Dean Allen Corll

[Chris]

Monday, Aug. 20, 1973
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907718-1,00.html

In all, I guess there were between 25 and 30 boys killed, and they were buried in three different places. I was present and helped bury many of them but not all of them . . . On the first one at Sam Rayburn [Reservoir] I helped bury him, and then the next one we took to Sam Rayburn. When we got there, Dean and Wayne found that the first one had come to the surface and either a foot or a hand was above the ground. When they buried this one the second time, they put some type of rock sheet on top of him to keep him down.

—David Owen Brooks, in his statement to Texas police.

To the people of Pasadena, Texas, a modest industrial suburb of Houston, Dean Allen Corll was a clean-cut, quiet neighbor who kept pretty much to himself. He seemed to be a "nice, polite man who loved to be around kids," one acquaintance recalled. Last week stunned residents of Pasadena had a different view of the 33-year-old bachelor electrician who had been their neighbor since June. After an all-night party in Corll's two-bedroom frame cottage, he was shot to death with his own gun by 17-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley.

Henley told police that Corll had turned on him and two other youths, threatening to sexually molest and kill them. Instead, Henley said, he had managed to kill Corll in self-defense. He then recounted to Houston police an incredible tale of horror, homosexual sadism and mass murder in which he, Corll and a third accomplice, David Owen Brooks, 18, had taken part during the past three years.


Henley charged that Corll had led the trio in the sexual abuse and systematic killing of teen-age boys throughout the Houston area. From the two boys' stories, police constructed this account:

Brooks may have known Corll as far back as 1960, when Brooks was only five years old; he had lived with Corll intermittently during the past three years. Henley, a junior high school dropout from a broken home, had met Corll several years ago when Corll was managing a Houston candy store. Corll would give candy to young boys and offer them rides on his motorcycle. Henley's mother recalls that on occasion Corll would drive over in a white van with a black couch in the back and gather in ten or twelve youths for a ride.

Corll enlisted Brooks' help in luring youngsters to a series of apartments that Corll rented in the Houston area. Both Brooks and Henley told police that Corll had promised them $200 for every boy they brought. Henley claims that he "sat on the offer for about a year" before finally agreeing 18 months ago; Henley said he was paid only the first time for his procuring efforts.

Many of their finds were hitchhikers whom they picked up. They would invite the youths to Corll's home for "parties" of paint and glue sniffing. There the victims would be handcuffed to a specially constructed plywood board, sexually abused, and finally strangled or shot with Corll's .22-cal. pistol.

Henley confessed to having been an active participant in at least some of the murders. The day after Henley's confession, Brooks turned himself in. He denied killing anyone, but admitted to enticing boys to Corll's home, witnessing murders, and later disposing of bodies.

To prove his story, Henley led police to a boat shed in a secluded section of Houston where Corll had rented a vacant boat stall. It was there, Henley said, that many of the victims would be found. Trusties from a local jail began digging, and within hours they had exhumed eight corpses from a 6-ft.-deep mass grave. All were teen-age boys; some were wrapped in plastic bags, others covered with lime to disguise the stench of decay. The corpses were stacked one above the other, separated only by thin layers of dirt.

The grisly discovery proved to be only the beginning. With the trusties digging through the night—in exchange for time off from their sentences—police detectives donned rubber gloves and began sifting through the dirt for bits of bone, hair, flesh and clothing. Nine more bodies were recovered from the death shed.

Henley and Brooks led police to a second grave site near Sam Rayburn Reservoir, 150 miles northeast of Houston. In a wooded area, four more badly decayed corpses were found in a shallow grave. The two youths next led deputies to still a third burial site at High Island, a tiny beach town on the Gulf Coast, where two victims were unearthed, bringing the total thus far to 23.

As the search for more bodies continued, frightened parents from round the country telephoned the Houston police switchboard, supplying descriptions of lost or runaway children. Police began the difficult task of identifying the victims, drawing on Brooks' and Henley's recollections, analyzing the remains, and sifting through thick files on missing youngsters. More than 5,000 minors are annually reported missing in the Houston area. Because of the decomposition of the bodies, only two positive identifications had been made by week's end, and police were uncertain whether they would ever be able to name all the victims.

Shadowy Figure. In addition to the three grave sites pointed out by Henley and Brooks, police learned from the boatyard manager that Corll had put his name on a waiting list for still another boat stall. Police were looking into the possibility of other burial grounds perhaps unknown to either Brooks or Henley. Ominously, Corll had once told Henley that some of his early victims were in California, and he may have killed before Henley and Brooks became his companions in blood.

So far, Corll remains a shadowy figure to police investigators. An employee of the Houston Power and Light Co., Corll told neighbors that he came from Indiana and served in the Army. Whether those facts were true, and much else about Corll, was yet to be learned as the investigation proceeded.

Brooks was charged with one killing, Henley with two. When asked why he had taken police to the grave sites of their many victims, Henley replied: "I felt I owed it to their parents to let them know what happened to them."

[Chris]

Must have been a freaky thing to have worked for his brother. I am surprised anyone would admit to that.

Hopefully a person who can do something will take you up on your offer. Since I am just a normal person, I can't do any checking. But I am sure anything you may know would be helpful.

Did he ever mention anything about this case that stands out?

[Chris]

He actually told you where his brother bad buried some bodies? Or was he implying he too helped in that?

