WEBVTT

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I want to start with a sensory image today. I

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want you to, if you can, just close your eyes

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and imagine the smell of boiling sugar. Okay.

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You know, like pralines, pecans, chocolate. It's

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this thick, sweet, almost sticky smell. I can

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almost taste it. Yeah, I'm with you. Now, place

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that smell in the heavy, wet humidity of Houston,

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Texas. It's the early 1970s. You're in a working

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-class suburb called the Houston Heights. And

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there's this family -run business called the

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Coral Candy Company. It's, you know, a staple

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of the neighborhood. And right across the street,

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literally right there, is Helms Elementary School.

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It sounds so wholesome. It sounds like classic

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Americana, doesn't it? A small business, a schoolyard

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right across the street. It does. And running

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the place is the owner's son. His name is Dean.

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He's about 30 years old. He's quiet. He's polite.

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Impeccably groomed with short hair. Right. And

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he is famous in the neighborhood for one very

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specific thing. Yeah. He gives away the product.

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If you're a kid on your bike or walking home

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from school, Dean comes out with a handful of

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pralines, free of charge. And the kids, inevitably,

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they gave him a nickname. They called him the

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Candyman. The Candyman. Sometimes they also called

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him the Pied Piper. And looking at the sources

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we have today, that second nickname is so on

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the nose, it actually makes my skin crawl. Because

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the Pied Piper, in the original folklore, he

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didn't just play music to entertain the children.

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No. He led them away. He led them into a cave

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and they were never, ever seen again. Exactly.

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We are looking at the case of Dean Corll. And

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I think for a lot of people, especially if you

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didn't grow up in Texas, this name might not

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ring the same bell as, say, John Wayne Gacy or

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Jeffrey Dahmer. It's not his household, no. But

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looking at the stats you pulled. It absolutely

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should be. It should be right at the top of that

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list. I mean, if you just look at the timeline,

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we're talking 1970 to 1973. Dean Corll, with

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the help of two teenage accomplices, abducted,

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tortured and murdered a minimum of twenty nine

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boys and young men. Twenty nine minimum. And

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that is a conservative floor. At the time the

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story broke in August of 1973, it was the deadliest

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serial murder case in United States history.

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It just it shattered the entire concept of safety

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in Houston. It wasn't just a crime. It was catastrophe.

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But here is the mission for this deep dive today.

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We aren't here to just recount the gore. I mean,

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you can find the gruesome details on any Wikipedia

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page. Right. I want to understand the mechanics

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of this. Yeah. Because here's the paradox that

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I just I can't wrap my head around it. How does

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a man known for kindness? A man who was literally

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viewed as a father figure to have the neighborhood

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operate a slaughterhouse in plain sight for three

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years. That's the core question, isn't it? And

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to answer it, we have to look at three very specific

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things in these files. First, we have to look

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at the psychology of grooming. I mean, how he

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didn't just capture victims, he captured accomplices.

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Teenagers themselves. Teenagers. Then we need

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to look at the systemic failure of the police

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and this whole concept of the runaway generation

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in the 1970s that gave him cover. And finally.

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We need to talk about the science. Because even

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today, 50 years later, there are forensic anthropologists

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who are still trying to give names to bones found

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at a boat shed. It's an ongoing investigation

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in a way. We've got a massive stack of records

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here. Witness statements, court transcripts,

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forensic reports. So let's go back to the beginning.

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Let's look at the man behind the mask. Who was

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Dean Corral before he became a monster? Dean

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Arnold Corral. He was born on Christmas Eve 1939

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in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Christmas Eve. Yeah.

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look at the early biographical notes, you see

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a pattern forming almost immediately. It's the

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pattern of the outsider. How so? What do you

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mean? Well, his home life was Intense, to put

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it mildly. His father was strictly disciplined,

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very authoritarian. His mother, Mary Emma, was

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the complete opposite. Extremely protective,

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almost suffocatingly so. A classic fishbowl.

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Exactly. And they divorced when he was young,

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and Dean just became this pawn moving around

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constantly. Tennessee, Texas, Indiana, back and

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forth. He never had a chance to set down roots

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or keep a friend group for more than a year or

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two. I also saw a note here about his health.

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Something about rheumatic fever. Yes. And this

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is a crucial detail that often gets overlooked

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in the crime summaries. He contracted undiagnosed

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rheumatic fever when he was seven. It damaged

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his heart valves. Which, in the 1940s, that's

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a serious sentence for a kid. It is. But think

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about the social implication of it. The doctors

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told him he couldn't exert himself. No sports,

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no roughhousing, no running around. So while

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all the other boys are on the football field

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or playing tag, Dean is on the sidelines. Or

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he's inside with his mother. He's physically

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separated from his male peers right from the

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very start. He can't compete in that traditional

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boy arena. So he becomes an observer. Exactly.

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He was described by teachers as shy, serious,

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a bit of a loner, but, and this is the part that

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helps build that Candyman mask, not at all. He

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was the kid who would help you if you dropped

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your books. There were no early signs of sadism,

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none of the typical McDonald triad stuff like

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bedwetting or arson. He was just... Which makes

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the turn into what he became so much more baffling.

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You expect that future killer profile to include

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cruelty to animals or bullying. But Carell didn't

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fit that mold. So let's fast forward to the 1960s.

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The family finally settles in Houston Heights.

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His mother and stepfather start this candy business

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initially right in their garage. And Dean isn't

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just a helper. He is the engine of this business.

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He's the vice president, right? I saw that on

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the letterhead. Right. But that title makes you

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think he's sitting in an office pushing paper.

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The reality, according to all the employment

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records, is that he was working the machinery.

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He was cooking the sugar, packing the boxes,

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loading the trucks. He was incredibly hardworking.

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And then in the middle of all this, Uncle Sam

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comes calling. 1964. He gets drafted into the

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army. Now, for a guy who has been sheltered by

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his mother and separated from male peers his

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entire life, the Army is a massive shock to the

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system. I can't even imagine. How did he handle

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it? Surprisingly well, at least on paper. He

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trained as a radio repairman. He was good with

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his hands, good with electronics. His service

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record is spotless. But internally, he hated

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it. He absolutely hated it. He lasted 10 months

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before he applied for a hardship discharge. And

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what was the hardship? He claimed the family

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business was collapsing without him. The classic

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my mother needs me line. And it worked. He got

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an honorable discharge. So he goes right back

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home. He goes right back to Houston. Yeah. But

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there is a very interesting note from his associates

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around this time. When he came back. Something

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had shifted. It shifted how? He was more confident,

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but also more secretive. He reportedly told a

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few very close acquaintances that it was during

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his time in the barracks, you know, surrounded

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by men in that hyper -masculine environment,

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that he fully realized and accepted that he was

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homosexual. Which, we have to remind ourselves,

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in Texas in the mid -1960s, that is a dangerous,

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dangerous realization to have. It's a life sentence

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of secrecy. You have to hide who you are every

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single day. And Dean Corll became a master of

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hiding. He goes back to the candy factory, but

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he also gets a straight job. He becomes an electrician

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for HL &P Houston Lighting and Power. And looking

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at his HR file here, I mean, he was a model employee.

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The best. Punctual, polite, competent. He eventually

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became a supervisor. He worked there right up

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until the day he died. This is so important because

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it just destroys that stereotype of the drifter,

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serial killer, the loner who can't hold a job.

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Not at all. Dean Caroll was the guy fixing your

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power lines. He was the guy paying his taxes.

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He had stability. He had a public face that was

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completely reliable. But when the sun went down,

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we're back to the candy factory. And that's where

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the Pied Piper dynamic really kicks into high

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gear. Paint the picture of that factory at night

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for me. So the factory was on West 22nd Street.

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Corral lived there for a while and then later

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just used it as his base of operations. He installed

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a pool table in the back room. He had a great

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stereo system for the time. And he just, he opened

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the doors. To the neighborhood boys. It started

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innocently enough. You know, hey, come in, get

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out of the heat, have a soda, play some pool.

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But you have to look at the demographic he was

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targeting. Right. He wasn't inviting the captain

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of the football team or the kids with wealthy

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parents who had country club memberships. Yeah.

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No, no. He was targeting the strays. He was looking

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for the kids who didn't want to go home, the

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kids from broken homes, the kids who didn't have

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any money. Dean was the generous host. Hungry.

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Here's a sandwich. Need cigarettes. Here's a

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pack. Need five bucks for the movies. Just ask

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Dean. He's buying trust. But he's also creating

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a debt, isn't he? It's dependency. He is systematically

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positioning himself as the one adult who listens,

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the one adult who gives, the one adult who doesn't

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judge. And this is where we have to introduce

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the accomplices. Because Dean Carell is unique

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in the annals of serial crime. He didn't just

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hunt alone. He recruited. This is the part of

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the story that I struggle with the most. I can

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sort of understand a lone monster. But the idea

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that he could corrupt other kids to help him,

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that's a different level of evil entirely. Let's

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talk about David Owen Brooks. David Brooks. He

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meets Coral in 1967. Brooks is 12 years old.

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Twelve. Twelve. He's a sixth grader. Coral is

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nearly 30. That age gap alone should have been

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a neon flashing sign to anyone watching. It's

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just staggering. It should have been. But Brooks

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was a kid who was really struggling. He had a

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speech impediment. He was awkward. He didn't

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fit in. He started hanging around the candy factory.

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And listen to what Brooks said later in his testimony.

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He said, Dean was the first adult male who didn't

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mock me. God, that is just heartbreaking. It's

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the hook. That's the entry point. Coral treated

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him like an equal. He bought him things. He took

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him on trips to the beach. And slowly, over months

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and years, he desensitized him. How does that

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transition happen? You don't go from, here's

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some free candy to help me kill people overnight.

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No, it's a gradient. It's a slow, deliberate

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process. First, it's just friendship. Then it

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transitions to a sexual relationship. Brooks

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drops out of school. He basically lives at Coral's

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apartment. He becomes dependent on Coral for

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everything. Food, shelter, money, his entire

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social world. So Coral owns him. Effectively,

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yes. And once that dominance is established,

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Coral starts testing the waters. He starts talking

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about his fantasies. He starts involving Brooks

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in procuring other boys, initially just for sex,

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but then slowly... The violence creeps in. And

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Brooks who by this point is completely alienated

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from his own family and society feels like he

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has nowhere else to go. He's trapped. And then

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through Brooks, the circle widens. Enter Elmer

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Wayne Henley. Okay, so this is 1971, four years

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into the grooming of Brooks. Right. Brooks is

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driving around, probably in a car that Coral

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paid for, and he spots Elmer Wayne Henley. Henley

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is older than Brooks was when he started. He's

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about 15, and he's truanting from school. And

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Henley's background, was it similar? It was hardscrabble.

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His father was an alcoholic. His mother was trying

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to hold it all together, but they were dirt poor.

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Henley was distinct, though. He was sort of a

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dandy. He liked nice clothes. He wanted to be

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somebody. He had this ambition, but absolutely

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no outlet for it. So he was ripe for a guy with

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money. Precisely. Now, the sources suggest something

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very, very chilling about their first meeting.

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Correll didn't initially see Henley as a partner.

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He saw him as a target. Correct. The profile

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fits perfectly. Young, runaway, vulnerable. It's

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highly likely that Henley was brought to the

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apartment to be just another victim. But something

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happened. Quirrell hesitated. Do we have any

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idea why? We can only speculate. Maybe Henley

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was tougher than the others. Maybe he was more

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charismatic. Or maybe Quirrell just saw a spark

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of darkness in him that he recognized in himself.

