Dean Corll



Dean Arnold Corll (December 24, 1939 – August 8, 1973) was an American serial killer who, along with two teenaged accomplices named David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr., abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered at least 28 teenage boys and young men in a series of killings between 1970 and 1973 in Houston, Texas. The crimes, which became known as the Houston Mass Murders, came to light after Henley fatally shot Corll.

Corll's victims were typically lured with an offer of a party or a lift to a succession of addresses in which he resided between 1970 and 1973. They would then be restrained either by force or deception, and each was killed either by strangulation or shooting with a .22-caliber pistol. Corll and his accomplices buried 17 of their victims in a rented boat shed; four other victims were buried in woodland near Lake Sam Rayburn; one victim was buried on a beach in Jefferson County; and at least six victims were buried on a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula. Brooks and Henley confessed to assisting Corll in several abductions and murders; both were sentenced to life imprisonment at their subsequent trials.

Corll was also known as the Candy Man and the Pied Piper, because he and his family had owned and operated a candy factory in Houston Heights, and he had been known to give free candy to local children.

When discovered, the Houston Mass Murders were considered the worst example of serial murder in American history up to that point.