Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole

Henry Lee Lucas was born on August 23, 1938 in Blacksburg, Virginia. He lived in a two room dirt floor family home in a cabin in the woods outside of town where his parents brewed bootleg whiskey and his mother did part time prositution. Viola Lucas ran her house with a sturdy hand, while his father Anderson known as "no legs" from and encounter with a freight train, pulled himself around the house drinking himself out of his misery.

Henry Lee Lucas was one of nine children, but most of the children were sent to other relatives, institutions and foster homes over a period years. Henry was one of the nine who didn't get shuffled around like the others, he remained with his parents even though his mother Viola seemed to hate him from the moment he had been born, taking every opportunity she had to make his life a living hell.

Henry as well as his father were the targets of her violent outbursts. She would beat Henry as well as his father on a regular basis. Henry's father was forced to watch Viola participate in sexual escapades with numerous men who would come to the house. Anderson couldn't bare anymore and went outside one evening while Viola did her thing with the men, this time staying outside all night long in the winter snow. As a result, Anderson was ill with pneumonia that eventually killed him.

In 1943, Henry started school. Viola would dress him up as a girl, she went so far to put his hair in ringlets, sending him off to school this way daily. Henry would also have to go to school without shoes, since money was tight. A kid teacher offered to by a pair a shoes, Henry gladly agreed, not knowing the beating that would come from him accepting the gift.