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Ronald Clark O'Bryan's Home At 500 West Pasadena Blvd.


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I think that I might have been both right and wrong. I just read that Corrl was indeed called the Candyman because he would give young boys candy which he got from his family's candy-making business. But I also remember that the guy in Pasadena who poisoned his son with Pixy-Stix candy was called the Candyman by his fellow inmates in prison.

I remember the Pixie-Stix dude...seems like after that is when people really started checking their candy and it seems trick or treating was quite the same after that for years...

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  • 7 years later...
Ronald Clark O'Bryan (October 19, 1944 – March 31, 1984), nicknamed The Candy Man and The Man Who Killed Halloween, was an American former optician fromDeer ParkTexas convicted of killing his eight-year-old son Timothy on Halloween 1974 with potassium cyanide-laced Pixy Stix in order to claim life insurance money. He also distributed poisoned candy to his daughter and three other children in an attempt to cover up his crime; however neither his daughter nor the other children ate the poisoned candy.   (

Just read an interesting story in the Chron today about Ronald Clark O'Bryan  (link).   I consider myself pretty well-schooled in Houston's macabre history and had not heard of him before.  I thought Dean Corrl was Houston's only notorious "Candyman" killer in the 1970's, but I guess not.

 

Anyway, I have been working on a map project of sorts for the last year, in which I've been pinpointing the precise locations of various historical events, offbeat attractions, and sites in Houston.    I'm trying to find Clark's old address (the house where the poisoning presumably occurred) so I can include it on my map, but have been unsuccessful thus far.

 

Does anyone remember where this happened?  Even just a street name would help.

Edited by MapMaker
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Parktown Townhomes in Deer Park was the O'Bryan home where Tim ingested the poison. They'd been trick or treating with a group over in a "better" neighborhood, with Ron as the chaperon, in Pasadena. The man Ron fingered for the poison house was Courtney Melvin, 4112 Donerail.

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  • 5 months later...

I may have that O'bryan address. Found this by freeze frameing off the killer ledgens documentary as they were at O'bryans house/apartment.

746 was the house number.

If what people are saying is true about the family living at parktown townhomes this is that address.

Parktown Townhomes

500 W Pasadena Blvd

Deer Park, TX 77536

http://www.parktownapts.com

The Apartments in the link are exactly like the ones in the killer ledgens documentary.

That's the best I can narrow down the address so far.

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  • 1 year later...
On 4/10/2015 at 11:55 AM, Kooljuice said:

I may have that O'bryan address. Found this by freeze frameing off the killer ledgens documentary as they were at O'bryans house/apartment.

746 was the house number.

If what people are saying is true about the family living at parktown townhomes this is that address.

Parktown Townhomes

500 W Pasadena Blvd

Deer Park, TX 77536

http://www.parktownapts.com

The Apartments in the link are exactly like the ones in the killer ledgens documentary.

That's the best I can narrow down the address so far.

There are actually two divisions of parktown in deer park, one on Pasadena Blvd and the other off center st.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm a retired Houston radio news reporter who has vivid memories of the Mass Murders committed by Dean Corll and two accomplices. I covered and reported that story every day from day one - the day Wayne Henley was arrested for killing Corll and revealing the most sickening story of depravity and cruelty I've ever encountered.

 

My point: The coverage went on for several years, and not once in any of that coverage was Corll ever referred to as the "Candy Man". Yes he worked in his mother's candy business, and he was known for giving free candy to children, and the kids called him the Candy Man, but I don't remember anybody ever referring to him as Candy Man during the long investigation that followed his death.

 

On the other hand, Ronald Clark O'Bryan - the guy who poisoned his children on Halloween in 1974 - WAS called the Candy Man for the rest of his sorry life till he was executed in 1984, proclaiming his innocence to the end.

 

Dean Corll was killed more than a year earlier in August of 73, and the Mass Murder story played out  well into 1974 and 1975 as police found bodies of Corll's victims all around the Houston area, on the Gulf Coast, and in east Texas. Trials of Corll's accomplices kept the story going for a long time. 

 

The Mass Murders were still front page news when RC O'Bryan poisoned his kids in August of 74, and somehow the two stories got conflated and Corll became the Candy Man in many people's minds, even though he never lured children to their deaths with candy. His victims were teenage hitch-hikers he and his helpers picked up on the freeways, many of whom were runaways. 

 

Edited by FilioScotia
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It was gruesome for sure, but reporters have the luxury of being able to cover stories from arm's length distance. In that line of work you learn very early NOT to get too close to the stories you cover. Reporters who get emotionally involved don't last long. 

Edited by FilioScotia
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  • 4 years later...
  • The title was changed to Address Of Ronald Clark O'Bryan's Home In Deer Park? (Houston's "Other" Candyman)
  • 2 months later...
On 4/10/2015 at 11:55 AM, Kooljuice said:

I may have that O'bryan address. Found this by freeze frameing off the killer ledgens documentary as they were at O'bryans house/apartment.

746 was the house number.

If what people are saying is true about the family living at parktown townhomes this is that address.

Parktown Townhomes

500 W Pasadena Blvd

Deer Park, TX 77536

http://www.parktownapts.com

The Apartments in the link are exactly like the ones in the killer ledgens documentary.

That's the best I can narrow down the address so far.

You are correct on the address.  It was Parktown Town Houses in Deer Park, Tx., off Pasadena Blvd, and the unit was 746. The unit was a 3-2, one story townhouse.  Back then, they were next to a horse pasture, and surrounded by an open field.  It's built-up since then.

 

Timothy was my friend...  he lived across the courtyard from me.  We both went to Carpenter Elementary, and played together after school with other kids in the "neighborhood".  I'll NEVER forget that horrible night.

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  • 3 months later...
On 4/3/2022 at 8:26 PM, KWallace said:

You are correct on the address.  It was Parktown Town Houses in Deer Park, Tx., off Pasadena Blvd, and the unit was 746. The unit was a 3-2, one story townhouse.  Back then, they were next to a horse pasture, and surrounded by an open field.  It's built-up since then.

 

Timothy was my friend...  he lived across the courtyard from me.  We both went to Carpenter Elementary, and played together after school with other kids in the "neighborhood".  I'll NEVER forget that horrible night.

I went there also, he was my friend too. Julee Morrow was my name then. 

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  • The title was changed to Ronald Clark O'Bryan's Home At 500 West Pasadena Blvd.

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