Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “Candy Man” - Dean Arnold Corll

Episode Date: May 20, 2019

In 1962 he took over the family candy shop outside of Houston and was only too happy to give away treats to the children who would come 'round after school. Of course, nobody suspected that the local Candyman, Dean Arnold Corll, was also abducting said children, killing them, and burying them under the shed. Parcasters - Did you know that Hollywood, CA was originally conceived as an alcohol free religious utopia? Learn more about the founding of tinseltown on our new podcast, THE DARK SIDE OF... Listen now at parcast.com/darkside Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. A sunny afternoon in Houston, 1965, Dorothy Hillegyste's 10-year-old son, David, failed to come home on time. Dorothy was annoyed. She and her husband, Fred, had strict rules for their children, and even though the neighborhood was safe, she'd reprimanded David before about wandering without permission. Dorothy got in her car and went looking for her boy. It didn't take long for her to spot his bike in front of the coral candy factory.

Now Dorothy was doubly upset. She'd scolded her son a few years ago for bothering the neighborhood candy maker in his workplace. When Dorothy knocked on the factory door, the candy man answered. He was a husky, broad-shouldered man with a pleasant smile. Dorothy apologized right away. She knew he had a business to run, and that David was probably underfoot. The Candyman insisted that David was no bother. In fact, he had a pool table in the back room so the young boys could hang around.

He enjoyed their company. Dorothy thanked the man for his hospitality. The neighborhood was lucky to have him. Little did she know. The polite young man would soon be unmasked as the most prolific murderer the country had ever seen. And her son would be among the victims. I'm Greg Poulson. This is serial killers on the Parkast Network.

Every Monday, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today we're going to explore one of America's first serial killers, Dean Coral, who used teenage accomplices to lure in his victims. I'm here with my co-host to Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. At Parkast, we're grateful for you, our listeners. You allow us to do what we love. Let us know how we're doing.

Reach out on Facebook and Instagram at PARTCAST. and Twitter at Parkast Network. And if you enjoy today's episode, the best way to help us is to leave a five-star review, wherever you're listening. It really does help. We also now have merchandise. Head to parkast.com slash merch for more information. Dean Coral, tortured, raped and murdered, at least 27 teenage boys in the Houston Heights neighborhood of Houston, Texas, between 1970 and 1973. dubbed the Houston mass murders considered one of the worst series of homicides ever committed in the U.S. up to that point.

Dean ran his family's candy factory, where neighborhood school children would line up begging for sweets. Thus, he became known as the Candyman. This week will cover Dean's childhood and his family's candy business, which gave him access to many of his future victims. We'll also delve into his relationship with his two teenage conspirators, whom he used to attract victims. Next week, we'll cover the second half of his murderous spree, and the gruesome confessions of the teens who helped the Candyman lure boys to their deaths.

Before we dive into Dean's youth, it's worth noting that most of what's known comes from a single source, his mother. She painted him as a model son. In fact, she passionately defended him long after his crimes came to light, so it's appropriate to take her account of Dean's childhood. with a grain of salt. Dean Arnold Coral was born to Mary and Arnold Coral on December 24,

1939, just outside Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dean's childhood was unstable from the start due to his parents' tumultuous marriage. Mary was flighty. Though she loved Dean and his younger brother Stanley, she often relied heavily upon her children emotionally when her marriage was struggling, asking more of her sons than any child could give her. Arnold, on the other hand, was much more austere and was quick to punish the boys for what she viewed as cute childlike behavior. Once, Dean climbed up on the bathroom counter, got into the sink and turned the water on,

sending water spraying all over the bathroom. Mary thought it was charming, but Arnold wanted to beat the boy for making a mess. Despite such threats, however, Mary maintained neither she nor her husband ever actually hit their children. When Dean reached school age, Mary began to note differences in Dean compared to his brother and other children. She said, quote, Dean never cared if anybody played with him or not. From the time he was little, he never went any place to see anybody else, and quote.

Dean was an antisocial and serious child, and what he did with his time alone is anybody's guess. Meanwhile, at home, Dean dealt with a revolving door father. When Dean was six, his parents divorced. But the breakup didn't quite stick. The corals reconciled and split several more times over the next decade. Arnold and Mary tried to rekindle their relationship while Arnold was serving in the Air Force in Memphis, though they quickly split. When he was discharged from the Air Force in 1950, they attempted reconciliation again.

