Dean Arnold Corll (December 24, 1939 – August 8, 1973) was an American serial killer and sex offender who abducted, raped, tortured and murdered at least 29 teenage boys and young men between 1970 and 1973 in Houston and Pasadena, Texas. He was aided by two teenaged accomplices, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. The crimes, which became known as the Houston Mass Murders, came to light after Henley fatally shot Corll. Upon discovery, the case was considered the worst example of serial murder in United States history.

Corll's victims were typically lured with an offer of a party or a lift to one of the various addresses at which he resided between 1970 and 1973. They would then be restrained either by force or deception, and each was killed either by strangulation or shooting with a .22 caliber pistol. Corll and his accomplices buried eighteen of their victims in a rented boat shed; four other victims were buried in woodland near Lake Sam Rayburn, one victim was buried on a beach in Jefferson County, and at least six victims were buried on a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula. Brooks and Henley confessed to assisting Corll in several abductions and murders; both were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Corll was also known as the Candy Man and the Pied Piper, because he and his family had previously owned and operated a candy factory in Houston Heights, and he had been known to give free candy to local children.

Early life

Childhood

Dean Arnold Corll was born on December 24, 1939, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the first child of Mary Emma Robison (1916–2010) and Arnold Edwin Corll (1916–2001). Corll's father was strict with his children, whereas his mother was markedly protective of both her sons. Their marriage was marred by frequent quarreling and the couple divorced in 1946, four years after the birth of their younger son, Stanley Wayne. Mary subsequently sold the family home and relocated to a trailer home in Memphis, Tennessee, where Arnold had been drafted into the United States Air Force after their divorce, to allow her sons to remain in contact with their father.

right|209px|thumb|Corll (left), pictured with his mother and brother in June 1950

Corll was a shy, serious child who rarely socialized with other children, but at the same time displayed concern for the wellbeing of others. At the age of seven, he suffered an undiagnosed case of rheumatic fever, which was not recognized until doctors found Corll had a heart murmur in 1950. As a result of this diagnosis, Corll was told to avoid physical education classes in school. Corll's mother and stepfather started a small family candy company, initially operating from the garage of their home. From the earliest days of the business, Corll worked day and night while still attending school. He and his younger brother were responsible for operating the candy-making machines and packing the product, which his stepfather sold on his sales route. This route often involved West traveling to Houston, where much of the product was sold.

From 1954 to 1958, Corll attended Vidor High School, where he was regarded as a well-behaved student who achieved satisfactory grades. As had been the case in his childhood, Corll was also considered somewhat of a loner, although he is known to have occasionally dated girls in his teenage years. In high school, Corll's only major interest was the brass band, in which he played trombone.

right|147px|thumb|Corll, pictured with his half-sister, Joyce West,

Move to Houston Heights

Corll graduated from Vidor High School in the summer of 1958. Shortly thereafter, he and his family moved to the northern outskirts of Houston so that the family candy business could be closer to the city where the majority of their product was sold. Corll's family opened a new shop, which they named Pecan Prince in reference to the brand name of the family product. In 1960, at the request of his mother, Corll moved to Yoder, Indiana, to live with his widowed grandmother. During this time, Corll formed a close relationship with a local girl, although he rejected a subsequent marriage proposal she made to him in 1962. Corll lived in Indiana for almost two years but returned to Houston in 1962 to help with his family's candy business, which by this date had moved to Houston Heights. He later moved into an apartment of his own above the shop. The same year, one of the teenaged male employees of Corll Candy Company complained to Corll's mother that her son had made sexual advances towards him. In response, she fired the teenager.

U.S. Army service

Corll was drafted into the United States Army on August 10, 1964, He was later assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia, to train as a radio repairman before his permanent assignment to Fort Hood, Texas. According to official military records, Corll's period of service in the army was unblemished. The army granted his request and he was given an honorable discharge on June 11, 1965, after ten months of service.

Corll Candy Company

Following his honorable discharge from the army, Corll returned to Houston Heights and resumed the position he had held as vice-president of Corll Candy Company.

