Lucas, Henry Lee

1936 - Henry Lee Lucas, born on the 23rd of August in Blacksburg, Virginia. He was an American criminal, convicted of murder and once listed as America's most prolific serial killer.

1941 - When he was five, his mother struck him in the head with a wooden board. He claimed that she knocked him out for a period of three days (some sources say one day, others indicate eleven hours), and thereafter he suffered from headaches, dizzy spells, and blackouts.

1951 - He first killed someone, he said, just before he turned fifteen.

1952 - On the 12th of June, he burglarized an appliance store and was sent to a reformatory for two years.

1960 - On the 11th of January, after drinking too much, he and his mother got into an argument, supposedly over a woman he wanted to marry.  He grabbed a knife and plunged it into her neck.

1975 - He moved to Pennsylvania and got married, but abandoned his wife when she accused him of molesting her daughters.

1979 - He was sentenced to death for the murder of an unidentified woman, dubbed "Orange Socks" after her only clothing, who was discovered in Williamson County, Texas, on Halloween.

1983 - Was arrested in June, initially on a firearms violation.

       - He was later charged with killing 82-year-old Kate Rich in Ringgold, Texas, and was also charged with Powell's murder.

1998 - His sentence was commuted to life in prison by then-Governor George W. Bush.

2001 - On the 13th of March, 64-year-old Lucas died in prison from heart failure.