But to many parents and children, the story of a father who poisoned his own son's Halloween candy with cyanide is a reminder of an evil far scarier than ghosts or goblins.Forty years have passed since that Halloween night in 1974, but families have never forgotten. With his wife testifying for the prosecution, O'Bryan was convicted and sentenced to death. O'Bryan apparently was willing to go further, passing the poisoned Pixy Stix to at least four other children, including his 5-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. "Someone took it upon themselves to take away the trust and fun away from a lot of parents and a lot of children," said Elizabeth Bagwell, who lives in the home now.Then, police learned O'Bryan had just taken out life insurance policies for his children. Ronald Clark O'Bryan protested his innocence to the end, sending letters to the judge asking for a stay of execution. Accompanying police as they searched the Pasadena neighborhood, the 30-year-old father was unable to remember any details of the house where he got the poisoned candy or the person who gave it to him. True story behind urban legend traces back to Houston 'Candyman' murder 1 / 24 Back to Gallery 
 
 Of all the urban legends about poison-laced Halloween candy, one is true. On Halloween night 1974, Ronald O'Bryan, a father from suburban Deer Park who had volunteered to take his son and friends trick-or-treating in nearby Pasadena, fatally poisoned his 8-year-old son Timothy with a Pixy Stix laced with cyanide. 'Shivers down your spine' 
 
 An 11-year-old boy who was given one of the tainted Pixy Stix was found asleep in bed later than night, cradling the tube of poisoned candy in his arms. Back at the friend's house, investigators said, O'Bryan leaped over a coffee table to prevent his friend's 8-year-old son from eating one of the candies. "He said the boy responded after he ate some of it that it was very bitter and didn't taste right," Nassif said.An hour later, Timothy was dead. By the time he was taken to a nearby hospital, Timothy had died. TRAVEL: Scary-sounding cities perfect for a Halloween roadtrip 
 
 Two days after the boy's burial, an insurance agent discovered that O'Bryan had taken out a $40,000 life insurance policy on each of his children prior to Timothy's death, unbeknownst to their mother. The jury took about an hour to convict O'Bryan and only slightly longer to hand down the death sentence. Dubbed the "Candy Man" by fellow prisoners, he was executed by lethal injection in 1984. 'Man Who Killed Halloween' still haunts holiday 'Candy Man' still haunting Halloween 
 
 Father's poisoning of his son gave trick-or-treat a new scare 
 
 Timothy O'Bryan's name may have faded from popular memory, but 30 years ago this Sunday his death shocked the country and earned the culprit the nickname "The Man Who Killed Halloween." See more about the Ronald O'Bryan "Candyman" killing along with other infamous crimes that happened on Halloween in the photos above ...
– He became known among fellow inmates as the "Candyman," but in Houston, Ronald O'Bryan is recalled as "the man who killed Halloween." The Houston Chronicle revisits the story of the father of two, who on the rainy Halloween of 1974 left his horrifying mark on the area when he added cyanide to Pixy Stix candy and gave them to five kids, including his 8-year-old son Timothy and 5-year-old daughter Elizabeth. The Chronicle reports O'Bryan prodded Timothy to eat his before bed and the boy was vomiting within minutes. He didn't make it to the hospital alive. O'Bryan's story that the candy came from a house they trick-or-treated at in Pasadena didn't hold up, especially as it was revealed that O'Bryan had taken out fresh life-insurance polices on his kids, unbeknownst to his wife. "I found an adding machine tape," Harold Nassif, a former detective on the case, told ABC13 last year. "It had all of his bills written out next to the numbers. It came to almost the exact amount of what he stood to collect." A previous Chronicle article notes O'Bryan's pocket knife was found to have bits of plastic and powdered candy on it; Nassif says O'Bryan hid the sticks up the sleeves of his raincoat as they trick-or-treated. O'Bryan was convicted of murder by a jury in less than an hour and was executed in 1984 by lethal injection after years of appeals, including a letter asking for a stay of execution with the underlined sentence, "I do not want to die!" The Chronicle has this somewhat incredible detail: None of the other four kids ate the candy, but one was found asleep holding it; he had apparently tried to open it, but was unable to get past the staple O'Bryan used to reseal the Pixy Stix.