Dean Arnold Corll abducted, raped, tortured and murdered a minimum of 29 teenage boys and men between 1970 and 1973 in Texas. Dean had two accomplices named David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. Their crimes came to light after Elmer fatally shot Dean. You may have heard of these murders referred to as the Houston Mass Murders. We read a comment along the lines of this being the craziest serial killer case that you’ve never heard of.
Dean Arnold Corll was born on December 24, 1939 in Fort Wayne Indiana. His parents were Mary Robison and Arnold Corll and he had one younger brother, Stanley. Arnold was said to be a very strict parent and Mary was said to be very protective.
The couple argued frequently and ended up getting divorced in 1946, when Stanley was four years old.
After this, their home life seemed to be quite unstable.
Mary sold their home in Indiana and moved the boys to a trailer in Memphis, Indiana. Arnold had been drafted into the US Air Force at this point.
Dean was said to be shy and serious as a child. He rarely interacted with other children. Dean was very sensitive and could not handle rejection or criticism very well.
He was also quite sickly as a child. When he was seven, he contracted rheumatic fever and he was also found to have a heart murmur. Doctors recommended that he avoid much physical exercise due to his conditions.
Mary and Arnold ended up getting back together and remarrying in 1950, six years after their first divorce. The family then moved to Pasadena, Texas. The second marriage did not last long, and they divorced for a second time in 1953. Mary got custody of the boys. The divorce was amicable and both boys kept in contact with Arnold.
After the second divorce, Mary married a man named Jake John West. They moved to Vidor, Texas and Mary had a daughter, Joyce Jeanine in 1955.
Jake and Mary started a candy company that ran from their garage. Dean and Stanley worked at the company, while also attending school. They were responsible for operating the machines and packing the candy, while Jake sold the products.
Dean attended Vidor High School and he was said to be a well-behaved but average student. He was a loner, but did occasionally date women. He played trombone in the school brass band.
Dean graduated in 1958. The family moved to Houston so that their candy business could be run closer to where the majority of their sales were made. They opened a shop called Pecan Prince.
In 1960, when he was around 21, Mary asked Dean to move to Indiana to live with his widowed grandmother. He lived there for two years and returned to Houston to again work in the candy business.
Mary divorced Jake in 1963 and she opened a new candy business, called Corll Candy Company. Dean was appointed Vice President of the company and Stanley was employed as Secretary-Treasurer.
That year, a teen employee complained to Mary that Dean had made sexual advances towards him. Mary fired the teen.
Dean was drafted into the army in 1964. He was assigned to Fort Polk, Louisiana for training. He was later sent to Georgia to train as a radio repairman. His permanent assignment location ended up being Fort Hood, Texas.
Dean’s record in the army was said to be unblemished. Despite this, he hated being in the military and applied for a hardship discharge. His reasoning was that he was needed to run the family business. His request was granted and he was given an honorable discharge in June 1965. He had been in the army for ten months by that point.
Some of Dean’s acquaintances would later say that it was when he was in the military that he first realized he was gay. He had his first homosexual encounters during his time in the army.
Dean returned to Houston after he left the army and began working at the Corll Candy Company again. Jake – Dean’s former stepfather – had kept ownership of Pecan Prince in the divorce with Mary. The competition between the two companies was said to be fierce.
Dean worked long hours to meet the demand for Corll Candy.
In 1965, the company moved their location to be across the street from an elementary school. Dean was a favorite amongst local children as he would give them candy for free. He seemed to seek out teenage boys to give candy to. He was nicknamed the ‘Candy Man’ and the ‘Pied Piper’ by local kids. So creepy.
Dean was said to act flirtatiously towards teenage male employees of the candy company. He installed a pool table in the candy factory and he would encourage local young males to gather together and listen to music and play pool.
In 1967, when he was around 28, Dean groomed a 12 year old boy named David Owen Brooks. Dean would take David to the beach. He would also give the child money. Dean initiated sex with the child and this went on for years. By 1969, Dean was paying David (aged around 14 by then) in either cash or gifts in exchange for sex.
David had a broken home life – his parents were divorced. He dropped out of high school when he was 15. Dean allowed David to stay at his apartment whenever he wanted. It was reported that David considered the apartment his second home.
