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What are we gonna do about these other 100 women I killed?
Eventually, Lucas recanted his confessions and died in prison from congestive heart failure in 2001.
It was around the time Lucas died and people thought it would forever remain a mystery.
I fished around more and I got a list of cases and narrowed the search.
Pretty quickly, I found 10 or 12 more cases where the same thing had happened.
The real killer had been identified, usually by DNA, and Lucas had been cleared.
Suddenly, what had been a he-said-she-said little dance had the potential to be answered.
They werent thought to be part of an overall pattern, which is what interested us.
Lucas didnt do this and yet hes considered the worst serial killer in all of history.
How could this have happened?
Its an amazing story with so many twists and turns.
I wouldnt have wanted to make a series about just a serial killer.
Taki had something that was really a psychological tale of how everybody was getting from Henry what they wanted.
And that was so fascinating.
Oldham:Yeah, pretty much.
And she goes, Really?
And she didnt really want to talk.
It was very painful for her.
She goes, Its really hard to do, but you cant convict because you have a feeling.
Its better to let the guilty man go than to convict an innocent man.
But that was not an easy get.
The more she thought about it, the more she felt she needed to talk.
A part of it is the desire to go on the historical record.
She didnt want to speak badly of fellow officers, but she thought they made a mistake.
And on some level it becomes a cover-up, but I dont think it started out that way.
Oldham:Thats a really important point.
No one went into this with bad intentions.
The other day I was watching something on theMilgram psychological experiment.
Oldham:I would disagree.
In their minds, if he killed 600 people, how was he going to remember everything?
You need some hints.
In their mind, they werent crossing the line.
They werent thinking they were feeding information to an innocent man.
They assumed he was guilty.
Oldham:So they werent doing it in a way they felt was framing someone.
But there were people who came along who just wanted to clear their books.
Everyone had a different agenda and a different process.
Kenner:And the Rangers absolutely added credibility to these small-town police forces that came in.
It led credibility to Lucass guilt.
[Texas Ranger] Bob Prince defends himself saying, We were just a clearing house.
We didnt know whether he was guilty or not.
Obviously, he was also prepped for them and he got too much information.
And they didnt do it well.
This is why for us this is such an amazing story.
This is more than just about a serial killer.
Its really a psychological tale.
He was what Sheriff [Jim] Boutwell needed.
He needed to find the serial killer.
All these police departments needed to close cases to bring closure to the victims families.
He brought comfort to the family members of the people supposedly hed killed.
We kind of believe Lucas believed everything he was saying to everybody.
He just couldnt tell what was right or wrong.
And whats so interesting is that everybody believed what he was saying because they wanted to believe it.
Do you think he eventually came to the understanding that he misled everyone?
Its a level of introspection you wouldnt expect from Henry.
At a certain point, he turned.
I think Henry believed whatever he was saying at that moment.
And Im thinking, Yeah, but you know theres absolute proof that Lucas didnt do them.
In a way, Boutwell got to say what he needed to say.
But Boutwell is certainly a key character in the film.
Boutwell was a totally respected lawman at the time.
He was God in the country.
Unfortunately, I think he hid some facts.
Its painful to listen to the families in the series.
What was it like for you to go on this journey with them?Oldham: It was heart-wrenching.
Kenner:And gut-wrenching.
Just [recently] there were two cases that were re-opened through DNA.
Oldham:We see this series very much as the beginning, not the ending of anything.
Kenner:When we were pitching to Netflix, there were cases trickling in that were being solved.
But its generally by accident.
Its not a concerted effort.
It was always in isolation.
Did you walk away feeling like he probably killed more than that?Oldham:Who knows, maybe.
Kenner:Listen, Henrys not a good guy.
This is not a series about an innocent man.
Henry had no impulse control and Henry was a screwed up character who did bad things.
More to the point, there are potentially hundreds of people out there who are walking the streets free.
Its not that were out to say Henry didnt kill people.
Wed love to get that DNA evidence.
Just show us DNA evidence linking Lucas to the crime.
One of the wildest things of the series was the fake Becky.
First, it was, wait Beckys alive?
Then, oh wait, its a fake Becky.
Henry found himself a woman to pretend to be Becky.
Unbelievable!Oldham:Oh my God, it was amazing.
Kenner:That just goes to show what weve been saying.
Here is [former district attorney] Vic Feazell, who wanted to prove Henry innocent.
He believed it so much that he was ready to go all out and have Henry disprove people.
The one difference is that Vic corrected his mistakes.
He did have more definite proof.
I think theres a desire to move on and not question, which is I think a mistake.