This time they remarried and moved the family. to the Houston metro area, but their rocky relationship only deteriorated further, and they split for the final time in 1953. Mary was essentially a single mother after that. She was forced to leave Dean and Stanley with babysitters and daycares while she found a way to make a living. One summer, she sent them away to live with her mother on her Indiana farm. In the absence of adult supervision, Dean became exceedingly anxious. He would become overly distressed when his mother drove too fast, or his brother played outside too long.

Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for the show. Thanks, Greg. In a 2014 study, stress contagion, physiological co-variation between mothers and infants, social psychologists Sarah Waters, Tessa West, and Wendy Barry Mendez found that stress is contagious between parent and child, affecting infants as young as a year old. Mary was undoubtedly stressed trying to provide for her family, and Dean likely contracted his mother's worry. In the mid-50s, when Dean was a teenager, his mother married a traveling salesman named Jake West and moved the family to Viter, Texas, a suburb of Beaumont on the Louisiana border.

There, Dean played trombone in the Viter High School marching band. It was a focal point of the community, outshining the mediocre football team. Dean, like the other band members, was passionate about making the ensemble the best in the area. Playing was his main motivation to stay in school. But he also engaged in some troubling behavior. He kept flying squirrels he trapped, chained around his neck. And sometimes he even brought them to school in his boots. Allegedly, while they were still alive,

alive, though some accounts indicate that the animals were killed. Animal abuse is a common feature among serial killers. According to Dr. Gail F. Melson, a professor of child development and family studies at Purdue, 70% of federal inmates who'd committed violent crimes abused animals as children, compared with 6% of nonviolent offenders. Around this time in the mid-50s, a traveling pecan salesman stopped by the Coral family's home. He noticed Mary baking several pies and was impressed by her energy. He suggested she start making pecan candies, most likely as a way to sell her some of his own wares in the moment.

But the salesman sparked something in Mary, who quickly latched onto the idea. She soon piled her sons into the car and drove to a candy factory in Houston. There, she paid $50 for one of their recipes and started a candy company in earnest. Thus, the Pecan Prince Company was born. They specialized in confections like prelines and meringue-like sweets called divinities. Mary and her husband Jake started the company out of their garage, but it was Dean who really took the reins of the operation, even though he was still in high school.

He forewent to social life, dating, and dances, to run the machines, wrap the candy, and deliver it to a steadily growing list of customers. While it might seem cruel to keep a teenager like Dean hard at work in the family business, The arrangement actually suited him just fine. Dean had few friends and mostly kept to himself. Throwing himself into the business allowed Dean to avoid socializing and thus social rejection. A caption in the yearbook even described him as,

sweet to know, very occupied. But under Dean's leadership, the business thrived. In fact, it was soon successful enough in the Houston market that the family was able to move closer to the city and open up a storefront. At the time, Houston was experiencing explosive growth, which put many areas of the city out of the coral family's price range. But they eventually found a suitable storefront and home in an area called the Houston Heights.

The neighborhood covered a two-by-three-mile area on the northwest side of Houston. The heights felt run down and sleepy. The majority of its residents at the time were lower middle class. Though it was a small, close-knit community, Dean would later use the heights as his hunting ground without much notice. Dean tried to settle into his new neighborhood, but things were getting tense at home with his stepfather.

Jake would send Dean on small errands and berate him for things like bringing back the wrong kind of milk. Eventually, when he was 19, Dean's mother sent him back to his grandmother's farm in Indiana to ease the pressure of their home life. Dean spent two largely uneventful years there. He worked in a factory and kept a telescope in the barn to explore his burgeoning interest in astronomy.

He made short movies with two sisters who lived down the road, including a comedy where one sister pretended to take intestines out of the other on a fake operating table. But in 1959, 20-year-old Dean returned to Texas at his mother's request. Pecan Prince was still growing, and she needed his help badly enough that she finally offered to pay him for his work. Dean briefly continued his friendship with one of the sisters from the farm, whose name was Wanda. His mother recalled that they mailed each other letters and tape recordings. He sent her pecan prince candies, and she sent him cakes in return.

