How “Candy Man” Killer Dean Corll Bought Confederate Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. to Commit Abolish
Dean Corll killed no decrease than 27 boys within the early 1970s, but he had encourage. ID's The Serial Killer's Apprentice digs into how—and why—Houston teen Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. contributed to the body count.
The search to treasure what makes serial killers tick is a complete swap.
Nonetheless what about somebody treasure Elmer Wayne Henley Jr.? While he's a convicted serial killer, it's not doubtless to know if he ever would glean dedicated kill on his own if he hadn't crossed paths with “Candy Man” Dean Corll, who tortured and murdered no decrease than 27 boys and younger males within the Houston space between 1970 and 1973.
“I'm appealing to settle for that's a length of my existence I’d also fair never glean an working out of,” Henley advised Dr. Katherine Ramsland in a detention middle interview heard within the brand new Investigation Discovery documentary The Serial Killer's Apprentice, premiering Aug. 17. “I glean never been allowed to additional that storyline.”
Nonetheless Ramsland wished to know more about how Henley, who used to be peaceful a younger particular person himself, ended up killing alongside Corll—earlier than, that is, he shot Corll to loss of life on Aug. 8, 1973, after which advised police where they may perhaps perhaps well well also fair get the bodies of bigger than two dozen victims.
As Ramsland and journalist Tracy Ullman wrote within the introduction to their documentary-spirited 2024 e-book of the identical title, “He's the single identified accomplice to glean killed the predator who lured him into a crew killer affiliation.”
Henley advised Ramsland that he believed Corll within the initiating intended to abolish him too, but wondered if, as a replacement, “Did he acknowledge a fellow psychopath?”
After he killed Corll, the then-17-year-mature advised police, per Ramsland's e-book, that he had tried to verbalize his mother “two or three conditions about these items,” but she didn't think him. “I even wrote a confession one time and hid it,” he talked about, “hoping that Dean would abolish me since the factor used to be bothering me so grisly. I gave the confession to my mother and advised her if I used to be gone for a fair appropriate length of time to flip it in.”
Whether or no longer or no longer Henley's freeway from terrified teen to assassin can ever genuinely be understood, here's what to know regarding the demanding case of the “Candy Man” killer and his apprentice:
Who used to be “Candy Man” killer Dean Corll?
Born in 1939, Dean Corll served temporarily within the U.S. Navy earlier than settling in Texas in 1965, working for his mother and stepfather's candy-making swap in Houston Heights.
Younger of us affectionally known as Corll “Candy Man” for this reason of he handed out sweets on the playground.
Corll used to be working as an electrician for the Houston Lights and Energy Firm when he moved into his father's primitive dwelling in Pasadena, Texas, within the spring of 1973. He had never been arrested or charged with any crime.
It wasn't unless after Corll died that August that police connected the 33-year-mature to the murders of 27 teenage boys. Investigators dug up 17 bodies in a ship storage shed in Houston, one more six in Excessive Island and four by Lake Sam Rayburn.
Who were Dean Corll's victims?
Corll's identified victims ranged in age from 13 to 19, all of them shot and/or strangled.
Jeffrey Alan Konen, an 18-year-mature pupil at University of Texas, Austin, disappeared while hitchhiking on Sept. 25, 1970. The first missing teen linked to Corll, his body used to be stumbled on buried on Excessive Island.
Through the years, Corll killed two devices of brothers. Jerry Waldrop, 13, and Donald Waldrop, 15, each and each disappeared on Jan. 30, 1971, and were stumbled on buried collectively within the boat shed.
Billy Gene Baulch Jr.—a primitive Corll Candy Co. employee—used to be 17 when he went missing on Would possibly perhaps also 21, 1972. He used to be buried at Excessive Island Seaside. Michael Anthony Baulch, 15, disappeared on July 19, 1973, and his stays were stumbled on at Lake Sam Rayburn.
