The health of Elmer Wayne Henley, one of Texas' most infamous serial killers, may be worsening. Families of his victims recently told Houston CBS affiliate KHOU that they'd received notifications Henley's case would be reviewed for possible medical parole. According to online records, Henley is currently housed at the Stiles Unit in Jefferson County.
The so-called Candyman killings terrorized the Houston area and Southeast Texas at large from 1970 to 1973.
In August 1973, Henley shot and killed Dean Corll, the mastermind sadistic pedophile murderer who was the ringleader of the mass murders. Corll, who spent his high school years in Vidor, was known as the Candyman due to his family's candy business in the Heights area of Houston.
Seventeen young boys were buried in a boat shed in Pasadena, one on a beach in Jefferson County, four near Lake Sam Rayburn, and at least six victims were buried on a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula.
Henley, now 66, was sentenced to six life sentences in 1979.
According to KHOU, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has decided not to forward his case to the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole for review.
KTRK, the ABC affiliate in Houston, reported that Henley applied for compassionate release last week. The state, citing privacy reasons, will not say what Henley's medical situation is, according to KTRK.
Henley told KFDM 6 News anchor Aaron Drawhorn 16 years ago, in an interview for Corpus Christi TV station KRIS from the Telford Unit in New Boston, Texas, that he is not a "serial killer."
David Owen Brooks, the other Corll henchman convicted in the murder spree, died incarcerated in 2020 from COVID-19.