Overview

• The Serial Killer’s Apprentice, premiering Aug. 17 on Investigation Discovery, marks Henley’s first on-camera account of his role in the Houston Mass Murders.
• Forensic psychologist Dr. Katherine Ramsland describes how Dean Corll systematically groomed and manipulated vulnerable teens in Houston Heights to gain their trust and compliance.
• The film highlights Corll’s use of tailored incentives—money for Henley and shelter and respect for David Brooks—to recruit and control his teenage accomplices.
• It examines how Corll’s friendly “Candy Man” image and threats of an invented sex-trafficking syndicate silenced both accomplices and families.
• Henley, who pleaded guilty and remains serving a life sentence, expresses remorse and aims to expose how he was coerced into violence under Corll’s training and intimidation.