CONTACT US: Email: paranaughtica@gmail.com Twitter: @paranaughtica Facebook: The Paranaughtica PodcastContact Cricket: Website: www.theindividuale.com Twitter: @Individualethe Howdy, peeps!Today, I’m all alone in the studio. My cohost is taking a reprieve, and so, today I will be going over the serial killer named Dean Arnold Corll – a truly depraved individual.Dean’s story is a pretty crazy one which ties in with John Gacy. As I don’t touch on that aspect here, I have done so for the Patreon extra on Dean Corll – you should check that out. At any rate, there’s not much I can say here about the guy other than he sucked......Listening to the episode will tell you much of his crimes, and it’s a doozer, a really messed up one. So, let’s just get into it!Hang on.To check out a small batch of Coops’ music, go to this this link — https://on.soundcloud.com/Q1XRaY9WSpzawV9r7 CHECK YOUR LOCAL WATER TREATMENT LEVELS: EWG Tap Water Database PATREON:http://tiny.cc/tule001 ***If you’d like to help out with a donation and you’re currently listening on Spotify, you can simply scroll down on my page and you’ll see a button to help us out with either a one-time donation or you can set up a monthly recurring donation. ko-fi.com/paranaughticapodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
*Pewds* *Pewds* *Pewds* *Pewds* *Pewds* *Pewds* *Pewds* just keep the tubes under the
curb, on the Gerais file, on the screen, and nobody able to keep an open door to tela, you know, the aliens, the scans, cannot be positioned, I will give them hello to this.
Get up out of it, that is it!
We're going to get up right now, and go to the window, take your hair out of jail!
I'm refning yourself!
I'm not going to take this anymore!
You've got to say, I'm a human being!
Goddammit! My life has passed!
All righty.
Hello everyone.
Today, I am flying solo as Cricket has taken the day off for some much-needed R&R.
So that means that I will be here, as always, to dive into the story of one of the worst serial killers known to modern man.
Now, what's crazy is that this guy that I'll be talking about, Dean Arnold Corll, has a very high victim count, yet is rarely talked about.
He's known to have murdered at least 28 men and boys, young men and boys.
But is thought to have killed a handful more that he was never convicted of.
Now, to compare those numbers with serial killers that are discussed ad nauseum, such as Theodore Bundy, Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy, it's crazy as to why Dean Corll doesn't have 12 Netflix documentaries or 9 television series.
It's pretty crazy.
And to put it into perspective, Theodore Bundy is thought to have killed 30 women, And he admitted to at least killing 28, but said he's responsible for at least 100.
Now take that with a grain of salt.
Jeffrey Dahmer was convicted of 15 murders of young men and is most likely guilty of murdering more.
And John Wayne Gacy was convicted of 33 murders of young men, all of which were said to be found buried under his house.
Now, of course, there are...
So many other serial killers with very high kill counts, but those are either forgotten about or straight up just ignored.
Like Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, for example, was convicted of 49 murders.
Juan Corona killed at least 25 people.
Ronald Dominique, 23 people.
Felipe Espinoza, 32. And Samuel Little, 61. And Alexander Pushkin, 51. Now the point is, there are a plethora of serial killers who have killed more people than the most infamous of them all,
some in a much more heinous fashion and more dramatic, yet they don't get those Netflix specials made about them.
I mean, they're just not part of the public's consciousness, even for a lot of the true crime fanatics out there.
At any rate...
Today, we are talking about Dean Arnold Corral, a truly deplorable psychopath who was given the name The Candyman.
And the reason for that name, for those who are unaware, will soon be evident and know the movies.
There was one made just a couple years ago.
There was an old one made in the 90s called The Candyman.
But those movies have nothing to do with Dean Arnold Corral.
That's a totally different Candyman.
Let's get those moon boots all velcroed up, and let's swan dive right into this rabbit hole.
Let's get this started.
Let's get this started.
Dean Arnold Corll, born December 24th, 1939, was an American serial killer and sex offender responsible for the abduction, rape, He was assisted by two teenage accomplices,
David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley.
The heinous acts, referred to as the Houston mass murders, were uncovered following Henley's fatal shooting
of Dean Corll.
This case is regarded as one of the most egregious instances of serial murder in the history of the United States.
Corll's victims were often enticed with promises of attending a party or receiving a ride to one of his various residences between 1970 and 1973.
Once there, they were either forcibly restrained or deceived.
ultimately meeting their demise through strangulation or gunshot wounds inflicted by a.22 caliber pistol.
Coral, along with his accomplices, interred 18 of their victims in a rented boat shed.
Four additional victims were buried in a forested area near Lake Sam Rayburn, and one was laid to rest on a beach in Jefferson County, and at least six others were buried on a beach along the Boulevard Peninsula.
Brooks and Henley admitted to aiding Coral in multiple abductions and murders, resulting in both receiving life sentences.
Coral was infamously referred to as the Candyman and the Pied Piper due to his family's ownership of a candy factory in Houston Heights, where he was known to distribute free candy to neighborhood children.
Dean Arnold Corll was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1939, as the first offspring of Mary Emma Robison and Arnold Edwin Corll.
Coral's father exhibited a strict demeanor toward his children, while his mother displayed a notably protective attitude towards both of her sons.
Their marital relationship was plagued by constant disputes, leading to their divorce in 1946, four years following the birth of their younger son, Stanley Wayne.
subsequently mary sold the family residence and moved to a trailer in memphis tennessee where arnold had been conscripted into the united states air force post-divorce facilitating ongoing contact between the boys and their father
Coral exhibited characteristics of a reserved and serious child, often refraining from engaging with peers, yet he demonstrated a notable empathy toward others' welfare.
He was particularly sensitive to criticism and rejection.
At the age of seven, he experienced an undiagnosed case of rheumatic fever, which went unrecognized until the heart murmur was detected by physicians in 1950.
Consequently, he was advised to refrain from participating in physical education classes at school.
In 1950, Coral's parents sought to mend their relationship and remarried, and relocated to Pasadena, Texas, a suburb of Houston.
However...
This reconciliation proved to be fleeting, and by 1953 they divorced again, with the mother regaining custody of her two sons.
She briefly lived in a trailer on a rural farm, supporting her children through low-wage jobs.
The divorce was amicably settled, allowing both boys to maintain regular contact with their father.
After his second divorce, Coral's mother entered into marriage with a traveling clock salesman named Jake John West.
The family relocated to a small town of Vidor, Texas, where Coral's half-sister, Joyce Janine, was born.
Coral's mother and stepfather established a modest family candy business, initially operating from their garage.
From the outset of this venture, Coral dedicated himself to working tirelessly while still attending school.
He and his younger brother were tasked with managing the candy-making machines and packaging the products, which his stepfather distributed along his sales route.
This route frequently took west to Houston, where a significant portion of their products were sold.
Between 1954 and 1958...
Coral was a student at Vidor High School, where he was perceived as a well-mannered individual who maintained satisfactory academic performance.
Early on, there's just no real sign, right?
Consistent with his earlier years, Coral was often seen as somewhat of a solitary figure, although he did engage in occasional romantic relationships during his adolescence.
His primary interest in high school was the brass band, where he played the trombone.
Coral completed his education at Vidor High School in the summer of 1958, and soon after, he and his family relocated to the northern suburbs of Houston to facilitate the proximity of their family candy business to the city where most of the products were being distributed.
They established a new store named Pecan Prince, reflecting the brand of their family product.
In 1960, At his mother's urging, Coral moved to Yoder, Indiana to reside with his widowed grandmother.
