PLAINVIEW, Texas -- Serial murderer Henry Lee Lucas, who claims he has killed 360 people, was sentenced to life in prison for killing an elderly woman found with a knife in her chest and a fork in her throat.
Lucas, 47, was sentenced Friday moments after he pleaded guilty to the Dec. 19, 1982, murder of Glenna Fay Biggers, 65.
Her body was found by a neighbor the day after she was killed, police said. A butcher knife had been thrust into her stomach and a fork into her throat.
Lucas told authorities he broke into her home and stole $180.
Defense attorney Charles White said another murder charge against Lucas in Hale County was dropped as part of a plea bargain.
That charge concerned an unidentified woman whose headless body was found near Plainview on Feb. 16, 1982.
A head believed belonging to the body was later found near Scottsdale, Ariz.
Lucas was sentenced Friday by Hale County District Judge Marvin Marshall in a hearing that lasted about an hour.
Department of Public Safety officers returned Lucas to jail in nearby Georgetown.
The Biggers case brings to nine the number of murders for which Lucas has been sentenced in Texas, for a total of one death sentence, five life terms and another 210 years.
Lucas claims he was involved in at least 360 slayings across the country.
