Houston has a dark history with serial killers. The city's sprawl, highway access, and transient population have made it a hunting ground for some of the worst offenders in American true crime history.
Some were locals who grew up in the neighborhoods they terrorized. Others passed through and left a trail of bodies behind them.
Here are the worst serial killers connected to Houston, Texas, and the crimes that put them on the map.
1. The Railroad Killer
Mexican national, Angel Maturino Resendiz, terrorized the city of Houston with a string of brutal murders which occurred during the 1990’s. Resendiz was given the alias of “The Railroad Killer” because most his murders took place near railways, which he also used to traverse across much of the southern United States. Though not a native Houstonian, he was responsible for the murder of at least two victims in the Houston-area. His murder method of choice usually involved bludgeoning his victims with various objects including rocks and pick axes.
In the Houston area specifically, Resendiz killed Dr. Claudia Benton in her West University Place home in December 1998, bludgeoning her during a break-in. He also murdered Noemi Dominguez, a schoolteacher in the nearby town of Weimer, stabbing her inside her home just steps from the train tracks.
His method was consistent: hop off a freight train, find a home near the tracks, break in, and attack with whatever heavy object was available. After the FBI placed him on their Ten Most Wanted list, his own sister helped arrange his surrender at an El Paso border crossing in 1999. He was convicted and executed by lethal injection in 2006.
2. The Sunday Morning Slasher
One of the most notorious serial killers in American history, Carl "Coral" Eugene Watts is suspected of murdering as many as 100 women. Watts particularly targeted young white women and used various tactics to kill his victims including stabbing, slashing, drowning, strangulation and bludgeoning. The Sunday Morning Slasher made his mark in Houston in the early 1980’s with the murders of several young women, several of whom were simply jogging through their neighborhoods. Police were left puzzled as these murders occurred randomly throughout the city at such a high frequency.
Watts moved to Houston in 1981 and immediately started targeting women. Over the next year, he killed at least a dozen in the area, attacking them while they were jogging, walking to their cars, or alone at home. His methods varied, making it difficult for police to connect the cases.
In 1982, Watts broke into a Galveston apartment and attempted to drown two roommates. One woman escaped and called for help. In a controversial plea deal, Watts confessed to 12 Houston-area murders in exchange for a reduced burglary charge. The deal meant he could never be tried for murder in Texas. When Michigan later connected him to a 1979 killing using new evidence, Watts was convicted of first-degree murder in 2004. He died of prostate cancer in prison in 2007.
3. Edward Harold Bell
Self-proclaimed sex offender and serial killer, Edward Harold Bell, was responsible for the murder of at least seven teenage and adolescent girls in the 1970’s. Bell attests that being brainwashed caused him to lead a deviously malicious life of raping and killing. Since he murdered so many girls in the Houston-area, he was only able to recall his victims by their haircolor.
In 2011, Bell began writing letters from prison to a local prosecutor, confessing to eleven murders between 1971 and 1975. He referred to his victims as "the eleven who went to heaven." Several descriptions in his letters matched real missing persons cases from the Houston area, including teenage girls who vanished from neighborhoods along the Gulf Coast.
Bell had first drawn police attention in 1978 when he was convicted of shooting a young man at a Pasadena boat ramp. He served only five years for that killing. Bell died in prison in 2019 at age 79, and investigators continue working to connect his confessions to specific cold cases.
4. The Candy Man
Probably the most infamous Houston serial killer would have to be Ben Corll, eerily dubbed “The Candy Man.” From 1970 to 1973, The Candy Man targeted young boys in the Houston-area, particularly runaways and teenage male sex workers. During his three-year crime spree, Corll kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered at least twenty-eight boys.
He earned the nicknamed “The Candy Man” because his family owned and operated a candy factory in The Heights area of the city. Corll was known to frequently give away free candy to neighborhood children. This act of sweetness was surely a facade for his sadistic, murderous reality.
Corll ran his operation with the help of two teenage accomplices: David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley. Both boys helped lure victims to Corll's home with promises of parties, drugs, and alcohol. Once inside, victims were restrained on a plywood torture board that Corll had built. Their bodies were buried in a rented boat shed in southwest Houston, along the shores of Lake Sam Rayburn, and at High Island Beach.
The killing spree ended on August 8, 1973, when Henley shot Corll to death. The subsequent discovery of 28 bodies shocked the nation and exposed massive failures in the Houston Police Department, which had dismissed many of the missing boys as runaways.
5. Elmer Wayne Henley
Houston serial killer, Elmer Wayne Henley, earned notoriety for his role in a number of murders which occurred in the early 1970’s. Henley played his part as an accomplice to Ben Corll’s numerous murders of young teenage and adolescent boys. Henley, being nearly two decades his junior, assisted Corll by luring young victims to their unfortunate deaths. The duo’s illicit killing spree came to an abrupt conclusion when Henley shot Corll to death after a quarrel during an alcohol and drug fueled party.
