Ringgold

The first major false lead came in the form of Henry Lee Lucas, one of the most notorious serial confessors in American criminal history.

Lucas was already on death row in Texas for a murder in Ringgold, about two hundred and fifty miles north of Brazos County.

He had a pattern of claiming responsibility for murders he didn't commit, and there was a reason for it.

Every time Lucas confessed to a new killing, he bought himself more time, more interviews, more attention, more days off death row while detectives from other jurisdictions came to talk to him.