Hey, y’all, and welcome to Southern Macabre! Thank y’all so much for tuning in today for True Crime Friday. Today I’m going to tell y’all about a solved case from Texas. I’m going to try to spare y’all the graphic details, but y’all may not want your young’uns listening in.
Dean Arnold Corll was born December 24, 1939 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but moved to Memphis, Tennessee after his parents, Arnold and Mary Corll, divorced. His father was stationed there with the U.S. Air Force and his mother wanted him to still have contact with both of his sons, Corll, and his younger brother, Stanley Wayne Corll.
His parents reconciled, remarried, and moved to Pasadena, Texas. It didn’t last long and they divorced on good terms and Arnold maintained contact with his boys.
After this divorce, Mary married a traveling clock salesman named Jake West. They moved to Vidor, Texas where his half-sister, Joyce, was born. Mary and Jake started a family-owned candy company in their garage and Jake would sell it to his clients. Corll worked in the candy kitchen all of the time, even though he was still in school. He and his brother were responsible for the candy-making machines and packaging.
The family moved just outside Houston in 1958, when Corll graduated, to help the popular candy company, Pecan Prince, grow. In 1960, Mary asked Corll to move in with his elderly grandmother, which he did.
During this time, he became friends with a local girl. She proposed marriage to him in 1962, but he turned her down. He returned to Houston in 1962 to help with the candy shop that had moved to Houston Heights by then. He moved into an apartment above the store.
Mary divorced Jack in 1963 and opened Corll Candy Shop. Corll was appointed vice-president and Stanley was secretary-treasurer. That year, one of the teenaged male employees told Mary that Corll had made sexual advances towards him, so she fired the employee.
On August 10, 1964, Corll went to Fort Polk, Louisiana after being drafted by the U.S. Army. He was then assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia where he was trained to fix radios. His permanent assignment was Fort Hood, Texas. He was honorably discharged after ten months of service so he could go back to Houston to help with Corll Candy Company.
Corll reportedly told close friends that it was during his time in the Army that he realized he was a homosexual and had had his first homosexual experiences during that time. Others noticed how he acted around teenaged boys after he came home and wondered if he was a homosexual.
He returned to a fierce competition between Pecan Prince, his former stepfather’s company, and Corll Candy Company, his mother’s business. He increased the number of hours he worked in order to meet the demand for his family’s candy.
In 1965, Corll Candy Company relocated across the street from an elementary school. Corll earned the nickname “ The Candy Man '' and “Pied Piper '' because he would give free candy to children, especially teenage boys.
The “Pied Piper” title was a bit prophetic as the legend says that the Pied Piper lured children to their deaths and their families never saw them again.
Only a few people worked in the candy store and he was seen to behave inappropriately with several teenage male employees. He bought a pool table which he set up at the back of the store where employees and young people would hang out.
In 1967, he befriended a sixth grader named David Owen Brooks, one of the many who rece
This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app