You know how parents get worked up about strangers poisoning Halloween candy? How there have been waves of panics about that? Razor blades in apples, all that? Not a real thing. You know what actually created those fears? An incident — a single incident — of a guy killing his kid in an insurance fraud case in the 1970s.
Ronald Clark O’Bryan (October 19, 1944 – March 31, 1984), nicknamed The Candy Man, The Man Who Killed Halloween and The Pixy Stix Killer, was an American man convicted of killing his eight-year-old son Timothy (April 5, 1966 – October 31, 1974) on Halloween 1974 with a potassium cyanide-laced Pixy Stix that was ostensibly collected during a trick or treat outing. O’Bryan poisoned his son in order to claim life insurance money to ease his own financial troubles, as he was $100,000 in debt. O’Bryan also distributed poisoned candy to his daughter and three other children in an attempt to cover up his crime; however, neither his daughter nor the other children ate the poisoned candy. He was convicted of capital murder in June 1975 and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in March 1984.
Really not enthusiastic about the idea of a “fast food workers must be drugging my kids” panic.
It’s weird how mass rumors spread in the '70s even in the absence of an Internet. I remember one that involved Rod Stewart supposedly swallowing so much sperm that he had to go to the hospital to have his stomach pumped. Stewart even talked about this one on a recent podcast; he was well aware of the rumor and even knew who started it.
You know how parents get worked up about strangers poisoning Halloween candy? How there have been waves of panics about that? Razor blades in apples, all that? Not a real thing. You know what actually created those fears? An incident — a single incident — of a guy killing his kid in an insurance fraud case in the 1970s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Clark_O'Bryan
Really not enthusiastic about the idea of a “fast food workers must be drugging my kids” panic.
It’s weird how mass rumors spread in the '70s even in the absence of an Internet. I remember one that involved Rod Stewart supposedly swallowing so much sperm that he had to go to the hospital to have his stomach pumped. Stewart even talked about this one on a recent podcast; he was well aware of the rumor and even knew who started it.
I remeber that one. Also, Richard Gere and the hamster, Marilyn Manson and the rib. The satanic panic about D&D and metal played backwards.
I thought the rib was earlier, with Alice Cooper.
You’re probably right, I think the rib one got recycled a few times.