Elmer Wayne Henley

Elmer Wayne Henley
Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. pictured at age 41 in 1997
Born	Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. (1956-05-09) May 9, 1956 (age 60) Houston, Texas
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment (6 life terms)
Killings
Victims	6 (convicted)
Span of killings	March 24, 1972–July 25, 1973
Country	United States
State(s)	Texas
Date apprehended	August 8, 1973

Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. (born May 9, 1956) is a convicted American serial killer, incarcerated in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) system. Henley was convicted in 1974 for his role in a series of murders in Houston, Texas, between 1970 and 1973 in which a minimum of 28 teenage boys were abducted, tortured, raped and murdered by Dean Corll. Many of the victims were lured to Corll's home by Henley or Corll's other teenage accomplice, David Brooks. Corll was shot dead by Henley, then 17 years old, on August 8, 1973.

Henley is serving six life sentences for his involvement in what came to be known as the Houston Mass Murders, which at the time were characterized as "the deadliest case of serial murders in American history".

Henley was born May 9, 1956, in Houston, Texas, the eldest of four sons born to Elmer Wayne Henley, Sr. and Mary Henley (née Weed). His father was an alcoholic and a wife-beater who also physically assaulted his sons. His mother was nonetheless protective of her children and strove to ensure her children received a good education and stayed out of trouble. The couple divorced in 1970 when Henley was 14. Henley's mother retained custody of her four sons.

Initially, Henley was an excellent student at school; but after his parents' divorce he took a series of menial part-time jobs to help his mother with household finances, and his grades dropped sharply. At the age of 15 Henley dropped out of high school.

Prior to his leaving high school, Henley became acquainted with a youth one year his senior named David Brooks. The two became friends and often played truant together. Through his acquaintance with Brooks, Henley became aware that his friend spent a lot of his free time in the company of an older man with whom he himself gradually became a casual acquaintance: Dean Corll. Initially, Henley was oblivious to the true extent of Corll's and Brooks' relationship. He later stated that though he admired Corll because he worked hard, he also suspected that Corll was homosexual, and concluded that Brooks was "hustling himself a queer."

Nonetheless, in 1971, Henley also began spending time in Corll's company. Corll told Henley that he was involved in organized theft, and he, Brooks and Henley burglarized several addresses, for which Henley was paid small sums of money. On one occasion, in an apparent test of character, Corll asked Henley if he would be willing to kill if required, to which Henley replied, "Yes."

The same year, Henley became aware of an insidious pattern of disappearances in his neighborhood: Since the previous December a total of eight boys age 13 to 17 had disappeared. Henley was friends with two of the youths, David Hilligiest and Malley Winkle, who disappeared on May 29, 1971 on their way to a local swimming pool. Henley actively participated in the search for them.