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Instead of killing him, Quirrell started talking

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to him. He found out Henley's family was broke,

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and he made him an offer. And this is where the

00:12:01.860 --> 00:12:03.940
Dallas lie comes in. This is, in my opinion,

00:12:03.980 --> 00:12:06.120
the most insidious part of the grooming. It is

00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:08.940
a masterclass in manipulation. Because you have

00:12:08.940 --> 00:12:11.480
to remember, Henley isn't a psychopath. At least

00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:14.559
not initially. He's a kid. If Coral had said,

00:12:14.659 --> 00:12:16.919
hey, bring me boys so I can torture them to death,

00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:19.519
Henley probably would have run. Right. That's

00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:21.399
too much of a leap for anyone, let alone a teenager.

00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:24.759
So Coral invents a scenario that makes the crime

00:12:24.759 --> 00:12:27.440
palatable. He tells Henley, look, I'm part of

00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:29.600
a syndicate. There's a black market ring based

00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:32.019
in Dallas. These boys aren't going to be hurt.

00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:34.139
They're being sold to wealthy families or men

00:12:34.139 --> 00:12:37.100
in Dallas. They'll have better lives. So he reframes

00:12:37.100 --> 00:12:39.700
the entire thing. It's not murder. It's human

00:12:39.700 --> 00:12:42.830
trafficking. Which is still awful, but in the

00:12:42.830 --> 00:12:44.809
mind of a desperate teenager, it's not killing.

00:12:45.149 --> 00:12:47.909
Exactly. It creates a moral buffer. I'm not hurting

00:12:47.909 --> 00:12:50.409
them, I'm just shipping them out. And then, he

00:12:50.409 --> 00:12:53.330
puts a price tag on it, Coral offered them $200

00:12:53.330 --> 00:12:56.929
a head. $200. Let's do the inflation math on

00:12:56.929 --> 00:13:01.090
that for today. In 1971 -1972, $200 is roughly

00:13:01.090 --> 00:13:04.850
$670 in today's money. Okay. So you're a 15 -year

00:13:04.850 --> 00:13:06.830
-old kid in a poor neighborhood. You bring a

00:13:06.830 --> 00:13:09.110
guy you just met to a party and you walk away

00:13:09.110 --> 00:13:12.149
with $1 ,600 in cash. It's unimaginable wealth.

00:13:12.330 --> 00:13:15.330
It's life -changing money. Henley bought a car.

00:13:15.549 --> 00:13:19.070
He bought nice clothes. He started flashing cash

00:13:19.070 --> 00:13:21.549
around the neighborhood. He became the big man

00:13:21.549 --> 00:13:25.389
on the block. And that status, that becomes addictive.

00:13:25.769 --> 00:13:29.210
But surely, surely the lie had to fall apart

00:13:29.210 --> 00:13:31.049
at some point. They had to know what was really

00:13:31.049 --> 00:13:33.799
happening. They did. And that is the darkest

00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:36.080
turn of the story. Eventually, the Dallas story

00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:37.960
just couldn't hold up. They saw the violence.

00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:40.220
They saw the bodies. Brooks certainly knew what

00:13:40.220 --> 00:13:42.200
was happening early on. Henley figured it out

00:13:42.200 --> 00:13:44.879
later. But by then... By then, they were complicit.

00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:46.850
They were trapped. They were in too deep. and

00:13:46.850 --> 00:13:48.990
they were addicted to the money and the lifestyle,

00:13:49.350 --> 00:13:52.029
they continued to bring him victims even after

00:13:52.029 --> 00:13:54.090
they knew exactly what was happening in that

00:13:54.090 --> 00:13:57.029
apartment. The moral buffer was gone, replaced

00:13:57.029 --> 00:14:00.169
by pure greed, and I think a deep -seated fear

00:14:00.169 --> 00:14:02.690
of Correll himself. Let's talk about the methodology,

00:14:03.009 --> 00:14:05.450
because they turned this into a literal assembly

00:14:05.450 --> 00:14:07.929
line. It wasn't random opportunity. They had

00:14:07.929 --> 00:14:10.629
tools. They had a system. They did. It was incredibly

00:14:10.629 --> 00:14:14.769
systematic. Dean Correll owned a white Ford Econoline

00:14:14.769 --> 00:14:18.070
van. And if that sounds like a horror movie trope,

00:14:18.070 --> 00:14:20.710
it's because cases like this created the trope.

00:14:20.710 --> 00:14:23.429
What was inside the van? He customized it. He

00:14:23.429 --> 00:14:26.210
laid down shag carpet in the back. He put up

00:14:26.210 --> 00:14:29.269
think opaque curtains. He stocked it with cooler

00:14:29.269 --> 00:14:32.429
chests of drinks and beer. It was a mobile party

00:14:32.429 --> 00:14:34.669
room, a rolling trap. And they had the bait.

00:14:35.049 --> 00:14:37.250
They had the perfect bait. Corral eventually

00:14:37.250 --> 00:14:40.350
bought a Corvette for Brooks to drive. Now, imagine

00:14:40.350 --> 00:14:43.490
you're a teenage boy in 1972. Maybe you're hitchhiking

00:14:43.490 --> 00:14:46.110
or just walking home from a friend's house. A

00:14:46.110 --> 00:14:49.450
brand new Corvette pulls up. A cool guy, not

00:14:49.450 --> 00:14:50.889
much older than you, says, hey, want a ride?

00:14:50.909 --> 00:14:52.529
We're going to a party. Or we have marijuana

00:14:52.529 --> 00:14:54.289
or we have beer. It's like we're just going to

00:14:54.289 --> 00:14:56.570
hang out. It was easy. They would drive the victim

00:14:56.570 --> 00:14:58.690
back to one of Corral's apartments, either in

00:14:58.690 --> 00:15:01.210
the Heights or later in Pasadena. And once they

00:15:01.210 --> 00:15:04.570
were inside, the trap closed. But it wasn't violent

00:15:04.570 --> 00:15:06.490
immediately. Right. It wasn't a bliss attack.

00:15:06.629 --> 00:15:09.129
It was a slow play. It was psychological. It

00:15:09.129 --> 00:15:11.529
was a game. Coral would play the generous host.

00:15:11.710 --> 00:15:14.409
He'd get the glue out. Sniffing glue or paint

00:15:14.409 --> 00:15:17.830
fumes was the big cheap high back then. He'd

00:15:17.830 --> 00:15:20.509
pass around beers. He'd get them relaxed. And

00:15:20.509 --> 00:15:23.129
then he'd introduce the handcuffs. The magic

00:15:23.129 --> 00:15:26.470
trick. This is just chilling. Coral or Henley

00:15:26.470 --> 00:15:28.750
would bring out a pair of handcuffs. They'd put

00:15:28.750 --> 00:15:30.870
them on themselves and then magically slip out

00:15:30.870 --> 00:15:33.169
of them, probably using a hidden key or a shim

00:15:33.169 --> 00:15:35.409
they had palmed. They'd laugh, make it a joke.

00:15:35.470 --> 00:15:38.190
Then they'd challenge the victim. Bet you can't

00:15:38.190 --> 00:15:41.470
do it. And a teenage boy full of bravado, drunk,

00:15:41.710 --> 00:15:44.950
high. Yeah. He's going to take that bet every

00:15:44.950 --> 00:15:47.309
single time. Every time. The victim puts on the

00:15:47.309 --> 00:15:50.330
cuffs. And the moment they click shut, the entire

00:15:50.330 --> 00:15:53.309
atmosphere in the room changes instantly. The

00:15:53.309 --> 00:15:56.240
smile drops from Coral's face. There is no trick.

00:15:56.299 --> 00:15:58.440
You are locked in. And that leads us to the torture

00:15:58.440 --> 00:16:00.480
board. I have to be honest, reading the description

00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:02.860
of this thing, it made me physically ill. We

00:16:02.860 --> 00:16:04.759
have to describe it because it shows the level

00:16:04.759 --> 00:16:07.399
of premeditation here. It does. This wasn't spur

00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:09.519
of the moment. Coral went to a hardware store.

00:16:09.720 --> 00:16:12.179
He bought a thick sheet of marine grade plywood.

00:16:12.539 --> 00:16:15.759
He painted it. He attached four metal rings to

00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:18.600
the corners with ropes and cuffs. It was a device

00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:21.360
built for one single purpose. Prolonged suffering.

00:16:21.659 --> 00:16:24.710
He would tie the victims to this board. And they

00:16:24.710 --> 00:16:28.090
would stay there sometimes for days. Days. The

00:16:28.090 --> 00:16:30.490
autopsy reports and the confessions from Henley

00:16:30.490 --> 00:16:33.029
and Brooks confirm it. He would keep them alive.

00:16:33.190 --> 00:16:36.649
He would torture them sexually, physically. The

00:16:36.649 --> 00:16:39.110
list of implements found in his kit is a house

00:16:39.110 --> 00:16:44.129
of horrors. Glass rods, pliers, needles, all

00:16:44.129 --> 00:16:45.730
sorts of things. But there was a psychological

00:16:45.730 --> 00:16:49.149
torture that I think is even worse in a way than

00:16:49.149 --> 00:16:51.809
the physical. The letters. This is the genius

00:16:51.809 --> 00:16:54.730
of his cruelty. While these boys were tied up,

00:16:54.750 --> 00:16:57.549
terrified, in unimaginable pain, Carl would force

00:16:57.549 --> 00:17:00.049
them to write home. Mom, I'm fine. Mom, Dad,

00:17:00.169 --> 00:17:01.529
don't worry about me. I got a job in Austin.

00:17:01.649 --> 00:17:03.769
Or I'm going to California with some friends.

00:17:03.769 --> 00:17:05.450
Or I've met some people. I'm going to stay with

00:17:05.450 --> 00:17:07.269
them for a while. And if they refused to write,

00:17:07.369 --> 00:17:10.710
the torture continued, or escalated, until they

00:17:10.710 --> 00:17:13.630
complied. So these boys wrote their own goodbyes,

00:17:13.630 --> 00:17:16.670
thinking maybe, just maybe, if they wrote the

00:17:16.670 --> 00:17:19.529
letter, he'd let them go. But the letters weren't

00:17:19.529 --> 00:17:23.339
for the boys. They were for the police. Exactly.

00:17:23.339 --> 00:17:25.660
Coral knew the police procedure better than the

00:17:25.660 --> 00:17:28.039
cops did. He knew that if a parent walked into

00:17:28.039 --> 00:17:30.220
a precinct with a letter in their hand, even

00:17:30.220 --> 00:17:32.039
if the handwriting was shaky, even if it didn't

00:17:32.039 --> 00:17:34.079
sound right, the police would look at it and

00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:36.299
say, case closed. He's a runaway. He's alive.

00:17:36.539 --> 00:17:39.220
Go home. It was the perfect camouflage. It was

00:17:39.220 --> 00:17:41.940
perfect camouflage. And it worked for three solid

00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:44.339
years. Let's look at the timeline of the murders

00:17:44.339 --> 00:17:46.940
themselves. Because there's a glier pattern of

00:17:46.940 --> 00:17:49.920
escalation. It starts relatively slow. But by

00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:53.480
1973, it's a frenzy. Right. The first confirmed

00:17:53.480 --> 00:17:56.240
victim that we know of is Jeffrey Conan in September

00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:59.880
of 1970. Then you have the Glass and Yates murders,

00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:02.619
a double abduction a few months later. For the

00:18:02.619 --> 00:18:04.859
first couple of years, the spacing is weeks or

00:18:04.859 --> 00:18:07.200
even months apart. He's being careful. He's taking

00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:10.819
his time, refining his methods. He is. But in

00:18:10.819 --> 00:18:14.690
1973, something changes. Quirrell had some health

00:18:14.690 --> 00:18:17.809
issues, a hydrosil that needed surgery. And Henley

00:18:17.809 --> 00:18:19.910
was out of town for a bit, so there was a lull.

