title: Hustlers (film)

text: Destiny's fears prove true when a client Ramona booked for Mercedes suffers a near-fatal accident and she must take him to the hospital when Ramona cannot be reached, with Mercedes bailing out in the process. It is revealed that Ramona had again been preoccupied with bailing Dawn, a drug-addicted new hire whom Destiny finds sloppy and unreliable, out of jail. Upon returning home, Destiny finds that her grandmother, who has raised her since she was little, has died. Destiny initially rebukes Ramona's attempts to apologize, but at the funeral, Ramona makes amends and promises to take care of Destiny from now on.


title: Hustlers (film)

text: Returning to 2014, Destiny becomes uncomfortable when Elizabeth insists on talking about Ramona and why they ended their friendship; she stops the interview when Elizabeth brings up Doug. When Elizabeth returns home, Destiny calls to finish their conversation, recalling how her friendship with Ramona—and their crime ring—fell apart. She explains that Ramona's continued callousness drove a wedge between the girls, and Destiny could no longer justify her crimes. Doug was one of her last targets, whom Destiny viewed as a genuinely nice person, as opposed to their initial targets, sleazy Wall Street bankers not held accountable for causing the 2008 market crash. Doug is able to convince the police to take his claims seriously because he has evidence of the group's crime, leading to Dawn being picked up by the police and quickly agreeing to wear a wire to implicate Destiny and Ramona; the investigators manage to locate several other corroborating victims. Destiny, Ramona, Annabelle, and Mercedes are arrested, but only Destiny takes a plea deal to serve no jail time, because she does not want her daughter to grow up without a mother the way she did. Ramona is sentenced to five years of probation, while the others serve short jail sentences on weekends before being released on probation.


title: Hustlers (film)

text: Sometime later, Elizabeth receives a call from Destiny, who has read the article and asks her if Ramona ever said anything about her. Elizabeth reveals that she only interviewed Ramona once, during which she explains that after an incident she started to keep her most valued possessions with her at all times, including a cherished photo of Destiny. Ramona fondly expresses that she could never understand how Destiny's parents could have abandoned her. At the end of their call, Elizabeth encourages Destiny to reach out to Ramona.


title: Hustlers (film)

text: In February 2016, it was announced that Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay would produce "Hustlers", under their Gloria Sanchez Productions banner. The film was also produced by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, and Jennifer Lopez through Nuyorican Productions. In May 2016, Annapurna Pictures was announced to co-produce and finance the film, with the studio's Megan Ellison and Chelsea Barnard serving as executive producers. In October 2018, it was announced Annapurna had dropped the film, with STX Entertainment acquiring distribution rights to the film. Annapurna allegedly dropped the film due to budget concerns.


title: Hustlers (film)

text: "Hustlers" was directed by Lorene Scafaria from a screenplay she wrote. Upon first receiving Scafaria's script, Gloria Sanchez Productions first had Martin Scorsese in mind to direct, while also considering Adam McKay. Producer Jessica Elbaum stated that their initial approach was to "send this to the people that we've seen make this type of movie." After Scorsese and other directors passed on the project, producers ultimately gave Scafaria, who had refused to take on other directorial projects in hopes of directing "Hustlers", the green-light to direct. Scafaria convinced the producers to hire her as director with a two-minute sizzle reel she created to demonstrate her concept. Scafaria described the "judgment that people have about strippers" as a challenge in getting the film made. According to producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, who was pitching "Hustlers" to a range of studios after Annapurna dropped it, "[the male studio executives] were a little uncomfortable. Everybody could see the commercial value of this movie, but they were like, 'Can they just drug the bad guys? Can they just do it to the people that deserve it?'"


title: Hustlers (film)

text: After being chosen to direct, Scafaria spent two years casting for "Hustlers". In August 2018, it was announced that Jennifer Lopez would star in the film. Lopez was Scafaria's first choice to play Ramona, stating: "as soon as I was done, I realized, Oh my God, Ramona is Jennifer Lopez [...] It has to be her." Lopez, who plays a veteran stripper in the film, began pole dance training with professional dancer and choreographer Johanna Sapakie two and a half months before filming in preparation for a scene that has Lopez performing a major solo pole dance routine without a professional stand-in. Constance Wu joined the cast in October, after putting herself on tape, noting: "I knew that my résumé at that point didn't really have anything that would indicate that I could pull off this role." In March 2019, Cardi B, Lili Reinhart, Keke Palmer, Julia Stiles, and Mercedes Ruehl joined the cast with Mette Towley and Trace Lysette in negotiations to join as well. That same month, Madeline Brewer and Frank Whaley joined the cast of the film. Lizzo joined the cast of the film in April 2019, and Usher joined the cast in May. Scafaria had the idea to cast Cardi B, a former stripper, in the film, prompting Lopez to convince her to join the project. Lopez said: "I know she knew this world better than any of us. I told her she had to do it. And I wasn't going to take no for an answer."


title: Hustlers (film)

text: Principal photography for "Hustlers" began on March 22, 2019 in New York City, with the shoot lasting 29 days. Production wrapped on May 3. Scenes were also shot north of the city in New Rochelle, White Plains and at the Palisades Center. According to producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, the production budget for the film was $20.7 million. Cameos by Usher, Lizzo, and Cardi B, were all filmed the same day.


title: Hustlers (film)

text: "Hustlers" costume designer, Mitchell Travers, defined the origins of the film's costumes and treatment in an interview with "Vanity Fair", stating that "I knew it [had] to absolutely floor the audience, and let them know that this is not going to be like any movie that they've seen before." Travers designed the costumes for Lopez to showcase the strength and muscle tone she amassed during her pre-"Hustlers" training. Without running afoul of the film's planned R rating, he dreamed up the diamond bodysuit that was essentially connected by three straps. Travers commented: "We did a lot of research and development to find something that could [stretch in every direction during Lopez's dance]. It's performance wear, and really had to work for that sequence. We did a number of fittings on it. It is tailored within an inch of its life, completely custom for her."


title: Hustlers (film)

text: The soundtrack to "Hustlers" features a list of songs ranging from late 1990s R&B, dance music, indie pop, to classical interludes, including Janet Jackson, Fiona Apple, Britney Spears, Lorde, and Frédéric Chopin. As Scafaria explained: "I thought of [the film] as a musical — the songs themselves were telling a story. Most of the music choices were also written into the script, I had obviously imagined scenes to these songs, and we shot to these songs, but you never know if you're going to get the rights." The film's music supervisor, Jason Markey, got artists from Big Sean to Bob Seger to sign-off permission to include their songs in the "Hustlers" soundtrack; however, the film deliberately does not feature any songs from the catalogs of Jennifer Lopez, Lizzo, or Cardi B. Markey noted that, "We didn't have a score, either; every song made a statement about the scene."


title: Hustlers (film)

text: The teaser trailer for "Hustlers" premiered online on July 17, 2019. The full theatrical trailer premiered online on September 3, 2019.


title: Hustlers (film)

text: "Hustlers" held its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019. It was theatrically released in the United States on September 13, 2019. The studio spent around $38 million on promotions and advertisement.


title: Hustlers (film)

text: The film was banned outright from release in Malaysia, and has received censorship in several Asian countries. The film was denied a clearance certificate by the Malaysian Film Censorship Board, for showing what officials called "excessive obscene content."


title: Hustlers (film)

text: "Hustlers" grossed $105 million in the United States and Canada, and $52.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $157.6 million. "Deadline Hollywood" calculated the net profit of the film to be $47million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.


title: Hustlers (film)

text: In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside "The Goldfinch", and was projected to gross $25–30 million from 3,250 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $13.1 million on its first day, including $2.5 million in Thursday night previews. It was the biggest single day gross in STX Entertainment's history. The film went on to debut to $33.2 million, finishing second, behind holdover "It Chapter Two"; the opening marked the most successful in STX's history and the best of Lopez's live-action career. The audience breakdown of the opening weekend was 67% female, including 69% being over the age of 25. It dropped 49% in its second weekend to $16.8 million, finishing in fifth, and made $11.5 million in its third weekend, jumping to third.


title: Hustlers (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Led by a career-best performance from Jennifer Lopez, "Hustlers" is a uniquely empowering heist drama with depth and intelligence to match its striking visual appeal." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale, and those at PostTrak gave it an average 3.5 out of 5 stars and a 50% "definite recommend." The film was also chosen by "Time" magazine, "HuffPost", and NPR as one of the best films of 2019.


title: Hustlers (film)

text: Christy Lemire rated the film 3 stars, describing "Hustlers" as ""Goodfellas" in a G-string... Scafaria's film is always a blast to watch, resulting in a surprising level of emotional depth." Lemire also described it as "Lopez's best screen work since her early heyday of "Selena" and "Out of Sight"..." and a "...career-best performance." Kate Erbland of IndieWire rated "Hustlers" an A- and describes the film as "funny, empowering, sexy, emotional, and a bit scary. The Oscar chatter for Lopez's revelatory, nuanced, and emotional turn as a brilliant con artist and better exotic dancer is no joke." "Variety"s Peter DeBruge writes, "flashy, fleshy and all-around impossible to ignore, "Hustlers" amounts to nothing less than a cultural moment, inspired by an outrageous New York Magazine profile... adapted by writer-director Scafaria at her most Scorsese, and starring Jennifer Lopez like you've never seen her before."


title: Hustlers (film)

text: Justin Chang, writing for the "Los Angeles Times", describes the film as "brassy and invigorating" stating that "Scafaria's clear-eyed grasp of that distinction that makes "Hustlers" more than just a girls-gone-wild cautionary tale, a peekaboo parade or a hypocritical amalgam of the two. The movie's empathy for its leads and its wholly justified rage against the architects of financial collapse is held in check by the knowledge that every hustle has its collateral damage." "The Guardian"s Benjamin Lee, rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "even when films have focused on strippers as something other than window dressing, they've still been written and directed by men and have smoothed over rougher edges, turning them all into titillating one-note archetypes. Instead, Scafaria views the strip club like any other workplace, filled with internal politics and an ever-changing hierarchy of power." Beandrea July of "The Hollywood Reporter" stated that ""Hustlers" delivers on its hype while consistently doing the unexpected. Scafaria, whose last pic was the Susan Sarandon vehicle "The Meddler" (2015), excels at immersing the audience in the world of sex-work in clubs, quietly disabusing us scene by scene of any stereotypes about who these women are."


