Elmer Wayne Henley (born May 9, 1956) is an
American convicted
serial killer,
incarcerated in the
Texas Department of
Criminal Justice (TDCJ) system. Henley was sentenced to six
consecutive life sentences on July 16, 1974 for his role in a
series of murders in Houston, Texas, in which a minimum of
twenty-seven teenage boys were abducted, raped and murdered by
Dean Corll between 1970 and 1973. Many of
the victims were lured to Corll's home by Henley or Corll's other
teenage accomplice, David Brooks. Dean Corll, the ring-leader of
the murders, was shot dead by Henley, then seventeen years old, on
August 8, 1973.
Henley, who is assigned TDCJ #00241618, is serving six
life sentences as a result of his involvement
in the murders, at that time the worst case of serial murders in
American history.
Murders
Wayne Henley was introduced to Corll by David Brooks, apparently as
an intended victim, in late 1971 when he was aged fifteen. By the
time Corll met Henley, he and David Brooks had abducted and
murdered a minimum of nine Houston teenagers aged between thirteen
and eighteen, including two friends of Henley, David Hilligeist and
Malley Winkle, whom Henley had actively participated in the search
for prior to meeting Corll. Corll apparently decided Henley would
make a good accomplice and offered Henley $200 for each boy he
could lure to his apartment. Henley became Corll's second
accomplice and for almost two years, assisted Corll and Brooks in
the abduction and murder of teenage boys. On August 8, 1973, Henley
shot and killed Dean Corll, then phoned Houston police and
confessed to his role in the murders.
Confession
Jack Cato,
a reporter for Houston's NBC television
affiliate KPRC-TV
, accompanied
Henley and police as Henley led them to a storage shed where he and
Corll had buried some of murder victims' bodies. Cato
allowed the use of his CB radio for Henley to call his mother.
Henley told her that he had killed Dean Corll, all while Cato was
capturing the conversation on film.
Trial and appeal
Henley was brought to trial in June, 1974 charged with the murders
of six teenage boys whom he himself lured to Corll's apartment
between March 1972 and July 1973. Henley was found guilty on July
16, 1974 and sentenced to six consecutive life terms. He appealed
against his sentence, and his conviction was overturned on December
20, 1978. Henley was tried for a second time in 1979, but was again
convicted and sentenced to six consecutive life terms.
David Brooks was tried in 1975 for the June 1973 murder of Billy
Ray Lawrence, and sentenced to
life
imprisonment. Both men are still serving life sentences for
their involvement in the crimes.
Art controversy
While in prison, Henley took up art. In an interview on
KPFT's
The Prison Show, he told host Ray Hill
that he first discovered his artistic interest in 1993, after the
Harris County medical examiner finally identified the body of the
26th victim of the early 1970s killing spree. Henley told Hill that
he suffers from a severe color deficiency in his eyesight that
makes it impossible for him to clearly distinguish reds and greens.
To compensate, Henley said, he decided his portraits of humans
would only be done in black and white; color would be reserved for
still lifes and
landscapes.
In 1997, the Hyde Park Gallery in Houston's Montrose area hosted
Henley's first art show. Survivors of some of Henley's victims
expressed outrage when they learned of Henley's show. In 1999 the
city of Houston expressed interest in building a monument to
victims of violent crime, which Henley said he would be willing to
help pay for with part of the proceeds from a second art
show.
References
External links
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