Dean Corll

Dean Arnold Corll was an American serial killer and child molester who kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered at least 28 teenagers and young adults between 1970 and 1973
in Houston and Pasadena. Texas. He was helped by two teenage accomplices, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. The crimes, which became known as the Houston
mass murders, came to light after Henley fatally shot Corll. Upon its discovery, it was considered the worst example of serial murder in US history.
Corll's victims were typically lured with an offer of a party or a lift to one of the various addresses he resided in between 1970 and 1973. They would then be restrained either by
force or deception, and each was killed either by strangulation or shooting with a. Corll and his accomplices buried 17 of their victims in a rented boat shed; four other victims
were buried in woodland near Lake Sam Rayburn; one victim was buried on a beach in Jefferson County; and at least six victims were buried on a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula.
Brooks and Henley confessed to assisting Corll in several abductions and murders; both were sentenced to life imprisonment at their subsequent trials.
Corll was also known as the Candy Man and the Pied Piper, because he and his family had previously owned and operated a candy factory in Houston Heights, and he had been
known to give free candy to local children.

Childhood
Dean Arnold Corll was born on December 24, 1939, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the first son of Mary Emma Robinson and Arnold Edwin Corll. Corll's father was strict with his children,
while his mother was markedly protective of her two children. Their marriage was marred by frequent fights, and the couple divorced in 1946. Mary subsequently sold the family
home and moved into a mobile home in Memphis, Tennessee, where Arnold had been drafted into the United States Air Force after the divorce, to allow their children to remain
in contact with their father.
Dean Corll was a shy and serious boy who rarely socialized with other children, but at the same time showed concern for the welfare of others.
Corll's parents attempted to reconcile and remarried in 1950, subsequently moving to Pasadena, Texas, a suburb of Houston; however, the reconciliation was short-lived, and in
1953 the couple divorced again and her mother regained custody of her two children. Their divorce was amicably granted and both boys maintained regular contact with their
father.
After the second divorce, Corll's mother married a traveling watch salesman named Jake West. The family moved to the small town of Vidor, Texas, where Corll's half-sister was
born. Corll's mother and stepfather started a small family candy business, initially operating out of their home garage. From the early days of the business, Corll worked day and
night while attending school. He and his younger brother were in charge of running the candy making machines and packing the product, which his stepfather sold on his sales
route. This route often involved West traveling to Houston, where much of the product was sold.
Corll attended Vidor High School, where he was regarded as a well-behaved student who earned satisfactory grades. Years later Corll's family opened a new store, which they
named Pecan Prince in reference to the brand of the family product.
Corll's mother divorced West in 1963 and opened a new candy business, which she called the Corll Candy Company; he was appointed vice president of the new family business.
The same year, one of Corll Candy Company's teenage male employees complained to Corll's mother that her son had made sexual advances on him.[20] In response, he fired the
teen.
After his honorable discharge from the Army in 1965, Corll returned to Houston Heights and resumed the position he had held as Vice President of the Corll Candy Company.
Corll's former stepfather had retained ownership of the family's old candy business, Pecan Prince, after his mother's divorce in 1963; competition between the two firms was
fierce. As had been the case for him in his teens, Corll increased the number of hours he devoted to the candy business to meet the growing public demand for his family's
product.
In 1965, the Corll Candy Company moved to 22nd Street, directly across from Helms Elementary School. Corll was known to give free candy to local children, particularly
teenagers. As a result of this behavior, he earned the nicknames "Candy Man" and "Pied Piper".
Friendship with David Brooks
In 1967, Corll befriended 12-year-old David Owen Brooks, then a bespectacled sixth grader and one of the many children he gave free candy to. He also joined Corll on his regular
trips to the South Texas beaches in the company of various young men, later commenting that Corll was the first grown man not to be mocked for his appearance. Every time
Brooks told Corll that he needed cash, Corll gave him money and the young man began to see Corll as a father figure. At Corll's urging, a sexual relationship gradually developed
between the two. Beginning in 1969, Corll paid Brooks in cash or gifts to allow him to perform fellatio on the young man.
Brooks's parents were divorced; his father lived in Houston and his mother had moved to Beaumont. In 1970, when he was 15 years old, Brooks dropped out of Waltrip High
School and moved to Beaumont to live with his mother. Every time he visited his father in Houston, he also visited Corll, who allowed him to stay in his apartment if he wanted to.
Later that same year, Brooks returned to Houston. By his own later admission, Brooks began to regard Corll's apartment as his second home.
By the time Brooks dropped out of high school, Corll's mother and half-sister, Joyce, had moved to Colorado after the failure of her third marriage and the closing of the Corll
Candy Company in June 1968. Although she often spoke with her oldest son over the phone, his mother never saw him again.
After the candy company closed, Corll got a job as an electrician with the Houston Lighting and Power Company, where he tested electrical relay systems. He worked at this job
until the day of his death.

