The Serial Killer's Apprentice

ISBN: 1613164955

Author: Ramsland, Katherine

Condition: New

A psychological examination of the blurred line between victim and accomplice-and how a killer can be createdElmer Wayne Henley, Jr. was only fourteen when he first became entangled with serial rapist and murderer Dean Corll in 1971. Fellow Houston, Texas, teenager David Brooks had already been ensnared by the charming older man, bribed with cash to help lure boys to Corlls home. When Henley unwittingly entered the trap, Corll evidently sensed hed be of more use as a second accomplice than another victim. He baited Henley with the same deal hed given Brooks: $200 for each boy they could bring him.Henley didnt understand the full extent of what he had signed up for at first. But once he started, Corll convinced him that he had crossed the line of no return and had to not only procure boys but help kill them and dispose of the bodies, as well. When Henley first took a life, he lost his moral base. He felt doomed. By the time he was seventeen, hed helped with multiple murders and believed hed be killed, too. But on August 8, 1973, he picked up a gun and shot Corll. When he turned himself in, Henley showed police where he and Brooks had buried Corlls victims in mass graves. Twenty-eight bodies were recovered-most of them boys from Henleys neighborhood-making this the worst case of serial murder in America at the time. The case reveals gross failures in the way cops handled parents pleas to look for their missing sons and how law enforcement possibly protected a larger conspiracy.The Serial Killers Apprentice tells the story of Corll and his accomplices in its fullest form to date. It also explores the concept of mur-dar (the predators instinct for exploitable kids), current neuroscience about adolescent brain vulnerabilities, the role of compartmentalization, the dynamic of a murder apprenticeship, and how tales like Henleys can aid with early intervention. Despite his youth and cooperation, Henley went to trial and received six life sentences. Hes now sixty-five and has a sense of perspective about how adult predators can turn formerly good kids into criminals. Unexpectedly, hes willing to talk. This book is his warning and the story of the unspeakable evil and sorrow that befell Houston in the early 1970s.