The Candyman /// Part 2 /// 252 | Forensic Files

[Music] thank you [Music] foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host
Nick and with me as always is a man that refuses to pay for barbecue sauce he is
the captain thank you thank you thank you it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks
for telling a friend [Music] today we are drinking lunch pale ale by the good people at Breaker Brewing
Company in Pennsylvania garage grade four and a half bottle caps out of five this is a traditional American pale ale
brewed with nugget and Cascade hops with an ABV of 5.5 percent it's hoppy but smooth and clean and today's beer was
brought to us by first up thanks to Sean from Hawkeye country and a big shout out
to Allison from Kingswood Texas next up it shares to Jake and Jenny in Lehigh Utah and big we like your zip to Caitlyn
in Washington DC next up a huge thank you and cheers to Chris and Krista and Bismarck North Dakota and last but not
least we have Zoe right here in Columbus Ohio so thank you to everybody that went
to truecrime garage.com and helped us out with this week's beer fun while you're on the website make sure you sign
up on the mailing list and that's enough of the beers all right Captain everybody gather
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] well obviously Captain we cannot tell
the story of each and every individual victim in this case because as we will learn there will just be too many of
them now a list of all of the names of the known victims of Dean Coral is available on his Wikipedia page
but here are some of the stories of known victims the first victim may have been Jeffrey Allen Conan age 18 a
student from Houston Jeffrey hitchhiked from Austin to Houston with a friend who last saw him
getting out of a car at Voss Road around 6 PM this is on September 1st 1970. his body was later found at High Island
according to record neither Brooks nor Henley participated in this murder and then there's this report from Wayne
Henley that states one day he and coral were out in the van parked in front of a
grocery store when a boy came along on his bike and coral called the kid over and told
him he found some empty Coke bottles while cleaning out his van he would give them to the kid just to
get rid of them and the boy could take them into the grocery store and get the deposit and keep it do you want to
explain to the listeners what this means because there's some listeners that are
out there scratching their heads right now going why would this boy want empty soda
bottles from this strange man well because when you turn them back in you there's a deposit amount so you get I
think a nickel for each bottle that you'd return yeah and it might have been more back then or
or at least the nickel was at least worth more back then and the idea being that the the soda companies had to reuse
these bottles so it was an enticing way to get the people to return the bottles to be
reused and probably get you to buy some some more soda because you go to the grocery store
and then they're handing you money right so after the Boy comes out of the store
Coral calls him back over and he says hey look not only did I give you those bottles for free and you just
got money for him but come to think of it I found a lot of bottles in my garage when I was cleaning it out and hey you
could put your bike in the back of the van and you could ride home with me and get these empty bottles and sell them
and keep the money well that kid got into the van with coral and Henley and coral took him home
the boy's name was James dremela he's age 14. later that evening James called his father Douglas dremela yeah he calls
his father because he's going to ask him hey is it okay if I spend the night at this party that's happening across on
the other side of town his father says no and he wanted the boy to be home in 20 minutes well he never saw James alive
again David Brooks later said that he bought James a pizza and hung out with him for about 45 minutes before quote
Dean went to work on him Dean Coral tortured raped and strangled the boy well we should also talk about Frank
Aguirre he's a he was a local teen Frank finished his shift at the Long John Silver's restaurant and told his mother
that he would be home by 10 pm that night now he never showed and he was never seen again and this is because
Brooks and Henley who were acquainted with Frank called him over to their van asking if he wanted to go smoke a joint
with them at their friend Dean Coral's place so he followed them there in his vehicle
and once in the apartment was bound gagged raped and murdered well just think about how sick and twisted the
minds of Brooks and Henley are right right because they've seen what Dean can do
and to invite your friend over that you know to be like hey come smoke some pot with
us you are you're the bait one thing that I wondered about too regarding this story
specifically because so many of these stories people end up getting into the van or somehow arriving over Dean's
Coral's apartment to go to a quote-unquote party but this story specifically mentions
that this boy Frank Aguirre drove his vehicle to the apartment now we can assume or
you know at least at least think that maybe Frank Aguirre is one of the bodies that would be found
in that boat shed right my question is this vehicle we've discussed this on this show many times
that a lot of times a vehicle can be more of a nuisance for a killer to dispose of than a body right and I
couldn't find any reports of stating hey this kid's still missing but we found his car here or found it there no
mention of this vehicle now obviously what we do know so far in this story Captain is this some of the motivations
for the murders of these teenage boys conducted by Dean coral and now what we believe one or two accomplices
especially for Dean these motivations would be sadism torture mutilation amongst other things and we should