In 1965, Corll was known to give free candy to local children, in particular teenage boys. As a result of this behavior, he earned himself the nicknames of the "Candy Man" and the "Pied Piper." The company employed a small workforce, and he was seen to behave flirtatiously toward several teenage male employees. then a sixth grade student and one of the many children to whom he gave free candy. Brooks initially became one of Corll's many youthful companions, regularly socializing with Corll and various teenage boys who congregated at the rear of the candy factory. He also joined Corll on the regular trips he took to South Texas beaches in the company of various youths, and later commented that Corll was the first adult male who did not mock his appearance. Upon Corll's urging, a sexual relationship gradually developed between the two. Beginning in 1969, Corll paid Brooks in cash or with gifts to allow him to perform fellatio on the youth.

Brooks's parents were divorced; his father lived in Houston and his mother had relocated to Beaumont, a city east of Houston. In 1970, when he was 15, Brooks dropped out of Waltrip High School

By the time Brooks dropped out of high school, Corll's mother, brother and half-sister had relocated to Manitou Springs, Colorado, after the failure of her third marriage and the closure of Corll Candy Company in June 1968. Corll's mother would open a new candy firm in Colorado, although Corll opted to remain in Houston. Although she often talked to her eldest son on the telephone, his mother never saw him again. In this employment, he tested electrical relay systems, and would later rise to the rank of supervisor. Corll worked in this employment until the day of his death.

Murders

Between 1970 and 1973, Corll is known to have killed a minimum of twenty-nine 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. In most of these abductions, he was assisted by one or both of his teenage accomplices: David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. Several victims were friends of one or both of Corll's accomplices; others were either hitchhikers or individuals with whom Corll had himself become acquainted prior to their abduction and murder, and two other victims, Billy Gene Baulch Jr. and Gregory Malley Winkle, were former employees of Corll Candy Company.

146px|right|thumb|One of two [[Plywood#Marine|marine-grade plywood torture boards constructed by Corll]]

Corll's victims were usually lured into either one of the two vehicles he owned (a Ford Econoline van and a Plymouth GTX) he is known to have purchased for Brooks in February 1971. The enticement was typically an offer of a party or a lift, and the victim would be driven to Corll's house. At Corll's residence, the youths would be plied with alcohol or other drugs until they passed out, tricked into donning handcuffs, or simply grabbed by force. They were then stripped naked and tied to either Corll's bed or, usually, a marine-grade 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 were then tied in plastic sheeting and buried in one of four places: a rented boat shed in Southwest Houston, a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula, a woodland near Lake Sam Rayburn (where Corll's family owned a lakeside log cabin), or a beach in Jefferson County. He is also known to have retained keepsakes—usually keys—from his victims.

During the years in which he abducted and murdered his victims, Corll often changed addresses—sometimes residing in an apartment for a matter of weeks before relocating.

First known murders

right|147px|thumb|Jeffrey Alan Konen

Corll killed his first known victim, an 18-year-old college freshman named 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 and his hitchhiking companion were picked up by a fellow student near Bergstrom Air Force Base at 3:30p.m.; he was dropped off alone at the corner of Westheimer Road and South Voss Road near the Uptown area of Houston at approximately 6:30p.m. Corll likely offered Konen a lift to his home, which Konen evidently accepted. At the time of Konen's disappearance, Corll lived in the Harold Turboff apartments, where he had paid a deposit of a month's rent on September 21.

Brooks led police to Konen's body 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 nude body was found buried beneath a section of broken cement, covered with a layer of lime, wrapped in plastic, and bound hand and foot with nylon cord, suggesting he had been violated.

Shortly after Konen's murder, Brooks interrupted Corll in the act of sexually assaulting two teenage boys whom Corll had strapped to a four-poster bed. Corll promised Brooks a car in return for his silence; Brooks accepted the offer and Corll later bought him a green Chevrolet Corvette. Corll later told Brooks that he had killed the two youths, and offered him $200 (the equivalent of approximately $1,670 ) for any boy he could lure to Corll's apartment. An electrical cord with alligator clips attached to each end was buried alongside Yates's body.

Six weeks after the double murder of Glass and Yates, on January 30, 1971, Brooks and Corll encountered two teenage brothers, Donald and Jerry Waldrop, walking toward their parents' home. Both boys were enticed into Corll's van and driven to an apartment Corll had rented on Mangum Road, where they were raped, strangled and subsequently buried in the boat shed.

