TX TX - Unidentified victims of Dean Corll, Houston Serial Killer, 1970-1973

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Marysel said:
Hello everyone. I recently found out about this forum that there are still people here who are ready to spend their time analyzing this mysterious case. So I wanted to ask you about this article: https://archive.md/20120723181807/h...remains-20-years-later-memories-of-dean.html/
I found a link to this article on the Dean Corll wikipedia page. It has some extremely entertaining testimonies from Sister of Willard K. "Rusty" Branch about the way the parties were held. And I have never seen anyone discuss it or cite it as an example in disputes on reddit or on another page
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Hmm I can’t access the article, I will try to find it on Wikipedia.
 
@burnsw Dean’s first known victim was Jeffrey Konen, a student at the University of Texas, whom he abducted while he was hitchhiking to his home in southwest Houston. The date was September 25, 1970.

B06301FB-4DCE-4AAA-841B-0BE32B4A1A6A.jpeg

Jeffrey managed to hitchhike safely all the way from Austin to Houston and was abducted only a few miles from his home. So sad.
 
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Jimmyp said:
The "Bobby French" photo is part of the Houston PD records.
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Do you know if the Bobby French photo that they show is confirmed to be him? Or are they guessing he may be the Swimsuit Boy based on his physical features?
Snoods said:
View attachment 298796
Billy wore a paper bag over his head at all times while in court to conceal his identity.

@Ontheriver Good find, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of Billy.

Has anyone read the rumors from a few of the players about other Dean “procurers?” In particular one who ended up dead and one who wasn’t killed?

The Candy Man
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What rumors are those? I have read of the idea of Dean possibly having procurers prior to David and Wayne but no one has any evidence. I remember Wayne saying in an interview that he had never heard of procurers prior to him and David. Are you referring to Mark Scott as the one who ended up dead and Billy Ridinger as the one who survived? I always assumed that Dean and Wayne let Billy go because David pleaded with them to and they relented because Billy was a long time friend. But in a Madman's World, the character playing Wayne asked why they were letting Billy go as he would tell the Police. Dean replied "he won't talk" implying Billy was guilty himself.
 
Snoods said:
@burnsw Dean’s first known victim was Jeffrey Konen, a student at the University of Texas, whom he abducted while he was hitchhiking to his home in southwest Houston. The date was September 25, 1970.

View attachment 298809

Jeffrey managed to hitchhike safely all the way from Austin to Houston and was abducted only a few miles from his home. So sad.
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It is sad. He had bright future ahead of him. He was the salutatorian of his high school class.
 
Jimmyp said:
Hi All, I was noticing a lot of talk about Billy Ridinger. I didn't read every single post on here but scanned most of them. I did not see anyone mention that the Ridinger family knew the Corlls for many years going back to the early 1960s. They were family friends. In the Pasadena police reports Billy and his mother gave an interview to the police and told all about how they knew Dean. Billy of course lied and said he had not seen Dean in some time even though according to Henley he was at the Pasadena house before the final murders. I find it surprising that even after being raped by Dean (Brooks gives this info in his full statement) he continued to visit Dean. Though if Billy had been molested by Dean as a child or even early teen that would help explain his behavoir. The Houston PD have a report which states that Billy was asked to give another interview after they read Brook's statement that Billy had been raped by Dean. Unfortunately I have not found a copy of his second interview. I just have the HPD report stating he gave one. It says its attached but also not in the docs.
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Oh, I always thought that Billy Ridinger was called in by the police because his name was mentioned in David's statement. But, I guess he could have been called in before police read David's statement was made. That would explain why he lied - that part always puzzled me. I am guessing that the second statement was redacted because of the graphic nature. The testimony Billy gave to the grand jury is sealed so maybe that is a reason the police pulled the second statement. Just a guess.
 
Ontheriver said:
Do you know if the Bobby French photo that they show is confirmed to be him? Or are they guessing he may be the Swimsuit Boy based on his physical features?
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All I know is that the photo is part of the HPD collection of evidence. There is no information provided with the photo.
 
Ontheriver said:
Oh, I always thought that Billy Ridinger was called in by the police because his name was mentioned in David's statement.

I am guessing that the second statement was redacted because of the graphic nature.
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Billy and his parents showed up for the first interview on their own. Their family had know Dean for many years and Billy had visited Dean often. Of course his parents did not know what Billy was doing at Dean's (drugs, drinking, etc).
Regarding his missing statement, I do not think it was pulled for being too graphic. David gave a graphic statement about his own rape. I tend to think it either got lost or someone pulled it because Billy's family had connections to the police and wanted to protect their son from his rape story getting out. Most likely lost. Its also possible it is in the records and was missed when these copies were made. I do plan on contacting HPD for a record search to try and find that missing statement.
 
