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It has been almost five decades since the horrific events in 1970s Houston. However, the infamous legacy of the most prolific serial killer of his time still lingers on, causing shock, disgust, and unease. Despite claiming the lives of at least 28 young men in the span of three years, the story of the Candyman goes largely unspoken. In the early hours of August 8th, 1973,
The Pasadena Police Department received a call from a young man named Elmer Wayne Henley, who calmly told the operator he had just killed a man. Officers arrived at the scene to find Henley perched on the curb outside the address, calmly seated as his two friends, one young man and one girl, were drenched in shock and trauma. Detective David Mulligan later told journalists that the call started as any other homicide
But as police took confessed killer Henley into custody, he began to tell the story of the man he shot. It soon became apparent that the shooting victim was no victim at all, but the worst serial killer in Houston's history to date. Henley was no hero despite taking down a monstrous murderer, for he had a large part to play in the story himself, which he divulged in the days to come. Part 1. Dean Corll
Dean Arnold Corle was born on December 24, 1939, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was the first child of Mother Mary and Father Edwin. Soon after, his first sibling came along, younger brother Stanley. Edwin Corle was a strict man and firm man, and this caused tension with his wife, Mary, who was protective of her two sons.
Their marriage was burdened with frequent disagreements until the two amicably divorced in 1946. A brief reconciliation in 1950 led the Coral family to move to Pasadena, Texas. The game of the happy families was short-lived, and the two again separated in 1953. Following the split, Mary remarried and moved once again, taking Dean and Stanley along for the ride.
Their new life with their stepfather yielded a new addition, half-sister Joyce. In addition, the family started a new company, a family candy company, operating from the garage of their home. Despite the turmoil of a rocky early childhood, Dean was always afforded a safe and loving home. He was described as a shy and serious child who struggled to socialize with his peers.
It was also noted he was particularly empathetic and caring for the well-being of others. In a routine checkup in 1950, doctors found an underlying heart murmur within Dean, which was traced back to an undiagnosed case of rheumatic fever at age 7. This reduced his ability to join in on physical activities such as sports teams and PE classes.
Rheumatic fever also shows steady evidence of increased risk of neuropsychiatric disorders or severe character changes. Perhaps this illness contributed to taking a kind, quiet boy and shaping him into an unrecognizable killer. So little is known about Dean Corll as an adult that even his middle name was misrepresented in reporting until it was clarified from his gravestone. All that knew him only had positive things to say.
Growing up, he was a well-behaved student and the few ex-girlfriends he had described him as the kindest man they knew. Part Two: The Becoming of the Candyman. Coral worked after school and through the evenings from the beginning of the family candy business, he and Stanley assumed a significant responsibility in running the company at a young age. He continued to work until he graduated high school in 1958.
After school, he worked tirelessly at the company while they rebranded, assuming the name the Pecan Prince and moving closer to the city of Houston. In 1960, Coral's mother sent him to live with his grandmother in Indiana, who was recently widowed. The young man obliged and took care of his grandmother, driving her to church and running the household.
During this time, he formed a close relationship with a local girl who was so besotted with him that she took it upon herself to propose to him, an act not common for women of the 1960s. Dean rejected her and moved home to Houston after two years. Coral's mother, Mary, divorced her husband in 1963, and she, alongside her sons, opened their own candy enterprise.
Coral Candy Company. Dean assumed the position of vice president. Feeling restless, Dean was drafted into the United States Army in 1964. While his stint in the army was unblemished, Dean hated the service and applied for a hardship discharge after only 10 months of service. He confided in his close acquaintances that his time in the army opened his eyes to his sexuality as he had his first homosexual encounters.
Coral returned home with newfound confidence and began making friends with many locals of the area. He was known to give candy to teenagers, in particular, boys, which earned him the nickname "The Candyman" or sometimes "The Pied Piper." Coral Candy Company had employed a small workforce, many young teenagers. Coral befriended many, setting up a pool table in the rear of the factory and encouraging teenagers to congregate.