discuss some of this but I do want to be clear here we really wanted to minimize
this portion of the discussion of the the physical torture that Dean Coral actually inflicted on his victims
not only because the details are stomach turning but because the families of these poor boys have suffered enough
hearing the fates of their loved ones and in fact most of the families could not manage to sit through the court
proceedings that would come later because they were just too horrific right and this information is widely
known on the internet if you really want to dive into it yes and in order to convey just how monstrous and evil Dean
Coral was we do unfortunately need to get to some of the facts what would happen is coral would get the boys into
his apartment and somehow incapacitate them we mentioned some different things here it seems to me Captain that he had
two different Mo's and I think what we have here is before he had his little accomplices Dean you know David Brooks
and Wayne Henley right who would later help him I think his original Mo was you know what I'm gonna get some teenage
boys back here I'm gonna let him party maybe it's one boy maybe it's two I'm gonna get him drunk let him smoke some
stuff let him Huff some stuff and the way that it was described later by Wayne and David Brooks is that during these
Party Times Dean would kind of sit back and let the teenagers really go at it let them
really party down while he was just kind of waiting and these are also let's just
assume that these teenagers are not they're probably not drinking often they're probably not smoking this much
pot that often probably definitely not huffing this paint so we're talking about really getting these guys in
coherent yeah and I think for at least before he had Wayne and David Brooks helping him I think the whole Mo was to
let these kids kind of party and wait till they pass out and once they pass out well I can tie them up put handcuffs
on them strap them to the torture board whatever right you know I'm he's in control at that point and then I think
the ammo changed a little bit once he had the accomplices and I think that was for a couple of reasons like you talked
about earlier Brooks talked about how Dean moved around a lot and so you'd think that Dean would want to be out
like in the middle of nowhere so just in case they did wake up and scream or whatever because there's actually no
reports of people hearing things that I could find right actually the the things that I
found according to Brooks and Henley were that often Dean Coral would tape duct tape the mouths closed of the
victims right and he would leave the duct tape on I guess on a couple of occasions he took it off because he was
sick enough he wanted to hear the screams but he would when he would do that he would turn up his stereo system
all the way so that you know Neighbors on the outside all they ever heard was was the staring loud music yeah I think
what's what's shocking and I think what's changing too when we talk about his Mo I think once he had the help of
these two teenage boys I think Dean was kind of spiraling out of control in the sense that he was he
would get a little sloppy because now he has these kids bringing so many kids over to his apartment right where I
think I think before it was more difficult for this grown man to talk a teenager or two or three to come back to
his apartment now once you have somebody that they know you know somebody that they've talked to they're
the ones doing the inviting not this not this 20 something 30-something man right
and so I think it was easier for a lot of potential victims to enter his home his residence and I think that made him
lose a bit of control in a sense that I think he wanted to kill a lot more than he actually did again this is years
before technology of cell phones and and things like that so once you have them in your house there's no way that they
could connect with the outside world and I think the Handcuff trick um was something that they started doing
because he could get the boys his accomplices to talk the other boys into doing this handcuff thing with them
right and I think it was a way of Dean look this is his drug unfortunately sexually assaulting torturing and
killing these teenage boys is what he is addicted to that's why he ended up doing
it so many times right and I think what we see here is in the old days he had to sit back and
wait and let the kids party until they would pass out and I think once he had the help of these two teenagers he no
longer could wait he couldn't just sit back and wait he couldn't stand away an hour or two or three for the kids to
pass out instead he had to incorporate this handcuff game so we could get to this
this Terror as soon as possible Right but it all escalates anyways because you're you're paying these teenager boys
to perform sexual acts on you and that's not enough okay so now we have to escalate it to uh tying them up
now we have to escalate that to well we don't want them to be as drugged yeah I mean like that's the escalation
and I think especially with the Handcuff trick it was once once they realized I think he kind of got off on the idea
of once the the victim realized I I'm stuck this was a bad mistake this was a trick to get me into this position right
I think he got off on on seeing that fear right well regardless of how he incapacitated the victim once they were
incapacitated it was all over for the victim Coral would then strip and strip and strap them to that torture
board where he would then rape and torture the victim he would on occasion keep these boys alive for extended
periods some of the tortures included castration large object penetration chewing on the genitals or using a dull
knife on them electric shock with exposed wire inserting tiny glass rods into the penis and then breaking them
with his fist or a hammer the boys died from either gunshot or strangulation another torture device that was used