00:18:20.430 --> 00:18:22.390
But when they got back to it in the summer of

00:18:22.390 --> 00:18:26.210
73, it wasn't just killing anymore. It was, in

00:18:26.210 --> 00:18:28.910
Henley's own words, a bloodlust. The spacing

00:18:28.910 --> 00:18:31.890
between murders just vanishes. It's gone. He's

00:18:31.890 --> 00:18:34.809
killing back to back. The brutality ramps up

00:18:34.809 --> 00:18:37.210
significantly. And this is where we see the incident

00:18:37.210 --> 00:18:40.259
that I think truly broke Henley's brain. The

00:18:40.259 --> 00:18:43.359
murder of Charles Cobble and Marty Jones. These

00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:45.160
were Henley's friends, weren't they? They were.

00:18:45.339 --> 00:18:47.619
Popular kids from his neighborhood. Henley lured

00:18:47.619 --> 00:18:49.940
them in. But Carell did something different this

00:18:49.940 --> 00:18:51.700
time. He didn't just tie them up and torture

00:18:51.700 --> 00:18:53.980
them. He pitted them against each other. The

00:18:53.980 --> 00:18:56.660
gladiator scenario. He told them, look, I'm going

00:18:56.660 --> 00:18:58.759
to let one of you go, but you have to earn it.

00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:01.940
Fight each other. Whoever wins, walks. I can't

00:19:01.940 --> 00:19:03.700
even imagine the psychological state of those

00:19:03.700 --> 00:19:06.079
boys, being forced to beat your best friend to

00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:08.019
try and survive. And of course it was a lie.

00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:11.039
Coral watched them fight, watched them completely

00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:13.400
exhaust themselves, and then he killed them both.

00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:16.380
This was the state of affairs in August 1973.

00:19:17.180 --> 00:19:19.779
Coral is spiraling. The violence is out of control.

00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:22.940
Henley is deeply traumatized but still participating.

00:19:23.259 --> 00:19:25.799
It's a powder keg just waiting for a match. And

00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:28.299
that match gets lit on the night of August 8th.

00:19:28.380 --> 00:19:30.700
This is the night it all ends. Walk us through

00:19:30.700 --> 00:19:32.900
the setup for that final night. It starts like

00:19:32.900 --> 00:19:35.200
any other night, really. Henley brings people

00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:37.660
over to Coral's house on Lamar Drive in Pasadena.

00:19:38.250 --> 00:19:41.009
He brings a friend, Timothy Curley, but he also

00:19:41.009 --> 00:19:43.529
brings someone else, Rhonda Williams. A girl.

00:19:43.730 --> 00:19:46.710
A girl! And this is a massive, massive violation

00:19:46.710 --> 00:19:49.509
of the rules. Coral's victim profile was exclusively

00:19:49.509 --> 00:19:52.470
male, bringing a female into the inner sanctum.

00:19:52.470 --> 00:19:54.730
It was incredibly dangerous. Why did he bring

00:19:54.730 --> 00:19:56.650
her? What was the reason? She was a friend, she

00:19:56.650 --> 00:19:58.630
was having trouble at home, an abusive father,

00:19:58.789 --> 00:20:00.609
and she needed a place to crash for the night.

00:20:01.470 --> 00:20:03.910
Henley, in his warped way, thought he was helping

00:20:03.910 --> 00:20:06.970
her. Come to Dean's. It's safe. The irony is

00:20:06.970 --> 00:20:09.309
just suffocating. It's unbelievable. They get

00:20:09.309 --> 00:20:11.930
there. They start doing the usual sniffing acrylic

00:20:11.930 --> 00:20:15.089
reducer from a bag, drinking cheap wine. Coral

00:20:15.089 --> 00:20:18.049
is seething. He pulls Henley aside and hisses

00:20:18.049 --> 00:20:20.470
at him. You ruin everything. But he doesn't kick

00:20:20.470 --> 00:20:23.230
them out. He lets them stay. No. He decides to

00:20:23.230 --> 00:20:26.309
improvise. He waits. He waits for the drugs and

00:20:26.309 --> 00:20:29.450
the alcohol to do their work. Eventually, Curly

00:20:29.450 --> 00:20:32.210
and Williams pass out on the floor. Henley passes

00:20:32.210 --> 00:20:34.930
out, too. And when Henley wakes up, he wakes

00:20:34.930 --> 00:20:37.009
up to the sound of metal clicking. He's in the

00:20:37.009 --> 00:20:39.869
handcuffs. The hunter becomes the prey. Coral

00:20:39.869 --> 00:20:42.329
has bound all three of them. He's standing over

00:20:42.329 --> 00:20:45.569
them. And he tells Henley, I'm going to kill

00:20:45.569 --> 00:20:47.609
you all. But first, first, I'm going to have

00:20:47.609 --> 00:20:50.450
my fun. This is the pivot point. Yeah. For years,

00:20:50.549 --> 00:20:53.369
Henley has been the protected apprentice. Now

00:20:53.369 --> 00:20:56.230
he's on the menu with everyone else. But Coral

00:20:56.230 --> 00:20:59.210
makes a fatal error, a classic villain mistake.

00:20:59.809 --> 00:21:02.329
He thinks he still has total psychological control

00:21:02.329 --> 00:21:05.630
over Henley. He unties him. Why? Why would he

00:21:05.630 --> 00:21:07.089
do that? He wants Henley to help him with the

00:21:07.089 --> 00:21:09.390
other two. He wants to degrade him one last time.

00:21:09.509 --> 00:21:12.450
He hands Henley a knife. He points to Rhonda

00:21:12.450 --> 00:21:14.950
Williams, who is tied up and terrified, and he

00:21:14.950 --> 00:21:17.730
says, cut her clothes off. He wants to make him

00:21:17.730 --> 00:21:21.109
complicit in this last ultimate act. Exactly.

00:21:21.150 --> 00:21:24.440
Do this and maybe I'll let you live. Henley is

00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:26.500
shaking. He's holding the knife. Rhonda looks

00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:28.559
at him, and she asks him a question that cuts

00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:32.920
right through the fog. She says, Wayne, is this

00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:37.000
for real? Are you going to do anything? She challenges

00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:39.880
his humanity right there. She reminds him that

00:21:39.880 --> 00:21:41.980
they are friends, and something snaps in Henley.

00:21:42.660 --> 00:21:44.539
He later said the thought that went through his

00:21:44.539 --> 00:21:46.880
head was, I can't have you kill all my friends.

00:21:46.940 --> 00:21:49.980
He looks around the room, and he sees the gun.

00:21:50.299 --> 00:21:53.259
A .22 caliber pistol. It was Corral's. It was

00:21:53.259 --> 00:21:55.700
just lying on a table nearby. Henley drops the

00:21:55.700 --> 00:21:58.180
knife. He grabs the gun. He levels it at Corral.

00:21:58.279 --> 00:22:00.619
And Corral, does he beg for his life? Does he

00:22:00.619 --> 00:22:03.559
panic? No, he laughs. He looks at this kid he's

00:22:03.559 --> 00:22:05.700
groomed, this kid he's owned for two years, and

00:22:05.700 --> 00:22:08.200
he sneers. He says, kill me, Wayne. You won't

00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:10.339
do it. Famous last words. Henley pulled the trigger.

00:22:10.460 --> 00:22:12.680
He shot him in the forehead. Did he go down immediately?

00:22:13.059 --> 00:22:16.299
Not immediately. The .22 is a small round. Corral

00:22:16.299 --> 00:22:18.799
staggered. He actually lunged at Henley. Henley

00:22:18.799 --> 00:22:21.119
fired again in the shoulder, in the back. Coral

00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:22.660
tried to run down the hallway, maybe to get another

00:22:22.660 --> 00:22:25.240
weapon, but he collapsed. And then there's just

00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:28.099
silence in the house. The monster is dead. And

00:22:28.099 --> 00:22:31.359
suddenly you have three terrified teenagers alone

00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:34.500
with a corpse. What did they do? Did they just

00:22:34.500 --> 00:22:38.319
run? They thought about it. But Henley, for the

00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:41.920
first time in years maybe, he made a clear choice.

00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:44.339
He picked up the phone. He called the police.

00:22:44.990 --> 00:22:47.210
And the recording of that call, I mean, you can

00:22:47.210 --> 00:22:49.750
hear the absolute panic. He screams, y 'all better

00:22:49.750 --> 00:22:52.349
come here right now. I just killed a man. The

00:22:52.349 --> 00:22:54.789
police arrive, and I have to assume they think

00:22:54.789 --> 00:22:57.569
this is just a domestic dispute or a drug deal

00:22:57.569 --> 00:23:00.390
gone bad. That's exactly what they thought. They

00:23:00.390 --> 00:23:02.869
walk in, they see the paint cans, the wine, the

00:23:02.869 --> 00:23:04.869
dead body on the floor. They see a hysterical

00:23:04.869 --> 00:23:07.750
kid with a gun. They cuff Henley. It seems like

00:23:07.750 --> 00:23:10.049
an open and shut case of homicide. But Henley

00:23:10.049 --> 00:23:12.670
can't keep his mouth shut. No. He's in the back

00:23:12.670 --> 00:23:14.490
of the patrol car. The adrenaline is crashing.

00:23:14.670 --> 00:23:16.970
The guilt is crashing down on him. And he looks

00:23:16.970 --> 00:23:19.069
at the officer and says, I have to get it off

00:23:19.069 --> 00:23:21.109
my chest. And the officer probably thinks, OK,

00:23:21.190 --> 00:23:23.329
kid, tell me why you shot him. Self -defense.

00:23:24.069 --> 00:23:26.109
But Henley starts talking about the others. He

00:23:26.109 --> 00:23:29.529
says, I didn't just kill him. We killed six or

00:23:29.529 --> 00:23:31.670
eight others. The cops must have thought he was

00:23:31.670 --> 00:23:33.970
hallucinating, that it was the paint fumes talking.

00:23:34.190 --> 00:23:36.190
They did. They told him to shut up. They thought

00:23:36.190 --> 00:23:39.319
he was delirious. But Henley insisted. He said,

00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:42.019
if you don't believe me, go to the boat shed.

00:23:42.200 --> 00:23:44.599
The boat shed. And this is where the abstract

00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:48.240
horror becomes sickeningly physical. It was a

00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:51.119
rented stall in southwest Houston. Henley guides

00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:53.079
them there. It's the middle of the night now.

00:23:53.160 --> 00:23:55.940
They open the door. It just smells like damp

00:23:55.940 --> 00:23:58.519
earth and lime. I read the account of Officer

00:23:58.519 --> 00:24:00.680
Carl Siebeniker, one of the first on the scene.

00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:03.700
Right. He described walking in, taking a few

00:24:03.700 --> 00:24:08.779
steps and then realizing the ground felt. Soft.

00:24:08.779 --> 00:24:12.339
Spongy. Disturbingly soft. He dug a heel in,

00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:14.660
and he hit something solid that wasn't a rock.

00:24:14.819 --> 00:24:16.740
They bring in the shovels. And the nightmare

00:24:16.740 --> 00:24:20.019
begins. They found bodies stacked like cordwood,

00:24:20.140 --> 00:24:22.819
wrapped in plastic sheeting, covered in quicklime

00:24:22.819 --> 00:24:25.099
to speed up decomposition and mask the smell.

00:24:25.259 --> 00:24:27.500
How many? In that one shed? In that one shed,

00:24:27.700 --> 00:24:30.960
17. 17 bodies. Yeah. In a single rental stall.

