He Confessed to Helping ‘Candy Man’ Serial Killer After Fatally Shooting Him

On Aug. 8, 1973, Dean Corll was shot dead in his Texas home at the age of 33.

At the time of his death, Corll had raped, tortured and murdered at least 29 victims — nearly all of whom were teenage boys who lived in and around Houston or were traveling through the area.

There were about to be two additional victims that very same day were it not for 17-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley, who fatally shot Corll as he was preparing to murder a teenage boy and girl who had been lured to the home one night prior.

One of those victims, 20-year-old Timothy Cordell Kerley, would later testify that he felt enormous gratitude towards Henley for saving his life and the life of 15-year-old Rhonda Louise Williams.

The pair had passed out at Corll’s home after arriving around 3 a.m. that day, and awoke to find themselves bound and gagged, according to pretrial testimony from Henley.

Corll tied Kerley and Williams to a torture board he had created and began to sexually assault Kerley while ordering Henley to cut off Williams clothing, Henley recalled during his testimony.

It was only when Williams asked him to do something that Henley grabbed Corll’s gun from a nearby table and started shooting until there were no more bullets.

Police arrived on the scene soon after, at which point Henley was taken in for questioning and almost released after investigators determined he had acted in self-defense and saved the lives of the two possible victims.

But then Henley confessed that he had been an accomplice to Corll, participated in the torture and murder of previous victims and knew where the bodies had been buried.

Henley explained that he had been drawn into Corll’s orbit by a friend, David Brooks. Corll had been close to Brooks since the boy was 12, and Brooks and the other boys in the area had a fondness for Corll because he worked at his mother’s candy store.

Henley said that he robbed houses at first for Corll, who would pay him for each job.

Corll later offered him $200 for every boy he could bring in, Henley testified, so the teenager began to bring acquaintances to the home.

Eventually, Henley learned that Corll was murdering the boys, and he soon began to participate in the days-long torture sessions with the serial killer who would come to be known as the “Candy Man.”

He also participated in the disposal of the bodies, which is how he was able to lead police to the three locations where Corll had buried his many victims.

At the first location — a boat shed — police discovered 17 bodies. Another two were discovered at a nearby lake and six others on a beach. That brought the number of confirmed killings to 25, but over the next decade more bodies would be discovered in and around the Houston area.

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Henley, just 17 years old at the time, was charged, tried and convicted of murdering six of the victims he had lured in for Corll. He successfully appealed that conviction but was retried and again found guilty, subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

Henley seemed indifferent at the time, saying in an interview with Texas Monthly:

“I feel remorse because I’m supposed to. That’s something I’ve tried to build in me. I don’t really feel about it, you know. I wished I hadn’t done it. I’m glad I got it over with, telling. I’m glad now I’m not hiding it, waiting, and Dean ain’t out there killing little kids. But as far as any emotion to it, there’s no heartfelt emotion.”

Things have changed, however, Henley claims, and he is now 69 years old fighting to be paroled after spending over 50 years in prison.

His initial attempt was denied this past November but he vows to try again.

Corll is believed to have at least 29 victims, though some say the number could be over 40. He was the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history at the time of his death, and only three others are believed to have claimed more victims — one of them being John Wayne Gacy, who would later cite Corll as an influence.