The Candy Man’s Forgotten Victims: A Chilling Search for Answers 50 Years Later
For nearly five decades, the ghost of Dean Corll—better known as the ‘Candy Man’—has haunted Houston, Texas. His reign of terror ended in 1973, but the horrors he unleashed still linger, as investigators and families of missing boys continue the desperate search for more victims buried in unmarked graves. Could the most prolific serial killer of his time have claimed even more lives than we know?
Dean Corll, the sadistic predator who lured teenage boys with sweets, friendship, and ultimately, death, raped, tortured, and murdered at least 27 young men between 1970 and 1973. His family’s candy factory gave him his eerie nickname, but beneath the friendly facade lay a monster who turned his home into a chamber of horrors. The gruesome crimes became known as the ‘Houston Mass Murders,’ attracting international media, including famed author Truman Capote.
Corll didn’t act alone. He manipulated two teenage accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks, into helping him trap unsuspecting victims, handcuffing them to a plywood board before subjecting them to unimaginable torment. But his reign ended on August 8, 1973, when Henley, fearing for his own life, turned on Corll—shooting him to death before uncovering the full scale of his crimes.
The aftermath was horrifying. In the days that followed, police unearthed mass graves across Houston and its outskirts—27 bodies, some buried in a boat shed, others scattered along beaches and wooded areas. Then, in 1983, another victim surfaced, bringing the known total to 28. But could there be more? Investigators and families of missing teens believe so, and almost 50 years later, the search for justice is far from over.
Sergeant James Anderson of the Pasadena Police Department recently confirmed that authorities are revisiting Corll’s old haunts, hoping to uncover the full extent of his depravity. One of Corll’s surviving accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley, who is serving a life sentence, has agreed to assist in identifying potential burial sites. Before his passing, Sergeant David Mullican, the lead investigator on the case, expressed his belief that Corll had many more undiscovered victims.
In 2021, volunteers with Texas EquuSearch, a nonprofit dedicated to finding missing persons, excavated the backyard of Corll’s former Pasadena home. While they unearthed animal bones, no human remains were found. But the search isn’t over. Led by Tim Miller—who lost his own daughter to murder—the organization continues to investigate leads, vowing to bring closure to the families still tormented by unanswered questions.
One mystery remains particularly chilling: the unidentified victim. Among Corll’s confirmed kills, only one boy remains nameless. Estimated to be between 15 and 18 years old, he was found wearing striped Catalina swim trunks, a long-sleeved khaki T-shirt with a peace symbol and the letters ‘USMC’ emblazoned on it, and cowboy boots. Despite forensic reconstruction efforts, his identity is still a mystery.
The Houston Police Department faced heavy scrutiny in the aftermath of the killings. Despite multiple missing person reports from the same neighborhood—Houston Heights—authorities dismissed them as routine runaways. As victims’ advocate Andy Kahn remarked, ‘Back then, there really wasn’t any effort made to locate them.’ Even after the truth came to light, policies surrounding missing juveniles remained largely unchanged.
As for Corll’s accomplices, David Owen Brooks died in 2020 from COVID-19 after serving 45 years in prison. Henley, now in his sixties, remains incarcerated, his name forever linked to the man who turned him into a killer’s pawn.
Time has not erased the wounds left by the Candy Man. His surviving victims—both the families of the murdered and the lost boys still unaccounted for—are still searching for closure. And until every hidden grave is uncovered, the legend of Dean Corll remains an open, harrowing wound in the history of American crime.