00:24:31.160 --> 00:24:33.339
And that was just the beginning of the dig. It's

00:24:33.339 --> 00:24:36.619
hard to even visualize that. 17 people. That's

00:24:36.619 --> 00:24:38.819
a classroom. That's a baseball team in its alternates.

00:24:38.859 --> 00:24:42.339
And they were just stacked. They were buried

00:24:42.339 --> 00:24:45.220
in layers. The investigators described a scene

00:24:45.220 --> 00:24:48.240
that was almost impossible to process. The smell

00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:51.539
alone, that mix of lime and decomposition was

00:24:51.539 --> 00:24:54.140
overwhelming. But what really hit them, what

00:24:54.140 --> 00:24:56.779
really humanized it, were the personal effects.

00:24:57.160 --> 00:24:59.240
What did they find? It wasn't just bones. It

00:24:59.240 --> 00:25:02.640
was the stuff of teenage life. Keys to a car

00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:05.519
that was never found. A ring. A belt buckle.

00:25:05.720 --> 00:25:07.940
And sitting right there in the shed was the torture

00:25:07.940 --> 00:25:09.599
board. It was like finding the murder weapon

00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:12.019
and the victims all in the same tomb. And Henley

00:25:12.019 --> 00:25:15.079
didn't stop at the shed. No. Once the news broke,

00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:17.579
and it broke huge, obviously David Brooks saw

00:25:17.579 --> 00:25:19.740
it on TV. He knew his time was up. He went to

00:25:19.740 --> 00:25:21.740
the police station and turned himself in. And

00:25:21.740 --> 00:25:23.380
between the two of them, they started drawing

00:25:23.380 --> 00:25:26.240
a map for the police. A map of graves. Where

00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:28.119
else have they buried people? There were two

00:25:28.119 --> 00:25:30.420
other primary sites. One was at Lake Sam Rayburn.

00:25:30.619 --> 00:25:32.660
The Coral family had a log cabin up there. It

00:25:32.660 --> 00:25:35.779
was a beautiful, scenic spot. But they led police

00:25:35.779 --> 00:25:38.180
to a wooded area nearby, and they dug up four

00:25:38.180 --> 00:25:40.759
more bodies. And the beach. High Island Beach.

00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:43.220
This is a desolate stretch of the Gulf Coast.

00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:45.839
They had taken victims down there, killed them,

00:25:45.940 --> 00:25:48.400
and buried them in the sand dunes. Police recovered

00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:50.980
six bodies there. So, if we're keeping count,

00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:54.640
17 in the shed, four at the lake. Six at the

00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:56.980
beach. That's 27 bodies found in a matter of

00:25:56.980 --> 00:25:59.660
days. It was a literal assembly line of death.

00:25:59.880 --> 00:26:02.759
The sheer logistics of it are baffling. Digging

00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:05.579
that many graves, transporting that many bodies

00:26:05.579 --> 00:26:08.380
without being seen. It implies a level of physical

00:26:08.380 --> 00:26:11.380
labor and planning that is just chilling to contemplate.

00:26:11.420 --> 00:26:13.000
This brings us to the question that hangs over

00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:15.839
this entire case. The question every parent in

00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:19.319
Houston was screaming in August of 1973. How?

00:26:20.139 --> 00:26:23.660
How do 27, 29, maybe more boys disappear from

00:26:23.660 --> 00:26:25.880
the same neighborhoods and nobody connects the

00:26:25.880 --> 00:26:27.900
dots? To understand that, you have to take off

00:26:27.900 --> 00:26:31.220
your 2026 glasses and put on 1973 glasses. You

00:26:31.220 --> 00:26:33.019
have to understand the culture of the era. The

00:26:33.019 --> 00:26:36.099
generation gap. Exactly. This is post Woodstock.

00:26:36.140 --> 00:26:38.440
This is the height of the counterculture. Teenagers

00:26:38.440 --> 00:26:40.660
weren't just rebels. They were actively separating

00:26:40.660 --> 00:26:43.039
from the adult world. Hitchhiking was normal.

00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:45.799
It was how you got around. I've seen photos from

00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:49.279
back then. Kids with backpacks just thumbing

00:26:49.279 --> 00:26:51.299
rides on the interstate like it was a city bus.

00:26:51.599 --> 00:26:53.880
It was a different world. And because of that,

00:26:53.980 --> 00:26:56.819
there was a massive transient population of young

00:26:56.819 --> 00:26:59.359
people. Kids were running away to hate Ashbury

00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:01.920
or just hitting the road to find themselves.

00:27:02.220 --> 00:27:04.420
It was a cultural phenomenon. And the police

00:27:04.420 --> 00:27:06.619
had a very convenient label for all of them.

00:27:06.980 --> 00:27:10.819
Runaways. That label was a shield for police

00:27:10.819 --> 00:27:13.950
inaction. It was the default setting. When a

00:27:13.950 --> 00:27:16.150
parent called the Houston PD to report their

00:27:16.150 --> 00:27:18.690
teenage son missing, the police response was

00:27:18.690 --> 00:27:21.690
almost robotic. He's a teenage boy, probably

00:27:21.690 --> 00:27:23.869
just took off to California. He'll be back when

00:27:23.869 --> 00:27:25.750
he runs out of money. But the parents knew better.

00:27:25.970 --> 00:27:28.450
They knew their kids. They did. Take the Winkle

00:27:28.450 --> 00:27:30.549
family. Their son, Gregory Winkle, disappears.

00:27:30.970 --> 00:27:33.130
His mother goes down to the station. She tells

00:27:33.130 --> 00:27:35.569
them, my son is missing. The police say, he's

00:27:35.569 --> 00:27:37.710
a runaway. And she says, he was wearing a swimsuit.

00:27:37.710 --> 00:27:39.849
He had 80 cents in his pocket. Who runs away

00:27:39.849 --> 00:27:42.230
to California with 80 cents and no shoes? It

00:27:42.230 --> 00:27:44.759
defies all logic. But the police were rigid.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:47.779
They told parents, Why are you down here bothering

00:27:47.779 --> 00:27:50.799
us? You know your boys are runaways. There was

00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:53.740
this systemic arrogance. They simply refused

00:27:53.740 --> 00:27:56.119
to believe that a predator could be operating

00:27:56.119 --> 00:27:59.079
on this scale in their city. And Quarles weaponized

00:27:59.079 --> 00:28:00.880
this arrogance. That's why he made them write

00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:03.960
the letters. Exactly. We mentioned the letters

00:28:03.960 --> 00:28:05.980
earlier, but now you see the tactical brilliance

00:28:05.980 --> 00:28:09.319
of it. When Mrs. Winkle or Mrs. Waldrop gets

00:28:09.319 --> 00:28:11.579
a letter, even if it's weird, even if it doesn't

00:28:11.579 --> 00:28:13.079
sound like their son, the police look at it and

00:28:13.079 --> 00:28:16.339
say, see? We told you. He's in Austin. He's fine.

00:28:16.579 --> 00:28:19.779
Case closed. It gave the police a filable excuse

00:28:19.779 --> 00:28:22.640
to do nothing. It confirmed their bias. We don't

00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:24.480
need to investigate because the kid isn't missing.

00:28:24.539 --> 00:28:27.599
He's just gone. It was a perfect vicious circle.

00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:29.819
But there were other missed clues. It wasn't

00:28:29.819 --> 00:28:32.160
just the letters. There were actual tips given

00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:34.220
to the police. Right. There were massive red

00:28:34.220 --> 00:28:36.980
flags that were ignored. Everett Waldrop, the

00:28:36.980 --> 00:28:39.200
father of two of the victims, was doing his own

00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:41.759
investigation because the police wouldn't. In

00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:47.140
1971, Two full years before Coral died, Waldrop

00:28:47.140 --> 00:28:50.180
got a tip. An acquaintance told him that Coral

00:28:50.180 --> 00:28:52.680
was burying things at night at the boat shed.

00:28:53.140 --> 00:28:55.880
Two years early. They could have saved dozens

00:28:55.880 --> 00:28:58.119
of lives. They could have, Waldrop told the police.

00:28:58.259 --> 00:29:00.799
And they did a check. They drove out, looked

00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:02.799
at the shed, saw it was locked, didn't smell

00:29:02.799 --> 00:29:04.759
anything, didn't dig, didn't get a warrant, and

00:29:04.759 --> 00:29:06.900
they just walked away. Dismissed it. That is

00:29:06.900 --> 00:29:09.269
just... It's infuriating. And it wasn't the only

00:29:09.269 --> 00:29:11.509
one. There were also witnesses at High Island

00:29:11.509 --> 00:29:14.069
who saw men digging strange holes in the dunes

00:29:14.069 --> 00:29:16.769
at night. They reported it, ignored. The police

00:29:16.769 --> 00:29:18.849
just did not care about missing teenage boys

00:29:18.849 --> 00:29:21.289
from working class families. If these had been

00:29:21.289 --> 00:29:23.130
missing cheerleaders from affluent neighborhoods,

00:29:23.450 --> 00:29:24.990
the response would have been very, very different.

00:29:25.190 --> 00:29:27.549
It really highlights how vulnerable that specific

00:29:27.549 --> 00:29:30.769
demographic was. Young males were seen as independent,

00:29:31.130 --> 00:29:33.869
capable of fending for themselves, and therefore

00:29:33.869 --> 00:29:35.950
not in need of the same level of protection.

00:29:36.539 --> 00:29:39.599
The families were, rightfully, furious. When

00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:41.880
the bodies were finally found, that grief turned

00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:44.799
into an incredible rage. They felt betrayed.

00:29:45.140 --> 00:29:47.220
This wasn't just a killer hiding in the shadows.

00:29:47.279 --> 00:29:49.599
This was a killer hiding behind police apathy.

00:29:49.759 --> 00:29:53.220
So the aftermath. The killer is dead. Coral is

00:29:53.220 --> 00:29:57.279
gone. But the accomplices are alive. What happened

00:29:57.279 --> 00:30:00.210
to David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley? The legal

00:30:00.210 --> 00:30:02.849
battles were intense. Elmer Wayne Henley was

00:30:02.849 --> 00:30:05.049
indicted for six of the murders. Now, remember

00:30:05.049 --> 00:30:07.309
his defense. He claimed he was a victim, too,

00:30:07.410 --> 00:30:10.509
that he was acting under duress. He claimed duress.

00:30:10.509 --> 00:30:12.730
He said, I was terrified of Dean. If I didn't

00:30:12.730 --> 00:30:14.430
do it, he would have killed me. And there was

00:30:14.430 --> 00:30:16.490
a grain of truth to that. Corral was dangerous.

00:30:17.170 --> 00:30:19.089
But the prosecution pointed out the timeline.

00:30:19.650 --> 00:30:22.240
This went on for years. Henley had money. He

00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:24.640
had a car. He had a gun. He had a thousand chances

00:30:24.640 --> 00:30:27.099
to walk away or go to the police. And he didn't.

00:30:27.099 --> 00:30:29.400
The jury didn't buy the scared kid act. Not for

00:30:29.400 --> 00:30:32.000
a second. He was found guilty. And the judge

00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:35.059
threw the book at him. He was sentenced to 594

00:30:35.059 --> 00:30:38.240
years. That's six consecutive 99 -year terms.

00:30:38.440 --> 00:30:41.079
Wow. That is a statement sentence if I've ever

00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:43.569
heard one. It was. He was later retried due to

00:30:43.569 --> 00:30:45.809
a technicality and given concurrent sentences

00:30:45.809 --> 00:30:48.450
instead of consecutive. But the result is the

00:30:48.450 --> 00:30:50.990
same. He is still in prison. He's actually become

00:30:50.990 --> 00:30:53.930
something of a jailhouse artist he paints. And

00:30:53.930 --> 00:30:56.529
he's been denied parole repeatedly, most recently

00:30:56.529 --> 00:31:00.410
in 2025. He will almost certainly die in prison.

