It’s been 50 years since the most infamous Halloween crime spree in American history terrorized a Texas neighborhood that has haunted trick-or-treaters ever since.
It contained a poisoned Pixy Stix.
Ronald Clark O’Brian, a church deacon who lived with his family in Deer Park, Texas, outside Houston, tried to kill his two young children (son Timothy, 8) by dousing potassium cyanide in tubes of powdered candy. He was convicted of adulteration. and 5-year-old daughter Elizabeth.
Timothy was the only child to eat candy, but died as a result.
O’Brian, who became known in the media as “Candyman” after poisoning tubes of candy, almost killed his daughter and three other children.
O’Brien was ultimately executed ten years later. But the harrowing story of Candyman’s crimes continues to send shivers down people’s spines during the Halloween season.
AP Photo/Ed Korenovsky
death of timothy o’bryan
On Halloween night in 1974, O’Brian cut open five 21-inch Pixie Stix tubes, replaced the top few inches with cyanide, then gave the candy to two children and three of their friends. , were trick-or-treating together. The family’s neighborhood, the Associated Press reported at the time.
According to Vice, O’Brian helped his son, Timothy, open the tube of candy, and the boy complained that the candy tasted bitter. The newspaper reported that the butler gave his son a glass of Kool-Aid to wash away the bitter taste in his mouth, then put him to bed. The Austin American-Statesman reported that Timothy began vomiting “almost immediately” and then began convulsing. Within an hour, Timothy was dead.
Four other children, including O’Brien’s daughter Elizabeth, did not eat the candy and survived the possible poisoning.
AP Photo/Ed Korenovsky
Why Ronald Clarke O’Brian did it
United Press International (UPI) reported that during the trial, prosecutors said O’Brien’s motive was a $31,000 life insurance policy on his children.
Vic Driscoll, one of the Harris County district attorneys who prosecuted O’Brien, told the jury that Butler had a “bad reputation for truth and truthfulness,” UPI reported at the time. “His whole life was a lie,” Driscoll said. “He has taken advantage of his church. He has taken advantage of his friends. He has taken advantage of his community and his family. And worst of all, he has taken advantage of his son, not like Abraham. and sacrificed his son on the altar of greed.”
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The jury deliberated for less than an hour before convicting O’Brien in 1975, according to UPI. He was then sentenced to death.
AP Photo/Ed Korenovsky
Candyman’s execution
According to the Statesman, O’Brian maintained his innocence during his trial and for the rest of his life, initially claiming to police that he had accepted poisoned candy from a man along a children’s trick-or-treating route. It is said that he was
Shortly before his execution in March 1984, O’Brien appeared calm and in his final speech said his killing was wrong, according to an Associated Press report.
A crowd of about 300 people gathered outside the building where O’Brien was executed. Supporters of O’Brien’s execution chanted “Trick or treat!” According to the Associated Press, he threw candy at demonstrators opposing the death penalty.
Mike Hinton, another district attorney who helped prosecute O’Brien, told the Statesman decades later, “The amount of publicity the trial received was amazing.” “It’s still talked about today. … I think it changed Halloween.”