Between March and May 1971, Corll abducted and killed three victims, all of whom lived in Houston Heights and all of whom were buried toward the rear of the boat shed. In each of these abductions, Brooks is known to have been a participant. One of these three victims, 15-year-old Randell Harvey, was last seen by his family on the afternoon of March 9 cycling towards Oak Forest,

right|147px|thumb|Selma Winkle, pictured holding a reward poster she and the parents of David Hilligiest distributed following the disappearance of their sons

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 monetary reward for information leading to the boys' whereabouts was 15-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley—a lifelong friend of Hilligiest. The youth pinned the reward posters around the Heights and attempted to reassure Hilligiest's parents that there might be an innocent explanation for the boys' absence.

On July 1, 1971, a 17-year-old named Donald Falcon disappeared from the streets near his parents' West University Place apartment complex. Sections of his body were later recovered from the boat shed. Seven weeks later, on August 17, Corll and Brooks encountered a 17-year-old acquaintance of Brooks named Ruben Watson 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 an apartment on Columbia Street. This address was also located in the Heights. 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.

Participation of Elmer Wayne Henley

In approximately October 1971, Brooks encountered Wayne Henley as the two truanted from Hamilton Junior High School; he later introduced him to Corll. Henley likely was lured to Corll's address as an intended victim. informing Henley that he was involved in a "white slavery ring" operating from Dallas.

Henley later stated that, for several months, he ignored Corll's offer, although he did maintain an acquaintance with Corll and gradually began to view him as something of a "brother-type person" whose work ethic he admired and in whom he could confide. In early 1972, he decided to accept Corll's offer because he and his family were in dire financial circumstances. Henley said the first abduction he participated in occurred during the time Corll resided at 925 Schuler Street, an address Corll had moved to on February 19. (Brooks later claimed that Henley became involved in the abductions while Corll resided at the address he had occupied immediately prior to Schuler Street.) 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 he and Corll picked up "a boy" at the corner of 11th and Studewood, and lured him to Corll's home on the promise of smoking some marijuana with the pair. At Corll's residence—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 observing Corll bind and gag him. Henley then left the youth alone with Corll, believing he was to be sold into the slavery ring as a houseboy. The identity of this first victim Henley assisted in the abduction of remains unknown.

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 drink beer and smoke marijuana with the trio at Corll's apartment. Aguirre agreed and followed the trio 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. In response, Corll pounced on Aguirre, 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 his friend 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. Scott—who was well known to Corll, Henley and Brooks—was specifically chosen by Corll to be his next victim as, according to Henley, he had recently "cheated [Corll] on a deal" relating to stolen property. He was grabbed and fought furiously against attempts by Corll to restrain him, even attempting to stab Corll with a knife after several hours of abuse and torture including burning with incense cones. However, Scott saw Henley pointing a pistol toward him and according to Brooks, Scott "just gave up." All three then alternately shot Scott with a pellet gun before Corll again raped him. Scott ultimately suffered the same fate as Aguirre: rape, torture, strangulation, and burial at High Island Beach.

Brooks later stated Henley was "especially sadistic" in his participation in the murders committed at Schuler Street and Henley later admitted to gradually becoming "fascinated" with "how much stamina people have" when subjected to the act of murder, adding that, as a coping mechanism, he occasionally "tried to dehumanize" the victims. According to Henley, on this occasion, he was invited to Corll's apartment where he observed the two socializing with Corll and Brooks; he then assisted in subduing the pair. Henley then shouted, "Hey, Johnny!" and shot Delome in the forehead, with the bullet exiting through the youth's ear. Delome then pleaded with Henley, "Wayne, please don't!" before he was strangled. Both youths were buried at High Island Beach.

During the time Corll resided at Schuler Street, the trio lured a 19-year-old named William Ridinger to the house. Ridinger was initially tied to hooks drilled upon the wall of the property and, later, the plywood board, where he was tortured and abused by Corll over the course of approximately three days. Brooks later claimed he persuaded Corll to allow Ridinger to be released, and the youth was allowed to leave the residence. On another occasion during the time Corll resided at Schuler Street, Henley knocked Brooks unconscious as he entered the house. Corll then tied Brooks to the plywood board and assaulted the youth repeatedly before releasing him. Despite the assault, Brooks continued to assist Corll in the abductions of the victims. 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, 19-year-old Roy Bunton was abducted while walking to his job as an assistant manager in a Northwest Mall shoe store. Bunton was gagged with a section of Turkish towel and his mouth bound with adhesive tape. He was shot twice in the head and buried in the boat shed. Neither youth was named by either Brooks or Henley as being a victim of Corll, and both youths were identified as victims only in 2011.

