We’re back with a special edition of Urban Legend: Fact or Fiction. In honor of spooky season, we take a deep dive into the tale of Tainted Halloween Candy. So give your apple a quick once over before we bite into this one.
The Story Tainted Halloween Candy
Warning! Parents be on the lookout this Halloween!
Some sicko in our community is trying to kill children! They are putting razor blades and poison into Halloween candy! Be sure to check every single piece of candy your kiddo brings home for signs of tampering! The local police are even offering to X-ray their candy for metal objects! THEIR LIVES COULD BE AT STAKE!!!!
Please pass this on to everyone you know!!!!!!! IT COULD SAVE A LIFE!!!!!!!!
Sincerely,
Officer Debbie Downer
Variants
Every spooky season we get a slew of reports about adults tampering with cany and handing it out on Halloween. These deranged individuals have allegedly put everything from needles, to razor blades, to shards of glass into apples. When fruit and homemade treats fell out of vogue, due in part to this legend, they started putting things into candy bars. Or they wrapped up laxatives to look like Tootsie Rolls.
Most of the time it is unintentional, like stories circulating about people accidentally handing out drugs. A recent example of this is Rainbow fentanyl, which are pills that have been dyed to look like candy, being distributed. Now that marijuana has become legal in more states, there is also an uptick in concerns about people handing out THC-laced treats.
Though every once and again these drug-related versions have the person handing the drugs out intentionally. Sometimes the culprit finds the idea of drugging kids funny, other times they just want to watch the world burn.
There are also instances like the Blue Star acid warning that make it sound like they want to get kids hooked on the stuff. This 1960s legend claims that adults are handing out pieces of paper/temporary tattoos with blue stars or cartoon characters laced with LSD. Sometimes just to cause chaos but other times to get kids hooked and coming back for more. Obviously, these versions don’t take place on Halloween since it would be hard to determine which house the drugs came from. Making it an awful distribution system for testers. While this may be a different legend in itself, the similarities between it and the tainted candy legend are noteworthy.
History
In 1985, Professor of Sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware Joel Best co-authored an in-depth study into this legend with Gerald T. Horiuchi. The pair examined stories of tainted Halloween candy from The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Fresno Bee (where Best lived at the time). Calling the practice, Halloween sadism, they reviewed reports from these sources from the year 1958 until 1984.
One trend they uncovered was upticks in stories like this during times of crisis. Like, in September 1982 there were several deaths due to poisoned Tylenol capsules which had the nation in a panic. These deaths lead to several recalls and the introduction of temper-evident packaging on medication. With the culprit(s) never being caught it wasn’t unreasonable for parents to rehash the tainted candy urban legend.
There was another spike in 2001 after the tragic events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Some tellings warned against trick or treating in malls due to them possibly being another target for an attack. There were also versions saying that terrorists were shoving propaganda into candy or writing it on cupcakes. [A homemade sweet on Halloween in 2001 alone is enough for a side eye.]
The first telling of this legend in North America dates back to 1959. When California dentist, William Shyne, distributed 450 laxative-laced candies, causing 30 children to become ill. Causing him to be charged with “outrage of public decency” and “unlawful dispensing of drugs.” Even though it doesn’t seem like Shyne was seeking to kill, or get kids high, this is the widely accepted basis for the legend. To be clear, giving an unknowing child medication is beyond dangerous, and we are not trying to minimize his crime. But the odds of a child dying from this sort of event are slim to nil.
It seems that the foreign objects in treats telling of the story can be traced back to a 1970 article from The New York Times. “Take, for example, that plump red apple that Junior gets from a kindly old woman down the block,” The article reads. “It may have a razor blade hidden inside. The chocolate ‘candy’ bar may be a laxative, the bubble gum may be sprinkled with lye, the popcorn balls may be coated with camphor, the candy may turn out to be packets containing sleeping pills.”
In 1983, advice columnist Abigail Van Buren aka “Dear Abby” warned; “[s]omebody’s child will become violently ill or die after eating poisoned candy or an apple containing a razor blade.” Twelve years later her sister, Ann Landers chimed in with her own advice column stating; “In recent years, there have been reports of people with twisted minds putting razor blades and poison in taffy apples and Halloween candy. It is no longer safe to let your child eat treats that come from strangers.”
In addition to the media, over the decades several other real cases have been falsely attributed to this urban legend. All of them add more fuel to the fire that keeps this tale so ingrained into the cultural zeitgeist.
