The Candy Man of Houston


Book Description

Dean Corll was an electrician for Houston Power and Light, but most of Henley's friends knew him as the Candy Man, so named because he had labored for years in the candy manufacturing plant that he and his mother had once owned. Corll was famous for giving away candy to the kids. Little did they know that 'the Candy man of Houston' was in fact a sadistic, cruel, remorseless rapist and murderer. Between September 25, 1970–August 3, 1973, Corll killed at least 28 young men and boys, and the actual number of victims may have been more than thirty. They were all systematically lured into his trap and then beaten, tortured, raped and strangled to death, and most victims found bore evidence of sexual torture: pubic hairs had been plucked out, genitals had been chewed, objects had been inserted into their rectums, and glass rods had been shoved into their penis and smashed. In the aftermath, two young men, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks, Corll's two main accomplices in the heinous crimes, confessed that they had been forced to participate against their will, and Corll himself – by now having been shot dead by Henley – was the lone culprit in the torturous murders. But was he? Author Brian Lee Tucker – having culled information from documented interviews, taped confessions, newspaper coverage, magazine articles, court transcripts, provides an in depth, behind the scenes look into who the real culprits were the crimes, which at the time of their discovery, the Houston Mass Murders were considered the worst example of serial murder in American history.




The Candy Man


Book Description

Those who knew Houston's 'Candy Man' Dean Corll all described him the same way - well-mannered, considerate, quiet, neatly groomed, and cheerful. He could usually be found in one of the more affluent communities within Houston, entertaining young boys at a small candy factory owned by his mother - the boys would pop in to watch as the pieces of candy came off the assembly line, and they all got along well with Dean.But some boys saw a completely different side of the Candy Man.From December 13, 1970 to July 25, 1973, 28 boys between the ages of 13 and 20 vanished from a neighbourhood just west of downtown Houston. The young men had all been tortured, then killed, by Dean Corll - who was, at that time, America's most prolific serial killer.




The Man with Candy


Book Description

The mass murder of almost thirty young boys in Houston may well have been the most heinous crime of the century. How could such a series of murders go undetected for almost three years before being exposed? The Man with the Candy is a brilliant investigative journalist’s story of the crime and the answer to that question. The night David Hilligiest didn't come home was both like and unlike other nights when other Houston boys disappeared between the years 1971 and 1973. At three in the morning the police were called, but they just said that boys were running away from the best of homes nowadays and that they'd list David as a runaway. No, there would be no official search for the youngster. Aghast, the Hilligiests, in the months that followed, hired their own detective, put up posters, even sought the aid of clairvoyants. But David never did come home again because, along with at least twenty-six other Houston boys, he had been murdered and buried by the homosexual owner of a candy factory, the mass murderer of the century, Dean Corll, according to his two teenage confessed accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr., and David Brooks. Many of the young boys had not even been reported as missing, and the fact that they were dead would probably never have come to light had not one of the murderers confessed. For in Houston, where in a typical year the total number of murders is twice that of London despite the fact that London is six times as large and far more densely populated, missing persons and violence are likely to be considered commonplace. In the months before the trial of Henley and Brooks, Jack Olsen interviewed and probed for answers about the criminals, the victims and the city itself, which remained for the most part silent, angry and defensive. The result is a classic of true crime reportage.




The Candy Cards


Book Description

"How that man was able to go out to that storage shed, time after time, and bury one more dead boy is something I'll never understand. You get close to evil like that, no matter how long ago it was, and it never leaves you." Detective David Mullican, recollecting the Houston Mass Murders, April 2011 During the early 1970s, more than three dozen teenage boys went missing from the working-class neighborhood of Houston Heights, in the south of Texas. The parents of a number of these boys received strange postcards from their sons, telling them that they were fine and that they had found jobs somewhere else in the state, anywhere from Dallas to Austin. Then, in August 1973, the Houston Police Department made a shocking discovery; something that would later become known as the Houston Mass Murders. After further spine-chilling investigations, the police found that prior to the murders, in the late 1960s, a young man by the name of Dean Corll had been handing out free candy to teenagers in Houston Heights. This man - who was vice-president of his mother's candy company - was described by fellow residents as gentle, friendly and well-mannered. They couldn't have been more wrong... The Candy Cards is the shocking true story of Dean Corll, a.k.a. The Candy Man, one of the deadliest serial killers in American history. Robert Browns thrilling account of this chilling story will have readers draw into to this story as much as any page turning crime thriller. Disclaimer: The material in this publication has a strong adult theme and is intended for an adult audience. Reader discretion is advised.