But the relationship was somewhat doomed from the start. One day, Wanda called the factory and told Dean he'd better sit down because she had some news. She was getting married. Dean was surprised. He'd never heard her talk about any boyfriends. He asked her who her future husband was, and she said she was marrying him. Dean ended the call abruptly and never spoke to Wanda again. At the news of his breakup, his mother speculated that he'd seen her first marriage fail, and so he put up walls in order to not get close to anyone.

We know now that Dean was not attracted to women, but for much of his life, he appeared largely disinterested in sex and dating. His mother, in particular, seemed determined to turn a blind eye to his sexuality. She never even gave him the birds and the bees talk. She said she assumed he'd learned enough watching the animals on his grandmother's farm as a kid. According to psychologist and sex therapist Dr. Judy Sheal, when parents avoid discussing sex, it creates shame and guilt for the child around the subject. Shame then triggers an internal rage that clinical psychologist married,

LeMia compares to an all-consuming poison. Besides, Dean had another reason to harbor rage. He was a gay man living in a time when that was largely unaccepted and could have even been dangerous. Dean was raised to believe that everything about his sexuality was wrong. Later, when his urges grew dark and twisted, he might have reasoned that because he could do no right, his sins did not matter. Meanwhile, Mary's marriage to Jake West was failing.

Though they still live together, their relationship was deeply contentious, often over the business. During a particularly nasty fight, West demanded his wife go home and never come back to the factory. He didn't want her involved in Pecan Prince anymore. Never mind the fact that starting the business had been Mary's idea in the first place. Instead, she created her own rival shop to spite him, Coral Candy Company. She made Dean Vice President, and they worked along. long hours getting the business up and running. Jake didn't take well to the threat to his struggling business. He sent nasty letters to his neighbors in the Heights, slandering the new brand.

Mind you, Mary and Jake were still in a relationship, albeit a rocky one. Inevitably, Mary and Jake divorced in 1963. Around the same time, Dean moved into his very first bachelor pad, an apartment above Coral Candy Company. He already spent nearly all his time at the shop, now that he'd a eliminated his commute, he was on the premises almost constantly. The added isolation did nothing to curb Dean's antisocial personality. Worse, it seems that when left to his own devices, Dean began acting out on dark impulses that had likely been gnawing at him for years. Shortly after moving into the apartment above the shop, an odd incident occurred between

Dean and one of the young male employees who manned the cash register. The details are fuzzy, but most sources say that Dean came. on to the boy in some way. Of course, Mary steadfastly remembers it the other way around. She claimed Dean was very upset by the unwanted exchange. She promptly paid the boy off and he left the company. When Mary wasn't busy covering up her son's misdeeds, she was actively looking for her next husband. She wore furs and makeup in an effort to maintain a youthful appearance. She visited palm readers and mediums and took their advice as law.

This left little time for work, so she left the brunt of it to Dean. He enthusiastically took charge of the factory with little to no supervision. Dean was a dedicated and extremely skilled candy maker. He worked tirelessly to improve their recipes and was the sole keeper of the family's secret formulas. His employees respected him and saw him as polite and considerate. Many of the factory's female workers were interested in him, and his mother often tried to set him up on dates. But it was obvious to some employees that Dean was gay. He was noticeably animated around other men in a way he never was around women. He'd tease or even pinch them.

Despite the fact that being gay was socially unacceptable and conservative Texas at the time, Dean's employees quietly observed his behavior without comment or judgment. They liked their boss. The factory workers also noticed his love of teenage boys and children, but No one saw it as anything but sweet and paternal. Unfortunately, his affinity towards young boys was anything but. Dean had already made advances on one underage teen. His next move would be far more twisted. In a moment, we'll dive further into Dean's developing relationships

with the young kids of the heights. Now back to the story. By 1964, Dean now in his mid-20s, and running his family's sweets factory. Was a Pied Piper come to life? Coral Candy Company was right across the street from Helms Elementary School, and children started lining up in the afternoons

for broken pieces of candy. The parents didn't like them crossing the busy street, and the principal even asked him to stop. But Dean couldn't help himself when the kids came asking for treats. He even went so far as to furnish the factory to encourage young people to hang out there. He built a phone attachment that looked like an enormous green frog whose eyes lit up when it rang.

