Post by sclcookie on May 31, 2006 2:38:26 GMT -5
25-year-old Lucas murder case may reopen in Brownfield
A little more than 25 years ago, 17-year-old baby sitter Dianna Bryant was killed - found with a vacuum-cleaner cord wrapped around her neck.
3 years later, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to the killing.
It was 1 of 77 murders Lucas said he committed. Later, he added to that number.
By the time Lucas died in Huntsville's Ellis I Prison Unit in 2001, doubts had been raised about the number of killings he said he did. After investigators found numerous discrepancies in his claims, Lucas recanted many of his confessions.
Officials who investigated his confessions believe Lucas did kill 3 people - his mother, girlfriend and another woman. Lucas had been sentenced to die by lethal injection, but then-Gov. George W. Bush stopped the execution - his only commutation.
Now, 5 years after Lucas' death, officials in Brownfield are considering if they should reopen Bryant's case.
"I'm going to invite the Texas Rangers, Terry County Sheriff Jerry Johnson and Terry County Attorney Ramon Gallegos so we can get an answer whether it is or isn't (going to be reopened)," said Roy Rice, Brownfield's police chief.
But Bryant's family hopes officials will leave things alone.
Her father, Charles Bryant, said, "The only thing I can say is this: They caught him. He admitted to it," adding he'd rather the case not be reopened, preferring to leave the pain of his daughter's loss as far in the back of his mind as possible.
Why did Lucas end up being a serial confessor?
"He was the kind of person who had a very lonely and empty and very insecure life, and all of a sudden he had everybody's ear. He had everybody's attention," said Carolyn Huebner, then head of a San Antonio-based missing children network who extensively interviewed Lucas to solve missing-persons cases. "They said dance, and he'd dance."
According to Lucas
Lucas told investigators he rolled into Brownfield on April 25, 1981, in his blue and white 1973 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. He said he was traveling with longtime companion Ottis Toole and Toole's niece and nephew, Freida "Becky" Powell and Frank Powell.
Lucas said he pulled into H-Bar-C Barbecue, a small restaurant on the west side of the road owned by Sue Cottrell.
"Well, me and Becky, Frank and Ottis were heading west and we had driven into this small town and came on a barbecue place on the right hand side of the road and got out, went in and got coffee, and we sat down there and talked about a place to break into," Lucas told investigators in his confession.
The restaurant's front window looks out on a complex of brown duplexes in the distance - including the duplex where Bryant was found strangled.
In apartment 912, Bryant was baby-sitting the 2 children of Stephen and Shayne Peterson, a divorced couple. Shayne Peterson shared the duplex apartment with her children, while Stephen Peterson had a mobile home about 2 miles away.
According to Lucas' confession: "We decided we would go out messing around and try to find a place, we drove catty-corner to the barbecue place to an apartment complex, a bunch of one-story apartments."
He knocked on the door of apartment 912.
Wearing blue jeans and a white shirt with blue polka dots with blue ribbed sleeves, Bryant answered, pushing open the metal storm door to see Lucas and Becky Powell.
Lucas claimed he always used the same method to access a home.
"We asked her if we could have some food," he said. "She said, "Well, 'I will fix you something. Come on in'."
While Bryant went to the kitchen, preparing a sandwich for Lucas and a bowl of cereal for Becky Powell, Toole and Frank Powell went into the house, also asking for something to eat.
"And she got sort of nervous because they came in," Lucas said.
Lucas told Toole, " I can't leave no witnesses, the girl will have to go."
Lucas said he went into the utility room and cut off the vacuum cleaner cord with a knife he carried. "I took the cord back to where the girl was and put it around her neck, with Becky and Frank sitting there."
Lucas, who said he targeted the home with the intent of robbing it, said he left the house with nothing. The others left "with something," but Lucas could not recall what.
Getting caught
In May of 1982, Reuben Moore found Lucas hitchhiking with Becky Powell near Stoneburg, east of Wichita Falls.
Moore, who ran the All People's House of Prayer, told the two they could stay at the commune. Lucas and Powell moved in and Lucas worked as a roofer until late August, when he disappeared.
