American homicide; a mass murderer of the 1970s whose shocking case blasted its way into the public consciousness. His victims were young Houston boys who hung out at his family’s candy factory. Claiming that his army service 1964-1965 made him a homosexual, he began to rape and kill teen-age boys in 1970. Corll held glue-sniffing parties before the killings inasmuch as dizziness, decreasing reflexes and numbness of extremities made his crimes easier to execute. He devised tortures such as cuffing the boys to wooden boards, inserting glass rods or dildoes in their rectum or castrating them before strangling or shooting them. In his bestial frenzy, he had even gnawed off the penis of one of the boys. The sordid story of sodomy, rape, torture and agonizing death for at least 28 teenage boys became known 8/08/1973 when Corll was shot to death by a young accomplice-turned-near-victim.
Corll was born to a factory worker and his wife, both 24 years old. It was a stormy marriage in which divorce was discussed from the time Dean was a baby. When he was two, his brother Stanley was born and their parents’ divorce became a reality. After the war, his parents reconciled and remarried, but soon divorced again for the last time.
At age six or seven, Dean had undiagnosed rheumatic fever with a heart murmur. The sickly boy was kept out of school. When he was nine and Stanley seven, they spent the summer on their grandparent’s farm in Louisiana.
By his adolescence, his mom had married Jake West, a traveling salesman and the family moved to Vidor, Texas. In high school, Dean played trombone in the band, but was excused from physical education because of fainting spells. Jake and his mom started a candy business at that time. In 1958, Dean finished high school but did not graduate until he had make-up courses for the grades he failed.
The family moved to Houston where the candy business prospered but his folks’ marriage accumulated tension and clashes. They divorced in 1962. Dean was drafted that year but his mom waged a two-year battle against his going into the army. The government won and Dean entered the service on 8/10/1964. At Fort Benning, GA he went to radio repair school, then to Fort Hood, TX. He was honorably discharged in June 1965 and went to work in the family candy business. He fixed up the home garage and put in a pool table where 14 and 15-year-old friends hung out.
Dean’s mom remarried Jake in 1965. They opened another candy factory opposite Cooley Elementary School and Dean often gave away candy to the school kids. He worked out with weights to keep in top shape. In 1966 he got a white van with a rack for surf boards. He loved taking kids with him to the beach. He would get giddy around the boys, playing pranks and reaching out to pinch them, and kids were always around.
In June 1968, Dean was living in a shed across from the Helms school and kids were in and out for parties. He then moved to a house near the county orphanage. Later it was found that two boys had been killed there. In September 1970 he got an apartment and 15-year-old David Brooks moved in with him. He was giving David $10 each time that David allowed what is called “oral sodomy.”
In the mid-’60s, Dean got a job at Houston Light and Power Co and worked at the candy factory at night.
It is supposed that he began to kill in June-July 1968 but there is no hard evidence to support this. He smoked pot and drank to get high and moved often, some 20-25 moves in a five-year period. In September 1970 he had a house where two boys were killed. On 11/17/1970 he rented a boat shed where 19 bodies were later dug up. In 1971 two brothers were killed and a nine-year-old boy. On 5/29/1971, two boys, 13 and 16, were killed, and on 8/17/1971, a 17-year-old boy. Another boy was held and tortured for four days before his murder. On 3/24/1972, an 18-year-old was killed and on 5/21/1972, a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old were killed. On 10/02/1972, two more boys were killed, 13 and 14 years old. One boy was sodomized repeatedly but escaped death, but not so for an 18-year old on 12/22/1972.
Murders were committed on the following dates: 6/04/1973, Billy Lawrence, 15. 7/19/1973, Tony Baulch, 16. 7/26/1973, Charles Colebele and Marty Ray Jones, both 17. 8/05/1973, James Dreymula, 13, after two days sexual torture. Corll was drinking heavily by then and had high blood pressure. By August he seemed possessed.
After he turned 30, friends noticed an abrupt change in Corll. He became morose and lost his sense of humor, falling into black moods. Six foot tall, he became puffy and soft with pale skin and poor circulation. His brown hair was graying at the back and temples. His face was described as “rabbity,” with a thick nose and wide-set eyes.
David Brooks and Wayne Henley were two buddies and accomplices. It was Henley who eventually shot Corll to death on 8/08/1973 in Corll’s home in Pasadena, Texas. He had been shot six times in the chest, shoulder and head.
As far as is known 28-30 boys met their death by Corll, Brooks and Henley. The latter two think it could have been as many as a hundred, with which police concur.
Link to Wikipedia biography