Henry: Portrait of a Bush Supporter

Although he said he was anguished by the decision, in an interview in Talk magazine, writer Tucker Carlson described Bush mimicking the woman's final plea for her life. "'Please,' Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, 'don't kill me.'" - Time Magazine

The man who mocked Karla Faye Tucker sure picked his moments.

As Governor of Texas, George W Bush notched 152 - count -em! - confirmed kills. A personal best, until 9/11. His giddy impression of Tucker (#58) even got under the skin of scary Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, who said "I think it is nothing short of unbelievable that the governor of a major state running for president thought it was acceptable to mock a woman he decided to put to death."

Bush did not care if the condemned were mentally ill or had been a juvenile offender. He did not hesitate to execute Betty Lou Beets, a great-grandmother convicted of killing her chronically abusive partner. ("What my husband started, Texas will finish," she said.) There was no exception to Bush's repeated position that "he would only consider granting clemency in cases of actual innocence or where the courts have failed to provide a thorough review on appeal."

Well, one teeny exception: Henry Lee Lucas.

"Here's lookin' at you, Mr Bush"


Remember Henry? He confessed to up to 600 murders, though he may have been guilty for as "few" as six, while most accounts place the likely number at several dozen. Henry was the recipient of Governor Bush's sole pardon, because the particular murder for which he was sentenced was found to be unsupported by evidence. Less than two weeks before Lucas was to be executed, Bush intervened, and asked his appointed parole board to review Henry's case. And "eight days later the Board uncharacteristically recommended that Henry's execution not take place."

The funny-strange thing is, many of the 152 who were not fortunate enough to receive the Governor's favour also had evidence supporting their claims of innocence. But Lucas did not just receive a temporary stay while his case was reviewed, but a full clemency.

Was there more to Lucas than the lone, random psychopath?

From David McGowan's Programmed to Kill:

Lucas claimed that he was trained by a nationwide satanic cult in a mobile paramilitary training camp in the Florida Everglades.... Henry further claimed the leaders of the camp were so impressed with his handling of a knife that he was allowed to serve as an instructor. Following his training, Henry claimed that he served the cult in various ways, including as a contract killer and as an abductor of children, whom he delivered to a ranch in Mexico near Juarez. Once there, they were used in the production of child pornography and for ritual sacrifices. Henry has said that this cult's operations were based in Texas, and included trafficking in children and drugs, among other illegal pursuits.

What Henry claimed, essentially, is that what appeared to be the random work of a serial killer was in fact a planned series of crimes often committed for specific purposes....

Before his rampage, Lucas had spent 10 years in prison for murdering his mother, nearly half that time in a psychiatric ward, where he received "intensive drug and electroshock treatments." He later described it as a "nightmare that would not end," and complained of hearing voices in his head.

Anyone who has studied MKULTRA knows how covert mind control research was conducted in hospitals on unwitting psychiatric patients. Was Lucas one, who was then released into the service of a sheltered Satanic cult of child pornographers? It's bizarre conjecture, and we can't simply take Lucas's word for a conspiracy. Who would? Which, of course, also happens to make him a perfect subject.

Should we take Bush's word, that although "Henry Lee Lucas is unquestionably guilty of other despicable crimes...there is enough doubt about this particular crime that the state of Texas should not impose its ultimate penalty by executing him"?