were the wooden boxes that were found remember they had air holes in them it was reported that these boxes were used
to imprison the kids and torture them when asked why Coral killed the boys Henley told police it was because Coral
wanted to have sex with them but then they resisted of course you and I know that that's probably there's probably
much much more more to that story right and of course the boys were often forced
to write letters or to call home telling their parents that they had left or that
they were in another city now I said that we were going to not go through all this stuff in detail
and minimize the torture in the discussion of it I want to be clear as gruesome as all that stuff sounded we
did minimize what is actually reported right now we should talk about the bodies because
there were more bodies and Henley and Brooks were asked to make lists uh when they were being questioned by police of
every boy that they could recall that ended up being a victim Henley at this point volunteered some more crucial
information and he stated that more than just the boat shed there were other burial sites apparently Dean
Coral's father owned or rented a cabin up at Lake Sam Rayburn and some of the bodies were buried nearby
Henley accompanied investigators to the lake Sam Rayburn area after getting his bearings he showed them a spa and a
heavily wooded area near a dirt road and to another area about half a mile away down the dirt road each of these sites
contained bodies one of which he recalled was Billy Lawrence the next day Henley LED them to the same wooded area
and showed them another grave site which he said contained two bodies all four of
these bodies showed signs of extreme violence investigators searched the cabin that
Henley and Brooks said Coral used on occasion there they found several items of Interest including another torture
board shovels a sheath of plastic wrap rubber gloves and a sack of lime more intriguingly was a hand-drawn map
which according to the local sheriff appeared to be of quote possible new grave sites end quote pinpointing
several areas in this San Juan Quinto National Forest in Southwest Texas what's interesting here though Captain
is there is no indication in the sources available that any kind of Investigation
was done pursuant to the map that was found uh meaning they didn't go look for anything that
was on that map even though we have the local sheriff publicly stating that they
are quote possible new grave sites then there was finally uh one last burial area Henley directed
investigators to an area on High Island near Galveston and told them that six bodies that he knew of were scattered up
and down the beach now this took a massive effort but eventually a total of six bodies were in fact found curiously
accompanying the two bodies were an extra arm bone and an extra pelvis bone indicating the likelihood of at least
one other unknown victim right all in all police recovered 27 bodies of young males from three burial sites the top
forensic Pathologists in Harris County emphasized that identifying all of the victims would be very difficult they had
no definitive list of names to work with here Captain so the big question here with 27 bodies of young males buried in
three different sites is how did he get away with it how did Dean Coral operate right underneath authorities noses
plucking boys right out from their own neighborhoods often in broad daylight how did this go unnoticed for years well
on top of that it's like there are missing kids right that it seems like they're not following any of those leads
but then you also have this individual that nobody even suspected really no and they thought he was a nice guy they
thought he was an upstanding citizen he was a he was a guy that was always employed always seem to have money the
only thing that would seem weird on the outside is that you know a lot of neighbors that he had over the years
said the man did hang out with a lot of young quote hippie types referring to the teenage boys that he
was hanging out with one thing that I found very strange amongst all the other strange things is
all in all 20 of the victims were associated with the heights with that neighborhood right uh being either from
there or from an adjacent neighborhood now the heights itself is only about two miles by three miles so a tiny area
right and so and get this eight boys were killed between June 1st and August 4th of 1973 alone and five of them were
from the heights what I'm getting at is that nobody seemed to observe a pattern of teenage boys disappearing from this
very specific area at an alarming rate right you would think at some point there would be curfews and don't go
anywhere without your buddies and the fact that Brooks is involved in Henley is involved
these are High school-aged kids yeah so you again that's now June so we could assume they're out of school at that
point but well they were both dropouts so they didn't really care about school too much well but what I mean by that is
they're still at the age where you think there would be rumors started oh yeah about one of the one of the two guys I
think ultimately he was able to get away with so much because not only was Coral
outgoing friendly funny considered neat and even witty right it's it really helped that Coral was in the company of
Henley and Brooks I think that the the kids the boys in the Heights uh area they knew both Henley and Brooks and
they felt comfortable hanging out with this man that was a long time friend of these two teenage boys now
the other thing though too is and this is reflective of the time okay and I don't want to get into this long
argument or debate about homosexuality versus pedophilia there are two Nick understands they're two completely
different separate things okay homosexuals good pedophiles bad Nick gets that so when I when I State these
things like also talks in third person well I don't want anybody to think that I'm that I'm down you know that I'm