Later that month, he reappeared and told Moore that Powell had run away with a truck driver.
Investigators believe Lucas killed Powell on Aug. 24, 1982, according to a report by Jim Mattox, former Texas attorney general.
Powell's body was never found, but officials believe she is one of the few people Lucas did kill.
Mattox told The Avalanche-Journal he believes Lucas killed three people, but added, "We found no indication that he or that Toole fella had committed anything else. There just wasn't ever any evidence of it."
By September 1982, Montague County Sheriff Bill F. Conway suspected Lucas of involvement in Powell's disappearance. In June 1983, when Moore told Conway and Texas Ranger Phil Ryan that Lucas gave him a .22-caliber weapon to hold for safe keeping, the probation violation was enough to issue an arrest warrant against Lucas.
On June 11 in his cell in the Montague County Jail, Lucas told jailer Joe Don Weaver that he had committed 77 murders.
By November, his confessions had law enforcement officials across the country eager to get their hands on him to see what he knew about their cases.
Lucas confessed to three murders in McClennan County, crossing paths with District Attorney Vic Feazell.
The Lucas report
Mattox didn't think much of it when Feazell questioned the Lucas confessions.
"Vic Feazell came to me and said that he needed my help because the Texas Rangers and the Williamson County Sheriff had Lucas and that he was confessing to crimes that in all probability, he did not commit," Mattox told The A-J.
Mattox dispatched a prosecutor to check out some of the information Lucas offered Jim Boutwell, Williamson County sheriff.
"He said there's not a single one of these cases that would come to our level of requirement for prosecution," Mattox explained. "He said there's not a fragment of hair, there's not a fingerprint, there's no semen.
"There's nothing to link Lucas to these crimes except Lucas' confession. He's confessing, and he knows facts that only the killer would know, but there's a lot of stuff he said about these other crimes that is leading to something amiss."
Mattox took Lucas to a grand jury hearing in Waco so he and Feazell could cross-examine Lucas.
When Lucas was in jail, authorities would put him in a room with case files, Mattox said.
The treatment fueled more confessions, he said. And Lucas traveled across the country to identify crime scenes with law enforcement officials.
Doubts in Brownfield
Lucas confessed the Brownfield murder to Lubbock police Detective George White and Texas Ranger Jackie Peoples on May 17, 1984, after identifying Bryant in a Texas Department of Public Safety lineup of 6 photos.
Mary Ann Bryant doubted the confession and said of her daughter's murderer: "We always thought it was somebody we knew."
Lucas could not pick out the exact apartment where Dianna Bryant was killed, according to a stipulation of evidence.
White and Peoples took Lucas to the Brownfield Police Department. In an interview with Peoples and Brownfield Police Chief J.T. Churchwell, Lucas gave incorrect age estimates for the children. He also had conflicting times for the murder.
Lucas said Toole suggested he partially remove Bryant's clothing and redress her "to make this look like a rape."
A photo of the crime scene shows Bryant face down with her shirt tucked in.
On Sept. 20, 1984, Lucas appeared in the Terry County Courthouse before Judge Ray Anderson, now a 121st District judge in Brownfield.
When Anderson asked Lucas whether he had anything to say, Lucas said he did not.
No evidence
Today, there is nothing left in the way of evidence - except the confession, which includes a drawing made by Lucas for investigators.
"I have no objection to looking at it. My only concern is I don't know what evidence is available other than what's in the file," said Gallegos, the Terry County Attorney.
6 crime scene photos of evidence are in the case file. What's depicted in the photos does not exist anymore.
"I understand there's no DNA evidence," Gallegos said.
According to Stanford University's Department of Genetics, the 1st time DNA was used to solve a crime was in 1987.
Since the Bryant murder occurred at least 6 years earlier, evidence was released.
"I don't believe there's anything available at this point that could be tested," Gallegos said.
And Charles Bryant sees no reason to reopen his daughter's case, and said he would rather leave the pain of his daughter's loss as far in the back of his mind as possible.
Cottrell said many in Brownfield wanted to believe in Lucas' involvement, if only for the peace of mind.
