Post by marionumber1 on Apr 6, 2021 18:20:26 GMT -6
The March 3, 1983 murder of 14-year-old Red Bluff resident Rashell Lee Ward seems to epitomize the connection between Henry Lee Lucas and crime syndicates: either as a low-level operative or a false confessor covering for them. While walking to school at the local Seventh Day Adventist Church, Rashell was approached at gunpoint by a long-haired bearded man and she got into his car, which then drove off. An hour later, a rancher west of Red Bluff heard a gunshot and began to dial the sheriff, but saw a brown car driving off and decided not to dial due to the calmness of the car driving away making him think it was likely something less serious (such as someone shooting a calf on the property). A couple hours after that, he was walking his property when he found Rashell's body; she had her hands taped in front of her and had been shot in the head. He called the sheriff and an investigation began.
Somehow, within a few months, Lucas ended up confessing to Rashell's murder (Austin American-Statesman, "Fatal encounter of victims tied to interstates", 1983/12/11). This happened circa the summer of 1983 while he was in custody in Montague County TX for the murder of Kate Rich; before the creation of the Texas Rangers task force, I should note. Per the article:
Lucas was never charged with this murder, and 3 years later, Grobes / Groves completely reversed his position on Lucas (Los Angeles Times, "The State", 1986/10/30):
What really did happen to Rashell? Moreso than Henry Lee Lucas's confession, the biggest clue likely comes from rumors that circulated for a number of years involving the local Tehama County sheriff Ron Koenig. Through his decade-long tenure as sheriff, Koenig was rumored to have protected a local drug dealer, and to have been involved in two murders: that of Rashell Ward and that of Michael Britt (on May 5, 1983). The district attorney James P. Lang claimed to have investigated the rumors and found no substantiation (San Francisco Examiner, "State official requests probe of murder rumors", 1985/12/11), though Lang appears to be a thoroughly unethical lawyer who was found to have dated the prosecutor of his client (Press Democrat, "His attorney was dating prosecutor", 1983/04/05).
The claim of Koenig protecting the local drug trafficker, Charles Cobb, received support when he was found to have "approved a concealed weapons permit renewal for [Cobb], gave him an honorary sheriff's identification, and allowed him to use official law enforcement insignia on the suspect's private airplane long after his arrest on drug cultivation charges" (Press Democrat, "Top parole official under cloud", 1986/03/12). A grand jury in 1987 heard even more concerning claims against Koenig, such as an alleged account of a woman "who said she saw a homemade pornographic film featuring a nude Koenig and two young girls" (Los Angeles Times, "The State", 1987/07/27). What there appears to have been was a protected culture of drug distribution and child exploitation in which law enforcement was fully complicit, and those seeking to expose it were in danger of violent retribution (Los Angeles Times, "Red Bluff Abuzz Over Grand Jury Report on Crime, Murder, Drugs", 1987/08/16):
Might Rashell have been one of the children abused by Koenig and/or his friends, and that was why she was murdered? That seems very plausible, and I have even heard specific allegations to that effect, which I am still running down. If that is the case, the job was likely contracted out. It is unlikely that Koenig was her actual abductor, as the abductor was seen by a witness and presumably would have been recognized if he was the sheriff.
And if Rashell's murder was under contract, does that explain why Henry Lee Lucas knew about it? His confession came very shortly after his initial murder arrest in Texas, before the case had become nationwide or even statewide in scope; so where would the information about a murder in Red Bluff CA even originate? We'd need to know the exact provenance of his confession to be sure, but it seems likely that Lucas either was really involved or heard about it through his social circle (i.e. the Hand of Death?) from somebody who was.
I don't think Lucas ever fit the description of a long-haired bearded man, and I even recall hearing somewhere (but maybe I'm mistaken) that Lucas lacked the ability to grow any substantial facial hair. That would seem to rule him out fairly definitively, at least as Rashell's abductor who is the only known murder suspect. I have to wonder what initially convinced the Tehama County detectives of Lucas's guilt and what made them reverse themselves; might they have been dishonestly trying to pin it on Lucas then backing away once his confessions appeared to collapse?