On October 3, 1972, Henley and Brooks encountered two Heights teenagers, Wally Jay Simoneaux and Richard Hembree, walking to Hembree's home. Simoneaux and Hembree were enticed into Brooks's Corvette and driven to Corll's Westcott Towers apartment. That evening, Simoneaux is known to have phoned his mother's home and to have shouted the word "Mama" into the receiver before the connection was terminated. The following morning, Hembree was accidentally shot in the mouth by Henley, with the bullet exiting through his neck. Several hours later, both youths were strangled to death and subsequently buried in a common grave inside the boat shed directly above the bodies of James Glass and Danny Yates. His gagged and emasculated body was buried in the boat shed. On November 11, a 19-year-old Spring Branch youth named Richard Kepner disappeared on his way to a phone booth. Kepner was strangled and buried at High Island Beach. Altogether, at least ten teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 were murdered between March and November 1972, five of whom were buried at High Island Beach, and five inside the 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 this address, he had killed 17-year-old Joseph Lyles. Lyles was known to both Corll and Brooks. He had lived on Antoine Drive—the same street upon which Brooks resided in early 1973—and is known to have visited Corll's apartment to purchase marijuana on at least one occasion prior to his disappearance. On March 1, Corll vacated his Wirt Road apartment; he briefly resided in an apartment on South Post Oak Road before moving to 2020 Lamar Drive, an address in Pasadena his father was in the process of vacating after residing in the property for twenty-two years. He briefly lived with his father, stepmother and half-brother Michael Wayland (b. 1957) at this address before they vacated the property.

2020 Lamar Drive

No known victims were killed between February 3 and June 4, 1973. Corll is known to have suffered from a hydrocele in early 1973, which may have contributed to this period of inactivity. In addition, around the time of Lyles's murder, Henley spontaneously traveled to Florida with a long-haul truck driver uncle before temporarily relocating 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 testified to the increase in the level of brutality of the murders committed while Corll resided at Lamar Drive. Henley later compared Corll's escalation 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. After three days of abuse and torture, Lawrence was strangled before being buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. Less than two weeks later, 20-year-old Raymond Stanley Blackburn was abducted, strangled, and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. where he became acquainted with 15-year-old Homer Louis Garcia. The following day, Garcia telephoned 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 buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. Five days later, on July 12, 17-year-old John Sellars of Orange County was bound, shot to death and buried at High Island Beach.

In July 1973, after Brooks married his pregnant fiancée, One of these three victims, 15-year-old Michael Baulch, brother of previous victim Billy Baulch, was last seen by his family on July 19 on his way to get a haircut; he was strangled and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. The other two victims, Charles Cobble and Marty Ray Jones, were abducted together on the afternoon of July 25. Henley himself later buried both youths' bodies in the boat shed.

On August 3, 1973, Corll killed his last victim, a 13-year-old boy from South Houston named James Stanton Dreymala. Dreymala was abducted by Corll while riding his bike in Pasadena and driven to Lamar Drive upon the pretense of collecting empty glass bottles to resell. At Corll's home, Dreymala called his parents to tell them he was at "a party" across town before he was tied to Corll's torture board, raped, tortured, and strangled with a cord before being buried in the boat shed. Brooks later described Dreymala as a "small, blond boy" for whom he had bought a pizza and in whose company he had spent forty-five minutes at Corll's home before the youth was attacked. Kerley—a casual acquaintance of Corll who was intended to be his next victim—accepted the offer. Brooks was not present at the time. The two youths arrived at Corll's house, where they sniffed paint fumes and drank alcohol until midnight before leaving the house, promising to return shortly. Henley and Kerley then drove back to Houston Heights and Kerley parked his vehicle close to Henley's home. The two exited the vehicle and Henley, hearing commotion across the street emanating from the home of his 15-year-old friend Rhonda Louise Williams, walked toward her home. Williams—nursing a sprained ankle—had been beaten by her drunken father that evening and, having resolved to run away from home, had packed several basic belongings into an overnight bag before seeking temporary refuge in a washateria close to her home, where Henley encountered her. Williams accepted Henley's invitation to join him and Kerley at Corll's home and climbed into the back seat of Kerley's Volkswagen. Cobble and Jones were killed on July 27, 1973, two days after they had been reported missing. Several victims' parents had to leave the courtroom to regain their composure as police and medical examiners described how their relatives were tortured and murdered.

