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- [00:02]
Vanessa Richardson
Hi listeners. Exciting news Crime House plus and Murder True Crime Stories are celebrating America's 250th by dropping a four part limited series on the crimes that built America. These are the crimes and cases that gave us Miranda rights, sparked criminal profiling, and a murder that built America's missing children movement. Follow Murder True Crime Stories for a new episode every Monday leading up to July 4th. Or or you can listen to all of them right now with Crime House Plus. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, tap, try free at the top of this show's page.
- [00:49]
Carter Roy
This is Crime House.
- [00:54]
Vanessa Richardson
Most of us had an adult in our lives that we looked up to as a kid. Someone we admired and wanted to be like when we grew up. If we were lucky, that person made us feel seen, special and capable of anything. To many teenage boys in Houston, Texas in the early 1970s, Dean Corll was that person. He listened to them and provided a fun place to hang out when a life at home was too hard to take. However, Dean's motives were anything but pure. In reality, he was luring these boys in, trapping them and forcing them to meet a brutal end. The human mind is powerful. It shapes how we think, feel, love and hate. But sometimes it drives people to commit the unthinkable. This is Serial Killers and Murderous Minds, a Crime House original. I'm Vanessa Richardson.
- [02:01]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
And I'm forensic psychologist Dr. Tristan Ingalls. Every Monday and Thursday, we uncover the darkest minds in history, analyzing what makes a killer.
- [02:11]
Vanessa Richardson
Crime House exists because of listeners like you want even more? Join Crime House plus and get both parts of every story dropped on the same Monday completely ad free. No waiting 3 days for part 2 plus crime house bonus episodes every month. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of Serial Killers and Murderous Minds page. Before we get started, be advised that this episode contains discussion of pedophilia, rape and murder. So please listen with care. Today we begin our deep dive into Dean Corll, a Houston based business owner who used his status in the community to lure rape and kill dozens of teenage boys in the 1970s. But Dean didn't just ensnare his victims. He also manipulated two young accomplices. And even though he used them to carry out his twisted desires, Dean had no idea that one of the people closest to him would usher in his downfall.
- [03:13]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
As Vanessa goes through the story, I'll be talking about things like the grooming tactics that are used by some abusers. How emotional repression can lead to uncontrollable anger, and how a community can miss the signs that a violent predator is operating among them.
- [03:28]
Vanessa Richardson
And as always, we'll be asking the question, what makes a killer? Dean Corll was born on December 24, 1939 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His parents considered his birth a Christmas gift. However, Dean's early life was anything but magical. His mom and dad, Arnold and Mary, had a rocky marriage, Largely because as Dean got older, they disagreed on how to raise him. Arnold was a military man and all about discip While Mary preferred to let Dean have fun. The details of their disagreements aren't clear, but as the years went by, the couple fought more often. By the time Dean turned 6, Mary noticed how isolated he was. Dean couldn't seem to make friends and struggled to talk to other kids his age.
- [04:21]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
When parents fight, especially about how to raise their child, the child is almost always at the center of it, Even if it's not intended. Children are sponges. And because of where they are developmentally, and no matter how hard parents might try to shake shield them from it, they see and they hear these arguments, and they can subsequently feel personally responsible for them. Children don't have the life experience to understand that adults have their own problems that are independent of them. So when mom and dad are fighting about how to raise them, the natural conclusion that a child draws is that something about them is the problem. And what Dean is experiencing here is inter parental conflict. And that can make a home feel unpredictable and emotionally unsafe. And when home doesn't feel safe, Forming relationships outside of it can become harder because connection requires a basic sense of security that their current environment made it hard to develop. Which can explain the social isolation that Mary noticed in Dean. It could also be that Dean learned that the safest strategy response was to become invisible. Don't draw attention or don't cause problems. Don't give anyone a reason to fight. That can look like shyness from the outside, but what's actually happening underneath is a child who has learned that expressing themself could carry risk. And if that's what's happening to Dean, that would mean that the very behavior that's keeping him safe at home Is the very behavior that's alienating himself from his peers. But it's also entirely possible that his parents are too preoccupied with their conflict to actually socialize. Dean, he's only six years old. It's not like he can seek out social opportunities without their help. And social skills acquisition is an extremely important thing.
- [06:09]
Vanessa Richardson
Unfortunately for Dean, his family life was only going to get more difficult. By 1945, Arnold and Mary had a second son, and for the next few years, the family moved around While Arnold was restationed. The couple tried their best to make things work. Mary even moved herself and the boys into a trailer at one point so she and the boys could be near Arnold. But in the end, the pair couldn't make it work. And by 1953, when Dean was 14, Arnold and Mary got divorced. They'd been living in Houston, Texas, and she decided to stay there with the boys. Soon after, Mary met a salesman named Jake west, and he moved her and the boys to a small town called Vider, Texas. On the surface, it seemed like they'd finally found the stability they needed. But most likely, living in Vidar exposed Dean, who was white, to troubling things. At the time, Vidor was known as a sundown town, which meant black people weren't allowed within town limits after the sun went down. And if they were, they could be killed by the white residents.