The Corll Candy Company closed in 1968. Mary and Joyce moved to Colorado. After that move, Mary never saw Dean again.
After the company closed, Dean began working as an electrician at the Houston Lighting and Power Company. He would become a supervisor in the company and would work there until his death.
Dean is thought to have started his killing spree around 1970. It lasted for three years.
All of his victims were males, aged between 13-20. The majority of victims were in their mid-teens. Dean stalked the area of Houston Heights, which was a low income neighborhood for his victims.
He worked with the two accomplices we mentioned earlier – David Brooks and Elmer Henley. They were teenagers at the time.
Some of the victims were friends of the teens. Dean also picked hitchhikers to make victims of. Two victims – Billy Baulch Jr and Gregory Winkle had been past employees of the candy company.
The victims were given the name of ‘The Lost Boys.’
Dean enticed the victims into his vehicle by offering a ride to a party or a lift to wherever they needed to go. He would instead take them to his home. Dean would often give them drugs or alcohol until they passed out. He would then handcuff them and strip them naked. Dean would tie them to his bed. He also made a plywood torture board which hung on a wall in the home and he would use that on his victims.
Dean tortured his victims for days – he would sexually assault and beat them before killing them either by strangulation or gunshot.
All of the bodies were wrapped in plastic and buried in one of four dumping locations in Texas – a rented boatshed in Houston, a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston County, a wooded area near Lake Sam Rayburn or a beach in Jefferson County.
Dean would often force his victims to contact their families prior to being murdered. He did this so they would not be reported missing and would buy himself some time in the torture/kill process.
Dean would often retain keepsakes from victims, usually their keys.
During his killing spree, Dean would move address multiple times. He always remained close to Houston Heights.
There is not a lot known about all of the victims. We are going to run through what we do know about some of them.
Dean’s first victim was Jeffrey Konen (18). He was murdered on September 25, 1970. Jeffrey had been hitchhiking and was picked up by Dean.
Dean buried Jeffrey at High Island Beach. Forensic investigation determined that Jeffrey had been strangled to death and had been gagged with cloth. His body was buried beneath a large boulder. He had been covered in lime, wrapped in plastic and his hands and feet had been bound with nylon cord.
After Dean killed Jeffrey, David Brooks (accomplice) walked in on him sexually assaulting two teenage boys. They had been tied to his four-poster bed.
Dean told David that he would purchase a car for him if he remained silent. He purchased a green Chevrolet Corvette. Dean would confess to David that he had killed the two boys and offered him $200 (worth $1,650 today) for any boy that he would bring to Dean’s apartment.
In December 1970, David took two 14 y/o teens to the apartment. Their names were James Glass and Danny Yates. They had been lured away from a religious rally.
Dean would restrain them to the four-poster bed with a rope and handcuffs. He raped and strangled each boy and buried them in the boat shed that he had rented.
Six weeks after those murders, David and Dean found two teenage boys walking on the street. Donald and Jerry Waldrop had been walking to their parents’ home. The brothers were lured into Dean’s van and driven to his apartment. He raped and strangled the boys before burying them in the boat shed.
In 1971, between March and May, Dean killed three more victims and buried them in the boat shed. Their names were Randell Harvey (15), David Hilligiest (13) and Gregory Malley Winkle (16).
David Brooks was known to participate in all of these abductions.
Elmer Henley – the second accomplice – was 15 at this time. He was friends with David Hilligiest, one of the victims. He tried to tell David’s parents that there might have been an innocent explanation for his disappearance.
David’s father Fred hired a PI and spent the equivalent of almost $10k today on trying to find his son.
“The money played out,” he said. “When I hired him, I thought everyone worked together, you know, with police and everything. But found out it didn’t work that way.”
This is info from a NY Times article from 1973 where Elmer Henley is mentioned:
When Mrs. Hilligiest had the reward posters printed, she called on boys in the neighborhood to help distribute them. One boy who she says was extremely helpful was Elmer Wayne Henley Jr., who lived only a block down the street.
“She used to always give the Henley boys rides home from school when she went to pick up our boys,” Mr. Hilliegiest said. “Wayne Henley used to help us distribute the posters. He was always helpful and very concerned, asking us about David.”
