Associated Press

Billy Ridinger, 20, wears a paper sack over his head as he arrives to tell the Houston grand jury how he escaped from the homosexual-torture ring.

Two teen-agers indicted for sex-torture slayings

HOUSTON (P) — A grand jury investigating the largest case of mass murder in recent American history yesterday indicted two teen-agers in the Houston torture-sex slayings.

State District Judge Noah Kennedy announced the indictments against Elmer Wayne Henley, 17, and David O. Brooks, 18, after the grand jury met for 61⁄2 hours. More indictments were expected later.

Henley was charged in the July 27 shooting death of Charles Cary Cobble, 17, and the strangulation on the same day of Marty Ray Jones, 18.

Brooks and Henley were jointly charged in the July 10 strangulation of William Ray Lawrence, 15. Bond was set at $100,000 on each murder count.

The bodies of Cobble and Jones were found with 15 others in a boat shed in Houston. Lawrence's body was recovered near Lake Sam Rayburn in East Texas.

Twenty-seven bodies have been recovered from three locations since last Wednesday Only six of them have been identified.

Earlier, a youth who reportedly escaped being a victim of the homosexual ring slipped into the secret grand jury session.

Sources Identified the witnesses, who wore a paper sack over his head, as Bill Ridinger. He testified after the jury heard from two police detectives.

What information has previously been available about Ridinger came from statement by Brooks to police..

In his statement, Brooks said: “I was present... when they got Billy Ridinger. I took care of him while he was there. And I believe the only reason he is alive now is that I begged them not to kill him.”

Ridinger's testimony may shed more light on how so many young people were lured to the surburban Pasadena home of Dean A. Corll, 33, alleged mastermind of the ring. It was at his home, Brooks has said, that the boys were killed in homosexual orgies of torture and death.

Henley, 17, has told police he killed Corll last Wednesday.

Henley refused to undergo psychiatric examination on the advice of his lawyer

The death toll reached 27 Monday when deputies unearthed four bodies from a narrow strip of beach at High Island, about 60 miles east of here. All the victims are believed to be teen-aged boys.