Dean Corll

Dean Arnold Corll was born in Waynesdale, Indiana on Christmas Day December 25, 1939 to over-affectionate mother Mary and Arnold, a father who did not like children. Family life at the beginning was not a happy one for Dean and his brother Stanley with their parents constantly arguing.

 Arnold Corll was a strict disciplinarian and the boys were always being punished. Arnold and Mary eventually divorced in 1946 and soon after Arnold joined the army. Mary found life without Arnold sad and so she bought a horse-trailer and moved to Tennessee to be closer to the base where Arnold was posted. Dean and Stanley were left with an elderly couple most of the time while Mary went looking for work.

 The arguments between the Corll's continued and again they separated.

 The two Corll boys were at different ends on the personality scale. Stanley was friendly and outgoing, always playing with other children from the neighbourhood or school. Whereas Dean was always a loner, preferring to stay inside and way from the other children.

 By 1950 Mary and Arnold tried again to reconcile, but it did not work and so they eventually gave up on the relationship and in 1950 Mary, with the two boys left Tennessee for Houston. 

 Around the same time Dean was diagnosed with a congenital heart aliment after a bout of Rheumatic fever and was told that he should avoid sports where possible. Dean, not being a sporting type, found this good news.  

 In 1953 Mary remarried, her new husband was travelling clock salesman Jake West.  Soon after the marriage the couple had a daughter. With both his parents working long hours Dean was extremely protective of his younger siblings and always watched out for them and tried to keep them out of trouble. 

 Dean found himself a hobby in scuba diving but had to give it up after fainting one day while diving, a symptom of his heart defect. At school, he enjoyed music and was a keen trombone player. Teachers remembered him as a quiet and polite student. 

 After a suggestion from a candy sales representative Mary set herself up with a little candy shop to help support the family. Dean was a runner for the candy shop that had its humble beginnings in the garage of the family home. Dean often found himself exhausted for running orders to people in town, but never complained.  

 After high school graduation, Dean moved back to Indiana to help look after his stepfather Jake’s elderly mother while the rest of the family moved to Houston.  

 When Dean moved back to the family home he decided to get a job with the Houston Lighting and Power Company during the day and still help make candies with the family at night. His drive to succeed impressed many of the town’s young women but Dean failed to notice.   

 In 1964, Dean was drafted into the US Army. Life in the army caused a change in the young man. Dean found himself desiring after fellow officers he shared his quarters with and Dean finally realised he was gay. Until then Dean had known something about life was wrong but until his realisation about his homosexuality, he had been unsure about what had been missing.

 Returning home after an eleven month assignment in the Army, Dean found his parents arguing and fighting. The Wests' had begun to argue over the business. Jake saw Mary as a rival and soon threw her out.

 Mary took the children and began her own lolly shop.

 Dean found himself an apartment near his mother and soon started hanging out with teenage boys from the neighbourhood. It was easy to get them to come to his apartment, Dean always had piles of candy around and most of the kids couldn’t resist.

 Again Dean’s mother decided to marry. This time her husband was a seaman, and soon Mary found flaws in his character. She found him dull company and quite stupid. Yet the marriage survived two divorces until finally on the advice of a psychic Mary left the marriage and Houston and went to Dallas.

 Corll decided to stay in Houston, he liked it there and found the freedom away from his protective mother to do as he pleased satisfying.

 Dean’s first attraction to the younger boys was one of an older protective brother. At first he would never say anything or do anything overtly sexual. He just preferred the company of the teen boys who hung around his apartment. But lurking beneath the kind exterior was a sex maniac waiting to surface, it was just a matter of time.

 One day in 1969 Dean had learned that some of the boys would allow oral sex in exchange for money. This is how Corll first met fourteen-year-old David Brooks XE "Brooks, David" .

 Brooks enjoyed the older man’s company and looked up to him as a big brother, someone to ask for guidance and for help through the tough and tumultuous teenage years. Soon David became completely emotionally dependant on Dean and spent most of his time with him rather than at home.  Brooks actually moved in with Corll for a while.

 Dean soon hired a storage shed to keep his few possessions in that were not needed in his tiny apartment.