title: Hustlers (film)

text: Emily VanDerWerff of "Vox" writes "as you're distracted by all that razzle-dazzle and the movie's many, many great jokes, "Hustlers" is quietly composing some deeply profound thoughts about the relationships women build with each other." Brennan Carley of "GQ" called "Hustlers" the best movie of 2019 to date, noting: "starting with a bang is one thing, though; maintaining that energy throughout its entire run-time is what makes this strippers-turned-criminals flick such a masterful feat." "Rolling Stone"s film critic Peter Travers was also positive, stating that, ""Hustlers" doesn't pussyfoot about what goes on in those 'champagne rooms' off stage. The intent is not to exploit but to show how women manage to live and work in a predatory man's world", adding that "in Scafaria's fiercely funny provocation of a film—there's no running from the shadows—it's the women who seize control."


title: Hustlers (film)

text: IndieWire's annual TIFF Critics Survey of the 2019 best films and performances at the festival ranked Lopez's performance the best female performance as well as the fourth best performance among movies premiered at TIFF. On "Time"'s annual best performances of the year list, Stephanie Zacharek ranked Lopez as the second-best film performance of 2019. Also, A. O. Scott from "The New York Times" ranked Lopez as one of the 10 Best Actors of 2019. IndieWire included both Lopez and Wu on its annual ranking of the 20 best film performances by actresses.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: The Thing About Pam is an American true crime comedy-drama television miniseries detailing the involvement of Pam Hupp in the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria. It stars Renée Zellweger, Josh Duhamel, Judy Greer, Gideon Adlon, Sean Bridgers, Suanne Spoke, Mac Brandt, Katy Mixon, and Glenn Fleshler. Jenny Klein serves as showrunner for the series.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: After Peacock Productions was shut down, NBC News Studios was launched with the intention of creating documentary-style content. The series was announced in May 2020 when the company revealed a partnership with Blumhouse Television. It is based on coverage from "Dateline NBC" and is titled after a "Dateline" podcast of the same name. In February 2021, the series was given a six-episode order with Zellweger joining the cast and the production as an executive producer. Filming took place in New Orleans.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: "The Thing About Pam" premiered on NBC on March 8, 2022. It received mixed reviews from critics. Though some praised Zellweger's performance as Hupp in her network television debut, others criticized the comedic tone used to convey the story of a real murder.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: "The Thing About Pam" details the murder of Betsy Faria, a cancer-stricken woman found dead in her home in Troy, Missouri, in December 2011. Betsy's friend, house-flipper Pam Hupp, told the police she was the last person to see her on the night of her death after insisting on driving her home. The police suspected Betsy's husband, Russ, as the culprit and arrested him, but when his conviction was overturned, holes appeared in Pam's testimony, revealing a diabolical scheme. Meanwhile, television producers seeked to devote several episodes from "Dateline NBC" to Betsy's story, which uncovers Pam's past and makes her a suspect in the case.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: On January 10, 2020, NBC announced its plans to shut down the unscripted production unit Peacock Productions. "Variety" reported that the decision was sparked by the rise of streaming services and a necessity for "higher-quality productions". In a statement, NBC said the company was "shifting its documentary strategy to an entirely new model" that would be "consistent with industry trends". Two weeks later, on January 23, NBC News Studios was launched. Liz Cole, executive producer of "Dateline NBC" and the then-president of Peacock Productions, announced she would also serve as president of the new company. The studio's intent is to produce documentaries, docu-series, select scripted programming, and content for emerging platforms. At the time of its announcement, NBC News Studios had already struck partnerships with Focus Features and Blumhouse Television, with the latter revealing they were in negotiations to develop and produce scripted programs based on stories told on "Dateline". In a statement, Cole said "the documentary business is certainly more robust than it ever has been. More and more people are seeking out that content".


title: The Thing About Pam

text: On May 19, 2020, it was reported that NBC News Studios and Blumhouse Television were developing an untitled scripted television series based on coverage from "Dateline" about the involvement of Pam Hupp in the murder of Betsy Faria as well as the sentencing and release of her husband, Russ Faria. Since 2014, "Dateline" has devoted several episodes to the story and created a podcast centered around the case in 2019 titled "The Thing About Pam". In a statement, Cole said that "having been at the forefront of the true-crime genre for so long, we know better than anyone that truth is often stranger than fiction, and with the twists and turns in this case, we saw a real opportunity to present it in a scripted format". In addition to the series announcement, it was revealed Cole would executive produce alongside Jason Blum, Marci Wiseman, and Jeremy Gold.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: The limited series was given a six-episode order and titled "The Thing About Pam" on February 4, 2021, with Renée Zellweger joining the cast to portray Hupp in her network television debut and attaching herself as an executive producer through her production company Big Picture Co. It was also reported that NBCUniversal Chairman of Entertainment Content Susan Rosner Rovner would oversee the series and that Jessika Borsiczky would write and serve as showrunner. In a statement, Borsiczky said the murder case she was adapting could be interpreted as both a whodunit and a character study. Additional executive producers included Carmella Casinelli, Borsiczky, Noah Oppenheim, and Chris McCumber. In May 2021, Jenny Klein signed a one-year first-look deal with Blumhouse Television and joined "The Thing About Pam" as a writer and executive producer.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: Marci Wiseman, following her resignation as Co-President of Blumhouse Television in October 2020, was later removed as an executive producer for the series. In June 2021, Josh Duhamel was added to the cast with Mary Margaret Kunze joining as an executive producer. By August 2021, "The Thing About Pam" was in the final stages of pre-production with casting still underway in New Orleans. On August 24, it was announced Borsiczky had exited the series as writer and showrunner due to creative differences but that she would remain an executive producer for the time being; Klein was appointed as the new showrunner. On August 27, it was reported that pre-production would be suspended for some time due to Hurricane Ida with a filming start date set for early September. On August 30, Judy Greer and Katy Mixon joined the cast. On September 24, Gideon Adlon, Sean Bridgers, Glenn Fleshler, Suanne Spoke, and Mac Brandt were added to the cast.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: On September 28, 2021, Scott Winant was announced to be directing the first two episodes as well as executive producing. Filming was postponed until October 1, 2021. At the second annual BlumFest in October, Zellweger spoke with "Dateline" correspondent Keith Morrison about portraying Hupp, "Truth is stranger than fiction. She's notorious, not famous. It won't be the same as coming to understanding a person's life experiences within context. [I am] going to be researching and trying to understand just based on the limited information that's available. I'm going to play the person that you sort of illuminated in your podcast and try to understand what makes a person like that tick". Throughout October, Zellweger was photographed wearing face and body prosthetics to portray Hupp. Filming took place in New Orleans and Hammond, Louisiana.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: Makeup artist Arjen Tuiten said it took eighty minutes to apply prosthetics on Zellweger. "It was Arjen who did all of the work. Arjen and Benadryl. I'm allergic to adhesives, and so there was a lot of comedy in the preparation," the actress remarked. After adding the prosthetics, the makeup took between two and four hours to apply. Hair department head Lawrence Davis and makeup department head Carla Brenholtz said they added light touches to prosecutor Leah Askey (played by Greer), based on a look anchored in Troy, Missouri. Zellweger described her physical transformation as "pretty much head to toe". When asked why they did not cast an actress with a closer resemblance to Hupp's physical appearance, McCumber replied, "When a two-time Oscar winner calls and says, 'I'm obsessed with this story and I want to play Pam and I want to produce, you say, 'Yes, yes, yes, yes.' And our job at that point is to provide Renee and the rest of the cast with all the tools they need to embody these characters."


title: The Thing About Pam

text: The score was composed by Giona Ostinelli and Sonya Belousova. The theme implemented the use of an English horn, a prepared piano with coins between the strings, a harmonica, "ka-ching" sounds, a custom-made Italian instrument combining a waterphone and daxophone, and the sound of someone slurping. The slurping effect, which the duo came up with before filming began, was also used in the sound design.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: First-look images and a trailer were released in early February. Initial responses to the promotional material were negative; Libby Hall from "IndieWire" called Zellweger's use of prosthetics and a padded suit an example of fatphobia. The series held a premiere in Los Angeles on February 28, 2022, and premiered on NBC on March 8.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 55 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: The Thing About Pam

text: Zellweger's performance divided critics. Kimberly Potts of "TheWrap" said it appeared Zellweger was "thoroughly enjoying her time" as Hupp. John Doyle of "The Globe and Mail" said the actress "brings an equal amount of vinegary exuberance to the work." "IndieWire"s Ben Travers, on the other hand, called her performance "exaggerated". From "Vulture", Roxana Hadadi said "Zellweger is simultaneously broadly cartoonish and blandly nonspecific. She squints so much that her eyes lose whatever interiority they might have reflected; there is no real difference between her smile or her frown." "Variety"s Daniel D'Addario criticized the "uncanny" prosthetics and the appearance of a "Dateline" producer as a character, writing, "It'd be a shame if Zellweger's first acting gig after her Oscar-boosted return to Hollywood were, ultimately, little more than NBC cross-promotion."


