Confessions and Discovery of Bodies

Hi listeners, exciting news. Crime House Plus and Murder trrue crrime stories are celebrating America's two hundred fiftieth by dropping a four part limited series on the crimes that built America These are the crimes and cases that gave us miranda rights, sparked criminal profiling, and a murder that built America's missing children movement Follow murder trrue crrime stories for a new episode every Monday, leading up to july fourth, or you can listen to all of them right now with Crime House Plus. To join, go to crimehouseplus d. com or if you're listening on Apple podcasts, tap try free at the top of this show's page This is Crime House Most of us have experienced some form of betrayal in our lives. Maybe a friend lied or a partner cheated Or maybe we were the ones who betrayed someone else When that happens, we're usually left to clean up our own mess and deal with our shame Unless we don't feel guilty about it. In situations where someone doesn't deserve our loyalty or if they're involved in something we don't agree with, like something criminal then betraying them might be the right thing to do. In nineteen seventies Houston, this is the exact situation seventeen year old Wayne Henley found himself in For years, Wayne had been acting as an accomplice to Dean Corll One of the most violent and twisted serial killers ever to live But one day, Wayne decided he didn't want to be Dean's henchmen anymore So he made a drastic decision. And in doing so Wayne unearthed unimaginable horrors The human mind is powerful. It shapes how we think, feel, love, and hate. but sometimes it drives people to commit the unthinkable. This is Serial Killers and Murderous Minds, a Crime House Original. I'm Vanessa Richardson And I'm forensic psychologist, doror Tristan Ingels. Every Monday and Thursday, we uncover the darkest minds in history, analyzing what makes a killer Crime House exists because of listeners like you. Want even more? Join Crime House Plus and get both parts of every story dropped on the same Monday completely ad free. No waiting three days for part two, plus Crime House bonus episodes every month. To join, go to crimehouseplus d. com or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap, tryry free at the top of the Serial Killers and Murderous Minds page Before we get started, be advised that this episode contains discussion of pedophilia, rape and murder, so please listen with care. Today, we conclude our deep dive into Dean Corll, a Houston based business owner who used his status in the community to lure, rape and kill dozens of teenage boys in the nineteen seventies Dan didn't just ensnare his victims, he also manipulated two young accomplices And even though he used them to carry out his twisted desires, Dean had no idea that one of the people closest to him would usher in his downfall As Vanessa goes through the story, I'll be talking about things like why victims of the same abuser may compete for that person's approval how some violent offenders find new ways to toy with their victims' emotions, and what it may take for an accomplice to turn on the person that they've been committing violent crimes with And as always, we'll be asking the question, what makes a killer Let me ask you something. Is your money doing everything it can for you? I don't know. How would I know? Is it automatically saving for special events and keeping you post on its progress? Like at Huntington Bank? Oh no. Is it tracking your spending so you can make the best choices at the mall? Nope. Or setting limits on your teenager's debit card? definitely not. Then it could certainly be doing more. Yeah, sure sounds like it. Let's get more from money Switch to Huntington Bank. Welcome. Eligibility requirements apply. Some features may require enrollment By April of nineteen seventy two, thirty two year old Dean Corll had murdered fifteen teenage boys over the last two years Dean was well known among local boys in Houston, Texas, because he and his mother once ran a candy business there. Once he gained enough popularity among those boys, he started inviting them to his apartment They liked hanging out there because he had a pool table, stereo, and he let them drink and smoke as much as they wanted That wasn't all Dean had in his home. He'd also set up a large wooden board, which he used to restrain his victims After luring them inside, Dean would sexually assault them before killing them Usually he strangled them to death. But sometimes Dean's victims were killed with a gun, and afterward he either buried them at a beach about sixty miles away or in a rented boat shed near where he lived The shed was twelve by thirty four feet and had a dirt floor, which was about six feet deep. With such a tight space, Dean had been burying bodies on top of each other. He wrapped most of his victims in plastic and covered them in lime to mask the smell He did this with the help of his two accomplices, other local teens whom he'd groomed and manipulated into helping him, sixteen year old David Brooks and fifteen year old Wayne Henley David and Wayne