During this period, he developed a close bond with a local girl, although he declined her marriage proposal in 1962.
Coral spent nearly two years in Indiana before returning to Houston in 1962 to assist with his family's candy business, which had by then relocated to Houston Heights.
Subsequently, he moved into an apartment situated above the shop.
In 1963, Coral's mother divorced West and established a new confectionery enterprise called Coral Candy Company.
She appointed her eldest son as the vice president of the family business, while her younger son, Stanley, took on the role of secretary treasurer.
That same year, a teenage male employee of Coral Candy Company reported to Coral's mother that her son, Dean, had made inappropriate sexual advances towards him.
In reaction to this complaint, she terminated the teenager's employment.
Weird.
Coral was inducted into the United States Army on August 10, 1964, and subsequently underwent basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana.
Following this, he received further training as a radio repairman at Fort Benning, Georgia, before being permanently assigned to Fort Hood, Texas.
Official military documentation indicates that Coral's service record was without incident.
Nevertheless, it has been reported that he had a strong aversion to military life.
He sought a hardship discharge, claiming his presence was essential for his family's business.
The Army approved his application, and he was honorably discharged on June 11, 1965, after completing just 10 months of service.
It has been reported that Coral confided in a few close friends following his military discharge that it was during his service that he first recognized his homosexuality and had been engaging in his initial homosexual experiences.
Additionally, acquaintances observed nuanced alterations in Coral's behavior around adolescent males after his return to Houston, prompting them to suspect his homosexuality.
And again, this is in a time where homosexuality was very frowned upon, especially in military families, you know.
After receiving an honorable discharge from the military, Coral returned to Houston Heights and took up his previous role as vice president of Coral Candy Company.
Following his divorce from Coral's mother in 1963, Coral's former stepfather maintained ownership of the family's previous candy enterprise, Pecan Prince, leading to intense competition between the two companies.
Similar to his adolescent years, Coral dedicated more hours to the candy business to meet the growing public demand for his family's products.
In 1965, the Coral Candy Company moved to a bungalow situated on West 22nd Street, directly opposite Helms Elementary School.
Oh, shit.
Coral was recognized for distributing free candy to neighborhood children, particularly the adolescent boys, which led to him being referred to as the Candyman and the Pied Piper.
The company had a small staff, and Coral was noted for his flirtatious demeanor towards several of the teenage male employees.
Additionally, he is known to have set up a pool table at the back of the candy factory, where employees and local youths would gather in the evenings to enjoy music and engage in games of pool or panianti.
Surprised they didn't have ping pong down there.
In 1967, Coral established a friendship with 12-year-old David Owen Brooks, who was then a 6th grade student and one of the numerous children to whom he distributed free candy.
Initially, Brooks became one of Coral's youthful associates, frequently engaging with Coral and various teenage boys who gathered at the rear of the candy factory.
He accompanied Coral on regular excursions to South Texas beaches alongside other ewes, and...
Later remarked that Coral was the first adult male who did not ridicule his appearance.
Whenever Brooks expressed a need for money, Coral provided him with cash, leading the youth to perceive Coral as a paternal figure.
At Coral's encouragement, a sexual relationship gradually emerged between the two, commencing in 1969, during which Coral compensated Brooks with cash or gifts in exchange for allowing him to perform fellatio on the young boy.
And how old is Dean at this point?
1967?
So he was born in 1939.
So he's like 28 years old.
At this point in time, he was about 28, somewhere around there.
Brooks' parents had divorced, with his father residing in Houston and his mother being moved to Beaumont, a city located 85 miles to the east.
In 1970, at the age of 15, Brooks left Waltrip High School and relocated to Beaumont to live with his mother.
During his visits to his father in Houston, he would also see Coral, who permitted him to stay at his apartment whenever he desired.
Later that same year, Brooks returned to Houston, and he later acknowledged that he began to view Coral's apartment as a second home.
By the time Brooks left high school, Coral's mother and half-sister Joyce had moved to Monotoo Springs, Colorado, following the dissolution of her third marriage and the closure of Coral Candy Company in June of 1968.
Although Coral's mother established a new candy business in Colorado, Coral chose to remain in Houston.
Despite frequently communicating with her eldest son via telephone, she never saw him again.
Just prior to the shutdown of the confectionery business, Coral secured a position as an electrician at the Houston Lighting and Power Company, HL&P, concurrently maintaining his role at the family enterprise.
In this capacity, he was responsible for testing electrical relay systems and eventually advanced to the position of supervisor.
Coral remained in this role until the day he passed away.
Between 1970 and 1973, it is documented that Coral murdered at least 28 individuals, all of whom were male and aged between 13 and 20, predominantly in their mid-teen years.
The majority of these abductions occurred in Houston Heights.
A low-income area located northwest of downtown Houston.
In many instances, Coral was aided by one or both of his teenage accomplices, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley.
Several of the victims were acquaintances of Coral's accomplices, while others were hitchhikers or individuals whom Coral had met prior to their abduction and subsequent murder.
Notably, two victims, Billie Jean Balch Jr. and Gregory Mallory Winkle, had previously worked for Coral Candy Company.
Coral typically enticed his victims into one of his two vehicles, a Ford Econoline van or a Plymouth GTX, or a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette that he acquired for Brooks in February of 1971.
The lure often involved an invitation to a party or a ride, leading the victim to Coral's residence.
Upon arrival, the young individuals were often given alcohol or drugs.
Some would lose consciousness, and most would be deceived into wearing handcuffs or forcibly restrained.
Now there's the old saying, the handcuff trick.
From John Wayne Gacy, he would do the same thing.
Well, this is Dean Coral doing that same thing.
Handcuff trick, which is like, hey, stick out your hand.
Let me put this handcuff on you and see if you can get out of it.
It's really easy.
It's this cool trick.
And, you know, these young boys who look up to this guy as being superior and with a lot of money and being well-liked by, you know, pretty much everyone.
So what are they going to do?
They're like, yeah, all right, Dean, let's try it.
Subsequently, they were stripped of their clothing and secured to either Coral's bed or, more commonly, a torture board made of marine-grade plywood that was frequently mounted on a wall.
Once restrained, the victims endured endless sexual assault, physical abuse, and torture, ultimately leading to their deaths by strangulation or gunshot wounds from a.22 caliber pistol after several days of torture.
Some of the torture consisted of meticulously pulling out the victim's hair.
It's just one of his preferred torture methods, which involved locking a boy onto that torture board, undressing him, and then by either using fingers or pliers, he would pluck these hairs out, pubic hairs generally,
individually.
Like, that's fucked up shit, right?
But one of the worst torture methods was...
He would take these glass rods and he would shove them into these boys' urethras, right?
And then break them.
Just shatter them inside the boys' urethras.
I mean, that is just horrific, dude.
Horrific.
And there were even accounts, according to one of his accomplices, Wayne Henley, Coral would literally gnaw off the genitals of some of these boys while they were locked on the torture board.
He would just go to town with his mouth and just bite off these genitals.
Just rip them off of his teeth.
It's horrible.
Just fucking horrible.
And there's suspicion that some of these boys were kept in a box.
Carrying on...
Once the victims were deceased, their remains would be wrapped in plastic sheeting and then buried in one of four locations.
A rented boat shed in southwest Houston, a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula, which is a wooded area near Lake Sam Rayburn, where Coral's family owned a lakeside cabin, or a beach in Jefferson County.
In numerous cases, Coral compelled his victims to contact their parents via phone or written correspondence, providing justifications for their disappearances in an attempt to alleviate the parents' concerns regarding their son's safety.