[LynnP]

Randell Lee Harvey


Dogged Detective Work Identifies Long-Dead Victim
 
Thursday, 23 Oct 2008, 11:01 PM CDT 

 
Randell Lee Harvey 

HOUSTON  --  "These three cases struck a chord with me because I was living in Texas at the time when this case came to light," Dr. Sharon Derrick tells Fox 26 News.

At first, all the forensic anthropologist had to solve the mystery of one of those cases was the body of an unidentified boy, found dead more than 35 years ago, the voluminous police files from a decades-old serial killings and a desire to give a name to the nameless victim.
   
Now, two years after she first began the search, those bones, long known only as ML73-3349, have a
name: Randell Lee Harvey. And Harvey's family has the answer they've waited a generation to have.

Derrick unraveled the mystery using a combination of high-tech science and old-fashioned detective work.
   
When she started, she knew that ML73-3349 was one of three still-unidentified victims of notorious Houston serial killer Dean Corll and his two teenage accomplices, who had tortured and killed 27 young boys in the early 1970s.
   
ML73-3349 was found on Aug. 8, 1973, in a makeshift grave in a Houston boat stall, where 17 of Corll's victims had been buried, the day that Corll was shot and killed by accomplice Elmer Wayne Henley.
   
Ever since, three victims who couldn't be identified had been laying in a refrigerated storage unit at the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office. ML73-3349 had been shot in the head.
   
Derrick also had a possible name: Harvey was a boy who had been reported missing in March 1971 and lived in the Houston neighborhood where the killers lurked. Harvey, a skinny boy with an unusual overbite, had been 15 when he vanished.
   
"The name Randy Harvey kept popping up in missing persons reports. I knew it was a name we should follow," said Derrick, a forensic anthropologist with the Harris County Medical Examiner's
Office.
   
For two years, Derrick scoured through police records and case files, searching for more clues that could lead her to the boy's identity. The medical examiner's office created anthropological and
biological profiles of the victim, detailed enough to form an image of who he might have been.
   
He would have been white, between 15 and 20, about 5-foot-8 to 6-foot-1 and thin. A belt found near his remains was buckled to fit a lean 30-inch-waist.
   
Just like Randy Harvey.
   
In the paperwork, Derrick found more trails leading her toward Harvey. His name also turned up on a list of boys police believed might have been victims of Corll, and in other leads in the serial
killing investigation.
   
Next, Derrick set out to find Randy Harvey's relatives. Not an easy task. Decades had passed. People who might have known the family in Houston had moved or passed away. His mother had remarried and changed her last name and that of Harvey's two sisters.
   
Finally, Derrick spotted a newspaper article about a member of their family. She called that person, who led her to the two sisters, Donna Lovrek and Lenore McNiel.
   
Their mother, Frances Conley, died more than 10 years ago, never knowing what had happened to her son. His sisters never stopped searching for their brother, but had always feared the worst. This week, they were still in shock.
   
"We are still going through our grieving stage. It's a little hard to describe how we're feeling right now," Lovrek said Wednesday night.
   
In May, the sisters submitted DNA samples, which were sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification for comparison to samples taken from ML73-3349.
   
The process was slowed when the remains of the unidentfied victim failed to provide enough DNA loci -- a fixed position on a chromosome -- for a good comparison, Derrick said. New more advanced
tests were then conducted.
   
After several months, the results finally came back. Mathematically inconclusive.
   
A full DNA profile could not be garnered from the bones of ML73-3349, Derrick said. The mitochondrial DNA was a match, but was also a common profile shared by about 1 in 13 whites.
   
The victim and Harvey's sisters also shared a number of alleles -- genetic markers-- in their nuclear DNA. But again, they were common profiles.
   
However, the findings did not rule out the possibility that the unidentified boy was Harvey, Derrick said.
   
Instead, she explained, "they were weakly, gently supportive."
   
Derrick and colleagues studied the findings: the DNA tests, the
profiles, the circumstantial evidence.
   
The first time she met McNiel, Derrick said she stopped in her tracks. McNiel's chin and that of ML73-3349 were strikingly similar.
   
Harvey and the unidentified victim also shared that pronounced overbite.
   
Harvey was known to carry a plastic pocket comb, and wear square-toed boots, similar to the items found with the victim. Harvey's sisters also seemed to recognize a blue jacket that belonged to the victim, and had known at least two of the identified victims.
   
Harvey disappeared from his neighborhood around the time Corll and his accomplices first began to prey on boys from that area. ML73-3349's body had been buried alongside victims killed during
that time frame.
   
In addition, Derrick had spoken to David Owen Brooks, one of Corll's teenage accomplices, and shown him the drawing of a facial reconstruction of the unidentified victim. Brooks could not recall
the boy's name, but described him as a "tall skinny kid" and drew a map leading to the house where Harvey and his family had lived.
   
Brooks and Henley are serving life sentences for their roles in the murders.
   
Using the DNA results and other evidence, the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office had also ruled out other possible candidates who fit the profile of Corll's victims, said Jennifer Love, director of the forensic anthropology division.
   
That left Randy Harvey.

Last week, authorities officially identified ML73-3349 as Randell Lee Harvey, ending his three decades in limbo.
   
"It took a few months, but we wanted it to be right. For the family, it's good for them to know, but it's hard for them to have concrete evidence. So that makes me sad," said Derrick. "I'm just
very glad to be able to return him to his family."
   
Derrick is still working to determine the identities of the other two boys. 



http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=7712237&version=1&locale=EN-US

[Chris]

Glad this was solved.

