Serial Killers In America: Dean Corll
Wikimedia CommonsDean Corll while in the military.
Dean Corll is probably one of the most puzzling American serial killers because he was by all accounts a normal guy. He’s one of those serial killers you’ve never heard about.
He lived in an affluent Houston, Texas, neighborhood and enjoyed spending time in his mother’s candy factory, which is how he earned the nickname “The Candy Man.” He was a Vietnam War veteran with no criminal record, and his neighbors described him as quiet, well-mannered, pleasant, and always smiling.
What those around him didn’t know was that Corll was hiding deadly secrets. Over the course of two and a half years, from Dec. 13, 1970, to July 25, 1973, Corll tortured and murdered 28 boys.
He carried out his killings with the help of two teenaged accomplices, 17-year-old Wayne Henley and 18-year-old David Brooks. The teens knew many of Corll’s victims, and a few of them were their friends.
Bettman/Getty ImagesA newspaper story about the gruesome details of the sex-related murders of teenaged boys committed by electrician Dean Corll, 34, on the lawn of his home.
Each of the boys was lured by Corll and his accomplices with candy, alcohol, and false promises into Corll’s van. The boys were then tortured and forced to write notes home to their families promising that they were safe.
Corll and his accomplices reportedly stripped the boys naked, handcuffed them, bound their hands and feet, sexually tortured them, and then finally killed them.
Corll’s killing spree, which at the time made him the deadliest of all American serial killers to date, came to a gruesome crescendo when his young associate Henley decided he had had enough of murdering his friends and shot Corll in the head with his own gun.
Henley and Brooks both later confessed and received life sentences for their involvement.
The bodies of Corll’s victims were eventually found by detectives. The 28 murdered boys were scattered and buried in three different areas: a boat shed in Houston, the Bolivar Peninsula, and a woodland area at Lake Sam Rayburn.
