Dean Corll

Dean Arnold Corll, a.k.a. "The Candy Man" or "The Pied Piper", was a profilic American serial killer and rapist who perpetrated the so-called Houston Mass Murders, which at time of its discovery, were considered the worst example of serial killings in the history of the United States.

Background
Corll was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as the first child of Arnold Edwin Corll and Mary Robinson. Due to frequent arguments with each other, the couple divorced seven years after Corll's birth, but eventually attempted reconciliation. Because of his shyness, Corll rarely sociliazed with his peers as a child, but also cared for the well-being and feelings of others. At the age of seven, Corl suffered a case of rheumatic fever, which was only discovered when doctors found out that Corll had a heart murmur, which prevented him from participating in physical education. In 1950, Edwin and Robinson remarried for only three years before divorcing again, with Robinson gaining custody of Corll and his younger brother, Stanley. Robinson soon married a travelling clock salesman named Jake West and both started living together in Vidor, Texas, where Robinson had a third child, Joyce. The family then started a candy company named Pecan Prince, with Corll and Stanley being responsible for running the candy making machine and packing products, while West would sell the candy. In his high school years, Corll was seen by teachers as a well-behaved student with satisfavtory grades, however, Corll continued to be considered a loner by his peers, despite occassionally dating girls. Corll graduated in the summer of 1958 and moved to the outskirts of Houston with his family shortly after, as a way to be closer to the city where the majority of the products were been sold. West eventually opened a new shop, which was again named Pecan Prince. In 1960, Corll moved to Indiana at the request of his mother, to live with his widowed grandmother.

There, Corll met a local girl and began to date her, but rejected a marriage proposal she had made to him. In order to help his family, Corll returned to Houston two years later. In 1963, Robinson divorced West and opened a new candy business of her own, now named Corll Candy Company, in which Corll was the vice-president. That same year, one of Robinson's teenage male employees complained about Corll making sexual advances towards him. As response, she simply fired the boy. A year later, Corll drafted into the United States Army and assigned to Fort Polk, Louisiana, for training, it was at that time that Corll realized that he was homosexual and had his first homosexual encounters. Corll's period in the army only lasted for ten months, after he applied for a hardship discharge, which was granted, Corll was subsequently honorably discharged on June 11, 1965 and soon returned to work in his family's candy company. Due to his habit of giving free candy to children, he earned himself the nicknames "Candy Man" and "Pied Piper", but continued to make even more advances towards male employees. In 1967, Corll met twelve-year-old David Owen Brooks and the two became close friends, Brooks would go on trips with Corll and admired him to the point of seeing Corll as a substitute father, for being the first adult who did not mock his appearance and gave him money when he was in need. However, Corll's relationship with Brooks took a darker turn in the beginning of 1969, when Corll paid Brooks to perform oral sex on him. Following the closure of the candy company, Corll took testing electrical relay systems at the Houston Lighting and Powe Company as his job.

Murders and Death
Corll's first murder victim was Jeffrey Konen, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, whom he abducted while hitchhiking on September 25, 1970, Konen's body was buried at High Island Beach. Around the time of Konen's murder, Brooks interrupted Corll in the act of raping two teenage boys he had strapped to a torture board. In return for his silence, Corll promised Brooks a car and he accepted the offer, Corll bought him a green Chevrolet Corvette shortly after murdering the two boys. Later, Corll offered $200 to Brooks for any boy he could lure to Corll's apartment. On December 13, Brooks lured two boys away from a religious rally held to Corll's apartment, where they were tied to his torture board, raped and killed. On January 30, 1971, Corll and Brooks encountered two boys walking toward their parents' home, the boys were lured to Corll's van and driven to his apartment, and subsequently raped and killed by him, their bodies were then buried in the boat shed. Between March and May, Corll abducted and killed more three victims with Brooks' help.

On August 17, Corll and Brooks encountered an acquaintance of Brooks named Ruben Haney walking home from a movie theater, Corll subsequently took Haney to his home and strangled him to death. In the winter of 1971, Brooks lured Elmer Wayne Henley and intended to have him killed, however, Corll decided that he would make a good accomplice and offered him the same fee of $200 for any boy he could lure to Corll's apartment, telling Henley that he was a member of a slavery ring. Henley completely ignored Corll's for several months before finally accepting it in early 1972, when he and his family were in dire financial circumstances, still believing that he was working with a human trafficker, not a serial killer. On March 24, 1972, the trio encountered an acquaintance of Henley's, Frank Aguirre, leaving a restaurant, they then convinced Aguirre to come at Corll's apartment with the promise of drinking beer and smoking marijuana. There, Corll pushed him onto the table and handcuffed him, seeing this, Henley attempted to persuade Corll into not hurting Aguirre, but refused and killed him anyways, then revealed that he had raped and murdered the previous boy Henley had lured for him. Despite this, Henley continued to work with Corll and buried his body at High Island Beach.

