Say no to Pixie Sticks
I am a horror fan. All aspects, and although I wouldn't say I have a franchise I prefer over another, I would say I am drawn towards Halloween and some classic Mike Myers. Did you know that if you started tonight on Movie number #1 you would have a flick to watch every night until Hallow’s Eve.
Many Horror movies are actually rooted or tied to real-life events, which if you think of it is kinda creepy we take a gruesome real-life crime and make it entertainment
October 31, 1974, Texas. Kids in costumes, bags of candy, and the eerie glow of jack-o'-lanterns lined the streets.
Ronald O’Bryan, who had never shown much enthusiasm for Halloween in the past, seemed uncharacteristically excited that year, eagerly volunteering to take his two children out trick-or-treating. He joined his family friend, Jim Bates, and his children for a night of innocent fun
As they made their way through the neighborhood, something strange happened. At one house, the group knocked on the door, but no one answered. While the children moved on, O’Bryan lingered behind, alone in the shadows.
Moments later, he rejoined the group, holding five large Pixy Stix. He claimed that the house had actually been giving out expensive treats and had nothing left but felt bad so gave him the last of what they had put aside, one for each of the four children and one for a random trick-or-treater.
Later that evening, when the excitement of the night was winding down, O'Bryan allowed his children to choose one piece of candy before bed.
His 8-year-old son, Timothy, selected the Pixy Stix, the very same one handed to him by his father. Timothy complained about the taste, saying it was bitter. O’Bryan gave him some Kool-Aid to help wash it down.
“Thirty seconds after I left Tim’s room, I heard him cry to me, ‘Daddy, daddy, my stomach hurts,'” O’Bryan later told police. “He was in the bathroom convulsing, vomiting and gasping and then he suddenly went limp.”
Timothy died en route to the hospital less than an hour after eating the candy.
When Timothy O’Bryan’s lifeless body was taken to the morgue, there was an unusual and chilling clue: the faint scent of almonds coming from his mouth, a signature trait of cyanide poisoning.
Timothy had ingested enough cyanide to kill several grown men.
Authorities quickly retrieved the other four Pixy Stix from the children who had also received them that fateful Halloween night. Further investigation revealed that the top two inches of each Pixy Stix had been carefully cut, filled with granulated cyanide, and resealed. Someone had intentionally turned these sweet treats into lethal traps.
As police delved deeper into the events of that night, Ronald O’Bryan’s behavior raised red flags. His story changed with each telling, especially when asked which house had given out the poisoned candy.
Soon, a much darker motive surfaced: O'Bryan was drowning in financial troubles. Investigators uncovered that he had taken out several life insurance policies on his children just prior to Halloween. And the most chilling evidence? A piece of an adding machine tape where O'Bryan had calculated his debts. The total was disturbingly close to the amount he stood to collect from his children’s policies.
Further digging revealed that O’Bryan had made suspicious inquiries with chemical companies, asking how much cyanide was needed to kill someone. A pocket knife found in his home, laced with candy residue, offered a gruesome clue to how he had tampered with the Pixy Stix.
Despite his claims of innocence and playing the role of a grieving father, O’Bryan’s façade crumbled. He failed a polygraph test, and on November 5, 1974, he was arrested and charged with the murder of his own son, Timothy.
O’Bryan was sentenced to death and was finally carried out after multiple appeals and stays, but on March 31, 1984, just after midnight he was brought to the execution chamber, and by lethal injection, the decade-long case was closed.
During the execution, a crowd of 300 demonstrators gathered outside the prison and cheered and yelled, "Trick or treat!".
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