Murders
Between 1970 and 1973, Corll is known to have killed a minimum of 28 victims. All of his victims were men between the ages of 13 and 20, most of whom were teenagers. Most of
the victims were abducted from Houston Heights, then a low-income neighborhood northwest of downtown Houston. In most of the kidnappings, he was assisted by one or both
of his teenage accomplices: David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. Several victims were friends of one or both of Corll's accomplices; others were people Corll had become
acquainted with prior to his abduction and murder, and two other victims, Billy Baulch and Gregory Malley Winkle, were former employees of the Corll Candy Company.
Corll's victims were usually lured into either of the two vehicles he owned. This enticement was typically an offer of a party or a ride, and the victim would be driven to Corll's
home. At Corll's residence, youths were harassed with alcohol or other drugs until they passed out. They were then stripped naked and tied to Corll's bed or, usually, to a wooden
torture board that was hung on a wall. Once handcuffed, the victims were sexually assaulted, beaten, tortured, and sometimes, after several days, killed by strangulation or
gunshot. Their bodies were then buried in one of four locations: a rented boathouse; a beach on the Bolívar peninsula; a forest near Lake Sam Rayburn or a beach in Jefferson
County. It is also known that he retained memories, usually keys, of his victims.
During the years that he kidnapped and murdered his victims, Corll often changed addresses. However, until he moved to Pasadena in the spring of 1973, he always lived in or
near Houston Heights.
Corll killed his first known victim, an 18-year-old college freshman named Jeffrey Konen, on September 25, 1970. Konen disappeared while hitchhiking with another University of
Texas student to the home of Corll's parents. him in Houston. He was left alone on the corner of Westheimer Road and South Voss Road, near suburban Houston. It is likely that
Corll offered Konen a ride to his house, which Konen evidently accepted.
At around the time of Konen's murder, Brooks interrupted Corll in the act of sexually assaulting two teenage boys. Corll promised Brooks a car in exchange for his silence; Brooks
accepted the offer, and Corll later bought a green Chevrolet Corvette from him. Corll later told Brooks that he had killed the two boys and offered him $200 for any boy he could
lure to Corll's apartment.

Participation by Elmer Wayne Henley

In the winter of 1971, Brooks introduced Henley to Corll. Henley was likely lured to Corll's address as an intended victim. However, Corll decided that the young man would make a
good accomplice and offered him the same rate for any boy he could lure into his apartment, informing Henley that he was involved in a "white slave ring" that operated from
Dallas.
Henley later stated that, for several months, he ignored Corll's offer, although she maintained a relationship with Corll and gradually began to see him as a kind of "brother-type
person" whom he could trust. In early 1972, he decided to accept Corll's offer because he and his family were in dire financial straits.

Dead of Corll
On August 7, 1973, Henley invited Timothy Cordel Kerley to a party at Corll's house in Pasadena. After going home, they returned to Houston, where they picked up Rhonda
Williams, a friend of Henley's, who wanted to leave her home because her drunken father had hit her. Henley offered to spend the night at Corll's house, and she accepted. When
they arrived at Dean Corll's house, he was furious to see a woman in his house, but after explaining the situation to him, he apparently came to his senses and continued the party,
in which he drugged them. Once they passed out he tied them up. Henley was the first to wake up when they were putting the handcuffs on him, his two friends were face down
and handcuffed, even Kerley was naked.
Corll let Henley talk but told him that he was angry about bringing a girl to his house and now he was going to kill all three of them. Finally, Henley calmed Corll down by promising
that he would participate in the torture and murder, which he convinced her.
When the two victims woke up, a conversation with Williams was decisive for Henley. "Is this real?" the 15-year-old girl asked. "Yes". "And you're not going to do anything about
it?" So he went into the next room, he got a .22 caliber gun and he started yelling at Corll, Corll yelled at him several times. "Kill me Wayne" he told him and approached him
saying "you're not going to do it". Then Wayne shot him in the head four times. Thus, Corll died with his face down and his naked body.

Confessions of accomplices

In PPD custody, Henley was initially questioned in connection with Corll's murder. He recounted the events of the previous afternoon and the morning; explaining that he had shot
Corll in self-defense. Statements given by Kerley and Williams corroborated Henley's account, and the detective who questioned Henley believed that he had indeed acted in self-
defense.
Henley explained that for almost three years he and Brooks had helped procure teenagers, admitted that he had assisted Corll in several kidnappings and murders, and had been
actively involved in the torture and mutilation of "six or eight" victims prior to his death. murder.

Accusation

On August 13, a grand jury convened in Harris County to hear evidence against Henley and Brooks: the first witnesses to testify were Williams and Kerley, who testified about the
events of August 7 and 8 that led to their deaths. of Corll. Another witness who testified about his experience at the hands of Corll was William Ridinger. After hearing more than
six hours of testimony from multiple people, on August 14, the jury initially indicted Henley on three counts of murder and Brooks on one. Bail for each youth was set at $100,000.
Trials and convictions
Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks were tried separately for their role in the murders. Henley was put on trial for six murders committed between March 1972 and July
1973. The prosecution called dozens of witnesses.
On July 15, 1974, both attorneys presented their closing arguments to the jury:[194] the prosecution requests life imprisonment; the defense a verdict of not guilty. In her closing
argument to the jury, District Attorney Carol Vance apologized for not being able to seek the death penalty, adding that the case was "the most extreme example of inhumanity by
a man to a man that I have ever seen." [195]
On June 27, 1979, the jury deliberated for more than two hours before reaching their verdict: Henley was convicted of six murders and sentenced to six concurrent 99-year terms.