David Owen Brooks (February 12, 1955 – May 28, 2020) was an American convicted murderer and accomplice to murder convicted in 1975 of the murder of one of the twenty-nine known victims of the Houston Mass Murders, which occurred in Houston and Pasadena, Texas, between 1970 and 1973.
One of two known accomplices of Dean Corll, Brooks confessed to assisting in the abduction and burial of the victims, although he consistently denied having participated in their actual murder. The crimes came to light after Corll's other known accomplice, Elmer Wayne Henley, fatally shot Corll on August 8, 1973.
Tried in Houston in February 1975 for the June 1973 murder of 15-year-old William Ray Lawrence, Brooks was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on March 4. He did appeal his sentence, but his conviction was upheld in May 1979.
Brooks died of COVID-19 related complications in a Galveston hospital at the age of 65 on May 28, 2020, having served forty-five years of a life sentence.
At the time of their discovery, the Houston Mass Murders were considered the worst example of serial murder in American history.
Childhood David Owen Brooks was born in Houston, Texas, on February 12, 1955, the second of two sons born to Henry Alton and Mary ( Hetherington) Brooks.
Brooks's parents divorced when he was six years old. His mother, a nurse, retained custody of the children and later relocated to Beaumont, a city east of Houston before remarrying and permanently relocating to Tioga, Louisiana; his father—a paving contractor and World War II veteran—remained in Houston and subsequently married a woman named Jewel Aelene Dykes in September 1961. Both sons maintained contact with their father, stepmother, and younger half-sister, whom they frequently visited during holidays and summer vacations.
By his early teens, Brooks had become something of a petty thief. Following an incident in which he was discovered to have stolen a potbelly stove in a rural Louisiana parish, a county sheriff recommended he return to Houston to live with his father. His mother agreed, and Brooks permanently relocated to Houston in 1970, when he was 15. He seldom saw his mother again, and frequently clashed with his father, whom Brooks's attorney, Jim Skelton, would later describe as a redneck who "didn't really like" his younger son due to Brooks being a bespectacled, "sickly kid".
Brooks's grades declined after he began attending Hamilton Junior High School. Although as a preteen, he had typically achieved A, B and C grades, his frequent truanting and general lackadaisical attitude to his studies saw Brooks's grades fall to D's and F's. He enrolled in Waltrip High School in 1970, but would drop out after one year.
Acquaintance with Dean Corll Brooks befriended Dean Corll in 1967. At the time of their acquaintance, Corll was employed as vice-president at his family's candy firm in the Heights, Corll Candy Company, which was located directly across the street from Helms Elementary School. Brooks was a 12-year-old sixth grade student at this school and one of the many local children to whom Corll gave free candy. He would later recollect of his initial impressions of Corll: "He would give candy to kids leaving school, which was across the street from the store. Also, he owned a motorcycle and would give kids rides and take some of the kids to the movies."
Brooks initially became one of Corll's many youthful companions. When visiting his father and grandmother in Houston, he regularly socialized with Corll and various adolescent boys who frequently congregated at the rear of the candy factory to play penny ante, listen to music, or play pool upon a table Corll had installed at the rear of the factory. He also joined Corll on the regular trips he took to South Texas beaches in the company of various youths, and later commented that Corll was the first adult male who did not mock his appearance. Whenever Brooks told Corll he needed cash, Corll gave him money, and the youth began to view Corll as something of a substitute father figure. By Brooks's own later admission, he began regarding Corll's apartment as his second home, and Corll—who by the late 1960s had begun frequently changing addresses—invariably provided accommodation for Brooks wherever he lived. This arrangement may initially have been in part due to the frequent clashes between Brooks and his father causing him to seek temporary refuge away from home.
Sexual relationship By 1969, upon Corll's urging, a sexual relationship had developed between the two, with Corll paying Brooks in cash sums of up to $10 (the equivalent of approximately $88 ) or with gifts such as blacklight posters to allow him to perform fellatio upon him, although Brooks would later emphasize "it was always Dean doing something to me—never me doing anything to Dean".
Brooks gradually became aware Corll also engaged in paid sexual activity with numerous other boys who visited the various apartments in which he resided. He would later inform investigators: "He liked oral sex, and he'd pay boys to come over and let him do it to them. That was his sex life."
Initial discoveries In approximately November 1970, Brooks entered an apartment Corll had recently rented at 3300 Yorktown unannounced to observe Corll nude and with two teenage boys whom Brooks did not know "strapped down" to a four-poster bed. According to Brooks's subsequent confession, he had casually walked into the bedroom of this apartment to observe Corll—somewhat startled and irate—ask him, "What are you doing here?" Corll then explained, "I'm just having some fun!" The two sat and talked about the incident, with Corll urging the teenager to remain hushed about the situation. Brooks agreed to this compromise, then left the apartment and hitchhiked back to his father's home. He remained silent as to what he had seen.
