Homosexual Rape, Torture and Serial Killings in Texas
The names John Wayne Gacy, Jr. and Jeffrey Dahmer strike fear and disgust in
the hearts of anyone who's familiar with their crimes. However, for some reason
Dean Corll, who raped, tortured and killed ten more teenage boys than did Dahmer
(but six fewer than Gacy) is not nearly as well-known as the killers who came
after him. The reason for this may have been because Corll committed his crimes
between 1970 and 1973; people weren't ready or willing to hear about serial
killers; much less serial killers who rape, torture and mutilate their victims.
One source for this piece suggests that in conservative, religious early-'70s
Texas, homosexual rape was a crime worse than murder.
He was goin' to pay me to find people and bring 'em to
him; and help him do his thing; help kill 'em.
— Elmer Wayne Henley
Dean Corll was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana on Christmas Eve, 1939. His
parents divorced and he and his brother moved with their mother to a shabby
neighborhood in Houston, Texas. Growing up, he was described by teachers as
being well-behaved and earning good grades at school.
Corll was known in his neighborhood as "The Candy Man." He'd spent years
working at home with his mother, making candies and selling them in a small shop
attached to the house, once the garage.
A stint in the Army beginning in 1964 was cut short because of a hardship
petition made so Dean could return home and help his mother with the candy shop.
Corll, a bachelor, was described as a polite man with a gift of kindness. One
acquaintance told reporters that Corll must've gone through about a dozen
television sets because he would give them away to kids in the neighborhood.
When Corll's mother moved to Colorado, he moved into a home in Houston suburb
Pasadena, Texas once owned by his father, a modest but neat place. He hired on
with the Houston electric utility where he trained to become an electrician. He
made a good living and was well-liked by his co-workers and superiors.
Nobody really noticed how peculiar it was for a man in his thirties to be
hanging around with boys half his age. Corll and his two friends, Elmer Henley
and David Brooks, could be seen driving around in Corll's white van. In fact, on
occasion, the van (equipped with a couch in the back) would be filled with young
teenagers, on the way to swimming or camping trips. By mid-1969, both Henley and
once A-student Brooks had dropped out of high school and began
spending much of their time with Corll.
"I Shot Him in Self-Defense"
Early in the morning of August 8, 1973, police dispatchers received a call
from a young man who said he'd just shot his friend. It was Elmer Henley. He,
Brooks and Henley's girlfriend, 15-year-old Rhonda Williams waited outside of
the house and greeted the police who arrived.
Initially it looked like a cut-and-dry case of an argument that had gotten
out of hand and ended in gunplay. Dean Corll was found on his living room floor;
dead from six gunshot wounds. The police were shocked by what they heard next.
Elmer calmly described the three-year spree of procuring victims for Corll, the
tortures and murders, and disposal of the bodies. Investigators were about to
write-off Elmer's story as the ramblings of a drunk, drugged-up teenager;
however, they found some peculiar things in Corll's house that piqued their
curiosity.
Most peculiar was that many of the surfaces, especially in a hallway and
bedroom, were covered with sheet plastic. There was a blood stain on a hallway
wall. In the master bedroom, there was a "torture board;" a thick piece of
plywood with shackles for hands and feet. Also found were various instruments of
torture and assorted dildos and other sex toys.
Apparently Corll had become enraged at Elmer for bringing the young girl to
the house. The young people drank and sniffed glue until they passed out. Elmer
awoke to find himself and his friends bound at the hands and feet. Somehow, the
boy managed to convince Corll that he'd help him carry out the murders of the
other two. As soon as Elmer, now freed, got his hands on Corll's gun; he shot
Corll at point blank range and killed him instantly.
The Boat Shed and Other Hiding Places
Police figured it wouldn't hurt to test some of the allegations being made by
Elmer Henley. Henley led them to the secluded boat shed and the police, aided by
trusties from a local prison, began digging. The first body, that of a
13-year-old boy, wrapped in plastic, was uncovered easily; less than a foot of
dirt had been scattered on the corpse. It became apparent that Corll had spread
lime around the shallow graves to hide the stench. One by one, they removed
decomposing and skeletal remains. Even the most hard-boiled police investigators
were filled with horror:
They had all seen death, but none had encountered the
wholesale transfiguration of rollicking boys into reeking sacks of carrion.
— Author Jack Olson, The Man With The Candy, Simon &
Schuster, 1974.
The police were led by Elmer Wayne Henley to two other secluded spots that
yielded yet more remains. Many were identified by cross-referencing
missing persons reports. The victims were all residents of the hamlet of
Pasadena or just nearby. Quite a few were from Corll's own neighborhood.
Police had not followed up properly on the missing persons reports; even when
four boys on the same block went missing within a year's time. The Houston area
was growing and the police were up to their eyeballs in more serious matters
than what they thought were run-away teenagers. No attention to the
concentration of disappearances in the neighborhood was given.
Many of the bodies recovered showed signs of mutilation and torture. A common
practice was to insert a glass pipette or rod into the urethra of a victim and
break it.
Justice
David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley were given life sentences in prison,
where they remain to this day. Every ten years, their parole applications are
denied.
As recently as October 23, 2008, intrepid forensic workers have attached
identities to all but a few of the victims. The process, decades after the
crimes, is indeed akin to finding a needle in a haystack. DNA testing of the
unidentified remains brought closure to two sisters of one of the victims.
SOURCES:
Video: Archival news footage; low-quality but graphic
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7115429&syndicate=syndicate§ion/
"How a Serial Killer Victim was Finally Identified" by Monica Rhor,
Associated Press, October 24, 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081024/ap_on_re_us/unidentified_3
"The Houston Horrors" (Author unattributed) Time August 20, 1973
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907718-1,00.html
"Dean Corll - The Candy Man" Unsolved Mysteries writers' website
http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm348232.html
"Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley & David Owen Brooks" The Wacky World of
Murder
http://www.users.on.net/~bundy23/wwom/corll.htm
"Dean Corll and the Houston Mass Murders," by Charles Montaldo, About.com
http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/dean_corll.htm
"Dean Corll" by Marilyn Bardsley, TruTV.com
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/corll/index_1.html
"It took painstaking DNA tests and a skeletal analysis for morgue to link a
victim to a serial killer and bring closure to two sisters" by Peggy O'Hare,
The Houston Chronicle October 23, 2008
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6075706.html