Dean Corll - Victims - 1973

1973

• February 1: Joseph Lyles, 17. An acquaintance of Corll who lived on the same street as Brooks. He was seen by Brooks to be "grabbed" by Corll at his Wirt Road address and was subsequently buried at Jefferson County Beach. Remains located August, 1983 and identified November, 2009.

• June 4: William Ray Lawrence, 15. A friend of Henley who phoned his father to ask if he could go fishing with "some friends." He was kept alive by Corll for three days before he was strangled with a cord and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.
• June 15: Raymond Blackburn, 20. A married man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who vanished while hitchhiking from the Heights to see his newborn child. He was strangled by Corll at his Lamar Drive residence and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.
• July 7: Homer Garcia, 15. Met Henley while both youths were enrolled at a Bellaire driving school. He was shot in the head and chest and left to bleed to death in Corll's bathtub before he was buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.
• July 12: John Sellars, 17. An Orange youth killed two days before his 18th birthday. Sellars was shot in the chest and buried at High Island Beach. He was the only victim to be buried fully clothed.
• July 19: Michael Baulch, 15. Corll had killed his older brother, Billy, the previous year. He was strangled and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. Remains identified September, 2010.
• July 25: Marty Jones, 18. Jones was last seen along with his friend and flatmate, Charles Cobble, walking along 27th Street in the company of Henley.
• July 25: Charles Cary Cobble, 17. A school friend of Henley whose wife was pregnant at the time of his murder; Cobble last phoned his father in a state of hysteria claiming he and Jones had been kidnapped by drug dealers. His body, shot twice in the head, was found in the boat shed.
• August 3: James Dreymala, 13. The son of Seven-day Adventists, Dreymala was last seen riding his bike in South Houston. He last called his parents to tell them he was at a "party" across town.

Footnotes

• At Henley's trial in 1974, the Harris County medical examiner raised questions as to whether John Sellars was actually a victim of Dean Corll. Sellars, a U.S. Marine who had been reported missing on July 12, 1973, had been killed by four gunshot wounds to the chest fired from a rifle, whereas all of Corll's other known victims had either been shot with the same pistol that Henley had used to kill Corll or strangled. Moreover, Sellars' car had been found burned-out in Starks one week after the youth had disappeared.

• Police had been led to Sellars' body on August 13, 1973 by a trucker who recalled conversing with a youth he believed to be Henley after he had observed a car stuck in the sand close to where Sellars' body was subsequently found. The youth had rebuffed the trucker's offer of assisting to free the car, stating he had two friends with him who would free the vehicle. Neither Henley or Brooks specifically mentioned Sellars being a victim of Corll's in their confessions, nor have they disputed his being a victim. The official tally of victims was reduced to 26 in 1974 after Dr. Jachimczyk testified Sellars "probably was not" murdered by Corll and his accomplices. However, Sellars was of the same age as Corll's known victims and his grave on High Island Beach was close to where confirmed victims of Corll were buried. In addition, the youth's body was found bound hand and foot with rope as other victims had been.