Darkcast Network Presents: Wicked Intentions-Halloween Traditions and Origins

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Welcome to Wicked Week here at dark
Cast Network. I'm Amber, one of

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the hosts of the Weird True Crime
podcast, and I'll be your host for

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this episode. If you are as
creepy as we are here at dark Cast

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Network, you'll love this month as
much as us. In fact, Spooky

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Month is pretty much year round here. Today's episode is about Halloween traditions,

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and some are downright weird. We
thought it might be fun to listen to

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while you're getting your costumes on and
readying yourself for that party, trick or

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treating, or passing out candy to
the little ones knocking at your door.

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Let's hope none of those little ones
are black eyed children, and if they

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are, don't open your door.
People love celebrating the spooky season by being

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frightened. We love walking through haunted
houses or hay rides, watching horror films,

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and telling scary stories. Halloween is
the time forgetting the creeps, all

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in good fun. Of course,
what happens when you get more trick than

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treat, When a graphic decoration is
liable to be deadly? At what point

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does a spooky celebration become a crime
scene. I'm your host, Ash and

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this is your host, Jordan,
so let's get into it. Well.

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Often to tasteless prank or cheap scare
gone wrong is the reason for Halloween fatalities,

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and typically the person pulling the prank
is the one who gets all tricks

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and new treats. Trigger warning,
as this next section does get a little

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darker with accidental suicide and the death
of multiple children as the subject matter.

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You ever see those houses with like
an epic Halloween decorations out front? I

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see some people who put way too
much shit out. Is that what you're

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talking about? I think I actually
remember reading about this when it happened.

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In a small, quiet neighborhood,
a man was discovered laying totally out in

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the open in what appeared to be
a terrible accident with the garage door.

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The man laid with half his body
sticking out from under the door, his

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blood speckled all over the door and
driveway. Police had multiple calls in quick

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succession, there's a dead body in
my neighbor's driveway. Help come quick.

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Police sped to the scene, sirens
screaming, lights flashing, ready to do

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the damn thing, do the damn
thing. Upon arriving, they discovered a

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much more sinister plot. Sinister plot. The owners had planted the body as

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a way to scare trick or treators, dicks. This body was a prop.

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They had decoration. They kind of
did. They did get a lot

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of attention. The dummy, which
had been made to appear like a person

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crushed by the door, was so
convincing that people driving by were freaking out.

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The emergency calls just kept pouring in. The cops were annoyed, but

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they also recognized the humor. I'd
mean, let's be real, like what

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else is happening? And they posted
they did, they did, They got

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on face, they put an image
of it, and they were like,

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this is a Halloween decoration. Do
not call none one one reporting a dead

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body. They also applied to a
few comments on the post, saying they

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wanted to congratulate the owner on a
great display. Usually you trust that there's

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like a distance between you and death. Actors make up props. There's no

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chain on the chainsaw, you know, bump bump bum. I was actually

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really surprised how often this one specific
accident happens. I'm talking about imitating professional

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stunts without any real idea of what
you're doing and definitely without proper safety training

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or fail safes in place. What
typically happens is someone at a haunt or

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a neighborhood house looking to make a
creepier vibe, will show you a fake

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body hanging in a tree or one
thing I've seen is like the body falls

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out of a tree or the gallows
when you're going past. When it's done

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properly, it you know, the
person is secured to a safety harness that's

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able to support their full weight.
For why aren't they just using dummies and

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these they're doing this to real people. May the person's in a harness and

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this whole thing. So there's all
kinds of shit right right, Just to

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be clear. Yeah, so if
done properly, it gives you the creeps.

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It's a little jump scare onward into
darkness. In nineteen ninety, seventeen

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year old Brian Jewel was taking part
in a Haunted Hay ride in Lakeland,

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New Jersey. It was here he
performed a stunt where he was hanging from

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the gallows. Brian had previously done
this successfully many times throughout the month and

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even earlier that day. During the
ride, about forty people were driven past

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as they go through multiple creepy,
tablous and frights. The trick was Brian

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would be standing on a crate and
as the customers were driven by on a

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tractor, he would step down to
the ground to create the illusion he was

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hanging. He would then deliver a
dramatic speech warning people to turn back,

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and so on and so forth.
The news tied around his neck was not

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meant to tighten. The few times
that day Brian had done it, it

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went without any incident, But on
what was to be his final performance,

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Brian failed to deliver the speech he
normally made as the wagon went past,

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which alerted the tractor driver that there
may have been something amiss. Police said

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that the hayride patrons discovered Brian's body
hanging from the gallows with his feet touching

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the ground. He was pronounced dead
on the scene. Dummy. Even if

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you've done a stunt several times that
day, every single performance, everything needs

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to be double checked. Yeah,
you just can't be like I've done it

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three times today. It's fine.
You can advocate for yourself. If you're

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working at a haunted hay ride or
something and they're like, hey, we're

