TX TX - Houston, 'Swimsuit Boy' WhtMale 15-19, UP4547, Dean Corll victim, Aug'73

[Snoods]

For some reason, when I clicked on your link it sent me to William Bonin (another gay serial killer, albeit in California). Odd since the words in the link include "corll," "houston," etc.

Here's a link from the same website related to Corll, but doesn't have the interview with Rhonda
http://crime.about.com/od/serial/p/dean_corll.htm

Well shoot, yep you're right. That site must only hold an article with comments for a certain length of time. Sorry about that, I'd edit my comment if I still could.

I went back to my search history and the last time I was on that site was the end of July and it was still there. There were a couple hundred comments, among them Rhonda, friends of Rhonda, David Brooks' (the 3rd accomplice) sister, relatives of a few victims, etc. It was contentious at times and very interesting. I'm bummed that it's gone!

Thanks for posting that link.

 

[Migmuu]

Well shoot, yep you're right. That site must only hold an article with comments for a certain length of time. Sorry about that, I'd edit my comment if I still could.

I went back to my search history and the last time I was on that site was the end of July and it was still there. There were a couple hundred comments, among them Rhonda, friends of Rhonda, David Brooks' (the 3rd accomplice) sister, relatives of a few victims, etc. It was contentious at times and very interesting. I'm bummed that it's gone!

Thanks for posting that link.

I found a cached version of it

 

[Snoods]

I found a cached version of it

Ohhhhh post it here!!!!! Pretty please! How did you find it? I tried looking for it in cache but didn't have any luck!

 

[Migmuu]

Ohhhhh post it here!!!!! Pretty please! How did you find it? I tried looking for it in cache but didn't have any luck!

Here it is again

What cache tool were you using? I used the Wayback Machine on archive.org.

 

[Snoods]

Here it is again

What cache tool were you using? I used the Wayback Machine on archive.org.

Thank you so much! How embarrassing, I just noticed you had it in your original post, sorry to make you post it again. :blushing:

I only tried google cache, I should utilize the Wayback Machine more often. Don't let the secret out, but I'm kind of a sucky sleuth lol.

Have you had a chance to read all the comments?

 

[Migmuu]

Thank you so much! How embarrassing, I just noticed you had it in your original post, sorry to make you post it again. :blushing:

I only tried google cache, I should utilize the Wayback Machine more often. Don't let the secret out, but I'm kind of a sucky sleuth lol.

Have you had a chance to read all the comments?

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Google cache. I always get a "Page cannot be found" message.

I read some of the comments. A lot of it is people saying they're related to the victims (or perpetrators), and most of what I've seen is pretty civil and very interesting. There's some drama between someone with the handle ''farmgal'' and someone claiming to be Rhonda Williams, about a book and whether Wayne Henley is a good guy (???).

 

[margarita25]

"The mother of Gregory Malley Winkle stated: "You don't run away [from home] with nothing but a bathing suit and 80 cents."[98]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Corll

 

[margarita25]

(The HMM / DC has got to be one of the worst things I've ever heard of, read)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Corll

Those poor boys. No words.

 

[Snoods]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Google cache. I always get a "Page cannot be found" message.

I read some of the comments. A lot of it is people saying they're related to the victims (or perpetrators), and most of what I've seen is pretty civil and very interesting. There's some drama between someone with the handle ''farmgal'' and someone claiming to be Rhonda Williams, about a book and whether Wayne Henley is a good guy (???).

Yes, apparently Rhonda still visits Elmer in jail. She thinks he saved her life that night when she was on the torture board when he shot Dean Corll dead. But you have to remember, Elmer woke up tied up to that torture board too. He shot Dean because he knew Dean wanted him dead. Elmer knew what happened to earlier "procurers" for Dean, and he wasn't about to suffer the same fate.

Some people are making Elmer out to be some kind of hero, just some poor kid brainwashed by Dean. There is a wonderful article in Texas Monthly about the murders, I'll find it and link it here, in which Elmer talks about how much he enjoyed murdering people. You'll get a real good insight into the mind of evil. Sicko.

He was supposed to get paid to bring his friends to Dean, he never got paid but he kept bringing boys anyway. His own friends and schoolmates. I think Dean did give him an old corvette though. He even hung missing posters and talked to their parents.

I'll see if I can find that article.

"Farmgal" is David Brooks' sister

 

[Migmuu]

Ohhh okay, I didn't catch the part where she said she was David Brooks's sister. I had kind of skimmed through the first half of the comments section.

 

[Snoods]

"The mother of Gregory Malley Winkle stated: "You don't run away [from home] with nothing but a bathing suit and 80 cents."[98]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Corll

And that's how the missing boys were all treated back then, as runaways. Same with the little Hilligiest boy (he disappeared with Malley Winkle) he was wearing only swim trunks when he went to the neighborhood pool with his little brother. Another runaway wearing a bathing suit, no shoes, maybe enough change to buy an ice cream. He was never seen alive again. There were more than a few that disappeared while on their way to the pool if I remember correctly.