In late May, just before school let out for the summer, Mrs. Hilligiest picked up two of her sons at school during a rainstorm. She also brought home two of the younger Henley boys.
“When she let them off at their house, Wayne came out and got in the car and talked a while,” Mr. Hilligiest said. “He thanked her for bringing his brothers home and asked if she’d heard anything new about David. He was just as nice as he could be.”
The next victim was Donald Falcon (17). He disappeared on July 1, 1971. His body would be found dismembered in the boat shed.
On August 17, 1971, Dean and David encountered Ruben Watson Haney (17) while he was walking home from the movies. Ruben was an acquaintance of David’s. They convinced Ruben to attend a party with them, but instead he was taken to Dean’s apartment. Ruben was strangled and buried in the boat shed.
Elmer was introduced to Dean by David in October 1971. He was initially lured to Dean’s apartment as an intended victim, but Dean decided that he would make a good accomplice. Dean offered Elmer the same deal as David – $200 for any boy who was taken to the apartment. He said that the boys would be taken into a ‘white slavery ring.’
Elmer would later say that he ignored the offer at first but he did establish a friendship with Dean. He described him as a ‘brother type person’ and said that he thought he could confide in him.
By 1972, Elmer decided to take Dean up on his offer because he needed the money.
He said the first abduction that he participated in was around February or March 1972. Elmer would later tell police that he and Dean picked up a ‘boy’ and lured him back to the apartment with the promise of marijuana.
On March 24, 1972, Dean, David and Elmer encountered a friend of Elmer’s, named Frank Aguirre (18). Frank was leaving work at the restaurant where he worked. Elmer called him over to Dean’s van and invited him to come to the apartment to drink beer and smoke pot.
Dean raped, tortured and killed Frank and buried his body at High Island Beach. Elmer assisted him with the burial.
After this incident, Elmer became more active in the abductions and murders. The trio abducted Mark Scott (17) in April 1972. Dean apparently chose Mark as the next victim as he had cheated him on a deal regarding stolen items. Mark was abducted by Dean and attempted to fight back. He tried to stab Dean after he was tortured for several hours. When Elmer pointed a pistol at Mark, he ‘gave up.’ All three men shot Mark with a pellet gun and he was raped by Dean. He was strangled and buried at High Island Beach.
David would later say that Elmer was ‘especially sadistic’ during the murders. Elmer admitted to been ‘fascinated’ with ‘how much stamina people have’ while being murdered.
The next two victims were Billy Baulch and Johnny Delome. They were taken to Dean’s apartment. The three men tied the victims to Dean’s bed and tortured and raped them. Elmer then apparently strangled Billy for over thirty minutes. He also shot Johnny in the forehead – Johnny survived and pleaded for his life. He was then strangled. Both teens were buried at High Island Beach.
The next possible victim was William Ridinger (19). He was tortured by Dean for over three days. David would say that he convinced Dean to let William free and he was allowed to leave the apartment.
There was one instance where Elmer assaulted David. He knocked him unconscious as he entered Dean’s home. David was assaulted repeatedly and then released. Despite this, he continued to assist Dean in the abductions and murders.
In the summer of 1972, the next victims were Steven Sickman (17) and Roy Bunton (19). Steven was struck in the chest with a blunt object, before he was strangled and buried in the boat shed. Roy was abducted while walking to work. He was gagged with a towel and his mouth was covered with tape. He was shot twice in the head and was buried in the boat shed.
In October 1972, Wally Jay Simoneaux and Richard Hembree were enticed into David’s car and taken to Dean’s residence. Elmer apparently accidentally shot Richard in the mouth. The two males were strangled to death and buried in the boat shed.
They were buried in a common grave, above two other victims named James Glass and Danny Yates.
In November 1972, Willard Branch (18) disappeared while hitchhiking to Houston. He was murdered by the trio and his body was buried in the boat shed.
That same month, Richard Kepner (19) disappeared while walking to use a payphone. He was strangled and his body was buried at High Island Beach.
Between March and November 1972, the men murdered at least ten teenagers.
In early 1973, Joseph Lyles (17) was killed by Dean.
There were no known victims between February and June 1973. Dean was unwell during this time period which may have accounted for the lack of activity.