On July 15, 1974, both counsels presented their closing arguments to the jury: the prosecution seeking life imprisonment; the defense a verdict of not guilty. In his closing argument to the jury, District Attorney Carol Vance apologized for not being able to seek the death penalty, adding that the case was the "most extreme example of man's inhumanity to man I have ever seen."

The jury deliberated for 92 minutes before finding Henley guilty of all six murders for which he was tried. The following day, July 16, formal procedures to sentence Henley for the six guilty verdicts began, and on August 8, Judge Preston Dial ordered that Henley serve each 99-year sentence consecutively (totaling 594 years), and he was transferred to the Huntsville Unit to formally begin his sentence.

Henley appealed his sentence and conviction, contending the jury in his initial trial had not been sequestered, that his attorneys' objections to news media being present in the courtroom had been overruled, and citing that his defense team's attempts to present evidence contending that the initial trial should not have been held in San Antonio had also been overruled by the judge. Henley's appeal was upheld and he was awarded a retrial in December 1978.

Henley's retrial began on June 18, 1979. This second trial was held in Corpus Christi, with Henley again represented by defense attorneys William Gray and Edwin Pegelow. Henley's attorneys again attempted to have Henley's written statements ruled inadmissible. However, Judge Noah Kennedy ruled the written statements given by Henley on August 9, 1973, as admissible evidence. The retrial lasted nine days, with Henley's attorneys again calling no defense witnesses and again attacking the credibility of Henley's written confession. The defense also contended the evidence provided by the state "belonged to Dean Corll, not Elmer Wayne Henley". On June 27, 1979, the jury deliberated for over two hours before reaching their verdict; Henley was again convicted of six murders and again sentenced to six 99-year terms, only to run concurrently this time rather than consecutively. He had been indicted for four murders committed between December 1970 and June 1973, but was brought to trial charged only with the June 1973 murder of 15-year-old William Ray Lawrence.

Brooks's defense attorney, Jim Skelton, argued that his client had not committed any murders and attempted to portray Corll and, to a lesser degree, Henley as being the active participants in the actual killings. Assistant District Attorney Tommy Dunn dismissed the defense's contention outright, at one point telling the jury: "Was he an innocent bystander? This defendant was in on this killing, this murderous rampage, from the very beginning. He tells you he was a cheerleader if nothing else. That's what he was telling you about his presence. You know he was in on it."

Skelton emphasized within his 40-minute closing argument that the state had based their entire case upon circumstantial evidence and that they had only proven Brooks to be an accessory to murder as opposed to guilty of murder itself, stating: "The state has proven David Owen Brooks of being an accessory to murder; the state has not established a murder case. They have proved accessory to murder—not murder. Before you convict, you've got to find an act to punish."

Brooks's trial lasted less than one week. The jury deliberated for just 90 minutes before they reached a verdict. He was found guilty of Lawrence's murder on March 4, 1975, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Brooks showed no emotion as the sentence was passed, although his wife burst into tears.

Incarceration

Henley is serving his life sentence at the Mark Stiles Unit in Jefferson County, Texas. Successive parole applications dating from July 1980 have been denied. He was most recently denied parole in November 2025.

Brooks served his life sentence at the Terrell Unit near Rosharon, Texas. He died of COVID-19-related complications at a Galveston hospital on May 28, 2020, at the age of 65. Brooks is buried at Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in Walker County.

Victims

Corll and his accomplices are known to have killed a minimum of twenty-nine teenagers and young men between September 1970 and August 1973, although it is suspected that the true number of victims is higher. As Corll was killed immediately prior to his murders being discovered, the true number of victims he had claimed will never be known.