00:31:00.549 --> 00:31:03.430
And what about David Brooks, the first accomplice?

00:31:03.930 --> 00:31:06.390
Brooks tried a different angle. He claimed he

00:31:06.390 --> 00:31:09.009
was just an accessory, an innocent bystander

00:31:09.009 --> 00:31:10.910
who watched but didn't actually kill anyone.

00:31:11.170 --> 00:31:13.710
He tried to paint Henley as the psycho and Correll

00:31:13.710 --> 00:31:16.349
as the mastermind, leaving himself as just the

00:31:16.349 --> 00:31:19.519
guy driving the car. Did that work? No. He was

00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:21.420
tried for the murder of William Ray Lawrence.

00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:23.880
The testimony showed he was present. He helped

00:31:23.880 --> 00:31:25.980
restrain victims. He was an active participant

00:31:25.980 --> 00:31:28.359
and he benefited from the crimes. He got life

00:31:28.359 --> 00:31:30.799
imprisonment. He ended up dying in prison in

00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:33.920
2020 from COVID -19 complications. So they both

00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:37.119
spent their lives behind bars. Justice of a sort.

00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:39.740
But for the families, the ordeal didn't end with

00:31:39.740 --> 00:31:41.640
the convictions because for a long, long time,

00:31:41.740 --> 00:31:44.099
many of those bodies weren't identified. This

00:31:44.099 --> 00:31:46.240
is the forensic tragedy of the case. You have

00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:49.799
to remember, in 1973, DNA testing as we know

00:31:49.799 --> 00:31:53.539
it didn't exist. Identification relied on dental

00:31:53.539 --> 00:31:55.980
records, which were spotty for poor kids who

00:31:55.980 --> 00:31:59.099
might not have seen a dentist regularly, or clothing

00:31:59.099 --> 00:32:01.759
descriptions. He was wearing blue jeans, describes

00:32:01.759 --> 00:32:04.220
half the teenage boys in the country at the time.

00:32:04.339 --> 00:32:07.519
Exactly. So many of the bodies were simply labeled

00:32:07.519 --> 00:32:10.259
unknown. They were buried in paupers' graves.

00:32:10.579 --> 00:32:13.160
The families knew their sons were dead, but they

00:32:13.160 --> 00:32:15.579
didn't have a body to bury. No final resting

00:32:15.579 --> 00:32:18.160
place. But science eventually caught up. It did,

00:32:18.279 --> 00:32:20.539
thanks largely to the incredible persistence

00:32:20.539 --> 00:32:23.460
of forensic anthropologists like Dr. Sharon Derrick

00:32:23.460 --> 00:32:25.220
at the Harris -Carrity Institute of Forensic

00:32:25.220 --> 00:32:28.039
Sciences. They never gave up on these lost boys.

00:32:28.339 --> 00:32:31.660
In the 2000s, as DNA technology improved, they

00:32:31.660 --> 00:32:34.140
started exhuming the unknown bodies and building

00:32:34.140 --> 00:32:36.400
new profiles. Can you give us some examples of

00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:38.819
the breakthroughs they had? Sure. Randall Harvey.

00:32:38.980 --> 00:32:41.599
He was just a skeleton for decades. He was identified

00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:44.819
in 2008. Joseph Lyles was identified in 2009

00:32:44.819 --> 00:32:47.259
using a DNA match. These were huge moments for

00:32:47.259 --> 00:32:50.000
the families. Finally, after 30 plus years, they

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:51.839
could bring their sons home. But there were also

00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:54.460
mistakes made in 1973 that needed to be corrected.

00:32:54.890 --> 00:32:56.849
I read about the mix -ups. This is heartbreaking.

00:32:57.230 --> 00:33:01.109
In 1973, in the rush to close cases, a body was

00:33:01.109 --> 00:33:03.869
identified as a boy named Michael Balch. The

00:33:03.869 --> 00:33:06.470
family buried him. They mourned him. They visited

00:33:06.470 --> 00:33:10.109
his grave for decades. And it turns out... That

00:33:10.109 --> 00:33:13.049
identification was wrong. The real Michael Balch

00:33:13.049 --> 00:33:17.109
wasn't identified until 2010. The body the Balch

00:33:17.109 --> 00:33:19.089
family had been visiting for nearly 40 years

00:33:19.089 --> 00:33:21.789
was actually another victim, Roy Bunton. Oh,

00:33:21.809 --> 00:33:24.670
my God. So the Bunton family spent 40 years thinking

00:33:24.670 --> 00:33:26.849
their son was still missing, his body never found.

00:33:26.950 --> 00:33:29.150
Yes. Roy Bunton wasn't officially identified

00:33:29.150 --> 00:33:32.269
until 2011. Imagine that agony, waiting four

00:33:32.269 --> 00:33:34.410
decades for a knock on the door, only to find

00:33:34.410 --> 00:33:37.589
out he had been found back in 1973 and mislabeled.

00:33:37.589 --> 00:33:39.940
And the work still isn't done. Still one victim

00:33:39.940 --> 00:33:42.160
from that birch shed who remains unidentified

00:33:42.160 --> 00:33:45.359
to this day. The swimsuit boy. In official files,

00:33:45.519 --> 00:33:49.200
he's ML733356. What do we know about him? We

00:33:49.200 --> 00:33:51.839
have some clues. He was wearing distinctive red,

00:33:51.940 --> 00:33:54.720
white, and blue swim trunks, very 1970s style.

00:33:55.079 --> 00:33:58.480
He had a shirt with a peace symbol and some handwritten

00:33:58.480 --> 00:34:01.220
letters on it, maybe LB4MF or something similar.

00:34:01.400 --> 00:34:03.920
And physically? Any markers. The skeletal analysis

00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:06.619
suggests he might have had a mild form of spina

00:34:06.619 --> 00:34:09.309
bifida. There's a strong belief in the online

00:34:09.309 --> 00:34:11.769
sleuthing community that he might be a boy named

00:34:11.769 --> 00:34:14.690
Bobby French, based on photos and anonymous tips.

00:34:14.949 --> 00:34:18.289
But here's the problem. To confirm it, you need

00:34:18.289 --> 00:34:20.909
DNA. And you need a family reference sample to

00:34:20.909 --> 00:34:23.610
match it to. Without that definitive match, he

00:34:23.610 --> 00:34:26.130
remains nameless. So if you're listening to this

00:34:26.130 --> 00:34:28.030
and you had a relative named Bobby French or

00:34:28.030 --> 00:34:29.750
anyone else who disappeared in Houston around

00:34:29.750 --> 00:34:32.650
1973... Please contact the Harris County Institute

00:34:32.650 --> 00:34:34.550
of Forensic Sciences. And they're also missing

00:34:34.550 --> 00:34:36.349
bodies, right? People we know were killed but

00:34:36.349 --> 00:34:38.469
were never found. Mark Scott. Henley confessed

00:34:38.469 --> 00:34:40.369
to killing him and burying him at High Island

00:34:40.369 --> 00:34:43.530
Beach. But despite extensive searching, his body

00:34:43.530 --> 00:34:46.869
was never recovered. The coast changes. Storms,

00:34:46.869 --> 00:34:49.469
hurricanes, erosion. It's likely his grave was

00:34:49.469 --> 00:34:52.139
simply washed away into the Gulf of Mexico. It's

00:34:52.139 --> 00:34:54.980
a lonely thought. Just gone. And there's physical

00:34:54.980 --> 00:34:57.320
evidence of more victims than we have names for.

00:34:57.719 --> 00:35:01.559
In the boat shed, they found extra bones. Extra

00:35:01.559 --> 00:35:04.579
arm bones. A piece of a child's skull that didn't

00:35:04.579 --> 00:35:08.099
match any of the other 17 skeletons. It indicates

00:35:08.099 --> 00:35:10.539
the count is higher than 29. That brings up a

00:35:10.539 --> 00:35:13.260
terrifying thought. Coral was digging holes in

00:35:13.260 --> 00:35:16.179
his backyard back in the 60s. He claimed he was

00:35:16.179 --> 00:35:19.050
burying spoiled candy. That's right. Neighbors

00:35:19.050 --> 00:35:20.869
reported seeing him digging in the backyard of

00:35:20.869 --> 00:35:23.070
his house on Judoway Street in the late 60s.

00:35:23.250 --> 00:35:25.769
When asked, he said he was burying bad candy

00:35:25.769 --> 00:35:28.869
batches. But knowing what we know now, it's highly

00:35:28.869 --> 00:35:31.949
probable those were test graves. Or, even more

00:35:31.949 --> 00:35:34.389
chillingly, earlier victims we know nothing about.

00:35:34.610 --> 00:35:36.590
I want to touch on one last theory that always

00:35:36.590 --> 00:35:39.090
comes up with this case. The national sex ring.

00:35:39.190 --> 00:35:41.699
We talked about the lie Coral told Henley. But

00:35:41.699 --> 00:35:43.820
was there any truth to it at all? Was Coral actually

00:35:43.820 --> 00:35:46.300
part of some larger organization? This is the

00:35:46.300 --> 00:35:48.119
rabbit hole that investigators went down for

00:35:48.119 --> 00:35:50.980
years. Coral told Henley he was part of a Dallas

00:35:50.980 --> 00:35:53.820
ring. And strangely, when police investigated,

00:35:54.119 --> 00:35:56.239
they did find some circumstantial connections.

00:35:57.000 --> 00:35:59.920
Coral had the name of a known child pornographer,

00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:03.059
a man named Roy Ames, in his wallet when he died.

00:36:03.219 --> 00:36:05.639
That's a pretty solid link. It is. And around

00:36:05.639 --> 00:36:07.980
that same time, there was a big bust in Dallas.

00:36:08.590 --> 00:36:11.429
the John David Norman ring. Police raided it

00:36:11.429 --> 00:36:14.570
and found a list of thousands of names. But here's

00:36:14.570 --> 00:36:16.670
the conclusion most experts and investigators

00:36:16.670 --> 00:36:18.690
have settled on. While Corral might have had

00:36:18.690 --> 00:36:21.030
contacts in that world or consumed that material,

00:36:21.369 --> 00:36:23.670
the murders were his own. He wasn't shipping

00:36:23.670 --> 00:36:26.369
boys to Dallas. No. There is zero evidence he

00:36:26.369 --> 00:36:29.050
ever sold or transported a boy. He was a collector

00:36:29.050 --> 00:36:31.809
of victims, not a merchant. The ring story was

00:36:31.809 --> 00:36:34.269
a convenient and brilliant lie to keep his accomplices

00:36:34.269 --> 00:36:37.550
in line. The sadism was personal. It was all

00:36:37.550 --> 00:36:40.719
for him. So as we wrap up this deep dive, what

00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:42.860
is the legacy of this case? Beyond the sheer

00:36:42.860 --> 00:36:45.719
horror of it, did it change anything? It forced

00:36:45.719 --> 00:36:48.659
a massive and long overdue change in policing.