title: The Thing About Pam

text: The show's comedic tone was criticized. Brian Lowry at "CNN" called it a failed attempt to be "the next "Fargo"". Liam Mathews at "TVGuide" said the "deliciously satisfying" tone was similar to that of the Coen brothers, but that its use to convey the story of a real murder would make "you feel [a] little queasy." Ciara Wardlow, writing for "RogerEbert.com", categorized it as "a watchable if often underwhelming true crime docudrama that wants to both be weird and play it safe, ending up in a strange middle ground between the two." In a more positive review, "The A.V. Club"s Gwen Ihnat said ""The Thing About Pam" does an impressive job of translating an addictive tale to the small screen."


title: The Thing About Pam

text: The premiere episode increased its viewership by 205% after seven days, from 2.9 million viewers when it aired to 8.7 million viewers after a week with delayed viewing across linear and DVR, as well as Hulu, NBC.com, the NBC app, and Peacock. By the end of its run on April 12, 2022, "The Thing About Pam" had become NBC's highest-rated freshman series of the 2021–2022 television season. It also had a positive impact on "Dateline", especially on the viewership of the episodes about Hupp that inspired the series.


title: The Thing About Pam

text: The series was one of 94 out of the 200 most-popular scripted television series that received the ReFrame Stamp for the years 2021 to 2022. The stamp is awarded by the gender equity coalition ReFrame and industry database IMDbPro for film and television projects that are proven to have gender-balanced hiring, with stamps being awarded to projects that hire female-identifying people, especially women of color, in four out of eight key roles for their production.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: Atmospheric pressure, also known as barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , which is equivalent to 1013.25 millibars, 760mm Hg, 29.9212inchesHg, or 14.696psi. The atm unit is roughly equivalent to the mean sea-level atmospheric pressure on Earth; that is, the Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level is approximately 1 atm.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: In most circumstances, atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point. As elevation increases, there is less overlying atmospheric mass, so atmospheric pressure decreases with increasing elevation. Because the atmosphere is thin relative to the Earth's radius—especially the dense atmospheric layer at low altitudes—the Earth's gravitational acceleration as a function of altitude can be approximated as constant and contributes little to this fall-off. Pressure measures force per unit area, with SI units of pascals (1 pascal = 1 newton per square metre, 1N/m). On average, a column of air with a cross-sectional area of 1 square centimetre (cm), measured from the mean (average) sea level to the top of Earth's atmosphere, has a mass of about 1.03 kilogram and exerts a force or "weight" of about 10.1 newtons, resulting in a pressure of 10.1 N/cm or 101kN/m (101 kilopascals, kPa). A column of air with a cross-sectional area of 1in would have a weight of about 14.7lb, resulting in a pressure of 14.7lb/in.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: Atmospheric pressure is caused by the gravitational attraction of the planet on the atmospheric gases above the surface and is a function of the mass of the planet, the radius of the surface, and the amount and composition of the gases and their vertical distribution in the atmosphere. It is modified by the planetary rotation and local effects such as wind velocity, density variations due to temperature and variations in composition.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: The "mean sea-level pressure" (MSLP) is the atmospheric pressure at mean sea level (PMSL). This is the atmospheric pressure normally given in weather reports on radio, television, and newspapers or on the Internet. When barometers in the home are set to match the local weather reports, they display pressure adjusted to sea level, not the actual local atmospheric pressure.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: Average "sea-level pressure" is . In aviation weather reports (METAR), QNH is transmitted around the world in hectopascals or millibars (1 hectopascal = 1 millibar), except in the United States, Canada, and Japan where it is reported in inches of mercury (to two decimal places). The United States and Canada also report "sea-level pressure" SLP, which is adjusted to sea level by a different method, in the remarks section, not in the internationally transmitted part of the code, in hectopascals or millibars. However, in Canada's public weather reports, sea level pressure is instead reported in kilopascals.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: In the US weather code remarks, three digits are all that are transmitted; decimal points and the one or two most significant digits are omitted: is transmitted as 132; is transmitted as 000; 998.7hPa is transmitted as 987; etc. The highest "sea-level pressure" on Earth occurs in Siberia, where the Siberian High often attains a "sea-level pressure" above , with record highs close to . The lowest measurable "sea-level pressure" is found at the centres of tropical cyclones and tornadoes, with a record low of .


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: "Surface pressure" is the atmospheric pressure at a location on Earth's surface (terrain and oceans). It is directly proportional to the mass of air over that location.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: For numerical reasons, atmospheric models such as general circulation models (GCMs) usually predict the nondimensional "logarithm of surface pressure".


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: The average value of surface pressure on Earth is 985 hPa. This is in contrast to mean sea-level pressure, which involves the extrapolation of pressure to sea level for locations above or below sea level. The average pressure at mean sea level (MSL) in the International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) is 1013.25 hPa, or 1 atmosphere (atm), or 29.92 inches of mercury.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: Pressure (P), mass (m), and acceleration due to gravity (g) are related by P = F/A = (m*g)/A, where A is the surface area. Atmospheric pressure is thus proportional to the weight per unit area of the atmospheric mass above that location.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: Pressure on Earth varies with the altitude of the surface, so air pressure on mountains is usually lower than air pressure at sea level. Pressure varies smoothly from the Earth's surface to the top of the mesosphere. Although the pressure changes with the weather, NASA has averaged the conditions for all parts of the earth year-round. As altitude increases, atmospheric pressure decreases. One can calculate the atmospheric pressure at a given altitude. Temperature and humidity also affect the atmospheric pressure. Pressure is proportional to temperature and inversely proportional to humidity. And it is necessary to know both of these to compute an accurate figure. The graph was developed for a temperature of 15 °C and a relative humidity of 0%.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: At low altitudes above sea level, the pressure decreases by about for every 100  metres. For higher altitudes within the troposphere, the following equation (the barometric formula) relates atmospheric pressure "p" to altitude "h":


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: Atmospheric pressure varies widely on Earth, and these changes are important in studying weather and climate. See pressure system for the effects of air pressure variations on weather.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: Atmospheric pressure shows a diurnal or semidiurnal (twice-daily) cycle caused by global atmospheric tides. This effect is strongest in tropical zones, with an amplitude of a few hectopascals, and almost zero in polar areas. These variations have two superimposed cycles, a circadian (24 h) cycle and a semi-circadian (12 h) cycle.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: The highest adjusted-to-sea level barometric pressure ever recorded on Earth (above 750 meters) was measured in Tosontsengel, Mongolia on 19 December 2001. The highest adjusted-to-sea level barometric pressure ever recorded (below 750 meters) was at Agata in Evenk Autonomous Okrug, Russia (66°53'N, 93°28'E, elevation: ) on 31 December 1968 of . The discrimination is due to the problematic assumptions (assuming a standard lapse rate) associated with reduction of sea level from high elevations.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: The Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth at below sea level, has a correspondingly high typical atmospheric pressure of 1065hPa. A below-sea-level surface pressure record of was set on 21 February 1961.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: The lowest non-tornadic atmospheric pressure ever measured was 870 hPa (0.858  atm; 25.69 inHg), set on 12 October 1979, during Typhoon Tip in the western Pacific Ocean. The measurement was based on an instrumental observation made from a reconnaissance aircraft.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: One atmosphere () is also the pressure caused by the weight of a column of freshwater of approximately . Thus, a diver 10.3 m underwater experiences a pressure of about 2 atmospheres (1 atm of air plus 1 atm of water). Conversely, 10.3 m is the maximum height to which water can be raised using suction under standard atmospheric conditions.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: Low pressures, such as natural gas lines, are sometimes specified in inches of water, typically written as "w.c." (water column) gauge or "w.g." (inches water) gauge. A typical gas-using residential appliance in the US is rated for a maximum of , which is approximately 14 w.g. Similar metric units with a wide variety of names and notation based on millimetres, centimetres or metres are now less commonly used.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: Pure water boils at at earth's standard atmospheric pressure. The boiling point is the temperature at which the vapour pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure around the liquid. Because of this, the boiling point of liquids is lower at lower pressure and higher at higher pressure. Cooking at high elevations, therefore, requires adjustments to recipes or pressure cooking. A rough approximation of elevation can be obtained by measuring the temperature at which water boils; in the mid-19th century, this method was used by explorers. Conversely, if one wishes to evaporate a liquid at a lower temperature, for example in distillation, the atmospheric pressure may be lowered by using a vacuum pump, as in a rotary evaporator.


title: Atmospheric pressure

text: An important application of the knowledge that atmospheric pressure varies directly with altitude was in determining the height of hills and mountains, thanks to reliable pressure measurement devices. In 1774, Maskelyne was confirming Newton's theory of gravitation at and on Schiehallion mountain in Scotland, and he needed to measure elevations on the mountain's sides accurately. William Roy, using barometric pressure, was able to confirm Maskelyne's height determinations, the agreement being to be within one meter (3.28 feet). This method became and continues to be useful for survey work and map making.


title: Dean Corll

text: Dean Arnold Corll (December 24, 1939 – August 8, 1973) was an American serial killer and pederast who abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered a minimum of 28 teenage boys and young men between 1970 and 1973 in Houston and Pasadena, Texas. He was aided by two teenaged accomplices, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. The crimes, which became known as the Houston Mass Murders, came to light after Henley fatally shot Corll. Upon discovery, it was considered the worst example of serial murder in U.S. history.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll's victims were typically lured with an offer of a party or a lift to one of the various addresses in which he resided between 1970 and 1973. They would then be restrained either by force or deception, and each was killed either by strangulation or shooting with a .22 caliber pistol. Corll and his accomplices buried 17 of their victims in a rented boat shed; four other victims were buried in woodland near Lake Sam Rayburn; one victim was buried on a beach in Jefferson County; and at least six victims were buried on a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula. Brooks and Henley confessed to assisting Corll in several abductions and murders; both were sentenced to life imprisonment at their subsequent trials.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll was also known as the Candy Man and the Pied Piper, because he and his family had previously owned and operated a candy factory in Houston Heights, and he had been known to give free candy to local children.


