Joe Don Weaver liked the pre-dawn hours more than any other. He hated the day shift in the Montague County lockup because it usually meant dealing with the constant noise and chatter of unruly inmates as they carried out their daily routine. The nights weren’t much better. It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that the place really settled down and became almost peaceful, a peace only occasionally punctuated by louder than usual snoring or inmates crying out in their sleep.

On this particular morning, 15^th June 1983, his peaceful reverie was shattered by shouting coming from a cell at the far end of a hallway. Angry at the intrusion, Weaver strode down the hallway to investigate. Locating the source, he stopped before a cell door and shouted, " What do ya’ want?"

A feeble voice answered through the heavy steel door. "There’s a light in here."

Weaver didn’t have to look into the cell to know that it was pitch black. "No there’s not."

The voice became more insistent, almost fearful. "There’s a light. And it’s talkin’ to me."

"You’re seein’ things," Weaver answered, anxious to put an end to this fantasy. "Now shut up and get some sleep."

Weaver returned to his office, ruminating over the reason for the disruption. The occupant of the cell was a small, scruffy man who was serving time for a minor weapons offence as well as being a prime suspect in two murders. Weaver convinced himself that the prisoner, still in a weakened condition after a recent suicide attempt, was hallucinating.

A short time later, another louder yell echoed down the hall. "Jailer! Come here, quick!"

Weaver returned to the cell and unlocked the food-service hatch in the door and peered inside. "What is it this time?" He demanded.

The prisoner, Henry Lee Lucas, answered in a quiet, feeble tone. "Joe Don, I done some pretty bad things."

Weaver, aware of the crimes that Lucas was suspected of, answered brusquely. " If it’s what I think it is Henry, you better get down on your knees and pray."

After a long pause, Lucas asked weakly, "Joe Don, can I have some paper and a pencil?"

Weaver agreed to the strange request and nearly an hour later Lucas handed him a short letter that was addressed to Sheriff Bill F. Conway.

After reading the opening paragraph, Weaver returned to his office and placed an urgent call to Sheriff Conway. Even at such an early hour, Weaver was sure that the Sheriff would want to hear what he had to tell him.

Sheriff Conway had originally arrested Henry Lee Lucas in October 1982 in regard to the disappearance and suspected murder of Kate Rich, an 80-year-old widow who had employed Henry as an odd-job man. Lucas was also questioned about the mysterious disappearance of his fifteen-year-old common-law wife, Frieda "Becky" Powell.

For days after the arrest, Conway, who had earned the nickname "hound dog," for his dogged, almost mystical, ability to track down suspects, questioned Lucas constantly.

At one stage, anxious to crack Lucas’s confident demeanor, he deprived Lucas of the two things he craved most -- coffee and cigarettes.

Lucas still stuck to his original story. He had left the Rich home and gone to live in a religious commune. Kate Rich was very much alive when he left, he insisted. As to Becky, he assured Conway that she had run off with a truck driver while they were hitchhiking home and he had never seen her again. After more fruitless questioning and several lie detector tests, which Lucas passed easily, Conway was forced to let him go.

Sheriff Conway had no further contact with Lucas until months later when he was contacted by Reverend Moore, the pastor in charge of the "House of Prayer" where Lucas had been living. Reverend Moore informed Conway that Lucas had given him a handgun and asked him to look after it for him. Conway had never believed Lucas’s story and was anxious for another crack at breaking him. The fact that Lucas was an ex-con and had been in the possession of a firearm meant that, under Texas law, Conway had every right to arrest him a second time. The chance was too good to pass up and Lucas was again jailed and questioned.

The first session after the arrest had yielded nothing in the way of new information. More pressure was applied and again Henry was deprived of his precious coffee and cigarettes. Shortly afterwards, Lucas attempted suicide. After he had recovered, he was questioned a second time, again without result. Now it seemed that he was finally ready to confess.

Several hours after Weaver’s phone call, Lucas was sitting across a desk from Sheriff Conway ready to tell all. Before turning on a tape recorder and beginning the interview, Conway glanced again at the crude note he held in his hands. Lucas had scrawled:

Conway stared across at the scruffy looking vagrant before him. "Tell me what you did to Kate Rich," he asked his prisoner. Lucas hesitated briefly, staring at the Sheriff with his one good eye before beginning a detailed confession that was to be, not only the beginning of the biggest serial murder investigation in history, but also one of the most controversial.