Elmer Wayne Henley

Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. (born May 9, 1956) is an American serial killer and accomplice to murder convicted in 1974 of the murder of six of the twenty-nine known victims of the Houston Mass Murders, which occurred in Houston and Pasadena, Texas, between 1970 and 1973.

One of two known accomplices to Dean Corll, Henley initially assisted Corll in the abduction of the victims before gradually and increasingly participating in their torture, murder and burial. He shot Corll to death on August 8, 1973, 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 99-years' imprisonment. He was not charged with the death of Corll, which prosecutors had previously ruled had been committed in self-defense. Henley did successfully appeal his conviction, although he was again convicted of six murders in June 1979. He is currently incarcerated within the Telford Unit in Bowie County, Texas.

At the time of the discovery of the crimes, the case was considered the worst example of serial murder in United States history.

Early life Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. was born on May 9, 1956, in Houston, Texas, the eldest of four sons born to Elmer Wayne Henley Sr. (1938–1986) and Mary Pauline Henley ( Weed) (b. 1937). His parents were both in their 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. He was also markedly religious, and briefly held an aspiration to become a preacher. As his mother and grandparents were devout Christians, this religious devotion was encouraged. Although his memories of his father were conflicted, he would later fondly remark of his early childhood: "I have memories of [my father] walking me to school, and of Cub Scout and Boy Scout activities. 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. Although occasionally bullied at school from the fifth grade onward, he was popular among many of his peers—both male and female—and was attracted to the attitudes of the contemporary hippie movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Adolescence By his early teens—and particularly following his parents' 1970 divorce—Henley grew disillusioned with school. As the eldest male in the household following his father's departure, he took two simultaneous, menial part-time jobs to assist his mother with household finances, and both his grades and scholastic attendance record dropped sharply. He also developed a habit of drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana in addition to becoming a small-time drug dealer. Henley's mother—who worked as a cashier at a parking lot—retained custody of her four sons following her divorce. Both of Henley's parents later remarried, although Henley's father did arrive, uninvited, at the reception for Henley's mother's second marriage. On this occasion, when Henley attempted to persuade his father to leave, his father shoved him to the ground and then ran to retrieve a gun from his car, attempting to shoot his son; he wounded a friend who threw himself atop Henley to shield him from his father in the process. Henley's father was charged with attempted murder for this incident, although Henley refused to testify against him in court.

Within a year of his parents' divorce, Henley dropped out of high school. He would later develop a minor criminal record, being arrested for assault with a deadly weapon in 1971 and burglary one year later.

In the year Henley dropped out of high school, he became aware of an insidious pattern of disappearances in his neighborhood: since the previous December, a minimum of eight boys aged 13 to 17 had disappeared from Houston Heights. Henley had been a lifelong friend with one of the youths, 13-year-old David William Hilligiest, who had disappeared on the afternoon of May 29, 1971, while walking to the Bohemian Lodge swimming pool with his 16-year-old friend Gregory Malley Winkle. Henley himself had actively participated in the search for the two, including distributing flyers offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the teenagers' whereabouts and attempting to reassure Hilligiest's parents that there may be an innocent explanation for the teenagers' prolonged absence.

Encounter with David Brooks Prior to dropping out of school, Henley had become acquainted with another student one year his senior named David Owen Brooks. The two encountered one another in approximately October 1971 as Henley—opting to truant from Hamilton Junior High School—walked away from the entrance in the direction of a local pool hall. Brooks fell into stride alongside him and asked if he was "skipping school too". When Henley replied he was, Brooks offered to keep him company for the day, adding he also attended Hamilton Junior High and that the pool hall was also his intended destination. The two began to truant together regularly, and through his acquaintance with Brooks, Henley became aware that not only did his friend drive a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette and always seem to have money despite not having a job and hailing from a family of modest means, but that he 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. As Henley began to spend more time in their company, he also became aware of stark contrasts in Corll's persona; much of the time, Corll was affable and somewhat childlike, leading both Henley and Brooks to nickname him "Deannie Weannie", but occasionally he would be agitated, serious, and chain-smoke.