- [07:12]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
For most young people, the community they grow up in can teach them what is acceptable, who deserves respect, and where the boundaries of human decency are. And for a 14 year old already struggling socially, an environment like this can teach him that dehumanizing people is accepted, or community policy even. And what makes this particularly concerning for someone like Dean is the timing. Adolescence is the critical window when young people are actively figuring out who they are. They're trying to find their identity, and they're figuring out what they believe, what they value, and how they relate to the world around them. Exposing an already socially struggling teenager to a community that normalized violence against people based on who they were can shape the values that they're currently trying to form. And this may have seemed like a stable move on the surface because of the removal of the parental conflict that he was experiencing. But he traded one bad environment for another one.
- [08:13]
Vanessa Richardson
It's possible that living in a sundown town taught Dean that certain forms of violence, including deadly violence, were acceptable. And this wasn't the only form of dangerous behavior he was exposed to in Vitorin. It was a small, slow town. Neighborhood kids found some problematic ways to entertain themselves, like capturing wild animals and burning them alive. Dean didn't seem as interested in doing that, though. And as he moved into his teenage years, he continued to isolate himself at school. He found small ways to get involved, like playing trombone in the band. Although he didn't have any actual friends, Dean didn't seem to Know how to relate to others. But soon his mom found a way to help him stay busy. When Dean was still in high school, Mary, who was an avid baker, decided to open her own candy making business, which she ran from home. Dean helped maintain the machinery, boxed the candy, and made all the deliveries. The business was an instant hit, and soon the family was relying on it to get by. But Mary could tell how much pressure that put on Dean. So after he graduated high school, she sent him to stay at his grandmother's farm in Indiana. While there, Dean finally found other people he enjoyed spending time with. But he clearly didn't understand how to relate to others. Appropriately, for one, most of the kids Dean met in Indiana were a few years younger than him, which may have been why they didn't realize how odd his behavior was. Dean's favorite activity was making so called doctor movies. He'd set up a camera and film himself pretending to be a doctor. One of the neighborhood girls would be the patient. Dean would drape a sheet over her, then pull chicken gizzards out from underneath the sheet, Making it look like he was removing her organs. It seems like Dean genuinely found this amusing, and if any of the other kids were uncomfortable with it, they didn't say so. Dean lived in Indiana for a couple of years, and he seemed happy there. But then his mom needed his help running her business back in Texas, so she brought him home. By this time, she'd moved back to Houston and was running her business there. However, Dean was uprooted again In August of 1964, when he was 25 years old and was drafted into the armed forces. He eventually started working as a military radio repairman in Fort Hood, Texas. Then, after about 10 months, Dean's military career came to an abrupt and mysterious end. In June 1965, he was honorably discharged. Mary told people it was because she needed his help at home, but there were rumors that Dean was kicked out of the military because he was gay. Dean eventually confessed to a friend that he did in fact have his first sexual encounter with another man while serving in Fort Hood, it's not clear whether the army actually knew about it. But Dean definitely didn't want people back home to know about it.
- [11:12]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
If Dean was having same sex experiences while serving in the military in the mid-1960s, that would have been something he had every reason to hide. This was not an environment where he could safely be open about that part of his life. Exposure could have meant humiliation, rejection, loss of status, or serious consequences within the military. So whatever he was feeling or doing Privately, he likely had to conceal it, and then he'd be going home to Houston. But he also grew up for a part of time in Vidor, where it was a town that he had already seen how dangerous prejudiceness could be when a community decided that certain people did not belong. So that kind of fear likely reinforced to him secrecy and compartmentalization and the importance of keeping parts of his life completely separate. And I want to make it clear that it does not explain or excuse what he later did in life. And his sexuality is not a causation whatsoever. But in Dean's case, secrecy becomes clinically relevant because it later became central to how he operated. It's also central to how many serial offenders operate. So the concern is that he likely learned from his childhood, from growing up in Viador, from the military, that exposure was dangerous and concealment was necessary.
- [12:31]
Vanessa Richardson
Is it possible that Dean's lifelong tendency to self isolate might have factored into what he was experiencing at this point in his life?
- [12:39]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Yeah. In addition to what I just mentioned with how it can contribute to compartmentalization and reinforced secrecy, isolation likely limited the very things that might have helped him also process shame or fear of exposure in a healthier way. People need connection and supportive relationships in moments like this because other people help us to reality test against our most critical or distorted thoughts. They help us feel value. And without that, shame can become more rigid because it has nowhere else to go. So instead it can turn into self loathing or outward into resentment, anger, or a need to regain control or power.