 On Christmas Day 1969, Dean Corll turned 30. It was a turning point in his life. He became morose and depressed. He lost his thrill for life and became further introverted. But David Brooks XE "Brooks, David"  was often around and tried to cheer Corll up. Often it would end with Corll paying Brooks $5 for oral sex.

 University of Texas student Jeffrey Konen left the campus and began to hitchhike home to Houston. Twenty-one year old Jeffrey was last seen on September 25, 1970 trying to get another lift. He was picked up by Corll who took him to his apartment at 3300 Yorktown.  There the young man was bound by his hands and feet and gagged. Corll sodomised the student before murdering him and dumping his body.

 Being such a wayward area for down and out teens, Corll had his pick of victims. He found that a lot of them were willing to come over for a party. The parties usually included glue and paint-sniffing, pot-smoking and pill-popping.

 Some of the boys would allow Corll to perform oral sex on them for $5. Many of the boys Corll chose were usually in trouble or runaways. When they went missing no one really noticed, at first.

 However Corll was not happy with only oral sex, he wanted penetration, he wanted to perform sodomy on his victims, and when they refused it was then that they found themselves dead.

 “He killed them because he wanted sex and they (the boys) didn’t want to”, Brooks told police later.

 Brooks would later tell a fantastical story to police about the various victims who would live or die at Corll’s whim. In one case Brooks arrived at Corll’s place unannounced in 1970 and let himself in. He found  Corll wondering around the house naked and when the killer saw Brooks he was furious, demanding to know why he had arrived without telling him. Brooks thought this was unusual until he saw in Corll’s bedroom to younger boys strapped to a homemade torture rack.

 Brooks left the apartment confused and dejected. Corll later tried to make it up to his friend by giving him a new Corvette. No doubt it was to buy Brook’s silence about what he had seen. Corll told Brooks that he had killed both of the teens and dumped their bodies.

 But the Corvette was another part of Corll’s plans. He saw it as an opportunity to have Brooks with him while they went driving around looking for victims.

 One potential victim who went on to become a police officer said

 “I was one of the boys that Corll and Brooks tried to abduct. I felt something was wrong and told them to get lost”

 Yet others were not so intuitive.

 One unnamed victim accepted the offer of a pot-smoking session back at Corll’s apartment. When the trio arrived at the unit, Corll tied the boy to his torture rack in his bedroom and sodomised the boy. Corll then strangled the boy, all while Brooks watched.  No doubt Brooks would have then helped Corll to get rid of the body near Lake Sam Rayburn.

 Just before Corll’s 31^st birthday he decided to have a party on December 15, 1970 at his new apartment on Columbia Street Houston. The guests were Brooks, fifteen-year-old Danny Yates XE "Yates, Robert"  and fourteen-year-old James Glass. The two boys were friends from a church social group. Glass had also been to Corll’s apartment previously and found Dean to be a happy and pleasant man to be around.

 However this time he would not find Corll so obliging. Both boys were quickly tied to Corll’s bed torture rack and sodomised. Danny and James were then strangled. This time Corll decided not to dumped the bodies but hide them at the boat shed he hired on Silver Bell Street.

 On January 27, 1971 Dean Corll decided he needed another double murder to satiate his appetite. He had another new apartment at 3200 Magnum Road, Houston and wanted to christen it with murder.

 David Brooks went with Corll for a drive and with the promise of food and alcohol the men are able to entice brothers, thirteen year old Jerry and fourteen year old Donald Waldrop, back to the apartment.

 Once the young boys were inside Corll’s apartment they were raped and strangled before joining Danny Yates and James Glass’ bodies in the Silver Bell Street Boat Shed. Brooks blandly admitted later to being there when the bodies were buried.

“I believe I was present when they were buried”.

 There was another short gap between killings. This time Corll waited four months before murdering two more boys. On May 29, 1971 the victims were thirteen-year-old David Hilligiest and sixteen-year-old George Winkle. The boys had been on his way to the local swimming pool when they accepted a lift from Corll. They were last seen climbing into Corll’s white van.

 Later that evening George called his mother to say he had gone to Freeport with some friends and they would be back home soon. But he was never seen alive again.

