Dad used poisoned Halloween sweet to kill own son with chilling explanation
Ronald Clark O'Bryan, also known as The Man Who Killed Halloween, was an optician and deacon from Texas who murdered his own son with a potassium cyanide-laced Pixy Stix candy
Handing out sweets to children on Halloween is a long-standing tradition, and October 31 is meant to be one of the happiest days of the year for youngsters. However, for eight-year-old Timothy O'Bryan from Texas, USA, it was far from that.
Timothy tragically lost his life on Halloween after eating a Pixy Stix candy laced with potassium cyanide. The person responsible for this horrific act? His own father, Ronald Clark O'Bryan.
Known as 'The Man Who Killed Halloween', Ronald O'Bryan was an optician by trade and also served as a deacon at his church. His dreadful crime has been said to have forever changed the face of Halloween, especially for his neighbourhood, turning a festive holiday into something unimaginably dark.
On the night of Halloween in 1974, Ronald took his two children, Timothy and Elizabeth, trick or treating in a neighbourhood in Pasadena. They were joined by their family friend and neighbour, Jim Bates, along with his two children.
Throughout the evening, they visited several houses. When one house didn't answer the door, the children grew restless and ran ahead to the next home, leaving Ronald behind. Eventually catching up with the group, Ronald handed each of the four children - his own and those of his neighbour - a Pixy Stix sherbet candy each.
The ends of the candy's straw-like containers had reportedly been resealed with staples after being opened. Ronald claimed to have gotten the popular sweet from the dark house which hadn't answered the door previously. A fifth Pixy Stix was allegedly handed to a 10-year-old boy whom Ronald recognised from his church.
That night, before going to bed, young Timothy asked for some sweets to eat. According to Ronald, his son chose to eat the Pixy Stix out of his collection from the evening. While trying to consume the sweet, Timothy apparently struggled with getting the powdered candy out of its straw, and his dad reportedly helped him loosen the powder and eat the sweet and sour treat.
Upon tasting the sweet, Timothy complained it was bitter and Ronald then gave his son some Kool-Aid to wash away the repulsive taste. Almost immediately, Timothy began to complain of stomach upset and became violently ill, vomiting and convulsing. His father later claimed he held his son in his arms while Timothy vomited and went limp. The eight-year-old tragically died on his way to the hospital less than an hour after he eaten the poisoned sweet.
While the police initially didn't suspect Ronald of any wrongdoing, Timothy's autopsy revealed the Pixy Stix he'd eaten had been laced with a fatal dose - enough to kill two adults - of the powerful poison potassium cyanide.
Four of the five Pixy Stix that Ronald handed out to the children were recovered, and fortunately, no other child had consumed the lethal sweets. The remaining four Pixy Stix allegedly contained sufficient cyanide to kill three or four fully-grown adults, according to a pathologist who examined the poisoned confectionery.
Ronald had originally told police he couldn't recall which house he obtained the Pixy Stix from, which officers deemed suspicious since the adults had only visited homes on two streets in the area as it had been raining. Following further investigation, authorities discovered that none of the houses had distributed Pixy Stix as treats that Halloween, reports the Mirror US.
Ronald subsequently claimed to have received the sweets from the house that didn't respond to the door, alleging he was given the confectionery by a "hairy" man who didn't switch on the house's lights, but merely opened the door slightly, meaning he only glimpsed his arm.
The property belonged to Courtney Melvin, an air traffic controller who was employed at William P. Hobby Airport. Courtney informed authorities he didn't arrive home from work until 11pm on Halloween - a fact which was confirmed by over 200 of his colleagues and people at work.
The motive behind the horrifying crime? Ronald was reportedly drowning in debt to the tune of over $100,000 and had taken out two life insurance policies worth $30,000 each for Timothy and Elizabeth.
Prosecutors believed that Ronald had plotted to murder both his own children and the Bates kids to make the crime appear random.
Ronald was arrested for his son's murder on November 5, 1974, a move that left his church community and neighbourhood in shock, who from then on were terrified of Halloween, fearing that sweets could be laced with poison. Known also as The Candyman, Ronald's trial as the Man Who Killed Halloween made national headlines.
On June 3, 1975, a Harris County jury found Ronald O'Bryan guilty of murder and sentenced him to death, and the man who murdered his son on Halloween was executed on March 31, 1984.