On one occasion in the winter of 1971–72, Brooks informed Henley that if he was able to leave his home "without telling anyone where [he was] going", he and Corll would pick him up behind the Fulbright Methodist Church close to his home at 5 p.m. that afternoon. Henley agreed, and Brooks and Corll picked him up at the agreed time and drove him to Corll's address—likely as an intended victim. In his confession given almost two years later, Henley informed detectives Brooks lured him to Corll's home on the promise that he could participate in "a deal where I could make some money." However, this initial plan was thwarted when Henley informed Corll that, contrary to Brooks's prior instructions not to do so, he had informed his mother and grandmother he was leaving the family home in Brooks's company to meet him for the first time.

Despite this initial setback, Corll evidently decided the youth would make a good accomplice, and Henley soon began spending increasing amounts of time in Corll's company and gradually began to view him as something of a "brother-type person" whose work ethic he admired and in whom he could confide. Initially, Corll told Henley that he was involved in organized theft, and if he had anything of value—stolen or otherwise—to sell to him, he would be able to resell the wares for his own profit. He, Brooks and Henley also burglarized several local addresses, for which Henley was paid small sums of money. Shortly thereafter, Corll suggested to Henley he should advance from burglary to more serious crimes.

Over the course of several subsequent conversations, Corll repeatedly referred to the topic of human trafficking before informing Henley that he was involved in a "white slavery ring" operating from Dallas, in which teenage boys were sold as houseboys to wealthy clients across the country and that he would pay him $200 (the equivalent of approximately $1,670 ) for any teenage boy he could lure to his apartment. Corll referred to this organization as "the Syndicate".

Initial abduction Henley has always insisted that he ignored Corll's offer of $200 for every boy he could lure to his apartment for several months, but that in approximately February 1972, he decided he would "help find a boy" for Corll as his family was in dire financial circumstances. According to Henley's subsequent confession, he resolved to participate in a sole abduction as he could use the money "to get better things for my [family], so one day I went over to Dean's place on Schuler Street and told him I would get a boy for him."

At Corll's home, Henley agreed to enact a previous ruse he and Corll had privately rehearsed in which they would lure a youth to Corll's home and Henley would then cuff his hands behind his back, release himself with a key discreetly hidden in his pocket, then con the victim into placing the handcuffs upon himself. The pair then drove around the Heights to search for a victim. At the corner of 11th and Studewood, Henley persuaded a dark-haired youth to enter Corll's Plymouth GTX. The victim agreed to accompany the two to Corll's apartment on the promise of smoking some marijuana. At Corll's address, Henley helped con the teenager into donning the handcuffs, then watched Corll pounce on the youth, bind his hands and feet with parachute cord, then place adhesive tape over his mouth. Brooks then drove Henley home, telling him the Syndicate did not yet know of his participation and thus he should not be present when they arrived to collect the captive.

The identity of this first victim in whose abduction Henley assisted remains unknown.

Participation in murders Schuler Street One month later, on the evening of March 24, 1972, Henley, in the company of Corll and Brooks, encountered an 18-year-old acquaintance of his named Frank Anthony Aguirre leaving a restaurant on Yale Street, where the youth worked. Aguirre was persuaded to accompany Henley to Corll's home on the promise of drinking beer and smoking marijuana with them. Aguirre agreed and followed the trio to Corll's home in his Rambler. Inside Corll's house, Aguirre smoked marijuana with the trio before picking up a pair of handcuffs Corll had deliberately left on his table. In response, Corll pounced on Aguirre, pushed him onto the table, and cuffed his hands behind his back.

