Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. (born May 9, 1956) is an American serial killer and accomplice to murder convicted in 1974 of the murder of six 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 to Dean Corll, Henley initially assisted Corll in the abduction of the victims before gradually and increasingly participating in their torture, murder and burial. He shot Corll to death on August 8, 1973, when he was seventeen years old, before divulging his knowledge of and participation in the crimes to authorities.
Tried in San Antonio, Henley was convicted of six murders and sentenced to six consecutive terms of 99-years' imprisonment. He was not charged with the death of Corll, which prosecutors had previously ruled had been committed in self-defense. Henley did successfully appeal his conviction, although he was again convicted of six murders in June 1979. He is currently incarcerated within the Telford Unit in Bowie County, Texas.
At the time of the discovery of the crimes, the case was considered the worst example of serial murder in United States history.
Early life Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. was born on May 9, 1956, in Houston, Texas, the eldest of four sons born to Elmer Wayne Henley Sr. (1938–1986) and Mary Pauline Henley ( Weed) (b. 1937). His parents were both in their teens at the time of his birth, and the couple initially lived with Mary's parents in Houston Heights until they could afford their own home following his father finding employment as a stationary engineer.
As a child, Henley was an avid reader and both an attentive and academically achieving student whose grades saw him typically in the top quarter of his class. He was also markedly religious, and briefly held an aspiration to become a preacher. As his mother and grandparents were devout Christians, this religious devotion was encouraged.
Henley's father was an alcoholic and adulterer who physically assaulted his wife and sons, and the children were largely raised by their mother and maternal grandparents. As a child, Henley strove to protect his mother from his father's violence; she in turn was markedly protective of her children, and often shielded them from her husband's violence. On one occasion as an adolescent, Henley observed his father striking his mother before pushing her into a corner to continue his assault; he successfully prevented his father from further hitting his mother by pointing a shotgun at his father and shouting, "Drop it, Dad!" Although his memories of his father were conflicted, he would later fondly remark of his early childhood: "I have memories of [my father] walking me to school, and of Cub Scout and Boy Scout activities. I went to work with him, and he'd tell me about boilers and air conditioners."
Although Henley's father mistreated and neglected his family, he was present throughout his sons' childhood and early adolescence, and despite the belittling he endured from his father, Henley strove to meet his approval. Although occasionally bullied at school from the fifth grade onward, he was popular among many of his peers—both male and female—and was attracted to the attitudes of the contemporary hippie movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Adolescence By his early teens—and particularly following his parents' 1970 divorce—Henley grew disillusioned with school. As the eldest male in the household following his father's departure, he took two simultaneous, menial part-time jobs to assist his mother with household finances, and both his grades and scholastic attendance record dropped sharply. He also developed a habit of drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana in addition to becoming a small-time drug dealer. Henley's mother—who worked as a cashier at a parking lot—retained custody of her four sons following her divorce. Both of Henley's parents later remarried, although Henley's father did arrive, uninvited, at the reception for Henley's mother's second marriage. On this occasion, when Henley attempted to persuade his father to leave, his father shoved him to the ground and then ran to retrieve a gun from his car, attempting to shoot his son; he wounded a friend who threw himself atop Henley to shield him from his father in the process. Henley's father was charged with attempted murder for this incident, although Henley refused to testify against him in court.
Within a year of his parents' divorce, Henley dropped out of high school. He would later develop a minor criminal record, being arrested for assault with a deadly weapon in 1971 and burglary one year later.
In the year Henley dropped out of high school, he became aware of an insidious pattern of disappearances in his neighborhood: since the previous December, a minimum of eight boys aged 13 to 17 had disappeared from Houston Heights. Henley had been a lifelong friend with one of the youths, 13-year-old David William Hilligiest, who had disappeared on the afternoon of May 29, 1971, while walking to the Bohemian Lodge swimming pool with his 16-year-old friend Gregory Malley Winkle. Henley himself had actively participated in the search for the two, including distributing flyers offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the teenagers' whereabouts and attempting to reassure Hilligiest's parents that there may be an innocent explanation for the teenagers' prolonged absence.
Encounter with David Brooks Prior to dropping out of school, Henley had become acquainted with another student one year his senior named David Owen Brooks. The two encountered each other in approximately October 1971 as Henley—opting to truant from Hamilton Junior High School—walked away from the entrance in the direction of a local pool hall. Brooks fell into stride alongside him and asked if he was "skipping school too". When Henley replied he was, Brooks offered to keep him company for the day, adding he also attended Hamilton Junior High and that the pool hall was also his intended destination. The two began to truant together regularly, and through his acquaintance with Brooks, Henley became aware that not only did his friend drive a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette and always seem to have money despite not having a job and hailing from a family of modest means, but that he spent a lot of his free time in the company of an older man with whom he himself gradually became a casual acquaintance: Dean Corll.
