Poisoned candy for Halloween

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Candy container with Halloween motif

Poisoned candy for Halloween ( English Poisoned Candy Myths or Poisoned Candy Scare ) is the urban legend that some candy that is served on Halloween as part of the "trick or treat" (mostly translated as "trick or treat") is either mixed with poison or containing dangerous objects such as razor blades or broken glass. This legend, based on true incidents, has persisted, although so far only one real case has been known that was also influenced by this myth.

history

The myth of poisoned candy is as old as the Halloween cult that was brought to the United States during the Irish Renaissance . The myth is also closely linked to the Industrial Revolution , when food production was automated and new ingredients were used, unknown to many private individuals. Some doctors blamed the food industry when children became ill or died for no apparent reason. In fact, there is not a single known case in which a single piece of candy was the leading cause of a child's illness or death.

In the 1890s and 1900s, the US Bureau of Chemistry and other government agencies dealt with reports of poisoned candy across the country. Here, too, no indication was found that toxic substances were systematically incorporated into production. In fact, harmful substances were used, especially in cheap candy. Cheaper corn syrup was often used for sweetening, and some candies were contaminated with copper that got into the candy through the use of inferior pans. It was also coal tar used for dyeing, the blood poison aniline contained. Even if these substances were certainly not particularly beneficial for health, there is no known case in which children were intentionally poisoned. In fact, most of the cases in which children became sick were based on overeating and food poisoning from other causes, such as poor hygiene or improper storage of meat.

However, rumors of poisoned candy for Halloween persisted. The case of a dentist in California who hid laxatives in candy in 1959 became known . He was convicted of causing public offense and illicit drug administration. In 1964, it was a Long Island woman who distributed various dangerous substances as sweets to teenagers who she believed were too old to collect sweets. These were steel wool, dog biscuits, and ant bait. In fact, nobody was hurt. The woman was later found guilty of endangering children's lives. In Detroit that same year, several newspapers warned against candy filled with glue, and in Philadelphia against candy containing rat poison .

The height of the hysteria was reached in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1970, the New York Times reported on poisoned candy and possible dangers on Halloween before Halloween, but without any specific reason or evidence.

Child with candy bag

Such reports continued to accumulate in the 1970s. In the 1980s, there were several cases of copycat acts of the so-called Tylenol murders of Chicago. Someone had filled individual capsules of the pain reliever Tylenol with potassium cyanide , killing seven people. Columnist Abigail Van Buren ("Dear Abby") and her twin sister Eppie Lederer ("Ask Ann Landers"), whose well-known columns on Halloween 1983 and 1995 dealt with the topic, contributed to spreading the myth .

Several non-candy-based deaths also contributed to spreading the myth:

  • In 1970, a five-year-old boy consumed heroin that belonged to his uncle and died after a five-day coma. His family tried to protect the uncle and invented poisoned Halloween candy.
  • In 1974, in Deer Park , Texas, Ronald Clark O'Bryan killed his eight-year-old son with a box of Pixy Stix spiked with potassium cyanide , which he placed in his Trick-or-Treat collection. To cover up the murder, he distributed more packs to children in the neighborhood. In fact, he was concerned with his child's life insurance. He was convicted of the crime and executed in 1984. He later became known as "Candy Man" and "The Man Who Killed Halloween".
  • In 1978, a two year old boy died after eating Halloween candy. However, no poison could be found. Rather, he died of other reasons, there was no connection to the sweets.
  • In California, some newspapers reported on a dead girl who allegedly died of poisoned candy on Halloween 1990. In fact, the girl suffered from cardiomegaly , which was responsible for her death.
  • On Halloween 1991, a 31-year-old family man in Washington DC died of heart failure after eating candy for his children. After the Washington Times reported it without knowledge of the autopsy results, concerned parents destroyed their children's supplies of candy.
  • In 2001, a four-year-old girl who had previously eaten Halloween candy died of strep infection .

