by Ray Black
Subjected to such untold horrors as a young child, Lucas began indulging in sadistic depravity. By thirteen, he was having sexual relations with his older half-brother, who also introduced him to the excitement of bestiality and animal torture. One of their favourite games was to slit the throat of a small animal and then sexually violate the corpse.
At the age of 15 Lucas became desperate to have sex with a girl and he picked up 17-year-old Laura Burnley near Lynchburg, strangled her when she refused his clumsy advances, and then buried her body in the woods. Her disappearance would remain unsolved until Lucas confessed to the murder in 1983.
As Lucas grew older he became bitter and distant, with little food and education he never really managed to put any real value to his life. His teenage years were spent in and out of correctional institutions, starting in 1954 when he carried out a string of burglaries in and around Richmond. He was sentenced to six years, but managed to escape and fled to his older sister’s home in Tecumseh. He was captured three months later and returned to Virginia, where he tried to escape again one month later. This time he was recaptured on the same day, but, despite the two escapes, was released on September 2, 1959. He went back to live with his sister in Tecumseh where he received numerous calls from his mother ordering him to go back and live with her. He ignored her pleas, and so Viola followed him to Michigan.
Revenge is Sweet
On the evening of January 11, 1960 Lucas and his mother went out for a drink together at a local bar. They both got very drunk and Lucas was getting tired of Viola’s incessant nagging for him to return to Virginia with her. Lucas kept refusing and eventually told her that he really didn’t want anything further to do with her. When they got back home later that night they were still arguing, which continued until the early hours of the morning. At one point the dispute got so heated that Viola hit her son over the head with a broom, but he had had enough and he struck back – with a knife.
The next day, 74-year-old-Viola was found dead on the bedroom floor with a fatal stab wound to her neck. Lucas, who everyone immediately suspected, was nowhere to be found.
Lucas was picked up five days later in Toledo, Ohio. When questioned about the death of his mother he openly admitted that not only had he killed her but he had also committed necrophilia. The pocket knife that was consistent with his mother’s wounds was found in his pocket, and that was all the evidence they needed to prosecute him.
The trial was held in the nearby town of Adrian, Michigan in March 1960. Since Lucas had already confessed to the crime the main issue at his trial was the degree of sentencing. He was convicted of second degree murder and given a 40-year sentence to be served at Jackson State Penitentiary in southern Michigan. After two attempts at suicide, Lucas was transferred to a state psychiatric facility for the criminally insane, where he was diagnosed as a suicidal psychopath, sadist and sexual deviant.
Despite his own admission that he was not ready to be released, Lucas was paroled in 1970 after having served only ten years. This was to be a very big mistake on the part of the authorities, because this dangerous and sick man had in no way reformed.
Getting Worse
Following his release things certainly didn’t improve. Lucas had an unsuccessful marriage which ended when his wife found out that he was having sex with her two young girls. Next he went to live with his sister, Wanda, but she also asked him to leave after accusing him of abusing her young daughter.
In December 1971, Lucs was back in prison, this time on a charge of molesting two teenage girls. The charge was reduced to kidnapping at his trial and he was sent back to the Jackson State Penitentiary. He was released in August 1975, once again protesting with the authorities that he was not ready to be released and that he knew he would kill again. For a short time Lucas found employment on a mushroom farm in Pennsylvania. In December 1975 Lucas again tried his hand at marriage, this time to Betty, the widow of his cousin. After three months they moved to Maryland but the marriage only lasted until the summer of 1977, due to the fact that Lucas had been sexually abusing her daughters from a previous marriage.
Lucas Meets Toole
Following his second failed marriage, Lucas became a drifter. Lucas met Ottis Toole in 1978 after a chance meeting in a Jacksonville soup kitchen. The pair shared a meal together and as they got talking Lucas discovered that his new-found friend, a part-time transvestite and a vicious psychopath, was erotically stimulated by arson and had a penchant for human flesh. They started to exchange grisly stories about their homicidal adventures and thrived on each other’s excitement. They soon became friends and part-time lovers and Lucas went to live with Toole at his mother’s house. Toole’s ten-year-old niece, Becky Powell, and her brother Frank lived at the same house. Becky was of unsound mind and she found in Lucas the affection she so desperately craved. In return her love for him helped him feel special for the first time in his life and they formed a very intimate relationship.
In 1981, Toole’s mother died and shortly after his sister, and the family were forced to break up. Becky and Frank wre placed in juvenile homes, but with the help of Lucas managed to run away. The four of them took to the road, drifting around the country surviving on the proceeds of robberies. They satisfied their lust for blood by picking up random hitchhikers and they just went from killing to killing, sometimes enlisting the help of the juvenile Becky and Frank.
In 1982 the authorities came looking for Becky, and Lucas thought it was wise for the murderous partnership to split up and so he and Becky headed west. They took jobs as hired hands with a couple named Jack and O’Bere Smart who lived in California. After they had been with the family for four months, O’Bere suggested that the couple should go to Texas to take care of her 80-year-old mother, Kate Rich. They arrived on May 14, but after only four days it was discovered that the couple had cashed two $50 cheques on Mrs. Rich’s account and were subsequently asked to leave.