not only helped clean up, but they helped find and lure victims for Dean. Dean had even convinced Wayne to kill his most recent victim for him At the same time, tension had been brewing between the three of them, because Wayne and David seemed to be competing for Dean's attention and approval If Dean is supporting the tension between David and Wayne, which I suspect he is, then that would be giving him more control over them. because if they're competing with one another, they're competing over his attention, approval and protection, which is validation for Dean and it's confirmation of their loyalty. And it's also useful for Dean because it keeps them focused on each other instead of on the person who's controlling them or what he's controlling. and it also isolates them from each other. If David and Wayne had trusted each other or become close, they might have compared experiences or started questioning Dean's control or even recognized that they were both trapped in the same abusive system. But rivalry prevents that. It makes cooperation less likely and dependence on Dean stronger. alsoso, once Dean got them involved in violence, shame and fear become another form of his control Each boy had reason to think that they're already implicated and that they can't go back now. And if Dean could make them compete over who was more loyal, he could pull them in deeper into that shared guilt. So splitting them, triangulating them, all of this reinforced his status and made them more dependent on his approval and reduce the likelihood that they would ever unite against H How might these feelings of competitiveness influence Wayne and David and maybe even pose a risk to potential victims Competition for Dean's approval could make them cross lines that they might not have been willing to cross before all to prove themselves to him Whatever limits or hesitation that they might have had become blurred by the need to stay useful, favored, or protected by him. And that creates an enormous risk to potential victims because Wayne and David were no longer passive bystanders. They had become part of his method. They could help Dean lure boys, lower their defenses, keep them calm, and make the situation look safer for the victims than it actually was. So Wayne and David also gave Dean access to peers of theirs. They were the same age as many of the boys that he targeted. So they knew where these boys were, they knew who was vulnerable, they knew who might come along or how to invite them in disarming ways. And Dean used that. He turned their friendships and their credibility into access and into part of his offending strategy. And they may put more effort into that to prove their loyalty to him In May of nineteen seventy two, one month since Dean claimed his last victim, David and Wayne teamed up to find the next ones They ended up finding two boys Dean already knew. seventeen year old Billy Bulch, who used to work for Dean's mother's candy business and his friend, sixteen year old Johnny Delom Dean carried out his usual MO. he sexually assaulted and killed both boys Before killing them, he did something new, and Whistead Dean forced them to write letters to their parents, explaining that they ran away. He told them to say they'd found jobs with a trucking company Then Dean enlisted Wayne's helps strangling and shooting them. And once the boys were dead Dean mailed the letters This is a shift, and I think there are a few possible reasons On the practical side, making them write these letters creates a false narrative A lot of boys have gone missing now The families believe that the boys had run away willingly It could delay searches and it could buyan more time. But psychologically, it also suggests there's a deeper level of control. He was forcing them to participate in a lie that would explain their own disappearance to their family. That's an extreme form of domination He's controlling their bodies. He's controlling their fear and their final moments, but also He's controlling the words that their families or their parents would receive after they were actually dead And that's particularly cruel And for their families, the letters could create confusion instead of immediate alarm inststead of knowing their child was in danger, they are going to be left with a lot of lingering questions like Where is my child angry Were they hiding something? Did I miss any signs Imagine being left those thoughts and never getting an answer But also why would they leave and say goodbye in this way only to never hear from them again? That's a confusing message to leave them and it's devastating. It can also delay grief for the families, and it leaves them trapped between hope and dread And it's just cruel in so many ways Dean thought his letter writing plan was foolproof However, things didn't go as smoothly as he'd imagined Johnny's parents didn't contact the police because his stepfather thought he'd simply run off for a few days and would be back However, Billy's parents quickly reported him missing, but just like with all the previous victims, Houston PD shrugged off their