"I think they just wanted to put it behind them and say that's solved," Cottrell said.
(source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)
A little more than 25 years ago, 17-year-old baby sitter Dianna Bryant was killed - found with a vacuum-cleaner cord wrapped around her neck.
3 years later, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to the killing.
It was 1 of 77 murders Lucas said he committed. Later, he added to that number.
By the time Lucas died in Huntsville's Ellis I Prison Unit in 2001, doubts had been raised about the number of killings he said he did. After investigators found numerous discrepancies in his claims, Lucas recanted many of his confessions.
Officials who investigated his confessions believe Lucas did kill 3 people - his mother, girlfriend and another woman. Lucas had been sentenced to die by lethal injection, but then-Gov. George W. Bush stopped the execution - his only commutation.
Now, 5 years after Lucas' death, officials in Brownfield are considering if they should reopen Bryant's case.
"I'm going to invite the Texas Rangers, Terry County Sheriff Jerry Johnson and Terry County Attorney Ramon Gallegos so we can get an answer whether it is or isn't (going to be reopened)," said Roy Rice, Brownfield's police chief.
But Bryant's family hopes officials will leave things alone.
Her father, Charles Bryant, said, "The only thing I can say is this: They caught him. He admitted to it," adding he'd rather the case not be reopened, preferring to leave the pain of his daughter's loss as far in the back of his mind as possible.
Why did Lucas end up being a serial confessor?
"He was the kind of person who had a very lonely and empty and very insecure life, and all of a sudden he had everybody's ear. He had everybody's attention," said Carolyn Huebner, then head of a San Antonio-based missing children network who extensively interviewed Lucas to solve missing-persons cases. "They said dance, and he'd dance."
According to Lucas
Lucas told investigators he rolled into Brownfield on April 25, 1981, in his blue and white 1973 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. He said he was traveling with longtime companion Ottis Toole and Toole's niece and nephew, Freida "Becky" Powell and Frank Powell.
Lucas said he pulled into H-Bar-C Barbecue, a small restaurant on the west side of the road owned by Sue Cottrell.
"Well, me and Becky, Frank and Ottis were heading west and we had driven into this small town and came on a barbecue place on the right hand side of the road and got out, went in and got coffee, and we sat down there and talked about a place to break into," Lucas told investigators in his confession.
The restaurant's front window looks out on a complex of brown duplexes in the distance - including the duplex where Bryant was found strangled.
In apartment 912, Bryant was baby-sitting the 2 children of Stephen and Shayne Peterson, a divorced couple. Shayne Peterson shared the duplex apartment with her children, while Stephen Peterson had a mobile home about 2 miles away.
According to Lucas' confession: "We decided we would go out messing around and try to find a place, we drove catty-corner to the barbecue place to an apartment complex, a bunch of one-story apartments."
He knocked on the door of apartment 912.
Wearing blue jeans and a white shirt with blue polka dots with blue ribbed sleeves, Bryant answered, pushing open the metal storm door to see Lucas and Becky Powell.
Lucas claimed he always used the same method to access a home.
"We asked her if we could have some food," he said. "She said, "Well, 'I will fix you something. Come on in'."
While Bryant went to the kitchen, preparing a sandwich for Lucas and a bowl of cereal for Becky Powell, Toole and Frank Powell went into the house, also asking for something to eat.
"And she got sort of nervous because they came in," Lucas said.
Lucas told Toole, " I can't leave no witnesses, the girl will have to go."
Lucas said he went into the utility room and cut off the vacuum cleaner cord with a knife he carried. "I took the cord back to where the girl was and put it around her neck, with Becky and Frank sitting there."
Lucas, who said he targeted the home with the intent of robbing it, said he left the house with nothing. The others left "with something," but Lucas could not recall what.
Getting caught
In May of 1982, Reuben Moore found Lucas hitchhiking with Becky Powell near Stoneburg, east of Wichita Falls.
Moore, who ran the All People's House of Prayer, told the two they could stay at the commune. Lucas and Powell moved in and Lucas worked as a roofer until late August, when he disappeared.
Later that month, he reappeared and told Moore that Powell had run away with a truck driver.
