"Taken Over to Dean's as a Victim": Elmer Wayne Henley Speaks from Prison, 2025

Name: "Taken Over to Dean's as a Victim": Elmer Wayne Henley Speaks from Prison, 2025
Uploaded: 2025-08-15
Duration: 9 min 24 s
Description: More than fifty years after he shot Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley told forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland that being with Corll was "exciting" and that he still feels remorse.

More than fifty years after he shot Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley told forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland that being with Corll was "exciting" and that he still feels remorse.

Subject: Elmer Henley
Recorded: August 2025
Runtime: 9:24

Content warning: Concerns the torture, sexual assault and murder of boys and young men.

The Interview

In August 2025 ABC's "Nightline" reported on Elmer Wayne Henley Jr., then 69 and serving life sentences in Texas, ahead of the Investigation Discovery special "The Serial Killer's Apprentice". The report plays short passages of Henley speaking with the forensic psychologist Dr. Katherine Ramsland. He says he believes he was first taken to Dean Corll's home "as a victim", that being with Corll "was exciting", that he decided at some point "to be honest about it", and that he feels "a constant sense of remorse, even today".

Historical Context

Between 1970 and 1973 Dean Corll, a 33-year-old Houston man whose family had run a candy business, abducted, tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered at least 28 boys and young men, with the help of two teenagers, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. On August 8, 1973, at Corll's house in Pasadena, Texas, Henley shot Corll dead. He then led police to bodies buried in a boat shed in southwest Houston, near Lake Sam Rayburn and at High Island. News reports of the time called it the worst mass murder in the country's history.

Circumstances of the Interview

Ramsland, a professor at DeSales University, spoke with Henley over several years for the documentary and for a book of the same title. The dates and form of each conversation are not documented; press coverage describes at least part of it as a telephone interview from prison. ABC's report mixes those recordings with archive news film of 1973, interviews with Ramsland, comments on Henley's chances of parole, and footage from Houston station KPRC of the parents of 13-year-old Stanton Dreymala, one of Corll's victims, who oppose his release.

What the Interview Covers

Henley describes his first meeting with Corll, who he says began by telling him a dirty joke, and calls Corll his "authority figure". He attributes his part in the crimes to his "hero complex". Ramsland explains her view that Henley was groomed and coerced, describes the night Henley killed Corll, and sets out her idea of a "temporary psychopath": a young person who acts callously under another's influence but can be salvaged. The report notes that Henley was again due for parole review in 2025.

What Makes the Recording Significant

Henley has given interviews before, but this was presented as his first extended account in decades, recorded when he was in his late sixties. It sets his own words about how he came to take part in murder beside the view of a psychologist who has studied him at length.

Archival Importance

Henley was convicted of six murders in 1974 and again, after a retrial, in 1979. He has been refused parole at every review since he became eligible in 1980, most recently on November 7, 2025, after this report was broadcast. The recording preserves his account more than fifty years after his arrest.

Important Caveats

What Henley says about being a victim, about Corll's influence and about his remorse are his own claims. Ramsland's "temporary psychopath" idea is her interpretation. The documentary is an Investigation Discovery special, not an ABC production; the uploader's word "series" is loose. Several speakers in the report are not named in the audio, and some attributions in the transcript are marked uncertain.

Narrator: It was the most gruesome case of its time.

Archive News Reporter: [unclear: "Searchers" / "Researchers"] today found three more bodies near Houston, Texas, in what has become the worst mass murder in this country's history.

Narrator: At least 27 young boys in Houston, Texas, tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered in the early seventies.

Interviewee: The fact that this many kids and young people were killed in this very small area was a huge, huge story at the time.

Narrator: The perpetrator, Dean Corll, known as the Candyman Killer, eventually killed by one of the two young boys who say he coerced them into helping him commit his crimes.

Archive News Reporter: The grisly story broke yesterday when a teenager named Elmer Henley told police he had killed a mass murderer,

Narrator: leaving devastated families behind.

Victim'S Relative: [unclear: "We parted." / "We reported."] I said, I love you, and [unclear: "I said" / "he said"], I love you too, son. See you in the morning.

Narrator: Now, 50 years later, that accomplice, Elmer Wayne Henley, and his story are being re-examined.

Elmer Wayne Henley: And so here's what sticks with me, what hurts me. I believe that I was originally taken over to Dean's as a victim.

Elmer Wayne Henley: What scares me is that Dean recognized a fellow psychopath.

Katherine Ramsland: The relationship between Wayne Henley and Dean Corll was one of coercion. Dean Corll was an adult predator looking for kids who could do his dirty work for him. So he used these kids, David Brooks and Wayne Henley.

Narrator: The now 69-year-old, speaking in a rare interview behind bars with famed forensic psychologist Dr. Katherine Ramsland.

Elmer Wayne Henley: Being with Dean was exciting. Dean made it exciting. It was an adventure, it was spy versus spy, [unclear: "Mission Impossible"]. And I did things with Dean that I thought I would never do before.

Katherine Ramsland: How did he trigger you into behavior that was not something you would have normally done?

Elmer Wayne Henley: I attribute it all to [unclear: "him, to" / no words] my hero complex.

