"Mama, I Killed Dean": Elmer Wayne Henley's Phone Call, August 1973

Name: "Mama, I Killed Dean": Elmer Wayne Henley's Phone Call, August 1973
Uploaded: 2015-07-23
Duration: 2 min 1 s
Description: Hours after he shot Dean Corll, 17-year-old Wayne Henley borrowed a reporter's car phone at the burial site and told his mother what he had done.

Hours after he shot Dean Corll, 17-year-old Wayne Henley borrowed a reporter's car phone at the burial site and told his mother what he had done.

Subject: Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.
Recorded: August 8, 1973
Broadcaster: Associated Press newsreel
Runtime: 2:01

Content warning: Refers to the murders of teenage boys.

The Call

On August 8, 1973, 17-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley led police to a rented boat shed in southwest Houston where bodies of teenage boys were buried. During the digging a television reporter, Jack Cato of KPRC-TV, let him use the mobile telephone in his news car, and Henley called his mother. The call was filmed. In this Associated Press newsreel story his voice can be heard telling her: "Mama ... I killed Dean." When she asks where he is, he tells her he is at "his warehouse", that she cannot come, and that he is "with the police".

Historical Context

Dean Arnold Corll, a 33-year-old electrician, killed at least 28 boys and young men in the Houston area between 1970 and 1973. Two teenagers, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, helped him lure victims to his home. Early on August 8, 1973, at Corll's house in Pasadena, Texas, Henley shot Corll dead and telephoned the police.

Circumstances of the Call

Henley told police that Corll had threatened him and two companions and that Corll had boasted of killing boys and burying them. He took officers to the boat shed that day. Eight bodies were found there by midnight and nine more the next day. Further graves were found at Lake Sam Rayburn and on the beach at High Island. The shooting of Corll was ruled self-defence, but Henley was charged with murders committed with Corll. The call to his mother was made in the middle of these events and was broadcast nationally that evening.

What the Recording Covers

The AP story opens with film of the excavation and a narrator's summary, then plays the call: his mother's voice is faint on the line, Henley's clear. The narration then repeats what Henley had told police about Corll and about the number of graves, and closes with a Houston police lieutenant's estimate that 25 or 30 victims might be involved.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The call captures Henley's own words within hours of the killing that ended Corll's crimes, before any of his statements had been tested in court. It is among the most widely seen news film of the case.

Archival Importance

Henley was convicted in 1974 of six murders; that conviction was overturned and he was convicted again in 1979 and sentenced again for the six murders. He remains in prison and has been denied parole many times, most recently in November 2025. This AP story preserves the call as distributed to broadcasters at the time.

Important Caveats

Henley was convicted as Corll's accomplice; the narration's account of Corll's "boasts" reflects what Henley told police in August 1973. The narrator gives Corll's middle name as "Allen"; it was Arnold. AP's headline figure of 20 bodies was the count at the time; 27 were eventually recovered. Some words of the call are hard to make out.

Narrator: Officers from several Houston area police agencies converged on a boat storage shed and began opening the shallow graves. They were led to the site by 17-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley. Henley told police in suburban Pasadena that he had killed a man who boasted of the murders of several young people. During the grave-digging operations, Henley called his mother and told her the story on a mobile telephone.

Henley's Mother (on the telephone): Who?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Mama.

Henley's Mother: Who's this?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: It's Wayne.

Henley's Mother: Yes, this is Mama, baby.

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Mama?

Henley's Mother: Yes?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: I killed Dean.

Henley's Mother: Wayne?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Yes.

Henley's Mother (attribution inferred): [Unclear: "Wayne, you near him?" / "What are you doing?"; KPRC's account of the call gives "No, you didn't."]

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Yes, yes.

Henley's Mother: Oh, God. Where are you?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: It's all right.

Henley's Mother: Wayne?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: It's all right. It's all right.

Henley's Mother: Where are you?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: I'm at his warehouse.

Henley's Mother: Where?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Out at that warehouse, [unclear: "E.K." / "Keith"].

Henley's Mother: Can I come out there?

Speaker uncertain: Yes, yes. [Unclear: three or four words.]

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: No, you can't come. I'm with the police, Mama.

Narrator: Henley told police he killed 33-year-old Dean Allen [sic] Corll during a party at Corll's house. Henley said Corll had threatened him with a pistol and a knife, trying to force him into unnatural sex acts. Henley told police Corll had bragged about killing several young men and putting their nude bodies in shallow graves in the rented stall. After further police questioning, Henley said as many as 18 or 19 bodies might be buried in the stall. And Henley said there are other graves on a stretch of beach along the Texas Gulf Coast and at a lake in East Texas. Henley and the police traveled to the lakeside to look for the additional graves. A Houston police lieutenant says as many as 25 or 30 murder victims might be involved in the case. He says it's the work of a perverted maniac.

Unclear voice at the end of the story: Thank you very much.