Henley guilty of boys' deaths

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33588, 17 July 1974, Page 13

Henley guilty of boys' deaths

(New Zealand Press Association—Copyright 1 )

SAN ANTONIO (Texas), July 16. Elmer Wayne Henley was convicted yesterday of killing six boys lured to the home of a bachelor electrician, sexually tortured, and murdered.

Testimony in the sentencing phase of the trial, which began today, could last a week—as long as the trial testimony itself. Henley could receive 99 years or life for each of the six killings. Henley, whose trial was moved from Houston to San Antonio because of the extensive publicity in Houston surrounding the recovery of the 27 victims of the threeyear murder spree, is one of two people charged with taking part in the killings. David Owen Brooks, aged 19, will be tried later.

According to a confession Henley signed, Dean Arnold Corll, aged 33, a bachelor electrician, was the planner of the scheme. Henley shot Corl) on August 8, 1973, and then told police about the killings and, with the help of Brooks, led police to three places in Texas where bodies were buried in lime-soaked graves.

The defence counsel (Mr Will Gray) pleaded for mercy before the jury, telling the six men and six women that

Corll was the instigator of the murders and had influenced Henley, Who was 14 when the first boy was killed.

. “The monster is dead,” Gray said. “I just ask that you somehow, someway judge this evidence as unemotionally as you can. Give this boy the benefit of every reasonable doubt if you can find it in your hearts to do so.”