In addition, there were several cases that went off lightly, which nonetheless fed the myth:

  • In 1982 there was a case in Detroit in which a treating doctor misinterpreted the test results of a sick adolescent and announced poisoning that later turned out to be incorrect.
  • In 1988, police found a suspicious powder that turned out to be strychnine in a pack of sunkist in a store in New Jersey . The story was published in October, but had no relation to Halloween. The company immediately withdrew all packs of the affected product from circulation, even though it was only an isolated case.
  • On Halloween 1994, a three-year-old boy was cocaine poisoned in British Columbia . Similar to 1970, the boy probably found a relative's drug supply, but the media initially reported about poisoned sweets.
  • On Halloween 1996, a seven-year-old boy collapsed in San Jose , California and tested positive for cocaine incorrectly.
  • In 2000, an unsuspecting resident in Hercules , California, was distributing Snickers packaging filled with marijuana to neighborhood children. The resident, a postal worker, was supposed to deliver these candy bars and various canned goods that had accumulated in the undeliverable mail office to a local charity, but kept the candy for his own use.

Investigations

Joel Best of the University of Delaware examined a total of 90 reports of poisoned candy in the US media, as well as attempts at poisoning that were reported in hospitals. His data spanned the period from 1958 to 1983. In fact, he found mostly cases in which adults or children tried to attract attention. However, he did not rule out that there have been attempts to poison children with sweets. He found five cases in which children actually died, but these did not stand up to investigation and he therefore called the hysteria an urban legend. On the other hand, cases of vandalism, racist attacks and traffic accidents involving children would be statistically more frequent than poisoned sweets on Halloween. His investigation was continued with new data in his 1990 book Threatened Children . In 2013 he published another update. However, in his investigation, Best found at least eighty cases of dangerous objects such as razor blades, needles and thumbtacks being hidden in Halloween candy. But only in ten of the cases there were minor injuries.

The only known case in which a child was killed by poisoned candy remains Ronald Clark O'Bryan, who poisoned his own child in order to collect insurance. Presumably he used the myth consciously to cover up his act.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Samira Kawash: Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure . Faber & Faber, Incorporated, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-86547-756-8 , pp. 27-72 .
  2. ↑ Samira Kawash: Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure . Faber & Faber, Incorporated, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-86547-756-8 , pp. 64-66 .
  3. ↑ a b Samira Kawash: Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure . Faber & Faber, Incorporated, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-86547-756-8 , pp. 272-276 .
  4. ↑ United Press International: Deadly 'Tricks' Given Children in 3 States . In: The Milwaukee Journal . November 2, 1964, p. A18 .
  5. ↑ Judy Klemesrud: Those Treats May Be tricks . In: The New York Times . October 28, 1970, p. 56 .
  6. ↑ Not a suspect . In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 1986 ( online ).
  7. ↑ a b Dan Lewis: Where Did the Fear of Poisoned Halloween Candy Come From? Smithsonian.com, October 6, 2013, accessed September 19, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Aaron Carroll, Rachel Vreeman: Don't Swallow Your Gum !: Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies about Your Body and Health . Macmillan, 2009, ISBN 978-0-312-53387-8 , pp. 146 .
  9. ↑ a b c Joel Best: Halloween Sadism: The Evidence. University of Delaware Faculty Pages, accessed October 27, 2014 .
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g Halloween Poisonings: Have police documented cases of people randomly distributing poisoned goodies to children on Halloween? Snopes.com, accessed October 19, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Guy Adams: The Halloween poisoner has US in his grip: A new study casts doubt on an urban legend, but the myth of the deadly candy refuses to die. The Independent , October 27, 2012, accessed October 23, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Joel Best: Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern about Child-victims . Ed .: University of Chicago Press. Chicago 1993, ISBN 0-226-04426-2 .
  13. ^ Joel Best, Gerald T. Horiuchi: The Razor Blade in the Apple: The Social Construction of Urban Legends . In: Social Problems . No. 32 , 1985, pp. 488-99 .
  14. ^ Joel Best: Halloween Sadism: The Evidence. University of Delaware , accessed September 19, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Pins and Needles: Have pins, needles and razor blades been found in trick-or-treaters' loot? Snopes.com, November 18, 2013, accessed November 19, 2015 .