10 creepy things that have happened on halloween
Halloween is a time for trick-or-treating, ghost stories, horror movies, and fun. It's all about having a good scare without being in any real danger - or is it?
These 10 true horror stories may make you think twice about how you celebrate All Hallows Eve this year.
1. The "Candyman" of Houston, TX
In 1974, a man named Ronald O'Bryan permanently changed the meaning of trick-or-treat by murdering one of his children with poisoned candy. The married father of two had recently taken out life insurance policies on both of his children, and in order to cash in, planned to poison them with cyanide-laced Pixy Stix.
The former Pasadena Detective Sergeant who investigated the creepy case says he remembers that night well. He describes it as a cold, damp, misty night. Due to the weather, Mr. O'Bryan wore a raincoat and hid the tainted treats in his sleeves.
O'Bryan, now forever dubbed "The Candyman" of Houston, TX thought that he could cover up his intent to murder by handing the lethal sweets out not only to his own children but to three others in the neighborhood. O'Bryan succeeded in killing only one child that night, his eight-year-old son, Timothy, who died within an hour of eating the candy. Thankfully, none of the other children ate theirs.
Ever since then, urban legends about razor blades, pins, and other horrible things appearing in candy have frightened parents everywhere into inspecting the treats their little ones bring home every Halloween night.
2. The strange disappearance of DJ Blue
On Halloween night in 2012, 22-year-old Leon Hall, also known as DJ Blue, was kicked out of a nightclub for disorderly conduct. When the well-known Seattle entertainer didn't respond to any texts or calls within the next few days, his friends knew something was seriously wrong. Although everyone hoped for a positive outcome, Hall's body was said to have been found floating in a bay almost a month later. The exact circumstances behind his death are still unknown.
3. Trick-or-treater killed in drive-by shooting
On October 31st, 1994 at approximately 6:15 p.m., a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt opened fire on seven-year-old trick-or-treater, Tony Bagley, his sister, aunt, and mother. While each family member was wounded, only the innocent young boy, who wore a skeleton costume that night, perished in the attack.
According to witnesses, the gunman jumped into a waiting vehicle that sped off into the night. The perpetrator was never found, and this tragic Las Vegas murder remains unsolved to this day.
4. Stalked by a "smiley face" killer
University of Minnesota senior, Christopher Jenkins, was just 21 years old when he mysteriously disappeared on Halloween night in 2002. Friends reported last seeing him leave a bar in downtown Minneapolis around midnight. Four months later, his body was found floating in the Mississippi River, still clothed in his Halloween costume.
Although the Minneapolis police classified the incident as an accidental drowning most likely due to extreme intoxication, his parents, Steve and Jan Jenkins, refused to believe it. They knew something wasn't right about their son's death and it prompted them to pursue their own investigation. Their search lead them to an odd series of drowning deaths, many involving young men who attended colleges along the Interstate 94 corridor in the Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa area.
Three of the victims attended college in New York State while another nine were enrolled at the University of LaCrosse, in Wisconsin. Once authorities took up the investigation, they connected at least 40 mysterious deaths by drowning of college-age men across the country.
Authorities believe that in each case, the men (who were all high achievers and similar in height and weight) were drugged before their bodies were dumped into the water. One of the creepiest things about the case is that, as the investigation wore on, at least some of them were connected by a crude drawing of a smiley face painted either on a tree or other surface near the crime scene.
Detectives have dubbed the killer or killers "Smiley Face", and believe they are still at large today.
Onlookers were enjoying a family-friendly "Holiday on Ice" show at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum on Halloween night, 1963. The entertainers were in the process of finishing a medley entitled, "Mardi Gras" and were skating into a pinwheel formation, when a sudden explosion rocked the building, catapulting skaters and patrons into the air.
Minutes later, a second ear-splitting explosion created a fireball that rose to the rafters. The ice, which had offered innocent entertainment only an hour before, quickly became a makeshift morgue, with some bodies burnt so horribly, authorities were unable to identify whether they were male or female.
It was later discovered that a rusty tank leaking propane had been slowly filling the room with gas. Once the gas came in contact with an electric popcorn machine, it went off like a powder keg, sending chunks of concrete and severed body parts raining down into the audience.
The death toll from the explosion amounted to 74 people, with 40 dying on the scene and 20 perishing from their injuries later on.