Detroit, 1970 five-year-old Kevin Totson died after eating heroin-laced candy supposedly from his trick-or-treat haul. It was later discovered that Totson found the drug in the home of a relative.
In 1978 two-year-old Patrick Wiederhold of Flint, MI passed away after eating some Halloween candy. Tissue tests later showed no traces of drugs or poison, it was concluded the young child died of natural causes.
1990, seven-year-old Santa Monica, CA resident Ariel Katz collapsed and died while trick-or-treating. Even though her parents told authorities that the young girl had a heart condition. That didn’t stop the press from blaming tainted Halloween candy for her death. The coroner confirmed that Katz’s passing was due to an enlarged heart.
In 2001 an unnamed four-year-old from Vancouver, British Columbia passed away after eating Halloween candy. So police quickly advised parents to throw out their kid’s candy due to fears of tampering. Pathology tests later showed no evidence of poisoning. An autopsy confirmed that the young child died of a streptococcus infection.
There was another unnamed report on social media in 2010 of a kid eating contaminated candy. These claims were dismissed by Waterloo, Ontario police.
Two teens from Chester County, PA claimed that they found needles in their candy in 2015. They later recanted their story as a hoax.
In 2016 Royal Canadian Mounted Police told parents to toss any “orange sugared disc with a black centre.” After a child in Clive, Alberta became ill after eating one. That candy was later tested and found to contain no poison.
Police in Johnstown, Pa., in 2019 warned people that “drug laced edibles are package [sic] like regular candy and may be hard to distinguish from the real candy.” The social media post urged parents to check their kid’s candy for THC infused edibles. But with this warning, they never once claimed that something like this had occurred. Just that it was possible for someone to knowingly or unknowingly give out edibles to trick-or-treaters.
In 2021, Bensalem, PA police made a similar tweet about edibles. Once again not claiming that anything like this had actually happened. While the post does show images that illustrate how much these packaging can look like their non-THC counterparts. Supporting the concern someone may accidentally hand them out. Most people don’t swallow the notion that someone is knowingly handing out free drugs to kids. Mostly do to the fact that one of those bags can cost anywhere between $15 and $25. Basically drugs are too expensive for most people to be handing out willy nilly.
The tainted Halloween candy urban legend is so prolific, Poison Control even has a page dedicated to it on their website. Places all over the country also offer to examine or X-Ray kids’ Halloween hauls for them.
One of the things that makes this legend so hard to dismiss is the fact that it is good advice. Even if no one is out there tainting Halloween candy, checking your child’s food before they eat is never a bad idea. Just like it’s a good idea to give your car a once over before getting in. Even if there isn’t a chance of someone with murderous intent hiding in the backseat.
Pop Culture
Here are a few instances of tainted Halloween candy in media:
- 1992 – “Candyman” while protagonist Hellen is exploring the Cabrini Green housing complex. She finds a shrine to the mythical figure known as Candyman. When she investigates a mound of candy within the shrine she finds a razor blade in one of them.
- The 2021 remake has the character Sherman Fields, who is known for giving out candy to kids. When a young white girl becomes the victim of a razor blade in her sweet treat. Fields, a Black man, is blamed and then murdered by the officers who come to arrest him. [Race is being noted due to it importance in the film.] His name is posthumously cleared when the razor blades keep showing up in kids’ candy. Making him a part of the Candyman legend.
- 1993 – “Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask” Sabrina’s mother has her throw away any candies that are not in their original wrappers. Due to the fear of poisons and sharp objects.
- 1981 – “Halloween II” a kid and his mom arrive at the ER where the survivors of the first film are being treated. The young boy has a razor blade stuck in his gums between his front teeth. It’s assumed from biting a tainted apple.
- 2021 – “Halloween Kills” Some teens trick-or-treating at Micheal Myers’ old home fake having their friend swallow a razor blade in their candy. This is used as a distraction for their other friend to sneak around and steal the new tenants’ entire bowl of treats.
- 1981 – the Misfits’ song “Halloween” has a lyric mentioning razor blades in apples. The song has now been covered by countless other bands including AFI, Dropkick Murphys, and Alkaline Trio.
- 1999 – “Freaks and Geeks” Mrs. Weir hands out cookies until another mother angrily tells her that kids are no longer allowed to accept homemade treats due to this urban legend. She informs her that all the kids that accepted her cookies were made to throw them out on the sidewalk. As her child gleefully tells Mrs. Weir they are now covered in ants.