Jimmyp said:
Billy and his parents showed up for the first interview on their own. Their family had know Dean for many years and Billy had visited Dean often. Of course his parents did not know what Billy was doing at Dean's (drugs, drinking, etc).
Regarding his missing statement, I do not think it was pulled for being too graphic. David gave a graphic statement about his own rape. I tend to think it either got lost or someone pulled it because Billy's family had connections to the police and wanted to protect their son from his rape story getting out. Most likely lost. Its also possible it is in the records and was missed when these copies were made. I do plan on contacting HPD for a record search to try and find that missing statement.
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Let us know if a record search produces anything. I had always suspected that it was redacted at the request of the family. Billy showed up to the grand jury wearing a grocery bag over his head after all so it wouldn't surprise me. I do wonder too why Dean agreed to let Billy go. I can only speculate that Dean knew Billy played a role with the drugs, parties and burglaries and so wasn't going to go the police.
What I think is strange is that the files do not have interviews with other friends of Dean like Geral McDaniel, Leroy Lewandowski, John Mathews, Alan Bonds, and Jessie Howard.
 
Ontheriver said:
I've had this article for years. I finally found a version that has actual clear pictures of Susan McLemore, Rusty Branch, and Connie Cobble Shultz in it. I found McLemore's recollections creepy and disturbing. I had always wanted to hear more details about Dean's parties but found some of what she said hard to believe. For instance, is a group of teenage males going to be sitting nude under a table nude? And the teenagers attending his parties wouldn't be turned off by a thirty something host wandering around nude? And a kid turns blue, is picked up by Dean and taken to a back bedroom and no one says anything about it afterwards?
Did you feel that Susan's descriptions of the parties were believable?
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Well, sorry that i don't answer so long. I think, this is a very strange testimony, but the personality of McLemore seems to me quite sincere, because she is the sister of one of the victims and participated in the identification of her brother's body. Surely, her words sound like lies, but Corll's house was indeed a kind of disorderly house, where people took drugs (Henley and Brooks, for example) and organized crime (you probably know that Corll and Brooks dragged Henley into the theft prior to his involvement in the murders.). Parties happened in their apartments and neighbors (I saw in one of the newspaper articles) could only describe it as "immoral conduct" (shame did not allow them to describe it in more detail). We can imagine that Corll had connections with other criminals, firstly, because he was selling stolen goods (my opinion is based on many sources, including the words of the owner of the boat shed about the fact that once a lot of cars drove up to the shed and something happened inside, but this, of course, can be interpreted in different ways. And I understand that this claim has the least clear and compelling evidence), and secondly, because he was very sociable and tried to find "friends" by interests. But adolescent behavior really seems very strange... (I hope that I did not make too many mistakes in the construction of sentences and choice of words:confused:)
 
Marysel said:
Well, sorry that i don't answer so long. I think, this is a very strange testimony, but the personality of McLemore seems to me quite sincere, because she is the sister of one of the victims and participated in the identification of her brother's body. Surely, her words sound like lies, but Corll's house was indeed a kind of disorderly house, where people took drugs (Henley and Brooks, for example) and organized crime (you probably know that Corll and Brooks dragged Henley into the theft prior to his involvement in the murders.). Parties happened in their apartments and neighbors (I saw in one of the newspaper articles) could only describe it as "immoral conduct" (shame did not allow them to describe it in more detail). We can imagine that Corll had connections with other criminals, firstly, because he was selling stolen goods (my opinion is based on many sources, including the words of the owner of the boat shed about the fact that once a lot of cars drove up to the shed and something happened inside, but this, of course, can be interpreted in different ways. And I understand that this claim has the least clear and compelling evidence), and secondly, because he was very sociable and tried to find "friends" by interests. But adolescent behavior really seems very strange... (I hope that I did not make too many mistakes in the construction of sentences and choice of words:confused:)
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Oh, I believe that Susan McLemore was telling the truth as she saw it. But, I question how reliable her memories are because of her young age and being under the influence of acrylics herself. I should have been more clear about that. If you remember where you saw the article about people showing up at the boat shed, let me know.
Dean was definitely involved in stolen goods. The car that was sitting in the boat shed when the bodies were uncovered had been stolen.
Your grammar was fine. I understood what you were saying.
 
This is tremendous news!!! Long overdue.

Texas EquuSearch believes that a significant number of Corll’s young victims that haven’t yet been found. Henley himself admitted not all the killer’s victims had been found, according to Texas EquuSearch.

…

The Texas-based search and recovery organization announced it will soon begin working with investigators from the Pasadena Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to search for any additional in victims.

“We have been researching the murders very intensely over the last few months, and we believe there is a good probability that we can find, and recover some of the still-missing boys,” the organization said in a release.
 
"Technology has greatly advanced since it became known that the men killed so many kids," the release explains. "Fast forward to today. [sic] There is now a very successful tool available to us today - that the detectives didn’t have in 1973. And we plan to use that tool very soon to locate the other young boys that we believe Corll, Brooks, and Henley murdered, and are still buried out there unfound."
 
Interesting press conference. Someone reached out to them over a year ago and TES decided to do what they could. Sounds like they may be searching a residence. Tim talks about not releasing much about when and where, that someone is living there. If I heard correctly.
 
Tbone144 said:
Texas Equusearch holds press conference regarding search for human remains of 'Candy Man' victims


Texas Equusearch holds press conference regarding search for human remains of 'Candy Man' victims
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The article linked says they are searching in the Silver Bell area which is where the boat shed is. I seem to remember Henley saying there were two more bodies in the boat shed investigators didn't find the first time around.
I'd like to see ground penetrating radar used on older sites around the candy factory. Supposedly one of the early sites where Dean was observed digging was behind a shed and is now a parking lot.
 
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