00:36:49.260 --> 00:36:52.599
The runaway excuse could no longer stand. The

00:36:52.599 --> 00:36:55.280
public outcry led to the creation of Operation

00:36:55.280 --> 00:36:58.420
Peace of Mind in Houston, which was a dedicated

00:36:58.420 --> 00:37:01.460
runaway hotline. And nationally, it pushed for

00:37:01.460 --> 00:37:03.280
the reforms and how missing children reports

00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:05.559
are handled. We take things like the Amber Alert

00:37:05.559 --> 00:37:07.900
system or the National Center for Missing and

00:37:07.900 --> 00:37:10.110
Exploited Children for granted now. But those

00:37:10.110 --> 00:37:12.409
systems were built on the ashes of the failures

00:37:12.409 --> 00:37:16.010
exposed by cases like Dean Quarles. It highlighted

00:37:16.010 --> 00:37:19.070
the desperate need for connected databases. It

00:37:19.070 --> 00:37:21.190
showed us that a kid missing in Houston might

00:37:21.190 --> 00:37:23.250
be connected to a predator who operates across

00:37:23.250 --> 00:37:26.329
county lines. It forced law enforcement to take

00:37:26.329 --> 00:37:28.750
missing children seriously, regardless of their

00:37:28.750 --> 00:37:31.469
background. At its heart, it's a tragedy of trust.

00:37:32.250 --> 00:37:35.090
Coral used the trust of a neighbor. He used the

00:37:35.090 --> 00:37:37.889
trust of a father figure. He weaponized the community's

00:37:37.889 --> 00:37:40.170
sense of safety against itself. And he proved

00:37:40.170 --> 00:37:42.150
that evil doesn't always look like a monster

00:37:42.150 --> 00:37:44.489
from a movie. Sometimes it looks like the guy

00:37:44.489 --> 00:37:46.349
running the candy shop across the street from

00:37:46.349 --> 00:37:48.510
the elementary school. It's the banality of it

00:37:48.510 --> 00:37:50.190
that sticks with you. I want to leave you with

00:37:50.190 --> 00:37:52.070
one final thought, something that keeps me up

00:37:52.070 --> 00:37:54.369
at night whenever I read about this case. In

00:37:54.369 --> 00:37:58.630
2012, a photo was released. It was found in Elmer

00:37:58.630 --> 00:38:01.559
Wayne Henley's personal effects in prison. A

00:38:01.559 --> 00:38:05.199
Polaroid. It's a picture of a boy. He's blonde.

00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:08.539
He looks terrified. He is handcuffed to the torture

00:38:08.539 --> 00:38:10.940
board. The toolbox is right there next to him.

00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:13.280
You can see the carpet of the apartment. We have

00:38:13.280 --> 00:38:15.219
the date. We have the location. We have the killer

00:38:15.219 --> 00:38:18.099
in the room. But the boy? That boy is not any

00:38:18.099 --> 00:38:21.199
of the known 29 victims. His face doesn't match

00:38:21.199 --> 00:38:23.639
any of the identified bodies or the missing person

00:38:23.639 --> 00:38:26.519
photos. Which means we have a photograph of a

00:38:26.519 --> 00:38:28.820
murder in progress, or at least a torture session

00:38:28.820 --> 00:38:31.500
of a victim we have never, ever accounted for.

00:38:31.659 --> 00:38:33.820
We don't know who he is. We don't know where

00:38:33.820 --> 00:38:37.239
he is buried. So when we say 29 victims, that's

00:38:37.239 --> 00:38:39.360
just the number we found. The real question is,

00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:42.440
how many other lost boys are actually still out

00:38:42.440 --> 00:38:44.829
there? Buried in places Corll never revealed.

00:38:45.090 --> 00:38:47.630
That is the chilling reality of the Dean Corll

00:38:47.630 --> 00:38:50.469
case. We may never, ever know the full count.

00:38:50.650 --> 00:38:52.849
Thank you for listening to this deep dive. Stay

00:38:52.849 --> 00:38:55.309
curious, stay safe, and look out for each other.

00:38:55.389 --> 00:38:58.210
We'll see you next time. Welcome to The Debate.

00:38:58.230 --> 00:39:02.389
Today we are opening the file on a case that

00:39:02.389 --> 00:39:06.369
really reset the baseline for criminal horror

00:39:06.369 --> 00:39:09.360
in the United States. We're looking at the years

00:39:09.360 --> 00:39:14.139
between 1970 and 1973 in Houston, Texas, where

00:39:14.139 --> 00:39:18.019
a minimum of 29 teenage boys and young men were

00:39:18.019 --> 00:39:21.119
abducted, tortured, and murdered. The central

00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:24.840
figure was a man named Dean Arnold Corll, known

00:39:24.840 --> 00:39:28.079
to neighborhood children as the Candyman. And

00:39:28.079 --> 00:39:30.679
when these crimes were, when they finally came

00:39:30.679 --> 00:39:33.579
to light, it wasn't just some local tragedy.

00:39:34.199 --> 00:39:37.340
I mean, this was, at the time, the worst example

00:39:37.340 --> 00:39:40.820
of serial murder in American history. It completely

00:39:40.820 --> 00:39:43.840
redefined the landscape. You have this central

00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:46.579
figure who appears, you know, utterly banal,

00:39:46.679 --> 00:39:49.739
an electrician, a former candy shop owner, and

00:39:49.739 --> 00:39:53.440
yet he orchestrated a level of sustained violence

00:39:53.440 --> 00:39:57.139
that is just, it's difficult to comprehend. But

00:39:57.139 --> 00:39:59.840
looking back at the source material, the question

00:39:59.840 --> 00:40:01.940
that haunts me isn't just about the mechanics

00:40:01.940 --> 00:40:04.530
of what Corll did. It is about the permission

00:40:04.530 --> 00:40:08.070
structure. How does a man operate a torture chamber

00:40:08.070 --> 00:40:10.969
in a densely populated suburb for three years

00:40:10.969 --> 00:40:13.789
without being stopped? And that right there,

00:40:13.789 --> 00:40:16.489
that brings us to the core tension we're dissecting

00:40:16.489 --> 00:40:19.309
today. Was the tragedy of the Houston mass murders

00:40:19.309 --> 00:40:22.230
primarily the result of a singular, highly manipulative

00:40:22.230 --> 00:40:26.110
mastermind, Dean Corll, operating with a genius

00:40:26.110 --> 00:40:28.570
-level capacity for concealment and control?

00:40:29.309 --> 00:40:32.349
Or... Was this catastrophe the result of a perfect

00:40:32.349 --> 00:40:35.469
storm of systemic police negligence and the complex,

00:40:35.510 --> 00:40:38.230
willing sociopathy of his teenage accomplices?

00:40:38.409 --> 00:40:41.570
It's a critical distinction. Because if we attribute

00:40:41.570 --> 00:40:44.849
everything to Corral's evil genius, we let the

00:40:44.849 --> 00:40:47.909
rest of the system off the hook. I take the position

00:40:47.909 --> 00:40:51.110
that Corral was not a mastermind. He was, well,

00:40:51.250 --> 00:40:54.260
he was the beneficiary of a broken system. His

00:40:54.260 --> 00:40:56.659
spree was only possible because of a massive

00:40:56.659 --> 00:40:58.739
failure of social institutions that dismissed

00:40:58.739 --> 00:41:01.579
victims as runaways and the active agency of

00:41:01.579 --> 00:41:04.099
accomplices who were, frankly, more villains

00:41:04.099 --> 00:41:07.039
than victims. I have to push back on that right

00:41:07.039 --> 00:41:09.860
away. I represent the perspective that Kroll

00:41:09.860 --> 00:41:13.139
was the architect. He was a singular force who

00:41:13.139 --> 00:41:16.340
manipulated everyone around him, from the accomplices

00:41:16.340 --> 00:41:20.420
he groomed to the very parents he deceived. Individual

00:41:20.420 --> 00:41:23.900
pathology was the primary driver here. The system

00:41:23.900 --> 00:41:26.619
failed, yes, but it failed because it was up

00:41:26.619 --> 00:41:29.280
against a predator it had never seen before and

00:41:29.280 --> 00:41:33.159
was just ill -equipped to understand. Let's test

00:41:33.159 --> 00:41:36.340
that architect theory. You claim he was a singular

00:41:36.340 --> 00:41:38.780
force, but he needed a lot of help to make this

00:41:38.780 --> 00:41:41.639
machine run. But look at the man's background.

00:41:42.019 --> 00:41:45.000
To understand the mastermind theory, you have

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:48.000
to look at his capacity for discipline and the

00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:51.519
facade he constructed. Dean Corll wasn't a chaotic

00:41:51.519 --> 00:41:54.119
drifter. He was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana,

00:41:54.400 --> 00:41:57.659
had a strict father, a protective mother. He

00:41:57.659 --> 00:42:00.719
was drafted into the U .S. Army in 1964, served

00:42:00.719 --> 00:42:03.639
10 months, and got an honorable discharge. He

00:42:03.639 --> 00:42:06.320
was a radio repairman during his service. That

00:42:06.320 --> 00:42:08.960
speaks to technical competence and an ability

00:42:08.960 --> 00:42:12.119
to follow rigid structures. Competence. Sure.

00:42:12.260 --> 00:42:15.119
But being a radio repairman doesn't exactly make

00:42:15.119 --> 00:42:17.820
you a criminal genius. But it establishes that

00:42:17.820 --> 00:42:22.840
he was capable, organized, and intelligent. After

00:42:22.840 --> 00:42:25.460
the army, he came back to Houston Heights to

00:42:25.460 --> 00:42:27.860
work in the family business, the Coral Candy

00:42:27.860 --> 00:42:31.199
Company. And this is where the candy man persona

00:42:31.199 --> 00:42:34.280
was born. He was the vice president of the company.

00:42:34.440 --> 00:42:37.639
He gave free candy to local children. This wasn't

00:42:37.639 --> 00:42:40.519
just benevolence. It was predatory grooming.

00:42:40.820 --> 00:42:44.000
He was buying trust. And when the candy business

00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:47.179
failed, he didn't spiral. He took a job as an

00:42:47.179 --> 00:42:49.460
electrician at Houston Lighting and Power and

00:42:49.460 --> 00:42:52.469
eventually became a supervisor. He held that

00:42:52.469 --> 00:42:55.789
job until the day he died. That sounds like a

00:42:55.789 --> 00:42:58.969
standard working -class trajectory, not a master

00:42:58.969 --> 00:43:02.929
plan. It's the compartmentalization that is terrifying.

00:43:03.369 --> 00:43:06.409
To be a reliable supervisor at a major utility

00:43:06.409 --> 00:43:09.570
company by day, dealing with logistics and people,

00:43:09.730 --> 00:43:12.170
and then go home to a boat shed or a torture

00:43:12.170 --> 00:43:15.050
board by night. That requires a level of psychological

00:43:15.050 --> 00:43:18.550
control that is almost inhuman. He wasn't just

00:43:18.550 --> 00:43:21.250
getting away with it. He was living two distinct

00:43:21.250 --> 00:43:24.130
lives with perfect separation. I don't dispute

00:43:24.130 --> 00:43:26.969
his ability to wear a mask, but let's look at

00:43:26.969 --> 00:43:29.489
the environment he was operating in. You call

00:43:29.489 --> 00:43:32.289
it a master plan. I call it targeting the vulnerable.