From June onwards, Dean’s kill rate increased dramatically. Elmer would later say that the escalation was ‘like a blood lust.’ He said that Dean would appear restless and would smoke heavily before announcing that he ‘needed to do a new boy.’
On June 4, William Ray Lawrence (15) was abducted by Elmer and Dean. He was abused and tortured for days, before being strangled. His body was buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.
Raymond Blackburn (20) was abducted two weeks after William. He was also strangled and buried at the lake.
In July 1973, Elmer lured a teen named Homer Garcia (15) to Dean’s home. He was shot and left to bleed to death in the bathtub and was also buried at the lake.
On July 12 that year, John Sellars (17) was shot by the men and was buried at High Island Beach.
That same month, David married his pregnant partner. Elmer became the single accomplice to Dean for a period of time. Between July 19-25, they worked together to abduct and murder three youths. One of these victims was Michael Baulch (15) – the brother to a previous victim, Billy. The other two victims were Charles Cobble and Marty Ray Jones. Michael was buried at the lake and the other two were buried in the boat shed.
Dean’s final victim was killed on August 3, 1973. His name was James Stanton Dreymala (13). He was abducted while riding his bike. Dean took him to his apartment and raped and tortured him. He was then strangled with a cord before being buried in the boat shed.
On August 7, 1973, Elmer invited Timothy Cordell Kerley (20) to a party at Dean’s home. He accepted the offer. When Elmer and Timothy got to the property, they sniffed paint and drank alcohol before leaving the house. After they left, they came across a commotion nearby. Elmer’s friend, a teen named Rhonda Louise Williams (15) had been beaten by her father and planned to run away from home. Elmer invited her to join him and Timothy at Dean’s home. She accepted the offer and they all got into Timothy’s car.
They got back to Dean’s place at 3am on August 8. Dean was furious that Elmer had brought a female to the house. He said he had ‘ruined everything.’ Rhonda explained to Dean about the situation with her father and that she did not want to go home. Dean calmed down and they all began smoking pot and drinking alcohol. Rhonda, Elmer and Timothy also sniffed paint. They passed out after around two hours.
Elmer woke up to find Dean handcuffing him. His mouth had been taped shut and his ankles had been tied together. Timothy and Rhonda had been bound with rope and gagged. Timothy had been stripped naked.
After Elmer woke up, Dean removed the tape from his mouth. He told Elmer that he was angry about Rhonda being taken to the house. “Man, you blew it bringing that girl,” before shouting: “I’m gonna kill you all! But first I’m gonna have my fun!” He then repeatedly kicked Rhonda in the chest, shouting, “Wake up, bitch!”
Dean threatened Elmer with a gun. Elmer managed to calm him down and agreed to participate in the murders of Timothy and Rhonda if Dean removed his bindings. After 30 mins of negotiation, Dean agreed and untied Elmer. Dean took both Rhonda and Timothy to his bedroom and he turned a radio to full volume to drown out any noise they would make.
While this was all happening, Elmer was sniffing paint again. Dean gave him an 18 inch hunting knife and told him to cut off Rhonda’s clothes. He told Elmer that he was to rape and kill Rhonda, and that Dean would do the same to Timothy. By this point, both Timothy and Rhonda had woken up and were pleading for their lives. Rhonda asked Elmer ‘Is this for real?’ and he replied that it was. Rhonda then asked ‘Are you going to do anything about it?’
Elmer began panicking and inhaling more paint fumes. 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 taunted Elmer and said ‘Kill me! You won’t do it !” Elmer fired one shot at Dean, and struck him in the forehead. The bullet failed to penetrate the skull fully and Dean kept lunging towards Elmer. Elmer fired two more shots at him – one entered his lung and lodged in his spine. Dean tried to flee the room and Elmer fired at him three more times. Dean died where he fell.
After his death, Rhonda, Timothy and Elmer discussed what they should do. Timothy said they should call the police and Elmer agreed.
Elmer called the police at 8.24am on August 8, 1973. He said “Y’all better come here right now! I just killed a man!”
When police arrived minutes later, Timothy, Rhonda and Elmer were sitting on a curb outside the house. Elmer and Rhonda were both crying.
Elmer told police that he had made the call and that Dean’s body was inside the house. An officer read Elmer his Miranda Rights and he said “I don’t care who knows about it! I have to get it off my chest!”
