How the 'Candy Man' Killer, Who Murdered His Own Son, Continues to Haunt Trick-or-Treaters 50 Years Later
Timothy O'Bryan was murdered by his father, Ronald Clark O'Bryan, in 1974
It’s been 50 years since one of the most notorious Halloween crime cases in American history took place, striking fear into a Texas neighborhood and haunting trick-or-treaters ever since.
It involved a poisoned batch of Pixy Stix.
Ronald Clark O’Bryan, a church deacon who lived with his family in the Houston suburb of Deer Park, Texas, was found guilty of lacing the tubed powder candy with potassium cyanide in an effort to kill his two young children – son Timothy, 8, and daughter Elizabeth, 5.
Timothy was the only child to eat the candy, and died as a result.
Because he poisoned multiple tubes of the candy, O’Bryan – who became known as “The Candy Man” in the media – also came close to killing three other children, as well as his daughter.
O’Bryan was ultimately executed 10 years later. But the harrowing story of The Candy Man's crimes continues to send shivers down people's spines during Halloween season.
Timothy O'Bryan's Death
On Halloween night in 1974, O’Bryan cut open five 21-inch Pixy Stix tubes and replaced the top few inches with cyanide before giving the candy to his two children and three of their friends who they were trick-or-treating with around the family’s neighborhood, The Associated Press reported at the time.
O’Bryan helped his son Timothy open the candy tube, and the young boy complained that the candy tasted bitter, according to Vice. The deacon grabbed his son a glass of Kool-Aid to wash the bitter taste out of his mouth, and then put his son to bed, according to the outlet. The Austin-American Statesman reported that Timothy “almost immediately” began vomiting and then began to convulse. Less than an hour later, Timothy was dead.
The other four children, including O’Bryan’s daughter Elizabeth, didn’t eat the candy and survived the potential poisoning attempt.
Why Ronald Clark O'Bryan Did It
During his trial, the United Press International (UPI) reported that prosecutors said O’Bryan was motivated by the $31,000 life insurance policy he had taken out on his children.
Vic Driscoll, one of the Harris County district attorneys prosecuting O'Bryan, had told the jury that the deacon had “a bad reputation for truth and veracity,” according to UPI’s report at the time. “His whole life has been a lie,” Driscoll said. “He has used his church. He has used his friends. He has used his community and his family. And, worst of all, he has used his son – not as Abraham did – he sacrificed his son on the altar of greed.”
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The jury spent less than an hour deliberating before finding O’Bryan’s guilty in 1975, according to the UPI. He was subsequently sentenced to death.
The Candy Man's Execution
O’Bryan maintained his innocence throughout his trial and the remainder of his life, initially claiming to police that he received the poisoned candy from a man along his children’s trick-or-treating route, according to the Statesman.
Just before he was executed in March 1984, O'Bryan appeared calm, according to the AP's reporting, giving a final speech in which he said his killing would be wrong to carry out.
Outside the building where O’Bryan was executed, a crowd of around 300 people gathered. Proponents of O’Bryan’s execution chanted “Trick-or-Treat!” and threw candy at those demonstrating against the death penalty, according to the AP.
"It was amazing how well-publicized the trial was," Mike Hinton, another district attorney who helped prosecute O’Bryan, told the Statesman decades later. "Even today it's still talked about. ... I think it changed Halloween."
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