being rude to any Community other than the pedophiles right right because I I'm no at no time in my life did I ever
believe that the two were connected right you know there are heterosexual pedophiles and homosexual pedophiles and
by most accounts Dean Coral was both homosexual and a pedophile okay so what I'm getting at
here though is in the early 70s and in Texas that would have raised red flags on its own just him being homosexual
right another thing that I think helped him get away with so much stuff was it wasn't known that he was homosexual
right not to the adults Betty Watkins was his girlfriend by from what most people thought right that
helped him as well and you made that noise earlier when I described her two sons who knows what evil plans he
actually had in mind for her sons who knows maybe he sought her out or sought somebody out that had boys that would
eventually mature into an age that he was attracted to which happens often yeah but but also it
in a way since she is Technically she's just a cover-up they're not intimate so one could argue that's not even a real
relationship so she's a cover-up but the fact that she has boys of a little bit older of age that's a cover-up too you
know it's like oh well yeah he's he hasn't done anything to them right so therefore
you know uh he doesn't do anything bad to anybody and the thing here though is while the adults in the neighborhood and
the adults the parents of a lot of the teenagers that Dean Coral hung out with didn't know that Dean was homosexual
the kids did the teenagers that hung out with him it was later reported that it was quote an Open Secret amongst the
area use that Coral would pay for oral sex and in fact many of the kids engaged in what they called gay for pay with
Dean Coral and what I'm getting at is when we're talking about how did some man sow evil get away with such horrible
stuff for so long that's when you you sit there and you read these stories and you piece them together and you're going
man if somebody somewhere there was a people that had thousands of red flags right
there were so many red flags if somebody just would have said something to the right person at the right time maybe
some of this could have been avoided maybe they did though I mean this is also I mean we live in an age right now
where every buddy's kid is freaking special and they have to have a name that was made up you know
moonflower you know nobody has common names this is back in the 70s where there was a million Steve's in a million
you know Knicks and and and parents just didn't listen to their kids as much so there could have been these rumors
happening there could have been conversations that they had with their parents that they just brushed aside and
any one of these rumors or allegations could have stopped a lot of this well and one thing that I would point to that
was so disturbing and so just mind-boggling is that we had Dorothy hillergeist the the
mother she tells police that hey I heard a rumor that that my son may have got into
a GTX vehicle and there's a GTX vehicle driving around my neighborhood and here's a license plate and that was
never never looked up nobody bothered to look that up to see this or they did look or they did and saw the name and
didn't care right they go oh he's he's upstanding citizen and he his family owns a candy factory well obviously
Captain the public outcry about the Houston mass murders brought to light many of the missing boys parents
frustrations with the fact that police mostly ignored their pleas for help now granted in that time period there were
no computers at the police department that would have alerted officers to the number of missing boys there were no
Amber Alerts being broadcast that would have set off alarms with the public no Internet connecting missing kids parents
with other parents in the same boat but also when you have a missing 15 year old
or 16 year old or 17 year old this is a different time this is a time that people got done with high school and
they either went to college or they started a life they got a career they were married by 1819. so you're talking
about not that far away from being an adult so there was probably a lot of runaway
situations as well there was though a complete lack of recognition that there was a problem here I mean this is this
simply indicates an extreme police incompetence or at the very least disinterest in these missing reports
yeah I agree but I also kind of disagree because I like you said with the technology they don't know they don't
know that there's Mass kids missing yeah that's all I'm saying I don't want to throw them under the bus
and say they they just just didn't do [ __ ] well parent after parent came forward and blasted the Houston Police
for their tunnel vision that the boys were simply runaways and the rebuttal police chief Herman short met with the
Press after the bodies were found he said his Department was underfunded and could not possibly look into the over 50
sorry the over 5 000 annual cases of missing kids that were reported in Houston and stated uncategorically that
any claims that Houston PD had dropped the ball on looking for missing kids was on untrue now of course in some of the
cases a portion of the blame does lie with the parents and according to Chief short
some of the boys who quarrels would end up being chorus victims they were never even reported missing at all right in
some other cases one could probably make an argument that the parents were not paying much attention to what their sons
were doing and they should probably know the whereabouts of their children and the company that they kept or maybe just
report them missing well and the sheriff concluded by saying that he planned a department Crackdown on hitchhiking this
likely because Wayne Henley in an interview right after the discovery of the bodies told the media you've got to
warn these kids against hitchhiking that's how we picked up most of them [Music]
