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Halloween
Sadism:
The
Evidence
Joel
Best
The
practice of giving
contaminated treats to children during trick-or-treating has been
termed Halloween
sadism (Trubo 1974). In 1985, I published an article that reviewed
press
coverage of Halloween sadism in four U.S. newspapers: the leading
papers in the
three largest metropolitan areas (New York Times, Los
Angeles Times,
and Chicago Tribune); as well as the Fresno Bee (at
the time, I
lived in Fresno, California). The article, co-authored with one of my
undergraduate students, examined those papers for the period 1958-84
(Best and
Horiuchi 1985). An updated version, covering the same four newspapers
through
1989 appeared in my book, Threatened Children (Best 1990).
In
reviewing the press
coverage, I searched for reports which specified (a) where the incident
had
occurred, and (b) how the treat had been contaminated. Thus, a story
reporting
that a child in Boston had received a candy bar with a pin in it, would
have
counted as an incident. In reviewing these reports, a couple things
stood out.
First, there weren’t all that many incidents reported. Although the
belief in
Halloween sadism is widespread, I don’t think that media coverage can
be
blamed--there simply haven’t been that many stories. (The media do,
however,
often warn parents about the risk of Halloween sadism. Lists of
recommended
precautions routinely advise parents to inspect their children’s
treats, in
addition to making sure they can see through the eyeholes in their
masks, etc.)
Second, there were relatively few reports of children being injured by
Halloween sadism; most of the reported incidents involved the discovery
of a
contaminated treat, but no injury. (This is confirmed by efforts to
follow up
on reports of Halloween sadism; researchers who have done this have
concluded
that a large proportion of these reports are hoaxes [Editor and
Publisher 1973;
National Confectioners Association et al. 1982].) In my own research, I
have
been unable to find a substantiated report of a child being killed or
seriously
injured by a contaminated treat picked
up
in the course of trick-or-treating.
Since
1985, I have been
interviewed by dozens of reporters from television, radio, magazines,
and
newspapers. They often ask whether I have updated my research.
Therefore, I am
posting both my original data, supplemented by my efforts to bring the
research
up to date. I also list all of the cases that have come to my attention
in
which children’s deaths were initially attributed to Halloween sadism
(in each
of those cases, follow-up stories offered a different interpretation),
and I am
including a discussion of the medical literature’s treatment of
Halloween
sadism.
A
basic logical principle
is that one cannot prove a negative. Therefore, I can never prove that
no child
has been killed by a Halloween sadist. I can simply note that such a
death
probably would be a major news story, yet I can’t find any evidence of
such a
story being covered by major media.
Halloween sadism is best seen as a contemporary legend (sometimes called an urban legend) (Best and Horiuchi 1985, Grider 1984, Ellis 1994). That is, it is a story that is told as true, even though there may be little or no evidence that the events in the story ever occurred. Contemporary legends are ways we express anxiety. Note that concerns about Halloween tend to be particularly acute in years when some sort of terrible recent crime has heightened public fears. Thus, the September, 1982 reports of deaths due to poisoned Tylenol capsules led to many warnings about trick-or-treating’s dangers in that year. Similarly, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were followed by legends warning against visiting malls on Halloween. Of course, many malls now offer “safe” trick-or-treating, and this legend may be seen as a way of expressing fears that Americans are no longer safe. (There are related legends in more recent years, that children have received cryptic, terrorist-related messages in their treats.)
DEATHS
ATTRIBUTED TO HALLOWEEN SADISM
1.
Kevin Totson (Detroit,
1970). Five-year-old Kevin died after eating heroin supposedly hidden
in his
Halloween candy. Less heavily publicized was a follow-up story that
Kevin had
found the heroin in a relative’s home.
2.
Timothy O’Bryan (Pasadena,
TX, 1974). Eight-year-old Timothy died after eating cyanide-laced
Halloween candy.
Later investigation revealed that he had received the candy from his
father
(who had taken out a life insurance policy on his son). The father was
tried,
convicted, and executed for the murder of his son.
3.
Patrick Wiederhold (Flint,
MI, 1978). Two-year-old Patrick died after eating Halloween treats.
