<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>US man Henry Lee Lucas was convicted of the murder of his teenage common-law wife on November 9, 1983.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lucas had professed that he did not mean to kill her, but the jury was unconvinced.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He had declared his innocence in that case, but over the 1980s he confessed to have committed a serial murder spree that involved as many as 600 victims.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/sarah-henderson-comments-sussan-ley-opposition-leader-liberal-party/b8a3b445-078d-4f95-bcea-bdd77e0b7bb6"><strong><span>'Worst I've ever seen': Senior Liberal's scathing broadside at Ley</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At the time, Lucas was viewed as the most prolific serial killer of all time, confessing to the deaths of hundreds of women across the United States.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But it was all a lie.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>For years, homicide detectives would employ tactics to win over their suspects in exchange for a confession.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-november-9-what-happened-on-this-day-henry-lee-lucas/a624f937-2059-4614-bf81-7bf456aa2292" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They would offer food and drink and access to perks in prison while the suspect was cooperating with them.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Texas Rangers would take Lucas to cafes and restaurants where he would talk about his murder spree.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And for many investigators in the Texas Ranger Division, it did not occur to them that Lucas was lying about crimes he didn't commit in exchange for a strawberry milkshake or access to television.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/elon-musk-first-trillionaire-tesla-pay-packet-approved/a674adac-8ea7-454a-aea8-245907dddb7b"><strong><span>Tesla approves pay packet that could make Elon Musk the first trillionaire</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Police departments from all over the country would send their cold case files to the Texas Rangers to see if Lucas committed them.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lucas would look at the files, learn details he had read from them, and confess to an oblivious investigator the next day.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And police were all too happy to pin the blame on this serial killer and close the case.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It was reporters from the </span><em><span>Dallas Times Herald</span></em><span> who did the calculations on Lucas' murder spree.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In order to commit all the killings he had confessed to, he would have needed to drive 17,000km in a month.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>All the while, he would have needed to find time to find and kill the random victims he had supposedly targeted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lucas would eventually be convicted of 11 murders, including his own mother.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But DNA evidence has later ruled him out as a suspect.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lucas' lawyer, Ron Ponton, was able to clear him of 80 cases simply by proving he wasn't there at the time of the murders.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"He talked about killing Jimmy Hoffa, ludicrous stuff, to see if anybody would choke when he told some big lie –– and nobody would choke," Ponton said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Most of his confessions have since been shown to be false, and most of the cases were reopened.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In some instances, other suspects have since been charged.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Because so many of his crimes were shrouded in doubt, Governor George W Bush commuted his death sentence to life in jail.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It was the only death sentence Bush commuted while governor.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lucas died of heart failure in prison in 2001, when he was 64.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Only three of his supposed murders were confirmed.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ponton would later find internet fame during a Zoom court hearing in 2021 due to an amusing mistake.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ponton had accidentally signed into the court procedure with a filter that turned him into a talking cat.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span></span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/today-in-history" target="" title="For more from our Today in History archive, click here."><strong><span>For more from our Today in History archive, click 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