Shortly thereafter, Corll claimed to Brooks that he had been paid to send the two boys he had seen strapped to his bed to California to pose for pornographic photographs to be published in gay pornography. He had promised Brooks a car in return for his silence in their initial conversation at his apartment; Brooks had accepted this offer and Corll would buy him a green 1969 Chevrolet Corvette as a sixteenth birthday present in February 1971. To any individual who questioned as to how he had paid for the vehicle, Brooks would claim he had paid for the car with money he had scrupulously saved, making comments to the effect of "I just scratched pennies for years."
Murders 1970: 3300 Yorktown In either November or early December 1970, Brooks was informed by Corll that the two teenagers he had seen strapped to his bed had actually been murdered. He was offered $200 (the equivalent of approximately $1,670 ) for any boy he could lure to Corll's apartment, with Corll also emphasizing he should particularly target individuals who likely would not be missed by their families. Brooks accepted this enticement in approximately December 1970.
Glass and Yates On the evening of December 13, 1970, Brooks lured two 14-year-old Spring Branch youths named James Eugene Glass and Danny Michael Yates away from a religious rally held at the Evangelistic Temple in Houston Heights to Corll's Yorktown apartment. The two had been driven to this location by Glass's father and brother, and had agreed to meet them after the service. Glass and Yates were last seen by Glass's older brother, Willie, "midway through the service" walking down an aisle toward the exit of the church. It is unknown what ruse Brooks used—with or without the assistance of Corll—to lure the two to Corll's apartment; however, Glass had been an acquaintance of both Corll and Brooks and had taken a great liking to Corll. Both teens were restrained to Corll's four-poster bed with rope and handcuffs and subsequently raped, strangled, and buried in a Southwest Houston boat shed Corll had begun renting on November 17. An electrical cord with alligator clips attached to each end was buried alongside Yates's body.
1971: Place One Apartments On the afternoon of January 30, 1971, Brooks and Corll encountered two teenage brothers, Donald and Jerry Waldrop, walking toward their parents' home. The Waldrop brothers had been driven to a friend's home on West 12th Street by their father, Everett, with plans to discuss forming a bowling league, and had begun walking home after learning their friend was not at home. The brothers were enticed into Corll's van and driven to an apartment Corll had recently rented on Mangum Road, where they were raped, then strangled to death in Brooks's presence on the day after their abduction before Brooks assisted Corll in their burial in the boat shed.
Five weeks later, on the afternoon of March 9, 15-year-old Randell Lee Harvey was last seen by his family cycling towards Oak Forest, where he worked part-time as a gas station attendant. Harvey was driven to Corll's Mangum Road apartment, where he was subsequently killed by a single gunshot through the eye. He had known Brooks for some time prior to his murder, and Brooks is known to have once reported Harvey to the police, accusing the teenager of stealing his stereo.
Subsequent abductions Between May and August 1971, Corll committed the abduction and murder of at least four further victims—three of whom lived in Houston Heights. He was assisted by Brooks in the abduction and burial of at least three of these victims. Two of these victims, 13-year-old David William Hilligiest and 16-year-old Gregory Malley Winkle, were abducted and killed together on the afternoon of May 29; both were murdered at an apartment Corll by this time rented on West 11th Street. A 17-year-old named Donald John Falcon disappeared from the streets near his parents' West University Place apartment complex on July 1. He is believed to have been murdered at an apartment Corll had rented on East 7th Street on June 1 and on August 17, Corll and Brooks persuaded a 17-year-old acquaintance of theirs named Ruben Willfard Watson Haney—whom they encountered as Haney walked home from a Houston movie theater—to attend a party at an apartment Corll had moved to on San Felipe Street the previous month. Haney agreed and later phoned his mother to inform her he was spending the evening with Brooks. He was subsequently gagged, raped, then strangled to death. All four victims were buried in the boat shed.
One further victim is known to have been murdered in 1971, although this victim remains unidentified. This individual was abducted in approximately October 1971 and murdered at an apartment Corll had moved to on Columbia Street. According to Brooks's confession, this victim was murdered "just before Wayne Henley came into the picture. Dean kept this boy around the house for about four days before he killed him ... I don't remember his name, but we picked him up on 11th and Rutland. It really upset Dean to have to kill this boy because he really liked him."
Encounter with Elmer Wayne Henley