One employee, Ruby Jenkins, said, quote, I never saw a man who loved kids like Dean. They were always around him, hugging on him, and he just loved it, end quote. He added a pool table to the back room of the factory, which attracted a more teenage crowd. He accessorized his van with carpet, a couch, and a TV. He even added surfboard racks, and often took kids in their gear to the beach. Once, a teenage girl who worked out of the shop was thrilled

when she thought he was driving her to spend a romantic day on the coast. But to her dismay, when he came to pick her up for their date, his van was full of kids who'd be joining them. However, Dean was far from the harmless Boy Scout leader he played. Small clues reveal far more sinister intentions. For instance, one of his young male employees was repatriated. reportedly afraid to do his cleanup duties while alone with Dean. It's unknown if Dean ever propositioned or abused the boy,

or if he was simply uncomfortable around the Candyman. Most of the boys who hung around the shop liked Dean and reported that he never made any advances toward them. But clearly, that held little bearing on who the Candyman truly was. We want to stress that Dean's sexual orientation was completely separate from his pension for children. To quote Dr. Gregory Herrick, a professor of psychology at UC Davis, the important point is that many child molesters cannot be meaningfully described as homosexuals, heterosexuals, or bisexuals, in the usual sense of those terms, because they are not really capable of a relationship with an adult, man, or woman. Instead of gender, their sexual attractions are based primarily on age. So while Dean occasionally flirted with men his own age, he would never truly pursue them,

as the Heights neighborhood would soon learn, his attention lay elsewhere. Though he almost always presented a friendly persona, his former employee, Ruby Jenkins, suspected that he struggled with a violent temper. She later spoke of his pouting room in the back of the store, where he would retreat when he needed to blow off steam. He was also starting to demonstrate signs of poor impulse control. His mother described him as a compulsive shopper, purchasing cars on a whim and selling them as soon as you grew bored. According to neuroscience expert Jack Pemmint, low impulse control in developing serial killers leads them to test boundaries.

And because serial killers usually lack empathy, they often start by testing moral and criminal bounds. Frequently they find that hurting others gives them a euphoric rush and makes it much easier for them to be. to hurt people again or even crave it. As is evidenced by Dean's quick spending and odd behavior around some of his young employees, he was already beginning to test the waters of what he could truly get away with. And Dean might have gotten away with a lot more than he was ever charged with. In the late 1960s, when Dean was nearly 30, his mother and employees noticed that he began to spend a notable amount of time and energy

digging, often late at night, behind the factory. He dug up the pouting room and filled it in with cement. He also dug nearby at a site that was later paved into a parking lot. He claimed to be burying food waste from the factory to avoid pest infestations. But Dean also kept bags of cement on hand and had a four-foot-wide roll of plastic sheeting. He would later use identical material to wrap his victims before burying them. There are no murders attributed to Dean during this time, but it's possible he had early, unknown victims.

He could have been developing his MO. But that wasn't the only thing developing in the coral household. Dean's mother Mary had found her third husband, a merchant seaman named Walt Colburn. They met through an early computerized dating service and married quickly. Almost immediately, the union was a nightmare. Walt was jealous and angry and would fly off the handle at the drop of a hat. As Mary saw more of his dark side, she began to grow suspicious of his previous wife's death,

which had been ruled a suicide. They got an annulment, but just like with her first husband, she married Walt a second time. But their fighting only got worse, and Mary began to worry about her safety. Finally, she bought a 22-caliber gun, just in case. Walt picked fights with Dean, too, and tried to drive a wedge between the mother and son, even resorting once to outing Dean as gay in an angry rage, Mary refused to hear it as she would for the remainder of her life. In 1968, Mary visited another psychic.

She was desperate for advice on yet another deteriorating marriage. The medium told her to put as much distance between herself and Walt as possible, so she fled to Colorado and filed for divorce. At that point, she'd been married and divorced five times to three different men. After leaving Texas, Marion Dean kept in touch, but she'd never see her son again. Coral Candy Company's business declined markedly throughout 1968 for no discernible reason. Dean hoped business would pick back up soon, but in the meantime, he took a second job as a trainee at Houston Lighting and Power to supplement his income. But as the months went on, the business continued to struggle.

