Tainted Halloween Candy
Razor blades in lollipops, poison in tootsie rolls, and other horrors seem to haunt the trick-or-treat bags of young Americans. But is there any truth to these fears, or is it just another urban legend?
Sociologists specializing in criminal justice asked this very same question. Joel Best and Gerald T. Horiuchi conducted a study to see if the worry over Halloween treats was substantial or not.
They surmised that these Halloween fears actually spiked during fearful times - like in the 1980s after the Tylenol poisonings.
This is not to say that the treats have never been the trick. In fact, in 1964, Helen Pfeil was arrested for handing out ant poison and dog treats to children. No children suffered due to her actions, but the police still weren’t happy. It was claimed that Pfeil gave these tricks to people who she thought were too old to be trick or treating.
Perhaps the most infamous Halloween poisoning occurred in 1974. Ronald O’Bryan, a Texas resident, gave cyanide-laced pixie sticks to 5 children, including his own son. While the other children never ate the candy, his 8 year old son, Timothy, did and died shortly after. However, this wasn’t Halloween-driven, it merely appeared convenient. O’Bryan had recently taken out life insurance policies on his children.
It seems that those who did ‘poison candy’ didn’t really do so for a wide, Halloween effect but rather for specific, criminal reasons. Or, like in the case of Pfeil, to prevent older children from knocking on her door (though I suspect raisins would have the same effect).
Like horror movies, are the fears of tainted candy just ripped straight from the headlines and mutated into a new, different sort of fear tailored-made for this time of year? It appears so.
Thanks to Morgan D for the blogstonishing suggestion!
The blog image comes from Petey21 and depicts ‘A Halloween candy bucket filled with candy.’ It is licensed under CC0.
