TX TX - Unidentified victims of Dean Corll, Houston Serial Killer, 1970-1973

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Marysel said:
Can I ask you for one little flavor? In general, I noticed that there are very few publicly available photographs of Brooks. So, can you look up pictures of him in school yearbooks?
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I have been going through yearbooks for many years and have never found a picture of David Brooks. He dropped out of high school at the beginning of his Freshman year so he wasn't listed in that year's book. He went to Hamilton Jr High but I have not found any yearbooks for that school.
 
JurassicParker said:
Did any of you watch the documentary on Dean Corll and John Wayne Gacy on Discovery Plus? Its called "The Clown and The Candyman" I believe. I can't remember for certain but I thought there was a photograph of the family candy story before it was shut down in 1968. I can't find that picture anywhere. Anyone here know what the address of the building was? Is it still there? <modsnip> If I cant find one I will drive down there and get one if the building still stands.
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Thank you for mentioning this. I normally don't pay attention to documentaries and podcasts because they tend to rehash the same info I already know. But The Clown and Candyman was different because they brought in new people (Ben Winkle, Det James, Bernie Milligan) and had a photo of the candy shed. What's creepy is that Dean tried to get Bernie Milligan into his car in Sep of 1969, a full year before his first known victim - Jeff Konen - was killed.
 
Hi Folks - I am new here so I may be posting this in the wrong place. Curious why there are no photos of John Manning Sellars? John Sellers is identified in name only really. I have searched and nothing so wanted to see if anyone had better luck. TY
 
Hello. I have looked for his photo for years with no luck. I am guessing that he attended Lutcher-Stark HS in Orange, TX and would have been in the class of 1973. But I have not been able to find a yearbook for the years he would have been there - 1969 - 1973. Interestingly, I have articles which quote his mother but do not include any pictures.
 
Ontheriver said:
Hello. I have looked for his photo for years with no luck. I am guessing that he attended Lutcher-Stark HS in Orange, TX and would have been in the class of 1973. But I have not been able to find a yearbook for the years he would have been there - 1969 - 1973. Interestingly, I have articles which quote his mother but do not include any pictures.
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I couldn't find him on Ancestry.
 
Ontheriver said:
Hello. I have looked for his photo for years with no luck. I am guessing that he attended Lutcher-Stark HS in Orange, TX and would have been in the class of 1973. But I have not been able to find a yearbook for the years he would have been there - 1969 - 1973. Interestingly, I have articles which quote his mother but do not include any pictures.
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This is great. I found a Facebook page with "Class of..." for that school. I reached out to a couple people to see if they still have yearbooks. I doubt I will hear back since FB hides messages from non-friends but worth a shot. I did locate his nephew on FB (son of his brother). However, no response either.

Also this link Lutcher-Stark High School class lists - contact old friends Shows Students and I can see several years 1964 - 1976 and did not find him. Not sure if the link is accurate or full student lists but worth a share.
 
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BD: 7/14/55 DD: 7/12/73 (this was the day he is believed to have been killed. I have seen 8/13/73 listed as his death date as well.
 
Searched ancestry again. No pic. But he was married. The name is kept private.

What was his role btw? Is he mentioned during the trial or was he a victim?
 
Jimmyp said:
Hi All, I was noticing a lot of talk about Billy Ridinger. I didn't read every single post on here but scanned most of them. I did not see anyone mention that the Ridinger family knew the Corlls for many years going back to the early 1960s. They were family friends. In the Pasadena police reports Billy and his mother gave an interview to the police and told all about how they knew Dean. Billy of course lied and said he had not seen Dean in some time even though according to Henley he was at the Pasadena house before the final murders. I find it surprising that even after being raped by Dean (Brooks gives this info in his full statement) he continued to visit Dean. Though if Billy had been molested by Dean as a child or even early teen that would help explain his behavoir. The Houston PD have a report which states that Billy was asked to give another interview after they read Brook's statement that Billy had been raped by Dean. Unfortunately I have not found a copy of his second interview. I just have the HPD report stating he gave one. It says its attached but also not in the docs.
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FYI, the full second Ridinger statement about that night can be found in Barbara Gibson's new book: https://www.amazon.com/Houston-Mass...onMass Murders – 1973,boys into a deadly trap.