One of the teenage males employed in the business complained to Coral's mother that Dean had made sexual advances toward him. In response, Mary fired the teenager. While many easily passed off Dean's inappropriate behavior towards teenagers as innocent and friendly, two of Coral's 28 known murder victims were former employees of the Coral Candy Company, having been marked as targets during their tenure at the factory. Part 3
teenage manipulation. Out of the many young boys that Corll befriended during this time, he became particularly close to a 12-year-old named David Owen Brooks. This sixth grade student took a liking to Corll, as he was the first male adult to treat him respectfully and not mock his bespectacled and weedy appearance. Brooks regularly hung out with Corll, received free candy, and even went on day trips to various South Texas beaches.
When Brooks needed cash, Coral happily gave it to him. Over time, Brooks saw Coral as a close friend or even a fatherly figure. Brooks came from a broken home and took solace in the relationship he formed with Dean. So when Coral began to offer him gifts and money in exchange for 30-year-old Coral performing oral sex on him, 14-year-old Brooks was obligated. Soon after, when Brooks was 15,
He dropped out of school and moved to live with his mother 85 miles away. He regularly visited his father back in Houston and took extra time to visit Coral, often staying over at his apartment. Around this time, Coral's candy company went under and closed for good. Coral's mother and his sister Joyce moved to Colorado after Mary's third marriage failed. Dean stayed in Houston, where he took a job as an electrician, where he worked until his death.
Coral regularly spoke with his mother on the phone and sent her money whenever she needed it. Despite this close relationship, Mary Coral never saw her beloved son again. When the events came to the surface, Mary expressed her shock and grief at the heinous acts her son committed unbeknownst to her. Part Four: The First Murders Dean Coral killed his first known victim in September 1970.
Jeffrey Conan disappeared while hitchhiking with another student from the University of Texas to his home in Houston. Conan was last seen being dropped off alone in uptown Houston. While the exact details of Conan's interaction are unknown, it is most likely that Coral offered Conan a ride home, which he gratefully accepted. At the time of Conan's disappearance, Coral lived in an apartment not far from Conan's last sighting.
Forensic scientists concluded that Conan had died from manual strangulation with the unearthing of victim bodies after Coral's death. His body still had a gag cloth placed within his mouth. He was also found bound and despite the decomposition, it suggested he was assaulted.
Around the time of this first murder, a 15-year-old Brooks, who frequently visited Coral, walked into Coral's apartment to find his friend Dean in the act of assaulting two teenage boys strapped to the bed. A stunned David Brooks accepted an offer of a new car in exchange for his silence. Coral noted how easily Brooks accepted this hush order and saw an opportunity to manipulate the young man further.
Coral confessed to Brooks later that he had killed the two boys. He offered Brooks $200, almost $1,500 in today's money, for any boy Brooks would invite into Coral's home. Brooks later claims that he was under the impression that these boys would be sold into a human trafficking ring and was unaware of Coral's intentions.
This claim can't be substantiated due to Corll's death. Regardless, Brooks confesses to continuing to lure boys to Corll despite knowing their horrific fate. Brooks cashed his first paycheck a few months later in December when he enticed two boys, James Glass and Danny Yates, to Corll's apartment. Yates himself had visited Corll's apartment with Brooks for a party, so he felt comfortable returning. He was wrong in his assumption he would be safe there.
Brooks actively participated in street abductions with Coral. The two would drive the suburban streets, approaching teenage boys. The presence of young David Brooks lulled the teenagers into a false sense of security as Brooks persuaded them to join them in parties, often using free access to alcohol and drugs as an attractant. Between January and May of 1971, Brooks assisted Coral in luring five teenage boys to his apartment.
brothers Donald and Jerry Waldrop, Randall Harvey, David Hillegist, and Gregory Malley. Coral's MO was targeting young males between the ages of 13 to 20, who he would abduct with the help of Brooks. The victims were often friends of Brooks himself, acquaintances of Coral himself, or ex-employees of the Coral Candy Company. In most circumstances, they went willingly with Coral to his home.
Lured by the promises of drugs and alcohol, the boys would soon meet a gruesome fate as they were stripped naked and tied to a makeshift plywood torture board in Coral's bedroom. Unspeakable suffering would follow as they were tortured, raped, and mutilated at the hands of the Candyman. Many of the acts committed are too gruesome to discuss in detail.
But what was clear by forensic evidence was many of the boys were kept for days on end before Coral would either strangle or shoot them. The boys would then be wrapped in plastic and buried in one of three mass graves, a rented boat shed in Southwest Houston, a site near Lake Sam Rayburn, and on High Island Beach.