Finally, midway through 1968, Dean closed the struggling candy company permanently. At 29, he was alone for the first time in his life and free to unleash his darker compulsions. He moved into a dodgy-looking shed across from Cooley Elementary School and decorated it just like he did the factory. He added a TV, stereo, and black lights. He even rigged a warning light in his bedroom to alert him to intruders. He tried to make it appeal to his young teenage visitors, many of whom had previously hung out at the factory. But unlike the kid-centric lounge of the factory, the parties at Dean's apartment took on a more adult edge. There would usually be over a dozen boys cramped into the space, enticed by marijuana to smoke and spray paint to huff.

Rusty Branch was a neighborhood kid who was brought into the circle by friends. He regularly showed up at Dean's apartment and even brought his young. sister, Sue, when he was babysitting her. She was 11 years old at the time. She later said, quote, I remember once sitting under the kitchen table and there were four boys sitting under the other end, nude, smoking marijuana, end quote. Sue then recalls one of the boys huffing paint from a paper bag in Dean's apartment and suddenly overdosing. First, the boy started laughing maniacly. Then he abruptly began choking, turned blue, vomited. And he, wet his pants. Dean picked the boy up and carried him toward the bedroom without seeming to

care if the kid was okay. As an adult, Sue had trouble recalling some details from the parties because of drug use and suppression due to trauma. Through the assistance of hypnosis therapy, she was able to access these memories more clearly. That said, a study by Dr. Joseph Green of Ohio State University showed that hypnosis could implant false memories in subjects, they were aware that may be a potential outcome of the procedure. But another study at the Macquarie Center for Cognitive Science in Sydney, Australia, suggests that memories repressed due to trauma have the potential to be unlocked effectively by hypnotic interference. So while Sue is certainly not lying, her account should be taken with room for interpretation.

Around the same time that he was setting up his shed, Dean also met the one notable girlfriend he would ever have. Betty Hawkins was a single mother in her late 20s with two young sons. Dean and Betty dated on and off for five years. Her sons even called Dean Daddy. Their relationship was rarely physical. Occasionally, they'd embrace or kiss. He told Betty he didn't believe in sex before marriage, which she found refreshing compared to the other men who saw a divorce say as easy pickings. Dean and Betty did attempt to be intimate once, but he stopped it and told her he didn't feel like it. Dean turned 30 in December 1969, and his personality shifted dramatically. He became sensitive about his age and his appearance. He found his electrician

job boring and repetitive. His previous overall good humor diminished. It's unknown exactly what triggered Dean's transformation into a mass murderer, but he killed his first known victim within that year. He had always kept his dark side well hidden, and those who saw it rarely made it out alive. David Mulligan, a detective on the case, later speculated, quote, I think old Dean tried for years to be a normal person, to have a relationship with a woman, to do everything his mother wanted him to do. And all I can tell you is something came unleashed inside him, madness maybe, or evil. On September 25th, 1970, Dean abducted his first known victim, Jeffrey Conan, an 18-year-old student at the University of Texas at Austin. Conan and another UT student had hitchhiked together to Houston.

The driver dropped Conan on his own at the intersection of Westheimer and South Voss roads, so he could flag down another ride to his girlfriend's house. Dean, meanwhile, was out driving. He spotted Conan on the side of the road and, something clicked in him. Impulsively, he pulled over and offered the kid a ride. But Dean didn't take Conan to his girlfriends. Instead, Dean abducted the teenager and likely took him back to his apartment, which was just five minutes east. He stuffed a cloth gag in Conan's mouth, bound his hands and feet, and raped him. Then he choked Conan until he died.

