Thread: Looking for a little help

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I'm involved with a group called the Amateur Skeptics. We do a bi-weekly podcast. You can check them out here. Well right now I am putting together a Halloween episode where we look at various urban legends and misinformation about Halloween. I am looking for any interesting legends that are out there. We all know the poisoned candy legend, but I am looking for some less well known ones to research. So if you have any that you think would be interesting, send them my way please.

Nothing for nothing man, its YOUR pod cast-- do your own research. Buy yeah, there have never been any reports of people eating poisoned candy or razor blades in apples or anything like that. There was one case were a kid died (or almost died, can't quite remember) but he was poisoned by his own parents who tried to pin it on the neighborhood and Halloween.

Some of the local legends in Colorado are interesting. There is, supposedly, a ghost or three haunting the woods behind South Elementary in Castle Rock. It might be worth looking into. Good luck, and I will definitely have to check out your podcast.

So you posted on HF to get a jump on researching for the podcast? Good call, Kooka, this is definitely THE place to start.
May I suggest a small investment in a great little book you can get very cheap (used) on Amazon, A Libris, or other sites:

Halloween: From Pagan Ritual To Party Night by Nicholas Rogers

A great read in general, & Chapter 4- Razor in the Apple: The Struggle for a Safe & Sane Halloween might provide quite a few podcast ideas. Best of luck!

HDawesome, I plan to do the research, I'm just looking for interesting urban legends and misinformation about Halloween that I might not have heard about. I've already done a lot of research on the candy issue and that will be in the podcast.

piraticalstyle, not planning on doing any ghost stories on this one. Such things might work for a future podcast though. We have talked about ghosts and supposed haunted places in past podcasts. We really had a fun time going off on souls that were exorcised into bottles of holy water and then auctioned off on e-bay.

Marie Roget, thanks. That sounds like the perfect book for this. I'll have to check it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Clark_O%27Bryan

The only known Halloween candy poisoner - known as the Pixie Stick Killer. He thought to cash in on the "accidental" death of his son by taking out a life insurance policy on him and was using the urban legend of people putting poison in the candy to cover his tracks. Fortunately, he was very, very stupid and caught quickly.

My husband grew up in the area, and he was never allowed to TOT as a child because his mother still believed that it was random people in addition to this horrible man.

Frankie's Girl, that is the most famous. It looked like he was also trying to poison his daughter as well, but she didn't eat the candy. There have been a few other similar ones, but each time it has been determined that it was not random poisoning, but something. I think the most common has been the parent's illegal drugs getting mixed with the candy. One of my favorites was this postal employee who was handing out blocks of pot that he thought were Snickers bar, that he won in one of the post office undeliverable mail auctions.

As I said, this one I know about and have researched. I am looking for less known urban legends and misinformation about Halloween. I figure there are some good ones out there that I might not know about.

Besides what's already been said, I don't know of any urban legends specifically about Halloween. Maybe take a clue from the movie Trick r' Treat. What will happen to you if you blow out a jack o'lantern ? Something like that maybe.