The Man with Candy [Paperback]

Jack Olsen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0743212835 | ISBN-13: 978-0743212830 | Publication Date: October 6, 2000

A Simon & Schuster eBook

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743212835
• ISBN-13: 978-0743212830
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #252,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The most sadistic serial killer in American history, November 2, 2003

By 

C.J. Griffin (Little River, SC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man with Candy (Paperback)

At a time when serial murder has become a pop culture phenomenon, when you can walk into your local Blockbuster and rent any number of cheesy movies on notorious serial killers (Ed Gein, Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Gacy, Speck, Nightstalker, etc.), many Americans have never heard of Dean Arnold Corll (aka: the Candy Man), a homosexual rapist and serial killer capable of monstrous savagery. This is surprising considering it became a media circus when news of the torture-slayings first broke in August of 1973. Even the Vatican and Izvestia, voice of the Soviet government, spoke out about the unbelievable case.

Dean Corll raped, tortured, mutilated and murdered 27 young men and boys from 1970-73 around the Houston, Texas area. Some victims were kept alive for days of torture and abuse. The method of killing was usually strangulation or shooting, although a few corpses were found with their chests caved in, indicating they were probably kicked to death. Most of the butchered boys were buried in a boat shed Corll had rented (sometimes he buried their severed genitals, which were preserved in a ziplock bag, next to them). Corll held the serial killing record at the time, only to be broken by the far more infamous John Wayne Gacy in the late 1970's, who slaughtered 33 young males. Olsen speculates that other unknown victims might be buried around Corll's candy shop, but authorities showed no interest in pursuing the case any further.

The book is well written, but the thick Southern dialect tends to get a bit annoying. And the other reviewers were right about the book needing pictures. Olsen also fails to go into much detail about the atrocities committed by Corll. Not that I revel in such things, but people should know just how vicious and depraved this psycho really was. There are two other books about this case, but both are hard to find as they've been out of print for some time (Mass Murder in Houston by John K. Gurwell and Harvest of Horror by David Hanna).

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEWARE OF THE CANDY MAN, February 19, 2002

By 

BeatleBangs1964 (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Man with Candy (Paperback)

Dean Corll, a gay rapist and predator was responsible for the deaths of between 20-30 boys in the Houston area (a Houston neighborhood called "The Heights" was his major hunting grounds) during the early 1970s.

Corll, a worker in a candy factory used candy and promises of fishing trips to lure adolescent boys into his shop. Once he gained access to the boys, he chained them to a piece of plywood and subjected them to sundry atrocities before killing them. He prided himself on being a traveling mortician; he buried most of the boys in a shed nowhere near his property. Others were buried in secluded spots.

Corll's sick, twisted career is believed to have started in 1970 with the disappearance and subsequent deaths of Jerry and Donald Waldrup. Between 1970-1973 some 25 boys were discovered to have been killed by Corll. Two young men, Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. and David Brooks were used to procure the boys for Corll. The depraved candy man even bought David a car for his efforts.

Matters came to a head when Henley allegedly shot Corll to death during the summer of 1973. He claimed he shot the man in self defense. He and Brooks are currently serving time for their involvement with the candy man.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written page-turner about one of America's most evil murderers, February 23, 2006

By 

Get What We Give (Georgia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Man with Candy (Paperback)

Jack Olsen has crafted a well-written non-fiction book about the heart rending loss of almost 30 pre-teen and teen-aged boys from one of Houston's suburbs and their subsequent torture and murder at the hands of one of America's most evil human monsters.

The book was written about the time of the murders: in the 1970's. This fact makes it all the more engaging since the reader is given a unique view of what Houston was like at the time of the murders: 1971 through 1974.

So many true crime books of this nature seem to be thrown together in a very hasty manner in an effort to cash in on the interest that occurs at the time of and just after such serial killers operate. They tell us just the facts that can be gleaned from news sources and court documents. The books are cold and the reader never really relates to the very real human loss that occured. Mr. Olsen's book is not that type of book.

We get a bit of history on not only Houston but the suburb where the murderers - Dean Corll and Elmer Wayne Henley - procured just about all of their victims. Most true crime writers don't really interview families of victims and create a "real" book. Olsen has done this.

Reading about a murderer's motis operandi and reading about the horrors of murders themselves is something that just about all the hack true crime writers give us. Olsen's presentation is different - more like Capote's with In Cold Blood. He makes the crimes real and personal because he introduces us to each of the boys' families and loved ones. We learn about the boys as real people, not just names and victim numbers.

This isn't a book about a murderer and his protege as it could have been. This is a book about the loss of life delivered unto a decent hard-working community just outside of Houston. As many of the families of the victims of Dean Corll and Elmer Wayne Henley have said over the years - Corll and Henley are remembered but their victims have been forgotten. Olsen makes up for this disparity.

Certainly you get the gory details, but since you've first learned about the victims and their unique lives, you feel more connected to them.

If I had one complaint, it would be that there is not one picture of the boys who were murdered (the cover has three, but they are unidentified). There isn't a need for post mortem photos or even pictures of the murderers, but it would be more emotionally engaging had there been pictures of the boys themselves. However, due to the finances of the families of some of the boys, it is entirely possible that there simply were no photos of the boys as they looked at the time of their death.

Although one of the most heinous of serial killings to ever take place in the U.S., as with most things, time allows people to forget...These boys should not be forgotten...Read this book and remember them.