00:43:32.690 --> 00:43:35.369
He focused on Houston Heights, which was a low

00:43:35.369 --> 00:43:37.750
-income neighborhood at the time. He preyed on

00:43:37.750 --> 00:43:40.530
financial desperation. I mean, he didn't need

00:43:40.530 --> 00:43:42.710
to be a genius to know that the police in the

00:43:42.710 --> 00:43:46.250
early 1970s didn't prioritize poor kids who went

00:43:46.250 --> 00:43:49.010
missing. to write letters to their parents while

00:43:49.010 --> 00:43:51.829
they were being held captive. Balch wrote that

00:43:51.829 --> 00:43:54.650
he'd found work, that he was traveling. Correll

00:43:54.650 --> 00:43:57.809
mailed these letters to allay suspicion. That

00:43:57.809 --> 00:44:00.269
proves the crimes continued because of his strategic

00:44:00.269 --> 00:44:03.630
planning. He was running a counterintelligence

00:44:03.630 --> 00:44:06.750
operation against the families. It was strategic,

00:44:06.909 --> 00:44:09.170
I'll grant you, but it only worked because the

00:44:09.170 --> 00:44:12.210
Houston Police Department, the HPD, was desperate

00:44:12.210 --> 00:44:14.800
to believe it. This is where my argument for

00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:18.239
systemic failure really takes over. Parents knew

00:44:18.239 --> 00:44:21.199
something was wrong. Mrs. Winkle, whose son went

00:44:21.199 --> 00:44:27.780
missing, famously told the police, The police

00:44:27.780 --> 00:44:31.300
response was certainly lacking. Lacking is an

00:44:31.300 --> 00:44:34.059
understatement. It was negligent. The police

00:44:34.059 --> 00:44:36.400
chief told Everett Waldrop, another grieving

00:44:36.400 --> 00:44:43.000
father, This system had a preset narrative. Boys

00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:46.139
from the Heights run away. Corll just walks through

00:44:46.139 --> 00:44:48.599
the door the police held open for him. If the

00:44:48.599 --> 00:44:50.800
police had done basic investigative work on the

00:44:50.800 --> 00:44:53.579
first three disappearances, those strategic letters

00:44:53.579 --> 00:44:55.920
wouldn't have mattered. That brings us to the

00:44:55.920 --> 00:44:59.280
mechanism of the crimes themselves. The accomplices.

00:44:59.420 --> 00:45:02.059
You can't talk about Corll without talking about

00:45:02.059 --> 00:45:05.460
David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. And

00:45:05.460 --> 00:45:07.460
this is where the mastermind theory is strongest.

00:45:07.780 --> 00:45:09.760
And this is where we really disagree on agency.

00:45:10.300 --> 00:45:13.559
You see them as pawns. I see them as active participants

00:45:13.559 --> 00:45:16.019
in what was basically a murder -for -hire scheme.

00:45:16.300 --> 00:45:18.739
They were children when he found them. Corll

00:45:18.739 --> 00:45:22.880
met Brooks in 1967. Brooks was only 12 years

00:45:22.880 --> 00:45:25.780
old. Corll became a father figure to him. He

00:45:25.780 --> 00:45:28.639
paid him, sheltered him. By the time the killing

00:45:28.639 --> 00:45:31.219
started, Brooks was a dropout, completely dependent

00:45:31.219 --> 00:45:34.219
on Corll for his survival. And when Elmer Wayne

00:45:34.219 --> 00:45:37.719
Henley enters the picture in 1971, Corll uses

00:45:37.719 --> 00:45:40.460
a really sophisticated narrative to entrap him.

00:45:40.920 --> 00:45:43.460
He tells Henley he is part of a white slavery

00:45:43.460 --> 00:45:47.159
ring based in Dallas. The Blackbird theory? Exactly.

00:45:47.519 --> 00:45:49.900
He convinced these boys that the victims weren't

00:45:49.900 --> 00:45:52.699
being killed, but sold into a ring. It was a

00:45:52.699 --> 00:45:54.760
psychological buffer. It allowed these teenagers

00:45:54.760 --> 00:45:57.739
to rationalize their involvement. We see this

00:45:57.739 --> 00:46:00.500
psychological trap so clearly with Henley. He

00:46:00.500 --> 00:46:02.940
actually tried to stop the murder of Frank Aguirre.

00:46:03.019 --> 00:46:05.719
He tried to persuade Corll not to kill him, but

00:46:05.719 --> 00:46:08.940
Corll refused. That moment proves Henley was

00:46:08.940 --> 00:46:12.260
operating under a delusion Corll created, and

00:46:12.260 --> 00:46:14.360
when reality broke through, he was terrified.

00:46:14.800 --> 00:46:17.619
I think you are giving Henley way too much credit

00:46:17.619 --> 00:46:20.719
for morality. Henley admitted in his own confessions

00:46:20.719 --> 00:46:23.679
that he eventually realized Correll was killing

00:46:23.679 --> 00:46:26.500
the boys, not selling them. The white slavery

00:46:26.500 --> 00:46:29.280
story fell apart, and yet he continued. Why?

00:46:29.559 --> 00:46:32.920
Because Correll was paying him. It was a transaction.

00:46:33.460 --> 00:46:37.230
Henley was offered $200 per victim. In modern

00:46:37.230 --> 00:46:42.190
currency, that is roughly $1 ,670 per head. You

00:46:42.190 --> 00:46:44.250
think a teenager can process the moral weight

00:46:44.250 --> 00:46:48.150
of murder for $200? That speaks to how effectively

00:46:48.150 --> 00:46:51.130
Carell had warped their reality. Is it a warped

00:46:51.130 --> 00:46:54.550
reality, or is it greed? Look at David Brooks.

00:46:54.949 --> 00:46:57.750
In his confession, Brooks admitted witnessing

00:46:57.750 --> 00:47:01.250
many deaths. He said it didn't bother him. He

00:47:01.250 --> 00:47:04.500
watched it done many times. That is a profound

00:47:04.500 --> 00:47:07.159
level of callousness that you can't just attribute

00:47:07.159 --> 00:47:09.559
to Coral's influence. And let's look at Henley

00:47:09.559 --> 00:47:13.159
again. He didn't just lure strangers. He recruited

00:47:13.159 --> 00:47:16.219
his own friends. He brought in David Hillegist,

00:47:16.380 --> 00:47:19.699
a lifelong friend. You don't hand over a childhood

00:47:19.699 --> 00:47:22.119
friend to a man you know is a monster because

00:47:22.119 --> 00:47:25.599
of a delusion. You do it because you have dehumanized

00:47:25.599 --> 00:47:28.420
the victim to get your payout. Henley admitted

00:47:28.420 --> 00:47:30.840
as much. He said he had to view them as objects

00:47:30.840 --> 00:47:33.900
to cope. That's an active choice. If he was such

00:47:33.900 --> 00:47:36.719
a willing villain, then why did the spree end?

00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:40.940
It ended because Henley shot Correll. On August

00:47:40.940 --> 00:47:45.260
8th, 1973, when Correll threatened to kill Henley's

00:47:45.260 --> 00:47:48.119
friends, Rhonda Williams and Timothy Curley,

00:47:48.340 --> 00:47:51.940
Henley made a choice. He shot Correll to save

00:47:51.940 --> 00:47:54.400
them. Doesn't that prove that his true morality

00:47:54.400 --> 00:47:57.159
was just suppressed by fear until that breaking

00:47:57.159 --> 00:48:00.300
point? If he was purely money -driven, he would

00:48:00.300 --> 00:48:03.090
have let Correll kill them too. Or it just proves

00:48:03.090 --> 00:48:04.849
he had a line he wouldn't cross when it came

00:48:04.849 --> 00:48:07.650
to a specific circle, but was fine victimizing

00:48:07.650 --> 00:48:10.610
others. That isn't morality. That's tribalism.

00:48:10.869 --> 00:48:13.909
He was fine watching Frank Aguirre die, but when

00:48:13.909 --> 00:48:15.949
the gun turned toward him in his inner circle,

00:48:16.010 --> 00:48:19.110
he reacted. That's self -preservation. I interpret

00:48:19.110 --> 00:48:22.570
that very differently. I see a kid snapping out

00:48:22.570 --> 00:48:25.230
of a trance. But let's pivot to the methodology.

00:48:25.769 --> 00:48:28.329
You claim the police failure was the primary

00:48:28.329 --> 00:48:31.730
driver. But Corll's operational security was

00:48:31.730 --> 00:48:34.349
surprisingly high for a man with no criminal

00:48:34.349 --> 00:48:37.150
record. Was it, or was it just that no one was

00:48:37.150 --> 00:48:40.469
looking? It was adaptive. He moved frequently.

00:48:40.769 --> 00:48:43.690
He started at the Harold Turboff Apartments,

00:48:43.750 --> 00:48:47.130
moved to Yorktown, then Shuler Street, Wirt Road,

00:48:47.289 --> 00:48:50.929
and finally Lamar Drive. He changed locations

00:48:50.929 --> 00:48:54.550
to avoid detection. He used specific burial sites,

00:48:54.789 --> 00:48:57.949
the boat shed in southwest Houston, the woodland

00:48:57.949 --> 00:49:01.329
near Lake Sam Rayburn, High Island Beach. These

00:49:01.329 --> 00:49:04.690
weren't random dumps. They were calculated. He

00:49:04.690 --> 00:49:07.449
even used lime and plastic sheeting to accelerate

00:49:07.449 --> 00:49:10.550
decomposition and mask odors. The lime and plastic

00:49:10.550 --> 00:49:12.429
are standard, but let's look at the security.

00:49:12.789 --> 00:49:15.909
It was flimsy. Mr. and Mrs. Abernathy reported

00:49:15.909 --> 00:49:18.730
seeing three men bearing a large bundle at Galveston

00:49:18.730 --> 00:49:21.489
Beach. They identified Coral and Henley. They

00:49:21.489 --> 00:49:23.690
went to the authorities. The police didn't investigate.

00:49:24.079 --> 00:49:25.880
That isn't genius concealment. That's getting

00:49:25.880 --> 00:49:28.340
caught and being let go because the system doesn't

00:49:28.340 --> 00:49:31.219
care. But consider the depth of his preparation.

00:49:31.760 --> 00:49:35.340
This is a detail that's often overlooked. Former

00:49:35.340 --> 00:49:37.719
employees of the Coral Candy Company recalled

00:49:37.719 --> 00:49:40.719
Coral digging in the factory floor years prior,

00:49:40.960 --> 00:49:44.699
burying spoiled candy. He was practicing. He

00:49:44.699 --> 00:49:48.159
would dig holes, bury the candy, and cement over

00:49:48.159 --> 00:49:51.320
the floor. He collected nylon cord from his job

00:49:51.320 --> 00:49:54.280
at the power company, the same cord used to strangle

00:49:54.280 --> 00:49:57.440
victims. This suggests a premeditation that spans

00:49:57.440 --> 00:50:01.340
years. He was actively refining a methodology

00:50:01.340 --> 00:50:03.860
of death long before the first body dropped.

00:50:04.079 --> 00:50:06.179
And yet parents were the ones doing the police

00:50:06.179 --> 00:50:08.900
work. Selma Winkle and the Hillogists printed

00:50:08.900 --> 00:50:12.320
reward posters. Ironically, Henley helped distribute

00:50:12.320 --> 00:50:14.920
them to deflect suspicion. The police failure

00:50:14.920 --> 00:50:17.500
was so severe that Governor Dolph Briscoe had

00:50:17.500 --> 00:50:20.260
to establish Operation Peace of Mind afterward,

00:50:20.539 --> 00:50:23.280
a hotline for runaways, specifically because

00:50:23.280 --> 00:50:25.179
the system had been designed to ignore these

00:50:25.179 --> 00:50:27.960
types of victims. Corll didn't need to be a genius.

00:50:28.079 --> 00:50:30.639
He just needed to target boys the police viewed

00:50:30.639 --> 00:50:32.900
as expendable. That brings us to the aftermath.

00:50:33.480 --> 00:50:36.579
The discovery of Abadie's was chaotic, but it

00:50:36.579 --> 00:50:39.260
also highlighted just how total Corll's dominance

00:50:39.260 --> 00:50:42.739
was, right up until his death. The police didn't

00:50:42.739 --> 00:50:45.429
catch him. He died because his control slipped

00:50:45.429 --> 00:50:49.110
for one night. And even after he died, the incompetence

00:50:49.110 --> 00:50:51.750
continued. This is where my argument for systemic

00:50:51.750 --> 00:50:55.469
failure really cements itself. After Henley confessed

00:50:55.469 --> 00:50:58.349
and led them to the boat shed, they found body

00:50:58.349 --> 00:51:01.809
after body. It was a horror show. But once the

00:51:01.809 --> 00:51:04.929
count hit 27, surpassing Juan Corona's record

00:51:04.929 --> 00:51:08.550
at the time, the HPD essentially stopped searching.

