Killer Legends Page #5

in this neighborhood one time,

but...

I think he actually lived

over there by the ditch.

And they do all sacrifice crap

over there during Halloween.

Do you think there are

satanists around?

There probably is.

I mean, knowing this

neighborhood...

there are sickos around here.

and children will be out

to trick-or-treat.

We hope that the treats

will be many

and the tricks ingenious.

But sometimes

people give children

bad things on Halloween.

an old legend that actually

happened this time.

and there is a spreading fear

that this year,

will be many more cases

of contaminated treats.

Joel:
The term that gets used

is "Halloween sadist".

People assume

that the Halloween sadist

was some crazy person who,

for some reason...

presumably you know,

some psychological problem...

gets pleasure or satisfaction

from hurting little kids.

Joshua:

Many people believe

the Halloween sadist

was behind Timothy's death,

but the real culprit

was more horrific

than anyone had ever imagined.

It's down here,

I think, on the left.

All right, so gray,

how do you want to do this?

I'll just, I'll hang back here.

Joshua:
Okay.

So we're going to go up.

I'm not totally into this.

I can understand

why you'd want to do this...

It just makes me feel

a little uncomfortable.

and telling them

what tragedy happened here.

Joshua:
Well, you wouldn't

want to know?

Oh, hey, how are you?

Hey, sorry to bother you.

We wanted to talk to you.

We're doing a documentary

and wanted to talk to you

about the family

that lived here before.

Do you know him?

Do you know

Ronald Clark o'Bryan?

Woman:

Uh-uh.

No, you have no idea about him?

Nah, don't worry about it.

You want to know?

Do you really want to know?

Do you really want to know?

So the guy who lived in here

was a guy named

Ronald Clark o'Bryan.

He gave his son

a poison pixy styk.

Yeah.

He killed...

That's right.

News reader on t. V:

On Halloween night,

eight-year-old Timothy o'Bryan

of Pasadena, Texas,

died after eating a piece of

trick-or-treat candy

that contained cyanide.

Today Pasadena police arrested

the boy's father,

30-year-old Ronald o'Bryan,

on murder charges.

Police refused to

discuss the case

other than to say

the district attorney believes

he has sufficient evidence

to file charges.

Joshua:
After receiving a call

from an insurance agent,

police discovered o'Bryan

had taken out a large policy

on his kids but not himself

nor his wife.

he had talked to numerous

people about death by cyanide

and had even tried

to buy the chemical

from local companies.

All evidence pointed

to Timothy's father

as the killer which,

as horrific as it sounds,

makes some sense,

and that's because

the Halloween sadist is a myth,

and the notion

of candy tampering

is really an urban legend.

The idea that this is

a big social problem is a myth.

I can't tell you

nobody has ever contaminated

a piece of candy,

but I can't find any evidence

that anybody has ever been hurt,

seriously hurt or killed,

from a contaminated treat

picked up in the course of

trick-or-treating.

Joshua:

If there's no such thing

as the Halloween sadist,

who is, in fact, doing that?

( Chuckles ) Probably the kids.

If you think about it,

this is a terrific

kind of prank.

It's easy enough

to come by a pin,

easy enough to stick it

in the candy bar,

and then run in and say,

look mom,

there's a pin in my candy bar...

and you become the object

of the concerned attention

of your parents

and possibly even the press

and the police.

Joshua:
While the fear of

tainted candy may be hysteria,

Timothy's death was real...

but was it really conceivable

that a father could kill

his own child...

and if so, what kind of monster

was Ronald Clark o'Bryan?

Look at that lying

son of a b*tch.

I thought just like Mr. o'Bryan

wanted us to think...

that there was some maniac

out there

randomly giving these poison

pixy styx to little kids.

That's exactly what

he wanted us to think,

and that's what we thought.

It's hard to accept

that a human being

was willing to do that,

and it's still difficult

for all of us.

The people in this case were

forever affected by what he did

and by that,

I mean the bates kids...

he was going to kill

his friends own two kids...

and little Whitney Parker,

if the ambulance and police

hadn't gotten there so fast.

No good prosecutor wants to go

to trial at all on anything

unless they believe

in their own heart

that the defendant is guilty

beyond a reasonable doubt,

and seeking the death penalty

is just an extra dimension

of care and consideration

that should be given.

You wanted to keep the case.

I sure did.

Why?

I wanted to hopefully

have a hand

in seeing that justice was done

and that he would die

for what he did.

Joshua:

It took a jury only 45 minutes

to find o'Bryan guilty

and another 75

to sentence him to death.

he was scheduled to die on

October 31, 1976, Halloween.

Voice of o'Bryan: I have stated

from the very beginning

that I had absolutely

nothing at all to do with this.

I maintain that now,

and I'll willing

to take a polygraph now,

just like I was

from the very first time

that they arrested me.

I'm not worried about what

happens to my physical body.

When I die,

I know where I'm going.

Mike:
You're going straight

to hell, buddy.

Interviewer:
All these appeals

have been turned down

appeal after appeal,

and everybody is saying

you will be executed

this Saturday.

This could be

your last news conference.

What are your final thoughts?

Voice of o'Bryan:

As long as I have

verifiable options open to me,

I will pursue them.

Interviewer:

Are you ever going to change

your proclamation of innocence

or...

Voice of o'Bryan: No,

why should I? It's the truth.

When you consider victims,

the victim of this crime

actually turns out to be me.

Joshua:

O'Bryan had been sent

to Texas's infamous

huntsville prison

houses the most active

death chamber in the us,

but this was 1982,

and after a lengthy debate

in the supreme court

and numerous stays of execution,

o'Bryan was to be one

of the very first inmates

to be executed with

the reinstituted death penalty.

Yet, despite his crime,

o'Bryan still managed

to find his supporters.

who were in favor

of saving Ronald Clark o'Bryan

in spite of

the overwhelming evidence

and the horror of the crime.

Their position was

we are categorically

opposed to the death penalty.

There also were

counter-protestors

who were in favor

of the death penalty.

They included a lot of students

from the university located here

including many who complained

about what had happened

to Halloween.

This is Ronald Clark o'Bryan.

Mr. o'Bryan is 39 years old.

It looks like you are

going to be executed.

Would you agree with that?

It's a possibility.

I've been aware

of that possibility

since the sentence

was handed down.

It doesn't make it right.

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