Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. One of two known accomplices to Dean Corll , Henley initially solely assisted Corll in the abduction of the victims before gradually and increasingly participating in their torture, murder and burial. He would shoot Corll to death on August 8, , when he was seventeen years old before divulging his knowledge of and participation in the crimes to authorities.
Tried in San Antonio , Henley was convicted of six murders and sentenced to six consecutive terms of years' imprisonment. Henley did successfully appeal his conviction, although he was again convicted of six murders in June At the time of their discovery, the case was considered the worst example of serial murder in United States history. His parents were both in their mid-teens at the time of his birth, and the couple initially lived with Mary's parents in Houston Heights until they could afford their own home following his father finding employment as a stationary engineer.
As a child, Henley was an avid reader and both an attentive and academically achieving student whose grades saw him typically in the top quarter of his class. As his mother and grandparents were devout Christians , this religious devotion was encouraged. Henley's father was an alcoholic and adulterer who physically assaulted his wife and sons, and the children were largely raised by their mother and maternal grandparents.
As a child, Henley strove to protect his mother from his father's violence; she in turn was markedly protective of her children, and herself sought to shield them from her husband's violence. On one occasion as an adolescent, Henley observed his father striking his mother before pushing her into a corner to continue his assault; he successfully prevented his father from further striking his mother by pointing a shotgun at his father and shouting, "Drop it, Dad!
I went to work with him, and he'd tell me about boilers and air conditioners. Although Henley's father mistreated and neglected his family, he was present throughout his sons' childhood and early adolescence, and despite the belittling he endured from his father, Henley strove to meet his approval.