[MartyS1]

I stumbled on this site while thinking about Dean Corll this evening.   
In the fall of 1972 I went to what is now the lakebed of Lake Conroe to hunt doves.  Late in the evening, but before dusk, I was walking across the remote land trying to get some shots at doves.  There was no one in the area but I unexpectedly came across a man digging holes near his pickup truck.  I didn't get within 200 feet and can't recall how old he looked (I was 18) but he had a long-handled shovel and the way he looked at me gave me the creeps.  I was carrying a 12 gauge double barrel shotgun but still felt the need to get away from the scene. 
I didn't really think about it again til the next summer when the bodies were discovered.  I've never reported the information to anyone--just told family and friends--one of those strange, unnerving life experiences.
When I think about it, it would be pretty ingenious to bury things in an area that was to be flooded within a year. 
That's all. 

[Chris]

Wow taht is creepy. so you think it was him?

Is that spot under water now? Like it was flooded over on purpose?

[RhondaW]

Remains believed to be those of victim of '70s serial killer
By ALLAN TURNER Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 11, 2009, 9:00PM

The case was a forensic nightmare, providing only the slimmest clues. Parts of the skeleton, plucked from an eroded site in Jefferson County, were missing. The skull had no teeth, making dental identification impossible. For 25 years, the bones lay at the Harris County morgue without a name. Finally, last November, they were buried.

On Wednesday, though, investigators got lucky. DNA testing revealed the remains were those of a Houston teenager who disappeared in 1973. Authorities believe he was a victim of serial killer Dean Corll, who along with accomplices Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks sexually tortured and murdered at least 27 young men.

Coincidentally, the identification of the remains as those of 17-year-old Joseph Lyles came just one day before Harris County Medical Examiner's Office workers planned to bury another set of unidentified remains thought to be those of a Corll victim.

“Without DNA testing, we would not have been able to make this identification,” said Dr. Jennifer Love, the medical examiner's director of forensic anthropology. “There had been a significant time lapse before the remains were found.”

If Lyles was a victim of the serial killer, his remains would be the first located in Jefferson County. Remains of Corll's other victims were recovered from San Augustine County, High Island and a Harris County boathouse. The Jefferson County remains were found scattered near an eroding sandbank in 1983.

Before the DNA match, investigators did not suspect the Jefferson County skeleton was linked to the Corll murders.

Forensic anthropologist Dr. Sharon Derrick said events leading to Wednesday's successful identification began in 2007, when she collected DNA samples from two sisters who feared their brother might have fallen victim to the serial killer.

The sisters' samples initially were compared to DNA taken from the unidentified remains of three men thought to have been Corll victims. There were no positive matches, and the sisters' samples were filed with a national DNA databank.

A positive match
In an ongoing effort to identify the morgue's mystery remains, anthropologists in February submitted DNA samples from the Jefferson County case for databank comparison.

They were notified of the positive match Wednesday.

At the county's Oates Road cemetery today, medical examiner's staffers plan to bury one of two remaining sets of unidentified remains thought to have been Corll victims. DNA was extracted before burial.

Corll, 33, who operated a Houston Heights candy shop from which he distributed free samples to young boys, is thought to have shot or strangled at least 27 teens and young men between 1970 and 1973. He was fatally shot by Henley — who along with Brooks had procured victims for the killer — during an altercation at Corll's home in August 1973. Henley and Brooks are in prison.

Authorities searching Corll's house found a number of torture devices, including a wooden crate perforated with air holes and containing human hair. The case drew international attention, with Pope Paul VI offering sympathy to victims' families.

At the time, the Houston murders were the deadliest killing spree in U.S. history.

[Chris]

Glad some family got some closure

[RhondaW]

THIS COULD BE VICTIM NUMBER 28...

New victim of 1970s serial killer identified
06:52 PM CST on Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Associated Press
WFAA - Dallas

HOUSTON - The Harris County medical examiner believes she has found another victim of 1970s-era serial killer Dean Corll, who murdered 27 boys in Houston and was killed himself by one of his teenage accomplices.

Forensic anthropologist Sharon Derrick said the victim was identified through DNA analysis as Joseph Allen Lyles, who was 17 when he disappeared in February 1973. Lyles' body was found 16 years ago on a beach in nearby Jefferson County, and buried in a manner similar to Corll's other victims.

In the early 1970s, Corll and his two accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks, tortured and killed their victims, then buried then in makeshift graves in a Houston storage unit and on beaches in nearby counties. Lyles would be the 28th victim found, if the investigation shows he was killed by Corll.

[RhondaW]

Glad some family got some closure

Me too!

[texson48]

I have wondered for a very long time why Wayne took Rhonda with him and Tim that night knowing what Dean's reaction would be. Wayne had to known that they were going to torture, rap and kill Tim as they had done with all of the other boys in the past. So why bring Rhonda? How much did Rhonda know about Dean, Wayne and David? Had Wayne told her about what they did or had done?

Also it was reported via David that Dean was part of some child molestation orginazation based out of California and in fact some pictures of a few of the tortured murdered boys turned up in the hands of others in 1975 but it was really never investigated. I wonder why? There is still a lot to this story that has not been uncovered and unless Wayne and David have a change of heart and decide to step forward and tell the truth we will never know the full story and the exact number of boy's murdered.

[texson48]

This is very interesting to anyone with knowledge of the Houston Mass Murders.