Religious Interlude
As the couple thumbed for a lift out of town, they were picked up by a man named Ruben Moore who invited them to join his religious commune – the ‘All People’s House of Prayer’. An abandoned old chicken ranch provided shelter for many ‘lost souls’ and Lucas and Becky settled there posing as husband and wife. One day Becky unfortunately lost her temper with Lucas and slapped him in the face. Lucas was incensed and grabbed a large carving knife and stabbed her in the heart. She died instantly and, after raping her corpse, he dismembered her, stuffed her body parts into a pillowcase and then left her remains spread over a field. Back at the commune Lucas told Ruben Moore that his wife had left him and had accepted a ride by a passing truck. Then Lucas resumed his life in the commune as if nothing had happened.
Three weeks later, on September 16, the elderly Kate Rich went missing. The police became very suspicious when Lucas left town the next day and his car was found abandoned in Needles, California. Lucas was tracked down by the police and apprehended. He denied any involvement in the killing of Kate Rich and was later released when charges of car theft couldn’t be upheld.
The Truth Comes Out
Lucas was arrested again in June 1983 on a weapons charge and was held in the Montague County jail. After several days and being deprived of his craving for cigarettes, Lucas was ready to talk. He confessed to killing Kate Rich and then over the next 18 months confessed to a seemingly endless number of murders. All the time the numbers were increasing, until eventually he had admitted to killing around 500 people.
Ottis Toole, who was serving time in Florida on an arson charge, was also implicated in many of the crimes. Lucas got great pleasure in describing the heinous acts and went on to say that Toole sometimes ate the flesh of the victims they had killed. When the investigators asked Lucas why he hadn’t joined him, he gave the reason that he didn’t like the taste of the sauce he put on the meat. When Lucas had finished his statement, he told investigators that there was something he needed to get off his chest and told them about the murder of Becky
Powell. The police were quite amazed by this confession because by all intent and purposes they believed that she was still alive.
They found enough evidence at The House of Prayer – human bone fragments in the stove and Rich’s eyeglasses in the yard – that meant Lucas could be charged with first-degree murder. Meanwhile he gave details on the Powell murder and took investigators to the scene of the crime. They found the remains of a white girl around the same age and height of Becky Powell, and Lucas was charged with murder number two.
Due to the number of people that Lucas had claimed to have killed over the years, a task force was set up to handle all the inquiries that were coming in from around the country. Lucas was revelling in the fact that he was becoming the centre of attention and for once could be useful in the daily business affairs of the task force. Before long, Lucas was touring the country as a ‘star killer’ uncovering evidence of his so-called handiwork. I suppose in his warped mind Lucas felt that he had become someone of importance.
Day by day his stories became more and more outrageous making claims that were soon proved to be untrue. He said he was the hitman for a Satanic cult named the ‘Hand of Death’ and that he had committed murders in Spain and Japan, even though he had never even been out of the country. He also claimed to have killed a Virginia schoolteacher who the police later discovered to be still alive. Many investigators still believe that Lucas was in fact only responsible for a couple of murders and that officers just fed him information on unresolved crimes. Although his outlandish confessions have drawn a certain amount of scepticism, it is still believed that Lucas was a prolific serial killer.
Lucas stood trial in 1985 and was convicted of ten homicides, which was more than enough to get him the death sentence. He was granted a stay of execution in September 1995 so that his claims of false confessions could be investigated, but this stay was to be lifted one year later. On June 27, 1998, Governor George W. Bush spared Lucas’s life because of overwhelming evidence that he did not kill one of the victims that he had been charged with. He is undoubtedly guilty of other despicable crimes and he has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Ottis Toole
While Ottis Toole was waiting for his trial on an arson murder in 1983, he confessed to the murder of six-year-old Adam Walsh. Ottis was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and was therefore not given a death sentence. Ottis Toole died of cirrhosis of the liver in the autumn of 1996.
Toole had a very bad start to life, just like his partner in crime. As a young child he would dress as a girl and even into his adult years he still preferred to dressed as a woman and solicited sex as a prostitute. He openly admitted that he did not enjoy having sex with women and always considered himself as a homosexual. His background was one of poverty, alcoholism and undernourishment and he never found his place in society. He had suffered both frontal and limbic brain damage which resulted in him having numerous seizures. He had a tendency to black out which resulted in confusion about the details of his crimes. His awareness of reality was hazed due to years of drug and alcohol abuse and his excuse for his actions was:
If I was in my right mind at the time, it wouldn’t have never happened. I was on dope, strung out, just wild and crazy, you know?
Jeffrey Dahmer
A cannibalistic serial killer who tried it, liked it, and did it again and again
It will be hard for the residents of Milwaukee to forget the name of Jeffrey Dahmer due to the sheer horror of his killings and the gruesome discoveries found in his house.