One thing I have heard about Lucas is that he is a confabulator: he takes stories he is familiar with through other venues and incorporates them as his own to the point of appearing to genuinely believe in that as a reality. So perhaps his confession to Rashell's murder, and maybe many of his other confesions as well, was confabulated out of something he heard from a murderer with whom he was in contact. Ottis Toole, who is known to be bearded and often posed as a woman (maybe a motive for growing his hair out?), could have been the source of the story, for instance. Or maybe it was someone else in the Hand of Death or the broader underworld such a cult inhabits.
I think it will be very revealing to look into Lucas's confession to Rashell Ward's murder to know where it came from. Her murder looks like a contract hit ordered by locally powerful individuals, and for Lucas to confess to such a hit before the case became national in scope, he likely either genuinely committed the murder or heard about it from someone who did.
Somehow, within a few months, Lucas ended up confessing to Rashell's murder (Austin American-Statesman, "Fatal encounter of victims tied to interstates", 1983/12/11). This happened circa the summer of 1983 while he was in custody in Montague County TX for the murder of Kate Rich; before the creation of the Texas Rangers task force, I should note. Per the article:
Puffing on a Pall Mall in the interview room of the Montague County Jail, Henry Lee Lucas dispassionately reported that he killed Rashell Ward. She was one of hundreds of young women he said he had slain while cruising on and off the nation's interstate highways over an eight-year span.
There are still enough unanswered questions to prevent an indictment of Lucas. Yet Sgt. Allen Grobes of the Tehama County sheriff's office said "we are very optimistic" that the case is solved.
Grobes and one of his superiors interviewed Lucas for three hours in Montague last summer. In confessing the slaying, Lucas could not remember the name of the town where the crime took place, but he described its location, 143 miles north of Sacramento, as well as the Interstate 5 rest stops north of town.
There are still enough unanswered questions to prevent an indictment of Lucas. Yet Sgt. Allen Grobes of the Tehama County sheriff's office said "we are very optimistic" that the case is solved.
Grobes and one of his superiors interviewed Lucas for three hours in Montague last summer. In confessing the slaying, Lucas could not remember the name of the town where the crime took place, but he described its location, 143 miles north of Sacramento, as well as the Interstate 5 rest stops north of town.
Lucas was never charged with this murder, and 3 years later, Grobes / Groves completely reversed his position on Lucas (Los Angeles Times, "The State", 1986/10/30):
Tehama County Sheriff’s Capt. Alan Groves said he never believed that convicted murderer Henry Lee Lucas killed 14-year-old Rashell Ward near Red Bluff three years ago. Lucas once claimed to have murdered as many as 600 people, including the girl, then recanted all but the slaying of his mother. Groves expressed his doubt about Lucas’ involvement in the Ward murder while in El Paso, Tex., to testify for the prosecution in a pre-trial hearing at which defense attorneys seek to have a judge quash Lucas’ confession to killing an elderly woman there.
What really did happen to Rashell? Moreso than Henry Lee Lucas's confession, the biggest clue likely comes from rumors that circulated for a number of years involving the local Tehama County sheriff Ron Koenig. Through his decade-long tenure as sheriff, Koenig was rumored to have protected a local drug dealer, and to have been involved in two murders: that of Rashell Ward and that of Michael Britt (on May 5, 1983). The district attorney James P. Lang claimed to have investigated the rumors and found no substantiation (San Francisco Examiner, "State official requests probe of murder rumors", 1985/12/11), though Lang appears to be a thoroughly unethical lawyer who was found to have dated the prosecutor of his client (Press Democrat, "His attorney was dating prosecutor", 1983/04/05).