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gonna put you in a gallows.
No, thank you? Yeah, how

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much are you paying me? Right? Yeah? So In the same year,

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William Anthony Odoms of Charlotte, North
Carolina, had created a haunted attraction

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in the basement of his aunt's house. In preparation for the evening. William

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was staging a gallows scene when the
news accidentally tightened, killing him and sadly,

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that's all the information I can get. It's from the La Times and

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I had nineteen ninety man, that's
really it. Unfortunately. In October two

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thousand and one, at Alpine Ridge
Farms in Sparta, Michigan, fourteen year

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old Caleb Raef was working a haunted
hay ride. Caleb felt awkward performing his

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specific job. He was meant to
leap from the woods and scare people,

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you know when they pass Like y
man, he decided to take some inn

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should even swap places with another actor? Okay, yes, yeah, yah,

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sure the actor? Who is the
actor do you ask? I don't

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know know a prop skeleton that was
hanging by a noose in a nearby tree.

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So yeah, oh yeah, it
wasn't even a person. Nope,

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he took a dummy down. Yet
we are not victim, blaming that fteen

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year old, Well, yeah,
I'm gonna have a wild guest. Nobody

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put any safety anything on no because
it wasn't for a person, no windpipe

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to crush. Caleb put the noose
around his neck with his feet touching the

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ground, which, in theory I
see what he was going for, But

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sadly, Caleb was not heavy enough
to keep the branch from whipping back and

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choking him. Caleb began struggling to
get the double knotted rope off of his

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neck, but his coworkers thought he
was just acting. By the time they

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realized what was happening, efforts by
patrons and employees to resuscitate him failed and

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Caleb was pronounced dead. Don't put
ropes around your neck. Don't do it.

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Don't do it. It's not a
good idea in twenty In the year

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twenty thirty, sixteen year old Jordan
Morland was decorating the front yard with his

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little sister. Jordan loved Halloween.
It was his favorite holiday and he really

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went all out on decorating, and
according to his mom, he really had

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a passion for it. They'd been
working hard all day and after taking a

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break to help his mom with laundry. Because he was a sweet little okay,

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because he was not, he helps. Jordan thought it would be fun

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to prank his sister, right,
okay, yeah, a little bit of

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Halloween fun. So Jordan grabbed a
news decoration that he'd set up hanging in

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a tree, and he slid his
neck inside, waiting for his sister to

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pass. He would scare her and
it would be really epic. But before

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he could do that, the rope
tightened, cutting his brain off from oxygen.

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Within twenty to thirty seconds. Jordan's
sister did find him, but he

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was unconscious. Their mother rushed out
to cut him down and revive him,

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to no avail. He was rushed
to a hospital where Jordan had fallen into

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a coma. Although efforts were made
to revive him, sadly, his organs

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had already began failing, and he
died just twelve hours later. What's going

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on next, Well, we're about
to touch on two incidences of intentional suicide.

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On October twenty six, two thousand
and five, locals were haunted by

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a hyper realistic Halloween decoration. Decoration
in question, hung from a tree and

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a moderately busy road across from a
neighborhood for several hours, suspended fifteen feet

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from the ground. Since it was
so high in the air and prominently displayed,

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hundreds of people saw it, and
I bet they were super shocked.

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Later on to hear in the news
that it was actually a real body.

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Oh, I bet they were shocked. Yeah, dude, that would fuck

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with me. I'd be like,
okay, shit, I saw that happened

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early in the morning, so people
were like on their way to school and

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like work, and shit, it's
on a weekday. So the unnamed forty

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two year old woman had hung herself, leaving her lifeless body on display for

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hours. Several neighbors said people saw
the body around seven thirty am. Mayor

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William Glanden's wife Fay, was quoted
by a local paper saying, quote,

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he thought it was a Halloween decoration. It looked like something somebody would have

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rigged up. The authorities arrived at
eleven am to remove the body and process

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the scene. The unnamed woman lived
about a quarter mile from where her body

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was discovered, so she kind of
like tormented her fucking neighbors and like local

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community. In October two thousand and
nine, seventy five year old Mustafa Moum

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mid Zaid was discovered on the third
floor balcony of his home in Marina del

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Rey, California, discovered slumped over
a chair with a single gunshot wound to

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the eye. Neighbors had seen his
body there for three days and thought it

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was a Halloween dummy. His body
was in plain view of everyone in the

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apartment complex, but it was sort
of unanimously decided that it was just a

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decoration. The La County Sheriff's Department
said the case was a quote apparent suicide

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and declined to comment any further.
Who shoots herself in the eye and it

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sounded really suspicious that it is suspicious. In twenty fourteen, in spring Hill,

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Florida, Israel, Lopez fifty and
Adam Hines thirty six, were hired

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to clean out a rental home on
tree Haven Drive. The landlord had to

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have previous tenants who had skipped rent
payments and left a huge stink ams behind.