- [13:20]
Vanessa Richardson
Dean knew he couldn't risk revealing the truth about himself. However, he wasn't just hiding the fact that he was attracted to other men. Dean's sexual desires were actually far more troubling because around this time, he found himself being drawn to boys who were much younger than him. Oddly, Dean didn't seem to make a huge effort to hide his feelings. Maybe he thought people would never consider the possibility of a grown man pursuing younger boys. But around town, Dean openly approached preteen and teenage boys, chatted with, and invited them to hang out. It's possible that Dean felt the candy business was a good cover, especially when Mary opened a storefront right across the street from the local elementary school. Dean then signed a lease on a nearby apartment where he began luring local boys with promises of free candy. The more Dean got boys alone, the more he realized how easy it would be to keep them there for as long as he wanted. And once that realization set in, Dean Corll acted on his darkest urges.
- [14:29]
Carter Roy
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- [16:34]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
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- [16:43]
Vanessa Richardson
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- [16:44]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
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- [16:50]
Vanessa Richardson
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- [16:53]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
little as two seconds. So before you turn into a complete
- [16:56]
Vanessa Richardson
helicopter pet parent, get a quote@lemonade.com pet In 1965, 25 year old Dean Corll moved into an apartment near his mother's new storefront in Houston, Texas. The candy store was located right across the street from an elementary, which Dean loved because it fed into his growing attraction toward underage boys. Dean started hanging out near the school and offering boys free candy. They just had to come to his apartment to get it. Soon, Dean earned the nickname the candy man, and the local boys loved spending time with him. When they weren't at his apartment, they hung out at the factory where Dean had set up lounge chairs and a pool table in the back room. Teenage boys especially loved this. And soon Dean decked out his apartment to appeal more to slightly older boys as well. He installed a stereo system and let them play music as loudly as they wanted. Then he did the same to his van, which became like a party lounge on wheels. And that's when more people in the community started to notice just how odd Dean's behavior was. It was one thing to promote the candy business, but it was another thing to spend all his free time partying with underage boys. People were so put off by it, the principal of the elementary school asked Dean to stop inviting the kids over. However, the principal didn't express his true concerns. Instead, he told Dean it was unsafe for the boys to cross a busy street to get to his apartment. Regardless, at the end of the day, the principal couldn't stop the boys from going there. Especially because he didn't have the full community's support. Because a lot of people saw Dean as a productive, hard working and all around nice guy. In their eyes, he was maybe a little eccentric, but. But he was harmless. Dean's mother, Mary, also defended him. She said Dean wasn't the one approaching neighborhood boys, but that they were seeking him out and that he wanted to set a good example by being open and receptive to them.
- [18:57]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
This is one of the most important dynamics in cases like this. People often don't ignore warning signs because they see nothing. They ignore them because the warning signs conflict with the story that they already believe or that they want to believe. And Dean had built a very specific public image like you outlined for us, Vanessa. He was hardworking, helpful, generous with all the neighborhood kids. Adults saw him as odd, maybe socially unusual, but not dangerous. And once someone has been placed in the harmless eccentric category like that, people are more likely to interpret concerning behavior through that lens. That's rationalization. It's a defense mechanism. It allows people to explain away discomfort without having to confront what that discomfort might mean. And there is also a protection piece here because if the concern is true, then a lot of adults have to face very uncomfortable questions like why did we let our children keep Going there, that kind of realization is psychologically threatening. So sometimes denial, which is another defense mechanism, becomes easier than accountability. And Mary's defense of him fits into that pattern, too. Parents are more inclined to see their child as good or misunderstood, which is why Mary reframed the situation in a way that protected Dean. And in doing so, so she placed the responsibility on the children. They were coming to him. He was just being receptive. Even if the boys were going to his house voluntarily, Dean was the adult. He had the power, the responsibility, and the obligation to maintain appropriate boundaries. So it's not necessarily that everyone knew he was dangerous and simply did not care. It's just more complicated than that.
- [20:40]
Vanessa Richardson
The truth was, Dean hadn't technically done anything wrong, at least as far as anyone else knew. But in reality. Reality, spending time with neighborhood boys and forming good relationships with them was all part of his plan. He was grooming them, and he wouldn't let anyone get in the way, not even his own mother. In 1968, Mary and her second husband, Jake, split up. Soon after, she entered a relationship with a man who was abusive. To get away from him, Mary decided to move to Colorado. She told Dean she would restart the candy business there, but Dean refused to go with her. He also refused to keep the Houston business running, so they shuttered the factory. Dean didn't mind, though. He no longer felt like he needed the candy business to lure in underage boys. And he supported himself financially with a new job as an electrician at the Houston Lighting and Power Company. At the same time, he knew that without the candy business, he'd have to find a new cover for his grooming tactics. So he did something unexpected and started dating a woman his own age. Her name was Betty Hawkins, and she had young children of her own. As a single mother, Betty's children sometimes came on their dates with them, which gave Dean the perfect excuse to invite boys from the neighborhood to come along, too.