The claim of Koenig protecting the local drug trafficker, Charles Cobb, received support when he was found to have "approved a concealed weapons permit renewal for [Cobb], gave him an honorary sheriff's identification, and allowed him to use official law enforcement insignia on the suspect's private airplane long after his arrest on drug cultivation charges" (Press Democrat, "Top parole official under cloud", 1986/03/12). A grand jury in 1987 heard even more concerning claims against Koenig, such as an alleged account of a woman "who said she saw a homemade pornographic film featuring a nude Koenig and two young girls" (Los Angeles Times, "The State", 1987/07/27). What there appears to have been was a protected culture of drug distribution and child exploitation in which law enforcement was fully complicit, and those seeking to expose it were in danger of violent retribution (Los Angeles Times, "Red Bluff Abuzz Over Grand Jury Report on Crime, Murder, Drugs", 1987/08/16):
We have received many allegations . . . regarding unsolved murders, drugs, a pornography ring involving minors, and narcotics being sold openly around schools to students and faculty members.
--Tehama County Grand Jury
Many in this small lumber and farming community find it hard to believe they live in a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.
But others point to more than five years of recurring accusations, rumors and innuendoes about a thriving crime underworld perhaps protected by local authorities and say things like, “Where there’s smoke, there’s got to be fire.”
The talk of the town, this time, from the Roundup Saloon to Dog Island Park, is a report by the outgoing 1986-87 Tehama County Grand Jury.
The jury’s county government committee, operating in secrecy from the rest of the jury and all others, except the FBI, said it “received many allegations and suppositions with regard to unsolved murders, drugs, a pornography ring involving minors, narcotics being sold openly around schools to students and faculty members and other allegations.”
‘Threats of Harm’
“The preponderance of those interviewed, both men and women, have indicated their names absolutely not be released to anyone due to threats of physical harm they have received to themselves and their families,” the report says.
“The committee feels that it is impossible to bring any recommendation for indictments to the full grand jury” because of the group’s expiration June 30, says the report, “and we remand it to the 1987-88 grand jury,” which has yet to go into full operation, or to say that it will investigate.
Mixed feelings are expressed by people in the community of 11,000 along Interstate 5 about 130 miles northwest of Sacramento.
Delene Guest, washing windows outside her downtown store, said that to her, activities such as those in the report “seem like they’re everywhere.”
“It bothers me, but what can I do about it? I’m not immune to it, but you feel kind of helpless. I think most people do,” she said.
Langford Conedy, an 80-year-old retired railroad worker, said: “A lot of people come by and talk about it. Most don’t believe it. A few say, “Hey, I think something’s going on.’ ”
Materials Returned
Grand jury members said they turned over materials to the FBI containing allegations of wrongdoing by several people, including Ronald Koenig, a former Tehama County sheriff and current state parole board chief.
Koenig has denied the accusations, which involve pornography and drugs. He was unavailable for comment because he left on a long-planned vacation, a secretary said.
FBI agents said on July 29 that the information contained nothing that warranted an investigation, and returned the materials to the county government jury members.
However, Dist. Atty. James Lang has served subpoenas to members of the committee, ordering them to appear with all materials before the new grand jury.
Lang, who also said he will conduct his own investigation into the matter, took exception to grand jurors’ comments that sources did not fully trust local authorities and feared reprisals. But he added that danger always exists in matters associated with the drug community.
Also, the state Justice Department said it is investigating unspecified charges against Koenig, based on information supplied by a source outside the grand jury.
[...]
--Tehama County Grand Jury
Many in this small lumber and farming community find it hard to believe they live in a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.
But others point to more than five years of recurring accusations, rumors and innuendoes about a thriving crime underworld perhaps protected by local authorities and say things like, “Where there’s smoke, there’s got to be fire.”
The talk of the town, this time, from the Roundup Saloon to Dog Island Park, is a report by the outgoing 1986-87 Tehama County Grand Jury.
The jury’s county government committee, operating in secrecy from the rest of the jury and all others, except the FBI, said it “received many allegations and suppositions with regard to unsolved murders, drugs, a pornography ring involving minors, narcotics being sold openly around schools to students and faculty members and other allegations.”