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They stang the house was left looking
like a bomb hit it. There

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were just boxes, paper and chit
every dead mice were strewn all over the

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place and there was just this foul
sour smell of death because of the dead

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mos everywhere. Well ew As the
men moved into the garage, they discovered

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a strange object hanging from the ceiling. Property owners were positive it was a

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dark prank played by frustrated tenants or
a distasteful Halloween decoration. Cutting the dummy

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from the ceiling. It was placed
in a pickup truck along with piles of

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trash, all headed for the city
dump. When they arrived to the West

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Hernando garbage transfer station, and here's
where things get weird. County employees at

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the dump started noticing the load of
the men had dropped off. They dropped

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a load, They dropped a load, and it was stinkier than usual.

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That's literally what I wrote. The
workers called the police and notified them that

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they were pretty sure a body had
been dropped off. When Israel Lopez returned

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to the dump to drop off another
load, he was recognized by workers and

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interrogated by police immediately. Well,
the police determined that no crime had been

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committed by the workers and the whole
affair was just an honest mistake. But

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dude, that I'd probably quit my
job. Yeah, once you realized to

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cut down a dead body hanging from
a garage and then brought it to a

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dump with a bunch of trash.
Well, if you've been listening to these

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tales so far and you've been wondering
how in the hell a body could be

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mistaken for a prop consider this quote
from a witness. I think it's important

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to realize that most people they are
that had seen someone who has very recently

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passed, why they see them at
a funeral home. Obviously this body was

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not anything close to either of those. It was somewhat mummified. Well,

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the neighbors said they hadn't seen anyone
on the property for the past two months.

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However, one neighbor claimed to see
a woman in two men at the

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house about nine thirty am who appeared
to be showing the home to a potential

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renter, and a few hours later
she saw the pickup truck back into the

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driveway and the cleaners arrived took a
while to notice him. Well. A

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quick investigation revealed that Jeremy Allen Whitfirst, thirty three, had completed suicide by

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hanging out the garage several months prior. He survived by a wife and two

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young children. I hate that all
we can really share about these people is

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their final chapter. But really there's
nothing else out there. Hello. I'm

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Jackie Morante and I'm the host and
producer of Cause of Death one hundred Seconds

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to Midnight, a Dark Cast Network
production. Tuberculosis it's been known by many

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names. The Greeks called it theysus, the Romans called it tabes. In

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Hebrew, it was known as schleshapeth. Others called it the white plague,

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but most commonly it was called consumption. In colonial New England, during the

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late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
it was known as the vampire disease.

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It was during this time that tuberculosis
killed more than two percent of the population

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of New England, and villagers were
terrified. People watched as their relatives and

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friends lost weight and coughed blood while
their skin turned gray. The disease would

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progress day by day and month by
month until the patient finally passed away.

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People with tuberculosis seemed to wither away
as if well as if something was feeding

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on them. Tuberculosis is highly contagious, and it wasn't uncommon for entire families

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to succumb to the disease. Families
watched as their brothers, sisters, fathers,

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and mothers were consumed by it.
They wondered if they would be next.

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This was before germ theory and a
knowledge of bacterial infections, so physicians

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and families turned to the only thing
they knew, superstition. They began to

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believe that their villages were under attacked
by vampires. They believed that their relatives

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had just joined the ranks of the
undead. Near what is now Griswold,

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Connecticut, laid the village of Jewet
City. The people of Jewet City were

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prepared to fight vampires and rid their
community of the undead. They dug up

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the graves of people who had died
of tuberculosis, and if there was nothing

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but a skeleton left, they would
decide whether the deceased was a vampire.

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If the village believed that the person
was not a vampire, they would turn

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them face down just in case.
After a thorough examination of the bones and

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a decision was made that the corpse
had turned into a vampire before death,

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they would rearrange the bones by decapitating
the skeleton. They would then remove the

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legs so that the vampire couldn't walk
out of the grave. Many times,

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the bones would be arranged in a
skull and crossbones pattern to confuse the vampire

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and prevent them from putting themselves back
together. If the corpse had not decomposed

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and the organs remained, the villagers
would often burn the heart and the liver

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to prevent the body from rising from
the dead to feed off more people.

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The ashes of the burned organs were
sometimes fed to those who were ill with

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tuberculosis in an effort to cure them. These were desperate times, and the

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constant threat of death loomed over them, making them do desperate things. Let's

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just say that their hearts were in
the right place until they were thought to

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be vampires. If you'd like to
hear more of this story, my Halloween

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00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:45.080
episode is all about demons and disease
this year, join me at Cause of

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Death one hundred seconds to midnight.
I'd like to thank the Dark Cast Network

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00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:54.840
for allowing me to tell this story, and to all of you, remember

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that it's illegal to dig up your
relatives, even if you believe they're vampires.