concerns Then, when Billy and Johnny's parents received the letters, they realized something was seriously wrong Billy's father was a trucker, and he knew that teenagers couldn't get jobs like the ones they'd described. Not only that, but Johnny had never been great at spelling. However, everything in his letter was spelled correctly, which told his mother that someone else was behind it Billy and Johnn's loved ones went back to the police. But rather than listen to their concerns, officers believed the letters were real and removed the boys from their missing persons list It was exactly what Dean had wanted to happen, but he also knew he couldn't get too comfortable. Rather than stay in the same apartment where neighbors might catch on to what was going on, he started moving around frequently David and Wayne lived with him wherever he went, and they always helped Dean set up his torture board in the new dwelling. Despite how busy all these moves kept them, the trio struck again in July of nineteen seventy two. That month, they killed seventeen year old Stephven Ferdig Sickman O month later, they killed nineteen year old Roy Bnton As always, the police weren't concerned about either victim. Meanwhile, Dean's MO was becoming more sinister by the day On october second, nineteen seventy two, Dean kidnapped, assaulted and killed fourteen year old Wally J. Simino and his friend, thirteen year old Richard Hembrery. And before Wally died, something strange happened Wally's mother received a phone call from him When she picked up, he called her mama in a weak voice And then she heard strange shuffling noises before the line went dead To this day, it's unclear if Wally had briefly managed to escape and call his mother, or if Dean forced him to call her, like he'd forced previous victims to write letters to their families Either way, just like before, Houston PD blew off the family's concerns. So Dean continued his violent crime spree In the summer of nineteen seventy three, he moved into a bungalow in Pasadena, Texas, about fifteen miles from Houston It was a standalone house, which meant Dean didn't have to worry about neighbors hearing noises Desite this, Dean wanted even more privacy the next time he claimed a life because he planned to act more gruesomely than ever In June of that year, Dean and Wayne invited fifteen year old Billy Lawrence on a fishing trip Dean had initially met Billy through Wayne, and they told him they'd be staying at Dean's family cabin at Lake Sam Rayburn, about two and a half hours northeast of Houston Billy had no idea the fishing trip was a ruse. In reality, Dean held him captive and tortured him for days Afterward, Dean forced Billy to write his father a letter, saying he'd gotten a job in Austin Billy ended the letter by saying, quote, Daddy, I hope you know I love you Then, Dean and Wayne strangled Billy and shot him put his body in a box and buried him near the cabin. This is another escalation in so many ways, and the timing is important because it happens after they move into a bungalow where they have a change of scenery and added privacy. But then almost immediately, he sought even more isolation by taking Billy to this remote cabin Everything that he did to bring them here and everything he did while there and in the aftermath of that all point to increasing confidence and increasing sadism. He was creating more time, more isolation and more control pattern of behavior, his methods, including the letter writing, and certainly the phone call from Wally, if we know for sure that that's what happened. all indicate that suffering is part of the gratification for him Now, we see more planning around prolonging the victims terror The Cabin gave him distance from neighbors, distance from interruption, and distance from immediate accountability. That kind of setting allowed Dean to control the entire experience and prolong it. He is becoming more entrenched and confident and invested in domination, likely because he keeps getting away with it Each time there is no meaningful intervention, his system is reinforced. Even targeting two boys at once may reflect that And some of it may have been practical because kids back then often moved through the neighborhood with friends. But when you add up the number of victims at a time and the way missing boys were repeatedly treated as runaways, it's just astounding how no one has connected these yet, even for that time, in that era That's hindsight bias for you. It's easy for us to say that from this far in the future. But that said That lack of intervention can create overc confonfidence, which helps explain why these crimes became more elaborate, prolonged, and brazen How do you think Dean's evolving MO affects the way he holds control over David and Wayne It strengthens it because the more Dean gets away with it, the more untouchable he appears to them. They're still so young and they depend on him and they look up to him. So this reinforces their dependence and their compliance even more Police keep classifying his victims as runaways Dregarding concerned parents If police are not