Henley was only 15 when Corll recruited him, reportedly paying $200 for each new victim Henley brought in. On the night Corll died, Henley had brought two uninvited guests to a party. Corll was furious and threatened to kill all three. Henley grabbed Corll's own gun and shot him six times, then called 911 and led police to the burial sites.
Henley was tried and convicted of six counts of murder in 1974 and sentenced to six consecutive 99-year terms. Now in his late 60s, he remains incarcerated at the Mark W. Stiles Unit in Beaumont, Texas. He has been denied parole multiple times.
6. The Tourniquet Killer
Anthony Allen Shore terrorized Houston for nearly a decade before DNA evidence finally caught up with him. Between 1986 and 1995, Shore raped and strangled at least four women and girls using a homemade tourniquet fashioned from rope or wire.
Shore's victims ranged in age from 9 to 21. He worked as a telephone repairman, which gave him access to homes throughout the city and helped him avoid suspicion for years. Houston police connected him to the murders in 2003 after a DNA sample from a separate sexual assault case matched evidence from one of the crime scenes.
Shore confessed to all four killings and was sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection on January 18, 2018.
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Like any other major U.S. city, the list of serial killers in Houston is quite extensive. As a true crime aficionado, you may find that conducting some research into your own hometown may reveal some dark details. In the meantime, you may find this overview of notorious serial killers from Wisconsin an entertaining gateway into your pursuit for true crime knowledge.
More True Crime:
The Night Stalker: Richard Ramirez
John Wayne Gacy: The Real Life Killer Clown
The Seven Worst Serial Killers From Ohio
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the most notorious serial killer from Houston?
Dean Corll, known as "The Candy Man," is generally considered the most infamous Houston serial killer. Between 1970 and 1973, Corll kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered at least 28 boys and young men with help from two teenage accomplices. At the time of his death, it was the worst mass murder case in modern U.S. history.
How many serial killers have been connected to Houston?
Depending on how broadly you define "connected to Houston," the number ranges from a dozen to over twenty. Some killers were born and raised in the city, others committed murders while passing through, and a few operated in the broader Houston metropolitan area. The city's size, sprawling highway system, and proximity to the border have made it a recurring location in serial crime cases.
Why does Houston have so many serial killers?
Criminologists point to several factors. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the U.S., so higher population means more crime overall. The city's extensive highway network and proximity to Interstate 10 and Interstate 45 give transient criminals easy access and escape routes. Houston also has large areas of low-income, high-density housing where missing persons cases historically received less police attention.
10 comments
Shirley Simmons
Did they ever catch the leaky eye rapist / murder of fourth ward 1974?
Theresa Rodriguez
My great uncle was murdered in Harris co TX. This case as far as I know is a cold case. My grandma passed not knowing who murdered her brother. His name is Kenneth Raymond Crawford murder was 1975. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
James Little
Do you have any information
On Leaky Eye that was in late
60’s Homestead houston texas
Please let me know
Lucy Davila Hakemack
Hello, I grew up in the Houston Heights at 1915 Rutland. There was an old 2 story house across the alley from my house. There was a brutal murder of a young maybe teenage girl that happened one night in the upstairs part of tha house also on Rutland st. I think I was 7 yrs. old , maybe older so it had to have occurred in the early 1960’s. I believed the victim was stabbed to death and put in the bathtub. The killer got in the upstairs apartment through some inside back stairs. My family actually lived in that top apartment of that old house until I was about 4. It is no longer there. I had a strange dream about that young girl and her murder and I wonder if it was ever solved. Do you know about it.?Thanks. Lucy
K
When I told my mom about this she said there was this man in her neighborhood they called the Candyman (this is way after the Candyman got caught) and he always gave them free candy and than one day he just disappeared
Roger Gartman
The title “candy man” is shared in Houston. Both within 2 years of each other. Dean Corll in 1973 and Clark O’Bryan in 1975. O’Bryan is the cause of the Halloween candy scare that everyone in the nation still fears due to myths spread from his actions. O’Bryan poisoned his son fatally for insurance money and attempted to poison his daughter and 4 other neighbor kids to cover up his crime by saying it was handed out as trick or treat candy. He was executed in 1985. I know such as he lived in my hometown…we never forgot.
Roger Gartman
You can’t separate Dean Corll and Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. as they were both apart of the same murder spree of teenage boys.
Roger Gartman
It was DEAN Corll. He got the title candy man due to the fact that his parents owned a well to do candy factory in Houston. Its claimed he had an ice cream truck that he used to find his targets…but thats only word spread by those who lived here during the time of his murders. He also had 2 accomplices, one of which shot him in the chest prior to arrest, Elmer Wayne Henley Jr was that man. Henley and Albert brooks were given life sentences for the crimes.
Dee
It’s Dean Corll
Megan
Dean Corll