Dozens of young boys, the majority of them friends from the same neighborhood, suddenly up and running away. Nothing to be concerned about, eh?

One particularly evil thing Dean did was make a few of the boys write letters to their parents before he killed them, saying things like they found a job on a 18 wheeler truck, or a fishing trawler and not to worry about them. But never more than one letter. Just enough for the police to say, "See, told you there was nothing to worry about."

 

[JeannaT]

I've returned to this case, out of interest in the identity of "swim suit boy", the apparently only unidentified set of remains. I lived in the Houston area and was a teenager when this case unfolded, and I'm still so angry at Houston Police Department for not investigating any of these missing boys. 11 boys from one middle school, missing in a two year span. That is criminal dereliction of duty, IMHO. And then they never apologized, even going on to say if the parents don't know where their sons are, how can we? after bodies were unearthed.

I'm also sure there are more bodies in the boat shed. Houston PD decided to shut down the investigation out of shame.

So, so sad. But there are people still working on this, with fresher eyes.

I was very saddened also to see at the parole hearing for David Brooks, in 2014, there was ONLY ONE SET of parents of the victims still surviving to attend the hearing. How very, very sad. Out of 28 victims, only ONE parent is alive today. Statistically, that's stunning. It seems that grief shortened their lives. I do know that they should be in their late 70's or early 80's, but a lot of people are still alive then. It's like concentric circles of sadness radiates out from each lost boy.

http://www.chron.com/houston/article/Parole-hearing-for-serial-killer-Corll-accomplice-5937587.php

http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-lost-boys/

 

[ctaylor]

This body is being exhumed to see if it is a teenager who went missing in Mississippi...

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2016/02/15/texas-body-exhumed-in-mississippi-cold-case/80397108/

Texas body exhumed in Mississippi cold case

TEXAS CITY, Texas — Authorities near Houston have exhumed the body of an unidentified teenager to determine if he's the same teen who went missing more than 40 years ago in Mississippi.

...

 

[taramarie]

That article is actually about this UID: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...7-19-WhtMale-hit-by-car-Aug-73-UP-14589/page2

 

[ctaylor]

Thanks taramarie, sorry for any confusion!

 

[Alleykins]

New here, just wanted to say, being from New England, that I'd never heard of this serial killer until a few years ago when I met someone on another forum who lost one of her friends to this man. I made the mistake of looking him up after she told me about it; it turned my stomach and broke my heart. You warn your kids about stranger danger, even back in the 70s I was warned about it, but how do you protect your child from such criminals when they use peers to betray them? There's no keeping them safe in those circumstances. Those poor families.
What I found bizarre is that his crimes overlap John Wayne Gacy and William "Freight Train" Guatney and between the three, they murdered hundreds of little boys and young men in the 70s.
Have there been any updates on any of the previous potential matches? Thanks!

 

[carbuff]

Welcome, Alleykins. The 70's serial killers are an incredible horror story. Besides Korlll, Gacy, and Eyler, there's Kraft, the redhead killer, the truckstop killer...so many of them, so many unknown victims. It makes me want to cry.

 

[Springrain]

Welcome, Alleykins. The 70's serial killers are an incredible horror story. Besides Korlll, Gacy, and Eyler, there's Kraft, the redhead killer, the truckstop killer...so many of them, so many unknown victims. It makes me want to cry.

I don't know much about serial killers, but I have read extensively about Kraft and he makes my stomach turn. What a sick, sick beast. To have taken these poor folks' lives away in such a brutal manner...sickening.

 

[Alleykins]

I'm almost too scared to look Kraft up. Thanks for the welcome. I don't know how helpful I will be but I hope I can contribute in some small way.

 

[Springrain]

Unfortunately, I don't know much about the Dean Corll/Wayne Henley/David Brooks murders because I've only starting obsessing over them half a week ago. But I did have the knowledge that the bodies discovered in the boat shed could only have been of boys killed between November 17 1970 and August 8 1973 (albeit most likely in the middle, and I know he didn't die the day Dean did, but I wanted a broad range).

All of the really good matches were ruled out already. But here's a little list of the ones I found that weren't ruled out.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) (I don't think it's him. UID was dressed for summer)
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) (Missing from Idaho; could've hitchhiked. LKA date is in summer. A bit older than most of Dean's victims.)
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) (Missing from California; could've hitchhiked)
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) (Missing from Nebraska; could've hitchhiked. Was not dressed for summer)
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) (Missing from Illinois; could've hitchhiked. Was not dressed for summer)
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) (Missing from California; could've hitchhiked. LKA date was in summer. A bit older than most of Dean's victims).
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) (Could've hitchhiked. Not dressed for summer).

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

I don't think this poor boy is any of them, but I thought it might be worth a shot.