From 1970 to 1973, Dean Corll brutally killed at least 28 teenage boys and young men, causing terror across the entire nation. The killer carried out the murders in Houston and Pasadena and earned the name of “the Houston Mass Murders.”
Corll reportedly lured his victims by offering them a party or a ride to one of the various addresses where he lived between 1970 and 1973. He would allegedly abduct, rape, torture, and murder them before killing them. He either strangled or fatally shot each of his victims.
Authorities found Corll’s known victims mostly in a boat storage shed or buried in the woods near the greater Houston area. When his victims were discovered, they had been sexually mutilated and were in a state of being badly decomposed. The media nicknamed Corll the “Candy Man” because he gave free candy to local children. Shockingly, he had two teenaged accomplices—David Owen Brooks and Elmar Wayne Henley—who helped Dean Corll in committing most of his crimes.
Who were Dean Corll aka the Candy Killer’s victims?
Dean Corll started killing young boys in 1970 as part of his killing spree. Reportedly, he targeted males aged 13 to 20 as all of his victims. He primarily abducted his victims from a low-income neighborhood. In most of these abductions, one or both of his teenage accomplices, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, assisted him.
According to reports, Corll committed his first known murder in September 1970, and the victim’s name was Jeffrey Cohen. In December of the same year, he allegedly raped and tortured two young men before killing them.
From 1971 to 1973, Dean Corll, with assistance from Brooks and Henley, killed several young men. However, one of the most brutal murders took place in 1972 when he murdered Bill Baulch Jr. Reportedly, Corll strangled him and buried him near High Islands in Chambers County.
Apart from the aforementioned names, the Houston Mass Murders victims included James Glass, Danny Yates, Donald Waldrop, Jerry Waldrop, Randall Harvey, David Hilligiest, Gregory Winkle, Reuben Watson Haney, Williard Branch Jr, Frank Aguirre, Mark Scott, Johnny Delome, Stephen Sickman, Roy Bunton, Wally Jay Simoneaux, Richard Hembre, Richard Kepner, Joseph Lyles, William Ray Lawrence, Ray Blackburn, Homer Garcia, John Sellars, Michael Balch, Marty Jones, Charles Cobb, James Ramallah and Timothy Curley.
His crime spree ended in 1973 when Henley and Corll got into a fight. The fight concluded with Henley killing Dean Corll by shooting him. It was then that Henley confessed to police all that he knew and led police to the graves of the dead. Most of the victims exhibited evidence of rape and torture. They separately faced trial for their involvement in the slayings.
Reports state that they called dozens of witnesses, including two victims of Corll and Henley, to testify. During the trial, the investigators noted that Henley told them in detail about each murder and how they used to abuse young men and boys. The trial also presented a significant amount of evidence, including Dean Corll’s torture board.
Henley and Brooks received life sentences
On July 15, 1974, both sides presented closing arguments, and the jury began their deliberations. After an hour and a half, the jury pronounced Henley guilty of all six murders. He was sentenced to six concurrent 99-year terms. Henry’s appealed for a retrial and the initiation of the retrial. However, he was found guilty once again and received the same punishment. Meanwhile, the court found Brooks guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