 At Corll's apartment the two boys were once again tied to the bed before being sodomised, tortured and strangled. They were then buried with the others at the boat shed.

 George and David’s parents were worried when the boys did not return, they had posters made up and handed them out and stuck them to poles hoping someone may have seen the two teens. A psychic was even brought in to see if he could help in the search. But he only had bad news for the parents. The psychic told them that their sons were dead.

 One of David’s best friends tried to comfort the family. Elmer Wayne Henley   told the Hilligiests that he was sure that David had just run away and would return soon.

 It was not long before another boy disappeared. Seventeen-year-old Ruben Watson was last seen on his way to the cinema on August 17, 1971.

 Brooks and Corll picked him up along the way and was taken back to Corll’s apartment where he was brutalised for hours until Corll grew bored of his victim and killed him.

 The next victim that Brooks bought to the house for Corll was Elmer “Wayne” Henley  .

 The first time Corll had met Henley, he was meant as a victim, but Corll saw him as a better procurer that Brooks had been. He therefore   arranged a test for the new young man. Henley   was made to knock Brooks unconscious which he did without hesitating.

 Even though Brooks was so emotionally dependent on Corll, he always refused Corll’s offers of anal sex. But on one occasion he found himself a victim of Corll’s though he lived to tell the story.

 When Brooks woke, he found himself tied to Corll’s bed and was bleeding from his anus. He had been sodomised by Corll while he was unconscious. Yet Brooks did not tell anyone about the incident until after Corll’s death. He also remained true and loyal to his friend.

 However now there was another person in the equation, Brooks felt a little in dispose by Henley  , it appears that Corll was beginning to fall in love with the younger man and Corll liked Henley  ’s independence, he was tiring of Brook’s complete emotional reliance.

 Also Henley   could be bought. He was willing to do almost anything for money, including selling his friends to Corll as sex slaves. Though Henley   would later deny it, it is rumoured he was paid $200 per male he brought to Corll. Corll would try and rationalise his behaviour to Brooks and Henley  , telling them that the boys were no loss to society, most of them were delinquents and a burden- they were no great loss.

 Another victim was abducted on February 24, 1972. Frank Aguirre was a little older than most of Corll’s victims being nineteen when he disappeared. He had a girlfriend at the time, fourteen year old Rhonda Williams, who would later be a witness to Corll’s own murder.

 On May 21, 1972 Dean and his cohorts grabbed another two victims. Sixteen-year-old Johnny Delome and seventeen-year-old Billy Baulch were taken to the apartment where they were tortured and raped for hours. Johnny was then shot dead by Henley  . Henley   later claimed he had fired the gun up the teen’s nostrils. The two boys were taken to Corll’s original dumping ground on High Island and buried.

 On October 3, 1972 Corll again chose a double murder. The victims were thirteen-year-old Richard Hembree and fourteen-year-old Wally Simoneux. The teens were taken back to Corll’s apartment on the premise of a party,  the boys sniffed paint fumes and other substances that rendered them unconscious. Once the boys were unconscious, Corll took them to his room and strapped them to his torture rack. The victims were repeatedly anally raped.

 According to Brooks the boys, like others were kept alive for days of torture. The boys were always procured in the same way. Brooks or Henley would lure victims to Dean's house with the promise of an 'alcohol party'. The victims would then be allowed to drink themselves unconscious. Dean would then tie them up, molest them, then kill them. 

 Once Corll was done with his victims they were strangled and dumped. Wally and Richard were buried at the Boat Shed with many of the other victims.

 During November 1972, fifteen-year-old Michael Baulch, the younger brother of previous victim Billy Baulch, became the next victim.

 The boy was subjected to days of torture including having his pubic hairs pulled out one-by-one, Corll anally raped the boy with foreign objects, and glass rods were shoved into his penis.  

 On June 11, 1973, fifteen-year-old Billy Lawrence was taken to Corll’s apartment for a party. The boy does not leave alive. He was brutally raped and murdered by Corll.  

 Fifteen-year-old Homer Garcia joined the list of sexually tortured and murdered victims of Corll on July 7, 1973. 

 On July 27, less than three weeks after Homer’s murder seventeen-year-old Charles Cobble and eighteen-year-old Marty Jones are murdered after being tortured by Corll. 

