In 1974, Ronald Clark O’Bryan did the unspeakable and will be remembered throughout history as the Candy Man Killer. It happened fifty years ago on Halloween night and in no way is this a myth, urban legend, or prank to hype up the holiday for the most psychological effect. It actually happened and you might not be able to sleep tonight or ever want to celebrate the costume party again.
If you do your research, you might run into the name Dean Corll who is also nicknamed Candy Man. That story isn’t a nice one either. This is a man who raped, tortured, and murdered boys and young men in the early 1970s, a case known as the Houston Mass Murders. The toll changes according to who is telling the story but the count is at about thirty and who knows if more bodies will be discovered.
One wicked aspect of the Corll case is that he had two apprentices who aided him. David Owen Brooks was recruited at a young age when Corll befriended him by giving him candy from the Corll Candy Company. Elmer Wayne Henley came along later when he was working at a gas station to help his family after his father left and his mother was without a job. He had three younger brothers to feed and when Corll came along to offer him a job, getting paid $200 per person was the money he needed to put food on the table.
That relationship came to an end when Henley was being forced to rape a girl and Corll put down his gun to rape a boy. Henley had reached his limit and grabbed the gun. What Corll had taught Henley about shooting was used against him and the nightmare was over, except for what was about to come. Brooks died in prison from COVID in 2020. Henley is still alive and serving time at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
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Now that we’ve cleared that up, this story is about Ronald Clark O’Bryan who was also nicknamed Candy Man for an entirely different reason. O’Bryan had two children, his son Timothy and his daughter Elizabeth. Included in this story are three kids who were friends of the O’Bryans.
On Halloween night, the Candy Man took five tubes of Pixy Stix and laced them with cyanide. Then, he handed each of the kids a tube. But only Timothy ate the candy and within an hour he was dead. His sister and their friends were spared because they hadn’t touched theirs yet.
He was a Deacon of the church. He was a trusted member of the community. So, why did he do this horrific act? The prosecution made the case that he was motivated by the Life Insurance policy!
O’Bryan was convicted and sentenced to death. Ten years later, he was executed. Outside the prison, while chemicals were slowly making their way through the murderer’s veins, protestors demonstrated against the execution. Ironically, advocates of the execution showed up and threw candy at the protestors while chanting “Trick or Treat.” Those were the days of creative protest and anti-protest messaging.
In Joker Joker Deuce, I write about another Candy Man. But he’s not a serial killer or a murderer of any kind. He’s a drug dealer who works at a sub shop and is in pre-pharmacy at the local college. While Jeph is the internet stalker the book is about, Shane is nicknamed Candy Man because of his extra-curricular activities. They work together but they don’t get along.
The problem is that Shane isn’t aware that Jeph has a beef with him. In fact, Shane is hardly aware of Jeph at all. It’s all in Jeph’s head. But as you’ll soon find out when you read the book, when Jeph gets something in his head, it stays there and he has a tough time dealing with the differences between fantasy and reality.