In some cases, Corll forced his victims to call or write to their parents to tell them they had run away to keep the Houston Police off his tracks. Like many serial killers, Corll could not help but keep a trophy of his conquest, usually the keys of each victim. The parents of each missing boy began a frantic search for their sons. Missing reports filled in for the boys were often brushed off by law enforcement as runaways due to their age. In hindsight,
This disregard from police is hard to imagine, particularly since four young boys in one small neighborhood went missing. However, the area was a safe place and it hardly crossed anyone's mind that each of their missing kids may be connected to one singular madman. But not all the victims' parents were convinced by the runaway letters they received from their sons. At the end of May 1972,
Billy Belch vanished alongside his friend, Johnny DeLone. The Belches worries were not eased when they read Billy's letter stating that he and Johnny had skipped town to work for a trucker company in Washington. Mr. Belch was a trucker himself and knew no job of that description at the time. While the family recognized the writing on the letter is Billy's, the spelling and word choice were not usual for their 17 year old son, which made them increasingly suspicious.
With a lack of help from the police, the Balches and the DeLomes decided to team up and chase what clues they had on their own. As they compared stories, they recalled that the boy's friend, David Brooks, had given them some marijuana, which they had reported to the police. They had also pressed Billy on his association with Dean Corll. They had asked what he and the other neighbor boys do with the hours they spend at Corll's home. Billy's father was especially disgruntled, saying,
It's not normal for a man that old to be playing games with little boys. The Balchers went looking for Coral, having recalled these strange incidents of the past. When they confronted him, Coral politely told them he had no idea where Billy or Johnny had gone. Coral's sociopathic nature and effortless charisma easily cleared the family's suspicions. As the local community began to heighten anxieties, young boys would assist the families of the missing kids in disturbing posters.
One of these boys was 15-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley, a close friend of one David Hillegist who had gone missing months before. Henley spent time with the Hillegist family, reassuring them that there must be an innocent explanation for David's mysterious disappearance. Remarkably, these stories of missing boys continued to play out for three years, only coming to an end when Pasadena police received a call from Wayne Henley himself.
confessing to a murder and leading detectives to a boat shed that towered above a mass grave of teenagers. Part five, a new accomplice and a murder spree. In mid 1971, David Brooks introduced Wayne Henley to Corll. Brooks lightly brought Henley to Corll as an intended victim and their abduction spree. But Corll's keen eye for wayward boys recognized Henley as different from the other boys. Just like Brooks,
Henley came from a broken family, and he had to fight tooth and nail daily to survive. Coral preyed on his weaknesses, offering him the same deal he had with Brooks: $200 for any boy he brought to Coral's home. Henley stated he initially denied the offer but continued to spend significant time with Coral, trusting and admiring him just as Brooks had done in the early stages of their relationship. As Henley's family struggled,
The young boy eventually caved to Corll's offer due to his dire financial circumstances. With guidance from Brooks, Henley had the same success in using promises of drugs to easily lure boys to Corll. However, Henley had a flair for deceit. For his first victim, he created a ruse in which he cuffed his own hands, freed himself with a hidden key behind his back, and then duped his first victim into donning the handcuffs himself in an attempt to pull off the same trick.
Corll was impressed with Henley's proactive approach to their arrangement. Soon, Henley became a second accomplice of the Candyman's rampage through Houston. The identity of this first victim was never uncovered. Just like Brooks, Henley claimed to be unaware of the fate of the teenagers he brought to Corll. He also believed them to be sold into a human trafficking ring, but just like Brooks, once Henley learned the truth, it did not stop him from continuing to participate.
The three became an unstoppable force, blowing through victim after victim with incredible ease. Coral had a new boy strapped to his torture table every other day as he continued to work his job as an electrician by day. He never once experienced a knock at his door from a police officer or even a single suspicious look. Each victim he plucked from the streets suffered under his hand and never got to leave Coral's apartment alive.
The month that followed took the lives of many, many young boys. As time went on, both Brooks and Henley went from simply dropping off boys to quarrel, to actively participating in their assaults, to going as far as ending their lives themselves. Quarrel had an insatiable bloodlust that both boys got carried away within. In Brooks' later confession, he stated that Henley became especially sadistic in the murders.