Police News Reporter "Identifies" Houston Mass Murder Victim - Bodies to be Exhumed
A Police News Exclusive
September 13, 2010

By Debera Phinney





For over 35 years the bodies of the last two remaining victims of the Houston Mass Murders remained at the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences (formerly Harris County Medical Examiner's Office) waiting to be identified. The Houston Mass Murders, as it came to be known through the media, was in reality the largest serial killer rampage in Texas history. Dean Corll, along with his two teenage accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. and David Owen Brooks abducted, tortured, raped and murdered 28 young men over a three year period between 1970 and 1973.

In our May, 2010 issue, The Police News reported  the story of the incredible hard work that Dr. Sharon Derrick, a forensic anthropologist with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, is doing to resolve these cases.  When Dr. Derrick's work began in 2006, there were yet four victims to be identified.  Her painstaking research combined with today's advancement in DNA technology enabled her to name two of these victims. Randell Lee Harvey, missing since March 3, 1971 and Joseph Allen Lyles, missing since February 1, 1973 (found 1983).

With two remaining, Dr. Derrick granted an interview with Barbara Gibson, freelance investigative reporter for The Police News, to once again reach out to the public for any possible leads or tips to identify these young men.   "After meeting Dr. Derrick, I was so inspired by her passionate pursuit in identifying these victims that I wanted to do everything I could to help.  I had high expectations that our story would generate that one tip that would bring a name to these victims and closure to a family's decades old search for their missing son.  Well, that tip didn't come in and after a few weeks of no response from the public, I started to take a closer look at the case" said Gibson.

   The two remaining victims, known as "swimsuit boy" case #ML 73-3356 was one of 17 boys found buried in a shallow grave inside a boat stall rented by Corll in the southwest area of Houston.  The other victim, #ML 73-3378, was one of four victims found buried in a secluded wooded area near Lake Sam Rayburn in San Augustine County.

Gibson continued to research the case through news archives and the police and autopsy reports.  In a report by Detective David Mullican of the Pasadena Police Department, Henley confessed to Mullican that he had been involved in or had personally killed six victims at the house on Lamar St. in Pasadena.  They were Billy Lawrence, Charles Cobble, Marty Jones, Homer Garcia, Mike Baulch and Raymond Blackburn.  He also said that Lawrence, Garcia, Baulch and Blackburn were buried at Sam Rayburn; Baulch had been strangled.  Also, in a later report, Henley said that Billy Gene Baulch, Jr., the brother of Mike Baulch had also been killed, but buried at High Island in Galveston County.

 While reviewing the autopsy report on Michael Baulch, case #ML 73-3333, Gibson found conflicting information. The report indicated the cause of death as two gunshot wounds to his head and that his body was recovered in the southwest Houston boat shed.  In addition, using the degree of decomposition, the autopsy report indicated the time of death as August 1972.  She then cross referenced the police reports and discovered a statement from the victim's mother dated August 13, 1973, that her son had only been missing "about a month". Henley's description of how the victims were killed and where they were buried proved to be correct, except for Michael Baulch. The remains of the victim identified by the parents as Michael Baulch was far more decomposed than they could have  been if missing only a month.

http://thepolicenews.net/default.aspx?newsletterid=22837&category=News+1-2&act=Newsletter.aspx&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

 

[Chris]

Weird how 2 victims have still not been ID'd and how some info seemed to be so wrong.

Anyway, I hope those cases can be closed. I still cannot imagine how someone could not be missing a boy at that age and no one can find a missing persons.

[Chris]

I have wondered for a very long time why Wayne took Rhonda with him and Tim that night knowing what Dean's reaction would be. Wayne had to known that they were going to torture, rap and kill Tim as they had done with all of the other boys in the past. So why bring Rhonda? How much did Rhonda know about Dean, Wayne and David? Had Wayne told her about what they did or had done?

Also it was reported via David that Dean was part of some child molestation orginazation based out of California and in fact some pictures of a few of the tortured murdered boys turned up in the hands of others in 1975 but it was really never investigated. I wonder why? There is still a lot to this story that has not been uncovered and unless Wayne and David have a change of heart and decide to step forward and tell the truth we will never know the full story and the exact number of boy's murdered.

I never knew that. That might explain why 2 boys have not been ID's yet?

Not too long ago, I did read that Toronto, Canada pretty much had a red light district for pedophiles in the 70's until it was shut down after a brutal murder of a boy.

It does make me wonder if that NAMBA group that started in the 60's was even more organized the previous thought?

[RhondaW]

I was just doing some research on the organization that Dean Corll was involved in.  Funny how our brains can block names when you want them.  I'll have to post the name of the organization when I remember it.

Anyway...  There was an organization that Dean was involved with early on.  He had connections in Dallas, and California.  It was later busted.  They found pictures of 11 boys who were HMM victims amoung what was found.  I have received information from a credible source that the person in these two photos may be one of the unidentified boys.  Dr. Derrick is working on trying to locate family members for DNA samples.  I'm told his name is Bobby French, and would have been someone that David Brooks brought to Dean's house.  Anyone with information please contact me, or Dr. Sharon Derrick.

[RhondaW]

I have wondered for a very long time why Wayne took Rhonda with him and Tim that night knowing what Dean's reaction would be. Wayne had to known that they were going to torture, rap and kill Tim as they had done with all of the other boys in the past. So why bring Rhonda? How much did Rhonda know about Dean, Wayne and David? Had Wayne told her about what they did or had done?

Texson, on YouTube today you made an untrue statement towards me to blatantly say that you know that I was never a victim, and was never physically tortured by Dean Corll.  You weren't there so how do you know this?  Now I see you questioning what I as a victim knew or didn't know.  As a victim I have come across many people in my life who have the need to re-victimize victims, or suggest they are the authority on something they were never apart of.  Why is that?