He is also documented to have kept mementos, typically keys, from his victims.
Throughout the period, During which he kidnapped and killed his victims from 1970 to 1973, Coral frequently changed residences, sometimes occupying an apartment for only a few weeks before moving again.
Nevertheless, until he relocated to his father's previous residence in Pasadena in the spring of 1973, he consistently lived in or near Houston Heights, often in proximity to elementary schools.
On September 25, 1970, Coral committed his first confirmed murder, targeting an 18-year-old college freshman named Jeffrey Conan.
Conan disappeared while hitchhiking with a fellow student from the University of Texas to his family's residence in Houston.
He was last seen being dropped off alone at the intersection of Westheimer Road and South Foss Road, close to the uptown district of Houston, around 6.30 p.m.
It is presumed that Corll offered Conan a ride to his home.
At the time of Conan's disappearance, Corll resided in the Harold Turboff apartments, having made a deposit for one month's rent on September 21st.
On August 10th, 1973, Brooks directed law enforcement to the location of Conan's remains, which were buried at High Island Beach.
Forensic experts later determined that the young individual had succumbed to asphyxiation resulting from manual strangulation and a cloth gag inserted into his mouth.
The corpse, found in a grave beneath a substantial boulder, was additionally covered with a layer of lime encased in plastic and restrained with nylon cord at both hands and feet, indicating potential sexual assault.
Shortly after the murder of Conan, Brooks encountered Coral while he was in the process of sexually assaulting two teenage boys who had been restrained to a four-poster bed, and in exchange for his silence, Coral promised Brooks a car, which he later fulfilled by purchasing a green Chevrolet Corvette.
Coral subsequently confided in Brooks about having killed...
Two boys and offered him $200, which in today's cash, 2025 cash, is around $1,620.
He offered Brooks $200 for any boy he could entice to Coral's apartment.
On December 13, 1970, Brooks successfully lured two 14-year-old boys, James Glass and Danny Yates, away from a religious gathering in Houston Heights to an apartment that Corll had recently leased at 3300 Yorktown.
Glass, who is familiar with Brooks, had previously visited Corll's residence at Brooks' request.
Both boys were then bound to Coral's four-poster bed using rope and handcuffs, after which they were raped, strangled, and buried in a boat shed that Coral had rented on November 17th.
An electrical cord with alligator clips attached to either end was buried alongside Yates' remains.
Six weeks following the double homicide of Glass and Yates, on January 30th, 1971, Brooks and Coral came across two adolescent siblings.
Donald and Jerry Waldrop who were making their way toward their parents' residence.
The Waldrop brothers had been transported to a friend's house by their father intending to discuss the establishment of a bowling league and had commenced their walk home upon discovering that their friend was unavailable.
Both boys were lured into Coral's van and taken to an apartment that Coral had leased on Mangum Road, where they were subjected to rape, strangulation, and ultimately buried in the boat shed.
Between March and May of 1971, Coral was responsible for the abduction and murder of three individuals, all residing in Houston Heights, whose remains were buried at the rear of the boat shed.
It is documented that Brooks was involved in each of these abductions.
One of his victims, a 15-year-old Randall Harvey, was last seen by his family on the afternoon of March 9th as he rode his bicycle towards Oak Forest, where he held a part-time position as a gas station attendant.
Harvey was taken to Coral's apartment on Mangum Road, where he was ultimately killed by a single gunshot to the head.
The other two victims, 13-year-old David Hillegeist and 16-year-old Gregory Mallee Winkle, were abducted and murdered together on the afternoon of May 29th, with both killings occurring at an apartment rented by Coral on West 11th Street.
Similar to the parents of other victims of Coral, both sets of parents initiated a desperate search for their sons.
Among those who willingly assisted in distributing the posters printed by the parents, On July 1,
1971, a 17-year-old individual named Donald Falcon vanished from the vicinity of his parents' apartment complex in West University Place.
Subsequently, portions of his remains were discovered in the boat shed.
Seven weeks later, on August 17th, Coral and Brooks encountered a 17-year-old acquaintance of Brooks, identified as Reuben Watson Haney, who was returning home from a movie theater in Houston.
Brooks convinced Haney to join a gathering at a location where Coral had relocated the previous month on San Felipe Street.
Haney consented and was taken to Coral's residence, where he was ultimately strangled and buried in the bow shed.
In September of 1971, Coral relocated to an apartment situated on Columbia Street, also within the Heights area.
Brooks later claimed to have aided Coral in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of two young individuals during Coral's residence at this location, one of whom was killed shortly before Wayne Henley became involved.
According to his confession, Brooks indicated that the youth who was murdered just prior to Henley's participation was taken from the Heights and was held alive for roughly four days before being killed.
The identities of both victims continue to be unidentified.
During the winter of 1971, Brooks met Wayne Henley while both were skipping school at Hamilton Junior High.
Subsequently, Brooks introduced Henley to Coral.
It is probable that Henley was initially targeted as a victim by Coral.
Nevertheless, Coral seemingly concluded that Henley could serve as a valuable accomplice and proposed to pay him $200 for each boy he could entice to his residence, claiming that he was part of a white slavery ring based in Dallas.
And again, that $200 in 1971 was like $1,500.
So this kid's like, dude, $1,500?
Damn, I could do something.
Hell yeah.
Which is fucked up, but Henley later recounted that he had initially disregarded Coral's proposal for several months.
However, he maintained a relationship with Coral and gradually began to perceive him as a brotherly figure whose work ethic he respected and to whom he felt he could confide.
In early 1972, due to severe financial difficulties faced by his family, Henley resolved to accept Coral's offer.
He indicated that the first abduction that he was involved in took place while Corll was residing at 925 Shuler Street, a location he moved to on February 19th, always on the move.
Brooks later asserted that Henley became engaged in the abductions during Corll's previous residence before Shuler Street.
If Henley's account is accurate, the victim was taken from the Heights in February or early March 1972.
In the statement Henley provided to law enforcement after his arrest, he mentioned that he and Coral had picked up a boy at the intersection of 11th and Stoodwood, enticing him to Coral's home with the promise of smoking some marijuana.
Once at Coral's residence, utilizing a deception that they had already devised, Henley handcuffed himself behind his back, then freed himself with a key concealed in his back pocket.
subsequently tricking the youth into putting on the handcuffs before witnessing Coral bind and gag him.
Henley then left the youth alone with Coral, under the impression that he was to be sold into a sexual slavery operation.
The identity of the first victim involved in the abduction remains unnoticed.
One month later, on March 24, 1972, Henley...
Brooks and Coral encountered an 18-year-old acquaintance of Henley's named Frank Aguirre as he was exiting a restaurant on Yale Street, where he was employed.
Henley beckoned Aguirre to approach Coral's van and extended an invitation for the youth to join them in consuming some beer and smoking marijuana at Coral's apartment.
Aguirre consented and followed the group to Coral's residence in his Rambler.
Once inside, Aguirre partook in smoking marijuana with the group before he noticed a pair of handcuffs that Coral had left on the table.
In a sudden move, Coral lunged at Aguirre, forced him onto the table, and secured his hands behind his back with those handcuffs.
Henley later asserted that he was unaware of Coral's actual intentions regarding Aguirre when he convinced his friend to visit Coral's residence.
In a 2010 interview, he stated that he had tried to dissuade Coral from assaulting and murdering Aguirre after Coral and Brooks had restrained and gagged the young man.
However, Coral rejected this plea, revealing to Henley that he had previously raped, tortured, and killed another victim he had helped abduct, and that he planned to do the same to Aguirre.
