DEAN ARNOLD CORLL: THE CANDYMAN OF TEXAS

Article BY Robert Segedy

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There is an old biker saying that I found to be especially applicable to this case: “Three can keep a secret if two are dead.” On August 8, 1973, Dean Arnold Corll was killed by one of his own accomplices, a young man named Elmer Wayne Henley, in an act of self-protection in Pasadena, Texas. Corll was the mastermind behind a hideous string of murders that were committed by Henley and another youth named David Brooks after the two lured 28, and possibly more, young boys to their deaths.  The teens were lured to their deaths by promises of easy drugs and liquor, but little did they realize what horrors awaited them.

One day in March of 1974 I am a thirteen year old boy waiting to get a haircut at the local barbershop when I spy a magazine entitled Esquire; the cover story was “Do Americans Suddenly Hate Kids?” Intrigued I pick it up and begin to read an article entitled, “The Fate of the Boys Next Door” by journalist Arthur Bell.  Before I know it I am hopelessly sucked into the story of what had been happening in a small Texas town, and how the town came to realize that they had a notorious serial killer in their midst's and they never knew it until now.  Even back then the term serial killer was not in vogue like it is now; I believe that the term "mass murderer" was used instead.  Little did I realize that magazine article was to change me forever. From that point forward I became a true crime fiend and read anything that I could find on the subject matter. Today I have hundreds of books on the subject, and I am literally a walking encyclopedia of true crime facts, but certain cases have held a macabre fascination for me; the “Candyman of Texas” being one of them.

Before the world heard of John Wayne Gacy and his collection of shallow graves underneath his house, there was Dean Corll. Whereas Gacy worked solo, Corll enlisted the aid of two youngsters, David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, to seek out suitable teenaged boys. The two were often present at the murders and they certainly participated in the tawdry acts of torture and bondage that preceded the cold blooded acts. The fact that the two teens actually lured friends and acquaintances to their deaths only added to the horrible truth about Corll and what he had done. Corll earned the nickname “Candyman” because of the candy company that his mother had founded in 1963, and he was fond of giving free sweets to the children that would often gather in the backroom of the factory where Corll had installed a pool table. Hidden in plain sight, Corll appeared to be a respectable middle aged man that worked long hours for his mother, when in reality he was a homicidal pedophile that was struggling to conceal his twisted desires.

Born on December 24th in 1939 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Dean Corll was the first child to Mary Robinson (May 9, 1916-May 31, 2010) and Arnold Corll (February 7, 1916-April 5, 2001). The relationship between father and son would prove to be rocky because his father was a strict disciplinarian, and his mother became protective toward her son. The couple was known to have explosive quarrels and they eventually divorced in 1946, four years after the birth of their second son, Stanley. The family eventually moved to a trailer in Memphis, Tennessee because Arnold had been drafted into the service after the divorce and Mary wanted her boys to see their father. There followed a pattern of frequent moves as Mary Corll grew listless with her life and she sought out male company often. This pattern of killers having a disruptive childhood is all too familiar and both of Corll’s accomplices suffered the same fate. Both Henley and Brooks had parents that were divorced and had a history of dysfunctional upbringing. Looking for any early clues to future behavior though proves futile as Corll was not known to display the trifecta of typical serial killer behavior: animal cruelty, bedwetting, and a fascination with fire. Corll was widely known in the neighborhood as a respected, hardworking citizen that dedicated a large part of his time to mentoring the local children and was always willing to help someone out in a jam.

It wasn’t until Corll had returned from a stint in the military in 1969 that others began to notice a change in his personality. His stepfather thought that Corll might be gay; how else do you explain the number of young boys that were always at the candy factory, he asked. Corll had set up a pool table in the back room of the factory and he encouraged the boys from the elementary school across the street to come play pool and hang out. Upon turning thirty in December 1969, Corll seemed to have undergone some type of change in personality; he was gloomy and serious, no longer the fun loving individual that he once was. It was while in the military that Corll began to display homosexual tendencies, and after his mother finally departed Texas for Indiana, he felt the freedom to act out his well-hidden obsessions regarding young boys.

