Halloween crimes are usually thought of as the thoughtless mayhem of demented strangers who enjoy poisoning candy or putting razor blades in apples. But crimes committed on Halloween are much more serious - and more real - than those urban legends. There have been numerous murders, kidnappings, and assaults that have taken place on October 31, and many are directly related to the festivities of the holiday. While it remains debatable as to whether or not there's a spike in crime on Halloween, there's no debate that all that these particular assaults happened in connection with the holiday.
Many of these crimes have been carried out by people who took advantage of the occasion to wear a costume and fool their victims for just long enough to kill them. Others involve people out trick-or-treating, or returning from parties late at night. But as with most violent crime in general, crimes that happen on Halloween are usually committed either by someone known to the victim, or in a case of mistaken identity. In a few cases, the crime has never been solved, and years or decades have gone by with no closure for the loved ones of the victims.
Here are some true stories of the worst crimes ever committed in connection with Halloween.
While the vast majority of Halloween scare stories about razor blades in apples or poisoned candy are either urban legends or moral panics, one story is, unfortunately, completely true. Eight-year-old Timothy O'Bryan had a packet of Pixy Stix given to him by his father Ronald to cap off his trick-or-treating. He perished less than a hour later.
The tragic event sent the O'Bryan's small Texas town into a panic, and the police determined that the Pixy Stix that Timothy ate was laced with cyanide. When Ronald's story kept changing, police began investigating him. They found him to be deeply in debt, and that he'd taken out massive life insurance policies on his children. Police found that the other children had also been given candy by Ronald, but hadn't eaten it.
Ronald O'Bryan was found guilty of murder was executed in 1984.
Late on Halloween night 2004, roommates Leslie Mazzara and Adriane Insogna went to bed after handing out candy. A third roommate, Lauren Meanza was woken up at 1 am by the sounds of a scuffle. Not knowing what was happening, she ran in terror from the house. When the coast was clear, she ran back upstairs and found both of her roommates dead.
Throughout the investigation, FBI agents found cigarette butts near the scene of the crime that matched blood evidence inside the house, but found no known matches in any DNA databases. Officers and FBI agents spoke to nearly 1,000 persons of interest during the investigation, including one of Insogna’s friends, Lily Prudhomme. Her husband,Eric Copple, became a person of interest during the investigation when he began avoiding the police. Nearly a year after the crime, Copple turned himself in and confessed to the crime.
At the time of the crime, Copple was only engaged to the friend of one of his victims and carried on with the wedding thinking he was in the clear. This quote from Adriane Insogna's mother, Arlene Allen, gives a chilling insight into a slayer who thought he got away with it:
You are the man who is so cruel as to invite me, the mother of the woman you murdered, to stand up for you at your wedding, to read scripture to you of love and death and to bless your union.
On Halloween 2010, Ohio teenager Devon Griffin returned home from Sunday church services to find his brother Derek, mother Susan, and Susan's new husband, William Liske, murdered.Devon was so traumatized he could only say that the scene was like “something out of a haunted house.”
The culprit was found to be William Liske’s son from a previous marriage, William Liske Jr., who had a history of schizophrenia and aggression. Liske was later picked up and pleaded guilty to all three murders. He took his own life in prison in 2015.
Bronx resident Karl Jackson was a 21-year-old data entry clerk at Morgan Stanley. On Halloween night 1998, Jackson went with his girlfriend to pick up her young son from a party. While there, some teenagers threw eggs at their car, but the classic Halloween prank soon turned ugly.
Jackson got out of his car, exchanged words with the teens, and got back in the car. Then one of the teens pulled out a side arm and shot Jackson, ending his life instantly. Police later arrested 17-year-old Curtis Sterling for the crime.
In 2009, three teenage girls were abducted by a man on their way home from trick-or-treating in Woodbridge, Virginia. All three were taken at gunpoint to a wooded area, and two were sexually assaulted. The third girl was able to call her mother, causing the man to flee.
Police arrested Aaron Thomas, who was already a suspect in numerous sexual assault cases since the 1990s. Thomas pleaded guilty to the crime in 2012.
Yoshihiro Hattori was a Japanese exchange student living in Baton Rouge as part of the American Field Service program. On Halloween night 1992, Hattori and the young son of his host family went to a Halloween party for AFS students. Unfamiliar with the neighborhood where the party was, the boys rang the doorbell of the wrong house.
When they got no answer, they started walking back to their car. The owner of the home, Rodney Peairs, then opened the door armed with a .44 Magnum. Hattori turned around and said, "We're here for the party." Claiming he feared for his life and that the exchange student was "scary," Peairs shot Hattori, ending his life.
