Trick or Treat

Happy True Crime Thursday 

and 

Happy Halloween to all of you! 

As most of you remember, one of the main things after trick or treating was that your parents would inspect your candy to see if there were any signs it had been tampered with.

I always thought it was ridiculous and they were standing between me and my Reeses peanut butter cups. 

Did parents do this based off of an urban legend they had heard over and over or did this paranoia actually come from true events? 

October 31, 1974 in Deer Park, Texas, 8 year old Timothy O'Bryan was like any other little kid that evening, excited to dress up and get some candy. The O'Bryan family which consisted of Ronald, his wife Daynene, 5 year old Elizabeth and Timothy had dinner at the home of their friends the Bates, the children of both families planned to go trick or treating together in their neighborhood. Timothy's father Ronald along with Mr. Bates accompanied the children on the Halloween outing. 

Timothy

After Halloween festivities were over, Ronald took the children home while his wife went to visit a friend. Ronald told the kids that before bed they were allowed to have one piece of candy. Timothy chose a giant size Pixy Stix, he was having difficulties getting the candy out of the tube so Ronald rolled the stick in his hands to loosen the candy for his eager son. Timothy told his dad that the candy tasted bitter, so Ronald gave him a cup of Kool-aid to help wash it down and get rid of the taste. 

Timothy soon there after ran to the bathroom where he immediately started to vomit. He became more and more sick and began having convulsions, Ronald called an ambulance, sadly Timothy died within an hour after eating the candy. During his autopsy cyanide was discovered in the fluid from his stomach and in his blood, the amount found was well above a fatal dose. 

Ronald told the police his son was fine until he had the candy. A Pathologist tested the Pixy Stix, it contained enough cyanide to kill 2 adults. Timothy's death from poisoned Halloween candy sent panic throughout the community. Parents within the neighborhood and the surrounding areas turned in their children's candy to police fearing it was laced with the same poison that killed Timothy. 

At first Ronald told police he couldn't remember which house the Pixy Stix came from. After walking the neighborhood with police 3 times he led them to a home, he recalled that the group had visited that night. He stated that the occupant of the home didn't answer at first so the kids ran off, Ronald claimed that owner cracked the door open and handed him 5 Pixy Stix. He told the police he didn't see his face, but described him as "hairy." Police confirmed with Ronald that he had handed out the remaining Pixy Stix after giving 2 of them to his children, they were able to track down those children and luckily they hadn't consumed the candy because they also contained the poison. 

Police zeroed in on the owner of the home, a man by the name of Courtney Melvin. He was an air traffic controller at Hobby Airport and soon police were able to rule him out. He didn't get home from work until 11 pm Halloween night, 200 people were able to confirm that he was there for his entire shift. 

Police then turned their suspicions to the next viable suspect, and that was Ronald. They thought it was strange that he couldn't remember what house the Pixy Stix came from at first because they had only gone down 2 streets that night because it was raining and they called it a night early. Soon they discovered that Ronald was over $100,000 in debt, he had a history of not holding down a job for very long. He had gone through 21 jobs in a 10 year span. He was about to be fired from his job at Texas State Optical, he was suspected of theft. His car was about to be repossessed, he had defaulted on several bank loans and the house was being foreclosed on.

 A phone call to the police from an insurance agent made it very clear what motive would have been for Ronald. Unknown to his wife he had taken out policies on his children shortly before Halloween...that's right policies...meaning multiple! In total he took out approximately $60,000. He also called the insurance company to inquire about collecting the money on Timothy the morning after he died. 

They also learned that Ronald had visited a chemical supply store in Houston to buy cyanide shortly before Halloween, he ended up not buying any there because the smallest amount available was 5 pounds. Ronald was also going to community college at the time and police discovered that he would ask his professor some interesting questions like "What is more lethal: cyanide or another type of poison?" It was easy to see for police that Ronald was definitely involved in his sons death, they believed that he poisoned Timothy and gave the other children the candy in an effort to cover up his crime. 

He was arrested and went to trial in May of 1975. His wife adamantly insisted she had zero idea of her husbands malicious plan, she testified against him. On June 3rd Ronald O'Bryan was found guilty on one count of capital murder and four counts of attempted murder. It took the jury only 46 minutes to deliberate. He was sentenced to death. 

Ronald O'Bryan was dubbed "The Candy man" 

On March 31, 1984 Ronald ate his last meal (steak, fries, peas and a Boston cream pie) and soon there after he was executed by lethal injection. Hundreds of people gathered outside the walls of the Texas State Penitentiary, some even wearing costumes, they shouted "Trick or Treat!"

As for Halloween itself, especially in Texas the holiday became somewhat tainted. Bill LaNier a former detective stated "We put out the word- if you have any suspicious candy or if anything looks strange, bring it to us. We wound up with a whole roomful of candy. People didn't go trick or treating around here for years." Hinton a former DA said "Even today it's still talked about" "I think it changed Halloween." 

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween you guys! 
I'll see you next week. 






Resources:
https://murderpedia.org/male.O/o1/obryan-ronald-clark.htm
https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/murder/candyman-poisoned-halloween-candy-pixie-stix