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Joseph F. Shea was convicted of murder after confessing to committing one.  The victim, Mary Meslener, 23, was a National Airlines clerk and was found on a canal bank three miles from Miami International Airport.  She had been shot once in the head.  More than two months after the murder, Shea, 20, an airman in the U.S. Air Force, waved a bloody shirt at his sergeant in West Palm Beach and vaguely insisted that he had done "something bad."  Because Shea had been trying to fake a medical discharge, the sergeant was skeptical.  However, the incident brought Shea to the attention of police.

After questioning Shea, Miami Detective Philip Thibedeau could find no connection between him and the murder.  Even so, Detective Patrick Gallagher soon obtained the airman's oral confession.  A polygraph expert, Warren Holmes, tested Shea and said that his tests indicated Shea was innocent.  However, the airman made another confession and this time signed it.  Though a crime lab supervisor testified that Shea's shirt was splattered with his own B-type blood and there was only one spot of Meslener's O-type, the confession persuaded a jury to find Shea guilty of first-degree murder.

Following the conviction, Detective Thibedeau, Polygrapher Holmes, and Miami Herald Reporter Gene Miller spent their spare time tracking down evidence that cast deep doubt on Shea’s confession.  Shea, a Roman Catholic, had apparently undergone agonies of guilt after fathering an illegitimate child in the Philippines: "I didn't want to live," he said.  Detective Gallagher admitted he engaged in trickery and had received half of the $1,000 reward posted by Meslener's husband.  The Air Force logbook at West Palm Beach suggested that Shea was on duty 65 miles away until at least one hour before Meslener left the airport.  Yet Shea claimed in his confession that he hitchhiked to Miami, visited several downtown bars, rode a bus to the airport, and then tried to steal a car.  Meslener then allegedly caught him at which point Shea had to murder her.

A palm print found in the murder car belonged to neither Shea nor the victim nor her husband.  The victim’s wallet was discovered in a military installation with which Shea had no connection.  Shea later claimed in prison that he had cut himself and bloodied his own shirt in the hope of qualifying for a medical discharge.  However, he also complained, "This woman I killed keeps standing at the foot of my bed and screaming at me."  With the help of the three investigators, Shea got a new trial and was acquitted in 1966.  He was awarded $45,000 in 1967 for 6 years of wrongful imprisonment.  (Time)  [1/07]

While riding her bicycle, 23-year-old Dana Ireland was hit by a car.  Then she was taken to a remote area 5 miles north of the collision site where she was raped and murdered.  Two-and-a half years later an Oahu inmate, Frank Pauline, Jr., came forward with information.  He said that in exchange for the information he wanted the authorities to look kindly on his half-brother who was facing drug charges.

Pauline confessed to committing the crime with Ian and Shawn Schweitzer, two brothers.  However, he was unable to lead police to either of the crime scenes.  The brothers owned a 1957 Volkswagen Beetle that had scratches on the front bumper that Pauline said they hit Ireland with while she was riding her bicycle.  Ian Schweitzer admitted repainting the car since the time of the murder.  Witnesses placed Pauline with the Schweitzers around the time of the crime, although they did not place any fourth person with them.

Bite marks found on the victim did not match the dental impressions of Pauline or either of the Schweitzers.  DNA tests of semen recovered from the victim, did not match any of them either.  Pauline eventually recanted his confession and denied involvement.  Prosecutors had to drop charges against the Schweitzers, but they tried Pauline for murder in 1999, based on his confession.  Despite the forensic evidence showing Pauline’s confession to be false, he was convicted and sentenced to 180 years of imprisonment.

Several months before Pauline’s conviction, a prison informant came forward and said Ian Schweitzer confessed to the crime.  Based on the informant’s testimony and the allegedly unusual circumstance of having scratches on his car bumper, Ian Schweitzer was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to 130 years of imprisonment.  After seeing his older brother get convicted, Shawn Schweitzer plea-bargained for 5 years probation.  As his part of the bargain, Shawn had to give a true confession to the crime.  Shawn confessed to being at the crime scene and implicated Pauline as the person who raped and bit the victim.  The DA accepted this confession.

Edward Blake, the DNA expert who testified for Pauline’s defense, does not believe any of the defendants participated in the crime.  He noted that Pauline fingered the Schweitzers and the Schweitzers fingered Pauline, but they all just “happened to forget” the alleged fourth participant who raped the victim.  (AJ)  [8/07]

Jeffers was convicted of the abduction, rape, and murder of 23-year-old Sherry Lee Gibson.  At first this crime went unsolved, but two years later, Jeffers, then 17, confessed to it while at a juvenile detention facility.  Jeffers first confession was inconsistent with the known facts of the crime.  However, over time his confession evolved, growing consistent with the facts of the crime -- apparently because of information he gathered during interrogation sessions.  Because of his evolved confession, a judge accepted his guilty plea and Jeffers was sentenced to 34 years in prison.  Jeffers died in prison five years later.