- 1999 – “The Simpsons” “Treehouse of Horror X” has the police x-raying the kids Halloween candy where they find razors, syringes, and white chocolate. The last one makes Police Chief Wiggum cringe with disgust.
- 2017 “Treehouse of Horror XXVIII” has the Simpsons as living candy waiting to be eaten. Lisa is an apple and complains nobody picks her because there might be a razor blade inside. Bart agrees that is why she hasn’t been eaten yet.
- 2007 – “Trick ‘r Treat” the principal/secret serial killer gives the local bully a tainted candy bar that causes him to vomit blood.
- 2008 – the “Supernatural” episode “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester” has a straightforward interpretation of this tale.
- 2013 – In the opening credits for the “Bob’s Burgers” episode “Fort Night”’ the store next door is called “Johnny Razor’s Totally Normal Candy Store.”
- 2021 – the second episode of “Chucky” has a flashback to a young Charles Lee Ray. Where he finds an apple with an obvious razor blade in it among his candy haul. He takes a bite out of it and smiles as blood pours from his mouth. Later Chucky, the doll he possessed, gives a razor blade-laced apple to a woman as a thanks for giving him information. She is seen later with blood coming from her mouth as she tells the cops about the “horrible red-haired child.”
- The group Insane Clown Posse mentions tainted candy in several songs including “Mr. Rotten Treats” and “Halloween on Military Street.”
Is it Real?
So has some adult ever handed out tainted candy on Halloween with the intent of killing or drugging a child? The answer is… not really.
In 1964, Helen Pfeil of New York woman was arrested for handing out ant poison buttons and dog biscuits. No one was harmed or made sick mostly because these objects don’t really look like candy. Plus she only handed them out to teenagers she felt were too old for trick-or-treating. The teens recognized the objects as inedible far easier than a child might have. But this was clearly still a dick move.
Probably the most notable case of this is from 1974 in Pasadena, TX. Eight-year-old Timothy O’Bryan died after eating a cyanide-laced pixie stick. Sadly the truth here is much more disturbing than fiction with this case. Because the poisoner wasn’t some random stranger, but the boy’s own father Ronald Clark O’Bryan. The crime was more than likely inspired by the urban legend since he gave the poisoned candies to his son, daughter, and another child who had gone trick or threatening with them. Though Timothy was the only one unfortunate enough to ingest the horrific concoction.
It is believed giving the pixie sticks to the other children was a way for O’Bryan to cover up his crime and blame it on a random stranger. Since he made several attempts to help the police locate the house where he believes the candy came from. But the cops soon uncovered that he had taken out $40,000 life insurance policies on Timothy and his five-year-old sister Elizabeth. While O’Bryan professed his innocents, he was tried, convinced, and executed for the death of his son. He is now known as “the man who killed Halloween.”
In 2017 an 11-year-old girl from Cambridge, Ontario had to have surgery after eating a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup with a metal object in it. Waterloo Regional Police said that they were unsure if the metal was put into the candy intentionally or if it was a manufacturing issue.
A year later in 2018, an 11-year-old was arrested in North Carolina for putting sewing needles into Halloween candy. These were distributed to trick-or-treaters and injured at least one child in Rowan County, Fox News reported. The child culprit was charged with the distribution of food with a foreign object.
Out of the roughly 200 confirmed cases that Joel Best has investigated in the U.S. and Canada since 1958. “The attempts to systematically follow up on all reports concluded that the vast majority were hoaxes,” Best said. “Is it possible that someone maliciously passes out treats with the intent of harming children at random? Of course. But this raises the question why there usually aren’t multiple reports from the same area.”
Best also told Fox News in 2021. “I have been unable to find any evidence that any child has been killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating.”
Due to the young age and debatable ability to understand the serious consequences of their actions from the case in 2018, it’s often disregarded. So unless the tainted Reese’s Cup from 2017 was done intentionally. Best is right and the urban legend of the tainted Halloween candy is just that, a legend.
Print Sources Used:
- Brunvand, J. H. “Blue Star Acid.” Too Good to be True: The colossal book of urban legends, W. W. Norton and Company, 2014, pp. 390–392.
- Brunvand, J. H. “Halloween Sadists.” Encyclopedia of Urban Legends, W. W. Norton and Company, 2001, pp. 186-187.
- Brunvand, J. H. “Razor Blade Sabotage.” Encyclopedia of Urban Legends, W. W. Norton and Company, 2001, pp. 344-345.