title: Dean Corll

text: Dean Arnold Corll was born on December 24, 1939, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the first child of Mary Emma Robison (1916-2010) and Arnold Edwin Corll (1916-2001). Corll's father was strict with his children, whereas his mother was markedly protective of both her sons. Their marriage was marred by frequent quarreling and the couple divorced in 1946, four years after the birth of their younger son, Stanley Wayne Corll. Mary subsequently sold the family home and relocated to a trailer home in Memphis, Tennessee, where Arnold had been drafted into the United States Air Force after the divorce, to allow her sons to remain in contact with their father.


title: Dean Corll

text: Dean Corll was a shy, serious child who rarely socialized with other children, but at the same time displayed concern for the wellbeing of others. At the age of seven, he suffered an undiagnosed case of rheumatic fever, which was not recognized until doctors found Corll had a heart murmur in 1950. As a result of this diagnosis, Corll was told to avoid P.E. classes in school.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll's parents attempted reconciliation and remarried in 1950, subsequently moving to Pasadena, Texas, a suburb of Houston; however, the reconciliation was short lived and, in 1953, the couple once again divorced, with the mother again retaining custody of her two sons. The divorce was granted on amicable grounds and both boys maintained regular contact with their father.


title: Dean Corll

text: Following the second divorce, Corll's mother married a traveling clock salesman named Jake West. The family moved to the small town of Vidor, Texas, where Corll's half-sister, Joyce Jeanine (1955-2016), was born. Corll's mother and stepfather started a small family candy company, initially operating from the garage of their home. From the earliest days of the business, Corll worked day and night while still attending school. He and his younger brother were responsible for running the candy-making machines and packing the product, which his stepfather sold on his sales route. This route often involved West traveling to Houston, where much of the product was sold.


title: Dean Corll

text: From 1954 to 1958 Corll attended Vidor High School, where he was regarded as a well-behaved student who achieved satisfactory grades. As had been the case in his childhood, Corll was also considered somewhat of a loner, although he is known to have occasionally dated girls in his teenage years. In high school, Corll's only major interest was the brass band, in which he played trombone.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll graduated from Vidor High School in the summer of 1958. Shortly thereafter, he and his family moved to the northern outskirts of Houston so that the family candy business could be closer to the city where the majority of their product was sold. Corll's family opened a new shop, which they named Pecan Prince in reference to the brand name of the family product. In 1960, at the request of his mother, Corll moved to Indiana to live with his widowed grandmother. During this time, Corll formed a close relationship with a local girl, although he rejected a subsequent marriage proposal she made to him in 1962. Corll lived in Indiana for almost two years but returned to Houston in 1962 to help with his family's candy business, which by this date had moved to Houston Heights. He later moved into an apartment of his own above the shop.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll's mother divorced West in 1963 and opened a new candy business, which she named Corll Candy Company; her eldest son was appointed vice-president of the new family firm, with his younger brother Stanley being appointed secretary-treasurer. The same year, one of the teenaged male employees of Corll Candy Company complained to Corll's mother that her son had made sexual advances towards him. In response, she fired the teenager.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll was drafted into the United States Army on August 10, 1964, and assigned to Fort Polk, Louisiana, for basic training. He was later assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia, to train as a radio repairman before his permanent assignment to Fort Hood, Texas. According to official military records, Corll's period of service in the army was unblemished. Corll, however, reportedly hated military service; he applied for a hardship discharge on the grounds that he was needed in his family's business. The army granted his request and he was given an honorable discharge on June 11, 1965, after ten months of service.


title: Dean Corll

text: Reportedly, Corll divulged to some of his close acquaintances after his release from the army that it was during his period of service that he had first realized that he was homosexual, and had experienced his first homosexual encounters. Other acquaintances noted subtle changes in Corll's mannerisms when in the company of teenage males after he had completed his service and returned to Houston, which led them to believe he may have been homosexual.


title: Dean Corll

text: Following his honorable discharge from the army, Corll returned to Houston Heights and resumed the position he had held as vice-president of Corll Candy Company. Corll's former stepfather had retained ownership of the family's former candy business, Pecan Prince, following his divorce from Corll's mother in 1963; competition between the two firms was fierce. As had been the case in his teenage years, Corll increased the number of hours he devoted to the candy business to satisfy an increasing public demand for his family's product.


title: Dean Corll

text: In 1965, Corll Candy Company relocated to 22nd Street, directly across the street from Helms Elementary School. Corll was known to give free candy to local children, in particular teenage boys. As a result of this behavior, he earned himself the nicknames of the "Candy Man" and the "Pied Piper." The company employed a small workforce, and he was seen to behave flirtatiously toward several teenage male employees. Corll is also known to have installed a pool table at the rear of the candy factory where employees and local youths would congregate.


title: Dean Corll

text: In 1967, Corll befriended 12-year-old David Owen Brooks, then a bespectacled sixth grade student and one of the many children to whom he gave free candy. Brooks initially became one of Corll's many youthful close companions, regularly socializing with Corll and various teenage boys who congregated at the rear of the candy factory. He also joined Corll on the regular trips he took to South Texas beaches in the company of various youths, and later commented that Corll was the first adult male who did not mock his appearance. Whenever Brooks told Corll he needed cash, Corll gave him money, and the youth began to view Corll as a father figure. Upon Corll's urging, a sexual relationship gradually developed between the two. Beginning in 1969, Corll paid Brooks in cash or with gifts to allow him to perform fellatio on the youth.


title: Dean Corll

text: Brooks' parents were divorced; his father lived in Houston and his mother had relocated to Beaumont, a city east of Houston. In 1970, when he was 15, Brooks dropped out of Waltrip High School and moved to Beaumont to live with his mother. Whenever he visited his father in Houston, he also visited Corll, who allowed him to stay at his apartment if he wished. Later the same year, Brooks moved back to Houston. By his own later admission, Brooks began regarding Corll's apartment as his second home.


title: Dean Corll

text: By the time Brooks dropped out of high school, Corll's mother and his half-sister, Joyce, had moved to Colorado after the failure of her third marriage and the closure of Corll Candy Company in June 1968. Although she often talked to her eldest son on the telephone, his mother never saw him again.


title: Dean Corll

text: Following the closure of the candy company, Corll took a job as an electrician at the Houston Lighting and Power Company (HL&P), where he tested electrical relay systems. He worked in this employment until the day of his death.


title: Dean Corll

text: Between 1970 and 1973, Corll is known to have killed a minimum of 28 victims. All of his victims were males aged 13 to 20, the majority of whom were in their mid-teens. Most victims were abducted from Houston Heights, which was then a low-income neighborhood northwest of downtown Houston. In most of these abductions, he was assisted by one or both of his teenage accomplices: David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. Several victims were friends of one or both of Corll's accomplices; others were individuals with whom Corll had himself become acquainted prior to their abduction and murder, and two other victims, Billy Baulch and Gregory Malley Winkle, were former employees of Corll Candy Company.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll's victims were usually lured into either one of the two vehicles he owned (a Ford Econoline van and a Plymouth GTX) or a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette he is known to have purchased for Brooks in early 1971. This enticement was typically an offer of a party or a lift, and the victim would be driven to Corll's house. At Corll's residence, the youths would be plied with alcohol or other drugs until they passed out, tricked into donning handcuffs, or simply grabbed by force. They were then stripped naked and tied to either Corll's bed or, usually, a plywood torture board which was regularly hung on a wall. Once manacled, the victims would be sexually assaulted, beaten, tortured and, sometimes after several days, killed by strangulation or shooting with a .22 caliber pistol. Their bodies were then tied in plastic sheeting and buried in one of four places: a rented boat shed in southwest Houston, a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula, a woodland near Lake Sam Rayburn (where Corll's family owned a lakeside log cabin), or a beach in Jefferson County.


title: Dean Corll

text: In several instances, Corll forced his victims to either phone or write to their parents with explanations for their absences in an effort to allay the parents' fears for their sons' safety. He is also known to have retained keepsakes—usually keys—from his victims.


title: Dean Corll

text: During the years in which he abducted and murdered his victims, Corll often changed addresses. However, until he moved to Pasadena in the spring of 1973, he always lived in or close to Houston Heights.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll killed his first known victim, an 18-year-old college freshman named Jeffrey Konen, on September 25, 1970. Konen vanished while hitchhiking with another student from the University of Texas to his parents' home in Houston. He was dropped off alone at the corner of Westheimer Road and South Voss Road near the Uptown area of Houston at approximately 6:15p.m. Corll likely offered Konen a lift to his home, which Konen evidently accepted. At the time of Konen's disappearance, Corll lived in an apartment on Yorktown Street, near the intersection with Westheimer Road.


title: Dean Corll

text: Brooks led police to Konen's body on August 10, 1973. The body was buried at High Island Beach. Forensic scientists subsequently deduced that the youth had died of asphyxiation caused by manual strangulation and a cloth gag that had been placed in his mouth. The body was found buried beneath a large boulder, covered with a layer of lime, wrapped in plastic, naked, and bound hand and foot with nylon cord, suggesting he had been violated.


title: Dean Corll

text: About the time of Konen's murder, Brooks interrupted Corll in the act of sexually assaulting two teenage boys whom Corll had strapped to a four-poster bed. Corll promised Brooks a car in return for his silence; Brooks accepted the offer and Corll later bought him a green Chevrolet Corvette. Corll later told Brooks that he had killed the two youths, and offered him $200 (the equivalent of approximately $1,437 ) for any boy he could lure to Corll's apartment.


title: Dean Corll

text: On December 13, 1970, Brooks lured two 14-year-old Spring Branch youths named James Glass and Danny Yates away from a religious rally held in Houston Heights to Corll's Yorktown apartment. Glass was an acquaintance of Brooks who, at Brooks' behest, had previously visited Corll's address. Both youths were tied to opposite sides of Corll's torture board and subsequently raped, strangled, and buried in a boat shed he had rented on November 17. An electrical cord with alligator clips attached to each end was buried alongside Yates's body.