Henley later claimed that he had not known of Corll's true intentions towards Aguirre when he persuaded his friend to accompany him to Corll's home, and to still at this stage be oblivious to Corll's true intentions toward teenagers he or Brooks brought to him; he later claimed to have been startled upon seeing Corll suddenly "jump" upon Aguirre after the teenager had idly placed one handcuff upon his own wrist and to have attempted to dissuade Corll from raping and killing Aguirre. High Island Beach. Henley and Brooks began assisting Corll in burying his victims at this location in March 1972.

The following evening, Henley assisted Corll and Brooks in burying Aguirre's body at High Island Beach. Corll and Brooks later informed Henley that his childhood friend, David Hilligiest, and Hilligiest's swimming companion, Gregory Malley Winkle, had also died at his hands and that as such, there was no use in continuing to search for them.

On April 20, Henley encountered Scott walking down a Heights alleyway close to 23rd Street and persuaded him to accompany him to Corll's apartment. Scott was grabbed by force and fought furiously against attempts by Corll and Brooks to restrain him, even attempting to stab Corll with a knife the following morning after several hours of abuse and torture; however, according to Brooks, Scott "just gave up" after seeing Henley point a .22 caliber pistol toward him. As had been the case with Frank Aguirre, Scott was strangled and buried at High Island Beach, although on this occasion, Henley strangled Scott into unconsciousness with a length of cord before Corll completed the murder.

Brooks later stated Henley was "especially sadistic" in his participation in the murders committed at Schuler Street and Henley later admitted to gradually becoming "fascinated" with "how much stamina people have" when subjected to the act of murder, with Corll alternately bestowing praise on his accomplices and goading them—but particularly Henley—to prove their loyalty and worth to him. On May 21, Henley entered Corll's apartment to observe two Heights youths, Billy Gene Baulch Jr. (17) and Johnny Ray Delome (16), socializing with Corll and Brooks. He assisted Corll and Brooks in subduing the teenagers, both of whom were bound, then tied to Corll's bed. Corll then suggested Henley sexually assault one boy while he assaulted the other, but Henley refused. Both were then forced to write letters to their parents—dated May 23 and posted from Madisonville—claiming they had found employment with a truck driver "loading and unloading from Houston to Washington" before Corll proceeded to rape them prior to their torture.

In Brooks's confession, he stated that both youths were tied to Corll's bed and, after their torture and rape, Henley strangled Baulch to death, with the process lasting almost thirty minutes; he then shouted, "Hey, Johnny!" and shot Delome in the forehead with Corll's .22 caliber pistol, with the bullet exiting through the youth's ear. Several minutes later, Delome pleaded with Henley, "Wayne, please don't!" before he was strangled to death by both Corll and Henley. Both youths were later buried at High Island Beach. One of two torture boards constructed by Corll. Most victims abducted after May 1972 were restrained to this device.

In part due to the fact Mark Scott had managed to partially free himself while bound and had almost succeeded in stabbing Corll, in approximately June 1972, Corll constructed a further plywood torture board measuring with handcuffs and ropes affixed to both sides of each corner in order to securely restrain his victim or victims. A further hole was drilled into the top center of the board in order that the device could be hung upon a wall. Thus, many future victims were restrained to this device as opposed to Corll's bed or other devices, and on the occasions where Corll restrained two victims to this device, one would be forced to watch the abuse inflicted upon the other to increase the victims' psychological torture.

Summer–winter 1972 Corll moved to an apartment at Westcott Towers in June 1972. Within one month, on July 19, a 17-year-old teenager named Steven Kent Sickman had been murdered by strangulation and buried in a boat shed Corll rented in Southwest Houston. His murder was followed approximately one month later by that of 19-year-old Roy Eugene Bunton, who was bound, gagged with a section of Turkish towel and adhesive tape, then killed by two gunshots to the head before also being buried in the boat shed. Neither victim was named or referenced by either accomplice, and it is unknown whether Henley or Brooks assisted with either abduction or murder.