foreign [Music] movies and I think well I don't know if it's one of your favorite movies Teen Wolf oh yeah yeah I
love calling people dick noses it's my favorite movie no the favorite movie of all no I was actually thinking uh for
like non-scary Halloween movies I was thinking about that the other day and Teen Wolf would fall into that category
for me of like top 10 movies that just aren't scary they're not meant to be scary but right would be good Halloween
themed movies definitely a Halloween movie I I feel you on that one yeah but one of the scenes is Styles and Michael
J fox and styles is looking for his weed and he has a shirt that says what are you looking at dick knows and I just
think that's hilarious so I made them and they are going to be available for pre-order in the store for the next week
and a half or so now nobody ever do this they say don't try this at home I say don't try this anywhere okay
um but my favorite scene when I was a kid that I thought was the coolest thing I had ever seen when I first watched
Teen Wolf for the first time there's a scene where they're car surfing and I somebody is at Styles is he Standing On
Top of the car and they're driving and he's pretending to be surfing on the car as it drives
don't try that anywhere all right wait my my favorite scene is at the end of the movie when they win the game or
whatever spoiler or oh wow is in the background a gentleman stands up from the bleachers and
it's in the background and you can see them zip zip up his pants I don't know why that cracks me up every time the
center on the basketball team is my favorite guy on the team all right a Harris County grand jury was convened
regarding these cases principal Witnesses included Tim Curley and Rhonda Williams who presumably
testified to the events of the night of Dean Coral's death in August another witness came in with a grocery
bag over his head to hide his identity squares cut out so he could see this was Billy riding her whose life Brooks
claimed to have saved now we don't know what riding her testified about we can only imagine that he suffered terrible
and traumatic sexual abuse at the hands of Dean Coral before being released but if redinger would have gone to the
authorities at that time again another situation of who knows how many boys could have been saved but he didn't and
perhaps Dean Coral had some kind of hold over him or perhaps he was so deeply ashamed that he couldn't bring himself
to tell anyone right now the grand jury wasted little time indicting Henley and Brooks after six hours of deliberation
it returned true bills against both boys all in all they both receive multiple indictments efforts by defense attorneys
to get the young men freed on bail failed thank God and a psychiatric evaluations were ordered Henley was not
charged in the murder of Dean Coral but he was charged in the murder of others right right then 12 Grand jurors
who indicted Henley and Brooks for murder went off the grid and issued an explosive report that criticized the
police and the district attorney saying their investigation left unexplored the possible involvement of others and
related criminal activities in the course of pre-trial hearings some very interesting new information emerged
Dean Coral kept keys he collected from boys whom he entertained at his home police found 75 to 100 keys I couldn't
get an exact number because it varied lowest number I found 75 highest number 100 but they found somewhere between 75
and 100 keys in a box at the Lamar Street home where he last lived before being shot Henley stated to
investigators that one of Dean Coral's motivations for retaining the keys of his victims had been that he would
subsequently burglarize their homes so this is where my mind jumps to did he did Dean label each key so he would know
which key would match up to which house right right yeah because you can't just go up to a door and then fumble through
75 Keys looking for the right one well Henley and Brooks they were tried separately
at the trial Tim Curley testified to what happened on the night Henley shot Dean Coral he said his life was saved
when Henley killed Coral of course his life would have never been in danger in the first place if Henley hadn't
delivered him right to that apartment now Rhonda testified as well but she did so behind closed doors because keep in
mind she was still a juvenile at this time Billy riddinger testified as to what was
done to him after being lured by Henley and Brooks the prosecution called dozens
of witnesses and introduced 82 pieces of evidence including Coral's torture board
and one of the boxes used to transport the victims a Houston Police chemist testified that Henley's hair was found
on a discarded clothing of one of the victims and in one of the plywood boxes used by the trio to transport bodies his
hair was also found on a device used to torture the victims before they were killed
Henley's attorneys did not put up much of a defense and Henley did not testify his confession was accepted as solid
evidence against him it was read and full to the jury the jury found Henley guilty on six counts he received six
consecutive 99-year sentences his accomplice David Brooks received one 99-year sentence did he say so so you're
saying there's a chance there's a chance if he can live a hundred additional years
in Henley's case the prosecutor said in his closing arguments that he apologized
for not being able to seek the death penalty because the case was the most extreme example of human of man's
inhumanity to man that he had ever seen yeah Henley's request for parole have been denied there is no question that
Wayne Henley and David Brooks deserve to be punished severely for their roles in
the abduction torture and deaths of 27 28 boys but one has to question whether the two would have received the same
sentences if Dean Coral was still alive right he would have assumably taken the brunt of the legal justice and perhaps