In my humble opinion, re-victimizing a victim by making statement to stir the pot is no different than adding to the abuse they have already suffered.  I was arrested for the murder of Dean Corll, and immediately cleared by the Pasadena Police Department and medical personnel within hours.  I went in front of the Grand Jury and again was cleared as only a victim.  Who are you to come along 37 years later and question the medical personnel's knowledge who treated me that morning for physical injuries involving my role in the Houston Mass Murders, the Pasadena Police Department's, and the Court's legal decisions?
 
In the past I have been asked by the Criminal Justice Department to be a guest speaker to talk to Criminal Justice Classes on what it is like to be abandoned by the Criminal Justice Department system, and be re-victimized.  It's something I plan to do full time as soon as I finish writing my book "The Girl on the Torture Board - The Truth About the 1973 Houston Mass Murders"  You will find all the answers you seek there.  Until you read my book, maybe you should re-read through the Pasadena Police Department's records to find your answers.  I pray you find the answers, and peace.

[Chris]

I did not take it that Texson felt you might be involved, I took it to mean that maybe he questioned why you all were brought to his place. But maybe Texson can respond.

I am looking forward to your book. There is a lot of details I am interested in learning.

Glad you all are trying to figure who the remaining victims are. Do you think there could be more victims not yet discovered???

[texson48]

Rhonda I never said you were not a victim and that you were not in the house with Dean, Wayne and Tim that night. Yes I did question as to the extent you were tortured and that question was based on what has been reported. If I'm off the mark then could you please set the record straight. Wayne and David will not talk as additional charges could be filed on them, sadly Tim has passed away so your the only one with some knowledge as to the actual crimes Dean, Wayne and David committed. In no way do I think you were an accomplice in the murders, I'm just wondering why Wayne really took you to the house knowing what was going to happen to Tim.

[texson48]

I wonder if Dean had any connections with the pedophil ring that was uncovered in Iowa in the early 1980's. This ring had conections all over the United States and reached all the way to the White House. Even today nobody wants to investigate it or talk about it. For more information you can look on the internet for the Franklin Coverup or Johny Gosch, the missing boy from Des Moines.

[RhondaW]

I did not take it that Texson felt you might be involved, I took it to mean that maybe he questioned why you all were brought to his place. But maybe Texson can respond.

Sorry Chris, you didn't see the other post on YouTube that went with this one.



I am looking forward to your book. There is a lot of details I am interested in learning.

Glad you all are trying to figure who the remaining victims are. Do you think there could be more victims not yet discovered???

There is definitely more victims.

Wayne Henley tried to tell the police more places to look, but they stopped looking for bodies within days of Dean being shot.  The police wasn't interested in spending time, effort, and money looking for more bodies.  They had files on many of the missing boys that they had totally ignored.  I think the shame of not doing their jobs was a big factor in not looking for more missing boys. 

Another body was uncovered in 1983 at the beach where bodies had already been uncovered.  They hadn't looked hard enough in 1973 to find that body just feet away from the others.  Dean was reported to have cemented in the floor of his back room at the candy factory, along with reports of him digging in the back yard of the candy factory.  The candy factory was never dug up, and now has been replaced with houses.  Dr. Derrick tried unsuccessfully to have that dug up, but she lost the battle.

A repeated report that Dean dug a suspicious grave looking hole behind his garage apartment was never investigated.  How can the police think they found them all when they didn't spend any real amount of time and effort looking at all possibilities.  There were more hints to bodies being buried out near Addicts Dam, yet again never investigated.
 
David Brooks never talked about what he knew.  He never will because he has no remorse, and the fear he will have more charges made against him.  It was only the ones that Wayne knew locations of that were uncovered.  Wayne has shown remorse, and gave all the information he had.  Dean didn't wake up one morning in 1970 and start all this.  He had years to perfect the way he took and tortured his victims.  Since David won't talk, and Dean is deceased they may never be uncovered.

[texson48]

I agree I believe there are at least 10 to 12 more bodies waiting to be discovered. Wayne in a 1976 interview with Texas Monthly basically said 40 boys had been killed.

I don't agree that Wayne has remorse, he may feel sorry and that is about it. In the same 1976 article he stated he had no remorse for the killings or tortures and that he liked what he did and that he was good at it.  He said he had no emotional feeling towards any of it.  His attorneys at the time where hopping for a book deal and movie deal that would pay for their legal defenses.

David never really told the truth from the start about his involvement. Wayne has since become more tight lipped about what went on. I think David is afraid of more charges being leveled against him and so is Wayne, if more bodies are found and are linked to the HMM then both could get the death penalty.

It has now been 37 years since Dean's death, people are getting older, memories are fadding and soon people due to age and health conditions will start to die off. I think it very important the truth be told now before it is to late.

[RhondaW]

I informed Wayne this past month of the 28th victim.  He was unaware that another one had been found and identified.  He also did not know that Tim Kerley had committed suicide.  After watching the 48 Hour interview, and a few other interviews that have been done, I wouldn't want to talk either.  The female who interviewed him twisted everything he said which caused him to become tightlipped.  I have a copy of that interview, and it was blatant what she was doing.  Wayne doesn't trust news media, and after being quoted myself by Gurwell I can understand why.

