The Serial Killer's Apprentice

by Katherine Ramsland, Tracy Ullman

Overview

A psychological examination of the blurred line between victim and accomplice—and how a killer can be created

Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. was only fourteen when he first became entangled with serial rapist and murderer Dean Corll in 1971. Fellow Houston, Texas, teenager David Brooks had already been ensnared by the charming older man, bribed with cash to help lure boys to Corll’s home. When Henley unwittingly entered the trap, Corll evidently sensed he’d be of more use as a second accomplice than another victim. He baited Henley with the same deal he’d given Brooks: $200 for each boy they could bring him.

Henley didn’t understand the full extent of what he had signed up for at first. But once he started, Corll convinced him that he had crossed the line of no return and had to not only procure boys but help kill them and dispose of the bodies, as well. When Henley first took a life, he lost his moral base. He felt doomed. By the time he was seventeen, he’d helped with multiple murders and believed he’d be killed, too. But on August 8, 1973, he picked up a gun and shot Corll. When he turned himself in, Henley showed police where he and Brooks had buried Corll’s victims in mass graves. Twenty-eight bodies were recovered—most of them boys from Henley’s neighborhood—making this the worst case of serial murder in America at the time. The case reveals gross failures in the way cops handled parents’ pleas to look for their missing sons and how law enforcement possibly protected a larger conspiracy.

The Serial Killer’s Apprentice tells the story of Corll and his accomplices in its fullest form to date. It also explores the concept of “mur-dar” (the predator’s instinct for exploitable kids), current neuroscience about adolescent brain vulnerabilities, the role of compartmentalization, the dynamic of a murder apprenticeship, and how tales like Henley’s can aid with early intervention. Despite his youth and cooperation, Henley went to trial and received six life sentences. He’s now sixty-five and has a sense of perspective about how adult predators can turn formerly good kids into criminals. Unexpectedly, he’s willing to talk. This book is his warning and the story of the unspeakable evil and sorrow that befell Houston in the early 1970s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613164952
Publisher:	Penzler Publishers
Publication date:	04/16/2024
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Dr. Katherine Ramsland teaches forensic psychology and criminology at DeSales University in Pennsylvania. The author of 70 books, she has appeared as an expert on more than 250 crime documentaries, podcasts, and news shows. She was an executive producer of Murder House Flip and Confession of a Serial Killer and consulted for CSI, Bones, and The Alienist.

Tracy Ullman is a documentary producer, director, and writer living in Chicago. She has produced dozens of non-fiction television programs for Discovery Networks, Oxygen, AETN Networks, and PBS. Her most recent production is a six-part limited documentary series about serial murderer John Wayne Gacy and the new discoveries made in his case for NBC’s Peacock streaming service.

Read an Excerpt

A slender, curly-headed teenage boy in handcuffs and a dark green jumpsuit guided the driver of an unmarked police car onto a rutted road. The cop led a short caravan of vehicles carrying detectives toward an L-shaped row of corrugated metal sheds at 4500 Silver Bell Street in Houston, Texas. This was Southwest Boat Storage. They stopped near unit 11. Several men in suits emerged from the lead car. One helped the boy to step out. He looked dazed, like he could barely stand.

The detectives needed this boy. He’d just revealed that Dean Corll, a local electrician whom he’d fatally shot that morning, had killed other boys and buried them in this unit’s dirt floor. The detectives had initially dismissed his claims. He was a kid, coming off a paint-sniffing high. But he’d mentioned David Hilligiest, Marty Jones, and Charles Cobble. All three had been reported missing. Two had vanished on the same day a few weeks before. Despite the stifling heat on that August afternoon in 1973, they’d come to check out the kid’s disturbing claim.

Some of these cops were from Houston PD. Some were from Pasadena, where Corll had been shot. They’d agreed they needed to work together. Around 5:30 p.m., they approached the boat stall’s set of steel doors. A padlock stopped them. They located Mrs. Mayme Meynier, the facility owner, and explained why they needed access. She was distressed to hear that her tenant was dead. Dean Corll had been such a nice man, she said, always paying his fee on time ever since he’d rented the stall in late 1970. The landlady had no spare key for Corll’s lock, so she granted permission to the police to break it. One officer used a tire iron to get the job done. When they opened the doors to the windowless, high-ceilinged 12x34-foot space, a blast of pent-up heat pushed them back.

Inside, they saw a cluttered stall. They entered to assess the contents. In the center of the space, two musty overlapping carpets covered the dirt floor. The blue one touched both walls and ran about twelve feet into the unit. Along the right side near the back, the detectives saw a tarp-covered car, two canisters of compressed gas, a small red bike, an empty furniture box, and a plastic bag full of shoes and clothing. They counted eight twenty-gallon metal containers. Two ten-pound bags of lime sat on one. Near the left wall, a crack in the lumpy dirt-and-shell floor exuded a faint odor. A broken rake with a white residue on its tines and two short-handled shovels reinforced the ominous impression that something had been buried here beneath lime.

The boy came to the threshold. He looked pale. Instead of entering the stall, he backed away, sat on the grass, and put his head in his hands. His life had changed irreparably that day. Seventeen-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. had just shot and killed Dean Corll. He’d said he’d done it to save himself and two friends whom Corll had decided to torture. Then he’d told detectives about the boat stall, with four, and possibly more, kids buried inside.

Detective Dave Mullican had been with Henley since the shooting that morning. He stared at the forlorn teen. This kid knew more than he was saying, a lot more. He’d led them to the boat stall without difficulty, though he’d said he’d been there just once. He’d told them where the facility owner lived. What else did he know? What else had he done? But these questions could wait. First, they had to discover if Dean Corll was the killer the boy claimed him to be.