Despite the victims being friends with Henley and pleading for their lives, Henley was known to manually strangle some of the victims himself. Brooks claimed to become increasingly uncomfortable as the events went from basic assaults to gruesome torture and mutilations. In one circumstance, Brooks begged Coral to release one victim, to which Coral surprisingly agreed and the youth was allowed to leave.
Shortly after, when Brooks entered Corll's home, he was knocked unconscious and became the victim himself. Corll strapped him to the torture board and brutally assaulted his longtime friend and accomplice. Still, once he was released, Brooks continued to assist in further abductions. A short reprieve between February and June of 1973 allowed local communities to relax and recover as no new boys went missing.
During this time, Coral suffered from hydroseal, a minor medical infection. Additionally, Henley had tried to move away to distance himself from Coral. Together, this led to a lull in killings. However, once Coral was back on his feet, he was extra anxious to return to his murderous ways. From June onwards, the rate of killings dramatically skyrocketed, and both boys later testified that Coral became extra brutal.
They began recognizing when Coral needed to do a new boy based on his restless behavior. After a relentless murder spree, Coral took his last victim. 13-year-old James Draymala was abducted by Henley and Brooks while riding his bike. He was lured to Coral's home under the pretense he was sourcing some glass bottles to resell for pocket money.
The small blonde boy suffered the same fate as many before him, a grisly end and a burial under the boat shed. Part 6: The Candyman's Reign Comes to an End On the evening of August 7th, Henley, now 17 years old, invited his friend Timothy Curley to a party at Coral's new residence in Pasadena.
Brooks had recently become engaged to his pregnant fiancée, so he spent more time away from the party scene at Coral's home. Henley and Curly spend a few hours with Coral, huffing paint fumes and drinking. They then left, promising to return shortly.
As they parked near Henley's home, the two heard a commotion coming from the home of one of their friends, 15-year-old Rhonda Williams. The two boys raced across the street to her house, finding her cowering away from her abusive father. Rhonda had suffered years of hardship herself, having lost her mother as a child and her boyfriend, Frank Aguirre, went missing in recent months. Her abusive father had banned many of her friends from visiting the house. Still,
he had taken a particular liking to young Wayne Henley. Henley scaled the side of Rhonda's house, escorting her away from the vile situation in her home. The three returned to Coral's home at around 3 am. Rhonda was tentative about entering the residence, but with nowhere else to go, she cautiously agreed. Coral was immediately flushed with anger at the sight of a young girl being brought to his home, saying that he had ruined everything
Henley tried to calm him down, insisting that Rhonda was a close friend and was desperate for a safe place to stay. Coral suddenly calmed down, becoming stone-faced and rigid. He obliged Henley's pleas, allowing Rhonda to stay. Coral filled the three teenagers up with pot, beer, and paint fumes. He sat patiently, watching the three with a cold intent as they became increasingly intoxicated. The three soon passed out.
When Henley awoke, he found himself lying flat on his stomach. His arms were wrenched behind his back and were in the process of being secured with handcuffs. He tried to protest, only to find his mouth covered with tape. He tried to kick, just to be met with rope-bound ankles. He turned his head to see both Curly and Williams lying parallel beside him, gagged and bound in the same fashion. Curly was naked.
When Coral noticed that Henley was awake, he removed his gag. Henley began bargaining with Coral, pleading for him to stop. Coral made sure that Henley knew just how angry he was that a girl was brought to his house. He told Henley that he was going to kill him, but first, he would have his fun. Henley negotiated with his friend Coral, saying he wanted to participate in the torture of his friends.
Coral soon agreed and untied Henley. The two brought Curly and Williams into the bedroom and tied them to the large torture board. Coral, still suspicious of Henley, thrust him a knife and insisted he cut away Williams' clothes and to rape and kill her while he did the same to Curly. The pair had awoken and began begging for their lives. Henley hesitated as Curly said to him, "'Aren't you going to do anything about it?'
Henley quietly asked if he could take Williams to the other room for some privacy. He was ignored. Henley snapped, grabbing the gun, pointing to Coral, shouting, "You've gone far enough, Dean!" Coral was unfazed, calling his bluff. He stepped forward, and Henley retreated a few steps. Coral taunted Henley till the boy pulled the trigger. The bullet barreled into Coral's head, but it did not fully puncture his skull.
