drunk he became a troublemaker. He had a criminal record which stretched back years. When his marriage started to break up, he waited on the porch with a shotgun, determined to murder his wife. But the shot went wide and almost hit Wayne instead.
Wayne’s parents divorced and times were hard so Wayne took two part-time jobs to help his mother. His grades fell rapidly and he dropped out of school in the ninth grade.
He was a religious boy who carried his Bible everywhere.He hoped to join the Navy at sixteen but failed the tests and was visibly devastated. Keen to make money to impress his girlfriends – and clearly finding it easy to emulate his father’s violence – he turned to crime instead. He was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, though it was David Brooks who permanently carried a gun.
Wayne got a job laying asphalt but he was bored. At sixteen he was arrested for breaking and entering. He grew a thin moustache, smoked and drank and tried to act old before his time, almost getting engaged to one of his girlfriends. Only his thin body and teenage acne showed his true age.
The late Jack Olsen, who wrote a book about the case, would brilliantly sum up boys like Henley and Brooks in a single sentence. ‘They are born, they go to school, they drop out, they get menial jobs, they reproduce others like themselves, and they die.’ It’s a chillingly accurate insight into people born into a poverty of expectation where life amounts to little more than a boring day job, evenings spent slumped in front of the television and alcohol used liberally to keep the boredom at bay.
Wayne Henley had led this kind of life, but now he had a benefactor in the form of Dean Corll to whom David Brooks had introduced him. Dean clearly lusted after Wayne’s slender body – and Wayne was willing to go along with this, as were many of the impoverished teens living in the Heights.
Corrupted to kill
At first, Wayne thought he’d struck gold in meeting Dean. The older man ferried him and his friends around in Dean’s Ford Econoline van, bought them beers andmarijuana. Admittedly Wayne wasn’t allowed to bring any of his girlfriends along to these drinking sessions, but that seemed a small price to pay for a free high.
But Dean soon made it clear that he wanted his new lover to lure young schoolboys to his house to rape and eventually kill them. At first, Henley said no but then his finances worsened and Dean offered him two hundred dollars, a lot of money in the Seventies. Wayne thought some more about the offer and realised that he’d not only make a lot of cash but would manage to ward off Dean’s sexual advances for a few days whilst Dean enjoyed himself with his victim. Wayne wanted to see Dean as a father figure but felt ashamed of their bedroom acts.
Dean continued to ask Wayne to find him a boy and Wayne eventually caved in. He started to hang out at a fried chicken bar where the local school pupils congregated, and offered them drink and drugs if they came back to his friend Dean’s house.
Boy after boy disappeared – but the police told their parents that they were runaways. This was partially corroborated when Dean Corll made them write letters to their families saying that they’d found work on a ship or in a faraway town. (Catherine Birnie, profiled in
Women Who Kill
, made her victims do the exact same thing.) One boy called his parents sounding very frightened, but before they could ascertain where he was they heard a man’s voice and the line went dead.
Wayne’s friends noticed that he didn’t invite any of them to Dean’s parties, preferring to take along boys that he hardly knew. One victim was found at the school where Wayne took his driving lessons. Another was a friend of afriend. These boys were happy to go with Wayne to Dean’s house where they enjoyed cocaine and glue-sniffing sessions. They saw the thin young man and his older friend as altruists until they lost consciousness…
The victim
Wayne’s parents divorced and times were hard so Wayne took two part-time jobs to help his mother. His grades fell rapidly and he dropped out of school in the ninth grade.
He was a religious boy who carried his Bible everywhere.He hoped to join the Navy at sixteen but failed the tests and was visibly devastated. Keen to make money to impress his girlfriends – and clearly finding it easy to emulate his father’s violence – he turned to crime instead. He was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, though it was David Brooks who permanently carried a gun.
Wayne got a job laying asphalt but he was bored. At sixteen he was arrested for breaking and entering. He grew a thin moustache, smoked and drank and tried to act old before his time, almost getting engaged to one of his girlfriends. Only his thin body and teenage acne showed his true age.
The late Jack Olsen, who wrote a book about the case, would brilliantly sum up boys like Henley and Brooks in a single sentence. ‘They are born, they go to school, they drop out, they get menial jobs, they reproduce others like themselves, and they die.’ It’s a chillingly accurate insight into people born into a poverty of expectation where life amounts to little more than a boring day job, evenings spent slumped in front of the television and alcohol used liberally to keep the boredom at bay.
Wayne Henley had led this kind of life, but now he had a benefactor in the form of Dean Corll to whom David Brooks had introduced him. Dean clearly lusted after Wayne’s slender body – and Wayne was willing to go along with this, as were many of the impoverished teens living in the Heights.
Corrupted to kill
At first, Wayne thought he’d struck gold in meeting Dean. The older man ferried him and his friends around in Dean’s Ford Econoline van, bought them beers andmarijuana. Admittedly Wayne wasn’t allowed to bring any of his girlfriends along to these drinking sessions, but that seemed a small price to pay for a free high.
But Dean soon made it clear that he wanted his new lover to lure young schoolboys to his house to rape and eventually kill them. At first, Henley said no but then his finances worsened and Dean offered him two hundred dollars, a lot of money in the Seventies. Wayne thought some more about the offer and realised that he’d not only make a lot of cash but would manage to ward off Dean’s sexual advances for a few days whilst Dean enjoyed himself with his victim. Wayne wanted to see Dean as a father figure but felt ashamed of their bedroom acts.
Dean continued to ask Wayne to find him a boy and Wayne eventually caved in. He started to hang out at a fried chicken bar where the local school pupils congregated, and offered them drink and drugs if they came back to his friend Dean’s house.
Boy after boy disappeared – but the police told their parents that they were runaways. This was partially corroborated when Dean Corll made them write letters to their families saying that they’d found work on a ship or in a faraway town. (Catherine Birnie, profiled in
Women Who Kill
, made her victims do the exact same thing.) One boy called his parents sounding very frightened, but before they could ascertain where he was they heard a man’s voice and the line went dead.
Wayne’s friends noticed that he didn’t invite any of them to Dean’s parties, preferring to take along boys that he hardly knew. One victim was found at the school where Wayne took his driving lessons. Another was a friend of afriend. These boys were happy to go with Wayne to Dean’s house where they enjoyed cocaine and glue-sniffing sessions. They saw the thin young man and his older friend as altruists until they lost consciousness…
The victim
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