On October 3, Henley and Brooks abducted two Heights boys named Wally Jay Simoneaux and Richard Edward Hembree as they walked home from Hamilton Junior High School. Both were enticed into Brooks's Chevrolet Corvette and driven to Corll's Westcott Towers address. That evening, Simoneaux is known to have phoned his mother, Mildred, and to have shouted the word "Mama" into the receiver before the connection was terminated. At approximately 7 a.m. the following day, Hembree was accidentally shot in the mouth by Henley who, according to Brooks's confession, "just came in (the room where the two boys were bound) waving the .22 and accidentally shot one of the boys in the jaw." The bullet exited Hembree's neck, although both were kept alive for approximately twelve further hours before they were strangled to death that evening. Simoneaux and Hembree were later buried in the boat shed.

One month later, on November 11, a 19-year-old named Richard Alan Kepner was abducted while walking to call his fiancée from a pay phone. Kepner hailed from Humble, Texas, but had relocated to Spring Branch shortly before his disappearance to train as a carpenter's helper. His strangled body was buried at High Island Beach, and Henley is known to have assisted Corll and Brooks in this particular abduction and murder.

Sometime in November 1972, an 18-year-old Oak Forest youth known to both Corll and Henley named Willard Karmon Branch Jr. disappeared while hitchhiking from Mount Pleasant to Houston. Branch was gagged, emasculated and shot once above the left ear before his body was buried in the boat shed.

1973 On January 20, 1973, Corll moved to the Princessa Apartments on Wirt Road in the Spring Branch district of Houston. Lyles had known both Corll and Brooks for several months prior to his disappearance; he had lived on Antoine Drive—the same street upon which Brooks resided in early 1973. According to Brooks, Corll had wanted him to assist in restraining Lyles, but he refused; in response, Corll overpowered and bound the teen before Brooks hurriedly left Corll's apartment. Lyles's body was later buried on a sandbank on Jefferson County Beach.

One month later, on March 1, Corll vacated the Princessa Apartments; he briefly resided in an apartment on South Post Oak Road before moving into his father's residence at 2020 Lamar Drive in Pasadena on March 19. Corll briefly lived with his father, stepmother and half-brother at this address before they vacated the property. Weeks after returning to Houston, Henley traveled to Mount Pleasant in a further effort to distance himself from Corll. Two weeks later, he received a phone call from David Brooks likely made at Corll's behest in which Brooks stated he could not guarantee the safety of one of his younger brothers or the younger brother of David Hilligiest if he did not return home. Henley returned to live with his mother in April 1973.

In a further effort to distance himself from Corll, Henley attempted to enlist in the U.S. Navy as a boatswain's mate in the spring of 1973; his application was rejected on June 28 because a color perception test revealed he was color-blind and ineligible for recruitment. Furthermore, although a later intelligence test would reveal Henley's IQ to be 126, he had dropped out of high school and possessed a limited formal education. In a 2010 interview, Henley stated: "I couldn't leave anyway. If I did go, I knew Dean would go after one of my little brothers, who he always liked a little too much."

2020 Lamar Drive Both Henley and Brooks later testified to the increase in the level of brutality of the murders committed while Corll resided at Lamar Drive; both also sensed Corll was increasingly losing his sense of self-control while becoming suspicious of both accomplices. Henley later likened the dramatic increase in sadism inflicted upon the victims and the frequency in which Corll insisted his accomplices lure victims to his home to being "like a blood lust" in which he insisted Henley in particular actively participate.

On Monday, June 4, 1973, Corll ordered Henley to "bring [him] a boy". In response, Henley lured a 15-year-old acquaintance named William Ray Lawrence to Corll's Pasadena residence upon the promise of fishing with himself and Corll at Lake Sam Rayburn in San Augustine County. Lawrence last phoned his father to state he and "some friends" were traveling to Lake Sam Rayburn, but that he would return to Houston in "two, three days ... maybe Thursday." Due to the fact Corll "really liked [Lawrence]", the teenager was kept alive for three days, throughout which he was almost continually bound to Corll's bed. After three days of abuse and torture, Lawrence was strangled to death with a ligature. Corll and Brooks buried his body close to a dirt road at Lake Sam Rayburn the following evening as Henley kept a lookout in Corll's Ford Econoline van.

