit she disapproved of his fiance and demanded Lucas move back in with her in Virginia.
A couple of months later during an argument with his mother on whether or not he should move back to Virginia to take care of her the argument turned violent. Henry claimed his mother hit him over the head with a broom handle and he responded by stabbing her in the neck with a knife causing her death. Henry Lee Lucas would plead self defense however he would be convicted of murder and sentenced to twenty to forty years in prison for second degree murder. After ten years Henry was paroled due to overcrowding.
After getting out of prison in 1970 Henry Lee Lucas would travel around the United States and end up in Florida by 1971 where he would be charged after he attempted to abduct three schoolgirls. Lucas would be sentenced to five years in prison. During his time in prison Henry would meet another woman who he would marry in 1975 upon his release. The marriage would fall apart after the woman’s daughter claimed he sexually abused her.
Henry Lee Lucas And Otis Toole
Henry Lee Lucas would meet Ottis Toole in Jacksonville Florida and would later move into the home Toole shared with his parents and his fifteen year old niece Frieda “Becky” Powell. Otis Toole who would later make a number of false confessions of his own would also say that his home was filled with abuse and that he was sexually assaulted by family members when he was young.
In 1982 when Frieda “Becky” Powell mother and grandmother died she was placed in a shelter however Henry would convince her to run away with him. She complied. The two would work as assistants to an elderly woman, Kate Rich, however when the two began to steal from the woman they were fired.
Around this time Frieda “Becky” Powell became homesick for Florida and Lucas would tell authorities he dropped her off at a bus stop however he would later confess to her murder along with the elderly woman the two were paid to take care of.
In June 1983 Henry Lee Lucas was arrested on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm. While in custody Henry Lee would confess to the murders of Frieda Powell and Kate Rich. Lucas would lead them to an area where two bodies were located however the identities of the two remains could not be identified.
Henry Lee Lucas Confessions
Henry Lee Lucas would be transferred to another jail in Texas where he would confess to the murders of twenty eight people. According to reports the Texas officers were able to clear 213 previously unsolved murders.
Later on when investigators looked back at the false confessions they realized there were a number of problems including that Henry Lee Lucas was given files of unsolved murders that he would later confess too.
Henry Lee Lucas would be sentenced to death for a murder of an unidentified woman in Texas, the woman was identified in 2016 as Debra Jackson. Later authorities learned at the time that the woman was killed at a time Lucas was working in Florida. Henry death sentence would later be commuted to life in prison.
Henry Lee Lucas Death
Henry Lee Lucas would die from a heart attack at the age of 64 on March 12, 2001. He was an inmate at the Huntsville Unit in Texas
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Henry Lee Lucas wouldn’t shut up.
In the claustrophobic police interrogation room, the one-eyed drifter was ready, willing and able to take credit for hundreds of homicides in the fly-over states as his own sordid handiwork.
And the cops were listening. Intently.
Lucas was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a mosaic of unsolved murders off the books.
And lots of police services did just that. Got a cold case? Blame Henry Lee Lucas.
He told the Texas Rangers that during his time drifting across the U.S., he had shot, stabbed, bludgeoned and strangled a staggering 600 people.
One of the killings the Virginia-born Lucas boasted committing was that of Brigham Young University student Marla Sharp.
On June 29, 1978, Sharp, 26, was discovered raped and murdered inside her Provo, Utah apartment.
For more than five years, the case gathered dust.
Then, Lucas started talking in Texas.
And talking.
But there was something about the self-proclaimed serial killer’s tale Marla Sharp’s family never quite bought.
“I have never believed that Henry Lee Lucas committed the murder,” Sharp’s cousin, Valerie Colgain, told ABC News.
Lucas’s endless confessions may have helped cops balance the blood book back in the 1980s but now more victims’ families are casting doubt on the fiendish fabulist’s chronicle of murder and mayhem.
Unfortunately, the serial killer can’t clear things up: He pegged out in prison from natural causes in 2001.
For the record, Lucas was a killer.
He murdered his prostitute mother in 1960 and two more people in 1983. He was sentenced to death but avoided the big adios when his sentence was commuted to life in prison.
Lucas’s outlandish yarns began unravelling when the late, lamented Dallas Times Herald began picking away at his claims.
He was claiming responsibility for murders he couldn’t have possibly committed.
If he was doing a jolt in a Florida jail, killing someone in Oklahoma would have been wildly difficult. Right?
The newspaper found that at least 100 of the murders Lucas took credit for would have been impossible for him to have committed.
The Texas Attorney General’s office concurred. Lucas was a fabulist. A serial false confessor.
Cops in Provo have now reopened Sharp’s murder.
“Her loss was something that I never got over,” her sister, Leah Scharp said. “None of our family ever got over it. Somebody killed my sister and they need to be brought to justice.”
Colgain told ABC she reached out to the Utah Cold Case Coalition and they concluded Henry Lee Lucas wasn’t the killer.
Others are also asking law enforcement to reopen murders Lucas boasted were his.
Janelle Hanna Peet’s father was murdered in Texas in 1980.
Lucas claimed that deadly bit of business as well.
“He was shot four times,” said Peet.