What has been honestly reported to the news media in regards to mine and Tim's involvement is ZILCH!  Tim and I never spoke out when the story broke.  I didn't speak out to what happened to Tim out of respect for him.  When I read his statement at the Pasadena Police Department I realized he didn't want to say what happened to him.  I understood that cause I didn't say what happened to me out of shame myself.  Who in their right mind wants to tell a bunch of hungry wolves about being sexually molested and tortured in 1973?  We were in shock, and left those parts out of our police report because it was so horrendous.  After 35 years Tim spoke, but he did not talk about the real events of what happened to us on August 8th.  He committed suicide months later.  The lack of medical care he received in 1973 I'm sure was a huge part of his suicidal thoughts.

I was never interviewed by any news media, or writers.  I was hidden from everyone, my name was changed, and I went to live someplace else.  This was to protect me from the news media crazies.  Gurwell went so far as to quote me in his book even though I never met him.  He was looking for sensationalism.  His little lie caused me years of grief.

After Tim's death I decided it was time I finally spoke out to set the story straight before it is too late.  I do not want to go to my grave without honoring these children, and letting anyone else who finds themselves in this type situation that there is a way out.

You can always write Wayne Henley and ask him what role I played.  He may or may not tell you out of respect for me.  I won't give you the answer here because it hard enough for me to write it down in book form, or remember those events without dealing with a lot of stressors.  I see a therapist every week out of my own pocket expense, and thankfully today is my appointment day.  I will say though that I didn't know anything when I walked inside Dean's home.  I never liked Dean, and vice versa.  I didn't want to go to his house that night, and Dean didn't want me there either because I was a thorn in his side.

In the end Dean put me on his torture board, and that lead to his demise.  If anyone else had been on that board they would have been killed.  Dean underestimated the effect of trying to make Wayne kill me would have on him.  It was fate.  As Tim Kerley so eloquently stated "There was a battle going on between good and evil in that room, and good won. Maybe the victims' families can find some solace. We got him. You know, he's dead."

Rhonda - the good that outwitted the evil...

[RhondaW]

Police News Reporter "Identifies" Houston Mass Murder Victim - Bodies to be Exhumed
A Police News Exclusive
     
September 13, 2010
By Debera Phinney

For over 35 years the bodies of the last two remaining victims of the Houston Mass Murders remained at the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences (formerly Harris County Medical Examiner's Office) waiting to be identified. The Houston Mass Murders, as it came to be known through the media, was in reality the largest serial killer rampage in Texas history. Dean Corll, along with his two teenage accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. and David Owen Brooks abducted, tortured, raped and murdered 28 young men over a three year period between 1970 and 1973.

In our May, 2010 issue, The Police News reported  the story of the incredible hard work that Dr. Sharon Derrick, a forensic anthropologist with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, is doing to resolve these cases.  When Dr. Derrick's work began in 2006, there were yet four victims to be identified.  Her painstaking research combined with today's advancement in DNA technology enabled her to name two of these victims. Randell Lee Harvey, missing since March 3, 1971 and Joseph Allen Lyles, missing since February 1, 1973 (found 1983).

With two remaining, Dr. Derrick granted an interview with Barbara Gibson, freelance investigative reporter for The Police News, to once again reach out to the public for any possible leads or tips to identify these young men.   "After meeting Dr. Derrick, I was so inspired by her passionate pursuit in identifying these victims that I wanted to do everything I could to help.  I had high expectations that our story would generate that one tip that would bring a name to these victims and closure to a family's decades old search for their missing son.  Well, that tip didn't come in and after a few weeks of no response from the public, I started to take a closer look at the case" said Gibson.

   The two remaining victims, known as "swimsuit boy" case #ML 73-3356 was one of 17 boys found buried in a shallow grave inside a boat stall rented by Corll in the southwest area of Houston.  The other victim, #ML 73-3378, was one of four victims found buried in a secluded wooded area near Lake Sam Rayburn in San Augustine County.

Gibson continued to research the case through news archives and the police and autopsy reports.  In a report by Detective David Mullican of the Pasadena Police Department, Henley confessed to Mullican that he had been involved in or had personally killed six victims at the house on Lamar St. in Pasadena.  They were Billy Lawrence, Charles Cobble, Marty Jones, Homer Garcia, Mike Baulch and Raymond Blackburn.  He also said that Lawrence, Garcia, Baulch and Blackburn were buried at Sam Rayburn; Baulch had been strangled.  Also, in a later report, Henley said that Billy Gene Baulch, Jr., the brother of Mike Baulch had also been killed, but buried at High Island in Galveston County.

 While reviewing the autopsy report on Michael Baulch, case #ML 73-3333, Gibson found conflicting information. The report indicated the cause of death as two gunshot wounds to his head and that his body was recovered in the southwest Houston boat shed.  In addition, using the degree of decomposition, the autopsy report indicated the time of death as August 1972.  She then cross referenced the police reports and discovered a statement from the victim's mother dated August 13, 1973, that her son had only been missing "about a month". Henley's description of how the victims were killed and where they were buried proved to be correct, except for Michael Baulch. The remains of the victim identified by the parents as Michael Baulch was far more decomposed than they could have  been if missing only a month.

         
Michael Baulch alive (L)        Reconstructed face (R)

When the news of this horrific case broke, the Houston Police Department was under intense scrutiny by the press and deluged by calls from terrified parents across the country that wanted to know if one of the victims could be their missing son.  The Harris County Medical Examiner's office took hundreds of reports and worked feverishly to identify the victims as quickly as they could.  DNA technology wasn't even heard of in 1973 and Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Joseph Jachimczyk had to rely on dental x-rays, x-rays of prior injuries, clothing recovered at the crime scene, family identification and missing person reports to confirm identification.  The boys that had no dental work or prior bone injuries posed the greatest challenge.

