Halloween 1974 turned into a real night of horror in Deer Park, Texas thanks to the greed of Ronald Clark O'Bryan, the world's worst dad. O'Bryan, 30, was an optician for Texas State Optical Company. He had a history of filing fraudulent insurance claims and by 1974 he and his wife Daynene were in serious debt and forced to sell their home. O'Bryan told friends and co-workers that he expected to get some money by year's end. Earlier in the year he took out large life insurance policies on his 8 year old son Timothy and 5 year old daughter Elizabeth, amounting to $30,000 in total while O'Bryan and his wife were completely uninsured.
That August, he tried to obtain cyanide from his workplace but none was available. A few weeks later he contacted a friend at Arco Chemical Co. and talked cyanide with him. O'Bryan continued to discuss the chemical with co-workers. On October 25, he went to Curtin Matheson Scientific Co., a Houston chemical distributor but the company only did bulk purchases so he asked where he might find a smaller amount of cyanide. On Halloween, the O'Bryans ate at the home of the Bateses, some family friends, and they talked about taking the kids trick-or-treating. Both he and John Bates took their respective children on the outing.They arrived at the home of a family called the Melvins whose lights were not on. The kids knocked on the door anyway and got no response. O'Bryan ran up to them with two large Pixy Stix and announced that "rich neighbors" were handling out expensive candies. He offered to carry the Pixy Stix for the kids. Back at the Bates' house, he gave the candies to his and the two Bates children, and another to a boy who showed up at the door. Once they were done trick-or-treating, O'Bryan took his kids home while his wife went to a friend's house. He told the kids that they could have one piece of candy each before bed. Timothy took the Pixy Stick. The candy wouldn't come out of the tube so O'Bryan helped them extract it. Timothy complained it tasted bad so he gave his son a juice drink to wash it down.
Timothy immediately felt sick and ran to the bathroom where he started vomiting. His condition worsened and he began experiencing convulsions. His father called an ambulance. Taken to an area hospital, the 8 year old was pronounced dead within an hour. The news of Timothy's demise caused a panic in Deer Park and parents started collecting all Halloween candy out of fear it was poisoned. O'Bryan was not suspected of any culpability until his son's body was autopsied and discovered to have cyanide well above the lethal dosage. The remaining Pixy Stix he'd handed out were confiscated by police, fortunately before any of the other children had been able to eat them. The parents of one boy panicked when they couldn't find the candy, but discovered their son asleep in his bed holding the Pixy Stick as he'd been unable to get the wrapper open. All five Pixy Stixs were opened with the top two inches refilled with cyanide powder and resealed with a staple.A chemical analysis of the Pixy Stix found that the one Timothy ate had enough cyanide in it to kill two grown adults while the other four had enough to kill 3-4 adults. O'Bryan claimed he didn't know what house the candies came from but police thought this was suspicious as he and his neighbor had not taken the kids to very many houses as it started raining. None of the houses they visited gave out Pixy Stix. O'Bryan then led police to the Melvin house, where he claimed the candies came from. The lights had been off, he said, but the owner stuck his arm out the door and gave them the candy. "Melvin" was Courtney Melvin, an air traffic controller at a local airport and he wasn't home that night. His co-workers quickly confirmed that he'd been at work on Halloween night.
Further investigation disclosed O'Bryan's severe debts and the fact that he'd held no less than 21 different jobs in the past decade. In the last few weeks he'd been suspected of theft at Texas State Optical and his supervisors were considering firing him. He attempted to cash in his son's life insurance policy the morning after he died.O'Bryan continued to maintain his innocence and investigators never actually found out where he got the cyanide from. He was charged with one count of first degree murder and four counts of attempted murder and entered a plea of not guilty. His trial in Houston started May 5, 1975 and various witnesses for the prosecution testified about his interest in cyanide and attempts at purchasing it. After Timothy died, he talked about using his insurance money to go on vacation and buy various items. His wife Daynene said she never knew about him taking out the insurance policies on their kids and also claimed he forced Timothy to eat the Pixy Stick. Daynene refused to collect her son's insurance policy, calling it "tainted." She divorced her husband soon after his arrest.
O'Bryan was found guilty on all counts on June 3 and sentenced to death. He was held at Texas's death row unit in Huntsville. O'Bryan was mocked by fellow inmates as "The Candy Man"; as a child killer, he was unpopular and nobody would associate with him. Some of them said they would like to hold a demonstration on his execution day telling him to go to Hell.His execution date was set for August 8, 1980 but his attorneys managed to get it delayed 21 months. Another postponement followed. The new date of execution was set for Halloween 1982, eight years since the murder and Judge Michael McSpadden volunteered to personally drive O'Bryan to the execution chamber. The Supreme Court voted 8-1 to suspend the execution so that O'Bryan had the opportunity for a new trial. The execution date was set for March 31, 1984 and a last attempt at appealing was rejected. He was executed in the electric chair shortly before midnight as some 300 anti-death penalty protesters demonstrated outside the prison.
>>18767681>>18767674>>18767671>>18767669tf man? how could anyone possibly be as retarded as this guy?
Pixy Stix are poison all by themselves, no need to make them worse.
>>18767714lead exposed boomer, many such cases, many still alive, many getting away with it
>A few weeks later he contacted a friend at Arco Chemical Co. and talked cyanide with him. O'Bryan continued to discuss the chemical with co-workers. On October 25, he went to Curtin Matheson Scientific Co., a Houston chemical distributor but the company only did bulk purchases. He asked where he might find a smaller amount of cyanide.
>O'Bryan at the time of the murder was earning $150 a week ($890 in 2022 dollars). Nearly all his income by the fall of 1974 was spent just on paying the bills and food. Still, he owed $2,000 on a delinquent loan and $800 in back taxes. He had not made a car payment since last spring and was being threatened with repossession of his vehicle. Over the course of the year, O'Bryan had taken out several large insurance policies on his two children. His wife objected to this as it was yet another unnecessary expense.>Two months prior to the murder, O'Bryan had attempted to obtain cyanide at work but the chemical had not been used in the optics business since the 1950s. He spoke with a friend Bob Terry, employed at Arco Chemical Co., about cyanide and how to get it. Out of "curiosity", O'Bryan asked how much it took to kill a person and how it could be detected in a dead body.
>Curtis Matheson Scientific Co. salesman Dave Jackson told O'Bryan that the smallest amount of cyanide they sold was a five pound container but he said this was too much. They discussed where he might find a smaller quantity.>A few days before Halloween, O'Bryan and his friend Jimmy Bates discussed buying a house and he told Bates to not inform his wife about their conversation. On October 23, he informed the Medical Branch Credit Union that he expected a large sum of money before the end of the year and signed an agreement extending arrearages on the note to 1/1/75. O'Bryan also told a co-worker that he was going to quit TSO in three weeks. His wife said she never heard anything about expecting a large sum of money by year's end.>O'Bryan was excited about Halloween and taking the kids trick-or-treating this year, which was unusual as he'd never displayed this much enthusiasm for the holiday before.>On Halloween, he was seen in the parking lot of TSO with a stapler and a bag. O'Bryan serviced a customer's eyeglasses and talked lethal doses of cyanide with him.
>>18767669>>18767770How did this tard seriously not think he was going to get caught after he'd been talking to dozens of people about buying cyanide?
>>18767681imagine being him. imagine spending 23 hours a day in a concrete box, disowned even by other murderers, as your wife is with her new husband who is cumming all over her face and tits every night. the absolute state of...
>>18767669I don't remember Halloween 1974, but I remember Halloween 1977.
