David Owen Brooks

In the years since his 1975 conviction, Brooks has repeatedly been denied parole (most recently in 2018). He is next eligible for parole in 2028.

In the winter of 1971, Brooks—having by this stage assisted in luring a minimum of six teenage boys to Corll's various addresses—introduced an acquaintance of his named Elmer Wayne Henley to Corll. Henley was likely an intended victim, although Corll evidently saw Henley as an invaluable potential accomplice. Both Brooks and Henley would remain active participants in the abduction and abuse of Corll's victims until Corll was shot to death by Henley on August 8, 1973.

Brooks was found guilty in David Owen Brooks vs The State of Texas in 1975. He was found guilty of the June 4, 1973 abduction and murder of 15-year-old William Ray Lawrence. An appeal against Brooks' conviction was lodged, but this appeal would be dismissed in 1979.

Corll's victims were typically lured to a succession of addresses in which he resided between 1970 and 1973 with an offer of a party or a lift. They would then be restrained by either force or deception, and all were killed by either strangulation or shooting with a .22-caliber pistol. 17 of these murder victims were buried in a rented boat shed; four other victims were buried in woodland near Lake Sam Rayburn; one further victim was buried on a beach in Jefferson County; and at least six victims were buried on a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula.

In December 1970, David Brooks entered an apartment Corll then-rented, unannounced, to discover Corll in the act of sexually assaulting two teenage boys whom he had strapped to a four-poster bed. According to Brooks, Corll "jumped up and said, 'I'm just having some fun!'" He promised Brooks a car in return for his silence; Brooks accepted this offer and Corll subsequently bought him a green Chevrolet Corvette. Brooks was later told by Corll that the two youths had been murdered, and he was offered $200 for any boy he could lure to Corll's apartment—an incitement he accepted.

David Owen Brooks (born February 12, 1955) is an American convicted murderer, and accomplice of serial killer Dean Corll who, along with Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr., abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered at least 28 boys and young men, in a series of killings spanning from 1970 to 1973 in Houston, Texas. The crimes, which became known as the Houston Mass Murders, came to light after Henley fatally shot Corll.