When kids start wolfing down their Halloween goody , there ’s always one grim specter tarry in the back of parents ' minds : what if some maniac had filled their candy with poisonous substance , razor blade , needles , or some other by all odds terrifying foreign substance ? But has this ever actually happened ? Let ’s take a look at how realistic these fears are .
Has anyone ever really handed out poisoned Halloween candy?
To random children ? Not that we do it of . In 1974 , an eight - twelvemonth - one-time Houston male child named Timothy O’Bryan died after eating nitril - laced Pixy Stix while trick - or - treating . Although the poisoning initially look like it might have been the work of a deranged homeowner , the investigation into O’Bryan ’s slaying shortly centered on his male parent , Ronald Clark O’Bryan .
A bit of digging revealed that Ronald O’Bryan had recently taken out hefty life indemnity policies on both of his kid , and police quickly built a case , albeit a circumstantial one , that O’Bryan had give both Timothy and his daughter , Elizabeth , the poison candy to seek to collect on the policy . To help cover his tracks , O’Bryan also give two other tike cyanide Pixy Stix . fortunately , his daughter and the other two children had passed up the poison powder in favor of other treat .
O’Bryan was eventually convicted and executed for murdering his son . While his offense was sure as shooting a horrific one , it was scarcely the sorting of random poisoning that parent dread .
So nobody’s ever died from poisoned Halloween candy?
By all indication , no . Snopeshas collected an impressive array of story where randomly poison Halloween confect was blamed for destruction , though . In 1970 , a five - year - old in Detroit died after ingesting a massive amount of heroin . Tests on his Halloween confect show that some had been sprinkled with the drug , but the police actually pick up the tragic the true behind the son ’s decease . He had trip across his uncle ’s heroin hoard and mistakenly eaten it . His family then spatter the drug on the male child ’s Halloween confect to fuddle off investigators .
Why so many scares, then?
It ’s easy to see how these urban legends have taken hold because they ’re so terrifying . After all , parent spend 364 Day of every year telling their kids not to take confect from alien precisely because it might be poisoned , then give the thumb - up to taking bite from every house in the neighborhood on Halloween . It ’s only born that parent would get a little skittish . Plus , after the terrifyingly random Tylenol murders of 1982 where seven Chicagoland the great unwashed died after take randomly envenom hurting medication , many people have been more than a little nervous about craze poisoners .
Of course , the scares get a literal boost every few years when someone , often a parent , dies while eating Halloween candy or straight off afterwards . Statistically , you ’d expect just as many people to randomly drop dead on Halloween as any other day of the class , but any time a parent has a fatal heart tone-beginning after eating a miniature Butterfinger , the poison confect scourge gets the blame until the autopsy result come back . Everything from inwardness failure to fateful bacterial infections have been ab initio blamed on poisoned candy .
OK, so there’s probably no poison in my kids’ Halloween candy. What about razor blades and needles?
Now here ’s what you should really be worried about . Actually , “ really be disturbed about ” is too strong of a phrasing ; let ’s say this is what should gently concern you . Unlike randomly poisoned candy , there are verify story of astute physical object being placed in random trick - or - treaters ’ confect . Fortunately , though , these incidents hardly qualify as an epidemic . In fact , they ’re really , really rare .
According to Snopes , since 1959 there have been around 80 reports of astute object adulterating nutrient . The great mass of those reports twist out to be hoaxes , and even when the stories turn out to be true , the needles or blades were usually placed in the food by a relative or friend who had a really boneheaded idea of what constitutes a in effect prank . Hardly the sort of crazed loners who should be keeping us awake at nighttime .
Moreover , liken to nitril toxic condition , the possible downside of bite into a sharp physical object is fairly lowly . The worst of these verified report resulted in someone take to get a few stitch to close a slice in the mouth . While that would certainly be enough to smash your twenty-four hour period , and you should obviously still inspect your minor ’s grip of Halloween loot , it ’s not quite as terrifying as keeling over with a Jolly Rancher in your mouth .
Has anyone been caught for one of these needle attacks?
Despite decades of parental headache , the first organized endeavor to spoil Halloween with incisive object did n’t encounter until 2000 . That year James Joseph Smith of Minneapolis allegedly stuck needles in the Snickers saloon he pass out to play a trick on - or - treaters . While several of the kid bit into Smith ’s villainous bars , he could scarcely take a huge dupe toll . The only injury was to a teenager who was pricked by one of the needle , and even he did n’t need to go see a doctor for his relatively small wound . Police charged Smith with one numeration of adulterating a heart with purport to have last , harm or illness .
Anything else weird turn up in Halloween candy?
How about pot ? In 2000 , parent get down regain an odd whoremaster mix in into their child ’s treats : Snickers wrappers stuff with marijuana . constabulary jumped on the case and quickly trace the wacky chocolates back to a homeowner who seemed really scattered about the whole hullabaloo .
Eventually , the police and the householder piece together what had happened . The man work in the dead letter of the alphabet office at a local postal facility , and when he found a bag of Snickers in a lost packet , he brought them home to give out as treat . He had n’t realized , though , that the candy bars were in reality someone ’s endeavor at smuggling flock through the mail .
This narrative was update in 2021 .