Henry Henley and Brooks would have then been seen less culpable in mere boys who
fell under the influence of the dominance of this monster well they're definitely victims
on their right right they're victims but again this is this is also the weird terminology as far as sex trafficking as
some people just view it as that you um you you kidnap somebody that that you sell them to a different place they go
into hiding no part of sex trafficking is is having control over and an individual
in their Community yeah so essentially this would fall under those terms you know yes they helped with those
crimes but they helped those crimes under basically being held hostage on some level but
but at what point do you you have to understand that they're victims and you have to you know you
have to sympathize with that part and they probably never would have done what they did if it wasn't for Dean but
They At what point how many victims at some point you have to say you are responsible for these actions and and
and face the charges this is one of those rare cases where the where one person two people are both
victim and Monster it's very rare that you see that but this is a prime example of a case where
somebody is both the victim and the monster just like you said how many times until
you stop being the victim and you become the monster right and and again there there might have been something in
Dean's past or maybe he was tortured by a older gentleman that's possible but again you can't
um you can't have some kind of trauma that happened to you when you're younger and then go and murder people and then
it's okay because you were a victim first and I actually you know I throw that question out there of would their
sentences have been less I think we have a situation here where there was no death penalty at the time and so I don't
know that how much more severe Dean Coral's sentence could have been now there would have been a chance that they
may have needed both boys to testify against Dean coral and maybe that would have helped create a shorter sentence
for either boy however I think if I think without Dean Coral being dead I don't think any of this comes to light
meaning I think in some weird way both boys feared and felt protected by Dean Coral at the same time and I think this
confession that started with Henley only really came about because he shot and killed Dean coral and he was forced to
talk to police about that specific incident of course and and the the it's very odd here because
if that girl doesn't get her mouth free if if she is not able to talk Henley into helping her
you know so therefore she is you know a hero on some level but on some level Henley's a hero because
he did put it into this and there was enough Humanity left in his brain to to stop this at some point
one thing we haven't talked about but we did mention that it was going to be extremely difficult was identifying all
of these dead bodies of course identification of all of the bodies found would be extremely difficult most
of these kids had never been fingerprinted and they were decayed by the time that they were found many of
them had no dental records there was of course no DNA testing at the time either
now the number of deaths Coral was blamed for would fluctuate as authorities tried to determine who all
these bodies were one of these complicated identification situations arose just a month after
Coral was shot the wardrop family identified and buried their two sons both victims of coral they buried their
sons in a graveyard in Atlanta on Friday September 7 1973 the waldrops received a
shocking telephone call that there had been a mistake the two boys that the waldrops took back from Houston and
buried in Atlanta were not their children there had been a mix-up in the identification and the wrong bodies were
sent to Atlanta an official in the district attorney's office said that the bodies buried in Atlanta were those of
Molly Winkle I'm sorry Mally Winkle and David hillegeist nearly two weeks after the discovery of the terrible mix-up the
body exchange was accomplished now by the time of Henley's trial in 1974 21 of the bodies were positively identified
but the body of John Manning sellers was controversial his body was one of the six found on
High Island but it didn't fit the pattern of the other bodies attributed to Dean Coral first of all the corpse
was clothed the others were found naked and this was found several miles down the beach from
the other five victims and sellers was killed with a high powered rifle whereas the other 26 were either shot or
strangled shot with a 22. sellers was reported missing on July 12 1973 his burned out car was found in Starks
Louisiana a week later the medical examiner testified that he did not believe that sellers was one of Dean
Coral's victims so this could possibly take the number of people killed by Coral 226 and not 27. but
sellers is listed as one of Coral's victims on most lists on Wikipedia they have the Eden Coral's list at 28 plus
so meaning that he might have more than 28 victims well then Captain there is an
individual named Mark Scott in 1994 more than two decades after the murders the medical examiner's office presented the
Scots with remains that they said they believed were Marx based on early versions of DNA identification the
family had the remains cremated and placed in a family crypt at Brookside Memorial
but we're not still convinced that they were given the right boy the medical examiner's office kept a
single bone from The Remains Sharon Derrick visited the Scots and took a DNA sample from Mark's brother Jeff and what
she would later describe as one of the saddest moments of her career she returned to the Scott's home and told
them the DNA from Jess Schwab did not match the DNA that came from the bone the conclusion was inescapable Mark was
somewhere else and was not the body lying in the family crypt do we know where farmy Malik was at around 74.
