Halloween Candy Poisoning May Be Fake But These Stories Are Seriously Creepy
It’s Halloween, which means one thing: parents worrying about stories of poisoned candy. Our parents checked our Halloween candy to make sure no one had tampered with it. All we wanted to do was dig in, but they even had us scared that the wrong Tootsie Roll would be the end of us. Pero, where did these stories come from? Well, the short answer is that it’s largely a hoax.
Halloween candy poisoning is largely a myth
This goes against everything we grew up learning, but the tales of random strangers poisoning Halloween candy are a myth. News outlets cover Halloween candy poisoning rumors every year, but no evidence ever supports them. Now, that doesn’t mean it has never happened. However, there are two main cases that caused the original panic.
In 1970, 5-year-old Kevin Toston died from a heroin overdose in Detroit. The family told authorities he ate Halloween candy laced with drugs, The story caused nationwide panic. The story made it into The New York Times and spread like wildfire.
Investigators later discovered that the young boy was staying with his uncle the night he died. In a follow-up article, The New York Times reported that the boy had ingested one of his uncle’s heroin capsules. Police said they issued no warrants during the investigation, and the boy did not die from eating heroin-laced Halloween candy.
The only true story involved a father who killed his son
In 1974, another Halloween candy poisoning story gripped the country, this time in Texas. Eight-year-old Timothy O’Bryan ate Pixy Stix laced with potassium cyanide and died soon after. His father, Ronald Clark O’Bryan, told authorities about the candy that had killed his son, claiming that he got it from one of the houses when trick-or-treating. According to Ronald, he got five Pixy Stix that he gave out to other children. Parents turned in the candy to the police to have it tested.
Fortunately, the other four children had not consumed the candy. An investigation found that Ronald had poisoned his son’s candy for life insurance money. He distributed the others to make it look like a larger Halloween candy poisoning. Authorities arrested Ronald and sentenced him to death for one murder and four attempted murders.
The same panic continues today
In 2023, Lauderhill, Florida, was the scene of a Halloween candy poisoning story. Children at a Halloween party at the Boys and Girls Club got sick, and medical staff rushed them to the hospital. The children started to feel ill after eating candy while at the party. Investigators found that the children got sick after eating candy brought into the club.
Turns out, one of the other children had brought gummy bears with them, and the other children ate them. The candy contained cannabis, and doctors safely released all of the children from the hospital.
Safety is always an important part of enjoying any holiday responsibly. Checking your kids’ Halloween candy is always a good idea just to be safe. However, we should remember that the urban legend of strangers poisoning Halloween candy to kill children is not a real story.
