"A Boy in a Madman's World": Elmer Wayne Henley on CBS "48 Hours", about 1990 to 1991

Name: "A Boy in a Madman's World": Elmer Wayne Henley on CBS "48 Hours", about 1990 to 1991
Uploaded: 2019-06-11T00:00:00Z
Duration: 5 min 29 s
Description: About seventeen years after he shot Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley told CBS's "48 Hours" from prison that he was not a serial killer and could live decently if paroled.

About seventeen years after he shot Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley told CBS's "48 Hours" from prison that he was not a serial killer and could live decently if paroled.

Subject: Elmer Henley
Recorded: about May 1991
Runtime: 5:29

Content warning: Concerns the torture and murder of boys and young men, with extracts from a confession describing shootings and stranglings.

The Interview

In about 1990 or 1991, CBS News's "48 Hours" interviewed Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. in a Texas prison, where he was serving life sentences for six murders committed with Dean Corll. He was 34 and, the programme said, eligible for parole. This 5:29 excerpt shows Henley describing himself as "quiet, friendly", comparing himself to a junkie who has quit, and saying that with Corll he had been "a boy in a madman's world". Asked whether he is a serial killer, he says he is not, calls the distinction "semantics", and says that without Corll "there wasn't a crime".

Historical Context

Between 1970 and 1973 Dean Corll, a Houston man who was 33 when he died, abducted, tortured and murdered at least 28 boys and young men, helped by two teenagers, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. On August 8, 1973, at Corll's house in Pasadena, Texas, Henley shot Corll dead. That day he called his mother on a reporter's car phone ("I killed Dean") and led police to a boat shed in southwest Houston, where 17 bodies were found; more were recovered near Lake Sam Rayburn and at High Island. Henley pleaded not guilty. A San Antonio jury convicted him of six murders in July 1974. That conviction was overturned in December 1978, and he was convicted again in Corpus Christi in June 1979 and sentenced to six life terms.

Circumstances of the Interview

The interview was filmed about seventeen years after Henley's arrest, at a time when he had been eligible for parole since July 1980 and had been refused. The segment sets his answers beside Detective David Mullican of the Pasadena police, whom the programme calls the lead investigator, who revisits the boat shed and reads from the notes he made before Henley's written confession. The correspondent, who is not named in the clip, puts the record to Henley directly. Brief extracts from Henley's 1973 written statement, naming victims and how they died, are read aloud; whose voice reads them is not established.

What the Interview Covers

Henley speaks about his involvement with Corll ("like going through the looking glass"), his fear of Corll and his wish to please him, and his view of himself as Corll's victim: "Instead of picked to be killed, I was picked to be a handyman." He rejects the label "serial killer", describes himself as "passive", and argues that he could "function out there" and be "decent people". Mullican describes the evidence in Corll's house and the burials in the shed. The statement extracts name Johnny Delome, Charles (Cobble), Marty Jones, Billy Lawrence, Mark Scott, Frank Aguirre and Homer Garcia.

What Makes the Recording Significant

This is an early on-camera interview with Henley from his first two decades in prison. It records the position he took then: that he was a boy under Corll's spell, that the crimes were Corll's, and that he was fit for release. His later interviews, including those with Katherine Ramsland heard in ABC's "Nightline" report of 2025, can be compared with it.

Archival Importance

Henley has been refused parole at every review since 1980, most recently on November 7, 2025. The segment preserves his own case for release as he put it in about 1990 to 1991, alongside a filmed account by the Pasadena detective who investigated the 1973 shooting.

Important Caveats

What Henley says about being Corll's victim, being "passive" and being reformed are his own claims; he was convicted of six murders as an active participant. The narration says Henley "pleaded guilty"; that is wrong: he pleaded not guilty and was convicted at trial in 1974 and again on retrial in 1979. The narration's "final body count" of 27 is lower than the figure now generally given (at least 28). The air date is inferred from what is said in the segment; the uploader's "early 2000s" date is wrong. The clip is an excerpt, not the full programme.

Speaker Not Identified: Based on the two events, we still feel he's a person who kills because he likes to.

Cbs Correspondent: How would you describe yourself?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Quiet, friendly, I work hard. I'm really [unclear: "not indifferent to anybody else" / "not different from anybody else"].

Cbs Correspondent: Except that Elmer Wayne Henley is a serial killer. A serial killer who says he's reformed.

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: If a junkie can quit being a junkie, why can't I quit being what I was?