during 74 I mean was he in Texas because that's a good question he says farm he reading all over it yeah because boys on
the tracks was what 80 86 87 yeah yeah well it's thought that Mark's remains are probably still at High
Island on the beach remember um we talked about how difficult the search was for the bodies there and we
also need to point out too that eventually later um this whole area was submerged
partially under water during Hurricane Ike so because of that and because because of the original difficulty
Factor I've got to believe that unfortunately I don't think Mark will ever be found right the boy whose
remains were buried in the Scott family crypt turned out to be Steven sickman a 17 year old last seen walking down West
34th Street shortly before midnight on July 19 1972. sickman's mother reported her son missing shortly after his
disappearance but police were unwilling to conduct the search for him telling the mother that the youth was 17 years
old and that unless they found a body there was nothing they could do to assist her sickman of course was
murdered by coral and his henchmen right by the late 2000s amazingly three sets of remains still remained unidentified
Sharon Derek a forensic anthropologist has made it her mission to identify the last of Coral's victims
go ahead last of what was dug up because we do have this map where they didn't do
digging yeah and and look if if we have we have this guy that carries out the mo
constantly pretty much the same you know maybe he'll teeter-totter on well I'll shoot him this time and not strangle
them this time but the ammo is most often the same so then we have evidence that this guy has 75 to 100 keys of
possible victims so on Wikipedia you put 28 plus well that's there's a lot more than that
and I'd say the numbers probably between 75 and 100. I I bet you regarding that map that they found at
the cabin you're probably talking anywhere from three to half a dozen more victims just on that map alone right
that are never going to get any justice and there could be as simple as was there a missing person
you know reported in this family and was their house at some point was something
stolen from their house there wouldn't be any break-in but just right there would be enough evidence for your family
to go this missing person that we never saw again possibly was a victim of Dean well more
regarding Sharon Derek who I think is one of the few heroes in this sad story eventually she was and has been in
contact with all of the families and you know these are people that believe that
their child may have been a victim but whose body has not been found so she has pursued all of the missing persons
reports filed in the area between 1970 and 1973 one thing not done by the police as well as others sent to her by
parents of missing Boys in 2008 37 years after the murders one family finally got
closure Sharon Derrick showed a photo of a facial reconstruction of an anonymous
victim to David Brooks who was sitting in prison Brooks stared at the photo and said he didn't know who the boy was but
he knew how he had died he drew a map of an intersection in the Heights Shepard and 13th Street and he pointed
to a particular corner where the boy had lived Sharon Derek realized that that was the home of a boy who disappeared in
1971 and whose frantic mother filed a missing person's report two days later this was Randall Harvey
he was only 15 when he left to ride his bike to a gas station his body was found
in the boat shed his mother had died but his sisters were overcome with the news
that they had finally identified his body in 2010 two Riders who were working on a book about the case raised a
question about the date of death of the boy who was buried as Michael bolch they
noted from the police and autopsy reports that the boy buried as Michael was found largely skeletonized
suggesting that he had died in early 1972 but Michael didn't go missing until July of 1973.
the medical examiner obtained a DNA sample from another bulge sibling and ran it against the DNA profiles
belonging to the two unidentified bodies in the unmarked grave the test revealed that one of them was
in fact Michael Balch the problem was of course Michael had been buried alongside
his brother Billy and Woodlawn Garden Of Memories Cemetery years earlier so who was the body buried in the grave labeled
Michael Balch the medical examiner had a list of names possible victims called from missing
persons reports in the area at the time it wasn't until 2011 that the boy buried
as Michael Balch was finally identified after exhuming the remains and conducting DNA testing he was identified
as Roy Bunton Roy left work in a shoe store in the Northwest Mall and never was seen again bunton's family feared
that he was one of Dean Coral's victims and they provided a description of him to the medical examiner but they were
never able to identify or find him because he was buried with incorrect identification now this only leaves one
victim remaining unidentified and he remained so to this day this is a victim who has been called the
swimsuit boy because he was wearing a brightly colored swimming trunks when his body was found okay he was also
wearing an unusual T-shirt with a peace symbol on the back and what appears to be some kind of military lettering on
the front and cowboy boots he was five foot five inches or maybe five foot six inches tall and he had brown hair there
is a reconstruction of his face it has been made available online Sharon Derrick says she believes swimsuit boy
likely came from the Houston area now we have our thoughts Captain we've been talking off Mike about this case a
little bit when we like to throw some of our thoughts on here because the first thing that I think about when
I think of the story of Dean Coral the the Candyman was and that's why I included some of
those more well-known names in the trailer Gacy Dahmer and so on is that Dean Coral he's not as well known as
some of these other monsters but he's simply equal to all of them he's he should be
feared and hated as much as as all of these others and in fact one thing you and I kept kind of coming back to is
that he and Gacy shared very similar MOS yeah on many different levels it's almost
like the same MO right and and really you just wonder because this happened early in 70 was Casey reading about this