“He owned a convenience store, and it was at closing. They tried to make it look like a robbery, but there was still money under the shelf, under the register. He still had his wedding ring on, money in his pockets. It seems like it was personal, and I would like to know who did it and why.”
n the mid-1980s, Henry Lee Lucas was a star – at least in the context of America’s exploding fascination with serial killers. The subject of anxious news features and four feature films, Lucas confessed to murdering hundreds of people – at first 100, then 200, then about 600. An odd-jobs drifter with three teeth and a lazy eye, Lucas would recall, often on camera, precise and grisly details about each victim. Police officers from across the country interviewed him for more than 3,000 murder cases, to much fanfare; at least 200 cases were attributed to him, closing them to further investigation and making Lucas the country’s most prolific serial killer.I Love You, Now Die: behind the text suicide scandal that shocked AmericaRead more
Except that it was all a lie, one spun through a toxic brew of people-pleasing, power, and convenience on the part of law enforcement, and documented in the Netflix series The Confession Killer, directed by Taki Oldham and Robert Kenner. Over the course of five 45-minute episodes, the series illustrates how the Lucas story spiraled from a by-the-book murder case – the killings of his housemate, Kate Rich, and girlfriend, Becky Powell, in Texas – into a media frenzy in which Lucas and his handlers, the Texas Rangers (a statewide investigative unit with the most Texas of uniforms) enabled confessions which shut down numerous departments’ botched or incomplete investigations.
Forty years on, it’s difficult to know the exact number of cases falsely attributed to Lucas, who was far more pathological liar than serial killer. But there are “certainly dozens of cases where either killers are walking free because they’re still credited to Lucas, or dozens more cases that were never properly reinvestigated because it was credited to Lucas”, Oldham told the Guardian. Though the first episode focuses mostly on Lucas – his arrest in 1983 and his relationship with the Texas Rangers taskforce established to “investigate” his ever-expanding claims – the series ultimately explores the larger environment fostering his lies. A respected Rangers department, led by the imposing Sheriff Jim Boutwell, drawing widespread acclaim for “catching” a prolific serial killer. A tragic pattern of unsolved murders, almost all of women, left underinvestigated or ignored. A symbiotic relationship between the Rangers, various investigators and Lucas that ran on easily obtained, low-evidence confessions (the series openly suggests the Rangers fed Lucas information on several cases he confessed to, and Lucas was clearly amenable to the desires of whoever he was talking to), milkshakes and mutual goodwill. Case closed.
But not for many of the victims’ families, several of whom are interviewed throughout the series. The Confession Killer, said Oldham, is a chance to reopen their cases – less a true crime story of Henry Lee Lucas, who died of natural causes in prison in 2001, than a “launching pad for the true work to begin”.
Some of that corrective work is already being done, thanks to advances in DNA technology since Lucas confessed to a spree of killings in the late 1970s that even circumstantial evidence suggests would be almost impossible (as the veteran Lucas journalist Hugh Aynesworth points out in one episode, Lucas would have crisscrossed 11,000 miles across the country on no sleep for his supposed murders in October 1978 alone). Just this year, several cases attributed to Lucas have been reopened or resolved.
The potential to change cases in the present is what drew Oldham back to the story of Lucas, which he originally covered in the early 2000s. Several years ago, “I decided to do a quick Google search and sure enough, I found one or two cases that had been Lucas cases where the real killer had been found,” he recalled. Soon he had a list of about 10, and “a chance to write a new chapter to a story that had kind of been lost to confusion and uncertainty”.
Much of the series is composed of extensive archival footage of Lucas from the height of his confession spree in the 1980s – news coverage as well as internal footage from his defense team and the Rangers, which show his confessions and officers’ interview tactics. But “the more we got into it, the more we began to realize it wasn’t a story about Henry”, Kenner told the Guardian, “because Henry was this cipher where all these people saw in him what they wanted to see, and Henry was willing to be that for everybody”
Thus, later episodes take a number of unexpected twists into interconnected stories which add extra layers to the Lucas confession hoax: an upstart district attorney framed for corruption charges after he challenged the conduct of the Rangers taskforce, more fraud, a power struggle between different departments of Texas law enforcement. Texas Rangers and law enforcement officials who signed on to false Lucas confessions, many of whom defend the methods used at the time, are also interviewed. However, Oldham and Kenner noted that not every department was willing to re-evaluate their association with Henry Lee Lucas. “The reluctance of police to talk about controversial cases where they may have done wrong in the past was certainly something that we encountered,” said Oldham.
The series offers ample evidence that several institutions acted in bad faith at numerous points in the Lucas saga, but Kenner maintains that “we didn’t think it was a conspiracy story; it’s really a human nature story”, one that ultimately focuses on the families who, four decades on, are still searching for justice for their cold cases.
“We met with a lot of victims’ family members,” said Kenner. “They’re still in pain – they want to know what happened to their loved ones. Some of them thought Lucas had been the killer, and now some have found out he wasn’t and they’re feeling betrayed.”
Kenner and Oldham believe that the series has the potential to reopen numerous cases that were not properly investigated because of Lucas’s claims. “Justice was denied by what happened,” said Kenner of the Lucas media and law enforcement blitz. “And there’s a chance to reopen it, and I’m hoping the juries will and the series can bring about some comfort to the victims’ family members.
“We’re really trying to give [the family members] as much of a voice as possible,” said Oldham. “To us, it’s a project and it means a lot, but to these people – this is their lives. They’ve been living with this for 40 years.”
Henry Lee Lucas died on March 12, 2001 from a heart attack inside of a Texas prison
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