- [22:01]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Dean did what most serial offenders eventually do. They become chameleons. They enter into relationships of all kinds, marriages, even families. Not because they genuinely want connection, but because they want to appear normal. They understand how trust and suspicion work and how to navigate both. The only difference is that Dean is entering a heterosexual relationship, when that may not be his orientation, but the underlying mechanism is the same. He's wanting to manage perception. John Wayne Gacy did the same thing. He married two women and targeted the same demographic as Dean. But what's particularly calculating about Dean is that this relationship gave him more access to children, and that's what predators do they seek ways to get more access. It also speaks to his capacity for impression management. He was able to present a version of himself that reassured people while privately pursuing something very dark that requires planning, deception and exploitation of social assumptions. He knew what people want, wanted to see, and he gave it to them. But he was using another person's life to hide behind. Betty may have believed that she was in a real relationship. Meanwhile, her children and the children in the community were continuing to be placed near someone dangerous while he continued a performance of normalcy.
- [23:27]
Vanessa Richardson
What does this tactic tell you about Dean's ability to pick up on social dynamics and norms? Despite the fact that he's always been an outcast, he's always been like an a loner. But he seems be to to pick up these cues really well.
- [23:40]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Just because someone is socially isolated and didn't really have friends, or was a loner, or didn't really learn social skills in the traditional way, does not mean that they failed to learn social dynamics. Being an outsider can create distance, but distance can also create curiosity. You may not be fully participating in the room, but you are still studying it. And Dean had a lot of opportunities to study those dynamics as a child. The early inter parental conflict and instability that we discussed earlier could have created hypervigilance, meaning he learned to read the room because that was necessary. He had to pay attention to mood shifts, excuses and what the adults were talking about for his survival emotionally. He also grew up around adults who protected appearances. When his parents were constantly in conflict, he was receiving a mixed message. The adults were trying to keep the family looking intact even when it was unstable and unsafe. And when Mary left his father, she immediately remarried. So having a family may be an important value that he was taught, which could be contributing here too. But Dean also watched his mother defend him and offer rationalizations for concerns that people had about him. He noticed how the candy business gave him a socially acceptable role with children. He saw that being helpful, hardworking and polite made adults more comfortable with him. He saw that if something looked familiar enough, people were less likely to question it. Which could have been something he learned from the community he grew up in. In vid. All that to say Dean is socially intelligent. He understood what people wanted to see, what made them feel reassured, and which roles gave him access and which behaviors gained trust and lowered suspicion. But although he was socially perceptive, he was also manipulative, exploitative and calculated. And that is a very dangerous combination.
- [25:34]
Vanessa Richardson
Dean seemed like he definitely knew how to manipulate them in his favor. Once he felt people were no longer eyeing him as closely. He felt free to act on his dangerous fantasies. And it turned out his intentions weren't only sexual in nature. On September 28, 1970, 18 year old Jeffrey Allen Conan was hitchhiking from Austin to Houston. Jeffrey was a student at the University of Texas and he wanted to see his girlfriend. He'd made it most of the way, and as he stood on the side of the road thumbing for his next ride, 30 year old Dean pulled over. The details of what happened next are unclear, but instead of driving Jeffrey to his girlfriend's house, Dean took him to his apartment. Once there, he most likely sexually assaulted Jeffrey. And he didn't stop there. Dean then strangled him to death. Afterward, he hauled Jeffrey's body back into his van, drove about 60 miles and buried him on a beach known as High Island. Dean's first known attack had quickly become deadly. And once he unleashed his inner killer, there was no stopping it. At the same time, Dean seemed to realize that murdering someone and disposing of their body was hard to do on his own. He decided he needed an accomplice to make sure he found the right person. He used some of his usual grooming tactics. But this time, Dean wanted to get as much as he could out of the relationship. Shortly after killing Jeffrey, Dean approached one of the underage boys he'd always had his eye on. 14 year old David Brooks. The two had met years earlier and David had felt an instant connection with Dean. He had a troubled home life, he and his dad fought a lot, and Dean seemed like the supportive male role model David never had. So David was ecstatic when Dean invited him to move in with him. Once they were living together, Dean showed David another side of himself. Dean started paying David to let Dean perform oral sex on him. He convinced David that it was completely normal. And since Dean was the most trusted adult in his life, David didn't question him.