Jeffrey Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960 in an Evangelical hospital in Milwaukee. Unlike most of the killers we have discussed so far Jeffrey had a decent upbringing and was loved and well-cared for by his parents. His father was a student at the local university studying chemistry and spent many hours working away in his laboratory. His mother worked as a teletype machine operator.
At the age of four Jeffrey had to undergo an operation for a hernia and for some reason this had a catastrophic effect on his developing personality. He became more and more withdrawn and would sit for long periods of time staring into space, with his face somehow motionless. In April 1967 the family moved to Ohio and it seemed to have a good effect on the young Jeffrey. He adjusted well to the change and formed a close relationship with another boy named Lee. At school he was considered to be intelligent, but rather than pay attention he would disrupt the rest of the class with his clowning around.
In 1968 Jeffrey was sexually molested by another boy in the neighbourhood and, although the incident was not reported, this may have played quite a big part in the boy’s developing fetishes. Time and time again in his young life Jeffrey would show signs that something was seriously wrong. His father remembers a time when he swept some animal bones out from beneath the house, and he noticed how delighted his son was by the sound they made. The small child dug his hands deep into the pile of bones, but his father just put it down to a passing fascination at the time.
By the age of ten Jeffrey was starting to experiment with dead animals. He decapitated rodents, bleached chicken bones with acid, nailed a dog’s carcass to a tree and mounted its severed head on the end of a stake. As Jeffrey reached puberty his shyness and isolation were to return and he pushed away what few friends he had. At a time in his life when he should have been enjoying the company of other boys of his age, Jeffrey Dahmer simply withdrew into himself and became very secretive.
At the age of eighteen, Jeffrey had to experience the bitter divorce of his parents and he lived with his mother in Bath Township, Ohio, that is until she ran off with the younger brother of Jeffrey’s father. Feeling totally deserted and alone Jeffrey resorted to alcohol to try and take away the pain. When he was sober Jeffrey was a quiet, gentle person, but with alcohol as his prop he changed completely and a violent rage would build up inside waiting to erupt.
His First Victim
After graduating from high school and dropping out of university, Jeffrey decided to join the Army which he seemed to enjoy until his constant drinking became a problem and he was discharged. It was now obvious that Jeffrey had a real problem with alcohol addiction, but still he would not seek help. His father had almost given up on him by now and Jeffrey moved in with his grandmother and he managed to get himself a job, at least until he got arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
On June 18, 1978, Jeffrey went to see his father to ask him if he could borrow his car so that he could go to the cinema. His father agreed, but instead of going to the cinema as planned he just drove around the countryside. He spotted a young, bare-chested hitchhiker who was thumbing for a lift, and Jeffrey offered him a ride into town. The hitchhiker was 19-year-old Steven Hicks and Jeffrey’s wrath began when he took the man back to his grandmother’s house. It was here that he beat the poor man with a barbell then strangled him to death. Next he stripped the corpse down to the bone, then pulverized them with a sledgehammer and threw them into the bushland behind his grandmother’s house. The remainder of the body he buried in a shallow grave underneath the house.
After this vicious murder Jeffrey Dahmer did not strike again for another nine years, but he eventually went on to kill 16 more young men. During the nine-year period Jeffrey was arrested on many minor offences, including assault of a young boy, indecent exposure, disorderly conduct and drunken behaviour. He eventually managed to get a job working at a chocolate factory in Milwaukee, and although a little confused by his homosexuality, Jeffrey found much pleasure in the gay bars in and around that vicinity.
The Killing Spree
On September 15, 1987, Jeffrey picked up Stephen Tuomi, aged 24, at a gay club called Club 219. After talking for a while they decided to go to the adjoining hotel for sex. Jeffrey recalled that due to the amount of alcohol he had drunk that evening he does not have any recollection of the events, but remembers waking the next morning to find Tuomi dead with blood coming out of his mouth. Jeffrey panicked and rushed out to the nearest sto
re to buy a large trunk, which is where he placed the dismembered carcass of Tuomi. Then he took the trunk back to his grandmother’s house and put it into the basement where he could continue to further mutilate the body. When he had finished he placed the remains in a plastic bag and threw it out into the rubbish. The remains of Steven Tuomi were never discovered.
The murder of his second victim seemed to open the floodgates to Jeffrey’s homicidal tendencies and it gradually spiralled out of control until he was claiming around one victim a week by 1991. His killing spree over the next three years is as follows:
January 1988, Jeffrey picked up James Doxtator, who was only 14 years old, in West Allis and enticed him back to his grandmother’s house. He first drugged his victim and then strangled him. Then he removed the flesh from the body with acid and, as before, the bones were pulverized.
March 1988 he picked up Richard Guerrero, aged 23, and once again lured him back to his grandmother’s house. After having oral sex with the man, Jeffrey spiked his drink with sleeping pills and then strangled him. He dismembered the corpse and then put the remains into the rubbish.
The following day the victim was 26-year-old Anthony Sears and again he was invited back to Jeffrey’s grandmother’s house. He was strangled, the body dismembered and this time he kept the head and genitals as trophies. Lastly he painted the skull grey and disposed of the other remains in the rubbish.