The horrific crimes of Killer Clown and the Candy Man – and why ‘nobody cared’ about many victims
They are two of the most notorious serial killers in US history after murdering more than 60 young men and boys between them.
The horrific crimes of Dean Corll and John Wayne Gacy shocked America in the 1970s – but how closely they were linked has only recently been discovered.
Corll tortured, raped and murdered at least 28 victims in Texas after luring them to his home with the help of two teenagers.
The Clown And The Candyman documentary investigates the killers’ links to a wider conspiracy. Pic: Cineflix
The 33-year-old was dubbed the Candy Man because he gave children free sweets from his family’s confectionery business.
His brutal killings – known as the Houston Mass Murders – were only uncovered when he was shot dead by his accomplice Elmer Wayne Henley in 1973.
A year earlier, more than 1,000 miles away, Gacy had murdered his first known victim.
The builder from a suburb of Chicago lured victims to his home by pretending to be a police officer or by promising them work.
He became known as the Killer Clown after performing as Pogo the clown at fundraising events and hospitals throughout the years of his murders.
Police mugshots of Gacy. Pic: Cineflix
Gacy as Pogo the clown. Pic: Cineflix
Gacy was later convicted of killing 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978 and was executed in 1994.
Now, a documentary, The Clown And The Candyman, has examined the two killers’ connection to a wider criminal conspiracy.
The four-part series identifies “a link” between the murderers and a network of paedophiles operating in the US at the time, according to its director.
And documentary maker Jacqueline Bynon believes there is “no question” there are more victims of the pair who are yet to be discovered.
She tells Sky News that Corll and Gacy are the most shocking serial killers in US history “because they operated for so long in big cities in plain sight and nobody noticed”.
Corll murdered at least 28 young men and boys. Pic: AP/Houston Chronicle
Many of their victims – who were all boys and young men – would go missing and “nobody cared”.
“The interesting thing looking back from our perspective today is nobody cared about boys then,” Bynon says.
“They called them runaways. They didn’t matter.
“In one high school in one little area, 11 boys were missing and nobody noticed.
“Remember in the early 70s, it was just after Easy Rider; doing your own thing; marijuana – the counter-culture was there. Boys were doing that. And some of them were going to the Vietnam War and not coming back.
Sheriff deputies display Corll’s torture board. Pic: AP
“So when the seats were empty in the classroom, nobody noticed.
“If they had been girls, as one cop said to me, this would have been different.
“If a girl had gone missing, they would have put a lot of time into it.”
After shooting dead Corll in 1973, Henley and fellow accomplice David Owen Brooks confessed to helping the serial killer commit his crimes.
Seventeen bodies were found in a boat shed, four were discovered in woodland by a lake, and the other seven known victims were buried at beaches.
Workers search for more bodies of Corll’s victims. Pic: AP
Bynon visited the Texas cities of Pasadena and Houston where Corll carried out his killings and she says the impact is still being felt.
“For some people, it was like the murders occurred two weeks ago,” she tells Sky News.
“They were still raw over it. They are still almost haunted by it.”
Both of Corll’s accomplices received life prison sentences, with Brooks reportedly dying with COVID last year while still behind bars.
Henley – now aged 65 – remains in prison and Bynon spoke to him several times about doing an interview for the documentary.
Corll’s accomplice Elmer Wayne Henley. Pic: Cineflix
“The problem was COVID hit,” she says.
“Unlike most lifers, he liked being communicated to by journalists. But he always wanted something.
“He was friendly but he was also cautious. When I asked him about certain things, he would go: ‘I don’t know anything about’.
“That’s the one thing I regret – that I never got to sit opposite him… he may have opened up.”
The crawl space inside Gacy’s home. Pic: Cineflix
Gacy claimed all of his killings were committed inside his house in Chicago. Twenty-six bodies were found in his crawl space, three others were buried elsewhere at his property and four victims were dumped in a river.
Eight of his victims were buried without being identified – six still haven’t been named.
After being convicted of 33 murders – then the most homicides by one person in US legal history – Gacy was sentenced to death in 1980, but it would be another 14 years until he was executed by lethal injection.