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Happy Halloween. Hey, everybody,
welcome to Sinister Story Hour. My

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name is Steph. For some of
us, we wait the entire year for

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October to get here, the fall
colors, the activities, hay rides,

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the pumpkin spice everything. For me, it's about getting home after a long

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day at work and cuddling in my
fuzzy blanky and watching scary movies. The

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whole vibe is incredible. Some people
love Halloween, they love the candy,

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the trigger treating. For others,
it's about dressing up, dressing up as

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something you wouldn't normally be. Let's
face it, Halloween costumes have come so

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far. There are so many different
things. You can be funny, sexy,

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silly, spooky, whatever you want, you name it, but Halloween

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costumes in the first part of the
nineteen hundreds were terrifying. Most were based

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on the fears of Christian beliefs or
death, and people would dress a lot

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of the time like demons, witches, Satan, the LGBTQ and just kidding

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about that last one. Kind of
Halloween costumes, though, if you think

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about it, have come so far. The origin of Halloween costumes, however,

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may actually date over two thousand years, starting back with the Celtic pagan

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festival of Salin, which would mark
summer's end and the beginning of the year's

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darker half in the British Isles and
started on October thirty first, and it

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continued through During the festival, people
believed that the ghosts of the world would

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become visible to humans. Some people
would offer treats and goodies to the gods,

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while others would dress in costumes like
animal skins and animal heads so that

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wandering spirits didn't confuse them as one
of their own. Now, there's really

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been no written documentation of those practices
because the Celts really passed down the stories

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of their tradition orally throughout the generations. The English word Halloween actually derives from

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All Hallows Eve because it's the evening
before the Christian holiday on November first that's

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known as All Saints' Day. November
two is known as All Souls Day.

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The eleventh century is when Christians adapted
the Halloween holiday on October thirty first.

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Bet you didn't think you'd beginning a
semantics lesson while you were listening, did

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you. When Irish and Scottish people
migrated to America in the eighteenth century,

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they brought their Halloween superstitions, traditions, and costumes with them. Americans really

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embraced the traditions and the dark rooted
spirit in which it came, especially the

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costumes. We love costumes still to
this day. Early Americans made their costumes

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at home by using sheets, makeup, and rigging up their own masks.

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The idea was to look as anonymous
as possible. By the nineteen twenties and

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thirties, people were starting to have
Halloween parties, dances, and masquerade balls

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for both adults and children. Sometimes
their costume preparation would begin as early as

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August, which sounds a lot like
my house with my nine year old beginning

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as early as May June. Sometimes
incidentally, around this time, the Great

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Depression had reared its ugly head,
and hundreds of male teens would disguise themselves

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on Halloween and blow off steam by
rolling cars over and cutting down telephone poles,

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thus the trick part of the trick
or treat. After the Great Depression,

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marketers began to really capitalize on selling
costumes. Cartoon characters like Hawpeye became

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extremely popular. Around that time.
People also became fascinated with portraying characters on

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the fringes of society, such as
hoboes, pirates, gypsies, during World

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War Two, adults stopped really dressing
up for Halloween. In the nineteen sixties,

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superhero costumes were big, and adults
started dressing up again, opting more

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for costumes where their face could be
seen. But as we know, there's

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always a place for scary outfits.
When a rash of horror flicks hit in

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the nineteen seventies, eighties, and
nineties, characters from those movies were suddenly

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the big new popular costume. Freddie
Krueger, Jason and Michael Myers were the

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favorites back then, and to be
honest, you still see them every year

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now. So I would love to
know what kind of Halloween costume you love?

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Will you be a Van Empire,
a sexy winch an ogre. Let's

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face it, you can make any
costume a sexy costume, which I've never

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been the sexy Halloween costume kind of
girl. I would love to see your

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Halloween costumes. Make sure to share
those with me on my social media at

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00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:25.000
Sinister story Hour on Instagram or Sinister
Hour on Twitter x formerly known as Twitter.

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Thank you all for listening. Happy
Halloween, Oh Halloween, we have

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00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:40.400
spooky skeletons, ghostly encounters, scary
and fun costumes, trick or treating.

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If you're a cool kid, and
of course, like most of us who

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celebrate Halloween, you probably have carved
a pumpkin this month, maybe even painted

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one like I did this year.
Well, my spooky friend, I am

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00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:56.319
Keyley, the host of Missy Mysteries
podcast. It's a podcast that covers both

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00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:02.359
true crime and panormal topics, focusing
on historical and unsolf crimes. And today,

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on the day of Halloween or all
hollow Zeve, I'm going to be

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telling you about the old Irish tale
of Stingy Jack, the origins of our

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pumpkin carving traditions. You see,
Stingy Jack was a man with a certain

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reputation. He was an old blacksmith
who always had a little bit too much

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to drink. Jack was described as
two face and always involved in some sort

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of deceitful scheme. Jack thrived on
manipulating others, always playing tricks on anyone

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he could. He was simply a
selfish person. The devil Hearing about a