  • December 13: James Eugene Glass, 14. An acquaintance of Corll who also knew Brooks. Glass was last seen by his brother in the company of Danny Yates walking toward the exit of the church the trio had attended. He was strangled with a cord and buried inside the boat shed.
  • December 13: Danny Michael Yates, 14. Lured with his friend James Glass from a Heights evangelical rally by Brooks to Corll's Yorktown apartment. He and his friend were strangled before being buried in a common grave in Corll's boat shed.
  • January 30: Jerry Lynn Waldrop, 13. The youngest of Corll's victims. He and his brother were strangled the day after their abduction and buried in a common grave inside Corll's boat shed.
  • March 9: Randell Lee Harvey, 15. Disappeared on his way to his job as a gas station attendant; he was shot once in the head and buried in Corll's boat shed. Remains identified October 2008.
  • May 29: David William Hilligiest, 13. One of Henley's earliest childhood friends; Hilligiest was last seen in the company of his friend Gregory Malley Winkle walking to a local swimming pool, before climbing into a white van.
  • May 29: Gregory Malley Winkle, 16. A former employee of Corll Candy Company and boyfriend of Randell Harvey's sister. Winkle last phoned his mother claiming he and Hilligiest were swimming in Freeport. His body was found in the boat shed with the cord used to strangle him knotted around his neck.
  • July 1: Donald John Falcon, 17. Originally from Corpus Christi. Falcon was last seen close to his parents' West University Place apartment complex. Several appendage bones belonging to Falcon were recovered from the boat shed in 1973 and identified via DNA analysis in 2014.
  • April 20: Mark Steven Scott, 17. An acquaintance of both Henley and Brooks who was killed at Corll's Schuler Street address. He was forced to write a letter to his parents claiming that he had found a job in Austin. According to Henley, Scott was strangled by himself and Corll the following morning and buried at High Island Beach, although his remains were never found.
  • May 21: Johnny Ray Delome, 16. A Heights youth who was last seen with his friend walking to a local store to purchase soft drinks. He was shot in the head, then strangled by Henley with the assistance of Corll.
  • May 21: Billy Gene Baulch Jr., 17. A former employee of Corll Candy Company. Baulch was forced to write a letter to his parents claiming he and Delome had found employment "for a trucker loading and unloading from Houston to Washington" before he was strangled by Henley and buried at High Island Beach.
  • c. August 21: Roy Eugene Bunton, 19. Disappeared on his way to work at a shoe store. He was shot twice in the head and buried in the boat shed. Remains misidentified October 1973 and correctly identified November 2011.
  • October 3: Wally Jay Simoneaux, 14. Lured with his friend into Brooks's Corvette on the evening of October 3. Simoneaux attempted to phone his mother at Corll's residence before the call was terminated. He was strangled and buried in the boat shed.

140px|right|thumb|Richard Hembree

  • October 3: Richard Edward Hembree, 13. Last seen alongside his friend in a vehicle parked outside a Heights grocery store. He was shot in the mouth and strangled at Corll's Westcott Towers address.
  • c. November 1: Willard Karmon Branch Jr., 18. The son of an HPD officer who subsequently died of a heart attack in the search for his son. Branch was emasculated before he was shot in the head and buried in the boat shed. Remains identified July 1985.
  • November 11: Richard Alan Kepner, 19. Vanished on his way to call his fiancée from a pay phone, he was strangled and buried at High Island Beach. Remains identified September 1983.

1973

  • February 3: Joseph Allen Lyles, 17. An acquaintance of Corll who lived on the same street as Brooks. He was seen by Brooks to be "grabbed" by Corll at his Wirt Road address and was subsequently buried at Jefferson County Beach. Remains located August 1983 and identified November 2009.
  • June 4: William Ray Lawrence, 15. A friend of Henley who phoned his father to ask if he could go fishing with "some friends." He was kept alive by Corll for three days before he was strangled with a cord and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.
  • June 15: Raymond Stanley Blackburn, 20. A married man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who vanished while hitchhiking from the Heights to see his newborn child. Blackburn had arrived in Houston three months before his abduction to work on a construction project. He was strangled by Corll at his Lamar Drive residence and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.
  • July 7: Homer Louis Garcia, 15. Met Henley while both youths were enrolled at a Bellaire driving school. He was shot in the head and chest and left to bleed to death in Corll's bathtub before being buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.
  • July 12: John Manning Sellars, 17. An Orange County youth killed two days before his 18th birthday. Sellars was killed by four gunshots to the chest and buried at High Island Beach. He was the only victim to be buried fully clothed.
  • July 19: Michael Anthony Baulch, 15. Corll had killed his older brother, Billy, the previous year. He was strangled and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. Remains identified September 2010.
  • July 25: Marty Ray Jones, 18. Jones was last seen along with his friend and roommate, Charles Cobble, walking along 27th Street in the company of Henley. He was strangled with a Venetian blind cord and buried in the boat shed.
  • August 3: James Stanton Dreymala, 13. Corll's final victim. Dreymala was last seen riding his bicycle in Pasadena; he last called his girlfriend claiming he was in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. He was strangled and buried in the boat shed.

