Bandits kill at least 27 in northern Nigeria mosque attack, officials say
Gunmen opened fire inside a mosque as Muslims gathered to pray at around 04:00 GMT in the remote community of Unguwan Mantau in Malumfashi local government area, residents said.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Inside the mind of the 'Candy Man's' apprentice: Serial killer expert's chilling interview with a murderer's accomplice
Elmer Wayne Henley Jr. seemed to be the hero of the story when officers responded to a shooting at a home in Pasadena, Texas, on the morning of August 8, 1973. Inside the house lay the bullet-riddled, naked body of 33-year-old Dean Corll - a man known locally as the 'Candy Man' as he gave out free candy from his mom's store to local children. Police also found a trove of disturbing torture tools including restraints, sex toys and plastic sheeting laid out on the ground. Outside, were three shaken teens. The teens told police they had passed out inside the home after spending the night drinking and huffing acrylic paint to get high. When they woke, they found themselves bound and Corll standing over them, telling them he was going to sexually assault and kill them. Corll had then untied Henley and ordered him to participate in his plot. At that moment, the 17-year-old grabbed Corll's gun and shot him dead. The teen had saved himself and his two friends from a horrific murder at the hands of a sick predator. But this was only the beginning of the story. Within hours, Henley revealed that Corll was a serial killer responsible for the murders of dozens of boys who had vanished from the Houston Heights neighborhood over the past few years. And, in an even more explosive twist, Henley confessed that he had been his accomplice. Between 1970 and 1973, Corll lured, sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered boys, with the help of his two teenage accomplices Henley and David Brooks. With Corll dead, Henley and Brooks led police to three mass graves where the victims' bodies were buried. The remains of 28 boys aged 13 to 20 were found. Five decades later, there are fears that more victims are still out there. The case, known as the Houston Mass Murders or the 'Candy Man' killings, shocked the community and the nation long before the term serial killer had even been coined. Both Henley and Brooks were sentenced to life in prison for their part in the murders. Brooks died in May 2020, leaving Henley the sole survivor of the team of killers. Now, Henley is speaking out for the first time in 50 years in conversations with top serial killer expert and criminologist Dr. Katherine Ramsland in the new ID documentary 'The Serial Killer's Apprentice'. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Dr. Ramsland - who famously co-authored a book with the BTK killer Dennis Rader and was Idaho killer Bryan Kohberger's professor - said the case is different to the countless serial killer and mass murder cases she has studied. 'This case was unusual because it was a team killer case, but involving three people,' she said. 'So you had an adult predatory serial killer using two teenage boys as accomplices.' Despite participating in the murders, Dr. Ramsland explained that the power dynamic was not equal between the three killers. 'The two teenagers were compliant accomplices. They were not co-equals. They did not want to be killers, but they wanted to please Dean Corll and also they were afraid of him,' she said. 'So that dynamic for them was that they were doing things they didn't really want to do, even though they were doing it for a long period of time. Corll, who was the adult predator, is the one with the fantasy that led the way, and he dominated the other two. 'They were submissive to him. And so whatever he said is what they had to do.' In other team killer cases she has studied, the individuals are typically 'the same in their depravity'. 'They both want to do this. They come up with the most horrible things together. That's very different from a predator and a compliant accomplice,' she said. 'The predator leads the way. The compliant accomplices go with them.' But there was something else unique about the Houston Mass Murders too: the way the killings stopped. 'Henley is the only accomplice to a serial killer who killed the killer to end it,' she said. In their conversations, Dr. Ramsland said she wanted to delve into what led Henley to cross the line to become a killer. Henley was 14 when he was recruited through Brooks to join the murderous team. Corll drew his teen accomplices in by telling them there was a so-called 'Syndicate' - a powerful trafficking ring where teenage boys were sold as houseboys to wealthy clients across the US. He claimed he was part of the Syndicate and that, if Brooks and Henley brought him boys, he would sell them for money. Initially, Dr. Ramsland explained that this financial reward was appealing to Henley. Henley has said he didn't know Corll planned to kill the victims at first. When he brought a boy to Corll, who then sexually assaulted and killed him in front of him, Henley was implicated in the murders. Plastic sheeting was found laid down on the ground inside the Pasadena home of the Candy Man killer 'If I go down, you go down. So there was that mutually assured destruction,' Dr. Ramsland said. After some time, Henley also committed some of the murders himself. The first time he killed was a 'pivotal moment'. 'It was a very pivotal moment, in part because he had this firm belief in God. He read the Bible every day and carried a little pocket Bible with them. And, for him, it was really the end of his faith because nothing happened to him,' Dr. Ramsland said. 'He really expected to be struck dead by God because that's what he was taught. And it didn't happen. Nothing happened… for him, it was a hugely pivotal moment in his whole belief system, his sense of himself.' Fear was a major factor in Henley's role, she said, with the threat of the Syndicate coming after him if he didn't do what they wanted. 'So Wayne had to decide: "If I went to the police would they believe me? A 15-year-old kid against an adult? And if they let Corll go, I'm in danger. Or if they don't let Corll go, the Syndicate is going to come after me." So he's in this no-win situation.' She added: 'Corll played a long game. He had decided that Henley was going to become this accomplice so little-by-little, he pursued him.' Dr. Ramsland learned there were times when Henley did try to get away from Corll. At one point, he confided in his uncles about the murders but they didn't believe him. He then gave his mom a confession letter but she tore it up and booked him an appointment with a psychiatrist. Before he could make it to the appointment, Corll was dead. Based on her expertise, Henley is both a victim and a perpetrator. 