Luther Lee Boggs was a mass murderer on death row in a North Carolina penitentiary, who claimed to have gained psychic abilities following a near-death experience. He assists FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in an abduction case in exchange for a commuted sentence.
Biography[]
Luther Lee Boggs was raised in a housing project, where, at age six, he killed the pets of every tenant of the complex. At age thirty, he murdered his family during their Thanksgiving dinner in either 1984 or 1986, nonchalantly watching the football game between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers after the act. Boggs was caught and tried in part due to a profile created by Mulder and sentenced to death by lethal gas.
He has two prison tattoos, both on his knuckles, reading "Kiss" and "Kill" on the right and left hand respectively.
In his own account, Boggs was plagued by visions of his family on his initial execution date, silently watching him as he had his final rites read to him by a prison chaplain and as he was led to the execution chamber. While he sat, he saw "a thousand souls rush into [his] body", which he believed was his family's vengeance from beyond the grave. He ended up getting a stay of execution, but since then, he asserts, he has maintained a close bond with the dead and is forced to relive their pain and horror.
In 1994, after Elizabeth Hawley and Jim Summers, a teenage couple are kidnapped, he reaches out to Agent Mulder after describing Liz's bracelet to the authorities in lurid detail and in exchange for a commuted sentence, he promised assistance in the investigation he and his partner were carrying out. The agents' interactions with Boggs were especially troubling for Scully because Boggs claimed to be able to speak to Scully's recently deceased father and provided strong evidence that he could. Mulder was not convinced and did not believe Boggs to be a psychic.
Throughout the case, he provided several vague location markers, all of which would later be substantiated and lead to the rescue of Hawley, in part due to Scully's belief in his powers. When it's revealed that the kidnapper is Lucas Henry, a friend of Boggs', Scully is infuriated with him, believing that she's been duped and it had been one big ploy to get himself off the death penalty. As a sign of goodwill, Boggs offers to let her talk to her father one last time, but only if she catches Henry, advising her to watch out for the "devil". The FBI, again through the convict's assistance, was able to locate Henry and his captive at the abandoned Blue Devil brewery, where the former plummets to his death during a chase with Scully, right over a mural depicting the company logo. Despite his collaboration, the help is deemed insufficient to warrant a commute in sentence and is to be executed in the gas chamber the following week. Scared to leave this plane on his own and with no remaining family or friends, Boggs asks Scully to attend his execution, promising to channel her father's spirit to tell Scully his last words in return.
On the day of his execution, Boggs is again tormented by his victims and still hoping for someone to show up. As he is strapped to his chair, he realizes that Scully has rejected his deal, breaking down in anguish as the gas is released, knowing his family awaits him in the afterlife. (TXF: "Beyond the Sea")
Behind the Scene[]
Both Luther Lee Boggs and Lucas Henry are named after real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.
Luther Lee Boggs was played by Brad Dourif. Originally, the actor was suggested to Glen Morgan by Casting Director Rick Millikan. (Sci-Fi Universe, issue #10, p. 36)The character of Luther Lee Boggs developed from "Beyond the Sea" co-writer Glen Morgan wanting to "do a psychic thing." Morgan continued, "You start thinking, well, this guy's got to have something at stake." The intent to jeopardize Boggs led to making him a prisoner on death row. Due to 20th Century Fox deeming the premise of "Beyond the Sea" as too similar to that of The Silence of the Lambs, Morgan and writing partner James Wong conceived Boggs as "this manic high-strung cracker" rather than the "cool intellectual" of Hannibal Lecter. "I was directly trying not to write Hannibal Lecter," Morgan noted. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 26/27, No. 6/1, p. 42)
An initial description of Luther Lee Boggs in the script of "Beyond the Sea" states, "Boggs has the expressionless face of a pure killer. Dull, deadly, ignorant eyes. A deep black goatee." A later page of the teleplay notes how his knuckles are tattooed with the words "kiss" and "kill" then continues, "His eyes stare into a personal abyss. A pair of small dice are tattooed on his neck. He's thin, cracked, and ugly." The script additionally refers to his first visit to the North Carolina gas chamber as having been in November 1992, though this information is not in the final version of "Beyond the Sea".
Due to a financial dispute, the role nearly didn't go to Brad Dourif. Series creator and Executive Producer Chris Carter explained, "I remember calling Peter Roth, the president of 20th Century Fox, at home on Thanksgiving and saying, 'This is the guy we need for this episode.' There was a money issue. He was the person who signed off on that. I pulled him away from the Thanksgiving table and he said, 'Just cast him,' and that was it. The timing to call him was perfect, though it was inadvertent." (X-Files Confidential, p. 60) Glen Morgan recalled, "[Dourif] wanted like $5,000 more than what was supposed to be our top dollar. But Jim and I said, 'We'll give up our script fee.' They backed down then and we didn't have to do it, but we would have." (Sci-Fi Universe, issue #10, p. 36) Morgan also said, "We fought pretty hard for Brad Dourif, and Chris came through for us." (X-Files Confidential, p. 59) Carter persuaded Roth to pay $15,000 to cast Dourif. Noted Carter, "I think the only reason he said yes was because it was a holiday, and he had to get back to the dinner table." (The Complete X-Files: Behind the Series, the Myths and the Movies, p. 44)
Glen Morgan felt Brad Dourif was vital for playing the part. "To have Brad Dourif saying our lines just meant the world to me," Morgan related. (X-Files Confidential, p. 59)
Director David Nutter felt the portrayal benefited from he himself assisting the actor, later stating about Dourif, "I thought I helped bring him to where he should have been, and we were able to capture what he could really do onscreen." (X-Files Confidential, p. 60)