believing the parents or they're not believing the community even, then what makes David or Wayne believe that the police will listen to them who are actual children themselves So in that regard They believe that Dean cannot be stopped because the police don't even believe that these missing children are actually missing then staying useful to him is going to feel safer than challenging him And every time they help him and nothing happens, they become more implicated, more afraid, and more trapped After Billy's murder, the dynamics of Dean's group started to change In July of nineteen seventy three, seventeen year old David Brooks married his girlfriend, Bridget, who was expecting their child and moved out of Dean's house to live with her Even though David still partied with Dean and was present for some of the murders to follow, it seems like Dean took it hard when David moved out. becausecause around that same time, Wayne noticed that Dean started smoking cigarettes and became nervous and twitchy That was the least of Wayne's concerns because Dean had also taken a liking to someone especially close to Wayne, his little brother, Ronnie Wayne was growing more fearful by the day that Ronnie would be next, especially when Dean did something more sadistic than ever Your outdoor space is where you unwind and make memories, so make it count. 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Shopify can help you build upon it Start your free trial on Shopify. com By the summer of nineteen seventy three, thirty three year old Dean Corll had viciously claimed the lives of over twenty teenage boys in Houston, Texas Many of Dean's attacks wouldn't have been possible without the help of his accomplices, David Brooks and Wayne Henley However, Wayne was reaching his limit. He felt like Dean was mentally unraveling more by the day. Not only that, but Dean had taken a liking to Wayne's younger brother, Ronnie possible Wayne wanted to distract Dean from Ronnie because after Billy Lawrence's murder in June of nineteen seventy three, Dean killed a new victim almost every week. including twenty year old Ray Blackburn and fifteen year old Homer Louis Garcia Some victims were random hitchhikers, while others were people who Dean or his accomplices knew beforehand But one of DeM's cruelest murders of all occurred on july nineteenth, nineteen seventy three. That day, fifteen year old Michael Anthony Balch told his parents he was going to get a haircut That was a lie. In reality, Michael was going to try and find his older brother, Billy, who Dean and the others had killed a year earlier Since the Bulch family hadn't received help from the police, Michael was now determined to find answers on his own. Michael's friends later speculated that he might have known Dean had something to do with his brother's disappearance And it's possible he did learn what had happened to his brother before meeting the same fate At some point while Michael was out, he crossed paths with Dean, who brought him back to his house and shot him twice in the head before driving back to his cabin at Lake Sam Rayburn to bury his body Balchus had now lost two sons to Dean Corl More parents in Houston would keep meeting the same horrific tragedy. One week after Michael died, Dean committed the double murder of eighteen year old Marty Jones and seventeen year old Charles Cobble. The two boys were roommates, and once again, Dean found a new way to toy with his victims's emotions before they died After torturing Marty and Charles, he told them to fight each other. He said the winner would get to live terrified, they did as they were told Soon, they were bloody and beaten. When they were too exhausted to keep going, Dean and Wayne shot them both Dean's domination has gotten more severe and he was headed that way anyway, but it's interesting that this escalation happens after David moves out and Wayne begins to pull back a little Dean might feel as if his control is slipping and when that happens, control oriented offenders like Dean try to tighten their grip when they can, and forcing victims to participate in their own harm was a way to control their choices, their fear, their hope, and their relationship with each other. It also allowed Dean to corrupt the bond between them These were roommates, they knew each other. Forcing them to fight turned their relationship into part of the violence, which is not unlike what he was doing between David and Wayne, only on a much more magnified scale, of course But that seems to be psychologically gratifying for him because it amplified his power. There's also a sadistic element here. The suffering was not incidental The fear, confusion, humiliation, the torment all appeaar to have been part of what he wanted. So the motive for him may have been control and sadism. Dean forced them into a game where he was the only person with the real power, and even their attempt to survive became something he controlled It's just horrific What are the possible psychological effects on friends forced to choose between hurting each other or facing death, basically, dire consequences