With October 31 fast approaching, New Idea is looking back on the Halloween nights turned to tragedy in these real life crimes.
The Candy Man
This crime happened decades ago, however for many communities it changed the public perception around trick-or-treating safety forever.
Ronald Clark O’Bryan was an optician and church deacon in Texas. But despite his family man image, he’d got himself into $143,000 of debt.
To get out of difficulties, he concocted a scheme to buy poison and put it into Pixy Stix – a sweet and sour powdered candy popular at the time. During the months before Halloween, O’Bryan bought life insurance policies for his two children.
Then, on October 31, 1974, he bought potassium cyanide from a garden shop which he added to the Pixy Stix he gave to his children, Timothy, eight, and Elizabeth, five, as well as other neighbourhood kids.
On eating the lollies, Timothy immediately started convulsing and died in his father’s arms. An uproar went through the neighbourhood as people looked for other poisoned candies. Four were found still in children’s bags, and another was discovered unopened in bed with a child who had tried but couldn’t undo the staples O’Bryan had used to reseal the stick.
Eventually, the police learned about O’Bryan’s purchase of the cyanide and life insurance policies, and he was charged with capital murder. At his trial, after a short deliberation, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to be executed.
Appeals took 10 years but were unsuccessful. On the night of the execution, in March 1984, people reportedly stood outside the jail and shouted “Trick or Treat.”
O’Bryan became known as “The Candy Man” and “The Man who Killed Halloween” and led to parents warning kids to be extra careful about where they go trick-or-treating and what lollies they eat.
Killer door knock
His Halloween fancy dress costume didn’t look particularly scary. Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori, known as Yoshi, was in a white tuxedo in imitation of John Travolta’s character in Saturday Night Fever.
The 16-year-old and his friend, Webb Haymaker, who was dressed in a neck brace and bandages, were on their way to a party in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in October 1992.
Thinking they’d found the right place, they knocked on the door. It had Halloween decorations up and three cars in the driveway. But instead of number 10131, this house was number 10311 and the owner, Rodney Peairs, opened the door with a gun.
“He [Yoshi] was very eager to get to the party and didn’t understand, I guess, that [Peairs] had a gun. Maybe he thought it was a Halloween thing,” Haymaker told the BBC. “He sang, in a very boisterous way, ‘We’re here for the party! We’re here for the party!’ – sort of happy.”
Peairs shouted “Freeze!” but Yoshi kept moving forwards. Peairs fired once, hitting Yoshi in the chest, killing him.
Initially Peairs was released without charge as police said he was within his rights to shoot a trespasser. Even after he was eventually charged with manslaughter, he was acquitted in May 1993.
Undeterred, Yoshi’s devastated parents, Mieko and Masa, devoted themselves to changing gun control laws in the US and had some success. They also donated the $143,000 they received from a civil suit against Peairs to the cause.
A deadly skit
Around 50 people saw Kenneth Lindstrand being shot at a Halloween party in California but nobody batted an eyelid. They all thought it was part of the festivities.
A woman reportedly danced over his body and, when blood was seen coming from his mouth, partygoers assumed it was a capsule. Only after a guest checked on Lindstrand, 32, did they realise the shooting wasn’t a skit. He was dead and his killer had got clean away.
It was 18 months before Jack Stearns was arrested in 1969 and identified in a police line-up as the murderer. During his trial, jealousy was alleged as the motive after Lindstrand danced with Stearns’ wife, Maria.
He was found guilty and sentenced to life but this was later reversed due to problems with the line-up used to identify him.
A second trial ended in a hung jury but Stearns pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and received three years’ probation.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
