So for today’s blog, I initially had no idea who was blog was going to be about. I was considering doing someone around the likes of Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, or Jack the Ripper. However, these are some of the most known serial killers in history. So I looked up some “lesser” known serial killers and came along one of the most eery stories i’ve ever read. I have never heard of this killer or the story surrounding it, so we both are going into this blind.

The name of this assailant is Dean Corll. Corll was born in 1939, in Fort Wayne, Indiana and lived a troublesome childhood, as most of these serial killers do. His parents split in 1946, leading to his mother moving to Texas and marrying another man. With this new venture, the Corll family decided to open a candy shop in hopes of making it big in the business industry. At first, Dean has spent nearly all of his time at this store, mostly helping out his mother and step-father.

His lifetime goal of working at the candy shop had to be put on pause because Dean was drafted into the U.S. army in 1964. Surprisingly he only served 10 months before discharged and sent back home to help his mother with her business. Upon his return back home, Dean immediately went back to work for the candy business and devoted more time effort than he had before. Soon enough the business started gaining recognition and popularity. Along with this fame came accusation. There has been incidents of Dean flirting with the younger kids that would stop by and even physically touching them as well. These incidents had never really spiraled into anything special at the time but it was a clear indicator of what was to come.

Within the blink of an eye, these almost feeble flirts have become something extreme. Within the blink of an eye, young boys were being abducted, raped, tortured and killed for one’s “pleasures”. Even more interesting is that Dean had accomplices who would go and fetch young boys for Dean to molest and kill. The one being, David Brooks, who was only 14 at the time, while Dean was in his 30s. The other collaborator was another young boy (Elmer Wayne Henley) who Dean also molested but decided to keep around instead of killing. Between both Brooks and Henley assistance and Dean’s sadistic ways, a total of 28 young men were murdered.

The reason why it took so long for Dean’s reign to come to an end was because the Houston police department would offer little to no help to the victim’s parents as they deemed the kids as “runaways”. This murder spree was eventually put to an end when Dean’s own partner, Henley shot him six times.

According to this article about Corll’s psychology, there is not much introspect on why he committed these murders, besides the fact that his parents split and the possibility of working day and night at his parent’s store may have played an affect. However, not much more than that. He was just a sadistic person who wanted to commit heinous crimes for the hell of it.

Sources:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/dean-corll-candy-man-killer

Making of a Monster: Dean Corll (Pied Piper)