Oh gosh, I mean, it's a no win situation. They are trapped between survival and loyalty, and either option is unbearable. And in that moment, they're responding from terror and their survival system takes over. If someone survives something like that, and we know in this case they're not, but if they did, the aftermath can include intense survivor guilt shame, self blame, intrusive memories, and moral injury because they'll likely feel responsible for what they did under threat, even though the responsibility belongs to the person who created the impossible situation. We're talking about lifelong injury here emotionally Well, whatever Wayne was feeling, it wasn't enough to stop him from continuing to help Dean A little over a week after killing Charlie and Marty, on august third, Dean and Wayne picked up thirteen year old Stanton Drmala while he was out riding his bike Dean tortured and killed Stanton, then wrapped his body in plastic Then he and Wayne buried him in the boat shed and left his bike there too David Brooks wasn't there for this murder. By now he had one foot out the door. David had gotten married that summer and he had a child now, so he'd been distancing himself from Dean And Dean didn't like it at all He resented that David was building his own life, especially the fact that David was married to a woman Two of them argued about it all the time, despite the fact that Dean was still dating a woman named Betty Hawkins It's unclear whether David was aware that Dean was only dating Betty as a cover Regardless, he was too scared of Dean to cut him off completely He was afraid of what Dean would do to him, let alone his wife and child David didn't seem to realize that Wayne was equally afraid of Dean. Dean was becoming extremely erratic, and Way knew it was only a matter of time before he or his younger brother Ronnie, became his next target Like David, Wayne wanted out of this relationship with Dean too. He even considered joining the Navy to get away from him The Navy rejected Wayne because he didn't have the proper education Ultimately, Wayne thought it was for the best, because if he wasn't around, there'd be no one to protect Ronnie Wayne's situation shows how difficult it can be to leave a coercive relationship that's built on fear, dependency, and complicity Leaving was not a simple matter of deciding that he wanted out, even more so, when Wayne had reason to believe that distancing himself could make him or his little brother a target. If he feared that Dean might go after Ronnie, then staying close may have felt like the only way he could protect him. And that is a very powerful trap. There iss also the issue of complicity. Wayne had already been pulled into Dean's crimes and that creates shame or fear of exposure and leverage. And psychologically, Dean had positioned himself as the center of Wayne's world. Wayne had wanted his approval, and he'd been made to feel chosen. He was dependent on him. and even when that attachment turns into fear it does disappear overnight. Courive bonds can be disorienting and confusing Wayne may want out, but every path out looks dangerous, and Dean likely understood that. Fear, guilt, and concern, especially for Ronnie, gave him several ways to keep Wayne close Since the Navy wasn't an option for Wayne, he took a page out of David's book. He started spending more time with his new girlfriend, fifteen year old Rhonda Williams Wayne and Rhonda had known each other all their lives, and they had a lot in common. Rhonda's father was an extremely abusive alcoholic. She often snuck out of her house to get away from her dad and be with Wayne, who she felt safe with And that's what Rhonda did in the early morning hours of august eighth, nineteen seventy three This time when she called Wayne to pick her up, he was out partying at Dean's house with another friend, twenty year old Tim Curly. The three of them had been huffing paint, and Tim had no idea that Wayne had brought him there so Dean could torture and kill him But when Rhonda called, Wayne and Tim went to go get her, and they brought her back to Dean's house with them It seems like Dean didn't know where they'd gone because when they returned around three AM, he was furious to see Rhonda Wayne managed to calm him down. Then all four of them continued huffing paint together. Soon, everyone except Dean fell asleep. Later, Wayne was the first to wake up And when he did Dean was fastening handcuffs around his wrists When he noticed that Wayne was awake, Dean leaned in and told him that he'd made a mistake by bringing Rhonda and that he was going to pay Ronda was threatening to Dean Obviously, But why? David had already left for a woman, having married and started a family. And now Wayne is showing an attachment of his own that threatens his attachment to Deem in the same way Dean's control over Wayne depended on isolation. fear and secrecy Randa disrupted that. She gave Wayne something that Dean did not want him to have, which was an emotional life outside of Dean, one that was reciprocated She was someone Wayne cared about, someone who cared about him, and