Entering into this picture was a shy introspective young boy named David Brooks. Brooks went into the Corll candy store when he was ten or eleven years old and he met the man that would have a profound effect on the rest of his life: Dean Corll. Brooks was having difficulty at home; his father was a rough and tough character, a paving contractor. Jim Skelton, Brooks’ attorney at the time of trial, stated that “…Alton didn’t really like David all that much because he was a sickly kid who wore those hippie glasses.” Corll changed all that; “he didn’t call him a sissy. David idolized him. He told me that Dean was the first adult male who didn’t make fun of him.” (Skip Hollandsworth, “The Lost Boys”, Texas Monthly, April 2011). Obviously Brooks was looking for a strong male figure in his life, and Corll took advantage of the situation and seduced him with charm and money. Slowly Corll had worn down Brooks and he began to take advantage of him sexually, offering him money in exchange for sexual favors. Corll began to reveal his true intentions, and in the confession he gave police Brooks told of how he once entered Corll’s apartment and found him molesting two naked boys that were tied to his bed. Later Corll told him that he was involved in a gay pornography ring, and that he had been paid to send the boys to California to pose for photos. Brooks said that Corll told him later on that he had killed the two boys and buried them in the boat storage shed that he rented for expressly that purpose.

During a routine investigation in March of 1975, Houston police discovered a collection of pornographic pictures and films portraying young boys engaged in homosexual acts. Of the sixteen individuals identified within the films and photos, eleven of the youths appeared to be among the twenty-eight victims of Corll that have been correctly identified. This discovery raised a distinct possibility that Corll had been telling the truth when he told Henley and Brooks that he was involved with an organization in Dallas that “bought and sold boys.” The discovery of the photographic material led to the arrest of five individuals from Santa Clara, California but no subsequent connection to the Houston Mass Murders could be found. Authorities refused to investigate further because the families of Corll’s victims had “suffered enough.” I could not find any further information regarding this purported investigation, but it certainly leaves room for much speculation as to the victim’s real purpose. The odd thing is that neither Henley nor Brooks ever mentioned anything about photography taking place prior to the murders and so that makes me doubt the credibility of this reporting.

Why didn’t Brooks see this ghastly behavior and flee I wondered? What type of hold did Dean Corll have on the youngster? I can clearly recall sitting in the barber’s chair, hearing the buzz of the clippers and with the smell of talcum in the air and thinking to myself “Hey, you live in a small town just like these kids did, are you safe here? What would you do in this situation? Who would you tell?” My mind was being blown as I pondered what the odds were of my home town housing a child predator as well. What about that creepy guy the kids called Norm? He was always hanging around the elementary school and leering at us when we played basketball at recess. The other kids had been talking about him and how he liked boys. I was too young to understand what that meant, but now I was scared, the article had wormed its way inside of my skull, and I imagined all those decayed bodies buried in the boat house, dead, wrapped in plastic. I could easily see the policemen digging in the Texas heat, the shovels tossing the dirt aside as they dug one hole after another, the bodies of those young boys bloated and rotted and never getting to get any older. They were like insects preserved in amber, forever 13 years old and dead forever.

Meanwhile the bodies were piling up at the boathouse and Brooks did not have the wherewithal to turn in his father figure. Corll was using Brooks as bait, driving around the Heights in a white Plymouth GTX and asking boys on the street if they were interested in attending a party with free booze and promises of more to come. There was seemingly no end of the victims that David knew; many of the boys were acquaintances from school or lived in the neighborhood. Most of them knew Corll as well from earlier experiences receiving free sweets from the nice man at his factory. The candy factory was conveniently located at 505 West 22nd Street, directly across the street from Helms Elementary School in the Heights. There apparently was nothing to be afraid of. However there was the time that Dorothy Hilligiest, mother of one of the victims, spied a white Plymouth GTX with the license plate number TMF 724, and she reported it to the authorities, but they failed to run the plates. If they had they would have been told that the car belonged to one Dean Corll.

“All my friends knew him, and my friend’ folks knew him, and they never thought anything [bad] about him… They always thought Dean was a good dude. He’d help me; he’d help them, anything.” Dean Corll: The Sex, Sadism and Slaughter of Houston’s Candy Man by Marilyn Bardsley, Crime Library.Com.

