Episode Details

In the early 1970s, Dean Corll was known in his Houston Heights neighborhood as the "Candy Man"—a friendly figure who gave free treats to local children from his family’s candy business,. But behind closed doors, Corll was the mastermind of the "Houston Mass Murders," a spree of abduction, torture, and sexual assault that claimed the lives of at least 29 teenage boys and young men.

In this episode of pplpod, we examine the gruesome history of the "Pied Piper" and his two teenage accomplices, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley,. We discuss:

• The Accomplices: How Corll recruited teenagers Brooks and Henley to lure friends and hitchhikers to his home in exchange for money, turning them into active participants in his crimes,,.

• The Method: The deceptive offers of parties and rides used to trap victims, and the sadistic torture board Corll used to inflict unimaginable cruelty before burying the bodies in a rented boat shed and local beaches,.

• The Discovery: The fatal night of August 8, 1973, when a confrontation over a girl led Henley to shoot Corll six times, ending the spree and leading police to the horrors hidden within the boat shed,,.

• The Aftermath: The excavation of remains that constituted the worst example of serial murder in U.S. history at the time, the life sentences handed down to Brooks and Henley, and the decades-long forensic effort to identify the victims,,,.