The Heights address where the Corll family candy factory operated across from Helms Elementary — ground zero for recruiting victims in one of the worst serial murder cases in U.S. history.
505 W 22nd St, Houston, TX 77008
Research updated September 2026
Age
18+
Cost
Free
Public sidewalk and street; drive-by or walk-by only.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat residential street in the Heights neighborhood
Equipment
Photos OK
Site of the Corll Candy Company, central to Dean Corll's identity in the Heights neighborhood · Worst mass murder in U.S. history at time of 1973 discovery (28 confirmed victims) · Proximity to Helms Elementary documented by investigators as relevant to victim recruitment pattern
The Corll Candy Company was a legitimate family business that Dean Corll's mother, Mary Corll West, operated at 505 W 22nd Street in Houston's Heights neighborhood, directly across the street from Helms Elementary School. Dean Corll worked there as a child and periodically as an adult. According to Houstonia Magazine's 2018 retrospective, the candy company's proximity to an elementary school, and the free candy Dean distributed to neighborhood children, gave him early access to potential victims — a documented pattern that investigators reconstructed after the murders came to light.
Between 1970 and 1973, Corll committed at least 28 murders with the active assistance of two teenage accomplices, David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. Victims were predominantly boys and young men from the Heights and Pasadena areas, ranging in age from 13 to 20. Texas Monthly's definitive 1973 account, titled "The Houston Mass Murders," documented the scale of the crimes, which surpassed the then-record held by Juan Corona (25 victims). Victims were kept at multiple locations; the candy company site itself was not a murder site but is documented as central to Corll's identity in the neighborhood.
Corll was killed on August 8, 1973, by Henley, who then contacted police. The subsequent investigation, including excavation of a boat storage shed in Pasadena, revealed the scope of the murders. Henley and Brooks were each convicted and sentenced to multiple life terms. The case drew national attention to the failures of the missing-persons system, since many of the victims had been reported missing but their disappearances were not aggressively investigated.
The 505 W 22nd Street building has since been repurposed as commercial space. Houston Historical Tours has included the Heights site on its dark-history walking tours.
Sources
Unlike many true crime sites that accumulate ghost lore over time, 505 W 22nd Street has not developed a documented paranormal tradition. Houston Historical Tours includes the Heights neighborhood and the Corll-era locations in its dark-history itinerary, but the framing is historical and crime-focused rather than haunting-focused. The site's weight comes from the documented record: at least 28 boys murdered between 1970 and 1973, a case that shook the Houston Heights community and exposed systemic gaps in how runaway and missing cases were investigated for young people from working-class neighborhoods.
Local community memory of the case remains active. Houstonia Magazine's 2018 retrospective revisited the neighborhood, finding that longtime Heights residents still recalled the candy company and the shock of the 1973 discoveries. The documented connection between the factory location across from an elementary school and Corll's access to young victims is the most-cited detail in tour and journalism treatments of the site.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The original candy factory building at 505 W 22nd has been repurposed as commercial space. Visitors stop to note the proximity to Helms Elementary, directly across the street, which factors into the documented pattern of how victims were approached. There is no public interior access.
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