Consequently, Henley aided Coral and Brooks in the burial of Aguirre at High Island Beach.
In spite of the disclosures regarding Coral's actual involvement in the murders of the boys he and Brooks had helped abduct, Henley became an active participant in both the abductions and the killings.
A month later, on April 20th, he aided Coral and Brooks in the kidnapping of another young man, 17-year-old Mark Scott.
Scott, who was familiar to Coral, Henley, and Brooks, was deliberately selected by Coral as his next target because, as Henley recounted, he had recently betrayed Coral in a transaction concerning stolen goods.
He was forcibly seized and resisted vigorously against Coral's attempts to subdue him, even trying to stab Coral with a knife after enduring several hours of mistreatment and torture, which included being burned with incense cones.
However, upon noticing Henley aiming a gun at him, Scott, as per Brooke's account, simply surrendered.
The three then took turns shooting Scott with a pellet gun before Coral proceeded to sexually assault him.
Ultimately, Scott met the same grim fate as Aguirre.
He was raped, tortured, strangled, and buried at High Island Beach.
Brooks later described Henley as exhibiting a particularly sadistic nature during the murders that took place on Shuler Street.
Henley subsequently confessed to developing a growing fascination with the endurance of individuals when subjected to the act of murder.
Prior to Coral's departure from the location on June 26th, Henley played a role in assisting Coral and Brooks in the abduction and murder of two young individuals, Billy Balch and Johnny DeLome.
In Brooke's account, he recounted that both victims were restrained to Coral's bed, and following their torture and sexual assault, Henley manually strangled Balch.
He then called out, Hey Johnny!
before shooting DeLome in the forehead, with the bullet exiting through the ear.
DeLome pleaded with Henley, saying, Wayne, please don't, before he too was strangled.
The bodies of both youths were subsequently buried at High Island Beach.
While living on Shuler Street, Corll and his accomplices enticed a 19-year-old named William Ridinger to the residence.
Initially, Ridinger was restrained using hooks affixed to the wall, and subsequently on a plywood board, where he endured torture and mistreatment at the hands of Corll for approximately three days.
Brooks later asserted that he convinced Coral to permit Ridinger's release, allowing the young man to leave the premises.
On a different occasion during Coral's stay at Shuler Street, Henley rendered Brooks unconscious upon entering the home.
Coral then bound Brooks to the bed and subjected him to repeated sexual assaults before ultimately freeing him.
Despite this violence, Brooks persisted in aiding Coral with the abduction of additional victims.
Following his departure from the Shuler Street residence, Quarrel relocated to an apartment at Westcott Towers, where he is believed to have murdered two additional victims during the summer of 1972.
The first victim, 17-year-old Stephen Sickman, was last observed leaving a party in the Heights shortly before midnight on July 19th.
Sickman was brutally attacked with a blunt object before being strangled and buried in the boat shed.
Approximately one month later, around August 21, 1972, 19-year-old Roy Bunton was kidnapped while en route to his position as an assistant manager at a shoe store in Northwest Mall in Houston.
Bunton was silenced with a piece of towel and had his mouth secured with adhesive tape.
He was then shot twice in the head and also buried in the boat shed.
Neither of these young men...
were acknowledged as victims of Coral by Brooks or Henley, and their identities as victims were only confirmed in 2011.
On October 3, 1972, Henley and Brooks came across two teenagers from Heights, Wally J. Simenow and Richard Hembree, who were en route to Hembree's residence.
They were lured into Brooks' Corvette and taken to Coral's apartment at Westcott Towers.
That evening, it is documented that Simenow made a phone call to his mother, during which she reportedly shouted Mama into the receiver before the call was abruptly disconnected.
The next morning, Hembury suffered an accidental gunshot wound to the mouth inflicted by Henley, with the bullet exiting through his neck.
Several hours later, both teenagers were strangled to death and subsequently buried in a shared grave within the boat shed, directly above the remains of James Glass and Danny Yates.
In November of 1972, 18-year-old Willard Branch, an oak forest youth familiar to both Coral and Henley, vanished while hitchhiking from Mount Pleasant to Houston.
His body, which had been gagged and emasculated, Meaning his testicles were cut off, or chewed off, I should say, was also buried in the boat shed.
On November 11th, a 19-year-old youth from Spring Branch named Richard Kepner disappeared while heading to a phone booth.
Kepner was strangled and laid to rest at High Island Beach.
In total, at least 10 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 were murdered from March to November 1972 alone.
With five buried at High Island Beach and five in the boat shed.
On January 20, 1973, Corll relocated to a residence on Wirt Road situated in the Spring Branch area of Houston.
Within a couple weeks of this move, he committed the murder of 17-year-old Joseph Lyles, who was acquainted with both Corll and Brooks.
Lyles had previously lived on Antoine Drive, the same street where Brooks was residing in early 1973, and it is documented that he had visited Coral's apartment to procure marijuana on at least one occasion prior to his disappearance.
Subsequently, on March 1st, Coral left his apartment on Wirt Road and temporarily stayed in an apartment on South Post Oak Road before ultimately moving to 2020 Lamar Drive.
A property that his father had vacated in Pasadena after living there for about 22 years.
Between February 1st and June 4th, 1973, there were no recorded fatalities among known victims.
It is documented that Coral experienced a hydrocele in early 1973 which may have played a role in this period of reduced activity.
What is a hydrocele, you asked?
I'm glad you asked.
A hydrocele is a fluid-filled sac that causes swelling in the scrotum.
Yeah, it's the most common form of hydrocele.
It's the accumulation of fluids around a testicle, essentially.
Not a pleasant experience.
Concurrently, around the time of Lyle's murder, Henley took an unplanned trip to Florida with his uncle, a long-haul truck driver, before briefly moving to Mount Pleasant, seemingly to distance himself from Coral.
These circumstances could explain the abrupt pause of killings.
However, starting in June, there was a significant surge in Corll's murder rate, with both Henley and Brooks later attesting to the heightened brutality of the crimes committed during Corll's time at Lamar Drive.
Henley likened Corll's increasing violence to a bloodlust, noting that he and Brooks could instinctively sense when Corll was about to express his need for a new boy.
As he would exhibit signs of restlessness, chain-smoking, and making involuntary movements.
That is crazy.
Like, you have this urge, this insane urge, to go kidnap, rape, and murder a boy that you're restless, you're chain-smoking, and you're literally making involuntary movements due to the...
the withdrawal?
I mean, that's pretty fucked up, man.
That's pretty fucked up.
As if doing all this heinous shit isn't fucked up enough.
Now this guy, his withdrawal symptoms, he's just like chain-smoking and just making jerky movements.
He can't control himself.
It's fucking crazy.
On June 4th, Coral and Henley kidnapped 15-year-old William Ray Lawrence, who was last seen alive by his father on 31st Street.
After enduring three days of abuse and torture, Lawrence was strangled and subsequently buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.
Shortly thereafter, on June 16, 20-year-old Raymond Stanley Blackburn was also abducted, strangled, and buried at the same location.
On July 6, 1973, Henley enrolled in classes at the Coaches Driving School in Bel Air, where he met 15-year-old Homer Luis Garcia.
The next day, Garcia called his mother to inform her that he would be spending the night with a friend.
However, he was shot and left to bleed to death in Coral's bathtub before being buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.
Five days later, on July 12, 17-year-old John Sellers from Orange County was bound, shot, and buried at High Island Beach.