00:51:08.849 --> 00:51:11.610
I mean, that is a harsh assessment. They had

00:51:11.610 --> 00:51:14.489
a mass casualty event on their hands. The sheer

00:51:14.489 --> 00:51:17.469
volume of victims, 29 known, potentially more,

00:51:17.630 --> 00:51:21.349
would overwhelm any department in 1973. It didn't

00:51:21.349 --> 00:51:24.809
just overwhelm them, it bored them. Henley insisted

00:51:24.809 --> 00:51:26.869
there were two more bodies at High Island and

00:51:26.869 --> 00:51:29.610
two more in the boat shed. An officer was quoted

00:51:29.610 --> 00:51:32.170
saying, what difference does it make? They had

00:51:32.170 --> 00:51:34.010
enough for the record book, so they stopped digging.

00:51:34.369 --> 00:51:36.530
That isn't about quarrel anymore. That's about

00:51:36.530 --> 00:51:39.190
a lack of regard for the victims. They treated

00:51:39.190 --> 00:51:42.050
the recovery like a scorecard. I will concede

00:51:42.050 --> 00:51:45.829
that the forensic handling was botched. But the

00:51:45.829 --> 00:51:48.630
chaos of that discovery reveals Kroll's true

00:51:48.630 --> 00:51:52.030
nature. The bodies were sodomized, tortured,

00:51:52.429 --> 00:51:55.630
some with glass rods. The final confrontation

00:51:55.630 --> 00:51:58.710
on August 8th happened because Kroll broke his

00:51:58.710 --> 00:52:01.329
own pattern. He was furious Henley brought a

00:52:01.329 --> 00:52:04.449
girl, Rhonda Williams. His rage at that loss

00:52:04.449 --> 00:52:08.059
of control is what got him killed. It reinforces

00:52:08.059 --> 00:52:10.639
that he was the engine of this entire machine.

00:52:10.940 --> 00:52:13.880
When the engine stalled, the whole thing collapsed.

00:52:14.300 --> 00:52:16.340
But let's look at the victims who were left behind

00:52:16.340 --> 00:52:19.920
by the system even after discovery. We talk about

00:52:19.920 --> 00:52:23.679
27 or 29, but the identification process was

00:52:23.679 --> 00:52:26.940
a disaster. Michael Balch was misidentified as

00:52:26.940 --> 00:52:29.639
Roy Bunton for decades. This was only resolved

00:52:29.639 --> 00:52:33.079
in 2011. Stephen Sickman was misidentified as

00:52:33.079 --> 00:52:36.420
Mark Scott. Why? Because the police relied on

00:52:36.420 --> 00:52:39.920
flimsy circumstantial evidence and ignored Henley's

00:52:39.920 --> 00:52:42.579
specific directions about who was buried where.

00:52:42.840 --> 00:52:45.440
Forentics in the 70s were not what they are today.

00:52:45.760 --> 00:52:49.079
DNA testing didn't exist. True, but consider

00:52:49.079 --> 00:52:51.739
the swimsuit boy, John Houston Doe, who remains

00:52:51.739 --> 00:52:54.739
unidentified to this day. He was found wearing

00:52:54.739 --> 00:52:57.079
red, white, and blue swimming trunks and a shirt

00:52:57.079 --> 00:53:00.000
with a peace symbol. More importantly, he had

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:03.139
spina bifida. This is a child with very specific

00:53:03.139 --> 00:53:06.280
medical and physical identifiers. Someone is

00:53:06.280 --> 00:53:08.780
missing a child with those specific characteristics.

00:53:09.300 --> 00:53:12.579
And yet, because of the chaotic processing and

00:53:12.579 --> 00:53:15.400
the runaway stigma, he remains nameless over

00:53:15.400 --> 00:53:18.559
50 years later. That is the legacy of the system,

00:53:18.719 --> 00:53:21.320
not just the killer. There is another layer to

00:53:21.320 --> 00:53:24.119
this, though. You attribute the failure to investigate

00:53:24.119 --> 00:53:27.079
to apathy. I think there might be something darker.

00:53:27.559 --> 00:53:30.599
We need to talk about the ring theory. You mean

00:53:30.599 --> 00:53:33.400
the connection to a national network? Yes. I

00:53:33.400 --> 00:53:35.840
mentioned earlier that the white slavery narrative

00:53:35.840 --> 00:53:38.780
was likely a manipulation tool Corll used on

00:53:38.780 --> 00:53:41.659
Henley. But there's evidence suggesting Corll

00:53:41.659 --> 00:53:44.920
was not operating entirely in a vacuum. Police

00:53:44.920 --> 00:53:47.820
found a business card for Roy Ames in Corll's

00:53:47.820 --> 00:53:51.099
wallet. Ames was a known pornographer and producer

00:53:51.099 --> 00:53:54.900
of child pornography in Houston. Then in 1975,

00:53:55.300 --> 00:53:58.539
two years after Corll died, A cache of photos

00:53:58.539 --> 00:54:01.079
was found in Houston depicting some of Corll's

00:54:01.079 --> 00:54:03.639
known victims. And you have the link to the John

00:54:03.639 --> 00:54:07.300
David Norman ring in Dallas? Exactly. Norman

00:54:07.300 --> 00:54:10.000
ran a massive ring. When police raided it, they

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:13.840
found a card file with 10 ,000 names. The presence

00:54:13.840 --> 00:54:16.860
of Ames' card and the photos suggest Corll might

00:54:16.860 --> 00:54:19.619
have been a supplier or at least a node in a

00:54:19.619 --> 00:54:23.739
much larger, darker network. This week contextualizes

00:54:23.739 --> 00:54:26.530
him not just as a lone serial killer. but as

00:54:26.530 --> 00:54:29.570
part of an organized criminal enterprise. But

00:54:29.570 --> 00:54:31.949
this actually proves my point about negligence.

00:54:32.030 --> 00:54:34.769
The HPD discovered this cash. They found the

00:54:34.769 --> 00:54:37.070
link to Roy Ames. They knew about the raid on

00:54:37.070 --> 00:54:39.349
John David Norman's ring. And what did they do?

00:54:39.530 --> 00:54:42.690
They declined to pursue the link. They stated,

00:54:42.829 --> 00:54:45.630
the families had suffered enough. Which is a

00:54:45.630 --> 00:54:48.090
convenient way to avoid a massive, sprawling

00:54:48.090 --> 00:54:50.449
investigation that might have implicated wealthy

00:54:50.449 --> 00:54:53.329
or powerful individuals across the country. That

00:54:53.329 --> 00:54:55.829
is the ultimate proof of the systemic negligence

00:54:55.829 --> 00:54:58.369
argument. The refusal to investigate a potential

00:54:58.369 --> 00:55:01.010
nationwide network is negligence of the highest

00:55:01.010 --> 00:55:03.909
order. It left the true scope of Corll's activities

00:55:03.909 --> 00:55:06.530
and perhaps the fate of other boys forever unknown

00:55:06.530 --> 00:55:08.989
because it was too much work or too politically

00:55:08.989 --> 00:55:11.409
dangerous to pull that thread. It is a disturbing

00:55:11.409 --> 00:55:14.889
thought, but we have to be careful not to conflate

00:55:14.889 --> 00:55:17.710
police unwillingness with Corll's actual operations.

00:55:18.030 --> 00:55:21.929
There is no conclusive evidence he ever sold.

00:55:22.329 --> 00:55:25.769
a boy. He killed them. That was his pathology.

00:55:25.969 --> 00:55:28.889
The ring might have been for photos, but the

00:55:28.889 --> 00:55:31.949
torture and murder were his own dark design.

00:55:32.329 --> 00:55:34.829
Perhaps. But if the police don't investigate,

00:55:34.969 --> 00:55:37.730
we can't know. And that silence is part of the

00:55:37.730 --> 00:55:41.570
systemic failure. As we move to close, I want

00:55:41.570 --> 00:55:46.190
to summarize my position. Dean Corll was a unique

00:55:46.190 --> 00:55:49.789
predator. He exploited every weakness in the

00:55:49.789 --> 00:55:53.030
human psyche and the social fabric, yes, but

00:55:53.030 --> 00:55:56.409
his ability to function as a supervisor at HLNP,

00:55:56.510 --> 00:55:59.349
to maintain a torture chamber in a quiet neighborhood,

00:55:59.510 --> 00:56:02.670
to methodically bury bodies for three years,

00:56:02.829 --> 00:56:05.889
this suggests a terrifying compartmentalization.

00:56:06.389 --> 00:56:09.090
He was a man who could turn off his humanity

00:56:09.090 --> 00:56:12.400
like a light switch. No standard policing could

00:56:12.400 --> 00:56:15.239
easily catch a man who leaves no witnesses and

00:56:15.239 --> 00:56:18.639
has the perfect camouflage of a steady job and

00:56:18.639 --> 00:56:21.579
a candy man persona. It is a compelling portrait

00:56:21.579 --> 00:56:24.699
of a monster, but I cannot look past the environment

00:56:24.699 --> 00:56:27.840
that fed him. Gordy Inuit was enabled by a society

00:56:27.840 --> 00:56:30.059
that viewed missing teen boys from the Heights

00:56:30.059 --> 00:56:33.079
as expendable runaways. The police dismissed

00:56:33.079 --> 00:56:35.840
parents. They dismissed witnesses. They stopped

00:56:35.840 --> 00:56:39.159
digging when the body count got too high. The

00:56:39.159 --> 00:56:41.739
fact that David Brooks died in 2020 of COVID

00:56:41.739 --> 00:56:44.880
-19 and Henley remains in prison, denied parole

00:56:44.880 --> 00:56:47.920
as recently as November 2025, doesn't change

00:56:47.920 --> 00:56:49.840
the fact that opportunities to stop them were

00:56:49.840 --> 00:56:52.539
missed repeatedly by authorities who simply didn't

00:56:52.539 --> 00:56:55.420
value the victims enough to look. It is a tragedy

00:56:55.420 --> 00:56:58.079
on every level, and both of us can agree that

00:56:58.079 --> 00:57:00.820
the truth is likely worse than the official record.

00:57:01.199 --> 00:57:04.019
Absolutely. We know there are extra arm bones

00:57:04.019 --> 00:57:07.179
found at High Island that likely belong to Donald

00:57:07.179 --> 00:57:10.420
Falcon. Yet he isn't officially listed as a murder

00:57:10.420 --> 00:57:12.980
victim because they only found the arms. We have

00:57:12.980 --> 00:57:15.880
the swimsuit boy still nameless. We have Henley's

00:57:15.880 --> 00:57:18.619
insistence that more bodies are out there. It

00:57:18.619 --> 00:57:21.440
serves as a grim reminder. Whether you believe

00:57:21.440 --> 00:57:24.239
it was the singular evil of Dean Corll or the

00:57:24.239 --> 00:57:26.980
blind eye of the state, the result was the same.

00:57:27.099 --> 00:57:29.980
A generation of boys was lost. And we are left

00:57:29.980 --> 00:57:33.099
to wonder if monsters are born or if they are

00:57:33.099 --> 00:57:35.639
allowed to thrive by a society that looks away.

00:57:35.900 --> 00:57:38.030
Thank you for joining us on The Debate. Until

00:57:38.030 --> 00:57:38.550
next time.