'Wayne is a victim. He was also sexually assaulted by Corll. He was also leveraged. He was made to do things he didn't want to do,' Dr. Ramsland said. 'But then he also did things he did want to do.' While she said Henley's 'status as a victim is in no way anything like the victims who were tortured and killed', she described him as a 'complicated individual'. 'I think everybody who's human knows the feeling of being compromised and doing things that are out of character for them and they wonder how they were able to do that,' she said. Having spent years talking to Henley and studying his case, Dr. Ramsland believes he might never have become a killer if he hadn't met Corll. 'Henley wanted to be a minister or a cop. He was a very protective kind of guy, and he was kind of like a hang-back hippie type,' she said. 'There's nothing in his background that would suggest he, on his own, would have ever become a killer… to even think about killing somebody was just not in his DNA.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Katsina mosque attack: Gunmen in Nigeria kill Muslim worshippers
Gunmen in north-west Nigeria have stormed a mosque, killing Muslim worshippers in what the local government has called a "reprisal attack".Police in Katsina state said 17 worshippers were shot dead by the assailants - known locally as bandits - but other reports from the region say the death toll is mosque, located in the village of Unguwan Mantau, was attacked on Tuesday because local residents had ambushed and killed a number of "bandits" two days earlier, Katsina state official Nasir Muazu is rife in north-western Nigeria, where armed gangs target locals, often for financial gain. Muazu, Katsina state's commissioner for internal security, said the attack occurred during morning prayers and that the gunmen shot "sporadically".As of Wednesday afternoon, the attackers remained at large. Muazu said the police and military personnel had been deployed to find the reprisal, Muazu said the local government "reaffirms its unwavering support for community-based security initiatives".Residents of Unguwan Mantau, meanwhile, have been mourning and tending to the wounded. As per tradition, grieving families have been sitting outside their homes, accepting condolences from Isa Pantami, a popular Islamic cleric and Nigeria's former communications minister, hit out at the killers, saying they "betray the sense of humanity on earth"."We urge the relevant security agencies to ensure the arrest of the criminals and bring an end to this inhumanity and criminality of the highest order," he wrote in a statement posted to social media."The killers of defenceless people are heartless, malevolent, and worse than animals."Nigeria's vast north-west region borders Niger and criminal gangs criss-cross between the two countries, evading and neighbouring state Zamfara have been hit the hardest by banditry in the region, losing the most lives and experiencing the most displacement as a result of the days ago, kidnappers in Zamfara abducted and killed at least 35 people, despite ransoms being paid for their release, a local official told the BBC. More BBC stories on Nigeria: Nigeria's kidnap crisis: Inside story of a ransom negotiatorScores of bandits killed in air and ground raids, Nigerian military saysAid cuts will push Nigerians into arms of Boko Haram militants, UN warns Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Police officer describes moment he was shot with crossbow
A police officer has described the moment he was shot with a crossbow - as his "extremely dangerous" attacker was sentenced to nine years in jail. Jason King, 54, fired the weapon at PC Curtis Foster after stabbing a neighbour, a man in his 60s, following an altercation in Downley, Wycombe, in May last year. PC Foster was struck in the leg by a crossbow bolt while King chased after him and his fellow unarmed officer. "I knew something had impacted me, but my adrenaline was so high that the pain wasn't really there," PC Foster said. "I first realised I was bleeding quite a lot when I could feel it running down my leg, and then I touched my leg with above my trousers, and my whole hand was red where it'd gone through my trousers already." PC Foster and his colleague cleared the area of civilians, while armed officers chased King to a local park. King also fired the crossbow at a police dog but missed. He was ordered to drop the weapon, but instead started running with it in hand towards the exit of the park to where PC Foster had escaped. An armed officer fired one shot at King, striking him in the abdomen, to stop him. 'Covered in my blood' As King was apprehended, paramedics and his fellow officers treated the seriously injured PC Foster. "There was a lot of blood. My two colleagues that turned up initially on scene were covered in my blood - that's how much blood I'd lost," PC Foster said. "When we got to the hospital, the doctor had a fell of it and said that I was really lucky it didn't strike an artery. It was a couple of centimetres away from hitting an artery in the back of my leg." PC Foster has since made a full recovery, as did the neighbour King stabbed. King himself was taken to hospital under police supervision with potentially life-changing injuries and was discharged 10 days later, when he was arrested and taken into police custody. On Wednesday, King was sentenced in Amersham for causing grievous bodily harm with intent, grievous bodily harm, affray, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a bladed article in a public place. He pleaded guilty to the offences in September last year. Two other charges on the indictment, criminal damage and cultivation of cannabis, will lie on file. "Jason King will now serve a substantial prison sentence as a result of his violent actions on 10 May 2024. The community and residents of Downley are much safer for it," said senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Nick Hind. He added: "The courage of our officers in dealing with this incident was second to none." 'Significant threat to police' DI Hind explained that the impact the incident had in the local community couldn't be underestimated as King was "an extremely dangerous man, who posed a significant threat to police, other emergency services and members of the community". A mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct was made after the police shooting of King. The IOPC, which concluded its investigation in November, commended "everybody involved in this incident", according to DI Hind.
