[4] As a child, Henley was an avid reader and both an attentive and academically achieving student whose grades saw him typically in the top quarter of his class.

[6] Henley's father was an alcoholic and adulterer who physically assaulted his wife and sons, and the children were largely raised by their mother and maternal grandparents.

Although occasionally bullied at school from the fifth grade onward, he was popular among many of his peers—both male and female—and alluded to the attitudes of the contemporary hippie movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In his confession given almost two years later, Henley informed detectives Brooks lured him to Corll's home on the promise he could participate in "a deal where I could make some money.

[33] According to Henley's subsequent confession, he resolved to participate in a sole abduction as he could use the money "to get better things for my [family], so one day I went over to Dean's place on Schuler Street and told him I would get a boy for him.

[37] One month later, on March 24, 1972,[38] Henley—in the company of Corll and Brooks—encountered an 18-year-old acquaintance of Henley's named Frank Anthony Aguirre leaving a restaurant on Yale Street, where the youth worked.

[41] However, Corll refused, informing Henley that he had raped, tortured, and killed the previous victim he had assisted in abducting, and that Aguirre was to suffer the same fate.

[48] In Brooks's confession, he stated that both youths were tied to Corll's bed and, after their torture and rape, Henley strangled Baulch to death, with the process lasting almost thirty minutes; he then shouted, "Hey, Johnny!"

[58][59] Sometime in November 1972, an 18-year-old Oak Forest youth known to both Corll and Henley named Willard Karmon Branch Jr. disappeared while hitchhiking from Mount Pleasant to Houston.

[66][n 3] In a further effort to distance himself from Corll, Henley attempted to enlist in the U.S. Navy as a boatswain's mate in the spring of 1973; his application was rejected on June 28 due to the fact a color perception test revealed he was color-blind and thus ineligible to be recruited.

[72] Lawrence last phoned his father to state he and "some friends" were traveling to Lake Sam Rayburn, but he would return to Houston in "two, three days ... maybe Thursday.

[76][77] Three weeks later, on July 6, Henley began attending classes at the Coaches Driving School in Bellaire, Texas, where he became acquainted with a 15-year-old named Homer Luis Garcia.

[78][79] The following day, Garcia telephoned his mother to say he was spending the night with a friend from the driving school, whom he refused to name; he was shot and left to bleed to death in Corll's bathtub before his body was buried at Lake Sam Rayburn.

[80][81] Five days later, on July 12, a 17-year-old Orange County youth and U.S. Marine named John Manning Sellars was shot to death with a rifle and buried at High Island Beach.

[82][83] On July 19, Corll and Henley encountered 15-year-old Michael Anthony Baulch—the younger brother of previous victim Billy Baulch—walking home from a barber's shop.

[85] Two days later, Jones was strangled to death as Cobble—observing his friend's murder—went into cardiac arrest; Henley partially resuscitated Cobble before Corll ordered him to stop.

[86] On Friday August 3, Corll encountered a 13-year-old boy from South Houston named James Stanton Dreymala riding his bicycle close to his parents' home.

[103] He then placed a transistor radio attached to a pair of dry cells between Kerley and Williams before turning the volume to maximum to drown any shouting and screaming.

Henley began cutting away the girl's clothes as Corll placed the pistol upon a bedside table, undressed and climbed on top of Kerley.

After standing and pacing the room as he huffed from a sack of acrylic paint fumes, he observed the pistol Corll had laid on a bedside table.

Although Henley initially contemplated simply fleeing the scene, he looked up the number for the Pasadena Police Department in Corll's telephone directory, blurting to the operator at 8:24 a.m.: "Y'all better come here right now!

"[114] On the evening of August 8, Henley confessed to police that for almost three years, he and David Brooks had helped procure teenage boys – some of whom had been their own friends – for Dean Corll.

[121] At Henley's trial in 1974, one of the six bodies found buried at High Island, that of 17-year-old John Manning Sellars, was disputed as being a victim of Corll by a forensic pathologist who examined his remains.

[123] The jury heard evidence from both Rhonda Williams and Tim Kerley, who each testified to the events of August 7 and 8 leading to the shooting of Dean Corll, plus the testimony from various police officers who recited and discussed the written statements each youth had made and described how both Brooks and Henley had led them to each of the burial sites.

The assembled jury also heard the testimony of a youth named Billy Ridinger, who had been abducted by Corll, Henley and Brooks in 1972 and who testified as to his torture and abuse at the hands of the trio.

At one point during the trial, Mullican testified that Henley had informed him that in order to restrain the youths he, Brooks, and Corll had "handcuffed (the victims) to the board and sometimes to a wall with their mouths taped so they couldn't make any noise".

[143] Assistant District Attorney Tommy Dunn dismissed the defense's contention outright, at one point telling the jury: "This defendant was in on this killing, this murderous rampage, from the very beginning.

[147] In 1994, at the suggestion of a Louisiana art dealer, Henley began to paint as a hobby, in part as a means of generating income for himself and his mother.

[149] Henley refuses to paint or draw any images of a violent or exploitative nature; many of his works depict serene imagery such as landscapes, buildings and flowers.

[149] In 1999 the city of Houston expressed interest in building a monument to victims of violent crime, which Henley said he would be willing to help pay for with part of the proceeds from a second art show.