The Man Who Ruined Halloween

[Trustno1]

You forgot to mention he did for the insurance money. He had taken out what was then a large policy on both his kids.

Publius Publico wrote:

Partial,from the link (above): http://markgribben.com/...
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Halloween night 1974 was cool and rainy in Deer Park but though the drizzle may have required the witches and fairies and pirates prowling the suburban streets to wear raincoats, it did not diminish the excitement of the evening.
Jim Bates, a close friend of O’Bryan’s arranged the night’s festivities. The Bateses and O’Bryans started off with a dinner of pork roast and lima beans and then the two fathers gathered flashlights and raincoats to take the children — Timothy and his younger sister, and Bates’s 9- and 11-year-old kids — trick or treating.
Pixy Stix Candy“The children were very excited,” Bates recalled later.“They were running from door to door. They would shout ‘trick or treat!’ There wasn’t really any tricking…They were enjoying it so much.”
Toward the end of the adventure the children went up to a dark house but received no response. Bates said he watched them run from the porch to the next house. After a brief pause, O’Bryan stepped down from the porch, holding purple and white plastic tubes.
“You must have rich neighbors,” he said to Bates.“Look what they gave out.”
O’Bryan showed the giant Pixy Stix to the children, but kept them in his hand until the troop reached the Bates home. He put the candy on a coffee table — there were five of them, Bates recalled.
“He handed one to me, one to my brother, and one to each of his children and there was one left,” Bates’s daughter testified at O’Bryan’s trial.“The doorbell rang and there were some trick or treaters.”
O’Bryan handed out the extra Pixy Stix to one of them.
“I came within just a whisker of losing both of my children,” Bates testified.
After the evening’s adventure was over, Bates’s son took a bath and then told his mother that he was going to enjoy the Pixy Stix.
“No you’re not,” his mother replied.“I don’t want it all over the house. That’s an outside candy.”
The random child who was given the fifth Pixy Stix also dodged death by twist of fate.
The boy’s father related how his son had come downstairs at ten minutes before nine and went into the kitchen in search of a knife to open the Pixy Stix.
“His bedtime was 9 o’clock that night because of school the following day,” his father said.“I told him that he couldn’t have it because it was too late. He went back upstairs and set it with the rest of his candy.”
Over at the duplex where the O’Bryans lived, the children were allowed to choose one candy to eat before going to bed. Timothy chose the Pixy Stix.
O’Bryan helped Timothy open the Pixy Stix and watched as the boy poured some of the cyanide-laced candy into his mouth.
Cyanide MoleculeTimothy then complained that the candy had “hardened” and that no more would come out. O’Bryan took the plastic tube and rolled it between his hands, loosening the candy. Then, according to his first statement to police, he “poured it down the child.”
Timothy quickly complained about the bitter taste of the candy and was given some Kool Aid. Shortly after, he vomited and then went into convulsions. An ambulance was called and Timothy was taken to the hospital where he died.

[Casey]

Who ever said Obrien live off Alabama is correct.I went to school with his son at Carpenter Elementry and My mom knew his Mother.

[DP Cassie]

Casey wrote:

Who ever said Obrien live off Alabama is correct.I went to school with his son at Carpenter Elementry and My mom knew his Mother.

The Bates family lived on Donnerail, the Obrien family lived in the Parktown apartments. The two families both attended the 2nd Baptist Church in Pasadena. That is how they became friends.

[littleoleladyfro mPasadena]

Trustno1 wrote:

You forgot to mention he did for the insurance money. He had taken out what was then a large policy on both his kids. <quoted text>

He took out a 250,000.00 insurance policy on both of his children. His plans were to kill all four of the kids to make it look like that somebody else did it. His daughter did not eat the Pixystix and Mrs. Bates would not let her kids have them because she had just mopped the floor.

[Tee]

We lived there when this happend. My kids were trick or treating in the exact same neighborhood/street. We tossed all the kids candy after this story, but found out later the dad had actually done it. That was such a sad time back then.

[Silent Bob7]

Yes, this is a horrible story (that I was already familiar with) and Halloween was ruined and changed for unknowable masses because of it, this being undeniable - though it affects people differently today. What I saw in "Halloween 2009" with families celebrating was an evolved understanding of trust-with-awareness in their neighborhoods. I think younger parents now tend to be a little more knowledgeable about the very principles that this article brought out concerning Halloween and child abuse. They are aware that the danger of their child being sexually molested on Halloween is MUCH greater than them getting poisoned with candy, and neighborhood trick-or-treating is SAFE and FUN with the right supervision. I believe that parents in the USA are doing a good job monitoring the holiday, for the most part, and it will be around long after we are all gone.