I think the source is interviews with authors / journalists / filmmakers.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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One of the most horrific mass murder case of all time.

Its so horrific that it is somehow not nearly as famous as other cases from around the US.

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It's not as famous because Corill was killed by Elmer Henley and there wasn't the huge circus trial that other serial killers like Gasey ended up having - which is what made those cases famous and somewhat common knowledge. Without the media coverage of the trial 24/7, those cases are just footnotes as well in the grand scheme of things.

Had Corill been caught and subjected to interviews and likely confessions, the entire world would know about the events and odds are that HPD doesn't give up on the investigation because they would have had a massive spotlight on them and would not have been able to do so.

But that's now how this one turned out unfortunately. Corill was killed and the resulting investigation didn't last terribly long.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Remember the I-45 murders?

Is the prevailing theory that the killer died or got picked up and is in prison for an unrelated crime?

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Are you talking about the Calder Killing Fields?

Ag_of_08 said:

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Didn't he admit at or near execution that there are more he "forgot" to mention?

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Elmer who was one of his helpers has there are more bodies out there. The other helper died in prison last year, so he isn't giving up any secrets

Yes, generally.

I remember reading about this all through the 90s before some of the cases were solved.

First case I remember reading about was in the 80s when a girl in Galveston disappeared from a gas station near 51st street.

Seems like there was another incident every couple years throughout the 90s.

He was the #1 by body count serial killer for a brief time before Gacey was arrested.

After reading through the victims, HPD really was asleep during the investigation. Though the links are weak it wouldn't take someone long to figure out the pattern. I understand it is easier with the data now but come on.

Thanks for posting that. I am going to check that out.
I was so disappointed when Vincent Buglisoi died before Charles Manson.

dallasiteinsa02 said:

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After reading through the victims, HPD really was asleep during the investigation. Though the links are weak it wouldn't take someone long to figure out the pattern. I understand it is easier with the data now but come on.

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I have often heard people say that HPD during the 70s was a real mess.

Could someone who was there at the time explain what exactly was going on?

Think about this: at that time most Americans had no clue stuff like this existed.
HPD missed things that in our modern day we think to look for.

It took an intuitive police dispatcher to connect with the Son of Sam task force to give them the final clue.
The main push that task force did was to put armed officers in cars, one of them in drag.

The hunter killer serial killer was not something we thought about.
Sure Zodiac was out there, but DC was a gay, sadistic killer who many people believed killed other gay men.
And in the early 1970s most of the southern population was ok with gay men being killed.

TxTarpon said:

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Thanks for posting that. I am going to check that out.
I was so disappointed when Vincent Buglisoi died before Charles Manson.

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The book spends maybe too much time acknowledging people, but that's just the kind of man he is. I went to junior high school and was in BSA with his son. It was amazing to look back at what he did on a daily basis, yet still came to school and scout functions. He's pretty damn good for a tsip.

Owlagdad said:

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The Heights low rents. You didn't want to be in that area much back then.

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That's it in a nutshell. The victims were from a part of Houston most people avoided like the plague. The investigation gets glossed over because of where it happened and the victims were mainly the poor. Had it happened in Sharpstown, Bellaire (both considered nice areas back then), or in the Memorial Dr area, you can bet it would have been handled differently.

It was a huge black eye on the City of Houston, and most people, especially those in government, law enforcement, and business, just wanted to get beyond it quickly.

My ex sister in law taught High School in the Heights at the time and she said many of her students knew the people involved.

The Heights is nothing like it used to be in the 60s and 70s.

The Clown and the Candyman Podcast

Good listen about John Wayne Gacy and Dean Corill

That's not 100% correct. My friends were from the Sherwood Oaks area of Spring Branch. I-10/Town&Country area. Very affluent area in the late '60's/70's.

They were "taken" while attending a Youth Rally in the Heights area. I was at that rally. Like you said, the Heights was sketchy at best back then. That said, kids from all over Houston were at that rally. Brought in by the bus load by their local church.

Wrong place and wrong time.

11 of Corll's victims went to the same middle school and something like 400 boys went missing from the Heights between 1971 and 1973.

And HPD did virtually nothing. That's absolutely insane and should be criminal.

Quote:

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11 of Corll's victims went to the same middle school and something like 400 boys went missing from the Heights between 1971 and 1973.

And HPD did virtually nothing. That's absolutely insane and should be criminal.

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That sounds like a podcast unto itself.

TarponChaser said:

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11 of Corll's victims went to the same middle school and something like 400 boys went missing from the Heights between 1971 and 1973.

And HPD did virtually nothing. That's absolutely insane and should be criminal.

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Holy ***** How were people not patrolling the area with weapons?