Footnotes

  • At Henley's trial in 1974, Harris County medical examiner Joseph Jachimczyk raised questions as to whether John Sellars was actually a victim of Corll. Sellars, a U.S. Marine who had been reported missing on July 12, 1973, had been killed by four gunshot wounds to the chest fired from a rifle, whereas all of Corll's other known victims had been either shot with the same pistol that Henley had used to kill Corll, strangled, or both. Moreover, Sellars's car had been found burned-out in Starks, Louisiana, one week after Sellars had disappeared. Neither Henley nor Brooks specifically mentioned Sellars being a victim of Corll's in their confessions, nor have they disputed his being a victim, although Henley had informed investigators he was unaware of any victims having been buried at High Island since late 1972.
  • The official tally of victims was reduced to twenty-six in 1974 after Jachimczyk testified Sellars "probably was not" murdered by Corll and his accomplices. However, Sellars was of the same age as Corll's known victims, although his grave on High Island Beach was located over two miles from the other five victims buried at this location. In addition, his body was found bound hand and foot with rope as other victims had been, and Sellars's autopsy indicates a possibility of being sexually assaulted before or after death.

Forensic developments

In June 2008, Sharon Derrick, a forensic anthropologist with the medical examiner's office in Houston, released digital images of Corll's three still-unidentified victims. These victims were listed as ML73-3349, ML73-3356 and ML73-3378. Two of the unidentified victims were found buried in the boat shed and were estimated to have been killed in 1971 or 1972. ML73-3378 was buried at Lake Sam Rayburn just from the body of Homer Garcia, who had disappeared on July 7, 1973.

On October 17, 2008, ML73-3349 was identified as Randell Lee Harvey, a Heights teenager who had been reported missing on March 11, 1971 – two days after he had disappeared. Harvey, who had been shot through the eye, was wearing a navy blue jacket with red lining, jeans and lace-up boots. A plastic orange pocket comb was also found alongside his body.

A body found on a beach in Jefferson County on August 4, 1983, has been conclusively linked to Corll. The scattered skeletal remains were discovered within and close to plastic sheeting near an eroding sandbank, along with sections of rope. These remains were listed as ML83-6849. The body was identified November 11, 2009, through DNA analysis as 17-year-old Joseph Lyles, a Spring Branch teenager who had disappeared on February 3, 1973. Lyles is known to have both visited Corll's apartment and to have lived on the same street as Brooks. He was listed as a possible victim of Corll after the other murders were discovered in 1973. At the time of his disappearance, Corll resided in an apartment at 1855 Wirt Road, where he lived between January 20 and March 1, 1973, when he moved to his father's Pasadena bungalow. Brooks had specifically stated Corll had "got one boy by himself" during the time he lived at this address. In addition, at the time that Lyles disappeared, Henley had temporarily moved to Mount Pleasant, which leaves a strong possibility that Corll had killed Lyles without the assistance of Henley.

140px|right|thumb|Michael Baulch. His body was correctly identified via [[DNA profiling|DNA analysis in 2010.]]

On September 13, 2010, DNA analysis was able to confirm that the unidentified victim known as ML73-3378 was actually Michael Anthony Baulch, who had incorrectly been identified as case file ML73-3333: the second victim unearthed from the boat shed. Baulch had disappeared en route to a barbershop on July 19, 1973—a year after his brother, Billy, had been murdered by Corll. The 1973 misidentification of Michael Baulch was discovered as a result of an independent investigation conducted by freelance writers Barbara Gibson and Debera Phinney, who contacted Derrick with a tip indicating that the second victim unearthed from the boat shed had been misidentified; upon conducting additional DNA testing, Derrick discovered their suspicions were correct. Three factors helped lead to the 1973 misidentification of Baulch: Michael's parents had previously filed a missing persons report on their son (who had previously left home to search for his older brother) in August 1972—precisely the same time as the second victim unearthed from the boat shed was estimated to have been killed. This was the only missing persons report on file for Michael Baulch. In addition, the victim was of a similar height to Baulch and circumstantial dental fractures had also helped facilitate the misidentification.