Corll's splendid identified victim used to be 13-year-mature James Stanton Dreymala, who used to be kidnapped on Aug. 3, 1973. 5 days later, Corll died and the bodies of Dreymala and 16 others were unearthed from Stall No. 11 at Southwest Boat Storage.
Even as soon as the stays were uncovered, it took years to identify all the victims. Roy Eugene Bunton, 19, who disappeared Aug. 21, 1972, used to be misidentified as one more younger man after his body used to be dug up from the boat shed. He wasn't positively ID'd unless 2011, based completely completely on the Houston Sage.
In step with the 2025 Investigation Discovery documentary The Serial Killer's Apprentice, forensic researchers are trying to identify the stays of a doubtless Twenty eighth victim.
How did serial killer Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. discontinuance up murdering boys with Dean Corll?
Elmer Wayne Henley Jr., born in 1956, had been cutting class and drinking within the wake of his other folks' divorce. Forced to repeat the ninth grade, he used to be “bored to tears,” as he recalled to criminologist Dr. Katherine Ramsland in a detention middle interview played within the ID documentary.
He first met Corll thru fellow middle-schooler David Owen Brooks. (Brooks confessed to helping Corll abduct victims and remove their bodies, but denied killing somebody himself. He used to be convicted of the June 1973 kill of 15-year-mature Billy Ray Lawrence and spent the relaxation of his existence in detention middle, loss of life in 2020.)
Calling Corll “a vampire of the worst form,” Ramsland talked about within the doc, “Wayne Henley used to be shattered in who he used to be, and remade and groomed by a predator that he had no resources to apartment.”
Henley maintained he didn't know what Corll used to be up to unless he killed 18-year-mature Frank Aguirre—a chum of Henley's—on March 24, 1972.
“I used to be disturbed,” Henley advised Ramsland. “I knew correct from defective, I ought to've gone to the police.”
Nonetheless Henley then helped Corll abolish 17-year-mature Mark Scott, who disappeared on April 20, 1972.
What happened to serial killer Dean Corll?
On Aug. 8, 1973, Henley killed Corll at his Pasadena dwelling.
As he advised police on the time, the teenager had brought two company to social gathering at Corll's dwelling. At some level the trio passed out and, when they awakened, they were all tied up. Henley cheerful Corll to untie him, promising to encourage him abolish the others. Nonetheless when Corll put his gun down, Henley picked it up and shot him three conditions.
That identical day, he led police to the boat shed and furthermore advised them regarding the opposite two burial sites.
“I didn’t implicate myself instantly,” Henley advised Ramsland. “Someplace along the freeway there I fair decided it used to be better to be upright about every thing.”
Where is Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. now?
Henley pleaded no longer guilty but used to be convicted in 1974 of six of the murders linked to Corll. He used to be sentenced to six ninety 9-year detention middle terms, to be served consecutively.
His conviction used to be thrown out on appeal in 1978, the court ruling that a swap of venue ought to were granted to prevent faraway from a biased jury pool. Nonetheless, Henley used to be convicted again in 1979 and resentenced, but to six ninety 9-year terms to be served similtaneously. Now 69, Henley stays incarcerated at Telford Unit, a notify detention middle in Bowie County, Texas.
He has been denied parole more than one conditions and, though the other folks of most of his victims are ineffective, the ones peaceful alive remain dedicated to making sure Henley is rarely released.
“You may perhaps perhaps well well as smartly prepare for it mentally, but what are you going to speak?” James Dreymala, whose son Stanton used to be the killers' splendid victim, advised NBC affiliate KPRC in June 2025 as Henley's case came up for evaluation again. “What are you gonna attain? You’re going to verbalize the parole board precisely the components you in truth feel.”
Added his wife Elaine Dreymala, “I don’t genuinely feel he deserves to ever be free.”
The Serial Killer's Apprentice premieres Sunday, Aug. 17, at 9/8c on ID and ought to be readily available to stream on HBO Max.
Source credit : eonline.com