By the time of the latest abduction, two boys, 16 year old Malley Winkle and his next door neighbor, 14 year old David Hilligest, were on their way to the local swimming pool when they were accosted by Corll and his pal. This would have been May 29, 1971, and the two had no idea what fates awaited them. Entering into the fiendish partnership of Corll and Brooks was a new comer, 15 year old Elmer Wayne Henley. Possibly earmarked at first as a potential victim by Brooks, Corll saw something that he liked in Henley and soon Henley was also ensnared in Corll’s tangled web of sexual homicide. “Maybe Dean was considering me as one of his next victims” said Henley in an interview with Skip Hollandworth for Texas Monthly in 2011. “”But we hit it off. He was this smart, clean-cut, nicely dressed man. He listened to me. He explained things to me.”(Skip Hollandsworth “The Lost Boys”, Texas Monthly, April 2011).

Henley liked being part of a secret gang; Corll told him that he would pay $200 per boy and when Brooks turned 18, Corll bought him a brand new green Corvette. At first the plan was to line up robberies: “Before kids started coming around, we got money from Dean for thieving, for setting up places to rob. I didn’t think that there was anything to it, but at least I got money for it. That’s what kept me coming around before he started talking about killing people. Later, he got down to the fact that we was going to be killing people.” (Elmer Wayne Henley in conversation with James Conaway, “The Last Kid on the Block”, Texas Monthly, April, 1976).

Sometimes one of the boys would be made to scrawl a hasty postcard that was sent to their parents or they were forced to make a final phone call, telling their mother that they were off at the beach with a group of boys swimming or that they had gone seeking work elsewhere. However the parents knew that something wasn’t right; David Hilligiest was all set to go off with his family on a summer vacation the very next day when he didn’t return home. Malley Winkle called his mother and told her that he was in Freeport, swimming with some friends. Elmer Wayne Henley was bold enough to go to the Hilligiest’s house and helped distribute flyers around the neighborhood with David’s photo on it.

No one suspected mild mannered Dean Corll of doing anything wrong though. He was a law abiding citizen who always had time to help out his neighbors, but the reality of the situation was another story. Corll was a sadistic cold blooded killer that liked young boys; he had parties for the neighborhood kids so that he could eyeball the boys and make his selection ahead of time. He would dispatch his two assassins and they would return with a boy or two and then the real fun would begin. There would be free beer and pot for all, the boy’s huffed paint as well, and after a while one of the other two accomplices would begin fooling around with a set of handcuffs. Once the chosen victim would put the cuffs on, Corll would spring like a coiled snake, quickly dragging the boy to the back bedroom where the torture board awaited them: a large sheet of plywood with handcuffs at the top and bottom. The floor was covered with a thick layer of plastic sheeting to protect the carpets and the bodies would be encased in plastic before their burial, a layer of lime sprinkled on them to speed up decay. They would be dispatched after Corll had his fun, either by strangulation or a bullet to the head, and then sequestered to the boatyard in Southwest Houston, while others would be buried in shallow graves at Lake Sam Rayburn and High Island Beach.

“Once they were on the board, they were as good as dead; it was all over but the shouting and the crying.” David Brooks, Confession, August 9, 1973.

Stanley Milgram in his book, Obedience to Authority, 1974, Harper and Row, explains that when a person comes to view himself “as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes, and he therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred, all of the essential features of obedience follow….Morality does not disappear-it acquires a radically different focus; the subordinate feels shame or pride depending upon on how adequately he has performed the actions called for by the authority.” This would somewhat explain why Brooks and Henley continued to seek out victims and partake in the torture and burial of the bodies. Another prime example of this behavior is the followers of Hitler during World War II and the “Family” members of Charles Manson’s cult. These followers clearly had abandoned all sense of propriety and were given over to a dominant personality that they obeyed no matter how extreme the orders were.

With now two accomplices under his control, the murders increased in number and frequency. Corll continued to pick up and move every two or three months so that his neighbors wouldn’t become curious; he continued to live in the Houston Heights community and that was where the majority of the victims lived as well. Between the years of 1970 and 1973, the trio is believed to have killed a minimum of twenty-eight victims, but many researchers continue to believe that Corll had begun killing boys earlier on his own. And the searching for grave sites seemingly came to a premature halt when the body count surpassed the current U.S. mass murder rate. Larry Earls, a homicide detective that worked the case is quoted as saying “Henley and Brooks told us that they thought there were more bodies, and there were other places where we wanted to dig, but we were told no.” (Skip Hollandsworth, “The Lost Boys”, Texas Monthly, April 2011).