Less than two weeks later, a 20-year-old married man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, named Raymond Stanley Blackburn was abducted while hitchhiking from the Heights to Louisiana to see his wife and newborn child; he was strangled to death by Corll and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. Blackburn had arrived in Houston three months before his abduction to work on a construction project. Three weeks later, on July 6, Henley began attending classes at the Coaches Driving School in Bellaire, Texas, where he became acquainted with a 15-year-old named Homer Louis Garcia. The following day, Garcia telephoned his mother to say he was spending the night with a friend from the driving school, whom he refused to name; he was shot and left to bleed to death in Corll's bathtub before his body was buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. Five days later, on July 12, a 17-year-old Orange County youth and U.S. Marine named John Manning Sellars was shot to death with a rifle and buried at High Island Beach.

The day after Sellars' disappearance, Brooks married his pregnant 15-year-old fiancée, Bridget Clark; the two moved into an apartment together, although he continued to maintain contact with Corll and Henley.

On July 19, Corll and Henley encountered 15-year-old Michael Anthony Baulch, younger brother of previous victim Billy Baulch, walking home from a barber's shop. He was lured to Corll's residence upon an unknown pretext. Baulch was strangled to death with a cord before his body was buried at Lake Sam Rayburn just from the body of Homer Garcia. Six days later, on Corll's instructions, Henley lured two Heights youths named Charles Cary Cobble (17) and Marty Ray Jones (18) to Corll's home. The trio were last seen by a friend of Henley's named Johnny Reyna walking in single file along 27th Street. Two days later, Jones was strangled to death as Cobble, observing his friend's murder, went into cardiac arrest; Henley partially resuscitated Cobble before Corll ordered him to stop. He then shot Cobble twice in the head. Henley buried the youths in the center of Corll's boat shed, with Corll briefly locking him inside the shed while he retrieved bags of lime to spread over their bodies.

On Friday, August 3, Corll encountered a 13-year-old boy from South Houston named James Stanton Dreymala riding his bicycle close to his parents' home. Upon learning Dreymala was saving money to take his first girlfriend to see the latest James Bond movie that Sunday, Corll lured the boy to his home on the pretext of his collecting empty glass bottles from his shed to collect the deposit for their return. That evening, Brooks observed Dreymala at Corll's home; he ordered a pizza, which he shared with the boy before leaving him alone with Corll. Dreymala later called his parents to request if he could stay overnight at a party across town; his parents informed him to return home, although shortly thereafter, Dreymala was tied to Corll's torture board, raped, tortured, and strangled with a cord before being buried close to the entrance of Corll's boat shed.

August 8, 1973 On the evening of August 7, 1973, Henley invited 20-year-old Timothy Cordell Kerley to attend a party at Corll's Pasadena residence. Kerley—a casual acquaintance of Corll whom Corll intended to be his next victim—accepted the offer. Brooks was not present at the time. The two youths arrived at Corll's house, where they sniffed paint fumes and drank alcohol until midnight before leaving the house, promising to return shortly. Henley and Kerley then drove back to Houston Heights and Kerley parked his Volkswagen close to Henley's home. The two exited the vehicle and Henley, hearing commotion across the street emanating from the home of his 15-year-old friend Rhonda Louise Williams, walked toward her home. Henley was defended by William Gray and Edwin Pegelow, with Carol Vance and Donald Lambright prosecuting the case. Henley formally entered a plea of not guilty to the charges on the opening date of his trial.

The State of Texas presented a total of 96 pieces of evidence throughout Henley's trial, including the written confession Henley had given on August 9, which was read to the court in which he admitted killing or assisting in the abduction and murder of several youths, including the six teenagers for whose murders he was on trial. Other pieces of evidence presented included the wooden box used to transport the victims' bodies to the various burial sites and the plywood body board upon which many victims had been restrained. Within the wooden box, investigators had found several strands of human hair which examiners had concluded came from Charles Cobble.

