New Victim Discovered in Decades-Old Candyman Serial Killing Case
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ABC News
Dean Corll, the Candyman serial killer, terrorized the Houston area by raping, torturing and murdering young boys before he was shot to death by his accomplice.
Now, 40 years later, authorities believe a filmmaker may have uncovered evidence that there was an unknown, 29th victim.
Josh Vargas, a Houston-based filmmaker, gained access to the belongings of the man who shot Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley, that the incarcerated man’s mother stored in an old school bus.
“While rummaging through those pictures, this Polaroid falls out,” Vargas told ABC affiliate KTRK. “I take a look at it and, right off the bat, having studied the case and the crime scene photos and everything, I see Dean’s toolbox, and I see his implements in that tool box, and I see this kid right here with handcuffs on his arms.”
Vargas gave the photograph to the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office, which reviewed the photograph and determined it was not of any of the known victims.
Henley, who was asked about the photograph, told the filmmaker he believed there were more victims who have not been found.
Corll, along with two accomplices, abducted, sexually assaulted and tortured young boys before killing them. He gained the nickname “Candyman” because he was known to give candy from his family’s business to young boys.
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I lived in Houston during the period the Corll-Henley-Brooks serial killers were operating; among the victims was a freshman from my high school. The victims were generally teenagers rather than young boys as cited in your story. Also, I do not recall Corll, an electrician by trade, ever being called “The Candyman” in news reports from that time, even though Wikipedia says that today in its Dean Corll entry. “The Candyman” was the nickname applied to Ronald Clark O’Brien, another Houston-area resident who killed his little boy for insurance money by introducing cyanide-laced candy into his trick-or-treat bag. Before his execution, O’Brien was also known as the “man who killed Halloween” and was one of the most hated criminals in the Texas penal system. These two horrific but unrelated cases probably were the most sensational crime stories in the Houston area during the 1970s.
Posted by: Paul Binz | February 8, 2012, 7:19 pm 7:19 pm
Correct. ABC is confused. “Candyman” was Ronald Clark O’Bryan of Deer Park. Corll was never called that, at least not in the news media or by any of the Houston public.
Posted by: JCinTX | February 9, 2012, 8:47 am 8:47 am