Dean Corll - Murders

Murders

Between 1970 and 1973, Corll is known to have killed a minimum of 28 victims. All of his victims were males aged 13 to 20, the majority of whom were in their mid teens. Most victims were abducted from Houston Heights, which was then a low-income neighborhood northwest of downtown Houston. With most abductions, he was assisted by one or both of his teenaged accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks. Several victims were friends of one or the other of his accomplices, and two other victims, Billy Baulch and Gregory Malley Winkle, were former employees of the Corll Candy Company.

Corll's victims were typically lured into one of two vehicles he owned (a Ford Econoline van and a Plymouth GTX) with an offer of a party or a lift and driven to his house. There, they were either plied with alcohol or drugs until they passed out, tricked into putting on handcuffs, or simply grabbed by force. They then were stripped naked and tied to either Corll's bed or, usually, a plywood torture board, which was regularly hung on a wall. Once manacled, the victims would be sexually assaulted, beaten, tortured and — sometimes after several days — killed by strangulation or shooting with a .22-caliber pistol. Their bodies then were tied in plastic sheeting and buried in any one of four places: a rented boat shed; a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula; a woodland near Lake Sam Rayburn (where his family owned a lakeside log cabin); and a beach in Jefferson County.

In several instances, Corll forced his victims to phone or write to their parents with explanations for their absences in an effort to allay the parents' fears for their sons' safety. Corll is also known to have retained keepsakes —usually keys— from his victims.

During the years in which he abducted and murdered young men, Corll often changed addresses. However, until he moved to Pasadena in the spring of 1973, he always lived in or close to Houston Heights.

Corll killed his first known victim, an 18-year-old college freshman, Jeffrey Konen, on September 25, 1970. Konen vanished while hitchhiking with another student from the University of Texas to his parents' home in Houston; he was dropped off alone at the corner of Westheimer Road and South Voss Road near the Uptown area of Houston. At the time of Konen's disappearance, Corll lived in an apartment on Yorktown Street, near the intersection with Westheimer Road. He may have offered to drive Konen to his parents' home. Konen evidently accepted a lift from him.

David Brooks led police to the body of Jeffrey Konen on August 10, 1973. The body was buried at High Island Beach. Forensic scientists subsequently deduced that the youth had died of asphyxiation caused by manual strangulation and a cloth gag that had been placed in his mouth. The body was found buried beneath a layer of lime, wrapped in plastic, naked, and bound hand and foot, suggesting he had also been violated.

Around the time of Konen's murder, David Brooks interrupted Corll in the act of assaulting two teenage boys whom he'd strapped to a plywood torture board. Corll promised Brooks a car in return for his silence; Brooks accepted the offer and Corll later bought him a green Chevrolet Corvette. Brooks was later told by Corll that the two youths had been murdered, and he was offered $200 for any boy he could lure to Corll's apartment.

On December 13, 1970, David Brooks lured two 14-year-old Spring Branch youths named James Glass and Danny Yates away from a religious rally held in the Heights district of Houston to Corll's Yorktown apartment. Glass was an acquaintance of Brooks who, at Brooks' behest, had previously visited Corll's apartment. Both youths were tied to opposite sides of Corll's torture board and subsequently raped, strangled and buried in a boat shed Corll had rented on November 17.

Six weeks after the double murder of Glass and Yates, on January 30, 1971, Brooks and Corll encountered two teenage brothers named Donald and Jerry Waldrop walking to a bowling alley. Both boys were enticed into Corll's van and were driven to an apartment that Corll had moved into at 3200 Mangum Road, where they were raped, tortured and strangled before Brooks and Corll buried them in the boat shed. Between March and May 1971, Corll killed three more boys between the ages of 13 and 16; as with the Waldrop brothers, all three youths lived in Houston Heights and all three were buried towards the rear of Corll's boat shed. One of these victims, 15-year-old Randell Harvey, was last seen by his family on the afternoon of March 9 cycling to his job at a Fina gas station in Oak Forest. The other two victims, 13-year-old David Hilligiest and 16-year-old Gregory Malley Winkle, were abducted and killed together on the afternoon of May 29, 1971. As had been the case with parents of other victims of Corll, both sets of parents launched a frantic search for their sons. One of the youths who voluntarily offered to distribute posters the parents had printed offering a reward for information leading to the boys' whereabouts was 15-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley, a lifelong friend of Hilligiest. The youth pinned the posters around the Heights and attempted to reassure Hilligiest's mother that there may be an innocent explanation for the boys' absence.