Elmer confessed to police that for almost three years, he and David had worked with Dean to lure and murder males.
Police were initially skeptical of his story, probably due to the high number of victims. Elmer was able to recall the names of some of them and police were able to corroborate that they had been reported as missing.
When police searched Dean’s home, they found the plywood torture board, handcuffs, nylon ropes, a large hunting knife, rolls of plastic, multiple dildos and rope.
Rope, a stained rug and other items were found in Dean’s van,
Elmer agreed to tell police where the victims had been buried.
When the bodies were unearthed, many of them showed signs of sexual torture. Their pubic hair had been plucked out, genitals had been chewed, they had objects inserted into their rectums and glass rods had been inserted into their urethra and had been smashed.
When one victim was unearthed, his mouth was positioned so that authorities believe he died screaming.
David went to the Houston Police on August 8 and denied any participation in the murders.
The following day, Elmer gave a full written statement in which he outlined the role that he and David played.
On August 10, David changed his story and admitted to being present at several of the murders. He still denied participating in any of the actual killings.
The killing spree by these men has only been surpassed by John Wayne Gacy’s spree – he murdered 33 boys and men and was said to have been influenced by the Houston Mass Murders.
A grand jury convened on August 13 to hear the evidence against Elmer and David.
After listening to over six hours of testimony, on August 14, the grand jury indicted Elmer on three counts of murder and David on one count. Bail for each youth was set at $100,000 – around $750k today.
By the time the grand jury completed their investigation, Elmer was indicted for six murders and David for four.
Elmer was not charged with Dean’s death as prosecutors decided that had been committed in self-defense.
Both men would reject pretrial offers of life sentences in exchange for guilty pleas.
They were tried separately for their roles in the murders. Elmer’s trial commenced in July 1974. District Attorney Carol Vance apologized for his not being able to seek the death penalty, adding that the case was the “most extreme example of man’s inhumanity to man I have ever seen.”
After deliberating for 92 minutes, Elmer was found guilty for all six murders. Judge Preston Dial ordered that Elmer serve each 99-year sentence consecutively (totaling 594 years). Elmer started applying for parole in July 1980 and all of his applications have been denied. He is next due for a parole application in October 2025.
Elmer appealed his conviction and was given a retrial in December 1978. The second trial began in June 1979. This time, the jury deliberated for two hours. Elmer was again convicted of the six murders and was sentenced to six 99-year terms, only to run concurrently this time rather than consecutively.
David’s trial started in February 1975. He had been indicted for four murders previously, but was only taken to trial for the murder of William Ray Lawrence (15). The jury deliberated for 90 minutes and David was found guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison. David also appealed his sentence but his appeal was dismissed in 1979.
David died in May 2020 in prison, at the age of 68. He died from complications of Covid – 19.
Authorities were eventually able to identify all of the victims, except for one.
According to police, this young man was one of 17 bodies discovered in the boat storage shed on Aug. 9, 1973. Investigators believe he was between 15 and 18 years old at the time of his death, and he had likely been deceased for 12 months or more prior to his recovery.
He was Caucasian, with possible admixtures including Hispanic, but investigators believe his outward appearance would have been primarily white. According to the medical examiner, he had brown hair, approximately seven inches in length. Examination revealed that he had a mild form of spina bifida, which may have caused him lower back pain or possibly affected his stride; however, it may not have produced any noticeable symptoms at all.
In addition to the facial reconstruction image, forensic artists at the National Center worked collaboratively with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences to create brand new digital reconstructions of the items found with John Doe.
He was found with belted Catalina brand swim trunks with vertical red, turquoise, gold, and dark blue stripes. The swim trunks also had the letter “C” in the center of the wings on the silver buckle.
His T-shirt bore a handwritten inscription believed to read either “LB4MF”, “LBHMF”, or “L84MF”.
Dean, Elmer and David have been conclusively linked to 29 murders. Between 1970 and 1973 though, 42 boys vanished from Houston Heights.
SOURCE LIST
https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Dean_Corll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Corll
https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2023/candy-man-victim
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19750317&id=-QoyAAAAIBAJ&pg=3181,125023&hl=en
https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/the-lost-boys