In July of 1973, Following Brooke's marriage to his pregnant fiancé, Henley became Coral's primary accomplice in procuring victims, aiding in the abduction and murder of three kids from the Heights between July 19th and 25th.
Henley asserted that these three abductions were the only ones that occurred after he became Coral's accomplice without Brooke's involvement.
One of the victims, 15-year-old Michael Balch, the brother of a previous victim, was last seen by his family on July 19th while heading to get a haircut.
He was subsequently 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 25th and Henley later buried their bodies in the boat shed.
Man, as for the Balch family, that has got to be the most...
the hardest time to have to go through.
He already lost his son, and he's, like, reeling in all that fucking turmoil, and...
Oh, look at that.
Our other son gets fucking kidnapped.
Like, that's the most rough shit.
Dude, I can't even fucking believe that shit.
On August 3rd, 1973, Coral committed his final murder, targeting a 13-year-old boy from South Houston named James Stanton Draymala.
Draymala was kidnapped by Coral while he was cycling in Pasadena and was taken to Lamar Drive under the guise of collecting empty glass bottles for resale.
At Coral's residence, Draymala was restrained on Coral's torture board and subjected to sexual assault and tortured and ultimately strangled with a cord before being buried in the boat shed.
Body's just piling up in there.
Brooks later recounted that Dremalda was a small, blonde boy for whom he had purchased a pizza and with whom he had spent 45 minutes at Coral's home prior to the assault.
On the evening of August 7, 1973, Henley extended an invitation to 20-year-old Timothy Cordell Curley to join a gathering at Coral's residence in Pasadena.
Curly, who was a casual acquaintance of Coral and was intended to be his next target, accepted the invitation.
At that time, Brooks was not present.
The two young men arrived at Coral's home, where they inhaled paint fumes and consumed alcohol until midnight before departing, where they promised to return shortly.
Henley and Curly then drove back to Houston Heights, where Curly parked his vehicle near Henley's residence.
After exiting the car, Henley, upon hearing a disturbance from across the street at the home of his 15-year-old friend, Rhonda Louise Williams, approached her house.
Williams, who was nursing a sprained ankle, had been assaulted by her intoxicated father that evening and agreed to Henley's invitation to accompany him and Curly to Corll's residence.
She then entered the back seat of Curly's Volkswagen and the three of them proceeded toward Corll's home in Pasadena.
I think this is like the first and only girl that was a victim and or potential victim in all of Coral's bullshit.
At around 3 a.m. on August 8th, Henley and Curly, along with Williams, arrived back at Coral's home.
Coral expressed his anger towards Henley for bringing a female guest, privately accusing him of having ruined everything.
Henley clarified that Williams had a dispute with her father that night and preferred not to go home.
Coral seemed to regain his composure and offered the group some beer and some marijuana.
Subsequently, they engaged in drinking and smoking some weeds, while Henley and Curley also inhaled paint fumes under Coral's watchful gaze before he appeared to retire for the night.
After about two hours, Henley, Curley, and Williams would go on to lose consciousness.
That fucking paint, bro.
You can't fuck around with the paint fumes.
You can't fuck around with that shit.
Fucking end up like this, you know what I mean?
Henley would regain consciousness and discovered himself positioned on his stomach with coral-fastening handcuffs around his wrists.
His mouth was sealed with tape, and his ankles were tied together.
Nearby, Curly and Williams were also restrained with nylon rope gagged.
With adhesive tape and lying face down on the floor, with Curly having been stripped of his clothing.
Upon realizing that Henley had awakened, Coral removed the tape from his mouth.
Henley futilely protested against Coral's actions, to which Coral expressed his anger towards Henley for bringing a girl to his residence, declaring his intention to murder all three individuals after he had assaulted and tortured Curly.
Initially, he remarked, You messed up at bringing that girl.
Before exclaiming, I'm going to kill you all, but first, I'm going to have my fun.
And he would go on to violently kick Williams in the chest, yelling, Wake up, bitch.
Coral subsequently raised Henley to a standing position, forcibly leading him into the kitchen where he pressed a.22 caliber pistol against Henley's abdomen, issuing a threat to shoot.
In an effort to placate Coral, Henley assured him that he would assist in the torture and murder of both Williams and Curly if he were released.
Following approximately 30 minutes of negotiation, Coral acquiesced, untying Henley before separately moving Curly and Williams into his bedroom, where he secured them to opposite ends of a torture board with Curly lying face down and Williams on her back.
A transistor radio was positioned between them, its volume set to maximum to drown out any possible screams.
Coral also removed the tape from Curly's mouth, informing him of his intention to conduct an invasive examination, while Henley resumed inhaling paint fumes from a paper bag.
Coral subsequently provided Henley with an 18-inch hunting knife, instructing him to remove William's clothing.
He asserted that while he would proceed to rape and murder Curly, Henley was to do the same to Williams, demanding, What are you waiting for?
Henley commenced the task of cutting away Williams' jeans and panties as Quarles set the pistol on a bedside table, then disrobed himself and started to assault and torture Curly.
At this juncture, both Curly and Williams had regained consciousness.
Curly began to writh in distress, pleading and screaming, while Williams, having had her gag removed by Henley, raised her head and inquired, Is this for real?
To which Henley affirmed, Yes.
Williams then pressed Henley, Are you going to do anything about it?
In a seemingly deliberate effort to numb himself to the escalating situation, Henley rose and began to pace the room while inhaling paint fumes.
He would then inquire of Coral if he could take Williams to another room.
Coral disregarded this request, prompting Henley to seize Coral's firearm, exclaiming, You have gone too far, Dean.
As Coral extricated himself from Curly, Henley expressed his desperation.
I can no longer endure this.
I cannot allow you to murder all of my friends.
Coral then approached Henley, taunting.
Kill me!
Kill me, Wayne!
Henley retreated a few steps as Coral continued his advance, shouting, You won't do it!
In response, Henley discharged his weapon at Coral, striking him in the forehead.
However, the bullet did not completely penetrate Coral's thick-ass skull, and he persisted in his approach.
Henley then fired two additional shots, hitting Coral in the left shoulder and one bullet breaching Coral's lung and becoming lodged in his spine.
Coral began to cough up blood, and he fled the room.
Upon leaving the room, he became ensnared by a loose telephone wire, and he collided with the hallway wall.
Henley then discharged three more rounds into Coral's lower back and shoulder as Coral slid down the wall in the corridor outside the room where the two other teenagers were restrained.
Coral succumbed to his injuries where he collapsed, his exposed body positioned against the wall.
And there are pictures of this if you want to go look this up.
Just, uh, yeah, go Google it up.
I don't know if you want to see those pictures.
Henley would later reflect that right after he shot Coral, his primary thought was that Coral would have been pleased with his conduct during the encounter.
He noted that Coral had trained him to respond swiftly and decisively, which was precisely what he had accomplished.
Following the shooting, both Henley and Curly were overcome with emotion, with Curly repeatedly expressing gratitude for having been saved.
Henley subsequently freed Curly and Williams from the torture board, and the three teenagers got dressed and deliberated on their next steps.
What do we do from here?
Henley proposed that they simply leave, but Curly countered with the suggestion to contact the police.
Henley concurred, which is strange, because, I mean, he's killed a bunch of people, you know?
And he's willing to turn himself in for all this shit.
It's pretty crazy.
Henley concurred and proceeded to find the Pasadena Police Department's number in Coral's phone book.
At 8.24 a.m. on August 8, 1973, Henley initiated a call to the Pasadena Police Department, which was answered by an operator named Velma Lines.