A peek under the canvas tarp showed the stripped hulk of a Chevy Camaro, seemingly used for parts—a common way to profit from stolen cars. They’d have to check the vehicle’s status, and then move it out. The kid’s bike as well. The police photographer, Bill Hare, snapped photos of each item before stepping aside for the forensics unit. The crime scene processors took dirt and lime samples and lifted fingerprints from several locations. Items were packaged as potential evidence.

Around 6:30 p.m., word arrived that the Camaro was stolen and the bike belonged to thirteen-year-old James Dreymala, a boy reported missing nearly a week earlier. Another missing boy, and not one Henley had named. With the other three, this made four possible graves, maybe five, since Gregory Malley Winkle had gone missing with David Hilligiest in 1971. It seemed impossible. Who’d ever heard of a guy grabbing and killing this many boys without anyone noticing?

Still doubtful, detectives directed two inmates they’d brought from a jail— “trusties”—to dig into the smelly dirt hump near the broken rake. The air had cleared somewhat, but it was blazing hot outside, with a dampness that stuck shirts to skin. The trusties started to dig.

Editorial Reviews

"Drawing on exclusive interviews with the surviving member of one of the most horrific serial killer teams in U.S. history, Katherine Ramsland and Tracy Ullman’s consistently gripping book is not only the definitive account of the infamous “Candy Man” case—offering eye-opening information never before revealed—but a brilliant study of the minds and motivations of pedophiliac predators: both a page-turning true crime narrative and a major contribution to the field of forensic psychology."

Harold Schechter

"Katherine Ramsland and Tracy Ullman . . . use all their intellectual resources to illuminate the developmental and cultural forces and processes that provide a “human” explanation for what otherwise seems morally and emotionally opaque. I salute them for their intelligence, both “emotional” and “intellectual.” In their book they go well beyond the often superficial analysis offered by most “true crime” writing."

James Garbarino

"Dr. Ramsland offers us insights into the mind of a serial killer rarely seen in criminological literature."

Eric W. Hickey

★ 2024-02-01
An intimate investigative account of a notorious serial killer focused on the making of his teenage apprentices.

Acclaimed forensic psychologist Ramsland, author of Confession of a Serial Killer, Beating the Devil’s Game, and dozens of other true-crime books, teams up with investigative journalist and documentarian Ullman to add materially to the 50-year-old story of the “Candy Man” killer, Dean Corll, who was shot and killed in 1973. The authors examine the involvement of David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. as apprentices, performing Corll’s “grunt work,” which consisted of the abduction, torture, murder, and burial of other teenage boys. The authors explore the devious strategies predators employ when choosing their “apprentices” and grooming them. Brooks and Henley were both ready targets for Corll, but Henley, the book’s primary character, is especially noteworthy, both in terms of his vulnerability and willing participation as a primary accomplice to a serial killer. Ramsland and Ullman expand the background to Corll’s reprehensible acts to reveal the work of a larger criminal organization, a widespread network of sex offenders dealing in the trafficking and murder of boys operated by John David Norman, who “had been charged more than two dozen times previously for child sex crimes and had a long rap sheet charted by the FBI.” Norman, Corll, John Wayne Gacy, and thousands of other pedophiles coordinated their heinous acts for years. At the end, the authors provide sobering images from the case, including those taken on the day of Corll’s murder, as well as statements by the teen accomplices upon their arrests. Frighteningly, the authors write, “many of the same grooming techniques that Corll employed are still in use because they’re successful.” Ramsland and Ullman paint a disturbingly vivid portrait of true evil.

Not for the faint of heart, but true-crime aficionados will appreciate this fast-paced, illuminating report.

Kirkus Reviews

"The Serial Killer’s Apprentice is a valuable cautionary tale of the dangers lurking in our world for, not only children, but anyone who may be vulnerable to the lure of acceptance by someone—by anyone."

NY Journal of Books

"There are few people better qualified to unravel a psychopath's psyche than Dr. Katherine Ramsland, and The Serial Killer's Apprentice proves that she is at the top of her game! By turns intriguing and terrifying, this book shines a spotlight onto the dark corners of a predator's mind and offers urgently needed insights for those in the law enforcement community."

Kristin Dilley

"An instantaneous true crime classic, it proves eye-opening for those who wish to better understand this case and the criminal mind, and, despite its nightmarish details, impossible to put down."

Dr. Gary Brucato

"A valiant and dignified effort to confront a subject that defies easy analysis."

Crimespree Magazine

"Amazing . . . [The Serial Killer’s Apprentice changes] what we knew as a case narrative for over 50 years and resets the errors made during the investigation and at trial."

Michael Baden

"Distinctively insightful . . . In this sleep-stealing page turner, the authors effectively evoke consideration for an additional offender typology and sexual homicide classification by examining the motivational factors of dominant offenders and their groomed teenage accomplices."

Gregory M. Cooper

"Essential for victimologists, criminologists, law enforcement, therapists, and concerned citizens. The Serial Killer’s Apprentice transcends traditional true crime narratives, presenting a profound exploration of a bygone era. As hidden truths emerge and old cases are redefined, this book stands as a testament to the relentless pursuit of justice. Delve into the shadows of the past and emerge with a heightened awareness of the timeless battle against predators, as we navigate the complex tapestry of justice."

Ann Wolbert Burgess

"The Serial Killer’s Apprentice reveals the incredible story of the only known accomplice to have killed the predator who lured him into a killing partnership. The urgent lessons learned from Ramsland’s interviews and study are priceless to law enforcement, parents, and, most importantly, to prevent future victims from predators lurking in today’s world. . . . This is a must-read for the true crime fan and for every parent who worries about their child’s safety."

Chris McDonough