Ronald O’Bryan
Introduction
It was March 31, 1984 and Ronald O’Bryan was pronounced dead after given lethal injection in the death chamber in Huntsville Prison. His crime was heinous in nature and earned him the nickname, “The Candyman”. He poisoned and distributed candy to children, which killed one of his son, Timothy.
It came not too long after Houston and the nation was reeling from Dean Corll’s serial killings in the previous year. A day celebrated by children and their parents. Halloween is a time for children to get candy and treats to enjoy and is a rite of passage for children. His crime caused the Halloween Candy Scare that happens to this very day. What could drive a father to madness to kill his own children by poisoned candy on Halloween?
Ronald Clark O’Bryan
Ronald Clark O’Bryan was born on October 19, 1944. He was an optician with two children, Timothy and Elizabeth and living in Deer Park, a suburb east of Houston. He worked for Texas State Optical (TSO). Despite being an optician, O’Bryan was deeply in debt and needed money. The debt was from mortgage and installment payments for cars, furniture and appliances they purchased outside their range. He often talked about it with his colleagues. It was a common gripe for him.
O’Bryan decides to purchase life insurance that paid $40,000, which were on his two children, he would get the money. He would pay off the debt that kept him down. The debt he paid to live the American Dream, having a suburban home and all the appliance and car. Not even his own wife, Daynene, knew that he bought the life insurance.
A Plot To Kill
Pixie Stik
O’Bryan had to plan this life insurance scam and avoid getting caught at the same time. Since his children were on the life insurance, he thought he would kill them. He also had plotted to kill other children to cover the death of his own children. O’Bryan concocted a lethal plan that would involve children and candy and the best time would be Halloween. Children love things that are sweet, especially candy. He found his perfect life insurance plot.
O’Bryan bought a bunch of Pixie Stick candies from the store. They are powdered sugar in paper tubes. He opened them up and laced them with potassium cyanide, a potent toxin used to kill rats. This time, O’Bryan would use the poison to kill children. Than he closed them by using a staple.
Trick Or Treat To Death
Ronald O’Bryan on October 31, 1974, which was a Thursday, decided to spend Halloween night in nearby Pasadena, chaperoning children and their friends dressed in costumes of their favorite or ghoulish characters to “Trick-or-Treat” around people’s home for candy and other sweet treats. Once the children were done with their “Trick-or-Treating”, it was time to see what candy and treats they got.
Timothy ate one of the Pixie Stiks and felt a bitter taste and tingling sensation in his tongue. His father got him Kool-Aid to wash it down. However, Timothy became ill and started to have stomach pain and vomited. He started to have violent spasms and died on arrival at the hospital. The crime shocked the city and nation and police were scratching their heads on how this could happen.
It was later revealed that there were four more tainted Pixie Stiks inside little Timothy’s bag. Ronald O’Bryan claimed the Pixie Stiks came from a house that was dark and the person open the door slightly and gave them deadly candy. Also, the other poisoned candy was in another boy’s hand, but he could not open it and thankfully did not eat it. The Pixie Stik was stapled, which made it hard to open for that boy. Had he eaten it, he would of also been killed like Timothy O’Bryan.
Growing Holes
However, when Ronald O’Bryan was asked were the house he got it from, he could not point out the house in question. That made the investigation difficult for the police in tracing the origin of the deadly candies. Once young Timothy’s body was given to the family three days after he died, he was given a funeral at a local church full of mourners.
Several days after Timothy’s funeral, an insurance agent reported to the police the Ronald O’Bryan purchased a $40,000 life insurance on his two children just days before Halloween. The agent said that O’Bryan was very evasive and intended on keeping his wife in the dark about the life insurance policy he purchased. The police begin to notice there were holes in O’Bryan’s story about where the Pixie Stiks came from. Also, the police learned that O’Bryan was deeply in debt, in which they begin to focus the suspect on him.
The police maintained their investigation and O’Bryan pointed to the house where the deadly candy came from. The residence in the house were questioned and cleared by police. Evidence begin to grow against O’Bryan as the suspect in Timothy’s death. A TSO customer who was a chemist came forward to the police. He said that O’Bryan asked where he can get potassium cyanide.
Once the police got the information from the chemist, they decided to search O’Bryan’s home. They found a pocketknife with traces of Pixie Stix that were tainted. O’Bryan denied being involved in putting potassium cyanide in the Pixie Stix. However, he arrested by police after they found physical evidence that he was behind the Halloween candy scare that would change Halloween forever. O’Bryan adamantly denied any involvement in the candy poisoning because authorities were desperate to solve a crime that would have national and traditional implications.
Off To Death Row
Once the police got all the evidence to implicate O’Bryan. He was indicted by the Harris County grand jury and the prosecutor, Mike Hinton, charged O’Bryan with first degree murder, which is capital murder. The punishment is either death penalty or life in prison. Potential jurors were selected and twelve of them were selected by the defense and prosecutor.