A total of 25 witnesses testified as to Henley's involvement in the abductions and murders on behalf of the prosecution, including Detective David Mack Mullican who had attended the Lamar Drive crime scene prior to the discovery of Corll's crimes and had spent three days in Henley's company prior to and following his August 9 confession. Mullican outlined Henley's admissions as to the differing methods of torture used by Corll on several victims, how one victim had been kept alive for three days simply because Corll had "liked" him, and how Henley had informed him that strangling an individual to death "was not as easy like they show on TV", adding: "When we killed Marty Jones, I had to get Dean to come and help me." When questioned further about the plywood board used to restrain the victims, Mullican testified that Henley had informed him that in order to restrain the youths he, Brooks, and Corll had "handcuffed (the victims) to the board and sometimes to a wall with their mouths taped so they couldn't make any noise". Mullican's testimony was accompanied by the introduction of evidence directly related to the murders by prosecuting District Attorney Carol Vance.

Following advice from his defense counsel, Henley did not take the stand to testify in his own defense. Although one of his attorneys, William Gray, did cross-examine a number of prosecution witnesses, the defense did not subpoena any witnesses to testify on behalf of their client. Gray also urged the jury to "judge [the] evidence as unemotionally as you can". On more than 300 occasions, Henley's attorneys raised objections to the testimony given or evidence presented against Henley. Almost all were overruled.

On July 15, 1974, both counsels presented their closing arguments to the jury: the prosecution seeking life imprisonment; the defense a verdict of not guilty. In his closing argument to the jury, District Attorney Carol Vance apologized for not being able to seek the death penalty, adding he considered Henley "a monster who should be removed from society" and describing the case as the "most extreme example of man's inhumanity to man I have ever seen."

Edwin Pegelow delivered the closing argument on behalf of the defense. Pegelow did not dispute the fact Henley, by his own willing admission, had assisted in the commission of the crimes, but emphasized he had brought the murder spree to an end by killing Corll, and had subsequently willingly divulged his knowledge of and participation in the crimes to authorities in addition to helping locate the victims' bodies, when he could have remained silent.

Conviction On July 16, the jury retired to consider their verdict. After 92 minutes of deliberations they reached their conclusion: Henley was found guilty and sentenced to six consecutive 99-year terms of imprisonment. On July 25, Henley and his attorneys filed an appeal, contending that Henley had been denied an evidentiary hearing; that the jury had not been sequestered; that a motion to move the initial trial away from San Antonio had also been denied; and that the presence of news media in the courtroom had also prejudiced his trial.

Henley's conviction was overturned on appeal on December 20, 1978.

Elmer Wayne Henley first became eligible for parole on July 8, 1980; on this occasion, and each successive parole hearing to date, he has been denied parole, and he has stated that he does not expect to be released from prison. He was most recently denied parole on November 7, 2025.

Henley is currently incarcerated in the Telford Unit in Bowie County.

Brooks David Brooks was tried before Judge William Hatten in Houston on February 27, 1975, charged solely with the June 1973 murder of William Ray Lawrence. He chose to plead not guilty. Brooks was defended by Jim Skelton and Elaine Brady, with Assistant District Attorney Tommy Dunn and Donald Lambright prosecuting the case.

Brooks's defense attorneys argued that their client had not committed any murders, and attempted to portray Corll and, to a lesser degree, Henley as being the active participants in the actual killings. Assistant District Attorney Tommy Dunn dismissed the defense's contention outright, at one point telling the jury: "Was he an innocent bystander? This defendant was in on this killing, this murderous rampage, from the very beginning. He tells you he was a cheerleader if nothing else. That's what he was telling you about his presence. You know he was in on it."