And the list of victims continued.

A nine-year-old boy disappeared around the last day of July, followed by the murder of thirteen-year-old James Dreymala during the first week of August 1973.

 The killings were getting more frequent and more brutal.  But the end was near. 

 On the afternoon of August 8, 1973 Henley had arrived at Corll’s apartment at 2020 Lamar Street with two victims. He had brought sixteen-year-old Timothy Kerley for Corll and Rhonda Williams – the girlfriend of one of Corll’s previous victims for himself.

 Rhonda had decided to run away and confided in Henley. Henley asked her to come with him to a party at Corll’s home. Henley had thought it would be okay if he brought a girl, but it wasn't.  When Corllsaw Rhonda with Henley he was furious, but kept his temper under control. He would punish Henley later. 

 After a glue sniffing session, Henley, Timothy and Rhonda all passed out. Corll seized the opportunity to teach Henley a lesson for bringing a girl.  

 Corll tied all three of them up. When Henley woke and saw his predicament he begged Corll to let him live. He pleaded to Corll, saying he would rape and kill Rhonda while Corll did the same to Timothy.  

 Corll took Timothy to the bedroom and stripped him of his clothes, gagged him and tied him to the torture board. Corll then demanded that Henley do the same to Rhonda.

 Henley grabbed Rhonda and took her clothes off as Corll looked on. However, Henley was unable to get an erection which Corll found funny. The killer began calling Henley names.

 Henley was furious and so picked up Corll’s .22 calibre pistol and aimed it at the killer. Corll laughed and egged on the young man, daring him to shoot him. He mocked him

 "Go on Wayne, kill me. Why don’t you?”  

 As Corll came towards Henley he fired six bullets into Corll’s chest killing him instantly.  

 Corll collapsed in a bundle to the floor.  Henley felt free, but knew he had a long way to go. He untied his friends and called the police. He told them he had shot Corll in self-defence.

 Police swarmed over the house, unaware of what was about to unfold. They were not to know the amazing story Henley was to tell them.

  Henley told police that Corll's house contained a torture room which contained a wooden board with handcuffs fitted at each top corner and rope knots at each bottom corner. He told them then about the victims.  The young man’s monotone story continued with details of Corll's parties. Where the killer would give teens drugs or glue to sniff to render them unconscious. He would tie the victims up and sodomize them on his torture board before murdering them.   

 To prove his tale was true the police asked for the names of the victims. The first three that Henley was able to recall were three that police had on their missing persons list. Then Henley told the officers where they would probably find the victims. He took them to the Silver Bell Street boat-shed rented by Corll in Houston.   

 At the boat shed, police scientific officers began the dig. In no time lime and the tell-tale smell of decay was uncovered.

 The first body was found. The naked body of the thirteen-year-old boy was in a plastic bag and the excavation continued.   As each body was brought out Henley cried more, he said at one point. 

 “It was all my fault”

 When asked why he replied 

                 “Because I introduced him to them boys”.  

 When police finished their search they found the bodies of seventeen boys under the floor of the boat shed, and ten others were found at various other sites. 

 David Brooks watched the news reports as the body count grew and decided it was time to talk to police.  

 When he arrived at the police station, the officers interviewing Henley   told him that Brooks had just turned up. Henley looked relieved and said: 

 “That’s good, now I can tell you the whole story”.

 Henley admitted to murdering some of the victims himself as Brooks claimed his involvement had been far less. He said he had helped with several murders but it was not until Henley joined the group that Corll lost complete control of the situation and the murders escalated.

 "Most of the killings that occurred after Wayne came into the picture involved all three of us … Wayne seemed to enjoy causing pain."

 Both boys were charged with a variety of murders and sent to trial.

 Brooks was tried and sentenced for life for his involvement in at least six murders.

 Henley was tried for murder in July 1974.  He was found guilty of the murders and sentenced to six 99-year terms of imprisonment.  His killing of Dean Corll was judged to be a justifiable homicide.

 In December 1978 Henley's conviction was overturned on the grounds that the trial had suffered from pre-trial publicity. He was convicted a second time in June 1979.