WHAT WAS LEFT OUT OF

“The Serial Killer’s Apprentice” by

Katherine Ramsland and Tracy Ullman

A Review

General Observations: [I can’t tell which author was responsible for what content, so I’m just going to say; “the authors” throughout]

• There are no source citations, other than an occasional reference within the text, and no chapter notes. The authors haven’t bothered to provide documentation for what they’ve said, am I reading conjecture and opinion throughout?
• This book is supposed to explain why the authors changed their opinions of, and perspective on, Elmer Wayne Henley and presumably why we should also. Their reasoning is comprehensible, but nothing changed for me. Reading the accounts of how they lured the victims and what was subsequently done to them, while Henley and Brooks observed or even participated, still evokes the same sense of horror and outrage in me. They will forever be “the face of true evil” for me, just as much as the Nazi Deathcamp guards.
• I appreciated the debunking of Vargas’ ‘new victim’, polaroid photo boy, with the truth about that photo.
• The recounting of how the victim’s remains were recovered, and Brooks and Henley’s accounts of what they knew about their demise, was handled well – respectfully and minimally explicit. The same goes for the mistaken and revised identifications.

False/ misleading statements, and what the authors left out:

The infamous Sgt. Ronald Kelly lie, (Head of Area 6 youth division, Chicago PD), pg. 138; “Dallas police told Sgt. Ronald Kelly, Head of Area 6 youth division, that they have information associating [John] Norman with the ring that helped transport to Texas the 27 boys murdered in Houston in 1973 in a widely publicized sex and sadism case. That case involved Dean Corll”.

NONE of the 27 victims were “transported to Texas”. With the exception of one victim originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ALL of the identified Corll victims were long-time residents of Texas. No one, not John Norman nor anyone else, “trafficked” them into Texas. They already lived there. Furthermore, none of Corll’s victims had been an Odyssey Foundation male prostitute, pimped out by Norman. This story is a blatant lie, an early attempt to falsely link John Norman to Corrl and his victims.

Here are some examples, of something annoying the authors do several times; pg. 57; “In fact, there was a widespread network of pedophiles from Houston to Dallas, with boys paid or forced into being photographed for pornography”, no source cited, so, a rumor apparently.

They have gratuitously added “or forced”, thus – boys paid or forced into pornography. There isn’t documentation that, for example, pornographer Roy Ames ever “forced” boys to participate in nude photo-shoots or sex acts on camera. The lack of documentation doesn’t stop them from assuming some boys MUST have been forced, and someone must be “hiding the truth”, so they will just proclaim that to be a fact anyway, I guess.

The claim by Houston Youth officers, that they identified 11 Corll victims in CSA images found in Ames warehouse, is understandably uncomfortable for some people, particularly family members and friends. They remember a person whom they couldn’t imagine would pose for nude photos or sex acts, for a few dollars. Certainly not voluntarily, if they were involved in pornography or prostitution they must have been coerced, extorted, forced…This was, in the 1970s, and still is, a popular opinion about any & all teen boys. Yet, there is documentation that teen boys of that era who were involved, had a lot more autonomy and self-agency than we want to credit them with, as Det. Williams (OCCK case) found, when he tracked down men who had been teen boy hustlers in the Cass area of Detroit. “Ralph” was one such, described by pedophile Richard Lawson as; “the most beautiful boy in the world, every man wanted him”. This is from Det. Williams’ investigator notes, 3-21-07; “I asked Ralph if there was someone who controlled the money or set-up the meets with the adult men. To which he stated no, he just did it on his own for the money, like every other boy in his neighborhood”

“The Syndicate in Dallas“:

• from the “Author’s Note”, pg. i, “Henley killed Corll and turned himself in. At this point, he mentioned his fear of Corll’s association with a sex trafficking ring in Dallas. Brooks, once in custody, also described the ring. The Houston police made a tepid effort to investigate the alleged connection before ultimately dismissing it. However, such a ring did exist”.
• from pg. 9; “Henley had said it: there was an organization that Corll had talked about that bought and sold boys”
• from page 12; “Dean told me he belonged to an organization out of Dallas that bought and sold boys, ran dope and stuff like that”
• and finally on pgs. 59-63, a full discussion of John Norman’s Odyssey male prostitute pimping racket, which he ran out of his apartment in Dallas. But only from May-Aug. of 1973, as Dallas PD are quoted saying; “Criminal record of alleged homosexual ring leader revealed”, Dallas Morning News, 1973; “The procurement ring has apparently been operating since May, when Norman rented the Cole Avenue apartment”

While careful not to explicitly state, that the “sex trafficking ring” Corll claimed to belong to in Dallas was John Norman’s operation, the authors nevertheless clearly want their readers to “get that”. But Norman was only ‘in operation’ in Dallas from May-Aug of 1973, and Corll started talking to his henchmen about it in 1971-72. No matter how anyone tries to weasel it, Corll coudn’t have been and wasn’t talking about John Norman. Corll never did “belong” to Norman’s ring, Dallas did not find Corll listed on any Norman client card, nor did they find any Corll victim listed as a Norman boy for hire. And yes they did investigate that; Press=Telegram, Long Beach, Ca, Aug.13, 1973, “He [Dallas PD Chief Steele] said each teenager listed would be contacted…”