Dean then buried him at High Island Beach under a boulder. About an hour and half east of the heights. Conan's corpse was buried with a gag in his mouth, wrapped in plastic sheeting and covered in lime. Dean felt a rush, like years of pent-up frustration had finally found release. And when, in the weeks following, no police came knocking on Dean's door, he felt emboldened to kill again. But picking up a hitchhiker had been lucky. He needed a more surefire way to lure young men to his shed. Next, Dean relies on an old friend to bring in new prey. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's

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Kayak. Got that right. Now back to the story. On September 25, 1970, Dean Coral committed his first known murder. He killed a young hitchhiker named Jeffrey Conan. And when he got away with it, he quickly began making plans to abduct another victim. Shortly after burying Conan, Dean started developing a closer relationship with a local teenager named David Brooks, who was 15 of the time. They'd first met years prior when David was in sixth grade. He would visit Dean at the factory for free candy and motorcycle rides, along with the other boys. Like Dean, David's parents

were also divorced. David lived with his father, Alton, who saw David's introspective nature as something to be punished. David sought refuge in Dean, who was kind to him, the kind of father figure he longed for. They maintained a friendship as David grew older and entered high school. David, now a teenager, was tall and severe-looking, with wire-rimmed glasses and a blonde page boy haircut. Dean gave David money and let him crash at his apartment when he needed a place away from his father. It was David's first relationship with an adult male who didn't mock him. Dean established himself as a critical source of emotional support for David. Before we proceed, a warning that the rest of the episode may be particularly upsetting for survivors of sexual violence or abuse.

Please listen with caution. Dean first sexually abused David when David was closer to 15 while he was visiting Dean's apartment. As a reward, David got to take home a four-foot black light, which in part assured his silence. It's unsurprising that David didn't report the encounter to an authority figure. Dean had deeply entrenched himself as a paternal figure in David's life. According to Dr. Joanne Grayson from the Center for Child Abuse and Education, if the relationship with the abuser is one of the few positive ones in the child's life, he may fear losing the relationship altogether or try to minimize the trauma.

Culturally, boys are taught not to be victims, and that asking for help is a sign of weakness. Guilt and shame about the encounter may inhibit the victim as well. A same-sex encounter can amplify those feelings, particularly in a notably homophobic place, like Texas in the 70s. David may have felt like admitting to the abuse would have been like admitting he was gay. In fact, David was extremely deliberate when describing the abuse to detectives later. He said, quote, it was always Dean doing something to me, never me doing nothing to Dean, end quote.

As the sexual nature of their relationship continued, Dean started paying David five or ten dollars each time he performed fallacious on him. In 1970, David dropped out of his freshman year of high school and briefly moved to Beaumont, Texas, to live with his mother. But he remained in touch with Dean. He returned to the heights shortly thereafter and started spending even more time at Dean's apartment. Then things got even darker. On December 13, 1970, David walked into Dean's apartment and witnessed Dean assaulting two boys. All three were naked, and the boys were bound to what became. known as Dean's torture rack. It was a plywood board with restraints in all four corners and

eye holes cut into it. Dean was startled by his unexpected visitor and yelled, what are you doing here? David left immediately. Dean later tried to explain what David had walked in on. He said the assault was related to a gay pornography ring Dean was involved with, but that David wouldn't be seeing the boys around anymore because he'd gotten money to send them to California to take more pictures. But Dean quickly changed his story and later confessed to David that he'd actually killed the boys and buried them at a boat stall he was renting. He promised David a car for his silence and later bought him a green corvette. It's now believed that these two victims were 14-year-old best friends Danny Yates and Jimmy Glass, who were last seen at a church service

in the heights right around the time David walked in on Dean. How the boys met Dean is unknown, But Yates' older sister recalled a story she'd heard from her brother about a man who drove the boys to the movies and bought them beer. She now believes that man was Dean Coral. He may have established himself as a trustworthy figure days or weeks before he abducted the boys. Yates and Glass's families were extremely concerned about their sons, but the police didn't look into the boy's disappearance when they were reported missing. Instead, they were classified as runaways, which was. was common at the time.

Lots of kids were leaving home and hitchhiking across the country in the 60s and 70s. The hippie movement, coupled with Houston's short-staffed police force, made investigators unwilling to look into cases without signs of foul play. After killing Glass and Yates, Dean moved to a new apartment, a few miles outside the Heights, but his old neighborhood remained his hunting ground. And now that he had bribed David Brooks into complicity, it was time to unmask, his master plan. On January 30th, 1971, Dean and David drove into the heights and picked up Donald and Jerry Waldrop,

who were on their way to the bowling alley. The brothers were 15 and 13, respectively. Dean offered the Waldrop's a ride, but instead brought all three boys back to his apartment. David soon watched as Dean strangled the brothers to death. From then on, 15-year-old David Brooks began helping his His abuser, Dean Coral, abduct young boys to assault and murder. Because he had received a green corvette for his silence in the Yates and Glass murder, he felt like he had no way out.

