True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

You often hear people of a certain age say that things were much better back in the day, situations were much safer, you could send your kids out to play in the street and nothing bad would happen. Well, I think it's a common thing to look back over years gone by with rose-tinted glasses and believe that everything was all good and safe, but the truth is, it wasn't. I've been writing about serial killers and true crime on this blog since 2019 and before that, I studied Criminology and grew up reading and learning about the dark side of life and history. I don't think there's ever been a time when we have been 100% safe, just look as far back as the infamous Jack The Ripper case in the 1800's. 

I don't think there's a difference in the level of evil that's out there today then what was out there decades ago, our forensics have become more advanced and we are able to find more missing persons due to improved technology. I always say to keep yourself safe but the truth is, anyone can be a victim of crime at any time, any place. I've written about so many serial killers and I'm in the process of writing my first book as we speak. Each case of the serial killer has been horrific to research and in this particular post I have unfortunately delved into the dark and twisted crimes of Dean Corll (also known as The Candy Man or The Pied Piper). This post is not for the faint-hearted and it was a difficult case to research for me despite the countless books and newspaper articles I had at my disposal, the details of the murders were a lot to take but again, I always say that the victims deserve to have their stories told, the evil perpetrators exposed and also for police incompetence to be discussed to ensure that the wrongful handling of a particular case never happens again.

In the early 1970's Dean Corll together with the help of two young male accomplices (who he had groomed), had been responsible for the sickening rape, torture and murder of young boys and men (ages 13 to 20) in Houston, Texas. All of the boys were enticed to whichever home Corll happened to be living at the time, by his two young accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks. Elmer and David would be promised money and gifts as well as beer and cigarettes for their part in procuring the boys, most of which were known to them and in many cases, actual friends of theirs. 

Dean Corll would move every two months in an attempt to keep his sickening and evil hobby a secret. His confirmed victim count was said to be 29 but authorities believe he could be responsible for the deaths of up to 42 young men and boys. The majority of Corll's victims were from the same area of Texas known as Houston Heights, at the time the boys who disappeared where dismissed as just runaways despite their distraught families trying to explain to the police that their sons were not the type to just run away from home. A lot of these boys were on their way to a swimming pool or their part time jobs. One parent pointed out that her son would not have run away with just his swimming trunks and some spare change in his pocket. None of these boys had run away despite the quick judgements and assumptions from the cops. These boys were actually led to their heartbreaking demise by people they thought they could trust, boys of similar age to them that they knew, their so-called friends Elmer and David. 

Elmer and David would go out looking for unsuspecting victims to take back to Dean Corll who was a grown man with an obsession with young boys, blood and sadistic torture. Dean would award them with money and gifts, sometimes Elmer and David would take part in tying the victims up or committing assault. Dean was very much in control and his victims would be tied to a torture board where he would subject them to the most horrendous sexual assaults and torture before he killed them. Sometimes photographs would be taken of the victims. Dean would keep his victim's keys as trophies and reminders of his evil crimes. He was known to bite his victims genitals extremely hard to the point they were bitten off. He would perform disgusting and degrading sexual acts on the victims as well as pulling out their pubic hair one by one. He would gag the victims and turn music up loud to drown out the screams of agony. On one horrific occasion, two young brothers were both tied up and Dean had both boys handcuffed to his torture board, side by side with one wrist handcuffed. With the wrist that each boy had free, David forced them to beat each other to death and told them whoever survived would be set free. Both boys began punching each other as hard as they could to the point that they were both covered in blood. The sickening ordeal ended when Dean got fed up watching the boys and decided to strangled them to death. Dean would also enjoy castrating his victims and he would either do this with his teeth or with a weapon and then he would enlist the help of his two young accomplices who would help him wrap the bodies in plastic sheeting and help get rid of the remains, he would ensure that his victims were buried alongside a bag which contained their private parts that Dean had chewed or cut off. 

With so many boys going missing and the police quick to call them runaways, the parents tried to lean on each other for support and conducted their own searches for their children. 

Both Elmer and David were from poor families who were struggling to make ends meet and they looked up to Dean. Dean had been born on the 24th of December 1939 to a doting mother, Mary and strict father, Arnold. He had been a sickly child who struggled with his confidence and trying to strike up friendships with the other kids. At that point there was no red flags of what he was to become. As he grew up he realised more and more that he was actually attracted to other boys. He had a stint in the Army and his curious thoughts about his sexuality finally came to a conclusion that he was infact, gay. His Mother Mary was very homophobic. The family had run a successful candy business and Dean was very much part of that, his nickname around town was 'Candy Man' due to the fact that he liked to hand out candy to the children. David was popular in the community because of his generosity with candy for the children, but also because he came across as a really nice, hardworking man. Nobody could imagine what was really behind those evil eyes. 