- [27:45]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
We just outlined how Dean was a socially perceptive, but manipulative, exploitative and calculated individual. And this is precisely why that is dangerous. These actions involve all of those traits and it's absolutely sexual abuse of a minor. Dean didn't approach David randomly. He identified a vulnerable child from an unstable home who was actively looking for safety and belonging, offered him exactly that disguised as rescue and care, and then used that to facilitate abuse. Now let's talk about the money. Paying David is something that serves multiple purposes. It reframed this abuse as a transaction rather than a violation, especially in a developing adolescent brain. That was designed make the Abuse feel like something David was participating in willingly rather than something that was being done to him. It created a financial dependency that made leaving harder. And it also is a way for an abuser to normalize abuse. The detail that Dean was the one that was performing the act is also clinically significant. It was a deliberate strategy to make David feel less like a victim and kept Dean in control of the situation. And I want to be absolutely clear about something. Whether David accepted the money or not is completely irrelevant. A 14 year old child cannot legally consent to sexual activity with an adult. What David experienced was grooming, exploitation and abuse.
- [29:14]
Vanessa Richardson
We know that Dean has already killed one victim. So how might sexual assault serve as part of how he's grooming David as opposed to what he groomed him for?
- [29:24]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
This is a gradual desensitization process. He's starting by testing his boundaries and his limits. What's his tolerance? How far can he push and how far does his trust go right now? And how much more work does he need to put in before he can introduce David to what he really needs him for? The abuse also creates complicity. Because of the sexual acts and the payments, Dean has already established leverage and he can use that to his advantage. We have to remember David is still a child and this has already begun to normalize transgressions. Dean is teaching him to distrust his own discomfort. David undoubtedly felt confused or violated, even if he did like Dean, because he's developmentally and emotionally far too young to be experiencing anything he's been experiencing, especially from a trusted adult. And Dean is framing those feelings of discomfort as acceptable, which incidentally, sort of mirrored Dean's own experiences in childhood. In his own home. His parents were fighting. He felt discomfort and confusion by that. And despite this, his parents kept trying to make things worse, even moving Dean around frequently to do so, sending Dean a message that it was acceptable for them to be fighting. And finally, all of this allows Dean to assess whether or not David will eventually be useful to him in the way that he wants him to be.
- [30:51]
Vanessa Richardson
Well, as you said, David didn't realize that Dean was abusing him. And he had no idea how dangerous Dean really was. But on the evening of December 13, 1970, he saw it for the first time. That day, Dean noticed two 14 year old boys walking home from church. Jimmy Glass and Danny Yates. And he offered them a ride home. Both boys already knew Dean and liked him, so they got into his car willingly, thinking they were about to party together. But when they got back to his apartment, Dean suddenly turned on them. He forced them to strip naked before tying them to a larger wooden board that he'd set up earlier. Then he sexually assaulted them both. It's not clear if Dean knew that David was home at the time, but all of a sudden, he walked into the room and saw everything. David turned and bolted. And that's when Dean knew he had to carry out the rest of his plan quickly. While Jimmy and Danny were still restrained, he strangled them both. Then he dragged their bodies back to his van and drove to a boat shed he'd been renting. Dean dug a hole in the dirt floor of the she shed and buried both boys there. When he got home, Dean approached David and said he had a confession to make. He claimed he was earning money by producing child pornography, which was what David had witnessed earlier. And that when they were done, Dean had sent the two boys to California. David seemed convinced. However, Dean knew he could never keep up this lie in the long run. Plus, the whole reason he'd brought David into his orbit was so that he'd have an accomplice. So eventually, eventually, Dean told David the truth. When David heard the story, he just accepted it. Maybe he was scared that if he reacted poorly, he'd be next. Or maybe he had no one else to take care of him. Either way, it was clear to Dean that David would go along with whatever he wanted him to think about where
- [32:49]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
David actually was at this moment. He was a 14 year old from an unstable home with nowhere else to go. He was financially dependent on his abuser, already sexually exploited, and now a witness to a murder. Every single one of those factors worked against his ability to simply leave. And Dean had engineered that deliberately. He's been testing him for this. He specifically looked for him for this purpose. And remember how I said earlier that he had been gradually desensitizing him? And by that I mean Dean seemed to be exposing David to increasingly disturbing behavior in small doses. So each new violation between became slightly easier for David to absorb, rationalize, or accept. Well, he tried that here, too. First, perhaps unintentionally, David caught him in the act of assaulting two boys. And rather than run and find the police, David stayed. He passed that loyalty test. Then he tried a slow introduction again by giving him a rationale of a story about child pornography. And when David accepted that without a reaction, Dean seemed to have felt that he could handle something stronger than that. And that was why he confessed with the full truth. It was the final stage of his grooming. Dean knew exactly how David would respond because he had spent months Engineering that response and this moment. And underneath all of that was fear. Because for David's part, and because he was likely feeling trapped and dependent, the safest thing he felt he could do was make himself useful to Dean rather than a liability.