Katherine Ramsland: For over 25 years, I've been studying extreme offenders, mass murderers, spree killers and serial killers.

Narrator: Dr. Ramsland is a forensic psychology and criminology professor at DeSales University, most recently making headlines for being the professor of Idaho murderer Bryan Kohberger. She studied more than 300 serial killer cases.

Katherine Ramsland: Probably the most well-known that I spent extended time with was Dennis Rader, the BTK killer. We spent five years working on a book with him. And if you studied, you know, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, you know, really name any name, I probably studied that person.

Narrator: But now Ramsland is exploring the complexity of murder from the view of an accomplice to a serial killer.

Katherine Ramsland: He was 15 when he was leveraged into it, is not a person who wanted to be a killer, but became one nevertheless. And I wanted to understand the experience from the point of view of an accomplice, because it had not been studied before.

Narrator: Their in-depth conversation featured in the new Discovery ID documentary "The Serial Killer's Apprentice."

Katherine Ramsland: At what point did you decide to implicate yourself?

Elmer Wayne Henley: Somewhere along the line there, I just decided to [unclear: "butter them, to"] be honest about it.

Katherine Ramsland: Did you? Did you realize you'd be going to prison?

Elmer Wayne Henley: No, that was never a thought.

Elmer Wayne Henley: He didn't either.

Narrator: Henley is up for parole this year and could walk free if his request is approved. But some victims' loved ones, like the parents of 13-year-old Stanton Dreymala, believe Wayne should stay right where he is, here speaking with KPRC.

Parent Of Stanton Dreymala: He has a satanic mind. And if he gets out, just because he's old doesn't mean he couldn't [unclear: "gather" / "father"] a group to do that same thing over and over again.

Commentator: I don't see how Wayne Henley ever ends up being granted parole. The kinds of people who tend to get parole when they were involved in murders, A, require great behavior in prison, accepting responsibility, but also some lesser role. Meaning, if you're the primary killer and you killed multiple people, in almost every case, no matter how well you behave in prison, you're probably not getting parole.

Narrator: Henley met Corll in 1971, when his friend and Corll's first accomplice, David Brooks, introduced them.

Elmer Wayne Henley: Let me tell you the first thing that Dean ever said to me, other than hello. He says, you want to hear a joke? And it was [unclear: "a nasty" / "an accident"], it was a dirty joke. Okay. And I thought that was cool.

Katherine Ramsland: It's a common test that predators use to kind of test the limits. If they laugh, if they think it's cool that they were told this dirty joke when they're just little kids, then he can keep going. They condition them to get used to certain things that are transgressive, little by little.

Narrator: Corll's family owned a local candy store and were well respected around town. That would give the 33-year-old that infamous nickname, the Candyman Killer. Police say he used his reputation and friendly demeanor to lure many other young boys and teenagers to his home.

Katherine Ramsland: In the 1970s, in Houston Heights, it was like a cozy neighborhood. Families looked out for one another's kids. They all sort of knew each other. And Dean Corll was really good as a predator in grooming the whole community into believing he was a big-brother type. He just seemed like a good guy. And in fact, after he was killed and the police interviewed people, no one had a bad thing to say about him.

Narrator: But after killing six of Corll's victims, Henley turned the gun on Corll.

Katherine Ramsland: In August of 1973, at this point Wayne has participated for about a year and a half in Dean Corll's killing spree. He brings two kids. One is a female, Rhonda, and the other's a guy named Tim. They get high, they get drunk, they pass out, and they wake up bound. And Dean says, I'm going to have my way with you all, and I'm going to kill you all, including Wayne. And he sees the gun, picks it up, and tells Corll, stop, you're not going to kill any more of my friends.

Narrator: Henley was found guilty of six murders and sentenced to six terms of 99 years in prison. He was found guilty again at his second trial after an appeal.

Elmer Wayne Henley: I got a constant sense of remorse, even today.

Narrator: Throughout her work with Henley, Dr. Ramsland explores the nuance that exists between a victim and perpetrator.

Katherine Ramsland: So I coined the idea of a temporary psychopath, of kids who can be callous and manipulative and deceptive in the ways that we've come to expect of psychopaths who are engaging in criminal activity, but that that's not really who they are, and they are salvageable. That's why it's an important concept for counselors and teachers to know about, is that these kids are not lost causes, the way they have looked at Wayne Henley. They are salvageable if you get them out from under that influence.

Narrator: Dr. Ramsland believes Henley's childhood played a huge role in how his relationship with Corll formed.

Elmer Wayne Henley: Dean had become my authority figure, and in doing so, he was able to [unclear: "absolve him and build him" / "absolve and build"].

Narrator: While the parole board decides Wayne Henley's fate, Ramsland hopes that people can learn from this story.

Katherine Ramsland: I hope that when people watch, they'll recognize that kids today are even more vulnerable than they were 50 years ago, because of the internet. I hope that they will take away from this documentary the need to be vigilant, to listen when kids are in trouble, to help when kids are in trouble, and to recognize that we can be in very dangerous times, and we need to recognize when someone intends harm to our kids.

Narrator: "The Serial Killer's Apprentice" premieres Sunday on ID and then streams on HBO Max. ---