It has been
quite some time since Earl has been around with one of his “History’s Rich With
Mysteries” guest posts. He is back today with a case that caused my parents
great angst and resulted in a lot of school seminars warning about strangers
when I was in elementary school during this time period.
HISTORY’S RICH WITH MYSTERIES
When I look at the past, I find stories about people
which fascinate me, particularly those in which there is a curious mixture of
fact, legend, and mysterious uncertainty. In this series of articles, I want to
explore some of those stories. I think of them as mysteries swaddled in legend.
While truth is always desired in most things, truth easily becomes staid and
boring. Legend, on the other hand, forever holds a hint of romanticism and an
aura of excitement borne of adventure, imagination and, of course, mystery.
DEAN CORLL -- Houston’s
“Candy Man” Mass Murders
by Earl Staggs
At the time, it was the
worst example of serial killings in US history. Although the
actual number of victims may never be known, Dean Corll and two teenage
companions killed at least 29 boys in the Houston, Texas, area between
September 1970 and August 1973. The victims were raped, horrifically tortured
and mutilated, then either strangled, shot, or both.
Dean Arnold Corll was born on December 24, 1939, in Fort
Wayne, Indiana.
He was considered shy, timid, and a loner who seldom socialized with
other children. His parents divorced in 1946, were remarried
in 1950, and divorced again in 1953.
Dean's mother married another man, and the family
settled in the Houston area. She divorced her new husband in 1963. Soon
after her divorce, she established the Corll Candy Company, specializing in
making and selling pecan treats. Dean was vice-president of the family
firm. A teenage male employee of the company accused him of making sexual
advances. Dean's mother's response was to fire the accuser.
In August of 1964, Dean, at
age 24, was drafted into the US Army. He hated military service and after
ten months, applied for and received a family hardship discharge claiming
the family business needed him. After returning home, Dean told close
acquaintances that while in the Army, he had homosexual experiences for the
first time.
Dean developed a practice of
giving candy to young boys and became known as the “Candy Man.” Twelve-year-old
David Brooks was one of the many boys who received free candy. He became a
close companion who accompanied Dean on business trips. Before long, their
relationship became a sexual one.
On September 25, 1970, Dean, with David’s help,
claimed his first known murder victim, an eighteen- year-old college student.
He was strangled, covered in lime, wrapped in plastic, and buried under a
large boulder in a beach area. Years later, David led police to the burial
site. His body was naked and his hands and feet were bound, which led forensic
investigators to surmise he had been sexually violated.
David’s primary role became finding victims and
enticing them with candy and invitations to a party. Some were friends of his
and some were new acquaintances he happened to meet. Dean paid him two
hundred dollars for each one. The victims were driven to Dean’s house
where they were subdued by drugs, alcohol, or simply by force, stripped naked,
tied to a bed or a plywood board, then sexually assaulted and tortured before
being strangled or shot to death. Their bodies were wrapped in plastic
sheeting and buried in several different areas.
In 1971, David brought fifteen-year-old Elmer Wayne
Henley, Jr. to Dean’s home as a potential victim. Instead, Dean thought Elmer
would be a good addition to his “team” and offered him the same two hundred
dollar payment David was getting for each boy he brought in. Elmer
resisted for a while, but in early 1972, accepted the offer because his family
needed the money.
The team was now in place, and the threesome lured a
steady stream of teenage boys, one or two at time, into their decadent and
deadly circle. Some of their victims were forced by Dean to write or phone
their parents with excuses for being away from home for a while.
In one incident, two boys
were tied to the torture board and told to fight until one was killed. Dean
told them the survivor would be set free.
After the two boys beat each other for hours, however, Dean raped, tortured,
and killed them both.
THE DEATH OF DEAN CORLL
On August 8, 1973, Elmer Henley showed up at Dean's
house with nineteen-year-old Timothy Kerley and a fifteen-year-old girl named Rhonda Williams.
David Brooks was not there. Dean was furious and said Elmer had ruined
everything by bringing a girl. Elmer explained that Rhonda was a friend of his
who had been beaten by her father and did not want to go home. Dean seemed to
calm down, and the group began to drink beer, smoke marijuana and sniff glue
until they passed out.