In 2001, a participant in the crime, Ella Mae Dicks, walked into an Atlanta, Georgia police station and confessed.  She named her former husband, Wayne Gulley, as her co-participant.  Based on the detailed facts known by Dicks, she and Gulley were indicted.  When asked why Jeffers confessed, his brother Mark stated, "He had a need to feel important."  (NWU)  [1/06]

Ryan Ferguson and Chuck Erickson were convicted of the brutal murder of Columbia Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt.  A janitor, Jerry Trump, caught a glimpse of two young white men running away from Heitholt’s car around the time of the murder.  The janitor said he could not provide a detailed description of them.  Two years after the crime, after reading anniversary newspaper coverage, Erickson began telling friends he dreamed he had killed Heitholt.

When police questioned him, Erickson confessed but gave videotaped details inconsistent with the crime.  He also named his friend Ryan Ferguson as his accomplice.  Erickson said that following the murder, he and Ferguson went back to the bar they had been at earlier.  However, the bar had closed more than a half-hour before the murder.  Erickson confessed, that he, then 17, beat the 6'3", 315 lb. Heitholt with a tire iron just once.  An autopsy showed Heitholt was beaten multiple times.  Erickson said that afterwards, Ferguson, also 17, strangled the victim.  He did not know how, and seemed surprised when told that Heitholt had been strangled with his own belt.

There was no physical evidence linking either defendant to the crime.  Nevertheless, Erickson pleaded to the crime, and was the state's star witness at trial against Ferguson.  The janitor, who had little memory at the time of the crime, identified Ferguson at trial.  Ferguson is not absolutely sure that Erickson was not at the crime, but is adamant about his innocence.  The jury could not get over the fact that Erickson was willing to implicate himself in the crime, if he did not do it.  Ferguson will be eligible for parole in September 2042.  (48 Hours) (CrimeMagazine) (www.freeryanferguson.com) [9/06]

For reasons unknown, Reyos confessed in New Mexico to police that he had killed a Catholic priest, Father Patrick Ryan, during a homosexual tryst in a West Texas motel.  However, every other piece of testimony controverted his guilt.  Reyos had an airtight alibi:  He was 200 miles away when the priest was bludgeoned to death.  Reyos could prove his alibi with time-stamped receipts, a speeding ticket, and even an eyewitness.  Father Ryan was a much beloved priest, and Reyos' allegations that the father had repeatedly solicited young men for sex shocked and offended the jurors.  Reyos was convicted and sentenced to 38 years of imprisonment.  The state's attorney responding to Reyos' appeal made himself a timeline of the crime and realized that Reyos could not have committed the crime.  The attorney put in a pardon request but it was turned down.  Reyos was paroled in 2003.  (AJ) (Houston Chronicle)

Lucas was sentenced to death in 1984 for the murder of an unidentified woman whose body was found along I-35 near Georgetown, Texas.  The case was known as the “Orange Socks” case because the victim was found nude except for a pair of orange socks.  Lucas had confessed to the crime.  In his videotaped confession, Lucas said that he had consensual sex with the victim, but this statement was edited out when played at trial, because the prosecution needed to maintain that the victim was raped in order to make Lucas eligible for the death penalty.  The medical examiner had found no evidence of rape.  The victim had an advanced case of syphilis, but Lucas had no venereal disease.  It was later proven that Lucas was in another state at the time.  In 1998, three days before his scheduled execution, Texas Governor George W. Bush pardoned Lucas.

Besides “Orange Socks,” Lucas is believed to have been wrongly convicted of at least eight other murders for which he confessed.  Born in 1936, Lucas was abused by his mother, Viola.  She physically beat him many times.  She one time beat him so badly that he fell into a coma.  Only after three days did she decide to seek medical help.  Viola also abused Lucas psychologically.  She sometimes curled his hair and made him wear a dress to school.  One time Lucas was given a pony and Viola later shot it in front of him as a means of punishment.  Lucas learned to be overly compliant.  When he was older, he moved away and stayed with his half-sister.  But Viola later came to visit for an extended stay.  Lucas had become engaged, but his mother demanded that he end the engagement and return home with her.  That night in 1960 they began an argument that continued to 2 a.m., at which time Viola started beating Lucas across the head with a broom handle.  Lucas defended himself with a knife and ended up serving 10 years for Viola’s murder, plus another 5 for violating parole.