I wondered what type of spell Corll had Brooks and Henley under? Why didn’t they stop after the first homicide, why did they continue to go along with what was happening? On at least two separate occasions each boy had been attacked and sexually assaulted by their so called friend, and yet they continued to visit Corll and not only that, they also continued to solicit future victims for the killer’s satisfaction. To compound the horror of what was occurring, the two continued to lure former classmates and acquaintances to their doom. What is known for sure is that the local police force were extremely lax in their response to the rash of disappearances that plagued the area; the majority of the parents were told that the boys were runaways and that they would return on their own in time. You must remember that this was the early 70’s and the hippie movement was still going strong; kids were growing their hair long, experimenting with drugs; the number of young people that were reported missing in the US was close to 1 million a year. None of the authorities wanted to admit that there was a predator living amongst them, but how could one turn a blind eye to the fact that at least eleven of the boys had all gone to the same elementary school. The fact is that the Heights community wasn’t that large; the Heights is approximately two miles wide and three miles deep on Houston’s northwest side. The number of victims that lived in the neighborhood numbered 17. Why didn’t someone put two and two together and see a pattern that was developing? Part of the answer is that it was an era that has long since been gone. There wasn’t anything like an Amber Alert back then. There wasn’t an internet, there wasn’t a system in place to announce to the community at large that someone was kidnapping young boys. “Police Chief Herman Short pointed out that, under Texas law, running away was not a crime, and there was little the force could do.” (New York Daily News, “The Justice Story: Lost Boys of Texas”, Mara Bovus, June 28, 2008). I can clearly remember a public service announcement that would come on television while growing up: “It’s eleven o’clock; do you know where your children are?” They obviously didn’t have that running nightly in the Heights.

“We have always worried about our little girls, we mothers, and suddenly we learn that it was our little boys we should have been cautioning all the while.” Mrs. Lillian Goff, mother of four children. (Olsen, Jack (1974). The Man with the Candy: The Story of the Houston Mass Murders. Simon & Schuster.)

Death of the Candyman:

On the evening of August 7th Wayne Henley had led a pair of friends to Dean Corll’s apartment at 2020 Lamar drive in Pasadena, Texas, like numerous times before, but this time one of the guests happened to be his girlfriend, Rhonda Williams, and Corll was not pleased. “You’ve ruined everything” Corll hissed at Henley, but Henley managed to calm his friend down and the party resumed. What could Henley have possibly been thinking, I wondered? Why would he want to bring his girlfriend to a place that was the spider’s lair? Corll smoked pot and drank some beers while the guests huffed on acrylic paint fumes until they all passed out. Hours later Henley was the first to wake and he found himself having the handcuffs being snapped on his wrists by Corll; his feet had already been bound with rope. Across the room, he could see that his friends Tim Kerley, 19, and Rhonda Williams, 15, were already bound and gagged waiting their fate. “I’m going to kill you all!” yelled Corll, “But first I’m gonna have my fun.” Henley knew that a slow painful death awaited the three of them and he started talking, pleading with Dean: he would help Corll torture and kill Rhonda and Tim, but only if he was uncuffed and let loose. Corll could have Tim all to himself, and Henley would kill Rhonda, and then they would bury both of them at the boathouse. Corll had been threatening Henley with a large knife and a .22 pistol, menacing him with promises of death, but somehow Henley talked Corll in releasing him. The two victims were forced into the back bedroom where the torture board awaited them, and Kerley was stripped and strapped stomach down on the board. “Take the knife and cut off her clothes” Corll demanded and Henley obeyed, slowly stalling for time. Williams was still unconscious but she came to as Henley was removing her clothes. “Is this for real?” Williams asked Henley and he said “Yes.” “Well are you going to do something about it” asked Williams. Henley was apparently released from his reverie and he picked up the revolver that Corll had placed on a table, shouting, “You’ve gone far enough, Dean…. I can’t go on any longer. I can’t have you kill all my friends.” (Rhonda Williams, “The Lost Boys”, Texas Monthly, Skip Hollandsworth, April 2011.)