On November 4, 2011, the victim mistakenly identified as Baulch (case file ML73-3333) was identified through DNA analysis as Roy Eugene Bunton, a Heights teenager who was last seen by his family heading for work at a Houston shoe store on or about August 21, 1972. Bunton's family had always believed him to be a victim of Corll and had contacted Derrick in 2009 to submit a DNA sample for comparison with the unidentified bodies. Initially, the results conducted had been negative due to the misidentification of Bunton's remains as being those of Baulch. However, upon discovering the 1973 misidentification of Baulch's remains, DNA samples obtained from Bunton's family were compared to those taken from the body mistakenly identified as being that of Baulch and these proved to be a conclusive match to Bunton.

In a 2010 interview granted to investigative reporter Barbara Gibson, Henley disputed the 1993 identification of a victim buried in the boat shed as Scott and reiterated his claim that Scott had been buried at High Island "in the sand: fetal position; head up," adding that he had repeatedly argued this point with Jachimczyk.

As a result of Henley's claims, DNA tests on the body initially identified as Scott were again tested against samples of DNA taken from Scott's family. In March 2011, DNA analysis confirmed that the victim known as ML73-3355 had been misidentified and the same month, the victim was identified as Steven Kent Sickman, a 17-year-old who was last seen walking down West 34th Street shortly before midnight on July 19, 1972. He was murdered at Corll's Westcott Towers address. Sickman's mother had reported her son missing shortly after his disappearance, but police had been unwilling to conduct a search for the youth, telling the mother that he was 17 years old and that unless they found a body, there was nothing they could do to assist her. Had Henley not been adamant in his assertion that the body of Scott had been misidentified, it is likely Sickman would have never been conclusively confirmed as a victim of Corll. Although not officially confirmed as a twenty-ninth victim of Corll—with Falcon's cause of death listed as "unknown" due to the fact a human can survive the severance/removal of the four forearm bones in question—several forensic anthropologists, including Sharon Derrick, consider Falcon a definitive twenty-ninth victim of Corll.

Unidentified victim

Corll's only known unidentified victim—the sixteenth body found in the boat shed—was in an advanced stage of decomposition at the time of his discovery, leading investigators to deduce that he had likely been killed in 1971 or 1972. This unidentified victim was found wearing red-white-and-blue striped swimming trunks, cowboy boots, a leather bracelet and a long-sleeved, khaki-colored T-shirt decorated with a peace symbol, leading investigators to conclude that he was likely killed in the summer months. In addition, his T-shirt bore a handwritten inscription believed to read either "LB4MF", "LBHMF", He had dark hair and may have had spina bifida, a congenital disability that could have affected his gait, or caused chronic pain. as the only outstanding missing persons reports relating to youths from the Houston area dated between 1970 and 1973, which fit the forensic profile of this unknown youth, include these surnames. One of these individuals, 15-year-old John Harmon, had been a Heights teenager reported missing in 1971. He is last known to have phoned his parents claiming to need money in much the same manner as victims Charles Cobble and Marty Jones had been forced to telephone their parents before their murder.

Derrick has stated she has reason to believe this victim may be named Robert (or "Bobby") French, adding she has received an anonymous package containing a series of photographs potentially depicting this individual taken shortly before his murder, and that the sender of this package named this individual as one Bobby French.

Possible additional victims

Unrecovered remains

Forty-two boys had vanished from Houston Heights between 1970 and Corll's death in 1973. The police were heavily criticized for curtailing the search for further victims once the record set by Juan Corona for having the most victims had been surpassed. After finding the 26th and 27th bodies, tied together, at High Island Beach on August 13, the search for any further victims was terminated, despite Henley's insistence that two further bodies had been buried on the beach in 1972. A curious feature about this final discovery was the presence of two extra bones (an arm bone and a pelvis) in the grave, indicating at least one additional, undiscovered victim.

The two bodies that Henley had insisted were still buried on the beach may have been those of Scott and Lyles. In light of developments relating to the identifications of victims, the body of Scott still lies undiscovered at High Island, while Lyles's remains were only found by chance in 1983. Had the search for bodies continued, both victims would have likely been discovered. Following Hurricane Ike in 2008, the area of High Island Beach where Corll is known to have buried his victims remains submerged, leaving a strong possibility that Scott's body will never be found.