The Murder of Timothy O'Bryan
On October 31, 1974, Ronald O'Bryan took his two children Timothy and Elizabeth trick or treating around their neighbourhood in Pasadena, Texas. They were accompanied by their neighbour and his two children. They arrived at a house and no one answered the door. The children became impatient and ran ahead together to the next house. When the men caught up, Ronald produced five pixy sticks he gave one to each of the children and when he returned home he gave the fifth one to a boy he recognised from his church. Before bed, Timothy asked if he could have a piece of candy his father said yes and Timothy chose the pixy stix his father had handed him. After tasting the candy Timothy complained that the candy tastes bitter and gross. Immediately after eating the candy, Timothy complained that his stomach hurt and he ran to the bathroom. Timothy began vomiting and he went limp in his arms. Timothy died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Less than an hour after he consumed the candy.
When the police tested the pixy stixs given to the children by Ronald they discovered that the candy had been laced with a fatal dose of potassium cyanide. When the police interrogated Ronald he told the police that he had waited back and the man from the unanswered house stuck his arm out and handed Ronald the pixy stixs. But the man who he claimed to have seen had an alibi of about 200 people from his work. Then further down the road in the investigation, the police learned that Ronald was $520,000 in debt and he struggled to hold a job. Ronald was charged with the murder of Timothy Obrian and the attempted murder of four other minors he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Ronald's plan was to kill Timothy for the life insurance in order to pay off his debt and he laced the other candies in an order to cover up the crime.
Ronald Clark O'Bryan
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