The Pied Piper’s Prince

On August 8th, 1973, a young man called the Pasadena Police Department and reported he had shot and killed a man, who had attacked him and his two friends. The story would eventually unravel the mystery of numerous missing boys in the Houston and Pasadena area who were subjected to the terror of the gunned-down man. It would be his evil that detectives would first coin the term Serial Killer as an ominous search exposed the torture and horrific murders of nearly thirty boys. This tragedy brought national attention igniting interest in Truman Capote himself who showed up to capture the ’Story of the Year’ or his next best seller. This, however, is not his story. Grains of truth are blended in this fictional tale of The Pied Pipers Prince that encompasses the infamous crimes of Dean Arnold Corll and his chosen entourage of demon-teenage accomplices, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley as well as other nuggets from stories of the time. Houston referred to this evil as The Candy Man or The Pied Piper as he used candy made from his family’s candy shop to lure in unsuspected victims until he enlisted two of those victims to invite their friends over with a promise of booze and pot not knowing that they would become the ultimate party favor. The Pied Piper’s Prince is a fictional tale and a twisted one. Admittedly the truth of the story is quite disturbing, especially for the mothers and fathers who stayed up long nights waiting to hear from their children only to later find out that they were buried in an old boat shed or reservoir. Sheriffs worked endless hours to excavate the areas that the accomplices led them to where shreds of hope were washed away by tears as each boy or in some cases a portion of a boy was recovered thanks to the diligence of the Harris County Team. Although this book instills a bit of madness, the grief one feels from losing a loved one in such a horrid way is not to be disrespected. It has been nearly fifty years since that phone call, and with many of the family members having moved on or passed away, it remains a stain on Texas History that has been covered up with live music and Barbecue. Sadly, there are no markers of remembrance or talk in Pasadena or surrounding areas of what would become known as the Houston Mass Murders, but occasionally a show of the Lost Boys will pop up. Usually, every time the house on Lamar Street is listed for sale raising morbid curiosities of wanting to be near a place where so many murders took place or a parent of one of these children passes away hoping that their long lost son will meet them at Heaven’s Gate. Thanks to the compassion of the city of Pasadena, the house was torn down in 2023.As you weave through the twisted tale of paranormal horror and demonic vengeance, take a breath away from the fiction within these pages and love those around you. Pray for those who have had their children’s lives stolen from them by the real evil of the world, and if you have had a life touched in such a horrible way, the author’s prayers are with you and your family.