And so, in March of 1971, David helped Dean abduct another victim. 15-year-old Randall Harvey was biking to his job at a gas station when Dean and David picked him up. David and Harvey knew each other, so it's probable David was the one who convinced his friend to get into the van. Instead of taking Harvey to the gas station, Dean drove back to his apartment, where he raped the boy before shooting him in the head. David and Dean then drove the body to Dean's storage shed, where they buried him. The next two victims were boys Dean knew from the candy factory. Mally Winkle worked at the shop part-time when he was younger, sweeping and cleaning candy vats. Dean even offered Malley's mother, Selma, a job too, and she worked alongside her son, dipping prelines.

As a teenager, Malley started acting out in fairly typical teenage ways. He was once in jail for stealing a 10-speed bike. But when he returned home, he seemed to want to get back on the straight and narrow, but he would never be given the chance. On May 29, 1971, 16-year-old Malley headed out to the neighborhood pool with his friend David Hillaigheist, who also knew Dean from the candy factory. When Malley's mother, Selma, got home from work at 11.30 that night, she walked into the phone ringing. When she answered, Malley was on the line.

He told her he was in Freeport, a town about 60 miles away, where kids often drove to go swimming. Selma scolded him for ending up so far from home. She heard him whispering with someone else in the background. Then he told her he was with the kids, and someone would be giving them a ride back to Houston soon. She told him he knew better than to be out so late and hung up. At first, she wasn't overly concerned. This wasn't unheard of behavior from Malley.

He'd once missed the last bus from the amusement park and walked Miles home in the dark. But when he wasn't back the next morning, she started to get worried. Because Malley was still reporting to a probation officer for the bike theft, she avoided contacting the police. She was scared to get him in more trouble. But she did learn from neighbors that David and Malley were seen getting into a white van. Across town, David's family was much more active. They called the police, but like the parents of Danny Yates and Jimmy Glass,

the Hila Geist were told that the boys were probably runaways or staying with friends. When Dorothy Hilliggeist pushed harder for a search, an officer told her it wasn't procedure, and that they were short-staffed. She also learned the license plate of a Plymouth GTX that matched the description of one belonging to a friend of Malley's. She reported it to the police, who did nothing with it. If they'd followed that lead, it would have led them straight to Dean's vehicle.

Instead, the case remained uninvestigated. Mallee and David were strangled by Dean and buried in the boat shed, but their families were left to agonize over their fate for years. A few days after David Hillegeist went missing, 15-year-old Wayne Henley offered to post signs to help find the missing teen. Henley was a wiry, brown-haired boy with a face full of pimples, a neighborhood friend of Hillegeist. Henley was already acquainted with Dean, but like many people in Dean's orbit, Henley claimed he was unaware of the killings at this time. Wayne Henley was the oldest of four sons, and described by family as a sensitive boy.

Like Dean and David, he also came from a troubled home. His father was a violent alcoholic. He abused Henley, his mother, and his three younger brothers. Once when Henley's father beat both Henley's mother and grandmother, Henley hit him over the head with a vacuum and called the police. His parents divorced when he was 15. Though Henley had an IQ of 126, he started doing poorly in school. And in seventh grade, he began working in the afternoons to support his

family. In 1970, he dropped out of ninth grade and began working full-time while also pursuing his GED. Henley was more of a troublemaker than David. He was arrested for burglary as a juvenile in 1972. He drank and smoked marijuana and loitered with other teenagers at the local Jack in the Box and Long John Silvers. Henley was also visibly interested in girls. He described himself at the time as a playboy and a partier. He had several girlfriends and even talked with his aunt about marrying one named Lisa before she moved away. David knew Henley from Hamilton Junior High, where David was a year older than him in school. He introduced Henley to Dean in the winter of 1971, thinking Henley would be Dean's next victim.