On August 17, 1971, Corll and Brooks encountered a 17-year-old acquaintance of Brooks named Ruben Haney walking home from a movie theater in Houston. Brooks persuaded Haney to attend a party at an address Corll had moved to on San Felipe Street the previous month. Haney agreed and was taken to Corll's home where he was subsequently strangled and buried in the boat shed. In September, 1971, Corll moved to another apartment in the Heights: 915 Columbia St. David Brooks later stated he had assisted Corll in the abduction and murder of two youths during the time Corll resided at this address, including one youth who was killed "just before Wayne Henley came into the picture." In his confession, Brooks stated the youth killed immediately prior to Henley's involvement in the murders was abducted from the Heights and kept alive for approximately four days before his murder. The identity of both of these two victims remains unknown.

In the winter of 1971, Brooks introduced Elmer Wayne Henley to Dean Corll; Henley was likely lured to Corll's address as an intended victim. However, Corll evidently decided the youth would make a good accomplice and offered him the same fee — $200 — for any boy he could lure to his apartment, informing Henley that he was involved in a "sexual slavery ring" operating from Dallas.

Henley later stated that, for several months, he completely ignored Corll's offer; however, in early 1972, he decided to accept the offer, as he and his family were in dire financial circumstances. According to Henley, the first abduction he participated in occurred at 925 Schuler St., an address Corll had moved to in February 1972. (David Brooks later claimed that Henley became involved in the abductions of the victims while Corll resided at the address he had occupied immediately prior to Schuler.) If Henley's statement is to be believed, the victim was abducted from the Heights in February or early March 1972. In the statement Henley gave to police following his arrest, the youth stated that he and Corll picked up a youth at the corner of 11th and Studewood, and lured him to Corll's home on the promise of smoking some marijuana. Using a ruse he and Corll had prepared, Henley cuffed his own hands behind his back, freed himself with a key hidden in his back pocket, then duped the youth into donning the handcuffs before leaving him alone with Corll, believing he was to be sold into the sexual slavery ring. The identity of this victim is not conclusively known, although it is possible the youth was Willard Branch, a 17-year-old Oak Forest youth known to both Corll and Henley who disappeared on February 9, 1972, and was found buried in the boat shed.

One month later, on March 24, 1972, Henley, Brooks and Corll encountered an 18-year-old acquaintance of Henley's named Frank Aguirre leaving a restaurant on Yale Street, where the youth worked. Henley called Aguirre over to Corll's van and invited the youth to Corll's apartment on the promise that he could drink beer and smoke marijuana with the trio. Aguirre agreed and followed the pair to Corll's home in his Rambler. Inside Corll's house, Aguirre smoked marijuana with the trio before picking up a pair of handcuffs Corll had left on his table, whereupon Corll pounced upon the youth, pushed him onto the table and cuffed his hands behind his back.

Henley later claimed that he had not known of Corll's true intentions towards Aguirre when he had persuaded the youth to accompany him to Corll's home: In a 2010 interview, he claimed to have attempted to persuade Corll not to assault and kill Aguirre once Corll and Brooks had bound and gagged the youth. However, Corll refused and informed Henley that he had raped, tortured and killed the previous victim he had assisted in abducting, and that he intended to do the same with Aguirre. Henley was again paid for luring the victim to Corll's home and subsequently assisted Corll and Brooks in Aguirre's burial at High Island Beach.

Despite the revelations that Corll was, in reality, killing the boys whom he and Brooks had assisted in abducting, Henley nonetheless became an active participant in the abductions and murders. Within one month, on April 20, 1972, he assisted Corll and Brooks in the abduction of another youth, a 17-year-old friend of his named Mark Scott. Scott was grabbed by force and fought furiously against attempts by Corll to secure him to the torture board, even attempting to stab his attackers. However, Scott saw Henley pointing a pistol toward him and, according to Brooks, Mark "just gave up." Scott was tied to the torture board and suffered the same fate as Aguirre: rape, torture, strangulation and burial at High Island Beach.

According to Brooks, Henley was 'especially sadistic' in his participation in the murders committed at 925 Schuler; before Corll vacated the address on June 26, Henley assisted Corll and Brooks in the abduction and murder of two youths named Billy Baulch and Johnny Delone. In Brooks' confession, he stated that both youths were tied to Corll's bed and, after their torture and rape, Henley manually strangled Baulch, then shouted "Hey, Johnny!" and shot Delone in the forehead, with the bullet exiting through the youth's ear. Delone then pleaded with Henley: "Wayne, please don't!", before he too was strangled. Both youths were buried at High Island Beach.

