David Owen Brooks

David Owen Brooks (February 12, 1955 – May 28, 2020) was an American convicted murderer and accomplice to murder convicted in 1975 of the murder of one of the twenty-nine known victims of the Houston Mass Murders, which occurred in Houston and Pasadena, Texas, between 1970 and 1973.

One of two known accomplices of Dean Corll, Brooks confessed to assisting in the abduction and burial of the victims, although he consistently denied having participated in their actual murder. The crimes came to light after Corll's other known accomplice, Elmer Wayne Henley, fatally shot Corll on August 8, 1973.

Tried in Houston in February 1975 for the June 1973 murder of 15-year-old William Ray Lawrence, Brooks was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on March 4. He did appeal his sentence, but his conviction was upheld in May 1979.

David Brooks died of COVID-19 related complications in a Galveston hospital at the age of 65 on May 28, 2020, having served forty-five years of a life sentence.

At the time of their discovery, the Houston Mass Murders were considered the worst example of serial murder in American history.