“His final words when he was executed were: ‘Kiss my ass,'” says Bynon.
Gacy was sentenced to death for his crimes. Pic: AP
The filmmaker says she was given recordings of conversations Gacy had during his time in prison – which feature in the documentary – with a man called Randy White who was “fascinated by serial killers”.
White recorded his talks with Gacy over two years and spoke to the murderer the day before he was executed.
Police recover bodies from Gacy’s home. Pic: AP
Bynon believes some people’s fear of clowns originates from the Gacy case.
“They’re supposed to make you laugh but that’s the way he lured people in,” she says.
“He did it with innocence to cover up.”
The Clown And The Candyman begins airing on Sky Crime at 9pm on Sunday.
A judge has postponed sentencing in Donald Trump’s hush money case and granted permission for his lawyers to seek a dismissal.
It comes after the Manhattan district attorney said he wouldn’t oppose a motion to delay the sentencing.
In May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to commit election fraud.
It was the first time a US president had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offence.
Trump had tried to cover up “hush money” payments to a porn star in the days before the 2016 election.
When Stormy Daniels‘ claims of a sexual liaison threatened to upend his presidential campaign, Trump directed his lawyer to pay $130,000 (£102,000) to keep her quiet.
The payment buried the story and he later won the presidency.
Trump denied the charges and said the case was politically motivated. He also denied the sexual encounter took place.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan today delayed the sentencing, which had been due to take place on Tuesday.
The New York case revolved around payments to Stormy Daniels. Pic: AP
The office of district attorney Alvin Bragg had asked the judge to postpone all proceedings until Trump finishes his four-year presidency, which starts on 20 January.
Trump’s lawyers say the case should be dismissed because it will create “unconstitutional impediments” to his ability to govern.
Responding to Friday’s decision, a Trump campaign spokesman said: “The American People have issued a mandate to return him to office and dispose of all remnants of the Witch Hunt cases.”
The judge set a 2 December deadline for Trump’s lawyers to file their motion, while prosecutors have until 9 December to respond.
He did not set a new date for sentencing or indicate when he would rule on any motion to throw out the case.
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Even before Trump’s win in this month’s election, experts said a jail term was unlikely and a fine or probation more probable.
But his resounding victory over Kamala Harris made the prospect of time behind bars or probation even less likely.
Trump, 78, was also charged last year in three other cases.
One involved him keeping classified documents after he left office and the other two centre on alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
A Florida judge dismissed the documents case in July, the Georgia election case is in limbo, and the Justice Department is expected to wind down the federal election case as it has a policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
Trump last week nominated his lawyers in the hush money case, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, for senior roles in the Justice department.
When he re-enters the White House, Trump will also have the power to shut down the Georgia and New York cases.
US
Pam Bondi: Key proponent of Trump’s false 2020 election claims set to head justice department after Gaetz withdrawal
Donald Trump has pledged for years to surround himself with ultra-loyalists who can mould his government to his vision without barriers.
That’s precisely why he picked Matt Gaetz. Now he’s out, Pam Bondi is in and she’s equally loyal.
Gaetz was uniquely unpopular on Capitol Hill but ultra-MAGA and ultra-loyal to the president-elect.
He was chosen by the president-elect to do his bidding inside the Justice Department as attorney general.
Critics called his pick “a red alert moment for democracy” and the man a “gonzo agent of chaos” – language that would surely only affirm Trump’s decision in his own proudly disruptive mind.
Matt Gaetz has withdrawn despite Trump putting him forward for attorney general. Pic: AP
If it wasn’t for the fact that the president-elect is himself a convicted felon, and a man found liable in a civil court of his own sexual offences, the prospect of Gaetz, with all his baggage, making it through the nomination process would have seemed remote.
But Donald Trump’s return to the White House suggested anything is possible.
And so, beyond his loyalty, Gaetz was Trump’s test for his foot soldiers on Capitol Hill. How loyal were they? Would they wave through anyone he appointed?