According to Brooks, Henley was a sadistic individual who enjoyed murdering the boys on his own. The trio continued their killing spree until August 7, 1973. Henley, now aged 17, invited Timothy Kerley to attend a party at Corll's house, the boy accepted the offer, but came accompanied by a girl named Rhonda Williams. Furious by the fact that Henley had brought a girl to his house, and told him in private that he had "ruined everything". The trio then began drinking and smoking as Corll watched and waited for them to pass out. In the next morning, Henley awoke to find himself lying upon his stomach and Corll snapping handcuffs onto his wrists. Noticing Henley had awoken, Corll removed the gag from his mouth and said that he was going to kill him, Kerley and Williams, for making the mistake of bringring a girl to his house. Corll proceeded to kick Williams in the stomach and threatening to shoot Kerley. Henley then promised to Corll that he would participate in the torture and murder of both Kerley and Williams if Corl released him, to which he agreed.

As Corll tortured Kerley, Henley removed Williams' gag and began talking with her, Henley then grabbed Corll's pistol and said "You've gone far enough, Dean, I can't go on any longer! I can't have you kill all my friends!", to which Corll replied "Kill me, Wayne!". Panicking, Henley stepped back as Corll continued advance and taunt him by saying "You won't do it!". Finally, Henley fired at Corll, hitting him in the forehead, but not killing him. Corll continued to lurch towards Henley and as response shot him five more times, hitting him in the left shoulder and lower back as he slid down the wall in the hallway outside the room where the two other teenagers were bound, Corll died shortly after. The trio then contacted the police and Henley was taken into custody, where he confessed to helping Corll in his serial killings and Brooks' involvement in the murders. Both Henley and Brooks are now serving life sentences, Henley is incarcerated at the Mark W. Michael Unit in Anderson County, Texas while Brooks is incarcerated at the Ramsey Unit near Rosharon, Texas.

Modus Operandi
Corll targeted males aged between 13 and 20, whom he would abduct with the help of his accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks. Corll would drive them to his house by promising alcohol or drugs and there, the boys would be stripped naked, tied to a bed or a plywood torture board before being raped, beaten and tortured, sometimes for several days. When he killed his victims, Corll would strangle them to death or shoot them with a .22 caliber pistol. The bodies were then tied in plastic sheeting and buried. Occassionally, Corll would force his victims to either phone or write explanations to their parents about their absences.

Known Victims

 * 1970:
 * September 25: Jeffrey Konen, 18
 * December 13: James Glass, 14 and Danny Yates, 14


 * 1971:
 * January 30: Donald, 15 and Jerry Waldrop, 14
 * March 9: Randell Harvey, 15
 * May 29: David Hilligiest, 13 and Gregory Malley Winkle, 16
 * August 17: Ruben Watson Haney, 17
 * 1972:
 * Unspecified date: Willard Branch, Sr.
 * February 9: Willard Branch, Jr., 17
 * March 24: Frank Aguirre, 18
 * April 20: Mark Scott, 17
 * May 21: Johnny Delome, 16 and Billy Baulch Jr., 17
 * July 19: Steven Sickman, 17
 * August 21: Roy Bunton, 19
 * October 2: Wally Jay Simoneaux and Richard Hembree
 * Wally Jay Simoneaux, 14
 * Richard Hembree, 13
 * November 12: Richard Kepner, 19
 * 1973:
 * February 1: Joseph Lyles, 17
 * June 4: William Ray Lawrence, 15
 * June 15: Raymond Blackburn, 20
 * July 7: Homer Garcia, 15
 * July 12: John Sellars, 17
 * July 19: Michael Baulch, 15
 * July 25: Marty Jones, 18 and Charles Cary Cobble, 17
 * August 3: James Dreymala, 13
 * Note: Based upon polaroid images and missing reports, Corll is believed to have killed many more victims.

On Criminal Minds
Corll shares some traits with serial killer Anita Roycewood. Like Anita, Corll used two submissive male accomplices to provide new victims for him, one of whom, Elmer Wayne Henley, was an abducted victim himself. Corll was about to rape and kill two victims provided by Henley, when Henley pointed a gun at him and told him to stop, much like when Anita was about to kill the victims she held captive before Charlie pointed a gun at her. Also like Anita, Corll laughed off the threat and tried to retrieve the gun before being shot and killed. Anita's husband being an electrician might be another nod to Corll, who worked as an electrician at the time of his death.