Corll was not distressed by the sight of Henley pointing the gun at him, he walked towards Henley and shouted, “Kill me, Wayne. You won’t do it!” Henley fired the gun striking Corll in the forehead, but he continued to advance on the boy. Henley shot him twice more in the shoulder, and then three more shots to Corll’s back, killing him once and for all. The “Candyman” was now dead, killed by his own pal with his own gun. His reign of terror was over. There was nothing left to do except call the police and report a murder. “Whatever evil was in Wayne, there still was some good in him, and finally the good won. Wayne saved my life, and he saved Tim’s life too. Wayne killed the devil.” (Rhonda Williams, Skip Hollandsworth, “The Lost Boys”, Texas Monthly, April 2011.)

The three teens were found sitting on the curb in front of Corll’s house when Patrolman A.B. Jamison arrived at 2020 Lamar Drive around 8:30 the morning of August 8th, 1973. All three looked dazed and finally Henley spoke up, “I called the police. I killed a man.” and he motioned Jamison inside to the crime scene. It became apparent quickly that this was not a routine domestic homicide; inside the house was the torture board, eight sets of handcuffs, a number of dildos and lengths of rope, plastic sheeting covered the floor of the bedroom, and there was also an intimidating looking large wooden box that resembled a small coffin; inside was found some human hair later to be identified as coming from victim Charlie Cobble. All three were transported to the police station to be interrogated and it was during this time that Henley revealed that Corll had been killing and burying a number of young boys in several locations. Kerley later informed detectives that Henley had told him that “I could have gotten $200 for you.”

Henley’s confession:

During the evening of August 8th, Henley decided to talk and he explained to mystified detectives that he and David Brooks had been procuring teenaged boys for Corll who raped, tortured and murdered them. Later the trio would move the bodies to the boat shed in Southwest Houston or to the beach areas at Lake Sam Rayburn or High Island Beaches where they would be buried in a shallow grave. At first detectives thought that Henley was exaggerating the extent of Corll’s crime wave, but then he named some missing boys and after checking records, they discovered that he was telling the truth.

“Dean Corll didn’t just kill twenty-seven boys. He killed twenty-seven families.” Skip Hollingsworth, “The Lost Boys”, Texas Monthly, April 2011.

Timeline of Murders Committed by Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks:

Jeffrey Konen 18, September 25, 1970; vanished while hitchhiking in Houston. Body buried at High Island Beach. Cause of Death: Asphyxiation, manual strangulation.

James Glass 14, and Danny Yates 14, December 13, 1970; lured away from a religious rally. Bodies buried at the boat shed rented by Corll. Cause of Death: Asphyxiation, manual strangulation.

Donald 15, and Jerry Waldrop 13, January 30, 1971; encountered while walking to a local bowling alley. Buried in the boat shed. Cause of Death: Asphyxiation, manual strangulation.

Randall Harvey 15, March 9th, 1971; last seen headed to work at a gas station. Buried in the boat shed. Cause of Death: Single gunshot wound to the head.

David Hilligest 13, May 29th, 1971; last seen with his friend Gregory Winkle, climbing into a white van. Buried in the boat shed. Cause of death: Asphyxiation, manual strangulation.

Gregory Malley Winkle 16, May 29th, 1971: former employee of Corll Candy Company, boyfriend of Randy Harvey’s sister; last seen walking to the local swimming pool. Buried in the boat shed. Cause of Death: Asphyxiation, manual strangulation.

Ruben Watson Haney, 17, August 17th, 1971; last seen leaving home to go to the movies, later called his mother to tell her he was spending the night with Brooks. Buried in the boat shed. Cause of Death: Asphyxiation, manual strangulation.

Willard Branch Jr, 17, February 9th, 1972; son of a Houston police officer who died of a heart attack while searching for his son. Buried in the boat shed. Branch was emasculated prior to death. Cause of Death: Asphyxiation, manual strangulation.

Frank Aguirre, 18, March 24th, 1972; had been engaged to Rhonda Williams. Buried at High Island Beach. Cause of Death: Asphyxiation, manual strangulation.

Mark Scott, 17, April 20th, 1972; friend of both Brooks and Henley. Buried at High Island Beach, remains never recovered. Cause of Death: Asphyxiation, manual strangulation.