Dean Corll


Book Description

In an area of Houston known as the Heights, boys had been going missing for years, but it was the peace-and-love 1970s, so police just called them runaways, even if they'd left with little more than a swimsuit and some change. When the truth was uncovered, and police - and the rest of Houston - realized the boys had become victims of notorious American serial killer Dean Corll, Houston recoiled in horrified shock. Residents realized that they had not only become the site of the most grisly mass murder in Texas history, but the worst mass murder in all of U.S. history. The word serial killer had not yet been coined, and as body after decomposing body was uncovered from the dirt floor of the boat shed where Corll and his two young accomplishes had buried most of the victims, there were hardly words for what this sadistic lust killer had done. The depraved evil that Corll and his accomplices - two teen boys themselves who were promised money but eventually developed a thrill for the kill - was revealed as one of the cohorts, Wayne Henley, calmly, affably, told the stories of how after Corll sexually assaulting them and tortured them in unimaginable fashion, they would kill them and take the boys' bodies away to bury them beneath the dirt. This serial killer's biography will haunt you, especially as you learn more about the sadistic torture methods lust killer Corll used on his young victims, all lured to his various apartments by people they believed were their friends. While Corll is dead, killed by Henley during the lust killer's last night of depravity, the case remains entwined in Houston history, and unforgettable for the families of those who lived it.




The Last Book on the Left


Book Description

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An equal parts haunting and hilarious deep-dive review of history's most notorious and cold-blooded serial killers, from the creators of the award-winning Last Podcast on the Left Since its first show in 2010, The Last Podcast on the Left has barreled headlong into all things horror, as hosts Henry Zebrowski, Ben Kissel, and Marcus Parks cover subjects spanning Jeffrey Dahmer, werewolves, Jonestown, and supernatural phenomena. Deeply researched but with a morbidly humorous bent, the podcast has earned a dedicated and aptly cultlike following for its unique take on all things macabre. In their first book, the guys take a deep dive into history's most infamous serial killers, from Ted Bundy to John Wayne Gacy, exploring their origin stories, haunting habits, and perverse predilections. Featuring newly developed content alongside updated fan favorites, each profile is an exhaustive examination of the darker side of human existence. With appropriately creepy four-color illustrations throughout and a gift-worthy paper over board format, The Last Book on the Left will satisfy the bloodlust of readers everywhere.




Murder Most Texan


Book Description

A chronicle of sixteen ruthless killings from Lone Star history and the dirty details that have shocked and bewildered Texans for decades. Texas has long boasted of its iron fist and strict treatment of criminals. Nevertheless, a number of homicidal scoundrels and fiends have slipped through the state’s justice system despite even the best efforts of the legendary Texas Rangers. In 1877, Texas saw its first high-profile murder case with the slaying of a woman in Jefferson and the subsequent “Diamond Bessie” trial. More than a century later, state legislator Price Daniel Jr., was shot in cold blood by his wife at their home in Liberty, TX. True crime writer and historian Bartee Haile unburies these and other stories from Texas’s murderous past. With these stories and more—from senseless roadside murders to political assassinations—discover the seedy underbelly of the Lone Star State’s murderous past.




The Devil's Right-Hand Man


Book Description

The case of Robert Charles Browne, who may be one of America’s most prolific serial killers, was supposed to be a cold one. But that was before three retired buddies took it on. “The score is you one, the other team 48,” wrote Robert Charles Browne in March 2000, from his prison cell in Colorado, where he was serving a life sentence for a girl’s murder. “Seven sacred virgins entombed side by side, those less worthy are scattered wide.” No one in local law enforcement knew what to make of this message. Then three friends, volunteer members of the El Paso Sheriff’s Department cold case squad, decided to write back to Browne. Browne boasted about having killed as many as forty-eight people in a cross-country murder spree spanning twenty-five years. As the old friends parsed the riddles, investigators followed clues leading to a confession and the closure of another heartbreaking case. This is their story. Includes photographs




Ice-Candy-Man


Book Description

Now Filmed as 1947, a motion picture by Deepa Mehta Few novels have caught the turmoil of the Indian subcontinent during Partition with such immediacy, such wit and tragic power.




Within These Walls


Book Description

FORMER TEXAS PRISON CHAPLAIN REV. CARROLL PICKETT, WORKING WITH TWO-TIME EDGAR AWARD WINNER AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR CARLTON STOWERS, PROVIDES THIS ELOQUENT, UNFLINCHING LOOK AT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. Within These Walls is the powerful memoir of Rev. Carroll Pickett, who spent fifteen years as the death house chaplain at “The Walls,” the Huntsville unit of the Texas prison system. In that capacity, Reverend Pickett ministered to ninety-five men before they were put to death by lethal injection. They came with sinister nicknames like “The Candy Man” and “The Good Samaritan Killer,” some contrite, some angry—a few who might even have been innocent. All of them found in Reverend Pickett their last chance for an unbiased confessor who would look at them only as fellow humans, not simply as the convicted criminals the rest of society had already dismissed them as. This firsthand experience gave Reverend Pickett the unique insight needed to write an impassioned statement on the realities of capital punishment in America. The result is a thought-provoking and compelling book that takes the reader inside the criminal mind, inside the execution chamber, and inside the heart of a remarkable man who shares his thoughts and observations not only about capital punishment, but about the dark world of prison society