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 Corlls continued and again they separated.

 The two boys were at different poles 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. But 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 Dean was extremely protective of his younger siblings always watching out for them and trying 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 salesman Mary set herself up with a little candy shop to help support the family. Dean was a runner for the candy shop which had it’s 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. 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 running 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.

Dean still worked as much as he could for his mother in the candy shop. One day one of the other male workers made a pass at Dean, he had his mother sack the boy. Dean’s reaction to the solicitation was one of mortal horror. Yet at the same time other boys would not want to be in the same room alone with Dean. This confused others about his sexual nature.

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 finally found the freedom away from his protective mother to do as he pleased.

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 Corll’s 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 mean fourteen-year-old David Brooks.

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 still worked at the Lighting company and 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 was often around and tried to cheer Corll up. Often it would end with Corll paying Brooks $5 for oral sex.

By Christmas 1970 Corll was a murderer.

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. Instead he was picked up by Corll who took him to his apartment at 3300 Yorktown and 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. One case was when Brooks arrived at Corll’s place one day unannounced in 1970. Corll was wondering around the house naked and when he 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 home-made 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 victims accepted the offer of pot-smoking 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 another party on December 15, 1970 at his new apartment on Columbia Street Houston. The guests were Brooks, 15 year old Danny Yates and 14 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, sand wanted to christen it with murder. So out for a drive, Brooks and Corll entice two brothers back to the apartment.

Thirteen year old Jerry and 14 year old Donald Waldrop were to never be seen alive again. Once they 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 admits 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 chosen were 13 year old David Hilligiest and 16 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 or 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.

He was picked up along his route by Brooks and Corll before being 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 Henley. Even though Brooks was so emotionally dependent on Corll, he also 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.

The first time Corll had met Elmer Wayne Henley through Brooks he arranged a test for the new young man. Henley was made to knock Brooks unconscious which he did without hesitating.

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 found 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. She would later be a witness to Corll’s eventual murder.

On May 21, 1972 Dean and his cohorts grab another two victims. This time 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 shot dead by Henley. Henley later claimed he had fired the gun up the teen’s nostrils. The two boys were then taken to Corll’s original dumping ground of High Island and buried.

On October 3, 1972 Corll again choses a double murder. The victims are thirteen year old Richard Hembree and fourteen year old Wally Simoneux. Again the teens are taken back to Corll’s apartment on the premise of a party, once there the boys are giving paint to sniff and other substances which renders them unconscious. Once they have passed out, Corll takes the boys to his room where they are strapped to his torture rack. The victims are then repeatedly anally raped. According to Brooks some are kept alive for days of torture.

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

During November, 1972 Corll victim Billy Baulch’s younger brother, fifteen year old Michael becomes another victim.

The helpless boys were subjected to such torture as having their pubic hairs pulled out one-by-one, having objects inserted into their anus, and having glass rods shoved into their penis.  

On June 11, 1973 fifteen year old Billy Lawrence is brought 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 joins the list of sexually tortured and murdered victims of Corll on July 7, 1973. 

On July 27, less than three weeks after the last murder 17 year old Charles Cobble and 18 year old Marty Jones are murdered after being tortured by Corll. 

The boys were always procured in the same way. Brooks or Henley would lure other boys 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. 

There were many more victims, 13 year old James Dreymala had disappeared during the first week of August 1973. Another nine year old boy had disappeared only weeks before. 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.  Rhonda had decided to run away and confided in Henley. Henley asked her to come with him to  a party at Corll’s. Henley had thought it would be okay, but it wasn't.  When Corll saw that Henley had brought a girl with him he went into a rage.  

After sniffing glue for quite sometime, Henley, Timothy and Rhonda all passed out. Corll saw his opportunity to teach Henley a lesson for bringing a girl.  

Corll tied all three of them up. When Henley woke and saw his predictament 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. So after being untied Henley grabbed Rhonda as Corll looked on, but Henley was unable to get an erection. Corll found this funny and began calling Henley names. Henley was at breaking point he picked up  a .22 caliber pistol and aimed it at Corll. Corll egged on the young man, daring him to shoot him. He mocked him with the statement  

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

As Corll came towards Henley he fired 6 bullets into Corll’s chest killing him instantly.  

Then 18-year-old Henley called police to tell them that he had murdered Corll. Henley told police it was in self-defence. 

However when police arrived to find the three teenagers on the front steps and the dead body inside they were not to know the amazing story Henley had to tell them.  

Henley went on to tell police that Corll's house contained a torture room in which the furniture consisted of a wooden board with handcuffs fitted at each top corner and rope knots at each bottom corner.  Henley continued his monotone story of Corll's parties where he would give the teens drugs or glue to sniff usually rendering them unconscious before tying them up and sodomizing 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. The 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.   

Once they located the boat shed, police began to dig. In no time they uncovered lime and the tell-tale smell of decay.

The first body was found. The naked body of the thirteen year old boy was in a plastic bag. 

It was time to bring in the crime scene investigators.  

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”.  

Henley then went on to tell police how Dean would ask him to bring boys around for parties.  

When police finished searching they found the bodies of seventeen boys under the floor of the boat shed, and ten others found in various other sites. 

David Brooks watched 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”.

Then Henley admitted to doing some of the murdering himself.

Brooks told police his involvement was far less, but that Henley had taken over when he was introduced to Corll and Corll realised that he had more friends than Brooks and would be a better ally than victim.

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

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.

Bibliography:

The Serial Killers: Colin Wilson and Donald Seaman, True Crime Books