Introduction to Dean Corll Initially, Henley was oblivious to the true extent of Corll's and Brooks's relationship, although Brooks and Corll began making a point of meeting him at the gas station where he worked part-time to exchange small talk. Henley later stated that though he admired Corll because he worked hard and seemed to have his life in order, he also suspected that Corll was homosexual, and initially concluded that Brooks was "hustling himself a queer." As Henley began to spend more time in their company, he also became aware of stark contrasts in Corll's persona; much of the time, Corll was affable and somewhat childlike, leading both Henley and Brooks to nickname him "Deannie Weannie", but occasionally he would be agitated, serious, and chain-smoke.
On one occasion in the winter of 1971–72, Brooks informed Henley that if he was able to leave his home "without telling anyone where [he was] going", he and Corll would pick him up behind the Fulbright Methodist Church close to his home at 5 p.m. that afternoon. Henley agreed, and Brooks and Corll picked him up at the agreed time and drove him to Corll's address—likely as an intended victim. In his confession given almost two years later, Henley informed detectives Brooks lured him to Corll's home on the promise that he could participate in "a deal where I could make some money." However, this initial plan was thwarted when Henley informed Corll that, contrary to Brooks's prior instructions not to do so, he had informed his mother and grandmother he was leaving the family home in Brooks's company to meet him for the first time.
Despite this initial setback, Corll evidently decided the youth would make a good accomplice, and Henley soon began spending increasing amounts of time in Corll's company and gradually began to view him as something of a "brother-type person" whose work ethic he admired and in whom he could confide. Corll also allowed Henley—who had no driving license—to occasionally drive his Plymouth GTX. Initially, Corll told Henley that he was involved in organized theft, and if he had anything of value—stolen or otherwise—to sell to him, he would be able to resell the wares for his own profit. He, Brooks and Henley also burglarized several local addresses, for which Henley was paid small sums of money. Shortly thereafter, Corll suggested to Henley he should advance from burglary to more serious crimes. On one occasion, in an apparent test of character, Corll asked Henley if he would be willing to kill if cornered while burglarizing a property, to which Henley replied, "Yes." Shortly thereafter, as Corll and Henley sat in a vehicle at the corner of Eleventh and Heights Boulevard, Corll stated to the teenager: "You know, it's too bad there's not a market in people, they're everywhere."
Over the course of several subsequent conversations, Corll repeatedly referred to the topic of human trafficking before informing Henley that he was involved in a "white slavery ring" operating from Dallas, in which teenage boys were sold as houseboys to wealthy clients across the country and that he would pay him $200 (the equivalent of approximately $1,670 ) for any teenage boy he could lure to his apartment. Corll referred to this organization as "the Syndicate".
Initial abduction Henley has always insisted that he ignored Corll's offer of $200 for every boy he could lure to his apartment for several months, but that in approximately February 1972, he decided he would "help find a boy" for Corll as his family was in dire financial circumstances. According to Henley's subsequent confession, he resolved to participate in a sole abduction as he could use the money "to get better things for my [family], so one day I went over to Dean's place on Schuler Street and told him I would get a boy for him."
At Corll's home, Henley agreed to enact a previous ruse he and Corll had privately rehearsed in which they would lure a youth to Corll's home and Henley would then cuff his hands behind his back, release himself with a key discreetly hidden in his pocket, then con the victim into placing the handcuffs upon himself. The pair then drove around the Heights to search for a victim. At the corner of 11th and Studewood, Henley persuaded a dark-haired youth to enter Corll's Plymouth GTX. The victim agreed to accompany the two to Corll's apartment on the promise of smoking some marijuana. At Corll's address, Henley helped con the teenager into donning the handcuffs, then watched Corll pounce on the youth, bind his hands and feet with parachute cord, then place adhesive tape over his mouth. Brooks then drove Henley home, telling him the Syndicate did not yet know of his participation and thus he should not be present when they arrived to collect the captive. The next day, Corll paid Henley $200, informing him the teenager had been sold into the slavery ring as a houseboy. Henley gave most of the money to his mother, but also bought himself a Sheridan air rifle.
The identity of this first victim in whose abduction Henley assisted remains unknown.
Participation in murders Schuler Street