Urban Legends - Are Halloween Candy Murders Real?

Anyone who has ever been trick-or-treating have heard the stories about their candy possibly being poisoned. From the 1950's through the 1960's, our Halloween customs have stayed pretty much the same. Although, the sixties encouraged something "new" Halloween safety. As a result, the magazines, newspapers, television, and radio were filled with ideas on keeping your children safe. At the same time though still letting them have a good time. This is an idea that is still in parents minds to this day in time. Manufacturers then jumped into this new safety campaign. They made all safe costumes and candy decorations that met the safety standards of this time.

However, in the 1970's, a candy scare put a major halt into everyone's candy and costume budget. In the past, even if you didn't have a lot of money you could always make home made goodies. This way in no way would your bank account be affected by the holiday. During this time a major scare changed all of this. Kevin Tostan, a five-year-old boy, allegedly ate some Halloween candy laced with heroin. Parents around the U.S. panicked. They let out a major battle cry to investigators. The investigators later discovered that the drug actually belonged to the boys uncle and was not in fact related to any Halloween candy. Later in the 1970's around about 1974 a boy named Timothy O'Bryan, eight years young, died from cyanide poisoning after eating a supposed Halloween treat. The boys father claimed that he got the poisoned treat from a house in Pasadena, Texas. As we all know everything is always not the way it seems to the naked eye. With this unfortunate death the police investigated the house, which was in fact empty on Halloween Eve. The authorities later discovered that the boys father had taken out a $20,000 life insurance policy on each of his children. It was discovered that he was in fact the very person who poisoned his son. He had also attempted to poison his daughter. He was later sentenced to death and was to receive the injection on Halloween 1982. He received a stay of execution though.

A survey by a sociologist at California State University in Fresno found that in thirty years , not one death or severe injury was ever caused by a Halloween murderer. As many of you know though, it hasn't stopped the myths from taking a lot of the fun out of our Halloween. All the horror stories of razor blades in candy apples, drugs in Halloween candy, and adults dressed in strange costumes so that they can scare children and later murder them. These stories have all basically turned into urban legends, things that are not true, but could be so maybe they are. Sociologists believe that adults using all these myths as a scare tactic are in fact just their way of keeping control of the next generation. They believe the adults are doing this because they feel they are losing control. Some others believe that some adults are actually just doing it to scare children. They think this will actually keep kids in line. Ha ha, we all think that ghosts and goblins are the scary ones.

So this Halloween try to enjoy the fun instead of all the worry. When people tell you to search the kids candy and study the houses you can relax more. I know from experience that parents do freak out during this holiday. My parents always checked my candy and re checked it over and over again. Give your kids the candy and let them enjoy!!

SOURCE
Ravenwolf, Silver. "Halloween". 1999. Llewellyn Publications. St. Paul, MN USA.