- [34:27]
Vanessa Richardson
Why would Dina view David as someone to groom and control but not kill? What was it about David?
- [34:34]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
That's a great question. We know that Dean needed an accomplice. You know, we know that he set out to look for him. So from the beginning, Dean's intention for David was different. He was not looking for another victim at that time. He was looking for someone that he could keep, that he could shape and that he could use. So for that to work, David had to have qualities that Dean could exploit. He was young, vulnerable, unstable, stable and dependent. He needed housing, money, attention, and a sense of belonging. And that made him easier to manipulate than someone with stronger family support or more adult protection around him. But at the same time, many of Dean's victims had some version of those vulnerabilities, too. They were adolescents. Their developmental, emotional, physical and psychological resources were not equal to an adult's son. So David had to offer Dean something different or more. And the thing that stands out is the connection that David seemed to feel toward Dean. From the way you described it, he had this instant connection. So maybe David had admired him in some way, idealized him, or felt emotionally attached to him. Whether that was a father figure, a crush, longing for stability, or just feeling chosen by him, Dean could sense and knew that he could use that attachment to his benefit. And that made David a better candidate for grooming into an accomplice, in my opinion.
- [36:03]
Vanessa Richardson
Well, with David Brooks firmly under his thumb, Dean decided it was time to include him in his next horrendous crime. On January 30, 1971, about six weeks after Dean murdered Jimmy Glass and Danny Yates, he and David were driving around Houston together. Eventually, they spotted two boys walking. 13 year old Donald Waldrop and his 15 year old brother Jerry. Dean pulled over and asked the brothers where they were going. They told him they were on their way to the bowling alley. He offered to give them a ride. It's not clear if the Waldrops knew Dean, but they got into the car anyway. Maybe because they saw a boy their own age, which made them feel more comfortable. Unfortunately, the boy boys had no idea of the horrors they were about to endure. Just like he'd done to his previous victims, Dean drove back to his apartment where he sexually assaulted Donald and Jerry before strangling them to death. David watched the entire time. And afterward, he helped bury their bodies in the boat shed. As an expression of his gratitude and maybe as a way to persuade him not to go to the police. Dean bought David a Corvette for his 16th birthday. Which may have been a big reason why the authorities were unable to figure out what happened to the missing boys. By this point, all the victims loved ones had reported them missing. But the police shrugged off each case. They told the boys parents that their kids had probably just run away to join the hippie movement. Because of the police response, or lack of response, Dean was free to keep preying on boys and young men. Men. And pretty soon, someone new would enter the fold, Causing Dean to show a new layer to his depravity. By January of 1971, 31 year old Dean Corll had killed five boys in the Houston area, All of whom were between the ages of 13 and 18. After killing his first three victims, Dean carried out his crimes with the help of an accomplice, 16 year old David Brooks, who lived with him. One day, David invited over his friend, 15 year old Elmer Wayne Henley, who went by Wayne to hang out. Wayne was a lot different from David. David was quiet and introspective, While Wayne was loud, brash and sometimes violent. Despite this, the two were close. But that didn't stop David from luring Wayne to Dean's apartment to become his next victim. Oblivious to the danger he was in, Wayne jumped at the invitation. He not only viewed Dean as a cool older guy, but he'd do anything to get out of his house and away from his dad, who he had a rocky relationship with. Wayne had the same kinds of home troubles that made David susceptible to Dean's grooming. And as they sat around talking, Dean realized that Wayne could be just as useful to him. Wayne and Dean immediately hit it off. Wayne was under the impression that Dean genuinely enjoyed talking to him. But in reality, Dean's ears had perked up when Wayne started describing all the friends he had and where they liked to hang out. As he spoke, Dean realized Wayne could provide a direct line to an endless supply of victims. But he knew he couldn't outright ask Wayne to help him kidnap and murder helpless boys. Boys first. He'd have to get him warmed up to the idea.
- [39:37]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
So we talked about why he likely chose David. David was vulnerable child from an unstable home who was actively looking for stability and who had already had some kind of attachment or emotional connection to Dean. And that combination, like you said, made him susceptible to grooming, exploiting and creating a dependent and Loyal accomplice that he could control. Wayne is also a vulnerable child coming from an unstable home who also seemed to idealize Dean. He views him as a cool older guy rather than an adult that he has nothing in common with or should not be hanging around. He was also eager to be around him. Wayne was loud, brash and sometimes violent, which could be useful if Dean ever needed someone to physically restrain a victim or participate more. But more importantly, he could provide access to victims. Both of them are susceptible to being controlled and both of them are useful for Dean. Therefore both are useful and worthy of keeping around.