someone who could potentially pull his loyalty away from Dean. And for an abuser, that's a direct threat to control. Rhonda also created exposure risk. She wasn't part of Dean's system. She was not groomed into the same secrecy. She was an outsider. So she could see something, she could tell someone or make Wayne less willing to comply. So her presence meant that Dean no longer had the closed controlled environment that he expected or he relied on Wayne seemed to realize he'd passed the point of no return. He looked over and saw Tim and Rhonda, both with their mouths taped and wrists and ankles tied Not only that, but Dean had removed all of Tim's clothes, which meant he didn't have much time to try and put a stop to things before Wayne could do anything Dean yelled that he was going to kill them all But first, he said He was going to have his fun If you've been holding back on launching your dream business, it's time to stop making excuses. Shopify is where you finally go to get started. They offer everything you need to succeed from day one. They completely simplify the process, so you can focus on what matters. Think about how you want your brand to look Imagine the confidence of launching with a world class checkout system already built into it Allowing your customers to buy effortlessly in just one click Whenever you run into a roadblock orr find yourself asking those tough startup questions. 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On august eighth, nineteen seventy three, Dean threatened to kill his longtime accomplice, Wayne Henley, as well as Wayne's girlfriend Rhonda and his friend Tim The group had been partying together at Dean's House in Pasadena, Texas However, Dean was angry with Wayne for bringing Rhonda over After all three of them fell asleep, Dean bound them and taped their mouths. And as Wayne woke up, Dean handcuffed him and told him he was going to die. Dean then picked up Wayne and dragged him to the kitchen, where he pulled out a gun and held it to Wayne's stomach Wayne begged for his life. He told Dean he would do anything he wanted, even kill Tim and Rhonda Dean liked the sound of that So he undid Wayne's handcuffs and dragged him back into the bedroom where they were. He rested his gun on his dresser, then grabbed a sword Tim was waking up, but still out of it Wayne watched as Dean started tying Tim to the torture board. Even though Tim barely understood what was happening, Dean threatened to cut his arm off if he moved Then, Dean handed Wayne the sword and told him to cut off Rhonda's clothes Wayne took the sword, and before removing her clothes, he leaned in close to Rhonda, who was now awake and told her not to be afraid However, Wayne knew he was powerless to Dean's will, and when Dean ordered Wayne to sexually assault Rhonda while he did the same to Tim, Wayne stood up and began pacing around the room. He had no idea what to do Ronda is one of the only meaningful connections that we know of that Wayne has, aside from his brother. that is not organized around Dean's coercion, control, or abuse Wayne has already been trying to protect his brother by staying close enough to Dean to monitor the danger, so it's not surprising that he hesitates here for Rhonda as well The difference is that Wayne cannot reduce Rhonda to just another one of Dean's victims. She is his girlfriend She trusts him. She came to him because she felt safe with him, and that's something that Wayne can identify with because Wayne was once her and he cares about her. That makes the moral reality much harder for Wayne to rationalize. His behavioral reaction is telling too, because the pacing suggests conflict and panic in this moment He's still afraid of Dean, but he is also confronting a boundary he can't easily cross. Assaulting Rhonda would not just be obeying Dean. It would be betraying someone who trusted him personally, and possibly one of the first people in his life who felt genuinely safe to him and may have represented a real out him of this life with Dean, one that wasn't going to reject him like the military did Dine didn't get sexual gratification from women or violence towards women. What would Wayne raping his own girlfriend do for Dean? Why did Dean ask him to do that in that moment, do you think Dean was attempting to do a few things here At first, he was using this as a loyalty test. He was feeling hisis control slip and he was threatened by that. He wanted to put Wayne to the test and see if he still passed. This was a test of that loyalty Second, in doing this, he was sabotaging their relationship, but also any hope that Wayne had for any future relationships. He would be making Wayne associate love, attachment and safety outside of Dean with danger, shame, and violence So Wayne would think twice about having any romantic relationships again after this, especially if he was distraught about the idea of harming that person. And third Dean's Sadism is here He did not have to be sexually interested in women for this to be gratifying. The gratification is coming from his control, from the humiliation, the psychological