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man like Stingy Jack took a great
interest, and he wanted to meet the

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man for himself. One day,
during a dark and cold night on Rule

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land in Ireland, the devil set
up a trap for stingy Jack. The

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devil sent a demon Jack's way that
posed as a dead body. When Jack

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ran into this dead body, the
eyes became wide and the face of the

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dead person became deranged, accompanied by
an evil grin just for Jack. Jack

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immediately knew his time was up and
that the devil had sent a demon to

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collect his soul. Jack, being
the man he was, begged the semen

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for a final request before his demise. He wanted to have a drink with

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the devil. His final wish granted, Jack sat in a nearby tavern with

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the devil, having a drink.
Well between the two of them, one

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drink turned into another and turned into
another, eventually leaving the tavern with nothing

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else to serve them. When time
came to settle their tab for the night,

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Jack was penniless, shocking, so
he came up with a brilliant plan.

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Knowing the devil had magical power and
could transform himself, he convinced the

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devil to turn himself into a piece
of silver that he could pay the tab

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with. The devil thought this was
a great plan, but when the devil

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turned himself into a piece of silver
instead of paying the tab. Being the

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stingy, manipulating man he was,
Jack shoved the devil in his new silver

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shape into his pocket. Knowing now
that he had been double crossed. The

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00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:30.839
devil attempted to fight this and get
out of Jack's pocket. Despite his fighting,

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Jack had tropped the devil in his
pocket with a crucifix and the only

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way out was to make a deal
with stingy Jack, the two faced man.

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Jack's deal with the devil was the
devil was to leave Jack alone for

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a year and Jack would let him
out of his pocket. Taking this deal,

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the devil had a year before he
could try to collect Jackson, and

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Jack had a year to figure out
his next trick. A year rolled around,

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and the devil was back for Jack's
so however, Jack had a different

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trick up his sleeve. Jack asked
the devil if he could help him get

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rid of his hunger for the long
journey he was about to take by helping

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him get an apple from a nearby
tree. When the devil climbed up the

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tree to pick an apple, Jack
took the opportunity to carve four crucifixes into

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the bark of the tree, trapping
the devil again. The devil, trapped

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again, was angry with Jack,
telling him to let him down, but

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Jack only let him down from the
tree given that the devil would leave him

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alone for ten years. The devil
agreed to this deal, and Jack,

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happy to have his ten years,
let the devil down where they went separate

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ways. In his ten years he
got from trapping the devil, Jack's years

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of alcoholism eventually caught up with him. Jack escaped the devil with his tricks,

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but he couldn't trick death for more
time. When Jack's time on Earth

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was up, he found himself faced
the face with Saint Peter at Heaven's gates.

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Given the man he was in life, Jack was sent down to Hell

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to face the devil, who he
had tricked one too many times. As

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he headed to Hell, the devil
was waiting to finally get his revenge on

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00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:19.960
Jack. When he got to Hell, the devil told him hit the road,

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yet didn't want to be here before, and you aren't welcomed. Now

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Denied by both Heaven and Hell,
Jack was left to wander the darkness,

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00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:36.680
although the devil did grant him one
last kindness before he left. Jack asked

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00:26:36.680 --> 00:26:38.880
for an ember for a little bit
of light to guide his way in the

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00:26:38.920 --> 00:26:45.079
darkness. The devil picked up a
small red hot coal and gave it to

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00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:49.480
Jack to carry his small ember.
While Jack wandered the darkness with a small

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00:26:49.599 --> 00:26:55.079
ember, he found a turn up
and hollowed it out. He placed the

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00:26:55.160 --> 00:27:00.400
ember in the hollow turn up to
create a makeshift lantern to guide his way.

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00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:03.799
Since he was denied entry to both
heaven and hell. Jack's ghost is

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00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:10.480
seen wandering the Irish countryside. When
locals see Jack's ghost and his turn up

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00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:15.640
lantern, they say, oh,
it's just Jack, oh the lantern or

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00:27:15.960 --> 00:27:21.240
Jack o' lantern. As we know
October thirty first, it's Halloween and many

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00:27:21.240 --> 00:27:25.480
other celebrations happen on this day as
well. Among these celebrations and beliefs,

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00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:30.000
it's generally believed the veil between the
spiritual world and ours is open, attracting

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00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:36.079
spirits to the living. For the
Irish locals, thirty first made them worried.

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00:27:36.440 --> 00:27:40.240
Spirits may try to enter their homes, including Jack spirit, who is

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forced to wander the darkness with his
lantern. They would carve menacing faces into

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00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:51.599
turnips and ridebagas and displayed them on
their doorsteps with candles inside, just like

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00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:56.839
Jack's lantern, and hopes to keep
Jack and other spirits wandering on Halloween night

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00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:00.920
away. Now, as we know
America as a melting pot and many of

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00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:06.400
our traditions come from different cultures in
places. While in the nineteenth and twentieth

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00:28:06.440 --> 00:28:11.440
century, the tradition of carving turnips
and rietabagas was brought over by Irish immigrants,

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00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:18.200
but it was quickly realized that a
gourd more indigenous to America was bigger

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00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:22.599
and easier to carve that gore does, of course, the lovely pumpkin.