‘Threats of Harm’
“The preponderance of those interviewed, both men and women, have indicated their names absolutely not be released to anyone due to threats of physical harm they have received to themselves and their families,” the report says.
“The committee feels that it is impossible to bring any recommendation for indictments to the full grand jury” because of the group’s expiration June 30, says the report, “and we remand it to the 1987-88 grand jury,” which has yet to go into full operation, or to say that it will investigate.
Mixed feelings are expressed by people in the community of 11,000 along Interstate 5 about 130 miles northwest of Sacramento.
Delene Guest, washing windows outside her downtown store, said that to her, activities such as those in the report “seem like they’re everywhere.”
“It bothers me, but what can I do about it? I’m not immune to it, but you feel kind of helpless. I think most people do,” she said.
Langford Conedy, an 80-year-old retired railroad worker, said: “A lot of people come by and talk about it. Most don’t believe it. A few say, “Hey, I think something’s going on.’ ”
Materials Returned
Grand jury members said they turned over materials to the FBI containing allegations of wrongdoing by several people, including Ronald Koenig, a former Tehama County sheriff and current state parole board chief.
Koenig has denied the accusations, which involve pornography and drugs. He was unavailable for comment because he left on a long-planned vacation, a secretary said.
FBI agents said on July 29 that the information contained nothing that warranted an investigation, and returned the materials to the county government jury members.
However, Dist. Atty. James Lang has served subpoenas to members of the committee, ordering them to appear with all materials before the new grand jury.
Lang, who also said he will conduct his own investigation into the matter, took exception to grand jurors’ comments that sources did not fully trust local authorities and feared reprisals. But he added that danger always exists in matters associated with the drug community.
Also, the state Justice Department said it is investigating unspecified charges against Koenig, based on information supplied by a source outside the grand jury.
[...]
Might Rashell have been one of the children abused by Koenig and/or his friends, and that was why she was murdered? That seems very plausible, and I have even heard specific allegations to that effect, which I am still running down. If that is the case, the job was likely contracted out. It is unlikely that Koenig was her actual abductor, as the abductor was seen by a witness and presumably would have been recognized if he was the sheriff.
And if Rashell's murder was under contract, does that explain why Henry Lee Lucas knew about it? His confession came very shortly after his initial murder arrest in Texas, before the case had become nationwide or even statewide in scope; so where would the information about a murder in Red Bluff CA even originate? We'd need to know the exact provenance of his confession to be sure, but it seems likely that Lucas either was really involved or heard about it through his social circle (i.e. the Hand of Death?) from somebody who was.
I don't think Lucas ever fit the description of a long-haired bearded man, and I even recall hearing somewhere (but maybe I'm mistaken) that Lucas lacked the ability to grow any substantial facial hair. That would seem to rule him out fairly definitively, at least as Rashell's abductor who is the only known murder suspect. I have to wonder what initially convinced the Tehama County detectives of Lucas's guilt and what made them reverse themselves; might they have been dishonestly trying to pin it on Lucas then backing away once his confessions appeared to collapse?
One thing I have heard about Lucas is that he is a confabulator: he takes stories he is familiar with through other venues and incorporates them as his own to the point of appearing to genuinely believe in that as a reality. So perhaps his confession to Rashell's murder, and maybe many of his other confesions as well, was confabulated out of something he heard from a murderer with whom he was in contact. Ottis Toole, who is known to be bearded and often posed as a woman (maybe a motive for growing his hair out?), could have been the source of the story, for instance. Or maybe it was someone else in the Hand of Death or the broader underworld such a cult inhabits.
I think it will be very revealing to look into Lucas's confession to Rashell Ward's murder to know where it came from. Her murder looks like a contract hit ordered by locally powerful individuals, and for Lucas to confess to such a hit before the case became national in scope, he likely either genuinely committed the murder or heard about it from someone who did.