During the call, Henley urgently exclaimed, You all need to come here immediately!
I have just killed a man!
He provided the address, says 2020 Lamar Drive, Pasadena.
While waiting outside Coral's residence for the police, Henley disclosed to Curly that he had previously committed similar acts of homicide on four or five occasions.
He has a conscience.
That's very impressive.
Shortly thereafter, a police vehicle arrived at the scene, where the three individuals were seated on the curb.
The officer noted a.22 caliber pistol laying on the driveway nearby.
Two of the individuals were visibly distressed, with one male hunched over and rocking back and forth, his head in his hands, while the only female present also wept, resting an arm on his shoulder.
The older male simply gazed blankly across the street.
The younger male Identifying himself as Elmer Wayne Henley informed the officer that he was the caller and indicated that Coral's body was located within the house.
And you can only imagine what Curly is going through at this moment in time.
And Williams, for that matter.
But Curly, I mean, he was being, you know, raped at the time.
All the shit that he had gone through up to that point.
Like, you can only imagine what was going through his head.
I mean, he's just...
Blankly gazing across the street, rocking back and forth.
Like, there's a lot of psychological issues there, you know?
After seizing the pistol and placing Henley, Williams, and Curly in the patrol car, the officer entered the bungalow and found Coral's body in the hallway.
Upon returning to the vehicle, the officer read Henley his Miranda rights, to which Henley responded emphatically, I don't care who knows about it.
I have got to get it off my chest.
Curly later told detectives that before the police officer had arrived at Lamar Drive, Henley had informed him, if you wasn't my friend, I could have gotten $200 for you.
What a friend, right?
I couldn't imagine one of my friends, like...
This happening, I could not imagine.
Can you imagine your best friend putting you through this shit and then saying that he could have gotten $200 for you?
Implying that he could have sold you for $200 for you to be raped, abused, tortured, murdered, buried.
And he's just like nonchalant about it.
Like, yeah, I could have done this, but I didn't.
So, during his time in PPD custody, Henley was first interrogated about the murder of Coral.
He detailed the occurrences of the preceding evening and the subsequent morning, asserting that he had shot Coral in self-defense.
The testimonies provided by Curley and Williams supported Henley's narrative, leading the detective conducting the interrogation to conclude that Henley had indeed acted in self-defense.
When probed about his assertion that Coral had threatened him that morning while he claimed to have shouted about having killed several boys, Henley clarified that for nearly three years he and Brooks had facilitated the procurement of teenage boys,
some of whom...
Were their acquaintances or friends?
For Coral, who had sexually assaulted and murdered them.
Henley articulated that he initially believed the boys he had abducted were to be sold to a Dallas-based organization for homosexual acts, sodomy, and maybe later killing.
But he soon discovered that Coral was directly responsible for the murders of the victims that they had procured.
Henley confessed to having aided Coral in multiple abductions and homicides, and he acknowledged his active involvement in the torture and mutilation of six or eight victims prior to their deaths.
The majority of the victims were buried in a boat shed in southwest Houston, while others, like I said earlier, were buried at Lake Sam Rayburn and High Island Beach.
Coral.
had compensated up to $200 for each victim that either Brooks or he managed to entice to his apartment.
So remember, $200 is about $1,500 American dollars in 2025.
Initially, law enforcement officials expressed doubt regarding Henley's assertions, believing that the only homicide in question was that of coral, which they attributed to a fatal altercation fueled by drugs.
Yeah, paint fumes.
Nevertheless, Henley remained adamant, and when he mentioned the names of three boys, Cobble, Hillegeist, and Jones, whom he claimed he and Brooks had delivered to Coral, the police began to take his statements seriously, as all three adolescents were reported missing at the Houston Police Department.
Hillegeist had been reported missing during the summer of 1971, while the other two had been unaccounted for merely two weeks.
Additionally, the floor of the room where the three youths had been restrained was covered with thick plastic sheeting.
Yikes.
Imagine walking into a room like that.
Which there's this other story that I will tell soon about a guy who was lured to a garage and found that to be the case and he had tried to escape.
We'll talk about that when the time comes.
Authorities also discovered a plywood torture board measuring 8 by 3 feet with handcuffs affixed to nylon ropes at two corners and additional nylon ropes at the other two corners.
Furthermore, at Coral's residence, investigators found a large hunting knife, some rolls of clear plastic similar to that used for the floor covering, a portable radio modified to enhance volume using dry cells, an electric motor with exposed wires,
eight pairs of handcuffs, various dildos, thin glass tubes, and lengths of rope.
The Ford Econoline van belonging to Coral, which was parked in the driveway, created a comparable impression.
Its rear windows were obscured by dark blue curtains.
Upon investigation, law enforcement discovered a coil of rope, a piece of beige carpeting stained with soil, and a wooden crate.
with air holes on its sides in the back of the van.
The interior walls of the van's rear section were equipped with multiple rings and hooks affixed to pegboards.
Additionally, another wooden crate with air holes was located in Coral's backyard, which contained several strands of human hair.
Henley would later consent to accompany law enforcement to Coral's boat shed located in southwest Houston, Where he asserted that the remains of multiple victims could be discovered.
Upon entering the boat shed, authorities located a partially disassembled stolen Chevrolet Camaro, a child's bicycle, a sizable iron drum, containers of water, two bags of lime, two shovels, a damaged rake,
and a large plastic bag filled with clothing belonging to teenage boys.
Subsequently, two prison trustees commenced excavating the soft, crushed shell soil of the bow shed and quickly revealed the body of a blonde-haired adolescent male, positioned on his side, and was wrapped in clear plastic and buried beneath a layer of lime.
The police persisted in their excavation efforts within the shed, uncovering the remains of additional victims in various stages of decomposition.
The majority of the bodies discovered were encased in thick, transparent plastic sheeting.
Some of the victims had sustained gunshot wounds, while others had been strangled, with ligatures still tightly bound around their necks.
All identified victims exhibited signs of sodomy, and the majority displayed indications of sexual torture.
Pubic hairs had been forcibly removed, genitals showed signs of being bitten, Or were completely bitten off.
Foreign objects were found inserted into the rectal cavities and glass rods had been inserted into the urethras, stated earlier, and subsequently shattered inside.
Additionally, cloth rigs were stuffed into the victims' mouths and adhesive tape was wrapped around their faces to silence their cries.
The first victim's tongue was found protruding over an inch beyond the dental margin.
While the mouth of the third victim, discovered on August 8th, was so widely open that all upper and lower teeth were visible, prompting investigators to speculate that the individual had died while screaming.
Following the retrieval of the eighth body from the boat shed at 11.55pm, the search for additional bodies was suspended until the following day.
On the evening of August 8th, accompanied by his father, Brooks arrived at the HPD headquarters and provided a statement in which he denied any involvement in the murders but acknowledged prior knowledge of Coral's rape and murder of two teenagers in 1970,
naming two individuals, Reuben Haney and Mark Scott, whom he had seen with Coral shortly before their disappearances.
On the morning of August 9th, Henley provided a comprehensive written account outlining his and Brooks' participation with Coral in the abduction and murder of numerous young individuals.
In this confession, Henley openly acknowledged that he had personally taken the lives of approximately nine youths and had assisted Coral in the strangulation of others.
He noted that the only three abductions and murders in which Brooks Had not participated alongside him and Coral occurred during the summer of 1973.
Later that afternoon, Henley led the police to Lake Sam Rayburn where he, Brooks, and Coral had buried four victims from that year.
Additionally, two more bodies were discovered in shallow graves soaked in lime situated near a dirt road.