Elmer awoke later to find that Dean had bound and
gagged him as well as Rhonda and Timothy. Dean eventually ungagged Elmer and
said he was going to kill them all. He held a gun on Elmer and threatened to
shoot him. Elmer pleaded for his life and promised to help torture and kill the other
two. Dean unbound him, then tied Timothy and Rhonda to the torture board. Elmer
grabbed Dean's gun and shouted, "You've gone far enough, Dean! I can't go
on any longer! I can't have you kill all my friends!" Dean didn't believe
Elmer would shoot him and advanced toward him. Elmer shot him a total of six
times. Dean Arnold Corll was dead at the age of thirty-three.
Elmer called the police
and said, "Y'all better come here right now. I just killed a man."
He, Timothy, and Rhonda waited on the porch for the police to arrive. While
they waited, Elmer told Timothy, "I could have gotten $200 for you."
THE TRIALS
Elmer was indicted for 6
murders. The killing of Dean Corll was ruled self-defense, so he was not
charged for that one. David Brooks was charged with 4 counts of murder. Elmer
and David assisted police in recovering bodies of their victims, most of whom
had been buried in a boat shed in Southwest Houston owned by the Corll family,
at High Island Beach, and at Lake Sam Houston. The bodies recovered showed
evidence of torture as well as sexual violation and mutilation.
The 28 victims officially
attributed to Dean Corll and his teen associates at the time (Increased to 29
when another victim was identified in 1983.) was the worst case of mass serial
killing on record in the US until John Wayne Gacy was charged with murdering 33
young men and boys in 1978. Gacy admitted he had been influenced by Dean Corll.
District Attorney Carol
Vance called the case the "most extreme example of man's inhumanity to man
I have ever seen.”
After jury deliberation of only 92 minutes, Elmer
Henley, now 17, was found guilty of all charges and received 6 consecutive
99-year sentences, a total of 594 years. He appealed and was granted a retrial
in 1978. He was again found guilty on all counts and received the same
sentence.
David Brooks was brought
to trial on February 27, 1975. He had been indicted for 4 murders but was tried
for only one. The trial lasted less than a week. After 90 minutes of
deliberation, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. An appeal
was dismissed in 1979.
Elmer Henley and David
Brooks are currently serving their sentences in Texas prisons. Both have been
denied parole multiple times over the years. Elmer Wayne Henley has a Facebook
page, and a 2015 interview with him is available at https://tinyurl.com/yc8azdqc
While the official number
of Dean Corll's victim is set at 29, there may have been more. More than
40 boys went missing in the Houston area between 1970 and
1973 when Dean and his accomplices were active. The Houston police was
criticized for not aggressively searching for more bodies.
There was also evidence
Dean had other victims prior to 1970.
Former employees of the Corll Candy Company recalled seeing Dean digging
holes on company property and cementing over them several years before. They
also reported he kept a supply of plastic sheeting and nylon cord similar to
what he used on victims later on. After the Corll Candy Company closed, Dean
went to work for the Houston Lighting and Power Company.
His coworkers there also remembered him keeping a supply of those materials on
hand.
THE BIGGEST MYSTERY
I'll
never understand how someone like Dean Corll can exist. How is it possible that
a human being can inflict extreme torture, pain, and suffering upon other human
beings up to and including their death with no more thought or emotion than to
wonder where the next victim will be found? Are we not all born with an inate
respect and concern not only for the rights of others but for their very lives?
Aren't the abilities to feel guilt and remorse as much a part of our make up as
the needs to eat and sleep? There must be something about serial killers and
mass murderers that is different from the rest of us. Perhaps further
development and research into DNA will expose a common thread among people like
Dean Corll, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway and others. Perhaps even a
cure.
Earl Staggs ©2018
Earl Staggs earned all Five
Star reviews for his novels MEMORY OF A MURDER and JUSTIFIED ACTION and has
twice received a Derringer Award for Best Short Story of the Year. He served as
Managing Editor of Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, as President of the
Short Mystery Fiction Society, and is a frequent
speaker at conferences and seminars. He invites any comments via email at earlstaggs@sbcglobal.net
He also invites you to visit his blog site at
https://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com/ to learn more about his novels and stories.
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