Investigators believe Lucas killed Powell on Aug. 24, 1982, according to a report by Jim Mattox, former Texas attorney general.
Powell's body was never found, but officials believe she is one of the few people Lucas did kill.
Mattox told The Avalanche-Journal he believes Lucas killed three people, but added, "We found no indication that he or that Toole fella had committed anything else. There just wasn't ever any evidence of it."
By September 1982, Montague County Sheriff Bill F. Conway suspected Lucas of involvement in Powell's disappearance. In June 1983, when Moore told Conway and Texas Ranger Phil Ryan that Lucas gave him a .22-caliber weapon to hold for safe keeping, the probation violation was enough to issue an arrest warrant against Lucas.
On June 11 in his cell in the Montague County Jail, Lucas told jailer Joe Don Weaver that he had committed 77 murders.
By November, his confessions had law enforcement officials across the country eager to get their hands on him to see what he knew about their cases.
Lucas confessed to three murders in McClennan County, crossing paths with District Attorney Vic Feazell.
The Lucas report
Mattox didn't think much of it when Feazell questioned the Lucas confessions.
"Vic Feazell came to me and said that he needed my help because the Texas Rangers and the Williamson County Sheriff had Lucas and that he was confessing to crimes that in all probability, he did not commit," Mattox told The A-J.
Mattox dispatched a prosecutor to check out some of the information Lucas offered Jim Boutwell, Williamson County sheriff.
"He said there's not a single one of these cases that would come to our level of requirement for prosecution," Mattox explained. "He said there's not a fragment of hair, there's not a fingerprint, there's no semen.
"There's nothing to link Lucas to these crimes except Lucas' confession. He's confessing, and he knows facts that only the killer would know, but there's a lot of stuff he said about these other crimes that is leading to something amiss."
Mattox took Lucas to a grand jury hearing in Waco so he and Feazell could cross-examine Lucas.
When Lucas was in jail, authorities would put him in a room with case files, Mattox said.
The treatment fueled more confessions, he said. And Lucas traveled across the country to identify crime scenes with law enforcement officials.
Doubts in Brownfield
Lucas confessed the Brownfield murder to Lubbock police Detective George White and Texas Ranger Jackie Peoples on May 17, 1984, after identifying Bryant in a Texas Department of Public Safety lineup of 6 photos.
Mary Ann Bryant doubted the confession and said of her daughter's murderer: "We always thought it was somebody we knew."
Lucas could not pick out the exact apartment where Dianna Bryant was killed, according to a stipulation of evidence.
White and Peoples took Lucas to the Brownfield Police Department. In an interview with Peoples and Brownfield Police Chief J.T. Churchwell, Lucas gave incorrect age estimates for the children. He also had conflicting times for the murder.
Lucas said Toole suggested he partially remove Bryant's clothing and redress her "to make this look like a rape."
A photo of the crime scene shows Bryant face down with her shirt tucked in.
On Sept. 20, 1984, Lucas appeared in the Terry County Courthouse before Judge Ray Anderson, now a 121st District judge in Brownfield.
When Anderson asked Lucas whether he had anything to say, Lucas said he did not.
No evidence
Today, there is nothing left in the way of evidence - except the confession, which includes a drawing made by Lucas for investigators.
"I have no objection to looking at it. My only concern is I don't know what evidence is available other than what's in the file," said Gallegos, the Terry County Attorney.
6 crime scene photos of evidence are in the case file. What's depicted in the photos does not exist anymore.
"I understand there's no DNA evidence," Gallegos said.
According to Stanford University's Department of Genetics, the 1st time DNA was used to solve a crime was in 1987.
Since the Bryant murder occurred at least 6 years earlier, evidence was released.
"I don't believe there's anything available at this point that could be tested," Gallegos said.
And Charles Bryant sees no reason to reopen his daughter's case, and said he would rather leave the pain of his daughter's loss as far in the back of his mind as possible.
Cottrell said many in Brownfield wanted to believe in Lucas' involvement, if only for the peace of mind.
"I think they just wanted to put it behind them and say that's solved," Cottrell said.
(source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)