It sounds reasonable (and ghastly, of course), though it blocks out anything discriminating about his relation to Corll and the other two.

Even if it never was given much spotlight, both Brooks and Henley testified that they both started out robbing houses for Corll (they were paid for it). This seems to have been part of his grooming MO to gradually lure the kids into much darker areas. Given the chain of events, it seems much more likely that guys like Ridinger or Scott were earlier tries, but never made it to the second stage like Brooks and Henley. It just seems too bizarre to assume that 1970's Texas was full of teenage sociopaths - or that neither Brooks nor Henley gave any indication there were others. For them, it would have been a chance to reduce their culpability.

The only real murky area remains that body box. Why was neither Brooks nor Henley questioned about a box to transport dead bodies that looked like it was made to trap humans that were alive (with a barred window and ropes etc.)? It's puzzling.
 
Since the new sketch was released there has been many new posts and comments on Reddit and Facebook, etc. Many comments have mentioned he could be either Steven Lewis Ericson or Mitchell Weiser...I know these names are not new to our search...was curious if either were in his rule-outs list?
 
I just finished The Man With Candy. In the last few weeks of his life Corll was definitely afraid of someone. He told numerous people he was leaving and that he was dodging someone. According to his “girlfriend” Betty he was also uncharacteristically drinking a lot and very distracted. What I find interesting is Betty said Corll told her when he leaves to not tell David Brooks where he went.

We will never know, but I’d sure be interested why he singled out Brooks in that conversation. I wonder if Brooks was scaring him.

On the other hand, the author described blue-eyed Henley’s eyes as dark or described Henley as dark-eyed, which makes me wonder where else he took liberties with the facts.
 
teeandcee said:
I just finished The Man With Candy. In the last few weeks of his life Corll was definitely afraid of someone. He told numerous people he was leaving and that he was dodging someone. According to his “girlfriend” Betty he was also uncharacteristically drinking a lot and very distracted. What I find interesting is Betty said Corll told her when he leaves to not tell David Brooks where he went.

We will never know, but I’d sure be interested why he singled out Brooks in that conversation. I wonder if Brooks was scaring him.

On the other hand, the author described blue-eyed Henley’s eyes as dark or described Henley as dark-eyed, which makes me wonder where else he took liberties with the facts.
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I'm thinking it's similar to the saying "Three can keep a secret if two are dead."

Elsewhere on the Internet someone mentioned that Corll was comping younger men to burgle residences and he would fence the items for profit. Keep in mind back then it was easier to break into houses, and people were more trusting.

He was probably expecting to have problems regarding that stream of income.

Sadly his sexually oriented crimes were so extreme and out there, most people would NOT have believed Brooks and Henley if they had gone to the police with info about Corll. An alternate ending to the case would have been Corll leaving and disappearing (it's been done) .........Sad to say it took the confrontation that occurred for the full truth to come to light.
 
teeandcee said:
I just finished The Man With Candy. In the last few weeks of his life Corll was definitely afraid of someone. He told numerous people he was leaving and that he was dodging someone. According to his “girlfriend” Betty he was also uncharacteristically drinking a lot and very distracted. What I find interesting is Betty said Corll told her when he leaves to not tell David Brooks where he went.

We will never know, but I’d sure be interested why he singled out Brooks in that conversation. I wonder if Brooks was scaring him.

On the other hand, the author described blue-eyed Henley’s eyes as dark or described Henley as dark-eyed, which makes me wonder where else he took liberties with the facts.
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Hello teeandcee, I read the Man With the Candy years ago. My thought on Dean's increased distraction and drinking may have been due to the fact he realized he could not control his compulsion to kill. If you look at the list of his victims you can see that the number and frequency of killings was increasing each year. His decision to move to Colorado is similar to an alcoholic thinking a geographical change will stop the urge to drink. He told his step mother that he had been avoiding someone. I have no idea who that would have been. A bill collector maybe? I had wondered if he had been in the act of abducting a boy and there was possibly a witness who could identify and bribe him in exchange for his silence. In 1973 Henley had light brown hair. I'm not sure what the color of his eyes were but I'm pretty sure they weren't blue. They always looked dark in all of his pictures. David Brooks had blond hair. He may have had blue eyes.
 
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