- [40:34]
Vanessa Richardson
I will never understand pedophilia. Another thing I don't understand is what is psychologically satisfying to Dean about grooming these boys to be his accomplices. Why does he do this?
- [40:45]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
His accomplices become extensions of his power. They helped him lure victims and lower their defenses or suspicions. He was getting gratification in multiple places, cases with the luring, the assault, the killing of these boys, and in building a system where he could keep accessing, controlling and destroying innocent boys while making other boys help him do it.
- [41:11]
Carter Roy
Well.
- [41:11]
Vanessa Richardson
Once Dean realized how useful Wayne could be, he got to work on him. He told Wayne that he earned money by trafficking underage boys to older male clients in California. And he offered one, Wayne money to help him recruit people. He said he'd pay him $200 for every boy he brought in, which would be over $1,600 in today's money. At first, Wayne wasn't sure if he wanted to do it, but he really wanted Dean to like him. So he told him he'd think about it. Dean was fine with that and in the meantime, he kept relying on David's help. On March 9, 1971, Dean and David were out driving and spotted one of David's friends, 15 year old Randy Har. Dean pulled over and invited Randy to hang out with them. Randy was on his way to work, but hanging out with Dean sounded way more fun. So he tossed his bicycle into the back of the truck and hopped in. But once the group got back to Dean's apartment, David left and Dean proceeded to rape and torture Randy. Finally, Dean pulled out a gun and shot his victim in the head. Afterward, Dean and David buried Randy's body in the boat shed and Dean's rampage continued from there. Two and a half months later, on Memorial Day weekend 1971, Dean spotted 14 year old David Hillegeist walking to the neighborhood pool with his friend, 16 year old Mali Winkle. Both boys had known Dean for years, so Dean had no trouble convincing both of them to forget the poor pool and come to a party at his place instead. Once he got the boys to his apartment, he raped and strangled them both, then buried their bodies in the shed. Interestingly, Dean didn't utilize an accomplice this time. His need to kill was simply so strong, he seemed to act on impulse. Meanwhile, across town, David Hillegeist's mother, Dorothy, was wondering where he was. She spoke to her other son, Gregory, who'd been planning to meet David at the pool. Gregory told his mom that David never showed up. Dorothy was surprised, but not alarmed. She figured David probably just made other plans at the last minute.
- [43:27]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Back then, it was common for kids to walk to the pool, ride bikes, stop at a friend's house, change plans, or stay out for hours without constant check ins because there were no cell phones, there's no location sharing, or no way for a parent to know exactly where a teenager was at every given mom. So Dorothy thinking that David just changed his plans was actually a common rationalization for something like that, because that was commonly the case back then. That's not a neglectful or indifferent reaction. It was just the norms of the era. But if he doesn't show up by the time the street lamps come on or by the next morning, that's when Dorothy will worry. But it also shows how offenders like Dean could exploit those assumptions. He knew when these boys would be out with their friends. Then in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the stranger danger panic really takes over. And I always push back on that framing because this case shows the problem with it. It's rarely only the stranger that children need to fear. That does not mean we should not teach children safety against strangers, though we should. But Dean was not a stranger. He was their neighbor. He was familiar with them. He had been grooming the neighborhood boys for a long time, and that familiarity lowered their defense. Statistically, children are more likely to be abused or exploited by someone they know than by a random stranger. So if we teach safety as only avoid strangers or stranger danger, we miss the more uncomfortable truth, which is danger often comes from the people that we know.
- [45:06]
Vanessa Richardson
Despite her trusting parenting style of the time, it didn't take long for Dorothy Hillegeist to realize something was wrong. Wrong. She reported David missing the next morning. But just like with the boys who went missing before, the Houston police told her, as well as Mali Winkle's parents, that the boys had probably run away and they refused to search for them. Which meant Dean continued to kill freely. The details of what he did during this time are unclear, but most likely, Dean killed a few more victims on his own. And by the spring of 1970, he finally had Wayne's help. Wayne decided he could use the money that Dean had offered him. So one afternoon, they hopped into Dean's car and went looking for boys. Wayne still thought they were in the business of sex trafficking. He had no idea what he was actually about to partake in. At some point, Dean spotted a teenage boy standing on the sidewalk. He pulled over and asked if he wanted to smoke pot with them. The boy said, yes, guess. And Dean drove him back to his apartment. Once there, he told Wayne to leave. Then he sexually assaulted and killed his 10th known victim. Afterward, Dean told Wayne the truth of what he'd done. He wanted to test Wayne's reaction. And just like David Brooks, Wayne seemed unshaken. If anything, it only pulled him closer to Dean. Being part of his criminal endeavors made Wayne feel important and powerful.