In 1982, Lucas was questioned in Ringold, Texas about the disappearance of 82-year-old Kate Rich.  He was let go after passing a lie detector test.  He was arrested a year later on minor charges.  While imprisoned he was questioned again.  He was stripped of his clothes, cigarettes, and bedding, denied a phone call and lawyer, and detained in a freezing cell.  Lucas soon confessed that he murdered Rich.  He also confessed to the murder of his traveling companion, Frieda Powell, and soon said he killed about a hundred more women.  Year later Lucas stated, “If they were going to make me confess to one I didn’t do, then I was going to confess to everything.”  In his jailhouse confession Lucas stated he could not take authorities to the remains or Rich or Powell.  Yet he later apparently led police to a one-inch bone fragment as the remains of Rich and to a skeleton, alleged to be the remains of Powell.  These remains were never identified as belonging to their respective victims.  A truck stop waitress supported Lucas’ later account that Powell left him and hitched a ride with a truck driver. A trucking company log also gave some support.

Lucas began confessing to committing other murders as well.  His confessions began the biggest serial killer investigation in American history.  A Lucas Task Force was created to investigate these murders.  The Task Force would later state that he confessed to as many as 350 murders, but the truth is they whittled down the number from his approximately 3,000 confessions.  Lucas gained widespread infamy.  A race was made to make a buck off of him.  Books and magazine articles were cranked out a frantic pace.  His captors jockeyed to be first in line to sign a book deal.  Law enforcement received many awards and accolades.

Lucas was well treated for his confessions.  He was flown around the country in the governor’s plane.  He was given the best of food and privileges unknown to any convict.  In pictures and videos of Lucas with his handlers, he seemed more of a partner than a prisoner.  According to one lawman, Lucas even became “cocky,” and started “dictating orders.”  Despite allegedly being the most prolific serial killer in American history, he was rarely handcuffed and according to one witness, knew the security code to open the door separating the jail from the sheriff’s office.

One time Lucas confessed to murdering a West Virginia man, changing the official cause of death from suicide to murder.  This confession netted the widow a six-figure sum.  Afterwards Texas Rangers took him back to a room at the Holiday Inn where they threw a $3,000 party, complete with hookers and booze.

Another time Lucas confessed to visiting defense attorneys that he had murdered a clerk at an Arkansas convenience store.  Another man, Scotty Scott, the son of an Arkansas state trooper, had been convicted of that crime.  Because of Lucas’ confession, Scott’s conviction was vacated and he was released on bail.

Besides the “Orange Socks” murder, Lucas was convicted of ten other murders for which he received life sentences.  Police attributed a total of 214 homicides to Lucas and closed these cases as solved.  Lucas was often able to review homicide case files prior to visits by detectives at which he would confess to committing the respective homicides.   Sometimes he would lead police to locations where he allegedly left victims' bodies based on clues visible in case photos.  Lucas was also talented at extracting information from detectives and using it to convince them of his involvement in whatever murder they were investigating.  However, apart from Lucas’ confessions there is no clear evidence that he committed any homicide aside from the arguably justifiable homicide of his mother.  There is perhaps reasonable evidence that he killed Rich and Powell.

Lucas’ confessions generally indicated that he was driven by sex to kill.  He often confessed to raping his victims before killing them or to having sex with their corpses.  Even in the cases of Rich and Powell, he confessed to having had sex with their corpses.  However, other evidence indicated that Lucas was impotent.  Prison records documented that Lucas was stabbed in the lower abdomen in 1958.  Lucas later told his defense attorneys that medical personnel had told him that the stabbing would most likely render him impotent.  Upon hearing this statement, Lucas’ attorneys had him tested and found that he was totally impotent.  A world-renowned psychologist who examined Lucas stated, “He was living a vicarious sex life through his false statements.”  Lucas died of heart failure in 2001.  (Henry: Fabrication of a Serial Killer)  [9/07]

William Harrison, the manager of a wealthy estate, went out to collect rent money from tenants.  When he did not return at his usual time, his servant, John Perry, was sent to look for him.  Harrison's hat and comb were found and had been slashed.  Harrison's collar band was also found with bloodstains.  Harrison was presumed murdered and searches were made for his body, but it was never found.

For unknown reasons, John Perry confessed to the murder of Harrison and implicated his brother and mother.  Perry later retracted his confession and his brother and mother professed their innocence, but all were convicted of the murder and hanged.  Two years after the executions, Harrison turned up alive.  He told a story of having been kidnapped and held as a slave in Turkey.  (CWP) (CW) (FJDB)  [12/06]