title: Dean Corll

text: Six weeks after the double murder of Glass and Yates, on January 30, 1971, Brooks and Corll encountered two teenage brothers, Donald and Jerry Waldrop, walking toward their parents' home. The Waldrop brothers had been driven to a friend's home by their father with plans to discuss forming a bowling league and had begun walking home after learning their friend was not at home. Both boys were enticed into Corll's van and driven to an apartment Corll had rented on Mangum Road, where they were raped, strangled and subsequently buried in the boat shed.


title: Dean Corll

text: Between March and May 1971, Corll abducted and killed three victims, all of whom lived in Houston Heights and all of whom were buried toward the rear of the rented boat shed. In each of these abductions, Brooks is known to have been a participant. One of these three victims, 15-year-old Randell Harvey, was last seen by his family on the afternoon of March 9 cycling towards Oak Forest, where he worked part-time as a gas station attendant. Harvey was driven to Corll's Mangum Road apartment, where he was subsequently killed by a single gunshot to the head. The other two victims, 13-year-old David Hilligiest, and 16-year-old Gregory Malley Winkle were abducted and killed together on the afternoon of May 29, 1971.


title: Dean Corll

text: As had been the case with parents of other victims of Corll, both sets of parents launched a frantic search for their sons. One of the youths who voluntarily offered to distribute posters the parents had printed offering a monetary reward for information leading to the boys' whereabouts was 15-year-old Elmer Wayne Henley—a lifelong friend of Hilligiest. The youth pinned the reward posters around the Heights and attempted to reassure Hilligiest's parents that there might be an innocent explanation for the boys' absence.


title: Dean Corll

text: On August 17, 1971, Corll and Brooks encountered a 17-year-old acquaintance of Brooks named Ruben Watson Haney walking home from a movie theater in Houston. Brooks persuaded Haney to attend a party at an address Corll had moved to on San Felipe Street the previous month. Haney agreed and was taken to Corll's home where he was subsequently strangled and buried in the boat shed.


title: Dean Corll

text: In September 1971, Corll moved to another apartment in the Heights. Brooks later stated he had assisted Corll in the abduction and murder of two youths during the time Corll resided at this address, including one youth who was killed "just before Wayne Henley came into the picture." In his confession, Brooks stated the youth killed immediately prior to Henley's involvement in the murders was abducted from the Heights and kept alive for approximately four days before his murder. The identities of both of these victims remain unknown.


title: Dean Corll

text: In the winter of 1971, Brooks introduced Henley to Corll. Henley likely was lured to Corll's address as an intended victim. However, Corll evidently decided the youth would make a good accomplice and offered him the same fee of $200 for any boy he could lure to his apartment, informing Henley that he was involved in a "white slavery ring" operating from Dallas.


title: Dean Corll

text: Henley later stated that, for several months, he ignored Corll's offer, although he did maintain an acquaintance with Corll and gradually began to view him as something of a "brother-type person" in whom he could confide. In early 1972, he decided to accept Corll's offer because he and his family were in dire financial circumstances. Henley said the first abduction he participated in occurred during the time Corll resided at 925 Schuler Street, an address he moved to on February 19, 1972. (Brooks later claimed that Henley became involved in the abductions while Corll resided at the address he had occupied immediately prior to Schuler Street.) If Henley's statement is to be believed, the victim was abducted from the Heights in February or early March 1972. In the statement Henley gave to police following his arrest, the youth stated he and Corll picked up "a boy" at the corner of 11th and Studewood, and lured him to Corll's home on the promise of smoking some marijuana with the pair. At Corll's residence—using a ruse he and Corll had prepared—Henley cuffed his own hands behind his back, freed himself with a key hidden in his back pocket, then duped the youth into donning the handcuffs before observing Corll bind and gag him. Henley then left the youth alone with Corll, believing he was to be sold into the sexual slavery ring. The identity of this first victim Henley assisted in the abduction of remains unknown.<ref name="Henley vs. State 09/16/82"></ref>


title: Dean Corll

text: One month later, on March 24, 1972, Henley, Brooks, and Corll encountered an 18-year-old acquaintance of Henley's named Frank Aguirre leaving a restaurant on Yale Street, where the youth worked. Henley called Aguirre over to Corll's van and invited the youth to drink beer and smoke marijuana with the trio at Corll's apartment. 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 left on his table. In response, Corll pounced on Aguirre, pushed him onto the table, and cuffed his hands behind his back.


title: Dean Corll

text: Henley later claimed that he had not known of Corll's true intentions towards Aguirre when he had persuaded his friend to accompany him to Corll's home. In a 2010 interview, he claimed to have attempted to persuade Corll not to assault and kill Aguirre once Corll and Brooks had bound and gagged the youth. However, Corll refused, informing Henley that he had raped, tortured, and killed the previous victim he had assisted in abducting, and that he intended to do the same with Aguirre. Henley subsequently assisted Corll and Brooks in Aguirre's burial at High Island Beach.


title: Dean Corll

text: Despite the revelations that Corll was, in reality, killing the boys he and Brooks had assisted in abducting, Henley nonetheless became an active participant in the abductions and murders. One month later, on April 20, he assisted Corll and Brooks in the abduction of another youth, a 17-year-old named Mark Scott. Scott—who was well known to both Henley and Brooks—was grabbed by force and fought furiously against attempts by Corll to restrain him, even attempting to stab his attackers with a knife. However, Scott saw Henley pointing a pistol toward him and according to Brooks, Scott "just gave up." Scott was tied to the torture board and suffered the same fate as Aguirre: rape, torture, strangulation, and burial at High Island Beach.


title: Dean Corll

text: Brooks stated Henley was "especially sadistic" in his participation in the murders committed at Schuler Street. Before Corll vacated the address on June 26, Henley assisted Corll and Brooks in the abduction and murder of two youths named Billy Baulch and Johnny Delome. In Brooks's confession, he stated that both youths were tied to Corll's bed and, after their torture and rape, Henley manually strangled Baulch, then shouted, "Hey, Johnny!" and shot Delome in the forehead, with the bullet exiting through the youth's ear. Delome then pleaded with Henley, "Wayne, please don't!" before he was strangled. Both youths were buried at High Island Beach.


title: Dean Corll

text: During the time Corll resided at Schuler Street, the trio lured a 19-year-old named William Ridinger to the house. Ridinger was tied to the plywood board, tortured, and abused by Corll. Brooks later claimed he persuaded Corll to allow Ridinger to be released, and the youth was allowed to leave the residence. On another occasion during the time Corll resided at Schuler Street, Henley knocked Brooks unconscious as he entered the house. Corll then tied Brooks to his bed and assaulted the youth repeatedly before releasing him. Despite the assault, Brooks continued to assist Corll in the abductions of the victims.


title: Dean Corll

text: After vacating the Schuler Street residence, Corll moved to an apartment at Westcott Towers, where, in the summer of 1972, he is known to have killed a further two victims. The first of these victims, 17-year-old Steven Sickman, was last seen leaving a party held in the Heights shortly before midnight on July 19. The youth was savagely bludgeoned about the chest with a blunt instrument before he was strangled and buried in the boat shed. Approximately one month later, on or about August 21, a 19-year-old named Roy Bunton was abducted while walking to his job as an assistant in a Houston shoe store. Bunton was gagged with a section of Turkish towel and his mouth bound with adhesive tape. He was shot twice in the head and buried in the boat shed. Neither youth was named by either Brooks or Henley as being a victim of Corll, and both youths were identified as victims only in 2011.


title: Dean Corll

text: On October 2, 1972, Henley and Brooks encountered two Heights teenagers named Wally Jay Simoneaux and Richard Hembree walking to Hembree's home. Simoneaux and Hembree were enticed into Brooks's Corvette and driven to Corll's Westcott Towers apartment. That evening, Simoneaux is known to have phoned his mother's home and to have shouted the word "Mama" into the receiver before the connection was terminated. The following morning, Hembree was accidentally shot in the mouth by Henley, with the bullet exiting through his neck. Several hours later, both youths were strangled to death and subsequently buried in a common grave inside the boat shed directly above the bodies of James Glass and Danny Yates. Sometime the following month, an 18-year-old Oak Forest youth known to both Corll and Henley named Willard Branch disappeared while hitchhiking from Mount Pleasant to Houston. His gagged and emasculated body was buried in the boat shed. On November 15, a 19-year-old Heights youth named Richard Kepner disappeared on his way to a phone booth. Kepner was strangled and buried at High Island Beach. Altogether, at least ten teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 were murdered between February and November 1972, five of whom were buried at High Island Beach, and five inside the boat shed.


title: Dean Corll

text: On January 20, 1973, Corll moved to an address on Wirt Road in the Spring Branch district of Houston. Within two weeks of moving into this address, he had killed 17-year-old Joseph Lyles. Lyles was known to both Corll and Brooks. He had lived on Antoine Drive—the same street upon which Brooks resided in 1973. On March 7, Corll vacated his Wirt Road apartment and moved to 2020 Lamar Drive, an address his father had vacated in Pasadena.


title: Dean Corll

text: No known victims were killed between February 1 and June 4, 1973. Corll is known to have suffered from a hydrocele in early 1973, which may have contributed to this period of inactivity. In addition, around the time of Lyles's murder, Henley had temporarily moved away to Mount Pleasant in an apparent effort to distance himself from Corll. These facts may account for this sudden lull in killings.


title: Dean Corll

text: Nonetheless, from June, Corll's rate of killings increased dramatically, and both Henley and Brooks later testified to the increase in the level of brutality of the murders committed while Corll resided at Lamar Drive. Henley later compared the acceleration in the frequency of killings and the increase in the brutality exhibited by Corll towards his victims to being "like a blood lust", adding that he and Brooks would instinctively know when Corll was to announce that he "needed to do a new boy," due to the fact that he would appear restless, smoking cigarettes and making reflex movements. On June 4, Henley and Corll abducted 15-year-old William Ray Lawrence; the youth was last seen alive by his father on 31st Street. After three days of abuse and torture, Lawrence was strangled before being buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. Less than two weeks later, 20-year-old Raymond Stanley Blackburn was abducted, strangled, and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.