- [46:34]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Vulnerable individuals who are seeking belonging, stability, or acceptance can be especially responsive to someone who makes them feel seen or chosen. And Wayne seems to have been showing us that this was something that he desperately needed. He wanted Dean's approval, he wanted to be liked by him, and he wanted to matter. So when Dean shared this enormous secret, Wayne likely experienced this as proof that he was special to him. Dean was telling him something that most people were not allowed to know or would never even confess. And that is part of how grooming works. The offender can turn secrecy into some kind of bond. The secret becomes a test of loyalty. If you keep it, then you belong. If you react badly, you risk rejection, humiliation, or worse. So Wayne may have felt that being entrusted with Dean's secret meant he had finally been fully accepted and chosen. And that can be powerful for someone who's desperate for that. But instead of focusing on the actual harm that Dean is doing, Wayne is focusing on what the secret means about his relationship with him. That does not make Wayne innocent of his choices, but it helps explain the psychology of it.
- [47:46]
Vanessa Richardson
Do you think it's possible that Wayne's survival instincts kicked in and that's why he went along with what Dean was saying? So that he wouldn't be the next victim?
- [47:55]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
I think it's certainly possible he may have understood the consequences would be if he rejected him or reacted differently in that moment, much like in David's case. So going along may have felt safer than resisting. If he stayed useful, loyal, and quiet, maybe he would not become the next victim. Belonging and self preservation can exist at the same time.
- [48:19]
Vanessa Richardson
Well, shortly After Wayne learned the truth, he started helping Dean even more directly. On April 20, 1972, Wayne brought his friend, 17 year old Mark Scott to Dean's apartment. Mark had been to parties there before, so it was nothing out of the ordinary for him. But that day, Mark was completely blindsided when Dean and Wayne grabbed him and forced him into the bedroom. They tried to tie Mark's hands, but what they didn't know was that Mark was armed. He managed to grab his knife and nicked Dean with it. As Wayne watched Mark and Dean struggle, something came over him. Wayne grabbed a pellet gun and and he and Dean took turns shooting Mark with it. Once Mark was subdued, Dean sexually assaulted him. But instead of killing Mark himself, Dean turned to Wayne and told him to do it. Wayne hesitated. He and Mark had been friends for a long time. He wasn't sure he could go through with it. Then Mark reportedly begged Wayne to shoot him and get it over with. And that's when Dean decided he wanted Mark to see suffer more. He handed Wayne a rope and told him to strangle his friend. Mark tried, but he quickly realized how difficult it was. So he ran out of the room, grabbed his pistol, then returned and shot Mark twice. Once Mark was dead, Dean looked at Wayne. He could see how shaken he was. But Dean also thought he noticed something else. He believed Wayne enjoyed killing as much as he did. And to him, that meant he now had a loyal and enthusiastic henchman. By this point, Dean had killed at least 15 boys over the course of about two years. With Wayne's help, he planned to kill many more. But what Dean didn't realize was that he was wrong about Wayne. His newest accomplice didn't enjoy killing and at all. In fact, Wayne felt that if anyone was going to put an end to Dean's rampage, it would be him. Thanks so much for listening. Come back next time for the conclusion of our deep dive on on Dean Corll.
- [50:43]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Serial Killers and Murderous Minds is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on Instagram at Crime House. And don't forget to rate, review and follow Serial Killers and Murderous Minds wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference.
- [51:05]
Vanessa Richardson
And to enhance your listening experience, join Crime House plus and get both parts of every story dropped on the same Monday completely ad free. No waiting three days for part two plus Crime House bonus episodes every month. To join go to crimehouseplus.com or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of the Serial Killers and Murderous Minds page. Serial Killers and Murderous Minds is hosted by by me, Vanessa Richardson and forensic psychologist Dr. Tristan Engels and is a Crime House original Powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Serial Killers and Murderous Minds team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benidon, Lori Marinelli, Natalie Pertzovsky, Sarah Camp, Alyssa Fox, Dana Rossi, Sarah Batchelor, Kaylee Pine and Carrie Mercy Murphy. Thank you for listening.
- [52:04]
Carter Roy
It's ICCU's new member month and a chance for you to make some serious green from now until June 30th. You can get up to $250 when you open a new membership with checking, so go ahead, join in a branch today or online@ ICCU.com NewMemberMonth Membership required. Must have checking with debit card card, E Branch and E Statements account must remain open for six months. Offer expires June 30, 2026. See website or visit your local branch for more details and complete terms and conditions.