I think that we'll focus on Dean Corll since he's the main guy in this trio.

He was a child that was bought up in a broken home and was treated very harshly as a child when it came to discipline. (not that I think that is any excuse for his future actions). Following his parents divorce he and his brother Stanley spent more time with babysitters and school teachers than with their parents. Also in childhood he suffered from Rheumatic fever which left him with a heart condition that meant he missed a of school.

In 1964 Dean did as all proud young Americans are told to do, he joined the army.

Life in the army caused a bit of a change in Dean, well it was probably already there, but being around all those men all the time awaken the urge to fuck men in the ass. I reckon he fit in really well with the other troops.

In 1969 he left that life to live in Houston where he got an okay job with the Lighting and Power company.

During this time he also started hanging out with teenage boys. I guess that it didn't seem to strange to these kids that a thirty year old guy wanted to hang out with them. Eventually he found two guys that he liked a lot, Elmer Henley and David Brooks. He spent quite a bit of time sniffing glue with these two, and I guess that they formed a bit of a bond. (If you think really hard about this last sentence you may find one of the worst jokes I've ever come up with) So much so that Brooks actually moved in with Corll for a while.

Somewhere around early 1970 it seems that these three crossed that line between talking shit and acting it out. The unfortunate victim was University of Texas student Jeffrey Konen. Dean Corll lured the guy back to his house with (and I'm only guessing here) a promise of drugs and alcohol. Poor Jeffrey didn't know what hit him. But we all do - it was Dean Corll.

So now Dean had crossed the line. No doubt he got off on the murder a little, but it wasn't quite right, he needed something else to spice it up a little. That was where Henley and Brooks came in. Corll promised the boys $200 for each victim they supplied, but since they hardly saw any of the money it could be argued that this is just a fictional story made up by the two accomplices to lessen the charges that were bought against them.

One thing that can be proved is that Brooks was given a car by Corll around this time. he claims that it was to keep him quiet about a certain sexual predicament that Corll had gotten himself into involving bondage and two young men.

I guess that these two young guys soon grew tired of just supplying victims for Dean. They wanted more - they wanted to join in.

Over the next two years the trio's kill count would rise to 27. The M.O. was always similar. The boys would lure other boys to Dean's house with the promise of an 'alcohol party'. The victims would then be allowed to drink themselves unconscious. Dean would then tie them up, molest them, then kill them. The bodies were disposed of in two different spots, a remote spot near the Sam Rayburn Reservoir or a rented boat shed in southwest Houston.

In December 1970, he killed James Glass, 14, and David Yates, 15, on the same day.

In January 1971, Donald and Jerry Waldrop, brothers, died at Deans hands.

In October 1972, Wally Simineaux and Richard Embry were slaughtered.

In May 1972, Billy Baulch went down to Dean.

Then in July 1973 Billy's bother Mike Baulch joined the list of victims.

He even killed a nine year old neighbor.

There were more victims, too many to mention and I guess everything was going along fine for Dean at this stage. He had no real problems from police, he had a steady supply of kids coming to his house for slaughter and he had two good mates that seemed ready for anything. But as with everything in this life it was bound to go sour.

On August 8, 1973, Henley broke the cycle. He bought Rhonda Williams, 15, to the house. She had run away from home and needed somewhere to stay so Henley thought it would be okay, but it wasn't.

Following a heavy varnish sniffing session Rhonda, Henley and another friend, Timothy Kerley, all passed out. Corll decided it was time to teach Henley a lesson. He tied all of the kids up.

When Henley came back around he really started to freak out, pleading Corll to spare him, even promising to rape and kill Rhonda while Dean did the same to Timothy. So Corll untied Henley and ordered him to begin raping young Rhonda. Well I guess all the excitement must have got to poor Elmer Wayne Henley because he couldn't perform (if you know what I mean). Dean obviously found his young friends 'problem' very amusing and started to tease him about it, and it must have been very embarrassing for poor Elmer because he picked up a .22 caliber pistol and aimed it at Dean, ordering him to stop teasing him. Well, Dean didn't take to kindly to being ordered, so his taunts just got worse. Then they ended.

Elmer Wayne Henley put 6 bullets into Dean Corll, killing him rather quickly. He then did something very strange - he called the cops and turned himself in, claiming the shooting was in self defense.

Later on that day Henley led police to the two dumping grounds where they found a combined 27 bodies. It was a new record for number of victims in the USA, eclipsing the previous best killer (Juan Corona) by 2.

Since Henley put Brooks into the shit he decided to get some of his own back. He said, "Most of the killings that occurred after Wayne came into the picture involved all three of us." "Wayne seemed to enjoy causing pain."

Following these confessions where the boys (17 and 18 at the time of Corll's death) tried to paint themselves as being almost innocent parties, while the others forced them to do it, both were found guilty of six murders each and both were sentenced to life in prison.

In December 1978 Henley's conviction was overturned on the grounds that the trial had suffered from pre-trial publicity. It didn't matter though as he was convicted a second time in June 1979.
 

INTERESTING STUFF:
Corll's mother is certain there are many more victims. He worked with her in her candy factory in Texas which is why Corll is sometime referred to as "The Man with the Candy." In Jack Olsen's book of that same name he claims that it is possible that there could be more victims buried around the candy factory, but police don't seem to be too interested in this claim as nothing has ever been done by them to prove this.