During the time Corll lived at Schuler, the trio lured a 19-year-old youth named Billy Ridinger to the house. Ridinger was tied to the plywood board, tortured and abused by Corll. Brooks later claimed he persuaded Corll to allow Ridinger to be released, and the youth was allowed to leave the residence. On another occasion at Schuler, Henley knocked Brooks unconscious as he entered the house. Corll then tied Brooks to his bed and assaulted the youth repeatedly before releasing him. Despite the assault, Brooks continued to assist Corll in the abductions of the victims.

After vacating the Schuler residence, Corll moved to an apartment at Westcott Towers, where, in the summer of 1972, he is known to have killed a further two victims. The first of these victims, 17-year-old Steven Sickman, was last seen leaving a party held in the Heights shortly after midnight on July 20; the youth was savagely bludgeoned about the chest with a blunt instrument before he was strangled and buried in the boat shed. Approximately one month later, on or about August 21, a youth named Roy Bunton was abducted while walking to his job as an assistant in a Houston shoe store. Bunton was shot twice in the head and was also buried in the boat shed. Neither youth was named by either Brooks or Henley as being a victim of Corll, and both youths were only identified as victims in 2011.

On October 2, Henley and Brooks abducted two further Heights youths named Wally Jay Simoneaux and Richard Hembree. Henley later informed police he and Brooks had spotted the two youths as they walked towards Hembree's home. The youths were offered a ride by Brooks and Henley: Simoneaux and Hembree accepted and were driven to Corll's Westcott Towers apartment where, the following morning, Hembree was accidentally shot in the mouth by Henley. Several hours later, the two youths were strangled and buried in a common grave inside Corll's boat shed directly above the bodies of James Glass and Danny Yates. The following month, a 19-year-old Heights youth named Richard Kepner disappeared on his way to a phone booth. Kepner was strangled and buried at High Island Beach. Altogether, a minimum of 10 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 were murdered between February and November 1972; five of whom were buried at High Island Beach, and five inside Corll's boat shed.

On January 20, 1973, Corll moved to an address on Wirt Road in the Spring Branch district of Houston. Within two weeks of moving into the address, he had killed a 17-year-old youth named Joseph Lyles before vacating the apartment and moving to 2020 Lamar Drive in Pasadena on March 7. No known victims were killed from February to June 3 of 1973, although Corll is known to have suffered from a hydrocele in early 1973: In addition, around the time of Lyles' murder, Henley had temporarily moved away from Houston to Mount Pleasant in an apparent effort to distance himself from Corll. These facts may account for this sudden lull in killings.

Nonetheless, from June, Corll's rate of killings increased dramatically and both Henley and Brooks later harked to the increase in the level of brutality of the murders committed while Corll resided at Lamar Drive: Henley later compared the acceleration in the frequency of killings and the increase in the brutality exhibited by Corll towards his victims to being "like a blood lust;" adding that he and Brooks would instinctively know when Corll was to announce that he "needed to 'do' a new boy" due to the fact that he would appear restless: smoking cigarettes and making reflex movements. On June 4, Henley and Corll abducted a 15-year-old friend of Henley's named William Ray Lawrence; the youth was last seen alive by his father on 31st Street. After three days of abuse and torture, Lawrence was strangled before being buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. Less than two weeks later, a 20-year-old named Raymond Blackburn was abducted, strangled and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. On July 7, a 15-year-old named Homer Garcia, whom Henley had met at his driving school, phoned his mother to say he was spending the night with a friend; he was shot and left to bleed to death in Corll's bathtub before he was also buried at Lake Sam Rayburn and on July 12, a 17-year-old Orange County youth named John Sellars was shot to death and buried at High Island Beach.

In July 1973, David Brooks married his pregnant fiancée, and Henley temporarily became Corll's sole procurer of victims: assisting in the abduction and murder of a further three Heights youths between the ages of 15 and 18 between July 19 and July 25. According to Henley, these three abductions were the only three that occurred after his becoming an accomplice to Corll in which David Brooks was not a participant. One of these three victims, Michael Baulch, was strangled and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn and the other two, Charles Cobble and Marty Ray Jones, were abducted together on the afternoon of July 25. Henley himself buried both youths in the boat shed.

On August 3, 1973, Corll killed his last victim, a 13-year-old boy from South Houston named James Dreymala. Dreymala was abducted by Brooks and Corll while riding his bike in Pasadena and driven to Corll's home where he was tied to Corll's torture board, raped, tortured and strangled with a cord before being buried in the boat shed. David Brooks later described Dreymala as a "small, blond boy" for whom he had bought a pizza before the youth was attacked.