going hey that that makes some sense let me do that yeah and even just the fact that they would both let's take the
killing out of it completely let's take the handcuffed trick out of it completely just the fact that both of
them were attracted to teenage boys and had the idea of well let's how about I just party with them how about I invite
him over to my house and let's feed him some beers and and drink and smoke pot and stuff like that on both of them
there's some evidence that shows that both of them could have been involved in sex trafficking of these young boys and
did Dean get these ideas or Gacy get these ideas because they're from different areas now Dean was was
actually born in Indiana which would have been close to Gacy yeah so is there some connection as far as sex
trafficking where they got these ideas from people they possibly were selling victims to well and unfortunately and
I've said it here before and I'll say it again unfortunately these serial killers
they learn from one another they do study one another and specifically there was a killer that was interviewed by
John Douglas and John Douglas says hey I brought up the idea of did you read about serial killers and the he said the
killer looked at him like he was a [ __ ] right he said look man you growing up you read the backs of baseball cards
studying stats right he goes same thing I did but I didn't care about baseball I
ca I cared about killing even at a young age I was reading about these killers and learning what to do and learning
what not to do so that I could get away with it for longer well let's get to some of the aftermath
of this whole thing so Dean Arnold Coral was laid to rest in August of 1973 and a
quiet 15-minute service at Pasadena's Grandview Memorial Park this is going to sicken all of us
remember he did serve in the military for a very brief stint so the American flag was removed from his casket and
given to his father before the casket was lowered into the grave he did receive a military burial
a sunset United Methodist Church Reverend conducted the services among the small group of relatives and friends
at the quiet burial were half a dozen members of Coral's immediate family including his mother and his grandmother
the choral story isn't talked about much in Houston today now we have Mary West Dean Coral's mother
she continued to exhibit denial even 20 years after the fact telling the Houston
Chronicle that she believed that Wayne Henley and David Brooks actually did the killings and she thinks that Henley
should have stood trial for murdering her son Tim Curley who survived Dean's torture board after being delivered by
Wayne Henley as fresh meat gave his only his one and only interview to a Houston
television station in 2008 saying quote I have two choices either accept it and move on or kill myself according to a
close relative curly spir spiraled downward after the interview drinking heavily and suffering from his own form
of post-traumatic shock in March of 2009 Curley died reportedly of a heart attack he was 55 years old
now as we've pointed out us plus some in law enforcement do think that there are more bodies out there but
law enforcement have resigned themselves to the likelihood that they will never be found so remember all of those
missing persons reports that came into the juvenile division of Houston PD you have to wonder did some of these
individuals run into Dean Coral that's when you ask yourself how many more could possibly be out there now
whenever Henley and Brooks applied for parole the parents of all of their victims were forced to relive the
horrific murders as they wrote letters to the state parole board objecting to the release of the men who killed their
sons finally in 2015 a law was passed allowing the parole board to limit parole requests to every 10 years Brooks
will be up again in 2028 Henley in 2025. [Music] thank you what a sick bastard I'm never eating
candy again yeah everybody be safe on your trick-or-treat night everybody be safe make sure there's no braids or
blades in your candy make sure you take out all the regular blades with that anyway we do want to thank everybody
Captain all of our social media friends for their Instagram stories all the people that go to the website and join
in the discussion on the blog yeah people on Facebook that repost uh about the show and same with Twitter as well
and that's why every week the captain says thanks for listening thanks for telling your friends and until next week
friends be good be kind and don't litter thank you [Music]

The Candyman /// Part 2 /// 252

Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com T

rue crime buffs all know the legends of the true crime world, the serial killers who have stood out. There are names like Gacy, Dahmer, Bundy and BTK… these names are synonymous with the word “monster.” But before these notorious killers roamed our streets hunting humans, there was another monster. A mass murderer so evil that he deserves to be in the same category as these infamous killers. This week we tell the story of Dean Corll, the killer candyman. Beer of the Week - Lunch Pail Ale - Breaker Brewing Company Garage Grade - 4 and a half bottle caps

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

Dean Coral's horrific crimes against young boys in Houston are detailed, revealing systemic failures in law enforcement and the tragic stories of his victims.

Key points

The Manipulation of Innocence. Coral used empty soda bottles to lure young boys into his van, showcasing his predatory tactics.
The Horrific Fate of Victims. James Dremela, a 14-year-old boy, vanished after being lured by Coral. His father never saw him alive again.
Unseen Patterns of Disappearance. Despite a spike in missing boys, no one connected the dots until it was too late.
The Open Secret. Dean Coral's homosexuality was an open secret among local teenagers, leading to tragic consequences.
Police Ignored Pleas. Parents of missing boys expressed frustration over police inaction during the investigation.
The Mix-Up. A shocking identification error led to the wrong bodies being buried, causing further grief.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Why would this boy want empty soda bottles from this strange man?

Discussing Coral's manipulation of a young boy.

4:00WatchNov 24, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.