They don’t call it “Devil’s Night” for nothing. Halloween is often an occasion for masked marauders to flaunt the law and go wild. Sometimes this is just innocent blowing off steam, like throwing eggs at houses and TPing trees. But sometimes it’s a bit more sinister. In this feature, we’ll page through the police blotter to shine the spotlight on 10 of the most horrible Halloween crimes ever perpetrated.
Tony Bagley murder, 1994
This one is incredibly tragic. Seven year old Las Vegas boy Tony Bagley was all ready to go trick-or-treating on Halloween night in 1994, but he never had the chance to enjoy his candy. Tony, his sister, aunt and mother were walking down the street in the Northtown area when a man in a sweatsuit with a hood over his head ran into the street with a gun and opened fire on the family, killing Tony and wounding his family before jumping into a waiting car and speeding away. Speculation was that it was revenge for a drug deal gone wrong – just a few years later, Tony’s father was found guilty of a different murder – but the killer has never been caught.
Woodbridge Abductions, 2009
When kids are out alone on Halloween night, it’s like a buffet for criminals and scumbags to sup from. In 2009, three teenage girls were abducted on their way home from trick-or-treating in Woodbridge, Virginia. The lone assailant managed to overcome all three girls, threatening them with a gun and sexually assault two of them before the third managed to call her mother on her cell phone, causing the rapist to flee. Two years later, they caught Aaron Thomas, who by then had become known as the “East Coast Rapist,” responsible for dozens of sexual assaults from 1997 to 2009. In custody, Thomas tried to commit suicide by hanging himself in his cell.
Pasadena Murders, 1993
One of the most shocking Halloween crimes of all time happened in Pasadena, California. On Halloween night in 1993, decades of gang violence culminated in a horrific shooting where a group of five Bloods opened fire on trick-or-treating teenagers, killing three of them and wounding three others. The group of victims were walking home from a Halloween party when the assailants jumped out of bushes they had been hiding in and opened fire randomly, spraying them with bullets. After arrests were made, the police reasoned that the shootings were revenge for a killing earlier that night, but the Bloods had the wrong kids, murdering innocent people.
Taylor Van Diest murder, 2011
Small towns can be breeding grounds for Halloween violence as well. On Halloween night in 2011, a young woman named Taylor Van Diest was heading home from a party in the small town of Armstrong, in the northern Okanagan territory of Canada. She never made it. Taylor was found brutally beaten into unconsciousness, and she wasn’t able to identify her attacker before dying of her injuries. Her death traumatized the town of just over 5,000 people, especially after it was revealed that she’d sent a text to her boyfriend before the attack saying she was being “creeped on.” Police eventually used DNA evidence to arrest both Matthew Foerster for the crime and his father Stephen for helping him cover up the crime.
Timothy O’Bryan Poisoning, 1974
One of the most enduring Halloween urban legends is the story of candy or other treats tampered with in some way, whether it be spider eggs in bubble gum or razor blades in apples. Most of these stories are malarkey, but there have been real incidents.
One of the most famous came in 1974, in Deer Park, Texas. After trick-or-treating, 8 year old Timothy O’Bryan chose a Pixy Stix to cap off his evening. After eating it, he began convulsing and died after being rushed to the hospital. Terrifyingly, the perpetrator was his own father, Ronald O’Bryan. Deep into debt, O’Bryan was hoping to cash in on the life insurance from his kids by poisoning their candy with cyanide. Instead, he wound up dying by lethal injection a few years later.
Categorised in: Bizarre, halloween
This post was written by Nadia Vella