torment. This is part of his pattern He was doing this with most of his victims, forcing them to write letters, forcing them to fight. He was pittting Wayne and David against each other before, forcing that bond to be, you know fractured He was forcing Wayne to violate someone he cared about, which meant he was harming Rhonda and Wayne at the same time. This is part of his method, and it's playing out right here Whatever flipped the switch for Wayne, he knew he had to do something and fast. so he lunged for Dean's gun on the dresser, then pointed it at him. Dean turned around, and without breaking eye contact with Wayne, he yelled Kill me It was the last of Dean's orders Wayne would follow He fired the gun five or six times until Dean was dead on the ground Wayne gathered himself and quickly untied Tim and Rhonda. He then placed a sleeping bag over Dean's bloodied body before dialing nine hundred and eleven It was just after eight AM when Wayne told the dispatcher he'd shot a man and provided Dean's address When Pasadena pololice arrived thirty minutes later, patrolman A.B. Jameson was utterly stunned by the scene before them. In addition to a dead body and three battered half naked teenagers, they found a huge stash of porn and sex toys in Dean's bedroom Jameson then approached Wayne to try and figure out what exactly had occurred Once again, Wayne immediately confessed to killing Dean then he said there was more he needed to get off his chest He said this crime scene was just the beginning, and that if police wanted to know the full truth about Dean, they should search his rented boat shed Jameson asked why, and Wayne told him the shed was quote filled with the bodies of murdered boys, end quote Jamon could barely believe what he was hearing. The Pasadena police had no idea about all the missing boys in Houston Jamison knew he needed to involve his superiors right away, so he brought Wayne, Tim, and Rhonda to the station Once there, Wayne was consumed by feelings of guilt for all the things he'd done at Dean's behest. So he kept talking. He told the lead detective, David Mullkan, that he'd met Dean three years earlier through his friend, David Brooks and that Dean offered Wayne money to find boys for him Then, Wayne repeated his claims about Dean's rented boat shed and claimed that if they dug up the shed, they'd find the bodies of at least three boys who'd gone missing from the Houston area over the last few years. Later, he changed his story and said they'd find the bodies of almost twenty victims Not only that, but Wayne claimed that David Brooks had been a willing participant in many of the murders Wayne's confessions seem to be done in stages, which is actually not unusual when someone is experiencing both guilt and self protection. He starts with a smaller disclosure then gives a little bit more as the reality of the situation sets in, and as he realizes that police may actually believe him There may be several reasons for that. I mean first, he may have been testing whether investigators would take him seriously. The story was extreme And that giving a smaller number at first may have felt more believable or simply easier for him to disclose It's the first time that he's likely even said this out loud himself, but more importantly, these children have been missing or disclosed as runaways for so long That he probably didn't think he'd be believed So that makes sense for at least in a practical sense, but second, he may have been overwhelmed Once Dean was dead, the person he feared was gone, but the full weight of what happened was still there. People do not always disclose trauma, guilt or involvement in a perfectly organized way. They may start with the most concrete detail and then expand as they feel safer or more believed. And third, he may have been trying to separate himself from Dean while still admitting enough truth to be useful also managing his own exposure especially as he sees the horrified reactions from law enforcement or the other inmates that are helping to what he realistically helped himself with Dean while he was committing these crimes. Why do you think Wayne waited to confess rather than going to the police about Dean any at any point before the murder? Why did he wait until this moment Yeah, I think we kind of like outlined a lot of like the fear about this, but power structure changed Dean was alive, going to the police, could have met himself getting killed or putting his brother, his girlfriend or the other family in danger. And Wayne knew that Dean was capable of real harm But once Dean was dead, the immediate threat was gone because of him, in fact and witnessed by people that he liked and trusted. So at that point, silence no longer protected him. Confessing even partially became a way to cooperate, explain himself, manage the exposure, and try to survive what came next At this point, Wayne was making it sound like he'd killed Dean just to end the madness It's unclear whether Detective Mullian believed him, but he knew he needed to confirm Wayne's claims about the shed To do that, he first called Houston PD and