title: Dean Corll

text: On July 6, 1973, Henley began attending classes at the Coaches Driving School in Bellaire, where he became acquainted with 15-year-old Homer Luis Garcia. The following day, Garcia telephoned his mother to say he was spending the night with a friend; he was shot and left to bleed to death in Corll's bathtub before he was buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. Five days later, on July 12, 17-year-old John Sellars of Orange County was bound, shot to death and buried at High Island Beach.


title: Dean Corll

text: In July 1973, after Brooks married his pregnant fiancée, Henley temporarily became Corll's sole procurer of victims, assisting in the abduction and murder of three Heights youths between July 19 and 25. Henley claimed these three abductions were the only three that occurred after his becoming an accomplice to Corll in which Brooks was not a participant. One of these three victims, 15-year-old Michael Baulch, brother of previous victim Billy Baulch, was last seen by his family on July 19 on his way to get a haircut; he was strangled and buried at Lake Sam Rayburn. The other two victims, Charles Cobble and Marty Ray Jones, were abducted together on the afternoon of July 25. Henley himself later buried both youths' bodies in the boat shed.


title: Dean Corll

text: On August 3, 1973, Corll killed his last victim, a 13-year-old boy from South Houston named James Stanton Dreymala. Dreymala was abducted by Brooks and Corll while riding his bike in Pasadena and driven to Lamar Drive upon the pretense of collecting empty glass bottles to resell. At Corll's home, Dreymala was tied to Corll's torture board, raped, tortured, and strangled with a cord before being buried in the boat shed. Brooks later described Dreymala as a "small, blond boy" for whom he had bought a pizza and in whose company he had spent 45 minutes before the youth was attacked.


title: Dean Corll

text: On the evening of August 7, 1973, Henley, aged 17, invited a 19-year-old named Timothy Cordell Kerley to attend a party at Corll's Pasadena residence. Kerley—a casual acquaintance of Corll's who was 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 vehicle 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. Williams—nursing a sprained ankle—had been beaten by her drunken father that evening and accepted Henley's invitation to join him and Kerley at Corll's home. Williams climbed into the back seat of Kerley's Volkswagen. The trio then drove toward Corll's Pasadena residence.


title: Dean Corll

text: At approximately 3:00a.m. on the morning of August 8, 1973, Henley and Kerley, accompanied by Williams, returned to Corll's residence. Corll was furious that Henley had brought a girl to his house, telling him in private that he had "ruined everything". Henley explained that Williams had argued with her father that evening, and did not wish to return home. Corll appeared to calm down and offered the trio beer and marijuana. The three teenagers began drinking and smoking marijuana, with Henley and Kerley also sniffing paint fumes as Corll watched them intently. After approximately two hours, Henley, Kerley, and Williams each passed out.


title: Dean Corll

text: Henley awoke to find himself lying on his stomach and Corll snapping handcuffs onto his wrists. His mouth had been taped shut and his ankles had been bound together. Kerley and Williams lay beside Henley, securely bound with nylon rope, gagged with adhesive tape, and lying face down on the floor. Kerley had been stripped naked.


title: Dean Corll

text: Noting Henley had awoken, Corll removed the gag from his mouth. Henley protested in vain against Corll's actions, whereupon Corll reiterated that he was angry with Henley for bringing a girl to his house and that he was going to kill all three teenagers after he had assaulted and tortured Kerley, initially saying, "Man, you blew it bringing that girl," before shouting: "I'm gonna kill you all! But first I'm gonna have my fun!" He then repeatedly kicked Williams in the chest before lifting Henley to his feet, dragging him into his kitchen and placing a .22-caliber pistol against his stomach, threatening to shoot him. Henley calmed Corll, promising to participate in the torture and murder of both Williams and Kerley if Corll released him. After approximately thirty minutes of discussion, Corll agreed and untied Henley, then carried Kerley and Williams into his bedroom and tied them to opposite sides of his torture board: Kerley on his stomach; Williams on her back.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll then handed Henley a hunting knife and ordered him to cut away Williams's clothes, insisting that, while he would rape and kill Kerley, Henley would do likewise to Williams. Henley began cutting away Williams's clothes as Corll undressed and began to assault and torture Kerley. Both Kerley and Williams had awakened by this point. Kerley began writhing and shouting as Williams, whose gag Henley had removed, lifted her head and asked Henley, "Is this for real?" to which Henley answered, "Yes." Williams then asked Henley: "Are you going to do anything about it?"


title: Dean Corll

text: Henley then asked Corll whether he might take Williams into another room. Corll ignored him and Henley then grabbed Corll's pistol, shouting, "You've gone far enough, Dean!" As Corll clambered off Kerley, Henley elaborated: "I can't go on any longer! I can't have you kill all my friends!" Corll approached Henley, saying, "Kill me, Wayne!" Henley stepped back a few paces as Corll continued to advance upon him, shouting, "You won't do it!" Henley then fired at Corll, hitting him in the forehead. The bullet failed to fully penetrate Corll's skull, and he continued to lurch toward Henley, whereupon the youth fired another two rounds, hitting Corll in the left shoulder. Corll then ran out of the room, hitting the wall of the hallway. Henley fired three additional bullets into his lower back and shoulder as Corll slid down the wall in the hallway outside the room where the two other teenagers were bound. Corll died where he fell, his naked body lying face toward the wall.


title: Dean Corll

text: Henley would later recall that immediately after he shot Corll, the sole thought in his mind was that Corll would have been proud of the way he had behaved during the confrontation, adding that Corll had been training him to react quickly and forcefully and that this was exactly what he had done.


title: Dean Corll

text: After he had shot Corll, Henley released Kerley and Williams from the torture board, and all three teenagers dressed and discussed what actions they should take. Henley suggested to Kerley and Williams that they should simply leave, to which Kerley replied, "No, we should call the police." Henley agreed and looked up the number for the Pasadena Police Department (PPD) in Corll's telephone directory.


title: Dean Corll

text: At 8:24 a.m. on August 8, 1973, Henley placed a call to the PPD. His call was answered by an operator named Velma Lines. In his call, Henley blurted to the operator: "Y'all better come here right now! I just killed a man!" Henley gave the address to the operator as 2020 Lamar Drive, Pasadena. As Kerley, Williams, and Henley waited upon Corll's porch for the police to arrive, Henley mentioned to Kerley that he had "done that (killed by shooting) four or five times."


title: Dean Corll

text: Minutes later, a PPD patrol car arrived at 2020 Lamar Drive. The three teenagers were sitting on the porch outside the house, and the officer noted the .22 caliber pistol on the driveway near the trio. Henley told the officer that he was the individual who had made the call and indicated that Corll's body was inside the house. After confiscating the pistol and placing Henley, Williams, and Kerley inside the patrol car, the officer entered the bungalow and discovered Corll's body inside the hallway. The officer returned to the car and read Henley his "Miranda" rights. In response, Henley shouted: "I don't care who knows about it! I have to get it off my chest!"


title: Dean Corll

text: Kerley later told detectives that before the police officer had arrived at Lamar Drive, Henley had informed him, "If you wasn't my friend, I could have gotten $200 for you."


title: Dean Corll

text: In PPD custody, Henley was initially questioned about the killing of Corll. He recounted the events of the previous evening and that morning; explaining that he had shot Corll in self-defense. The statements given by Kerley and Williams corroborated Henley's account, and the detective questioning Henley believed he had indeed acted in self-defense.


title: Dean Corll

text: When questioned regarding his claim that as Corll had threatened him that morning he had shouted that he had killed several boys, Henley explained that for almost three years, Brooks and he had helped procure teenage boys, some of whom had been their own friends, for Corll, who had raped and murdered them. Henley gave a verbal statement; stating he initially had believed the boys he had abducted were to be sold into a Dallas-based organization for "homosexual acts, sodomy, maybe later killing," but soon learned Corll was himself killing the victims procured. Henley admitted he had assisted Corll in several abductions and murders, and that he had actively participated in the torture and mutilation of "six or eight" victims prior to their murder. Most victims had been buried in a Southwest Houston boat shed; with others buried at Lake Sam Rayburn and High Island Beach. Corll had paid up to $200 for each victim Brooks or he were able to lure to his apartment.


title: Dean Corll

text: Police initially were skeptical of Henley's claims, assuming the sole homicide of the case was that of Corll, which they had ascribed as being the result of drug-fueled fisticuffs that had turned deadly. Henley was quite insistent, however, and upon his recalling the names of three boys—Cobble, Hilligiest, and Jones—whom he stated he and Brooks had procured for Corll, the police accepted that there was something to his claims, as all three teenagers were listed as missing at Houston Police Department (HPD) headquarters. Hilligiest had been reported missing in the summer of 1971; the other two boys had been missing for just two weeks. Moreover, the floor of the room where the three teenagers had been tied was covered in thick plastic sheeting. Police also found a plywood torture board measuring with handcuffs attached to nylon rope at two corners, and nylon ropes to the other two. Also found at Corll's address were a large hunting knife, rolls of clear plastic of the same type used to cover the floor, a portable radio rigged to a pair of dry cells to give increased volume, an electric motor with loose wires attached, eight pairs of handcuffs, a number of dildos, thin glass tubes, and lengths of rope.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll's Ford Econoline van parked in the driveway conveyed a similar impression. The rear windows of the van were sealed by opaque blue curtains. In the rear of the vehicle, police found a coil of rope, a swatch of beige rug covered in soil stains, and a wooden crate with air holes drilled in the sides. The pegboard walls inside the rear of the van were rigged with several rings and hooks. Another wooden crate with air holes drilled in the sides was found in Corll's backyard. Inside this crate were several strands of human hair.


