A new true-crime documentary has just dropped on Netflix, which examines the life of alleged serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.
The Confession Killer tells the story of Henry Lee Lucas, who confessed to killing around 600 people. The five-part series covers Lucas' 'confessions', the American justice system, and asks whether or not his confessions were an elaborate hoax or not.
A trailer for the new series states: "Either they'd found the world's biggest serial killer, or it was the world's biggest hoax in American criminal justice history."
Check out the trailer for the documentary below:According to the Crime Library, Lucas was convicted of murdering his mother in 1960, and a further two other people in 1983. After his convictions for those murders, he rose to infamy as a serial killer confessing to around 600 more murder while incarcerated, which would have given him the highest body count of any American murderer.
However, a subsequent investigation by the Dallas Times-Herald newspaper found that many of the murders Lucas had confessed to were impossible for him to have committed.
Not only this, but the authorities neglected to take into account the privileges Lucas gained as a result of his confessions. The police also did not record their interviews, which meant that they were unsure as to whether they had inadvertently prompted him.
A follow-up investigation by the Attorney General of Texas concluded Lucas was a fabulist who had falsely confessed, but to this day that there is still speculation as to just how many homicides he committed. Lucas himself recanted his confessions as hoaxes, and his death sentence was commuted to life in imprisonment in 1998.
Lucas's case caused a re-evaluation in police techniques and greater awareness of the possibility of false confessions. However, if you're a true-crime fanatic who's fascinated by the minds of murderers, then this is definitely one to watch.