However, Dean took a shine to Henley instead, and they became friends. When asked about his first impressions, Henley said, quote, I'll be honest with you. It was important that Dean liked me. he was kind, end quote. Dean became close to Henley's family. He ate Easter dinner with the Henley's one year and helped Mrs. Henley with her car. She liked Dean and viewed him as polite

with an innocent love of children. She said, quote, Dean treated Wayne like a son and Wayne loved him like a father, end quote. But Dean also caught on to the Henley family's money troubles and possibly saw it as the perfect way to ensnare Henley,

much the way he had with David. Dean told Henley that if he ever needed to make money for his family, Dean would help him sell anything, even if the goods were stolen. Henley immediately started stealing TVs and other electronics from neighborhood homes for Dean. Once, while holding an enormous knife, Dean asked Henley if he'd be willing to kill if he was cornered while stealing. Henley, driven by bravado, said he would. Then, Dean told Henley the same gay porn ring story he'd concocted for David Brooks.

Then he offered Henley $200 for every boy he could bring in and would pay more if they were attractive. Henley refused. He had no problem stealing for Dean, and he took no issue with Dean being gay, but kidnapping was different. But there was something about Dean's mysterious crime-filled life that appealed to Henley. And he worried that refusing to participate in the porn ring, would make Dean dislike him. He tried to put it out of his mind, but it pulled at him.

He considered Dean's proposal for the better part of a year, but by Christmas, 1971, Henley's family had hit financial rock bottom. They were desperate for cash, and the money Henley made stealing TVs wasn't cutting it. Finally, he took Dean up on his dark offer.

It's likely he lured his first victim for Dean in early 1972, though there's some conflicting information on the date. Some now speculate that this was 17-year-old Rusty Branch, whom they knew well from Dean's apartment parties. Henley and Dean ran into the teenager in the Heights, and Henley offered him some weed. Rusty got in the car with a duo, and they drove to Dean's apartment.

Once at the apartment, Henley tricked Rusty into putting on handcuffs as a joke, and then left shortly thereafter, believing the kid would be used for pornography, Dean delivered on his promise of $200 the next day. Henley later learned that Dean raped and killed the boy. It surprised him, but it also sparked a sinister impulse in Henley. It made his life feel exotic and exciting, and Dean had eased him into his crimes step by step.

Greg McCrary, a behavioral criminologist and former FBI agent, explains the dynamic when a murderer starts to bring a partner into his crimes. Quote, the process is exploratory. Predators are like sharks waiting to see who will swim by and take the bait. If the other person reacts badly, it's easy to shrug the incident off as a joke. When they find one who responds the way they're hoping, they think, this is someone who can do this with me. They might say, what would you think if I were a rapist? If the person thinks it's cool, they can take the next step, end quote.

After Rusty disappeared, his sister Sue was. was worried about him, but his family didn't go looking for him. He'd run off before. But after a few days, when Sue didn't hear from Rusty, she knew something was seriously wrong. She would never again see her brother alive and would be left to wonder about his fate for over a decade. Rusty's body would not be found for years, but his corpse would later show that his genitals had been severed from his body and buried next to him in a plastic bag.

He was listed as John Doe for a decade before his sister was able to identify him based on an old bone fracture. Learning Rusty's fate put an old memory of being in Dean's van in a new context. She said, quote, I was sitting on the console in the front of his van when we drove over, and he had a cloth just behind the seat that covered the back. He never let me in the back, and there was a smell coming from behind that cloth. I didn't know what that smell was then, but I know now. He had a body back there. It's unclear just how long Dean Coral had actually been killing,

but by 1972, Dean's murderous trio was complete. Next week, we'll follow the trio as they become an inseparable and well-oiled killing machine, that authority suspect of killing far more children than were ever found. We'll also delve deeper into Wayne Henley, who was a much more enthusiastic accomplice than David. Crime seemed to excite him. In fact, he was ready to take an even more active role in the killings. And Dean had just the thing in mind. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers.

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Cereal Killers was created by Max Cutler. It's a production of Cutler Media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Dick Schroeder, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro and Paul Mahler. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden, Freddie Beckley and Maggie Admeyer.

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