Dean's sick reign of horror would last for three years but before he had the help of Elmer and David, investigators (and myself) believe that he had been killing long before that so nobody knows for sure the exact number of deaths that he is responsible for. 

In August of 1973, Dean Corll's sickening crimes were to come to an ultimate end when he was shot dead by one of his accomplices Elmer. On the 8th of August, Elmer brought back two friends to Dean's house and he was reportedly furious because Elmer had brought a girl there. Dean had set up Elmer and his two friends by plying them with alcohol, marijuana and acrylic paint that he would inhale as well as encouraging others to do so. Eventually Elmer and his friends had passed out and Dean had been watching them the whole time, waiting to make his move.

Dean had bound and gagged all three of them, still in a rage about Elmer bringing a girl to the house. He began to torture the girl and Elmer's friend. As all this was going on, Elmer tried to plead with Dean and persuaded him to untie him so that he could join in with the torture and assaults. What resulted next was a confrontation between Elmer and Dean, Elmer pointed a gun at Dean's head, Dean mocked him and said that he didn't have what it took to kill him. Elmer fired the gun but it didn't have the desired effect at first. Elmer fired the gun a few times more and Dean stumbled to his knees, falling to the ground and into the hallway where he died instantly. Dean was 33 years old at the time of his death.

Elmer untied his two friends and the police were called, when they arrived, Elmer confessed to everything. At first the police were struggling to believe what Elmer was saying was true because it all sounded so nightmarish but when he mentioned the names of some of the victims they began to take him seriously. When he took them to the burial sites of the victims and the remains exhumed, they realised that he had been telling them the whole truth. All the boys that Elmer mentioned were on a missing persons list.

David finally confessed that he had been involved and had a part in three of the murders of the young boys. Elmer confessed to being partly responsible for helping with the murders of nine boys, he also described himself as a psychopath who admired Dean in the beginning and described some of his experiences with him as 'exciting'. 

They both stood trial separately, both were found guilty for their parts in the murders. Elmer was found guilty and charged with six life terms of ninety-nine years to run alongside one another. He tried to appeal this and a re-trial took place but it resulted in the same outcome. David was only charged and convicted of the murder of one boy, he received a life sentence. David passed away at the age of 65 due to complications of Covid-19 in May of 2020. Elmer Wayne Henley is still alive and serving his sentence, unlike David who was quiet and didn't want to draw too much attention to himself whilst behind bars, Elmer has spoken about Dean and his crimes in interviews, he is also a keen painter who sells his art work (and handmade jewelry) through a friend on Facebook. Elmer believes he may never get out of prison and is at peace with that. 

We may never know the true number of victims that Dean Corll horrendously murdered, so many young boys classed as runaways never to be seen again. They are still out there and their families are still without answers, it a real heartbreak. 

This case is one of the most disturbing and sickening in American history. It's terrifying to read the details of this case and imagine Dean Corll paying these two boys to basically bring their friends to him so he could torture, sexually assault and murder them, all for the sake of $200 and gifts. Those innocent victims wouldn't have had a care in the world thinking that they were just going to hang out with their friends but the reality was so horrific and evil. I'm aware that these two boys were groomed and abused by Dean themselves but the fact that they were quite happy to lure innocent boys to their ultimate suffering, torture and cruel, painful deaths is something that is beyond evil in itself. Those two boys joined in on some of the torture and watched as the victims were murdered, they would then go home and act normal like nothing happened. I see them as part of it all, there was plenty of opportunities for them to tell someone, contact the police or the families, they actively took part and that's so disturbing,

Thank you so much as always if you have made it this far in the post, I really appreciate it. I would like to take a little moment in this post to remember the poor young boys who's lives were so cruelly and heartlessly stolen (and also thinking of those still out there, yet to be identified):

RIP Jeffrey Konen, James Glass, Danny Yates, Donald Waldrop, Jerry Waldrop, Randell Harvey, David Hilligiest, Gregory Malley Winkle, Ruben Watson Haney, Willard ''Rusty'' Branch Jr, Frank Aguirre, Mark Scott, Johnny Delone, Billy Baulch, Steven Sickman, Wally Jay Simoneaux. Richard Hembree, Richard Kepner, Joseph Lyles, Billy Ray Lawrence, Ray Blackburn, Homer Garcia, John Sellars, Michael ''Tony'' Baulch, Marty Jones, Charles Cary Cobble and James Dreymala.

Further Reading & Sources: 

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood

- Dean Corll: The True Story of The Houston Mass Murders | Book by Jack Rosewood

- Dean Corll | Murderpedia

- Dean Corll | Wikipedia

- Dean Corll: Article || ABC13 News

- Houston, Texas | Wikipedia

- The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers | Book by Michael Newton