Cbs Correspondent: Eighteen years ago, police were called to this house in a suburb of Houston on what they thought was a routine homicide. What they found was the bullet-ridden body of Dean Corll and a crying 17-year-old named Elmer Wayne Henley. Corll had been Henley's friend and mentor, and by killing him, Henley put an end to a two-year torture and serial killing spree.

Henley'S Mother: Who?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Mama.

Henley'S Mother: Who's this?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: This is 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: [unclear: "Who's that?" / "Wayne?"]

Detective David Mullican: The articles in the house itself, you know, the board with the handcuffs and the tools they had used for the torture, I knew that it was not a run-of-the-mill everyday shooting.

Cbs Correspondent: Detective David Mullican was the lead investigator.

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: I'm with the police, Mama.

Cbs Correspondent: Henley led the police through several killing fields where he and Corll had disposed of their victims.

Detective David Mullican: It started right here at this boat shed. Right over in that corner, there was a mound of dirt that was just mounted up just a little bit. That's where the first body was. They wrapped all the bodies in plastic, so some of the bodies were still intact. Some of them, of course, had been there a couple of years, so they were just skeletal remains. We [unclear: "went up with" / "wound up with"] 17 bodies out of there.

Cbs Correspondent: The final body count, though, was 27. They were buried in several locations.

Detective David Mullican: These were the notes that I took in my office just prior to him giving the written confession. "Johnny Delome, shot by Wayne. Choke, choke, choke. Shot in head by Wayne."

Cbs Correspondent: The victims were all boys or young men. Henley confessed to killing six of them. And this was his confession:

Reader Of Henley'S 1973 Statement: "I killed several of them myself with Dean's gun and helped him choke some others."

Cbs Correspondent: Henley claims he had been under the spell of Dean Corll. Corll was a 33-year-old bachelor who worked at the local power company. His neighbors described him as quiet and friendly.

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: When I got involved with Dean Corll, it was, it was like going through the looking glass. You know, nothing was real, and nothing was right. I was living in a madman's world.

Cbs Correspondent: Were you a madman?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: No.

Cbs Correspondent: You were a sane man in a madman's world?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Mm-hmm. I was a boy in a madman's world. It was a weird mesh of conflicting feelings, because I was scared of him and I thought he was sick, but at the same time I didn't want to displease him. I wanted to please him. I wanted him, you know, to be proud of me.

Reader Of Henley'S 1973 Statement: "I shot Charles in the head with Dean's pistol. Then Marty Jones, me and Dean choked him and buried him in the boat stall."

Cbs Correspondent: Do you see yourself as a victim?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Of Corll. Instead of picked to be killed, I was picked to be a handyman.

Cbs Correspondent: [unclear: "You make it out to be" / "They made it out to be"] you're a victim of a serial killer, but if you look at the record, you're a serial killer.

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: I'm not.

Cbs Correspondent: You're not a serial killer?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: I'm not a serial killer.

Reader Of Henley'S 1973 Statement: "We killed a boy by the name of Billy Lawrence. I don't remember how we killed him, but we buried him up at Dean's place."

Cbs Correspondent: That's pretty bad when you kill so many you don't remember how you killed him. You're saying you're not a serial killer now, but yet you've serially killed.

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Well, yeah, that's semantics. Without Corll, there wasn't a crime. On my own, there would have been no crime. It's not me. I'm passive.

Detective David Mullican: I think he came to enjoy that power of either giving life or taking it away.

Cbs Correspondent: Elmer Wayne Henley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. He's now 34 years old, in jail for almost 18 years, and he is eligible for parole.

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: I do believe that I, I could function out there, that I could have a positive influence. I don't want to be no [unclear: "psychopath" / "words, I'm sorry, Barry"]. I don't want to be no killer. I just want to be decent people.

Cbs Correspondent: You think you're capable of that?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: Yes. I know I'm capable of that.

Cbs Correspondent: Who's to say when you got out there again that there wouldn't be something else that would latch on to that part of you?

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.: I'm a grown man now, in control of myself and my emotions.

Cbs Correspondent: But so far, even though Henley has been a model prisoner, the parole board is not convinced. All of his requests have been denied.

Reader Of Henley'S 1973 Statement: "I shot and killed Johnny Delome. We choked Mark Scott and Frank Aguirre. The last one I can remember, their name is Homer Garcia, and I shot him in the head and we buried him at Rayburn." [05:21 to 05:29: no further speech in the captions; see Variant readings.] ---