Within the lakeside log cabin owned by Coral's family, law enforcement uncovered a second plywood torture board, rolls of plastic sheeting, shovels, and a bag of lime.
On August 9th, police also recovered nine more bodies from the bow shed, along with four separate arm bones that did not belong to any of the identified victims, which were found near the 12th victim's remains.
These bodies were exhumed between 12.05pm and 8.30pm, all exhibiting advanced decomposition.
The 12th body revealed signs of sexual mutilation with the severed genitals found in a sealed plastic bag next to the corpse.
Why?
I don't know.
That's weird.
Another victim displayed several fractured ribs.
The 13th and 14th bodies identified were confirmed to be Donald and Jerry Waldrop.
So depressing.
On the morning of August 10th, Brooks provided a comprehensive confession, acknowledging his presence at multiple homicides and his involvement in several burials, while still denying any direct role in the murders.
He remarked on the torture board used by Coral to restrain and torment his victims, stating, Regarding the murders, Brooks claimed that witnessing the victim's death,
Didn't bother him, adding, I saw it done many times.
He consented to assist the police in their search for the victims' bodies at High Island Beach.
On the same day, Henley accompanied law enforcement to Lake Sam Rayburn, where two additional bodies were discovered buried merely 10 feet apart.
Similar to the previous day's findings, both victims had endured torture and severe beatings, particularly to the head.
Later that afternoon, Henley and Brooks guided the police to High Island Beach, revealing the shallow graves of two more victims.
By August 13th, both individuals again assisted the police at High Island Beach, leading to the discovery of four additional bodies, bringing the total to 27 known victims, making the most extensive killing spree in American history at that time.
Henley maintained that two more bodies were concealed within the boat shed and that the remains of two additional boys had been buried at High Island Beach in 1972.
At that time, the series of murders represented the most severe instance of serial homicide in the United States, surpassing the 25 killings linked to Juan Corona, who was apprehended in California in 1971 for the murder of 25 men.
The grim record of known victims associated with a single murder case established by Coral and his accomplices was only eclipsed in 1978 by John Wayne Gacy, who took the lives of 33 boys and young men and acknowledged that media coverage of the Houston mass murders influenced him to restrain his victims before their assault and murder.
He's talking about the old handcuff trick.
Families of Coral's victims expressed significant dissatisfaction with the Houston Police Department, which hastily categorized the missing boys as runaways, deeming them unworthy of a thorough investigation.
The families of the deceased youths contended that the police should have recognized a disturbing pattern in the disappearance of young boys from the Heights neighborhood.
Other relatives voiced their frustration that the HPD had been dismissive of their firm claims that their sons had no motive to flee from home.
Everett Waldrop, the father of Donald and Jerry Waldrop, recounted that shortly after his sons went missing in 1971, he informed the police that an acquaintance had seen Corll burying what seemed to be bodies at his boat shed.
In response, the police conducted a cursory search around the boat shed, ultimately dismissing the reports as a fabrication.
Waldrop noted that during one of his numerous visits to the HPD, the police chief simply remarked, Why are you down here?
You know your boys are runaways.
Fucking assholes.
The mother of Gregory Mallewinkle remarked, You don't run away from home with nothing but a bathing suit and 80 cents.
No doubt.
Who the fuck's gonna run away from home with just a bathing suit and 80 cents?
No, not happening.
As of May 1974, 21 victims of coral had been identified, with all but four of these young individuals either residing in or having significant ties to Houston Heights.
In 1983 and 1985, two additional teenagers were identified.
One, Richard Kepner, had previously lived in Humboldt, Texas, but moved to Spring Branch shortly before his disappearance to pursue training as a carpenter's assistant.
The other individual, Willard Branch, resided in the Oak Forest area of Houston.
And on August 13th, a grand jury assembled in Harris County to examine evidence against Henley and Brooks.
The initial witnesses to provide testimony were Williams and Curley, who detailed the events of August 7th and 8th that culminated in Coral's death.
Additionally, William Riedinger, The hearing also included testimonies from investigators who presented various statements and confessions made by Henley and Brooks in the aftermath of Coral's death,
as well as individuals responsible for overseeing the exhumation of the victim's remains.
Following more than six hours of testimony, The grand jury indicted Henley on three counts of murder and Brooks on one count on August 14th.
Bail was established at $100,000 for each individual.
Notably, Henley was not charged with Corll's death, which prosecutors later determined had occurred in self-defense.
Surprising.
Surprising that they did that, you know what I mean?
Upon the conclusion of the grand jury's investigation, Henley faced indictment for six counts of murder while Brooks was indicted for four.
Both defendants subsequently declined pre-trial plea offers from Assistant District Attorney Don Lambright, which proposed life sentences in exchange for guilty pleas to the charges against them.
Additionally, a pretrial motion requesting a psychiatric evaluation of Henley to assess his mental competency for trial was contested by his attorney, Charles Melder, on the basis that such a ruling would infringe upon Henley's constitutional rights.
Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks faced separate trials for their involvement in the murders.
Henley's trial commenced before Judge Preston Dial in San Antonio on July 1, 1974, Where he was charged with six murders that occurred between March 1972 and July 1973.
Following the counsel of his defense attorney, Henley opted not to testify.
His lawyer, William Gray, conducted cross-examinations of several witnesses but refrained from calling any witness or experts to support the defense.
The prosecution presented 24 witnesses, including Curley and Rittinger, and submitted 8.
82 pieces of evidence, which included Coral's torture board and one of the boxes utilized for transporting the victims.
Within this box, police discovered hair that forensic experts confirmed belonged to both Cobble and Henley.
Additional damaging testimony was provided by police officers who recounted Henley's written confessions.
In one segment of his confession, Henley detailed how he had enticed two of the victims, Cobble and Jones, to Coral's residence in Pasadena.
He admitted that after enduring initial abuse and torture at Coral's home, both Cobble and Jones were restrained on the same side of Coral's torture board.
Coral compelled the youths to fight each other, promising that the survivor would be spared.
After several hours of violence...
Jones was secured to a board and forced to witness Kabul being assaulted, tortured, and ultimately shot to death before he himself was subjected to rape, torture, and strangulation with a Venetian blind cord.
Kabul and Jones were murdered on July 27, 1973, just two days after being reported missing.
The courtroom witnessed emotional turmoil as several parents of the victims had to step out to regain their composure while police and medical examiners recounted the horrific details of their loved one's torture and murder.
I just could not imagine that.
That whole process, it's bad enough that your kid was kidnapped, tortured, sexually assaulted, raped, murdered, dismembered, and buried, and all that.
But then to have to, like, listen to these medical examiners and police go over all those fucking details of what happened to your kid?
Fuck, man.
It's bad enough to hear it happening to someone else's child, and then to think that that could happen to yours.
It's just mind-shattering.
On July 15th, 1974, both legal representatives delivered their closing statements to the jury.
The prosecution advocating for life imprisonment, while the defense requested a not guilty verdict.
During his closing remarks, District Attorney Carol Vance expressed regret for his inability to pursue the death penalty, characterizing the case as the most extreme example of man's inhumanity to man I have ever seen.
The jury took 92 minutes to deliberate before convicting Henley of all six murders that he was charged for.
The next day, July 16th, formal sentencing procedures commenced, and on August 8th, Judge Preston Dial mandated that Henley serve six consecutive 99-year sentences, amounting to a total of 594 years, after which he was transferred to the Huntsville unit to commence his sentence.
Henley subsequently appealed his conviction and sentence, arguing that the jury had not been sequestered during the trial.