Sea Speed said:

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BAP Enthusiast said:

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JobSecurity said:

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Don't really hear about mass murder any more. Is it not a thing? Too much technology for people to get away with it for that long?

Last one I remember is the DC shooters but I lived there at the time so maybe that's why.

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It's probably easier than ever to do it now. I believe that something like 95% of serial killers are never caught.

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Easier than ever to be a serial killer? What? I've come to the exact opposite conclusion. What makes you say that? Not even trying to play gotcha or something, im looking forward to hearing things I haven't considered.

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You can find information online of how to avoid detection. Just like with everything else, there is an enormous amount of info everywhere. And this is not even including the Dark Web, which is full of horrors that make this thread look tame.

So your answer is to use Google to find out how to commit perfect crimes/serial kill?

400 people is up near the very top of the worldwide lists. That's an incredible number!

Sea Speed said:

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So your answer is to use Google to find out how to commit perfect crimes/serial kill?

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Not Google, the Dark Web using Tor and all of the .onion sites. That's a place where you can buy and sell literally anything including people. You can find damn near any kind of information there. I don't ever recommend anyone going there though, it will ruin you. It makes 4chan and 8chan look like a place full of Saints.

Owlagdad said:

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The Heights low rents. You didn't want to be in that area much back then.

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Now its filled with unlikeable NIMBY white liberals. I prefer Oak Forest just a few miles north of the Heights, even though you can hear gun shots on a regular basis.

BAP Enthusiast said:

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TarponChaser said:

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11 of Corll's victims went to the same middle school and something like 400 boys went missing from the Heights between 1971 and 1973.

And HPD did virtually nothing. That's absolutely insane and should be criminal.

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Holy ***** How were people not patrolling the area with weapons?

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No **** that is almost hard to believe. While the heights is a large "neighborhood" and back then the profile was probably primarily young families with children playing and roaming the streets, that number is completely staggering. 20-30 would be insane, but 400? Trying to wrap my head around that. That would be a lot for an entire state.

Bregxit said:

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TarponChaser said:

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11 of Corll's victims went to the same middle school and something like 400 boys went missing from the Heights between 1971 and 1973.

And HPD did virtually nothing. That's absolutely insane and should be criminal.

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HPD was a c-hair short of being a vigilante group at that time. There were no state minimum standards or training for peace officers so any idiot off the street could be a cop. There was no FTO (field training officer) program. Rookies just got tossed to the wolves so to speak. There were few if any two way radios.

Law enforcement then was nothing like it was even in the 80s, much less today. There just were not the tools and knowledge to really figure these things out without and extraordinary stroke of luck.

Hell think about Gacy. People were disappearing left and right around him. He was taking pictures with Jimmy Carter's wife while he had his workers digging graves in his crawl space at his house.

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You bring up some solid points. Just last June, HPD finally apologized to his family for killing Joe Torres. He was beat to death in 1977 and left in Buffalo Bayou.

Jose Campos Torres

Really people just thought all these kids were running away and heading out west. It was alot easier to believe the running away thing with all that went on in the 60s. Also HPD was severely understaffed at that time and overworked and just saying that was alot easier then opening up an investigation for every kid that went missing

I stand corrected

BAP Enthusiast said:

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Sea Speed said:

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So your answer is to use Google to find out how to commit perfect crimes/serial kill?

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Not Google, the Dark Web using Tor and all of the .onion sites. That's a place where you can buy and sell literally anything including people. You can find damn near any kind of information there. I don't ever recommend anyone going there though, it will ruin you. It makes 4chan and 8chan look like a place full of Saints.

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My god man. What kind of things have seen on there?????

Well, I remember looking out our back yard which was very close to the storage shed where a bunch of the bodies were buried and seeing tons of police and wondering what the hell was going on. This was when they got the information from Elmer Wayne Hendley about where they buried some of them.
Freaked us right the hell out when we found out.
Also, my ex grew up in the Heights and went to high school with some of the boys that ended up victims. Him and his friends used to smoke pot and hitch hike around the area and he used to think how damn lucky there were later.

black_ice said:

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BAP Enthusiast said:

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Sea Speed said:

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So your answer is to use Google to find out how to commit perfect crimes/serial kill?

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Not Google, the Dark Web using Tor and all of the .onion sites. That's a place where you can buy and sell literally anything including people. You can find damn near any kind of information there. I don't ever recommend anyone going there though, it will ruin you. It makes 4chan and 8chan look like a place full of Saints.

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My god man. What kind of things have seen on there?????

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I only ventured once, never again. The videos of pit bulls trained by cartels to eat genitals of their enemies is the top of the iceberg of the kind of horrors you may see. You will find the absolute worst of humanity by every metric avoid it at all costs.