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So from the story of Stingy Jack, the tradition of the jack lantern and

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00:28:26.519 --> 00:28:33.640
carving pumpkins was born. Before I
leave you here all the traditions from all

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00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:37.319
the other amazing dark cast shows,
I want to remind you not to add

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any chemicals to your jack lannards for
the wildlife that may find your spooky porch

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00:28:42.559 --> 00:28:48.000
friend tasty. And a great way
to help prevent the pollution added to the

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00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:52.759
landfill from pumpkin carving each year is
to make sure to add your jack lanner

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00:28:52.839 --> 00:28:56.200
to a compost bile or look into
farms that may use your jack lanner to

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00:28:56.200 --> 00:29:02.440
help naturally deworm and feed many of
their farm animals. Until next time,

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00:29:02.599 --> 00:29:08.839
I hope you have a very spooky
but safe Halloween. My name is Brenda

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00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:14.640
and I'm the creator and host of
the podcast Horrifying History. Are you into

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00:29:14.680 --> 00:29:18.880
the dark side of history? Horrifying
History tells you about the side of history

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00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:22.400
that people don't normally talk about.
We tell the tales of haunted places,

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00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:29.079
infamous true crimes, the paranormal unsolved
mysteries, and then we look to history

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00:29:29.160 --> 00:29:33.680
to see where the truth actually lies. Today, we're going to tell you

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00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:37.799
where the lore behind poisoned Halloween candy
comes from. Now, as you all

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00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:42.880
know, monsters and goblins pop out
of the woodwork at Halloween, but if

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00:29:42.880 --> 00:29:48.200
you were to believe Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, Halloween is when the monsters take

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00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:52.759
the day off. That brings an
opportunity for real life monsters to come out

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and play. And this happened in
Deer Park, Texas, on a dark

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00:29:56.200 --> 00:30:03.640
and rainy Halloween night in nineteen seventy
four. On that night, optician Ronald

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00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:07.359
Clark O'Brien was out watching his kids
as they were trigger treating in a neighborhood

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00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:12.359
near their home. Eight year old
Timothy and five year old Elizabeth were joined

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00:30:12.359 --> 00:30:17.359
by their neighbors, Jim Bates and
his young son as they went on the

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00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:22.079
hunt for free candy. The group
approached a house that had its lights off,

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00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:26.279
but the kids knocked on the door
anyhow, after all, the hope

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00:30:26.319 --> 00:30:30.559
of getting more candy was just too
hard to pass up. No one came

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00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:33.039
to the door, so the disappointed
kids left to find the next house to

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00:30:33.119 --> 00:30:38.440
hit up. Jim followed them,
but Ronald he stayed behind. A short

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00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:42.079
time later, Ronald caught up with
a group and said he had some great

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00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:47.880
news. He pulled out a handful
of twenty one inch or fifty three point

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00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:52.079
three four centimeter long pixie sticks.
For those of you who have not indulged

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00:30:52.119 --> 00:30:56.920
in a pixie stick, it's a
colored powdered candy that's packaged in a wrapper

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00:30:57.200 --> 00:31:00.920
that makes it look like a big
drinking straw. You pull the end off

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00:31:02.119 --> 00:31:06.920
and pour the powdered candy directly into
your mouth. They come in various flavors,

395
00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:11.640
and basically it's eating straight sugar with
either a sweet or a tart taste.

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00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:15.480
It's every kid's dream sugar rush.
But back to our story. So

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00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:19.119
Ronald he pulled out these pixie sticks, and he told the group that there

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00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:25.200
actually was somebody at that last house
after all. They gave him the pixie

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00:31:25.240 --> 00:31:29.559
sticks, one for each of the
children to enjoy. Ronald passed out the

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00:31:29.559 --> 00:31:33.240
treats. He gave an additional one
to Jim for his child who wasn't there

401
00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:36.759
that night, and another one he
gave to a ten year old boy that

402
00:31:36.880 --> 00:31:41.240
Ronald saw trick or treating. The
boy was from Ronald Church and the group

403
00:31:41.279 --> 00:31:45.400
saw them as they were returning back
home. After getting home, Ronald told

404
00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:49.200
his kids to get ready for bed, but before they did, the kids

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00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:53.759
were allowed to have one treat from
their night's all. Ronald's son Timothy,

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00:31:53.960 --> 00:31:59.039
chose the pixie stick. As he
opened it, he found that the powdered

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00:31:59.079 --> 00:32:01.599
sugar was stuck in the straw.
He asked his dad for help, and