Michael Baulch's case posed that challenge as he had no dental work history and had not suffered a bone fracture.  The identification came down to Michael Baulch's missing person report and his parent's identification.

According to the M.E.'s supplemental report to the autopsy, Mr. and Mrs. Baulch were shown the remains of two victims; Unknown #2 and Unknown #26. They felt positive about Unknown #26 being Billy Baulch, Jr., but not as certain that Unknown # 2 was Michael. The mother thought the hair was too light to be Michael's and the father didn't think the hair was coarse enough to be his. However, they described a chip in tooth #9 and a vertical crack in tooth #8. This information matched the remains of Unknown #2. The Baulch's were shown the jaw and Mrs. Baulch said she could not be sure but it could be Michael's mouth. Mr. Baulch studied the smile by cupping his hands over the jawbones and looking only at the teeth and decided that, yes, it was Michael.

The Baulch's were then shown photographs of all victim's clothing. They recognized a silver buckle and a belt as belonging to Michael.  At their request, the traumatized parents were shown all the autopsy photographs including the two gunshot holes.  At this point each parent agreed this was Michael and it was Michael's hair.


At the core of the misidentification was the fact that Michael's parents had filed a previous missing person report when he hadn't returned home in August of 1972. He did, eventually, return home a few weeks after that incident. Given the fact that this was the only missing person report on file for Michael, Houston police sent it to the ME's office and it was then used to establish the time frame of decomposition. 
 
Based on these facts, Gibson suspected  the body had been misidentified as Michael Baulch and buried with brother, Billy, Jr., Michael's murdered brother. 
This information was given to Dr. Derrick who was able to confirm through DNA testing that the "unidentified" victim known as ML73-3378, is Michael Anthony Baulch.
In a recent interview with Barbara Gibson, Dr. Sharon Derrick, PhD - Forensic Anthropologist and Dr. Jennifer Love, PhD -Director of Anthropology, responded to these questions;

Gibson: What was your initial reaction when I brought you information about the possible misidentification of Michael Baulch?

Dr. Derrick: My initial reaction was surprise.  We had not fully investigated the cases that had been identified back in 1973.  We didn't have any real question about those identifications.  So, we had not gone back to look at those yet.

Gibson: What do you think caused the misidentification? 

Dr. Derrick: I think back in that time period the methods that are used as a standard today, such as DNA, were not available to the researchers & the investigators.  So they had to go on what was available as far as circumstantial & biological evidence went. This individual was mostly skeletal and so the pathologist did an autopsy, the dentist looked at the teeth, there were no dental records for comparison with those teeth.  The individual was not recognizable, there were some personal effects that the family recognized as belonging to their son among all of the stuff of the victims, and there was a brother who was also a victim. The family felt that they could identify certain aspects of the teeth from his smile.  So there were several things that were used to make a circumstantial identification.  Unfortunately, without DNA confirmation they weren't able to catch what we did with DNA.

Gibson: What steps did you take to confirm it was Michael Baulch?

Dr. Derrick: When the idea that the decomposition stages might not be consistent with this being Michael, I went back and looked at all the photographs that we had of the individual victims from that time period and looked at the condition of #ML 73-3333's remains and there was information in the police record that was conflicting. The information that was used by this office said that Michael Baulch had been missing since 1972.  There was other information in the police records that said he had only been missing a month.  This individual from the boatshed, #73-3333 was more consistent in his decomposition with other individuals in the boatshed who had been missing for a longer period of time than Michael would have been missing if he had only been missing since July 1973. So, I felt that this was enough evidence that we should really intensively review these cases. So, we looked at the decomposition, we looked at what the family said regarding his hair type and what they thought about who this individual might be.

We looked at the hair type of the #73-3378 (Sam Rayburn victim) individual, we looked at the dentition, interestingly enough Billy Baulch's dentition was much more similar to ML 73-3378 than the individual identified as Michael Baulch. There were some characteristics in the dentition that are known to be inherited, although not a method of identification, not in an odontological identification in this case. These inherited traits were the same in these 2 individuals, not the same in ML 73-3333 (boatshed). There were also some statements by the perpetrator who placed burial of this body (Michael Baulch) later in time at a different location at the Sam Rayburn site rather than the boat stall. 

So with all of that together, we felt that there was enough evidence that we should see if we could collect a family reference sample.  So, I had to search for family and one of the siblings agreed to give a sample of DNA - a buccal swab through the cheek & we were able to compare her DNA profile with the profile of #73-3378 (Sam Rayburn victim) and were also able to obtain a DNA profile for ML 73-3333 (boat shed victim) from some bone that had been retained as part of the autopsy.  We compared all 3 of those things.

The living sibling was related quite strongly to #73-3378 as well as Billy Baulch. Because we were also able to collect DNA from his bones that were retained and she was not related at all with the DNA profile to the individual identified as Michael Baulch.

Gibson: How did the Baulch family react to the news?

Dr. Derrick: The Baulch family is quite understandably concerned and saddened because it's been 37 years since they buried Billy and the person they considered to be Michael.  But, they are interested in making sure another family does get the opportunity to identify their loved one, so they are cooperating with our new investigation.