A parade of witnesses testified against Ronald O’Bryan, including his own wife. The prosecution team had a slam dunk case against O’Bryan. Once both the prosecutor and defense rested their case, it went to the jurors. They did not take long to find O’Bryan guilty and nearly two hours to sentence O’Bryan to death.
O’Bryan was handcuffed by police once he was sentenced to die. His new home would death row for the rest of his life. Inmates called him “Candyman”. He still maintained his innocence and denied killing his own son, Timothy.
Date With Death
Texas Death Chamber
Ronald O’Bryan was on death row and slated to be executed on March 31, 1984. He made a request for his last meal, which consisted of T-bone steak (medium to well done), French Fries and ketchup, whole kernel corn, sweet peas, lettuce and tomato salad with egg and French dressing, iced tea, sweetener, saltines, Boston cream pie, and rolls. Once he was done with his final meal, he was taken out of death row into the death chamber. He than was put on the gurney for lethal injection. He made his final statement before being injected with a cocktail of poisons, the very thing he did to his own son:
What is about to transpire in a few moments is wrong! However, we as human beings do make mistakes and errors. This execution is one of those wrongs yet doesn’t mean our whole system of justice is wrong.
Therefore, I would forgive all who have taken part in any way in my death. Also, to anyone I have offended in any way during my 39 years, I pray and ask your forgiveness, just as I forgive anyone who offended me in any way. And I pray and ask God’s forgiveness for all of us respectively as human beings.
To my loved ones, I extend my undying love. To those close to me, know in your hearts I love you one and all. God bless you all and may God’s best blessings be always yours.
Ronald C. O’Bryan
P.S. During my time here, I have been treated well by all T.D.C. Personnel.
O’Bryan was pronounced dead after the cocktail killed him. Sadly, his legacy of poisoning Halloween lives on to this very day. He created a urban legend that Halloween candy that children get by “Trick-or-Treating” is dangerous. Many fire departments and hospitals offer inspections and x-rays to look for anything dangerous inside the candy.
Sources
TDCJ-Ronald O’Bryan
TDCJ-Ronald O’Bryan’s Last Statement
Texas News-Child-killer’s poisoned treats still haunt Halloween
Off The Kuff-”The Candy Man”, 30 years later
Wikipedia-Ronald Clark O’Bryan
Wikipedia-1974
The Cheshire’s Blog-The Killing of Halloween
The Memory Hole-Deleted List of Texas Inmates’ Last Meals
Birthday In A Box-Pixy Stix
Houston Chronicles-Texas on the Potomac news links
Tex News-Child-killer’s poisoned treats still haunt Halloween
My Comments
As a child, I remember after Trick or Treating for Halloween that all candy should be checked to make sure there is no poison or needles because it comes from strangers. I always wonder how that came about. As it turns out, there is a Houston connection to this. The motive was a life insurance scam gone really bad and the suspect was his own father. In a way that is more disturbing than by a total stranger. No one expects that a child’s own parent would harm them. He also planned on killing other children in the area, so no one would suspect that he had something to do with the killings and he would get the money.
It is interesting that Ronald O’Bryan did the crime not too long after Dean Corll and Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks killed at least 27 people. I am surprised that this crime is not too well known to this very day, despite the fact that it changed Halloween. Houston and surrounding areas has its fair share of infamous crimes ranging from the Poe Elementary Bombing in 1959 by Paul Orgeron, Wanda Holloway hiring a hitman over cheerleading in nearby Channelview, Angel Maturino Resendiz, the “Railroad Killer”, and Randy Sylvester Sr. killing two of his own children and claiming a drug dealer did the murders.
Even to this very day, children still check their candy to see if it tampered with needles and poisons since they go around different people’s homes. One reason it is important to know your neighbors, which is a sad state that many do not know their own neighbors. Than again, most crimes are committed by people they know.
Seriously, why kill your own children to get yourself out of debt. That has to be the most sickest thing I have ever heard. If you want to get out of debt, just get a second job or you negotiate and pay the debt in installments over time. Of course, the best way is not buy things that were outside of his resources, but he was a not a responsible person. There are a lot of people who are in debt, but they do not buy life insurance and kill their own children. O’Bryan was simply a man who was screwed when he was born. He is a genuine psychopath of the worst kind. People who kill children are the scum of the humanity.
O’Bryan maybe dead, but his legacy sadly lives on. He has changed Halloween as we know it today and it has been over thirty years since he did this heinous crime. O’Bryan is rotting in Hell for sure for killing his own child and possibly more children. People who kill children are at the bottom of the prison hierarchy. Ronald O’Bryan is in Hell for eternity and he will be poisoned by toxic brimstone and will beg for it to stop. Well, O’Bryan you just screwed yourself over.
See Also:
Casey Anthony
Paul Orgeron
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