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
Handing out sweets to youngsters on Halloween is a time-honoured tradition, with October 31 typically being one of the happiest days of the year for children.
However, for eight-year-old Timothy O'Bryan from Texas, USA, it was a day of horror that culminated in tragedy.
Timothy devastatingly lost his life on Halloween after consuming a Pixy Stix sweet laced with deadly 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 and a deacon at his local church. His heinous crime forever altered the perception of Halloween, turning a festive holiday into something chillingly sinister.
On the fateful Halloween night in 1974, Ronald took his two children, Timothy and Elizabeth, trick or treating in a Pasadena neighbourhood. They were joined by their family friend and neighbour, Jim Bates, along with his two children.
Throughout the evening, they visited numerous homes. When one house didn't answer, the children, eager to continue, ran ahead to the next house, while Ronald chose to hang back. Eventually catching up with the group, Ronald handed each of the four children - his own and the neighbours' - a Pixy Stix sherbet candy each towards the end of the night.
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. A fifth Pixy Stix was allegedly handed to a 10-year-old lad 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 helped him loosen the powder and eat the treat.
Upon tasting the sweet and complaining it was bitter, 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 while in his arms. The eight-year-old died on his way to the hospital less than an hour after he had eaten the poisoned sweet.
While the police initially didn't suspect Ronald of any wrongdoing, Timothy's autopsy revealed the Pixy Stix he'd consumed 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 deadly sweet. The remaining four Pixy Stix contained sufficient cyanide to kill three or four fully-grown adults, a pathologist who examined the poisoned candy confirmed.
Ronald initially told police he couldn't recall which house had given him the Pixy Stix, which officers deemed suspicious given the adults had only visited homes on two streets in the area that Halloween night due to rain. Further investigation by authorities revealed that none of the houses had distributed Pixy Stix as treats that Halloween, reports the Mirror US.
Ronald subsequently claimed to have received the candy from a house that didn't answer the door, insisting he was given the sweets by a "hairy" man who didn't switch on the lights, but merely opened the door slightly, meaning he only glimpsed his arm.
The property belonged to Courtney Melvin, an air traffic controller employed at William P. Hobby Airport. Courtney informed authorities he hadn't arrived home from work until 11pm on Halloween - a statement which was verified by over 200 of his workmates and colleagues. The chilling motive behind the crime?
Ronald was reportedly drowning in over $100,000 of debt 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 nicked for his son's murder on November 5, 1974, a move that sent shockwaves through his church community and neighbourhood, who were thereafter terrified of Halloween, fearing that sweets could be laced with poison. Also known 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. The man who murdered his son on Halloween was executed on March 31, 1984.