Today, a memorial plaque honoring each victim hangs in the lobby of the building.
6. Stalked and killed on the railroad tracks
18-year-old British Columbia resident, Taylor Van Diest, was walking alone to meet a friend on Halloween night, 2011. Sometime during the walk, she noticed she was being followed and relayed this information via text.
Shortly after that, all contact stopped and the young woman seemingly vanished into thin air. Hours later, Taylor was found by the railroad tracks, brutally beaten with life-threatening head wounds. She was rushed to the hospital but later died of her injuries.
DNA evidence, scraped from underneath the victim's fingernails, pointed to 26-year-old Matthew Foerster as the perpetrator. It is believed that the attack began as an attempted rape, but when Taylor screamed and fought to escape, Foerster panicked and smashed her head repeatedly with a blunt instrument.
Foerster plead guilty to the attack and was sentenced to first-degree murder, giving him an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
7. The girl who never came home from trick-or-treating
Back in 1973, going trick-or-treating alone in the small town of Fon du Lac, Wisconsin was considered normal. That's exactly what nine-year-old Lisa French was doing on Halloween night when she set off to a neighbor's house for some treats. When she didn't come home, her concerned family launched a search.
A few days later, Lisa's nude body was found stuffed into a plastic bag and dumped in a farm field.
The neighbor, Gerald Turner, would take nine months to confess to raping and murdering the little girl. In 1999, an undated letter from Turner to the deceased girl was released to the general public.
Although in one part, Turner appears to feel remorse for his crime, he describes the scene in such vivid detail, one wonders if he wrote the letter not to unburden himself, but to relive and relish that night one more time.
To this day, Fond du Lac still schedules trick-or-treating from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., the Sunday before Halloween.
8. The Halloween home invasion
This story zips right past creepy and goes straight to terrifying. When a 34-year-old woman heard a knock at the door on Halloween night, 2014, she assumed it was trick-or-treaters.
Instead of little ghosts and goblins begging for candy, however, she found herself face to face with three masked adults, two of them brandishing handguns. The trio barged inside, forced her and her 48-year-old husband to sit down, and bound their hands and feet with duct tape.
It was then that two more invaders showed up, joining the original attackers in ransacking the family's Long Island, NY home. After some struggling, the woman was able to free herself from her bonds. She grabbed her two-year-old son and ran to a neighbor's home to call the police.
The attackers, four men and one woman, fled before authorities arrived and are believed to be still at large.
9. The Peter Fabiano murder
On Halloween night in 1957, 35-year-old Los Angeles resident, Peter Fabiano, answered the door to what he believed to be trick-or-treaters. Instead, the last thing he saw was an adult in a hat, red gloves, and a domino mask, aiming a brown paper bag that contained a .22 caliber pistol right at him. The person fired the fatal shot and immediately fled the scene, hoping to disappear under the cover of anonymity.
The story goes that a woman named Joan Rabel had had an affair with Peter's wife, Betty, and wanted revenge after her lover reconciled with her husband. She enlisted the help of one Goldyne Pizer to hatch a murderous plot to get rid of the one thing she believed stood in the way of their relationship: Peter Fabiano.
Police managed to track them both down and they were jailed for second-degree murder and sentenced to five years in prison.
10. Preacher murders woman to fulfil sick fantasy
Despite that fact that John D. White had already been in prison for stabbing one woman and murdering another, he managed to become a preacher in a small Michigan church.
Living in a trailer park, he set his sights on an attractive 24-year-old girl named Rebekah and couldn't get the twisted thought of performing acts of necrophilia on her out of his head. On Halloween night, 2012, the pastor could no longer contain himself. He downed four or five beers before going to the woman's mobile home and bludgeoning her to death with a mallet and strangling her with a zip tie.
After dumping her body early that Wednesday, he returned to the scene of the crime to dress her three-year-old son in a Halloween costume and drop the boy off with his father. White's 14-member congregation stood staunchly by his side until the preacher confessed to the crime, citing pornographic movies for leading him into the depraved temptation.
Although certain beliefs make some view Halloween as a night of evil, incidents like this are far and few in between. But just to be safe, it's a good idea to travel in groups, trick-or-treat early, and check the peephole before you answer the door...
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