That his attorney's objections to the presence of media in the courtroom were dismissed, and that the judge had also overruled his defense team's efforts to argue against the trial being held in San Antonio, because it was a pretty high-profile case, you know?
His appeal was granted, leading to a retrial in December of 1978.
The retrial of Henley began on June 18, 1979, in Corpus Christi.
where he was once again defended by attorneys William Gray and Edwin Pegelau.
Henley's legal team sought to have his written statements deemed inadmissible.
However, Judge Noah Kennedy ruled that the statements made by Henley on August 9, 1973 were admissible as evidence.
The retrial spanned nine days, during which Henley's defense did not present any witnesses and continued to challenge the validity of his written confession.
Furthermore, the defense argued that the evidence presented by the prosecution was attributable to Dean Corll rather than Elmer Wayne Henley.
On June 27, 1979, after more than two hours of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict.
Convicting Henley of six murders, and imposing six concurrent 90-year sentences instead of six consecutive ones.
And on to Brooks.
On February 27, 1975, David Brooks faced trial under Judge William Hatton in Houston.
He had been indicted for four murders that occurred between December 1970 and June 1973.
However, the trial focused solely on the murder of 15-year-old William Ray Lawrence in June of 1973.
Brooks' defense attorney, Jim Skelton, contended that his client was innocent of all charges and sought to depict Coral, and to a lesser extent, Henley, as the primary perpetrators of the murders.
In response, Assistant District Attorney Tommy Dunn categorically rejected the defense's claims, and at one point, addressing the jury directly, saying,
"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 a cheerleader.
Some choice words of the district attorney Tommy Dunn there.
Choice words.
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.
And yeah, he's got a point.
He's got a point.
The trial of Brooks concluded in under a week, with the jury taking merely 90 minutes to arrive at a verdict.
On March 4th, 1975, Brooks was convicted of the murder of Lawrence and subsequently received a life sentence.
While Brooks displayed no visible reaction to the sentencing, his wife was overcome with emotion, as you can imagine.
Additionally, Brooks sought to appeal his sentence, arguing that the confessions argued in his prosecution were obtained without proper notification of his legal rights.
However, his appeal was rejected in May of 1979.
Today, Henley is serving his sentence, his life sentence, at the Mark Stiles unit in Jefferson County, Texas.
Successive parole applications dating from July 1980 have been denied.
He is next eligible for parole in October of 2025.
That's this year, guys.
That's in a handful of months here.
And he could potentially be released on parole.
I highly doubt it.
I highly doubt it, but you never know.
As for Brooks, he served his life sentence at the Terrell Unit near Rosharan, Texas.
And is that how you pronounce that, guys?
Rosharan?
R-O-S-H-A-R-O-N?
Rosharan?
I don't know.
He would actually die of quote-unquote vivid related complications at the Galveston Hospital on May 28, 2020 at the age of 65. Coral and his associates are believed to have murdered at least 29 adolescents and young males from September of 1970 to 1973,
although it is suspected that the actual number of victims may be greater.
Of the identified victims, 27 have been confirmed, while the identity of a 28th victim, Mark Scott, whose remains have never been located, is also definitively established.
The only unidentified victim of Coral, identified as the 16th body discovered in the boat shed, was found in a significantly decomposed state.
prompting investigators to infer that his death likely occurred in 1971 or 1972.
At the time of discovery, he was attired in red, white, and blue striped swimming trunks, cowboy boots, a leather bracelet, and a long-sleeved khaki t-shirt adorned with the peace symbol, suggesting that his demise probably took place during the summer months.
The victim was characterized by dark hair and may have suffered from spina bifida.
A congenital condition that could have influenced his mobility or caused persistent pain.
Since the recovery of his remains, this individual has been referred to as John Houston Doe, although he is also colloquially known as Swimsuit Boy.
The unidentified victim was discovered buried near the entrance of the boat shed, positioned between the remains of Stephen Sickman and Reuben Haney.
Dr. Derrick has expressed her belief that this victim may be referred to as Harmon Harmon, or French, as these surnames correspond to the only unresolved missing persons reports concerning youths from the Houston area between 1970 and 1973 that align with the forensic profile of this unidentified youth.
Among these individuals is 15-year-old John Harmon, a teenager from the Heights who was reported missing in 1971.
He was last known to have contacted his parents, requesting financial assistance in a manner reminiscent of how victims Charles Cobble and Marty Jones had been compelled to reach out to their parents prior to their murders.
Furthermore, Dr. Derrick has indicated that she has grounds to suspect this victim may be named Robert or Bobby French, noting that she received an anonymous package containing a collection of photographs that depict this individual shortly before his death,
or may depict, I should say.
The sender of this package identified the individual as Bobby French.
In 2022, officials declared that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in collaboration with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Science, is diligently engaged in the identification of this victim.
An enhanced facial reconstruction was made public in August of 2023.
In February 1975, during a standard investigation, the Houston Police Department uncovered a significant collection of pornographic images and films featuring boys as young as 8, predominantly from the Heights area.
Among the 16 individuals portrayed in the media, 11 were identified as known victims of coral by that time.
This revelation raised unsettling questions regarding Coral's claims to Hanley and Brooks about his connections to a Dallas-based organization involved in the trafficking of boys, young boys, which may have contained elements of truth.
The 1975 discovery in Houston ultimately resulted in the apprehension of five individuals in Santa Clara, California, including Roy Ames, the proprietor of the warehouse where the materials were found, who was a known child pornography producer,
and whose name was discovered on a card in Coral's wallet.
However, no direct connection between these arrests and Coral was established, as the Houston Police Department chose not to investigate.
Any potential links to those murders.
Citing concerns that the families of Coral's victims had already suffered enough.
And like, I can understand that to a point, but when you're trying to make connections of the bigger picture, you know, you gotta take matters into your own hands there and do something a little more aggressive.
Because you're not gonna get to the truth of things.
Which is the problem with all the Epstein shit.
Yeah, well anyway.
On August 15, 1973, merely two days following the discovery of the last bodies associated with the Houston mass murders, law enforcement officials in Dallas unearthed a national homosexual procurement network managed by John David Norman.
This police operation resulted in the confiscation of a card filing system that included approximately 10,000 names of individuals linked to this organization.
along with the personal information of several adolescent boys who were victimized by this sex ring.
There remains a lack of definitive evidence indicating that Coral solicited any of his victims in this manner.
This is primarily due to the Houston Police Department's decision not to investigate this potential avenue, as well as the fact that neither Brooks nor Henley reported any encounters with individuals associated with the organization.
that Coral claimed to be part of.
Furthermore, neither individual indicated having witnessed any of the victims being filmed, photographed, or released from the restraints used by Coral until after they had endured all the rape, torture, and then their subsequent murder.
Nevertheless, the arrest in Santa Clara lent some credence to Brooks' assertions to law enforcement that Coral had disclosed that his earliest murder victims were buried in California.
And that is going to end it for this episode.
If you want to get a little deeper into Dean Corll, go over to the Patreon where I'm about to dive into Eye of the Chicken Hawk by Simon Dovey.
It's some heavy shit, man.
I mean, we read part one a while ago.
That was a snuff film.
And this is going to be part two or chapter two of Eye of the Chicken Hawk.
So, please.
Go on over to Patreon and listen to that.
Join the Patreon crew.
And if you want to reach out to us, please go to Twitter at Paranautica or you can email us at Paranautica at gmail.com Thanks once again.
For all those lovely ear holes taking all this information in, we do really, really, really, really greatly appreciate you guys listening.
