Posted on 10/31/2009 3:35:52 PM PDT by OrangeHoof
You might think Mike Hinton's anger had ebbed in the 3-1/2 decades since, as a young Harris County assistant district attorney, he was assigned to prosecute Ronald Clark O'Bryan, the father accused of poisoning his own son's Halloween candy. Or that, in the 25 years since O'Bryan was executed by the State of Texas, Hinton would prefer to let the past dissolve into receding memories.
You'd be wrong, though.
"I never get tired of talking about that sorry-ass son of a bitch," said Hinton, today an attorney in private practice in Houston.
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
And for all the anti-death penalty crybabies out there, this is why the death penalty is a useful and needed tool of a just government. People like this deserve the chair - or worse.
“I never get tired of talking about that sorry-ass son of a bitch,” said Hinton, today an attorney in private practice in Houston.
Ever since he convinced a jury that O’Bryan deliberately murdered 8-year-old Timothy by placing cyanide-laced Pixy Stix into his trick-or-treat candy, the clarity of Hinton's recollections has not faded, but rather resolved into sharper focus. He remembers tiny details of the case, he said, “just like it was last night.”
A FATHER murdering his 8 year old son via Halloween candy.
How tragic.
Glad “dad” is 6 foot under.
Thank God he is not languishing on death row.
More from the link:
...
Ronald O’Bryan, still dressed in the white optician’s lab coat he wore at work, and neighbor Jim Bates headed out for an early evening of trick-or-treating. It was raining. With them were three children: a Bates boy and O’Bryan’s two children, Timothy and 5-year-old Elizabeth.
At one of the homes they visited, no one answered the door. While the children ran ahead to the next house, Ronald O’Bryan stayed behind. When he caught up to the group, he was holding several giant Pixy Stix — colored paper straws stuffed with a powdered sweetener. “You must have some rich neighbors!” he told Bates. He gave one to each of the children.
Back home, Timothy asked to eat some of his candy before bed. He selected the Pixy Stix. When he had trouble pouring the powder into his mouth, his father rolled the straw between his palms to loosen it. After pouring the candy into his mouth, Timothy complained that it tasted bitter; O’Bryan gave him some Kool-Aid to wash the taste out.
Timothy began vomiting almost immediately. Within minutes he was convulsing. His father called an ambulance.
...
He’d also purchased a $20,000 life insurance policy on each of his children a month earlier, in addition to policies he’d acquired for them the previous January. Halloween fell on a Thursday. On Friday at 9 a.m., just hours after his son’s death, Ronald had called to inquire about collecting on the policies.
...
What a “dad”!
Yes ... .
HELL Is worse than ANY punishment on this earth.
6 feet under and still burning.
LaNier and several other Pasadena detectives quickly fanned out, recovering four other Pixy Stix. One had been clutched in the hand of a child who'd fallen asleep after failing to open the straw, which was stapled shut. Others were recovered from the Bates children and Timothy's sister, who also had yet to eat them. Lab tests showed the top 2 inches of each straw had been packed with a fatal dose of cyanide.
Our kids go to our church on Halloween (it has an alternate night to dress in non-scary costumes and still get tons of candy). My wife is there now with the kids. I stay behind to protect the house and give out candy so we don’t get egged.
Interesting that another Houston area legendary criminal was Dean Corll who, before O’Bryan, was also dubbed the “Candy Man” because he would lure young boys with candy to have sex with them, then kill them and hide/bury their bodies.
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/corll/index_1.html
“The Sex, Sadism and Slaughter of Houston’s Candy Man, from the TruTV Crime Library”
Ronald O’Bryan changed Halloween as we know it today. That guy is a scumbag.
I’ll never forget that story, living just outside of Houston at the time. I could not comprehend how a man would kill his kids to get money, and also poison the other kids with them to cover his tracks. So sick. After that, there was the huge awareness of parents examining their kids candy before letting them eat any of it, and the local hospital was offering to x-ray everyone’s candy for free to look for razor blades, etc. What a sick world.
That is even closer to home.
I remember too - I was in Houston at UST then. Vividly remember the next year when we did the Halloween Carnival for the kids in Montrose to keep them out of the neighborhoods. Definitely changed Halloween forever!
Blunt and to the point. I like this guy.
He was declared dead at 12:48 a.m.When news of O'Bryan's death reached a group of observers who'd gathered for the occasion outside the Huntsville prison facility, they cheered and yelled, "Trick or treat!"
In our city they canceled trick or treat in 1975 and it didn’t return until about 1986. I remember when this happened he did kill Halloween.
Punishment here first is a good start, though, and makes us all feel better!
Punishment here first is a good start, though, and makes us all feel better!
Dean Corll is evil. He killed at least 27 people. His accomplice claimed more were killed by them.
It was because of a life insurance scam.
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