A struggle ensued and while the two rallied for the gun, another shot was fired, this time piercing Coral's shoulder. He quickly ran from the room with Henley hot behind him and Henley left off three more shots, which all landed in Coral's back. The Candyman fell, sliding down the wall of the hallway, his naked body motionless.
Henley had thought to himself at this moment that his friend, who he had just shot, would be proud of him. Dean had taught him to act with confidence and strength through their time murdering together, and that is exactly what Henley had just done. The quiet was deafening across the Candyman's lair for a few short moments. Henley returned to Williams and Curly, releasing them from their binds. Henley told them to leave, but Curly stood his ground and insisted they call the police.
Henley tentatively agreed and made a phone call to the Pasadena Police Department. Part 7: The Ugly Truth The three teenagers were promptly taken into custody by the PPD,
On initial inspection, with three traumatized kids mounting the curb outside of the scene and a .22 caliber pistol next to the body of a naked man, officers' first thoughts were this was a cut case of self-defense homicide. But as Henley began to be questioned, he unraveled the stories of the past few years.
Police were initially skeptical. The narrative was so far-fetched, and the thought of a rampant serial killer going unnoticed by their department for three years was preposterous. They began to think that the tale was one to take the blame off of Henley's murder that night. However, the more Henley spoke, the more evidence began to line up. Henley was able to offer up a handful of victims' names that matched up to police records of missing persons and runaway boys.
He also told the police that Coral liked to keep the victim's keys in order to burglarize their homes at later dates. It was found that many of the family homes of missing kids had indeed later been robbed. After spending the early hours of the morning confessing the events of the last few years to police, Henley led police to the now infamous boat shed. That afternoon, authorities dug up eight bodies. The next day, nine more surfaced.
Henley then took them to a spot near Lake Sam Rayburn, where four more were uncovered that same day. David Brooks caught wind of Henley being in custody. He knew Henley would sell him out without a second thought. To save the hassle, he brought himself into the station. He accompanied Henley and police to the third and final gravesite, a beach on High Island, where six more bodies were found.
As the bodies were pulled from these mass graves, parents from all around Houston began frantically phoning the police lines, offering descriptions of their runaway teenagers. What followed was a harrowing period of police piecing together forensic evidence with lost boys and identifying victims. They were able to draw off both Brooks and Henley's recounts, but due to the sheer volume of victims, the teenagers could simply not remember all the names and accurate details.
Because of the decomposition of the bodies and lack of forensic tools in 1970, police were struggling to positively identify the victims. They worried many families would never find closure for the loss of their sons. Some families had even lost two of their boys. Despite his extensive involvement in many abductions, David Brooks was only officially charged with one murder, for which he received a life sentence in 1975.
An unsuccessful appeal was lodged in 1979, and he was denied parole in 2017. David Owen Brooks died on May 28th, 2020, aged 65. He died from COVID-19. Elmer Wayne Henley, now 66, remains incarcerated. He was denied parole in 2015, and his next parole review date is 2025. Corll was the most prolific serial killer of his time.
only surpassed in 1979 by Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, who each had over 30 official murders. However, while only 28 victims were officially attributed to Corll, the possibility of a higher number is very real. There were a total of 44 teenage boys reported missing in the area during his period of activity.
it is highly likely that Coral committed many murders on his own, both before he secured Henley and Brooks as accomplices and during periods he was alone. In an unrelated investigation two years later, a collection of underage pornography of pictures and films was found. 11 out of 16 boys in the media were identified as victims of Coral, insinuating that perhaps Coral spoke some truth when he brought up the idea of a human trafficking ring of young boys.
This investigation ended up bringing about five arrests in California. Oddly, Pasadena police decided not to pursue connecting these cases despite the clear link saying the families had already suffered enough. Additionally,
Past employees of the Coral Candy Company stated they saw coral taking nylon corns and plastic sheeting from the factory as early as 1968, when his first recorded victim was not noted until 1970. He was also known to dig a lot in these earlier years, claiming to use it as a way to get rid of spoiled candy products. More Polaroid pictures were found in 2012 by a filmmaker crafting a documentary on Wayne Henley.
The images showed another unidentified boy in handcuffs. These further suspicious circumstances only add fuel to the theory that the victim count of the Candyman was greater than the official 28 boys. The true extent of his victim count may never be known.