title: Dean Corll

text: Henley agreed to accompany police to Corll's boat shed in Southwest Houston, where he claimed the bodies of most of the victims could be found. Inside the boat shed, police found a half-stripped stolen car, a child's bike, a large iron drum, water containers, two sacks of lime, and a large plastic bag full of teenage boys' clothing.


title: Dean Corll

text: Two prison trusties began digging through the soft, crushed-shell earth of the boat shed and soon uncovered the body of a blond-haired teenaged boy, lying on his side, encased in clear plastic and buried beneath a layer of lime. Police continued excavating through the earth of the shed, unearthing the remains of more victims in varying stages of decomposition. Most of the bodies found were wrapped in thick, clear plastic sheeting. Some victims had been shot, others strangled, the ligatures still wrapped tightly around their necks.


title: Dean Corll

text: All of the victims found had been sodomized and most victims found bore evidence of sexual torture: pubic hairs had been plucked out, genitals had been chewed, objects had been inserted into their rectums, and glass rods had been inserted into their urethrae and smashed. Cloth rags had also been inserted into the victims' mouths and adhesive tape wound around their faces to muffle their screams. The tongue of the first victim uncovered protruded over one inch beyond the tooth margin; the mouth of the third victim unearthed on August 8 was so agape that all upper and lower teeth were visible, leading investigators to theorize the youth had died screaming. After the recovery of the eighth body from the boat shed was completed at 11:55 p.m., the investigation was discontinued until the next day.


title: Dean Corll

text: Accompanied by his father, Brooks presented himself at HPD headquarters on the evening of August 8 and gave a statement in which he denied any participation in the murders, but admitted to having known that Corll had raped and killed two youths in 1970.


title: Dean Corll

text: On the morning of August 9, Henley gave a full written statement detailing his and Brooks's involvement with Corll in the abduction and murder of numerous youths. In this confession, Henley readily admitted to having personally killed approximately nine youths and to have assisted Corll in the strangulation of others. He stated the "only three" abductions and murders Brooks had not assisted him and Corll with were committed in the summer of 1973. That afternoon, Henley accompanied police to Lake Sam Rayburn, where he, Brooks, and Corll had buried four victims killed that year. Two additional bodies were found in shallow, lime-soaked graves located close to a dirt road. Inside the lakeside log cabin owned by Corll's family, police found a second plywood torture board, rolls of plastic sheeting, shovels, and a sack of lime.


title: Dean Corll

text: Police found nine additional bodies in the boat shed on August 9. These bodies were recovered between 12:05p.m. and 8:30p.m., and all were in an advanced state of decomposition. The twelfth body unearthed bore evidence of sexual mutilation (the severed genitals of the victim were found inside a sealed plastic bag placed beside the body); another victim unearthed had several fractured ribs. The thirteenth and fourteenth bodies unearthed bore identification cards naming the victims as Donald and Jerry Waldrop.


title: Dean Corll

text: Brooks gave a full confession on the evening of August 9, admitting to being present at several killings and assisting in several burials, although he continued to deny any direct participation in the murders. In reference to the torture board upon which Corll had restrained and tortured his victims, Brooks stated: "Once they were on the board, they were as good as dead; it was all over but the shouting and the crying." In reference to the actual murders, Brooks stated his witnessing the victims' deaths "didn't bother [him]", adding "I saw it done many times." He agreed to accompany police to High Island Beach to assist in the search for the bodies of the victims.


title: Dean Corll

text: On August 10, 1973, Henley again accompanied police to Lake Sam Rayburn, where two more bodies were found buried just apart. As with the two bodies found the previous day, both victims had been tortured and severely beaten, particularly around the head. That afternoon, both Henley and Brooks accompanied police to High Island Beach, leading police to the shallow graves of two victims. On August 13, both Henley and Brooks again accompanied the police to High Island Beach, where four more bodies were found, making a total of 27 known victims – the worst killing spree in American history at the time. Henley initially insisted that there were two more bodies to be found inside the boat shed and that the bodies of two more boys had been buried at High Island Beach in 1972.


title: Dean Corll

text: At the time, the killing spree was the worst case of serial murder, in terms of the number of victims, in the United States, exceeding the 25 murders attributed to Juan Corona, who had been arrested in California in 1971 for killing 25 men. The macabre record number of known victims attributed to a single murder case set by Corll and his accomplices was surpassed only in 1978 by John Wayne Gacy, who murdered 33 boys and young men and who admitted to being influenced by press coverage of the Houston Mass Murders to manacle his victims prior to their abuse and murder.


title: Dean Corll

text: Families of Corll's victims were highly critical of the HPD, which had been quick to list the missing boys as runaways who had not been considered worthy of any major investigation. The families of the murdered youths asserted that the police should have noted an insidious trend in the pattern of disappearances of teenage boys from the Heights neighborhood; other family members complained the HPD had been dismissive of their adamant insistence that their sons had no reasons to run away from home. Everett Waldrop, the father of Donald and Jerry Waldrop, complained that shortly after his sons had disappeared in 1971, he had informed police an acquaintance had observed Corll burying what appeared to be bodies at his boat shed. In response, the police performed a perfunctory search around the boat shed, before dismissing the reports as a hoax. Waldrop stated that on one of the many occasions when he visited the HPD, the police chief had simply told him, "Why are you down here? You know your boys are runaways." The mother of Gregory Malley Winkle stated: "You don't run away (from home) with nothing but a bathing suit and 80 cents."


title: Dean Corll

text: By May 1974, 21 of Corll's victims had been identified, with all but four of the youths having either lived in or had close connections to Houston Heights. Two more teenagers were identified in 1983 and 1985; one of whom, Richard Kepner, also lived in Houston Heights. The other youth, Willard Branch, lived in the Oak Forest district of Houston.


title: Dean Corll

text: On August 13, a grand jury convened in Harris County to hear evidence against Henley and Brooks: the first witnesses to testify were Williams and Kerley, who testified to the events of August 7 and 8 leading to the death of Corll. Another witness who testified to his experience at the hands of Corll was William Ridinger. After listening to over six hours of testimony from various people, on August 14, the jury initially indicted Henley on three counts of murder and Brooks on one count. Bail for each youth was set at $100,000.


title: Dean Corll

text: The District Attorney requested that Henley undergo a psychiatric examination to determine whether he was mentally competent to stand trial, but his attorney, Charles Melder, opposed the decision, stating the move would violate Henley's constitutional rights.


title: Dean Corll

text: By the time the grand jury had completed its investigation, Henley had been indicted for six murders, and Brooks for four. Henley was not charged with the death of Corll, which prosecutors ruled on September 18 had been committed in self-defense.


title: Dean Corll

text: Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks were tried separately for their roles in the murders. Henley was brought to trial in San Antonio on July 1, 1974, charged with six murders committed between March 1972 and July 1973. The prosecution called dozens of witnesses, including Kerley and Ridinger. Ridinger testified that at Corll's home he was tied to the torture board and assaulted repeatedly by Corll before he was released.


title: Dean Corll

text: Other incriminating testimony came from police officers who read from Henley's written statements. In one part of his confession, Henley had described luring two of the victims for whose murder he had been brought to trial, Cobble and Jones, to Corll's Pasadena residence. Henley had confessed that after their initial abuse and torture at Corll's home, Cobble and Jones each had one wrist and ankle bound to the same side of Corll's torture board. The youths were then forced by Corll to fight each other with the promise that the one who beat the other to death would be allowed to live. After they had spent several hours beating each other, Jones was tied to a board and forced to watch Cobble again be assaulted, tortured, and shot to death before he himself was again raped, tortured, and strangled with a Venetian blind cord. Cobble and Jones were killed on July 27, 1973, two days after they had been reported missing. Several victims' parents had to leave the courtroom to regain their composure as police and medical examiners described how their relatives were tortured and murdered.


title: Dean Corll

text: Throughout the trial, the state introduced 82 pieces of evidence, including Corll's torture board and one of the boxes used to transport the victims. Inside the box, police had found hair which examiners had concluded came from both Cobble and Henley. Upon advice from his defense counsel, Henley did not take the stand to testify. His attorney, William Gray, cross-examined several witnesses but did not call any witnesses or experts for the defense.


title: Dean Corll

text: 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 his not being able to seek the death penalty, adding that the case was the "most extreme example of man's inhumanity to man I have ever seen."


title: Dean Corll

text: The jury deliberated for 92 minutes before finding Henley guilty of all six murders for which he was tried. The following day, July 16, formal procedures to sentence Henley for the six guilty verdicts began, and on August 8, Judge Preston Dial ordered that Henley serve each 99-year sentence consecutively (totaling 594 years), and he was transferred to the Huntsville Unit to formally begin his sentence.


title: Dean Corll

text: Henley appealed his sentence and conviction, contending the jury in his initial trial had not been sequestered, that his attorneys' objections to news media being present in the courtroom had been overruled, and citing that his defense team's attempts to present evidence contending that the initial trial should not have been held in San Antonio had also been overruled by the judge. Henley's appeal was upheld and he was awarded a retrial in December 1978.


title: Dean Corll

text: Henley's retrial began on June 18, 1979. This second trial was held in Corpus Christi, with Henley again represented by defense attorneys William Gray and Edwin Pegelow. Henley's attorneys again attempted to have Henley's written statements ruled inadmissible. However, Judge Noah Kennedy ruled the written statements given by Henley on August 9, 1973, as admissible evidence. The retrial lasted nine days, with Henley's attorneys again calling no defense witnesses and again attacking the credibility of Henley's written confession. The defense also contended the evidence provided by the state "belonged to Dean Corll, not Elmer Wayne Henley". On June 27, 1979, the jury deliberated for over two hours before reaching their verdict; Henley was again convicted of six murders and sentenced to six concurrent 99-year terms.


