Troy Taylor - Suffer the Children: American Horrors, Homicides and Hauntings (Dead Men Do Tell Tales Series Book 15)

INTRODUCTION

If youre a parent, whats your greatest fear?

Just about every person that I know with a child will answer this question almost immediately its that some sort a tragedy might befall their children. Accidents, calamities, automobile crashes, natural disasters, fires the list goes on. All these things terrify parents. These are the things that keep them awake at night, staring at the ceiling of their bedrooms and wondering how they would handle the nightmare if something terrible happened to their child.

Of course, accidents and calamities are cruel twists of fate. Bad luck if you believe in luck, or perhaps providence if you dont plays no favorites. The idea that a terrible accident might occur that claims the life of your child may keep you from sleeping at night but, in the end, theres nothing you can do about it. Accidents happen, right?

But what about that terrible thing thats not an accident at all? What about when the horrible death of a child comes at the hands of another? There are, without a doubt, killers who walk among us. Is there a more loathsome killer lurking in the darkest corners of America than one that would prey on children?

Such monsters have been with us since the first settlers arrived on American shores. We often fool ourselves into believing that the good old days were actually good, but this is far from the truth. Monsters have always been with us. They stalked the innocent in the days when children stayed close to the rugged settlements of the colonies, afraid to wander into the dark forest. They were among us before the Civil War claimed the lives of thousands of men and boys. These monsters claimed the lives of the young and nave during the Gilded Age, at the dawn of the twentieth century, through the Depression, and beyond.

These monsters are not the stuff of fiction. They are bloodcurdlingly real. They have been among us since the nation began and they are with us still, always looking for their next victim.

We know this, as did our parents, and their parents before them. The fear of strangers and their terrible deeds has been rooted in the minds of multiple generations of Americans.

We created myths and legends of monstrous shapes, hoping to scare children so that they never strayed too far from the welcoming light of home. And yet blood was spilled. Children vanished, never to be seen again. They became faces on milk cartons and cautionary tales of what happened when children were left alone. We must keep our children safe, parents told themselves, but even the most watchful eyes werent always enough.

Our cautionary tales created one of the most popular and most terrifying urban legends of all time. It involved just two things: a babysitter and a telephone.

It tells the story of a babysitter who has been left in charge of young children for the night. The parents, hoping for a much-needed night out of dinner and a movie, left this trusted neighbor girl with their children. She was experienced, she was reliable, and the parents had nothing to fear. The night is quiet and after finishing some homework, the babysitter turns on the television. And then the telephone rings. When the girl answers, she hears a mans harsh voice. Have you checked the children? he asks her.

Startled, but assuming it to be a prank call, she hangs up the phone. The telephone rings again and once more, the same mans voice repeats the question. The babysitter slams down the receiver, but it keeps ringing and the same man keeps asking her about the children. Now terrified, she phones the police who assure her that they will have the calls traced and find out who has been harassing her. A few minutes later, the police operator calls back with horrifying news: The calls are coming from inside of the house!

When officers arrive on the scene, they find a distraught babysitter and two murdered children in the upstairs nursery. The killer had somehow gotten into the house. He had made the calls to terrorize the babysitter and lure her upstairs to her death. Of course, this morality play ends in tragedy for the young woman who did not watch the children closely enough she loses her mind and has to be locked away in a mental institution for the rest of her life.

Of course, this is only a story, right?

We all know that its just an urban myth that illustrates the perils of being a babysitter and the fact that children are never really safe, even in the most innocent circumstances. Stories like this and a lot of others like it have been told and re-told thousands of times over the years. Its only a story or is it?

When you were growing up, how many times did you hear stories like that one? Or were told never to talk to a sketchy-looking man that your mother pointed out on the street? Or to never accept a ride in a car with someone you didnt know? Or to never accept candy from strangers especially at Halloween. It was at Halloween when every horror story that your mother could ever imagine came to life. Never knock on a door of a house without a porch light on. Never accept treats that were not professionally packaged. Never bite into an apple that your parents hadnt carefully checked they were filled with needles and razor blades, dont you know?

It all boiled down to never take candy from strangers.

But that was crazy, wasnt it? It was Halloween, for petes sake. Whos evil enough to stick razor blades into apples or put poison into candy bars? Those are just stories, arent they? Those kinds of things never really happen.

Well, as it turns out, stories like this often get started for a reason. And sometimes the monster is not a stranger after all.

On Halloween night, 1974, Timothy OBryan and his sister, Elizabeth, had anxiously waited for their father, Ronald, to get home from work so that they could go trick or treating. The family, which included their mother, Daynene, lived in the suburb of Deer Park, Texas. Ronald was an optician at Texas State Optical in Houston, was a deacon at the Second Baptist Church, where he also sang in the choir and was in charge of the local bus program, and was, as far as everyone who knew him was concerned, a wonderful, loving father.

When he finally walked through the door of the family home, the children rushed to him, hurrying him back out to the street. Still wearing his white opticians lab coat, Ronald took Timothy and Elizabeth out to celebrate Halloween. They met some friends and went to the first house of the night.

Timothy rang the doorbell. There was no answer. If anyone was home, they were taking far too long to answer the door. The children impatiently ran to the next house on the block, leaving Ronald to catch up. When he did, he had five Giant Pixy Sticks in his hand tubes of pure sugary goodness that the kids couldnt wait to consume. But Ronald promised he would distribute the candy among the children when they got back to the house.

It was late when they returned home. Ronald got the children ready for bed, but before he fell asleep, Timothy asked for just one treat from the nights bounty of sweets. He chose a 22-inch Giant Pixie Stix. The sugar had hardened in the tube, so his father helpfully rolled the candy between his hands to loosen the contents. Timothy poured the confection into his mouth, but his face wrinkled in disgust. It tasted terrible. Ronald quickly ran to get some Kool-Aid for his son to wash the bad taste away.

Timothy never had the chance to drink it. Within moments, he began to choke, vomit, and then convulse. Something was terribly wrong. When paramedics arrived, they found Ronald cradling Timothy in his arms as the little boy gagged and foamed at the mouth. He was pronounced dead at the hospital less than an hour later.