Johnny Delome, 16, May 21, 1972; last seen walking to a local store. Cause of Death: shot in the head, then strangled by Henley.

Billy Baulch Jr., 17, May 21, 1972; former employee of Corll Candy Company, forced to write a letter to his parents telling them that he and Delome had found employment in Madisonville. Cause of Death: manual strangulation by Henley.

Steven Sickman, 17, July 19th, 1972; last seen leaving a party in the Heights, suffered several broken ribs before being strangled with a nylon cord, buried in the boat shed. Remains misidentified in December 1993 and then corrected in March 2011.

Roy Bunton, 19, August 21, 1972; disappeared on his way to work at a shoe store. Cause of Death: shot twice in the head, buried in the boat shed. Remains misidentified October 1973 and then corrected in November 2011.

Wally Jay Simoneaux, 14, October 2nd, 1972; lured with a friend into Brooks Corvette, attempted to call home but phone was disconnected. Buried in the boat shed. Cause of death: strangulation.

Richard Hembree, 13, October 2nd, 1972; last seen in a vehicle outside a Height’s grocery store with Simoneaux. Cause of death: shot in the mouth and strangled.

Richard Kepner, 19, November 12th, 1972; vanished while on his way to a pay phone to call his fiancée. Buried at High Island Beach. Cause of death: strangulation. Remains not identified until 1983.

Joseph Lyles, 17, February 1st, 1973; acquaintance of Corll’s, seen by Brooks being grabbed by Corll, buried at Jefferson County Beach. Remains located August 1983, identified November 2009.

William Ray Lawrence, 15, June 4th, 1973; friend of Henley’s, reported to have called his father and asked for permission to go fishing with friends. Kept alive for three days before being strangled with a cord by Corll. Buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.

Raymond Blackburn, 20, June 15th, 1973; married man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, vanished while hitch hiking from the Heights. Strangled by Corll. Buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.

Homer Garcia, 15, July 7th, 1973; met Henley while enrolled at driving class. Shot in the head and chest in Corll’s bathtub. Buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.

John Sellars, 17, July 12th, 1973; killed two days before his 18th birthday. Cause of death: shot 4 times in the chest. Buried at High Island Beach, only victim fully dressed.

Michael Baulch, 15, July 19th, 1973; brother of previous victim Billy. Cause of death: strangulation. Buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. Remains identified September 2010.

Marty Jones, 18, July 25th, 1973; last seen with friend Charles Cobble, accompanied by Henley. Buried in the boat shed.

Charles Cary Cobble, 17, July 25th, 1973; a school friend of Henley, Cobble phoned his father in a hysterical state and claimed that he had been kidnapped by drug dealers. Cause of death: shot twice in the head. Buried in the boat shed.

James Dreymala, 13, August 3rd, 1973; the last victim, called his father and told him that he was at a party across town.

Sentencing and Conviction:

On July 01, 1974, Henley was brought to trial in San Antonio, Texas and a jury was assembled to hear evidence against the teenage killer. Both Tim Kerley and Rhonda Williams testified as to the shooting of Dean Corll and various police authorities testified as to the two youths had led them to various burial sites. A young man, Billy Ridinger, testified how he had been captured and abducted in 1972, but was allowed to go free after Brooks argued with Corll to save his life. In a moment of absurdity, the boy was led into the court room with a brown grocery bag over his head to conceal his identity. Ridinger testified that he had been at Corll’s home and that he had been tied to the torture board and assaulted by Corll. “I took care of him there and I believe that the only reason he is alive now is because I begged them not to kill this one.” David Brooks, Confession, 1973. Why Brooks found to have pity on this victim is a mystery. Eighty-two pieces of evidence was introduced during the trial by the State, including the torture board, and one of the coffin like crates that was used to transport the bodies in Corll’s van. Henley did not take the stand in his defense.

The jury debated for all of 92 minutes before adjourning to sentence Henley guilty of six counts of homicide. On July 16, 1974, Henley was sentenced by the judge to six consecutive 99 year terms, a total of 594 years, for each count of murder. Henley appealed the conviction, and he was awarded a retrial in December 1978. The retrial began on June 18, 1979 and was held in Corpus Christi, Texas. The retrial lasted a total of nine days and on June 27, 1979, the jury once again returned with sentencing for six murders, and consequently Henley was sentenced to 6 consecutive 99 year terms again.