It turns out that Gaetz, and the storm around his private life, was too much for a proportion of them.
At least five Senate Republicans were flatly against Matt Gaetz’s confirmation. We understand that they communicated to other senators and those close to Trump that they were unlikely to be swayed.
They included the Republican old guard like Senator Mitch McConnell.
Beyond the hard “no” senators, there were between 20 and 30 other Republicans who were very uncomfortable about having to vote for Gaetz on the Senate floor.
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Trump pick Matt Gaetz withdraws
The key question is whether Gaetz was Trump’s intentional wild card crazy choice that he knew, deep down, would probably never fly.
Was Gaetz the candidate he had accepted would be vetoed by senators – who would then feel compelled to wave the rest of his nominees through?
Will Pete Hegseth’s alleged sexual impropriety concern them as they consider the suitability of the former Fox News host and army major to run the Department of Defence?
What about Tulsi Gabbard, the candidate Russian state TV calls ‘our girl’, and the appropriateness of her running America’s intelligence agencies?
These are all appointments that the politicians on Capitol Hill must consider and confirm in the weeks ahead.
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We don’t yet know who Trump will choose to direct the FBI.
There are some names being floated which will make the establishment of Washington shudder but then that’s precisely why Trump was elected. He is the disrupter. He said so at every rally, on repeat.
He was quick to pivot to another name to replace Gaetz.
Bondi is the former attorney general of Florida. Professionally she is in a different league to Gaetz. She’s been a tough prosecutor, with a no-nonsense reputation.
She is also among the most loyal of loyalists. Her attachment to Trump stretches way back.
Pam Bondi speaks during a Trump rally in November 2024. Pic: Reuters
I first came across her in Philadelphia in November 2020 when she was among Trump surrogates claiming the election back then had been stolen from them by Joe Biden and the Democrats.
She was a key proponent of the false claims the election had been rigged and Trump was the rightful winner.
The court cases concluding that was all nonsense didn’t seem to convince her.
Now she is poised to head up the Department of Justice as the country’s top law enforcement official.
US
Donald Trump on day one: Pace of change ‘like nothing you’ve seen in history’, warns campaign official
Within hours of taking office, president-elect Donald Trump plans to begin rolling out policies including large-scale deportations, according to his transition team.
Sky News partner network NBC News has spoken with more than half a dozen people familiar with the executive orders that his team plans to enact.
One campaign official said changes are expected at a pace that is “like nothing you’ve seen in history”, to signal a dramatic break from President Joe Biden’s administration.
Mr Trump is preparing on day one to overturn specific policies put in place by Mr Biden. Among the measures, reported by sources close to the transition team, are:
• The speedy and large-scale deportations of illegal immigrants
• Ending travel reimbursement for military members seeking abortion care
• Restricting transgender service members’ access to gender-affirming care
But much of the first day is likely to focus on stopping illegal immigration – the centrepiece of Trump’s candidacy. He is expected to sign up to five executive orders aimed at dealing with that issue alone after he is sworn in on 20 January.
“There will without question be a lot of movement quickly, likely day one, on the immigration front,” a top Trump ally said.
“There will be a push to make a huge early show and assert himself to show his campaign promises were not hollow.”
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Donald Trump ally Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration to be the next US attorney general.
But Mr Trump’s campaign pledges also could be difficult to implement.
Deporting people on the scale he wants will be a logistical challenge that could take years. Questions also remain about promised tax cuts.
Meanwhile, his pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in just 24 hours would be near impossible.
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Even so, advisers based at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort or at nearby offices in West Palm Beach, Florida, are reportedly strategising about ending the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Following his decisive victory on 5 November, the president-elect has moved swiftly to build a cabinet and senior White House team.
As of Thursday, he had selected more than 30 people for senior positions in his administration, compared with just three at a similar point in his 2016 transition.
Stephen Moore, a senior economic adviser in Mr Trump’s campaign, told NBC News: “The thing to realise is Trump is no dummy.
“He knows he’s got two to three years at most to get anything done. And then he becomes a lame duck and we start talking about [the presidential election in] 2028.”
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