(A member of the Baulch family was unable to be reached for comment.  Both parents, Billy Sr., and Margaret Baulch, are now deceased. The Baulch's were no strangers to tragedy. In addition to losing two sons to murder, they had also lost their oldest son, Marvin age 15, in a tragic car accident in May 1969. Billy Jr., age 17, and who was thought to be Michael, age 15, are buried in an unmarked grave next to Marvin in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Houston.)

Gibson: You stated that you had a long process ahead of you.  Describe that process.

Dr. Derrick: We are going to need to do a full anthropological examination of both boys #73-3333 who is currently interred with Billy Baulch.  So, the first thing we need to do is disinter them and identify which boy is Billy and which boy is #73-3333 and give them a complete examination. There is a process to this and Dr. Love has been working on this and I'll let her address it.

 Dr. Love:  In order to exhume them we need to get permission.  We are beginning to file for permission for disinterment, once that's granted we can go and bring both victims here (ME's office) and separate them.  Then we disinter Michael from the county cemetery.

Gibson: How long will this process take?

 Dr. Love: This is our first case to disinter, so we don't know how long it will take for the paperwork to get through the system with the State.  So we're at a learning curve.  We're actively working on it and keeping the family updated on the process.

Gibson: Do you have any idea as to who the victim is that is currently buried in Baulch's grave?  Were you able to get DNA?

Dr. Derrick: We have a DNA profile.  There was no hit with the CODIS system (CODIS Missing Person DNA database) that has a database of other samples of DNA or the CODIS criminal DNA (because they didn't take DNA back then).  But I suppose there could be a hit with someone that would be related to him.  But, no there has been no hit with one of these databases. The next thing to do will be to construct his biological profile, put together what we consider to be a good idea, a picture, of who this person might have been biologically.  Then we can start to look at circumstances and try to find families who have never had their children identified that may have been a victim.  We could then put this out to the media and try to get some DNA sample from possible relatives.

Gibson: Will you be doing the facial reconstruction of that victim as well?

Dr. Derrick: I have discussed this with Dr. Love, and did send an email to the FACES Laboratory that did the other reconstructions because I wanted them to know this boy #73-3378 had been identified that they had done the reconstruction on. They wanted to know if they could do another reconstruction on this other boy.  That would depend on what we ascertain from looking at the skull's condition to tell if they can do a reconstruction.  Then we'll talk about it.

Although the identity of one unknown victim has been resolved, Dr. Derrick must now begin the task of identifying the new unknown victim (ML 73-7333) buried in Michael Baulch's grave as well as the remaining unidentified victim (ML 73-3356).  M73-7333, whose body was recovered in the boatshed, is described in the autopsy report as being a white male, 15-18 years of age, 5'8 to 5'10 with light brown hair approx 7" in length. It is believed that this victim would have gone missing in 1972. ML73-3356, also recovered from the boatshed, is described as being a white male, 15-20 years of age, 5'2-5'7 with dark brown hair approx 7" in length.

   According to a statement made by David Owen Brooks, 2 victims were killed at the Columbia Street address in the Heights. Corll lived at this address between September of 1971 and February 1972. No identified victim corresponds to these dates. Could these 2 boys be those victims?

   If you have any information that would assist in identification of these victims, please contact Dr. Sharon Derrick at 713-796-9292 or email to sharon.derrick@ifs.hctx.net.

   Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr., was never charged with the murder of Michael Baulch even though he confessed to the crime. It is unknown whether further charges against Henley will be pursued in light of these developments.

   Debera Phinney is a freelance investigative reporter. She can be reached at debphinney@gmail.com

   Barbara Gibson is a freelance investigative reporter focusing on cold cases.  She is currently working on her first true crime book about the Corll murders. She can be reached at b.gibson@thepolicenews.net

© Copyright 2010
Police News Publishing Co
All Rights Reserved
 

[texson48]

Rhonda thanks for the reply and I apologize for coming off as a jerk the way I did. There are a lot of questions I have and yes I think I'll write to Wayne. I spent a lot of time growing up in the Heights and Montrose area in the 70's as my grandparents lived there and my dad had a little office on Welch which is were I work during the summers starting when I was 12 which would have been in 1970.

I often wonder how large of an area Dean's hunting ground was.  I wonder this because I honestly think I was a potential victim. I was working at my dad's office one day in 1972 and I was standing on the corner of Welch and Connwealth just hanging around waiting for my mom to pick me up. I'm not sure if you know the area or how it was back then. It was old houses and some apartments mixed in with a few small business. My dad's office was in an old house he converted into offices. Anyway I was standing on the corner waiting for my mom when a two door car pulled up and the guy at first started asking for directions and as I approached his car he opened the door and that scared me a little so I backed-up a little. I can remember this like it just happened. He started asking me if I liked to drink and smoke pot, not wanting to look like I was a wimp I said yes and he asked me where me and my friends like to get high. Then he started asking me what my pants size was and he asked me if I liked to do certain sexual things, all the time trying to get me into his car. Well my mom finally came and she pulled up behind him, I said my mom is hear and he took off like a bolt of lightening. This all happened in about a 2 or 3 minute span. For this reason I feel some sort of a bond with the boy's. When the news broke on TV of Wayne killing Dean I told my mom "OMG that was the guy who tried to pick me up".

So this is why I have the question that I do. I what the make and color of the vehicle Dean had when he was killed but what kind of vehicle did he have before or did he have access to other cars? Did he ever wear disguise? I guess these are questions I need to ask Wayne.

Also so thanks to answering my questions on FB and I'll defiantly be looking for your book Rhonda.