David Brooks was brought to trial on February 27, 1975 and he was indicated for four murders committed between December 1970 and June 1973, but he was only charged with the single murder of 15 year old William Ray Lawrence on June 7, 1973. The trial lasted less than a week; the jury deliberated for just 90 minutes before reaching a guilty verdict. Brooks showed no emotion as he was led away in shackles while his new wife openly cried. Brooks appealed his sentence, but it was dismissed in May, 1979.

Both men are serving life sentences. Henley is incarcerated at the Mark W. Michael Unit in Anderson County, Texas and Brooks is incarcerated at the Ramsey Unit near Rosharon, Texas. Both men have been repeatedly denied parole when it has come up.

This story of unrepentant blood shed is chilling in its details and the sad truth about it is that the case is not as well-known as it should be. The body count was astonishingly high and the fact that the majority of the victims were hand-picked from a local neighborhood is unfathomable. The families of the victims will never get over the sad facts of their untimely deaths, and it should be noted that the local police were apparently lax in their efforts regarding a thorough investigation into the missing teenagers. Various family members have repeatedly told of being all too easily dismissed by the police; Everett Waldrop, father of Donald and Jerry Waldrop, complained that his sons had no history of running away, and no reason to do so either. Waldrop had informed police that an acquaintance had seen Corll and his partners in crime burying a body at the boat shop, but he was given the brush off from the police chief as a crank. When he complained to the police about his missing boys, the Houston Police chief told him, “Why are you down here? You know your boys are runaways.” (Jack Olsen, The Man with the Candy: The Story of the Houston Mass Murders. Simon & Schuster, 1974.) Gregory Malley Winkle’s mother concurred stating “You don’t run away with nothing but a bathing suit and 80 cents.”

Artwork Controversy:

In 1993 Elmer Wayne Henley picked up a pencil and began to create artwork; he was contacted by a Louisiana art dealer who contacted Henley after there was news regarding the positive identification of the 26th victim, Mark Scott, and he wanted to know if Henley wanted to make some money by selling his work. Henley at first refused, but later on he reconsidered and agreed, as long as the works were what Henley considered “real artwork.” No ghoulish images or demons. In 1997, Hyde Park gallery agreed to show Henley’s work and the proceeds of all sales were supposed to be earmarked for Henley’s mother with another 10 percent dedicated to the Montrose Clinic, which promised to put the money to good use. The majority of the pieces are black and white graphite drawings of people with some colorful seascapes as well. The display was met with outrage from the public and the families of the victims could not understand the desire to promote the work of a multiple murderer. Walter Scott, father of Mark Scott, was dismayed with anger: “”That man hit my son in the side with a pipe—he busted his ribs. They pulled off his clothes and raped him, strangled him to death and threw him in a two-foot hole out there in the boat shed. He did several boys that way. My god, how can they do this.” (Killer Art, Steve McVicker, Houston Press, January 30, 1997.)

Identity Still Unknown:

Who is “Swimsuit Boy?”

For nearly 43 years the identity of this individual has remained unknown. He was one of the many bodies found in the rented boat shed of Dean Corll’s. This boy was believed to have disappeared in 1971 or 1972; he may have been from the Houston area, like the majority of other victims. Physical Traits:

Age: 15-19 years old

Height: 5’2 to 5’7

Weight: Unknown

Hair: Dark Brown, approximately 7” in length

Race: White or Hispanic

Clothing found with the body:

Multi-colored swim trunks that had a belt with the letter “C” and gold-colored wings on the silver buckle.

Khaki long sleeved t-shirt with large peace symbol and insignias: “USMC” and “LB4 MF” or “LBHMF”

Dark blue corduroy pants, size 32X30

Brown leather cowboy boots, 12” in length, with rubber soles, word “Neolite” on the heel.

Knotted leather ankle bracelet

Dr. Sharon Derrick, a forensic anthropologist with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Services discussed the unidentified remains as having a possible connection to the military:

“We still wonder if he had a military person in his family….There’s just something about his clothing that makes you think he’s either protesting the military or has a connection to the military. A lot of boys his age had older brothers or fathers who were in Vietnam.” (Houston Chronicle, 2013).