19 Bodies Found So Far
Houston Police Piece Together Story of Multiple Killings of Teenage Boys
by Houston (UPI)
Police have dug up the bodies, all believed young boys who were tortured, sexually abused and killed by a 33-year-old bachelor electrician and two teenage “assistants.” Police ordered work crews to dig for more bodies today. One of two teenagers accused in the killings told police Thursday they will find 30 bodies. If so, it would be the worst mass murder in U.S. history. Police pieced together a story of two boys from broken homes who hung around with the older man and thought of him a substitute father. Police unearthed 17 of the bodies under a boat shed in southwest Houston. The other two bodies were found late Thursday north of Houston at an east Texas fishing resort on the shores of Lake Sam Rayburn. Digging operations were ordered continued at this site today. In addition, police said there may be a third burial ground on an island off Texas’ Gulf Coast.
Police think the killings took place during the past two years. One victim was believed to be a 13-year-old boy missing since 1971. His parents spent thousands of dollars in a search for him. Police learned of the killings when the electrician involved, Dean Arnold Corll 33, was shot to death by one of his teenage friends at a paint sniffing sex “party” Tuesday night. The boy, Elmer Wayne Henley, 17, called police after killing Corll. Henley said Corll had tied him to a board used as a torture rack with another young man, 20, and a 15-year-old girl and was about to sexually molest and kill all three of them. But Henley told police he convinced Corll to set him free, telling him he would help with the attacks. Once free, Henley said he turned on Corll, shooting him six times with a caliber pistol.
Henley said Corll had previously told him about the burial ground at the boat shed. Henley also implicated the other teenager involved, David Brooks, 18. Brooks was apprehended and said he took part in some of the killings. He told police they could find as many as 30 bodies buried in three different parts of the state. “He has admitted to several of the murders, along with Henley and Corll. Police Lt. Breck Porter said of Brooks. ‘ “He admitted taking part in practically all of the killings over a three-year period.” In 1969 Corll rented the boat stall where the 17 bodies were found. All the victims found buried in stall No. 11 were believed led in to be teen-age boys.
Porter said Corll “never messed with anything but boys. Some of the victims were buried in bathing suits. Some were naked. One youngster was dressed in a gold shirt. Another wore blue trousers. The 10th victim unearthed had a cord pulled tight around his neck. “This guy must have spent half his time digging graves,” Homicide Detective Larry Earls said. “This whole floor is covered with bones.” Henley said he and Corll were very close friends, and Henley’s mother said, Dean treated Wayne like a son and Wayne loved him like a father. He ate Easter dinner with us.
He worked on my car. He loved to play with the kids. One of the bodies is thought to be that of David Hilligiest, 13, who left his home in May 1971 to go swimming. The Hilligiest spent thousands of dollars for private detectives; they advertised in newspapers, offered a $1,000 reward and consulted mediums and clairvoyants in the fruitless search for their son. – You fear the worse and hope for the best,” Mrs. Hllligiest said Thursday night. “David had led a very protected life and I always feared that something must have happened to him. Alton Brooks, Davids’s father, said he hardly knew his son. I had no idea the boy had a problem of any kind, he said. The boy and I have not been around each other in a number of years. I really don’t know how you would describe him. He seemed a quiet boy, not aggressive in any way.
The most murders by one person in modern US history involved the bodies of 25 farm hands found, buried in a California farm along the Feather River in 1971. Juan Corona was convicted of the killings earlier this year and sentenced to life in prison.
