Murder Toll 21, More Sought -Teen Admits Aiding Slayings, Burials

Corll Treated Henley “Like a Son”
by Houston (AP)

Dean Allen Corll, 33, was “a nice polite man who loved to be around kids.” And 17-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley was like a son to Corll, said his mother, Mrs. Mary Henley. Henley is being held for grand jury action after admitting to the shooting death of Corll. Police said Henley told them Wednesday he had shot Corll to death at Corll’s suburban Pasadena home. He then led police to a grave where the bodies of 17 youths were unearthed.

Police said they were the victims of a ring of sex perverts. Authorities said Henley at first said Corll was the killer of the youths, but then changed his story late Thursday and admitted taking part in some of the killings and burials. “Dean treated Wayne like a son. And Wayne loved him like a father,” said Mrs. Henley. Mrs. Henley has three other sons but Wayne, a junior high school dropout, was the oldest. She is divorced from Wayne’s father. Mrs. Henley said she couldn’t understand what happened to her son.

She said she had seen him cry after shooting a rabbit. Corll, an electrician with Houston Lighting & Power Company, was described by those who knew him as “nice, polite, quiet.” A coworker of Corll’s said he was a likeable man who enjoyed joking with his fellow workers. He said that Corll never talked about women or much at all about his personal life, “as far as going to his house, he never invited me,” the man said.

Police following leads supplied by a youth who says 27 young men were victims of a perverted sex ring dug up two more bodies today, raising the total found so far to 21. The two new graves were unearthed near Broaddus in San Augustine County about 130 miles northeast, of Houston. Two graves were found in the same area late Thursday. Police said all were pointed out to them by Elmer Wayne Henley, 17, who has admitted taking part in the slayings and burials. Henley told newsmen today that police would find “at least six more bodies buried in the sand dunes near High Island,” a beach town east of Galveston.

Henley said the bodies found today were those of teen-age boys from the Houston suburb of Pasadena. If the death toll rises as high as Henley says, it would surpass that of the largest mass murder in U.S. history the case in which Juan Corona was convicted of slaying 25 itinerant farm workers in Yuba City, California. The victims’ bodies were found in the spring of 1971 Corona, 39, is in prison.

Explaining to newsmen why he has pointed out the paves, Henley told newsmen: “I felt I owed it to their parents to let them know what happened to them.” He did not name the newly found victims and declined to answer some questions, saying the answers were between him and police. Police said Henley, who at first said he had killed only Dean Corll, 33, the man he accused of the slayings, changed his statement Thursday and told police he and another youth had helped lure young boys to Corll for sex parties that led to torture and death. Police said Henley told them that he and David Brooks, 18, of Houston, were given S5 to $10 a head for bringing the boys to parties at Corll’s Pasadena home. Police said Brooks was due to lead them to graves at High Island later today and he and Brooks would be charged with murder. In locating the graves Thursday night, Henley told officers:

“Here’s some I got for Dean. He raped them, killed them, and brought them out here to bury them.” The first 17 bodies were unearthed at a boat storage stall in southwest Houston. Houston Police Lt. Breck Porter said Henley told him that the victims had been killed over a three-year period. Police said the case unfolded early Wednesday morning when Henley telephoned them and said he had killed Corll.