title: Dean Corll

text: Brooks was brought to trial on February 27, 1975. He had been indicted for four murders committed between December 1970 and June 1973, but was brought to trial charged only with the June 1973 murder of 15-year-old William Ray Lawrence. Brooks's defense attorney, Jim Skelton, argued that his 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: "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."


title: Dean Corll

text: Brooks's trial lasted less than one week. The jury deliberated for just 90 minutes before they reached a verdict. He was found guilty of Lawrence's murder on March 4, 1975, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Brooks showed no emotion as the sentence was passed, although his wife burst into tears. Brooks also appealed his sentence, contending that the signed confessions used against him were taken without his being informed of his legal rights, but his appeal was dismissed in May 1979.


title: Dean Corll

text: Henley is serving his life sentence at the Mark Stiles Unit in Jefferson County, Texas. Successive parole applications dating from July 1980 have been denied. He is next eligible for parole in October 2025.


title: Dean Corll

text: Brooks served his life sentence at the Terrell Unit near Rosharon, Texas. He died of COVID-19-related complications at a Galveston hospital on May 28, 2020, at the age of 65. Brooks is buried at Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in Walker County.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll and his accomplices are known to have killed a minimum of 28 teenagers and young men between September 1970 and August 1973, although it is suspected that the true number of victims is higher. As Corll was killed immediately prior to his murders being discovered, the true number of victims he had claimed will never be known. Twenty-seven of Corll's known victims have been identified, and the identity of a 28th victim whose body has never been found, Mark Scott, is conclusively known. All of these victims were killed by either shooting, strangulation or a combination of both.


title: Dean Corll

text: In June 2008, Dr. Sharon Derrick, a forensic anthropologist with the medical examiner's office in Houston, released digital images of Corll's three still-unidentified victims. The unidentified victims were listed as ML73-3349, ML73-3356 and ML73-3378. Two of the unidentified victims were found buried in the boat shed and were estimated to have been killed in 1971 or 1972. ML73-3378 was buried at Lake Sam Rayburn just from the body of Homer Garcia, who had disappeared on July 7, 1973.


title: Dean Corll

text: Corll's only known unidentified victim—the sixteenth body found in the boat shed—was in an advanced stage of decomposition at the time of his discovery, leading investigators to deduce that he had likely been killed in 1971 or 1972. This unidentified victim was found wearing red-white-and-blue striped swimming trunks, cowboy boots, a leather bracelet and a long-sleeved, khaki-colored T-shirt decorated with a peace symbol, leading investigators to conclude that he was likely killed in the summer months. In addition, his T-shirt bore a handwritten inscription believed to read either "LB4MF", "LBHMF", or "L84MF". He had dark hair and may have had spina bifida, a congenital disability that could have affected his gait, or caused chronic pain. This victim has been referred to as "John Houston Doe" since the discovery of his body.


title: Dean Corll

text: This unidentified victim was found buried near the entrance to the boat shed between the bodies of Steven Sickman and Ruben Haney, whereas the bodies of the victims killed between December 1970 and May 1971 were found buried at the rear of the shed. It is likely, though not conclusive, that the unidentified sixteenth victim found within the boat shed may have been killed in the late summer or early fall of 1971. Dr. Derrick has stated that she believes this particular victim may be named Harman, Harmon or French, as the only outstanding missing persons reports relating to youths from the Houston area dated between 1970 and 1973, which fit the forensic profile of this unknown youth, include these surnames. Dr. Derrick has stated she has reason to believe this victim may be named Robert (or "Bobby") French, adding she has received an anonymous package containing a series of photographs potentially depicting this individual taken shortly before his murder, and that the sender of this package named this individual as one Bobby French.


title: Dean Corll

text: On August 15, 2022, authorities announced that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Harris County Institute of Forensic Science were working together to identify this victim.


title: Dean Corll

text: Forty-two boys had vanished within the Houston area between 1970 and Corll's death in 1973. The police were heavily criticized for curtailing the search for further victims once the record set by Juan Corona for having the most victims had been surpassed. After finding the 26th and 27th bodies, tied together, at High Island Beach on August 13, the search for any further victims was terminated, despite Henley's insistence that two further bodies had been buried on the beach in 1972. A curious feature about this final discovery was the presence of two extra bones (an arm bone and a pelvis) in the grave, indicating at least one additional, undiscovered victim. Investigators later returned to the scene where these extra bones bodies were discovered in efforts to locate any additional human remains at the site of their discovery, although this search yielded no further remains.


title: Dean Corll

text: The two bodies that Henley had insisted were still buried on the beach may have been those of Scott and Lyles. In light of developments relating to the identifications of victims, the body of Scott still lies undiscovered at High Island, while Lyles's remains were only found by chance in 1983. Had the search for bodies continued, both victims would have likely been discovered. Following Hurricane Ike in 2008, the area of High Island Beach where Corll is known to have buried his victims remains submerged, leaving a strong possibility that Scott's body will never be found.


title: Dean Corll

text: Former workers at Corll Candy Company recalled Corll doing a lot of digging in the years leading up to 1968, when his mother's third marriage was deteriorating and the firm was failing. Corll stated he was burying spoiled candy to avoid contamination by insects. He subsequently cemented over the floor. He was also observed digging in waste ground that was later converted into a parking lot. Former workers also recalled that Corll had rolls of clear plastic of precisely the same type used to bury his victims. Moreover, co-workers at HL&P would also state that, from the earliest days of his employment, Corll had repeatedly retained coils of used nylon cord that would otherwise have been discarded. This brand of cord was the same type used to strangle and bind the bodies of many of his victims. The suspicion is that Corll began killing much earlier than 1970 and had been abusing youths prior to this date.


title: Dean Corll

text: Moreover, in one interview, Brooks claimed that Corll's first murder victim was a youth killed at an apartment complex located at 5313 Judiway Street, where Corll had lived prior to September 1970. The earliest of Corll's victims known by Brooks were two teenage boys killed at 3300 Yorktown, where Corll lived after moving out of his Judiway Street apartment. Corll's earliest double murder, that of Glass and Yates, took place in December 1970; those victims were actually killed at Corll's Yorktown address, as was Corll's earliest known murder victim, Jeffrey Alan Konen, killed in September 1970. A possibility exists that the earliest double murder victims were Glass and Yates; however, Brooks specifically described Glass as being killed in an altogether separate double murder from Corll's first double murder in his confession to police. In addition, Brooks only knew the location of Konen's body at High Island Beach because Corll had shown it to him. It is possible that the initial double murder Brooks had discovered Corll in the process of committing occurred after the murder of Konen and before those of Glass and Yates. These details, alongside the two additional bones that were found with the 26th and 27th victims discovered, indicate a minimum of two and possibly four more unknown victims.


title: Dean Corll

text: There are two suspiciously long gaps between known victims in the chronology of Corll's known murders. His last known victim of 1971 was Ruben Watson Haney, who disappeared on August 17. The first victim of 1972 was Frank Aguirre, who disappeared on March 24, meaning no known victims were killed for seven months. Moreover, Corll also is not known to have killed between February 1 and June 4, 1973.


title: Dean Corll

text: The January 14, 1973 disappearance of 16-year-old Norman Lamar Prater has been tentatively linked to Corll. Prater was last seen by his mother in Dallas in the company of an adult male and two teenage youths with shoulder-length hair; he had previously lived in the same neighborhood as most of Corll's known victims and had attended the same high school as Henley between 1970 and 1971. Prater is known to have continued to visit his father in Houston during weekends after he moved with his mother to Dallas. However, no firm evidence exists to link Prater's disappearance to Corll and his accomplices.


title: Dean Corll

text: In March 1973, a Mr. and Mrs. Abernathy had reported to Galveston County authorities that they had observed three men carrying and burying a "long, wrapped bundle" at Galveston Beach. The couple identified two of the men as Corll and Henley. The third individual had long, blond hair—like Brooks. As the couple watched the trio, one of the men (whom they later identified as Henley) advanced upon their car with such a menacing expression that the couple felt compelled to drive away. Two women had also observed three men digging at the beach in May 1973—one of whom they positively identified as Brooks. However, police were again unwilling to extend the search.


title: Dean Corll

text: In February 2012, a picture was released to the news media of a likely unknown victim of Corll. The color Polaroid image had been found in the personal possessions of Henley, which had been stored by his family since his arrest in 1973. The image depicts a blond-haired teenage youth in handcuffs, strapped to a device upon Corll's floor, alongside a toolbox known to contain various instruments Corll used to torture his victims. The individual depicted has been ruled out by the Harris County Medical Examiner as being any of Corll's known victims, including his one remaining known unidentified victim. Henley himself has stated that the picture must have been taken after he had acquired a Polaroid camera in 1972—although he is adamant that he has no idea who this boy is. Given that Henley became acquainted with Corll in 1972, it is likely this boy would have been killed in 1972 or 1973.


title: Dean Corll

text: During a routine investigation in March 1975, the HPD discovered a cache of pornographic pictures and films depicting boys as young as eight, most of whom were from the Heights. Of the sixteen individuals depicted within the films and photos, eleven of the youths appeared to be among Corll's known victims who had been identified by this date. The discovery raised the disturbing possibility that the statements Corll had given to both Henley and Brooks prior to his murder that he was associated with an organization based in Dallas which "bought and sold boys" may indeed have held a degree of truth. The discovery of the material in Houston in 1975 subsequently led to the arrest of five individuals in Santa Clara, California. No direct link in these arrests to Corll was proven, as the HPD declined to pursue any possible link to the killings, stating they felt Corll's victims' families had "suffered enough."


title: Dean Corll

text: On August 15, 1973, just two days after investigators had uncovered the final bodies initially linked to the Houston Mass Murders, investigators in Dallas uncovered a nationwide homosexual procurement ring operated by John David Norman. This police raid seized a card filing system containing up to 10,000 names of individuals across America ascribed to this network and the personal details of numerous teenage boys exploited by this sex trafficking ring.