Between 1970 and 1973, young men and boys in the Houston area went missing with little or no explanation, leaving families bereft and with precious few answers regarding what happened to their loved ones. Then, in August 1973, the terrible truth came out: a monster had been amongst them. That was Dean Corll, who helped manage his family’s candy factory and lived a seemingly unremarkable life. But the reality was that Corll was a vicious serial killer, whose crimes were finally uncovered after he was shot dead in a suburb of Houston.
Corll’s killer was Wayne Henley, a teenage boy who was one half of the duo who assisted Corll in finding victims. The other was another teen, David Brooks. Perhaps boosted by bribes Corll offered to Henley and Brooks, the trio scouted boys as young as 13, urging them to enter Corll’s vehicle with offers of a ride or a party invitation. Once at another location, Corll would restrain, brutally assault, and kill the victim. Sometimes, he also forced the victim to write to or call their parents, falsely claiming to be safe.
Brooks and Henley later confessed that they helped Corll move and bury victims’ bodies — some of which belonged to their friends. At the time, 27 remains were linked to Corll, but later DNA testing found another, bringing his total number of known murders to a chilling 28. Henley and Brooks both received life sentences for their part in the killings.
