Houston killings: 'bunch of boys' irked Corll's fiancee

L.A. Tires/Washington Post Service Dean Ar-

HOUSTON

nold Corll, identified as the leader of a homosexual torture ring that caused the deaths of 27 or more youths. was engaged to be married in two weeks to a woman he had been dating for five years

"We found a calendar in his home," a Houston detective said. "There were two circles around August 31, and his parents told us he and his fiancee were going to get married then

Scarcely anyone knew it.

Until Corll was slain early on Aug 8 and the first bodies were dug up the next day he apparently had beer leading a double life for at least three years a polite, quiet and plesantly harmless young man who was nice to children by day, and, police say, sexually molesting boys, torturing, killing and burying them by night.

He lived in a one-bedroom white frame house provided by his father in the Houston suburb of Pasadena. His yard was neatly kept and so was Corll, 33 — his hair cut short and his face cleanshaven.

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"I couldn't help but find out a little about him," said his fiancee, Betty, who asked that her surname not be used. She is a 30-year-old divorcee with two sons, 8 and 10 years old.

In an interview, Betty said, “My people have known Dean 15 years and I've dated him about the last five." Asked if they were to be married soon she. said. "No comment."

Police said, "We have no doubt about that."

Mrs. Billy Baulch knew Betty and Corll. Her son Billy Jr. dated Betty's sister last year. Mrs. Baulch said Betty sometimes complained about a peculiarity

she had noticed in her boyfriend.

"Betty told me every time she went to Dean's home he had a bunch of boys around, and she didn't think this was normal," Mrs. Baulch said.

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"And when he came by to had one or two boys along, pick her up sometimes, he she added. "She stopped going with Corll for a while because of this.”

The Baulchs finally told their son to stop seeing Corll. At the time Corll was 32 and the Baulch boy was 16.

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Mrs. Elmer Wayne Henley Sr. knew Corll too. Her son, Wayne, 17, was a close friend of his and with David Owen Brooks who has been accused of taking part in some of the slayings.

Like most other persons who thought they knew Corll, Mrs. Henley described him as polite, quiet,

Associated Prest

Dean A. Corll as he ap peared during 10 months of army service in 1964.

unassuming, nice to children, neat and well-mannered. But she also noticed a peculiarity.

"He seemed to always be with young boys," she said. "I remember once he flared when I asked him about it. It was the only time I've seen him like that."

The strongest declaration of support for Corll comes from his father and stepmother.

Arnold Corll is deeply upset by the death of his son and what the family be-

lieves is a "crucifixion" of borhood, or the Dean Corll his name by the media.

Although reluctant to talk to the news media, Mrs. Corll, in an interview, said emphatically, "We don't believe he is guilty."

Dean's father and stepmother also lived in Hous-. ton. For the last four years or so he stopped by their home to visit regularly three or four times a week.

"I was very close to him, "Mrs. Corll said. "We'll let his life stand for itself. There's never been anyone who has spoken bad of him except those two boys.

"He was always good. He was good to those kids. He let them have the keys to his car and his apartment.

He took them in because ̈ they were from broken they were from broken homes.'

Mrs. Corll firmly believes Dean was "framed" and "killed because he knew too much.”

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"If Dean's death was necessary to put an end to all this maybe it was worth it,' she said softly. "I feel so bad for the children that are dead. All we can do is pray for them."

Sometimes Corll's neighbors noted people around his house who didn't fit the Pasadena blue-collar neigh-

they knew.

Unlike Corll, they wore their hair long and were "almost hippie types," one neighbor said: "They came and went at pretty odd hours."

Twenty-seven bodies of boys between 13 and 18, some to be identified, others to remain forever anonymous. Many came from an old Houston neighborhood known simply as "The Heights," where Corll once lived and operated a candy But no one seemed to store with a pool room in realize what really was tak taḱthe baek. ing place around them.

Then on the morning of Aug. & police cars drove up to Corll's house. What unfolded horrified not only Corll's neighbors, but the nation and the world.

It was to become the largest and most gruesome · mass murder in the recent history of this country.

Many officers believe there were more than 27 Henley and Brooks told victims. The digging police later that they pro-stopped briefly when Hencured young boys for Corll's sadistic orgies. They told police after the boys were killed the bodies were buried in and around Houston.

They named burial sites.

Jail trustees were put to work digging at a boat shed in Houston that Corll had → rented. Amid stifling heat and fetid odors, they dug up bodies wrapped in plastic and doused in lime. A police officer reported:

We got wall-to-wall bodies."

They found 17 there. Later, four more were found in East Texas near a summer cottage owned by Corll's father. Six others were dug out of the sand at Bolivar Peninsula, a remote stretch of beach near Gaiveston.

ley and Brooks could no longer identify burial sites.

But perhaps, police theorize, there were more victims than Henley and Brooks knew of, so they are digging again on the beach above Galveston.

There are two questions about the mass murders that stand out:

How did Coril, Brooks and Henley manage to go so long undetected, leading their double lives; and how could so many boys from one area, "The Heights," disappear without friends, relatives, police-someone -growing curious?

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There is also a thread of sorts that runs through the entire episode, according to police. Many of the boys came from broken homes, or were unsupervised, or were hitchhiking.

Henley, his face clutched in his hands, sobbing, blurt-

ed out his advice to teenagers: "Don't hitchhike."

But some of the boys from The Heights were kept under strict supervision by their parents and simply disappeared anyway.