Houston's Candyman a real-life Halloween nightmare

From the Houston Chronicle:

Forty years ago this Halloween, the Houston area saw perhaps the worst Halloween crime ever to hit the U.S.

Pasadena father-of-two Ronald O'Bryan laced candy with poisonous cyanide and handed it to five children including his own 5-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son.

The optician had taken out a life insurance policy on the children; prosecutors later argued he was trying to kill them simply to claim the $40,000 payout.

More here.

I didn't trick-or-treat in 1975, when I was seven, because of this. And it's not like my parents over reacted or anything like that. Rather, they told me about this case and I just couldn't do it. I was horrified. Actually, I continue to be horrified.

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