408
00:32:01.720 --> 00:32:07.079
Ronald manipulated the tube to dislodge the
treat inside. Then Timothy took his first

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00:32:07.160 --> 00:32:13.559
hit of sugar and it tasted bad. Timothy told his dad that it tasted

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00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:16.599
really bitter, so Ronald gave him
a glass of kool aid to wash away

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00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:22.359
that bitter taste. Less than an
hour later, Timothy was dead. A

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00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:27.640
phone call was made to the Pasadena
Police Department that same night saying that an

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00:32:27.640 --> 00:32:30.279
eight year old boy had died.
He was rushed to the hospital, but

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00:32:30.440 --> 00:32:35.759
there there was nothing they could do. The police went to the hospital and

415
00:32:35.799 --> 00:32:40.160
then contacted the nearby medical examiner of
Harris County to inform them of this situation.

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00:32:40.839 --> 00:32:45.400
The medical examiner then asked the officer, what did the child's breath smell

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00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:50.440
like. A quick call to the
morgue revealed that there was a scent of

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00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:53.640
almonds coming from the boy's mouth.
Now, if you all had been paying

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00:32:53.640 --> 00:33:00.119
attention when you listened to true crime
podcasts, cyanide smells like almonds. And

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00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:06.039
autopsy was performed and it showed that
Timothy ingested enough cyanide to kill two fully

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00:33:06.119 --> 00:33:10.440
grown adults. Tests also proved that
the top two inches of the pixie stick

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00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:17.039
that Timothy ate was packed with cyanide. Timothy was murdered. The police were

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00:33:17.079 --> 00:33:21.480
able to recover the candy from the
other kids in the group before they were

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00:33:21.519 --> 00:33:24.599
able to dig into them. But
the scary thing was that the police saved

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00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:30.680
another child's life that night. The
police had discovered that the tampered pixie sticks

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00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:35.160
were sealed with staples. When the
police arrived at one of the houses that

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00:33:35.319 --> 00:33:38.119
night, one of the children in
the group was in bed with his pixie

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00:33:38.119 --> 00:33:43.480
sticks in hand. The only reason
he didn't eat it was that he wasn't

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00:33:43.480 --> 00:33:47.279
strong enough to get the staple to
come out. The police then asked Ronald

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00:33:47.319 --> 00:33:52.240
to bring them to the neighborhood that
they were trigger treating in and wanted him

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00:33:52.240 --> 00:33:55.319
to direct them to the house where
he got those pixie sticks. But when

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00:33:55.359 --> 00:34:00.720
they got to the neighborhood, Ronald
allegedly forgot which he they went to.

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00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:06.000
He also claimed that he never saw
the face of the person responsible. The

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00:34:06.039 --> 00:34:09.440
person who gave him the pixie sticks
had just emerged from a shadowy doorway and

435
00:34:09.559 --> 00:34:14.559
handed him the candy. So I
can guess that you all are thinking the

436
00:34:14.639 --> 00:34:19.679
same thing that the police were,
that that comment was very suspicious. So

437
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:22.360
the police brought him out again,
and they were very direct with him.

438
00:34:22.960 --> 00:34:30.440
Show us which house now. Immediately, Ronald just happened to remember and pointed

439
00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:34.599
at a house. Conveniently for Ronald, the house owner was not home at

440
00:34:34.599 --> 00:34:37.880
the time. The police were able
to track the man down at his place

441
00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:40.880
of work and they immediately arrested the
man. But there was a problem.

442
00:34:42.280 --> 00:34:45.920
The man had an alibi. He
was at work the night in question,

443
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:50.800
and this was witnessed by many people. The man's wife and daughter were also

444
00:34:50.880 --> 00:34:53.079
home that night, but they ran
out of candy, they turned off the

445
00:34:53.199 --> 00:34:59.000
lights, and they did not answer
the door. At this point, detectives

446
00:34:59.039 --> 00:35:02.559
were told that Ronald its current behavior
was very strange. Now. Apparently he

447
00:35:02.719 --> 00:35:07.960
was mad that his relatives did not
stay up late the night of Timothy's funeral.

448
00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:13.000
According to Ronald's family, Ronald said
that he wrote a song about Jesus

449
00:35:13.239 --> 00:35:17.320
and how Timothy joined him in heaven. Ronald got mad when his grieving family

450
00:35:17.400 --> 00:35:22.039
did not want to stay up late
to watch a recording of this song being

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00:35:22.079 --> 00:35:28.320
performed on television. And that's not
all. Detectives also discovered that Ronald had

452
00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:34.079
very recently taken out life insurance policies
on his kids ten thousand dollars per child,

453
00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:38.760
and a month before Halloween, he
added an additional twenty thousand dollars on

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00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:45.119
each child. At this point,
investigators discovered that Ronald had debts over one

455
00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:50.840
hundred thousand dollars, so they called
the insurance company. This is when they