However,
tests of tissue samples failed to find traces of drugs or poison, and
police
concluded that Patrick’s death was from natural causes.
4.
Ariel
Katz (Santa Monica, CA, 1990). Seven-year-old Ariel collapsed
while
trick-or-treating and died. Although her parents told the authorities
that she
had heart problems, the initial press reports blamed Halloween sadism.
The
coroner attributed the death to an enlarged heart.
5. Name Withheld (Vancouver, British Columbia, 2001). A four-year-old girl died after eating some Halloween candy, leading police to advise parents to throw out all Halloween treats. However, pathology tests showed no evidence of poisoning, and the autopsy showed she died of a streptococcus infection.
Other
rumors may be less specific. In 2010, police in Waterloo, Ontario
dismissed reports on social media sites that someone had died after
eating contaminated candy.
WHAT
DOES THE MEDICAL LITERATURE SHOW?
A
recent medical overview
argues that Halloween sadism is “quite rare and the risk may be
exaggerated”
(Weir 2000: 1046). I know of only two reports of foreign bodies having
been
ingested and the injury attributed to Halloween sadism; in one of these
cases,
a pin was swallowed nearly a week before Halloween; in the other, a
55-year-old
man ingested a needle thought to have been in a carmel-covered apple.
In other
words, it seems unlikely that either incident was directly related to
trick-or-treating (Conforti et al 1987; Bajwa 2003). In a third case,
an
adolescent entered a hospital on Halloween suffering from abdominal
pain. He
attributed this to a commercially wrapped cupcake that he had purchased
at a
gas station; however, he later acknowledged that he had overdosed on
prescription medication (White et al. 2002). In other words, the
medical
literature does not offer any reports of children poisoned by treats
they
received while trick-or-treating.
Although many hospitals offer to X-ray Halloween treats, this practice is controversial among radiologists both because few foreign objects are found, and because some worry that the practice may induce a false sense of security, since X-rays cannot detect drugs or poisons (Calvanese 1986; Cappelle et al. 1993; Malott 1987).
In
recent years, some communities have banned known sex offenders from
passing out treats, but a study of “nonfamilial sex crimes against
children” found no evidence that these offenses increased on or around
Halloween (Chaffin et al. 2009).
The medical literature does offer evidence that Halloween is indeed a dangerous holiday. After all, it is a night when tens of millions of children are wandering through the streets. One study concluded that children’s risk of being struck by a car is four times higher on Halloween than on other nights (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1997). An analysis of “pediatric holiday-related injuries” in emergency rooms found that, among eight holidays, Halloween ranked fourth in the number of injuries, behind Labor Day, Memorial Day, and the Fourth of July, and just ahead of Easter (D’Ippolito et al. 2010).
REPORTED INCIDENTS OF HALLOWEEN SADISM BY YEAR
| 1958 – 0 | 1975 – 2 | 1992 – 1 | 2009 – 0 |
| 1959 – 1 | 1976 – 2 | 1993 – 0 | 2010 – 0 |
| 1960 – 0 | 1977 – 0 | 1994 – 0 | |
| 1961 – 0 | 1978 – 1 | 1995 – 1 | |
| 1962 – 1 | 1979 – 3 | 1996 – 1 | |
| 1963 – 1 | 1980 – 0 | 1997 – 0 | |
| 1964 – 3 | 1981 – 0 | 1998 – 2 | |
| 1965 – 1 | 1982 – 12 | 1999 – 0 | |
| 1966 – 5 | 1983 – 1 | 2000 – 2 | |
| 1967 – 4 | 1984 – 0 | 2001 – 1 | |
| 1968 – 3 | 1985 – 0 | 2002 – 0 | |
| 1969 – 7 | 1986 – 1 | 2003 – 1 | |
| 1970 – 10 | 1987 – 0 | 2004 – 0 | |
| 1971 – 14 | 1988 – 1 | 2005 – 0 | |
| 1972 – 1 | 1989 – 0 | 2006 – 0 | |
| 1973 – 4 | 1990 – 1 | 2007 – 1 | |
| 1974 – 1 | 1991 – 0 | 2008 – 1 |
Methodological note: The numbers in this table are derived from slightly different sources (which reflect changes in the ways newspapers are indexed). For the period 1958-84, I searched the printed annual indexes for the New York Times, the “morgue” files of the Fresno Bee, and microfilmed copies of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times for Nov. 1-3. Beginning in 1985, I was able to draw upon the LEXIS-NEXIS database. While it is impossible to devise a complete list of reported incidents, it should be evident that these reports are not very common.
