Serial Part 1: The Door Cracks Open – Barbara Gibson’s Serial Investigation Begins
How one mother’s faith, one overlooked clue, and one candid interview finally cracked a 40-year mystery
When I began this journey in 2010, I was only searching for the license plate number of Dean Corll’s Corvette. But after my first face-to-face interview with Dr. Sharon Derrick, I realized there were several issues surrounding the remaining unidentified Corll victims that didn’t make a whole lotta sense — issues that would require extensive research to fully understand. A much bigger problem was at hand.
I wrote and published Houston Mass Murders – 1973: A True Crime Narrative first so you could have a complete and comprehensive account of the police and medical examiner’s investigation as it unfolded in 1973. Now I’ve released my research findings in a serialized format, Houston Mass Murders: A Serial Investigation, which lets me include the images that support my conclusions — otherwise Amazon’s delivery fees would be cost-prohibitive if released as one book.
Each serial is packed with images when needed and contains extensive, detailed research plus the full interviews themselves — best delivered in bite-sized pieces so you can fully grasp the errors as I re-examine this monumental case and answer lingering questions that have haunted it for decades.
In Serial Part 1 of Houston Mass Murders: A Serial Investigation, my original research — first uncovered in 2010 and published October 2025 — is listed below:
In 2009 Mrs. Irma Sickman still lit a candle every morning for her son Steven, missing since July 19, 1972 — she always believed he was one of Corll’s victims.
In April 2010 a single clue pulled me into the case: a green Corvette license-plate lead from an unrelated 1973 murder that vanished in old records.
My first in-person interview with Dr. Sharon Derrick (audio-recorded with permission) revealed she did not have the 1973 Pasadena PD files or photographs — the core records that named every boy and burial location. I brought my copies; we viewed them together on a 6-foot screen.
She disclosed that a key witness refused to speak with her and that a Harris County agency had misplaced a boy’s body, preventing any DNA testing.
She gave me DNA 101: mitochondrial is maternal only; nuclear is “luck of the draw, 50/50” with siblings.
She taught me that the stage of wisdom-tooth eruption is a critical marker for aging teenage victims — knowledge I would later use.
She showed me the High Island and Sam Rayburn victim maps and the boatshed diagram — confirming the last two boys remained unidentified despite modern DNA.
She admitted the lower jaw used for the Sam Rayburn composite (Unknown #22) did not belong to that body — origin unknown, simply cut out of the picture.
She celebrated David Brooks’ “help” in 2006–2007 interviews that led to the circumstantial ID of Randy Harvey as Unknown #11.
She told me Steven Sickman had already been ruled out by DNA as one of the remaining three victims — leaving Mrs. Sickman’s 40-year search seemingly hopeless.
She told me she had no intention of interviewing Henley (“what could he possibly add?”) — yet admitted she didn’t even have his original statements.
When I pointed out the crime-scene photo of Corll showed no blood on the floor despite six gunshots and signs his body had been moved, she confirmed she has photos from the other direction — “and really, there is no blood.”
Later, I emailed her Henley’s 1973 statement (which she claimed not to have) proving Michael Baulch was strangled and buried at Sam Rayburn — my research proved he was Dr. Derrick’s Unknown #22, contradicting the official ID of Michael as a gunshot victim in the boatshed.
Dr. Derrick requested the public’s help because science had stalled — my 2010 research answered her call.
Every claim above is backed by my recorded interview, the Pasadena PD photos we viewed, key report excerpts, and the maps shown in Serial Part 1.
Source & Full Documentation
All evidence above is published in:
Houston Mass Murders: A Serial Investigation – Serial Part 1
by Barbara Gibson
First uncovered 2010 · Published October 2025
Available exclusively on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FTRVVZXQ
This is where the truth began to surface.
Barbara Gibson