456
00:35:50.880 --> 00:35:55.559
discovered that Ronald had called the insurance
company at nine am the day after Timothy

457
00:35:55.639 --> 00:36:00.440
died, demanding to be paid out. The police immediately went to a judge

458
00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:05.239
to get a search warrant. What
they found was a pair of scissors that

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00:36:05.320 --> 00:36:08.960
had blades. These blades had plastic
residue on them that was the same as

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00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:15.679
the plastic containers of the contaminated pixie
sticks. Ronald was arrested and brought in

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00:36:15.719 --> 00:36:21.880
for questioning. Now, during questioning, even further evidence came out. Ronald

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00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:25.800
was going to a local community college
and in class he asked his professor odd

463
00:36:25.880 --> 00:36:30.519
questions, like what is more lethal
cyanide or some other type of poison.

464
00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:37.119
Another individual who worked for a chemical
company told police that a man came in

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00:36:37.159 --> 00:36:40.559
to buy cyanide, but he left
after he was told the smallest quantity he

466
00:36:40.599 --> 00:36:45.760
could purchase was five pounds. He
didn't remember what the guy looked like,

467
00:36:45.079 --> 00:36:49.800
but he said that the man was
wearing a smock like a doctor. Now,

468
00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:53.480
if you all remember Ronald was an
optician, he would wear a smock

469
00:36:53.599 --> 00:36:59.599
as part of his work uniform.
But these were the days before DNA testing

470
00:36:59.719 --> 00:37:04.440
and ebit cards. Because of this, police could not one hundred percent prove

471
00:37:04.519 --> 00:37:07.440
that Ronald killed his own son and
tried to kill the other children that Halloween

472
00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:13.599
night. Ronald pled not guilty a
trial, and his defense attorneys tried to

473
00:37:13.639 --> 00:37:17.840
blame some sort of Halloween boogeyman who
used the cover of Halloween to murder children,

474
00:37:19.599 --> 00:37:23.400
but that defense didn't work. It
took the jury only forty six minutes

475
00:37:23.440 --> 00:37:28.679
to return a guilty verdict for the
person who the press were now calling the

476
00:37:28.760 --> 00:37:32.559
candy Man. An hour after that, it was decided that Ronald would meet

477
00:37:32.599 --> 00:37:37.679
his end in the electric chair.
And now, my spooky friends, you

478
00:37:37.800 --> 00:37:42.800
know the tale behind the urban myth
that still floats around today that evil people

479
00:37:42.880 --> 00:37:47.199
are handing out treats filled with broken
glass, poison, or sometimes razor blades,

480
00:37:47.599 --> 00:37:52.159
even though there is not much evidence
to suggest that this is a thing.

481
00:37:52.920 --> 00:37:55.519
But I didn't say it doesn't happen. In the year of two thousand,

482
00:37:55.920 --> 00:38:00.599
a man was charged with putting needles
in snicker bars that he handed out

483
00:38:00.599 --> 00:38:05.400
to trigger treats. One team suffered
from a slight needleprick, but to date,

484
00:38:05.920 --> 00:38:09.800
there hasn't been another case where a
child died after eating contaminated treats.

485
00:38:10.440 --> 00:38:15.519
So what happened to Ronald? He
never saw the electric chair because the US

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00:38:15.639 --> 00:38:20.960
Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair
was cruel punishment. So on March thirty

487
00:38:20.960 --> 00:38:24.920
first, nineteen eighty four, Ronald
died by lethal injection. So, my

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00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:30.159
spooky friends, the moral of this
story is just be safe. Check your

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00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:35.559
children's candy just in case. Thank
you all for joining me today to hear

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00:38:35.639 --> 00:38:39.280
the real story behind the lore of
poisoned Halloween candy. If you want to

491
00:38:39.320 --> 00:38:44.719
hear even more tales like this,
you can subscribe to Horrifying History wherever you

492
00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:49.559
listen to your favorite podcasts, and
to get even more spooky content, join

493
00:38:49.679 --> 00:38:53.840
us on Facebook at Horrifying History,
on Instagram and threads at Horrifying Underscore History,

494
00:38:54.280 --> 00:39:02.119
or on Twitter at Horrifying hist One. Thank you for joining us for

495
00:39:02.280 --> 00:39:07.360
dark Cast Network's Wicked Week. We
had a great time presenting all kinds of

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00:39:07.400 --> 00:39:10.760
scary for your listening pleasure this week. Be sure to take a few minutes

497
00:39:10.760 --> 00:39:16.239
to check out all of the incredible
dark cast Network shows by visiting darkcastnetwork dot

498
00:39:16.280 --> 00:39:21.559
com. Be careful, though,
you just might get hooked on a new

499
00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:25.039
favorite. Once again. This was
Amber of Weird True Crime, and from

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00:39:25.119 --> 00:39:30.400
all of us at Darkcast Network,
we wish you and yours are very safe

501
00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:30.480
and happy Halloween.