The
above table uses a more-or-less standard method which focuses on
newspaper reports from larger cities. It is increasingly possible to
find other incidents reported on the websites of smaller newspapers.
For instance, in 2010, there were reports that: a woman in Oneida, New
York ate a piece of PCP-laced candy (a follow-up test proved negative
for PCP); a child in Levelland, Texas may have eaten candy contaminated
with methamphetamine (again, a follow-up story reported that tests were
negative); a needle was found in a candy bar in Schaumberg, Illinois (a
follow-up story revealed that this had been a hoax); a Mansfield, Ohio
father reported finding a needle in a candy bar; British Columbia
police relayed reports of a needle and a razor blade in candy; and
Cambridge, Ontario police responded to a report of an open safety pin
found in a package of candy. While it is impossible to devise a
complete list of reported incidents, it should be evident that these
reports are not very common.
REFERENCES
Bajwa,
Hammad Ahmed. 2003.
“Needle Ingestion via Halloween Caramel Apples,” Mayo Clinic
Proceedings 78:
1311-12.
Best,
Joel. 1990. Threatened
Children: Rhetoric and Concern about Child-Victims. Chicago:
University of
Chicago Press.
Best,
Joel, and Gerald T. Horiuchi.
1985. “The Razor Blade in the Apple: The Social Construction of Urban
Legends,”
Social Problems 32: 488-99.
Calvanese,
Jerry. 1986. “Should
We X-Ray Halloween Candy?,” American Journal of Roentenology 147:
854-55.
Cappelle,
Christine, Steve
Eberly, and Ronald I. Paul. 1993. “Routine Screening of Halloween
Candy:
Helpful or Hazardous?,” Annals of Emergency Medicine 22:
1541-44.
Chaffin, Mark, Jill Levenson, Elizabeth Letourneau, and Paul Stern. 2009. “How Safe Are Trick-or-Treaters? An Analysis of Child Sex Crime Rates on Halloween,” Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment 21: 363-74.
Conforti, Frederick P., Douglas R. Smego, and Kirk K. Kazarian. 1987. “Halloween Appendicitis: Pin Perforation of the Appendix,” Connecticut Medicine 8: 507.
D’Ippolito,
Christy L. Collins, and Dawn R, Comstock. 2010.
“Epidemiology of Pediatric Holiday-Related Injuries Presenting to US
Emergency Departments,” Pediatrics 125: 931-37.
Editor
and Publisher.
1973.
“Press Finds Halloween Sadism Rare But Warns of Danger.” 106 (March 3):
22.
Ellis,
Bill. 1994. “Safe Spooks:
New Halloween Traditions in Response to Sadism Legends.” Pp. 24-44 in Halloween
and Other Festivals of Death and Life, edited by Jack Santino.
Knoxville:
University of Tennessee Press.
Grider,
Sylvia. 1984. “The Razor
Blades in the Apples Syndrome.” Pp. 128-49 in Perspectives on
Contemporary
Legend, edited by Paul Smith. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Malott,
Jack C. 1987. “X-Raying
Halloween Candy: A Public Service?,” Radiology Management 9
(Fall):
78-79.
Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly
Report.
1997. “Childhood Pedestrian Deaths During Halloween–United
States, 1975-1996.” 46 (October 24): 987-90.
National Confectioners Association, Chocolate Manufacturers Association, and National Candy Wholesalers Assocation. 1982. “Halloween/1982: An Overview.” Unpublished paper.
Trubo,
Richard. 1974.
“Holiday for Sadists,” PTA Magazine 69 (October): 28-29.
Weir, Erica. 2000. “The Hazards of Halloween,” Canadian Medical Association Journal 163: 1046.
White,
Suzanne, Grace Dy, and John M. Wilson.
2002. “The Case of the Slandered Halloween Cupcake,” Pediatric
Emergency
Care 18: 185-88.