asked about the missing boys evenven though they'd written off the cases as runaways, they told him they simply hadn't noticed the disappearances was a blatant lie, but Mulligan didn't know that at the time, so he told them what had happened. and at five PM that same day, he arranged for officers from Houston PD to meet him and Wayne at the boat storage facility Once there, the officers cut the lock on the door to Dean's shed, and when they opened it, the unmistakable stench of human remains hit them. Had the smell not been there, the shed might have seemed like a typical storage space filled with random junk. The boy's red bike was propped near the door. There were also storage containers, shovels, rakes, wires, batteries, empty bags of lime, a roll of heavy plastic, and bags full of clothes. Ppared with the odor, authorities knew these items were related to something grotesque. And when they noticed how uneven the dirt floor was They knew where the smell was coming from. The officers knew they had their work cut out for them Soon, inmates from a nearby jail were brought in to help dig. And once the team dug about eighteen inches down found a body. It was a boy wrapped in a clear plastic bag. His face was decomposed and bound in tape Once they removed the body from the ground, authorities realized that due to decomposition, they wouldn't be able to obtain viable fingerprints. However, later on, they were able to use dental records to confirm that the remains belonged to thirteen year old Stanton Drammala Stanton had been Deem's final victim. But authorities didn't know that yet. They still needed to confirm how many other bodies were in the shed. And as they kept digging, They were horrified. There were eleven total graves, some of them which contained multiple bodies. In the end, investigators found eighteen sets of remains. At the time, they were only able to identify twelve of those victims. In addition to Staton, they included Marty Jones, Charles Cobble, Danny Yates, Jimmy Glass, Donald and Jerry Wdrop Mally Winkle, David Hillegeist, Wally Siminao, Richard Hembry and Ruben Watson. Within no time, the story hit the news. And when David Brooks saw the coverage, he started to panic. He quickly went down to the Houston pololice station However, much like Wayne, David described himself as a helpless bystander to Dean's atrocities David admitted that Dean had paid him for sex acts, and later on, he learned that David and Wayne had been murdering boys together David insisted he wasn't involved in any of the attacks. David likely used the same disclosure tactic as Wayne because he was also caught between guilt and self preservation. He needed to tell enough truth to explain his connection to Dean, but not so much that he fully implicated himself but enough that he didn't look like he was evading, but so he could also psychologically live with himself So he acknowledged what he couldn't deny what he was already likely implicated in, and he framed himself as a helpless bystander. But we should also consider here how Dean's grooming of the two of them may have shaped their understanding of what happened too He essentially trained them to see themselves as trapped, dependent and powerless. and I don't say that to excuse their role in any of this But I say that because they may have actually genuinely experienced themselves as people who had been controlled by Dean. Even if their actual behavior involved more responsibility than they were ready to admit There's also shame David admitted the full extent of his involvement all at once He would have to confront not only legal consequences, but the reality of what he had done and failed to stop Because remember, he got out. He left safely even and still did not report anything to police after all of this time. And that certainly speaks to the level of fear and how physical distance doesn't always mean psychological freedom after leaving a situation like this But much like Wayne, that level of shame could make him want to shape the narrative before someone else does it for him David didn't realize that Wayne had been talking to authorities in Pasadena, and once the two departments realized the two were blaming each other, they knew one or both of them were lying. To figure out the truth, investigators decided to use them against each other Pitting them against each other is exactly what Dean would do in order to get them to compete for his approval, and it worked That's right. And authorities from each department told David and Wayne that the other had blamed them for everything. and their plan quickly worked. David cracked under pressure. Not only did he confess to his full involvement, but he explained that there were more bodies buried on the beach at High Island and at Lake Sam Rayburn When Wayne was informed of this, he cracked two Now that both of them had confessed, authorities brought them to the two other locations to help locate the rest of the bodies At the lake, authorities found four sets of remains, which were later identified as Billy Lawrence, Ray Blackburn, Homer Louis Garcia, and Michael Balch