In the state's closing argument, prosecutor Donald Lambright outlined the ordeal endured by Lawrence over the period of three days, stating: "What kind of hell do you think he went through for three days?" He then described the teenager's ultimate death as "a blessing" in that his murder put an end to Lawrence's suffering. Lambright also outlined the fact that, unlike Henley, Brooks had continued to financially profit from successive victims' deaths—receiving "gifts and gratuities" from Corll.

In a 40-minute closing argument, defense attorney Jim Skelton argued that nobody disputed the brutality of Lawrence's murder, and that although the state had proven Brooks to be an accessory to Lawrence's murder, the state had failed to produce any evidence his client had killed Lawrence or any of the other victims, stating: "The state has proven David Owen Brooks of being an accessory to murder; the state has not established a murder case ... They have proved accessory to murder—not murder."

Skelton also argued the state had failed to prove an actual motive for his client's participation in the Lawrence's death, and had based their entire case upon circumstantial evidence and urged the jurors "before you convict, you've got to find an act to punish".

Conviction Brooks's trial lasted less than one week, although the jury deliberated for just 90 minutes before announcing they had reached a verdict: Brooks was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on March 4. He did appeal his sentence, contending that the signed confessions used against him were taken without his being informed of his legal rights and the erroneous application of certain legal arguments, but his appeal was dismissed in May 1979.

David Brooks died of COVID-19 related complications in a Galveston hospital at the age of 65 on May 28, 2020, having been admitted to this hospital on May 12 with respiratory symptoms consistent with COVID-19. At the time of his death, Brooks was incarcerated at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Polk County, Texas, having served forty-five years of a life sentence. He and Henley corresponded on only one occasion in the decades following their respective convictions, in which Brooks responded to a letter from Henley inviting continued correspondence. Neither maintained written contact, with Henley musing in 2011: "He wrote back—he typed his letter and didn't sign it—saying 'Let's stay in touch', but we never did. I mean, in the end, what were we going to say to each other? How we wished we had never met Dean?" Henley gradually earned a reputation as a model inmate. He describes himself as a voracious reader, and avidly follows current events.

In the decades following his conviction, Henley has granted numerous interviews, although he frequently refuses to discuss his criminal past in detail with members of the press or public. By the late 1990s, he had reconciled himself to the fact he will most likely never be released from prison, on one occasion explaining to author Katherine Ramsland: "When I sometimes think that I don't deserve to be locked up for my entire life, I can't help but wonder, how can I ask to be let out when [the victims] never got anything past that?" On one occasion in 1997, Henley stated: "Don't think I don't have my bad nights and think, 'God, if only I had it to do all over again', but I don't have that—I have today. I'm at a point where I can stand before God and say, 'Here I am' instead of hiding. Maybe this is where I'm supposed to be." He has since devoted much of his free time to various forms of art, and several exhibitions of his artwork have since been held, In 1999, the city of Houston expressed interest in building a monument to victims of violent crime, which Henley said he would be willing to help pay for with part of the proceeds from a second art show.

In interviews, Henley has stated that he suffers from a severe color deficiency in his eyesight that makes it impossible for him to clearly distinguish between reds and greens. To compensate, any people Henley paints are in black and white while his other works are usually in color. Henley refuses to paint or draw any images of a violent or exploitative nature; many of his works depict serene imagery such as landscapes, buildings, flowers and surrealistic imagery. The majority of Henley's artwork is created using acrylics and graphite. He has also designed custom jewelry.

Media

Film A film loosely inspired by the Houston Mass Murders, Freak Out, was released in 2003. The film was directed by Brad Jones, who also starred as Corll. This film largely focuses upon the last night of Corll's life, prior to Henley shooting him and contacting authorities. Production of a film directly based upon the Houston Mass Murders, In a Madman's World, finished in 2014. Directed by Josh Vargas, In a Madman's World is directly based upon Elmer Wayne Henley's life before, during, and immediately after his involvement with Dean Corll and David Brooks. Limited edition copies of the film were released in 2017.