Hi, friends! I’m Crystal, and I write the That Got Dark newsletter, BuzzFeed’s weekly roundup of all things creepy, macabre, and horrible AF. And if you looooove this kind of content, you should subscribe to get your weekly dopamine fix of the macabre delivered RIGHT to your inbox!
Here’s what this special Halloween edition of the newsletter is covering this week:
1.
In 1982, a California drifter named Richard Delmer Boyer murdered an older couple, then actually blamed the film Halloween II (1981) for making him do it.
High on PCP, Boyer swore he thought he was inside the movie. During the trial, the prosecution even screened parts of Halloween II in court — but in the end, the jury didn’t buy it. Still, the press dubbed the case the “Halloween murders,” making it one of the strangest crossovers between Hollywood and real-life horror.
2.
In 1974, Texas dad Ronald Clark O’Bryan — later dubbed “The Candy Man” — laced Pixy Stix with cyanide and handed them out on Halloween night, even giving one to his 8-year-old son, Timothy.
Tragically, Timothy died soon after. O’Bryan had also given the poisoned candy to his daughter and three neighborhood kids — but none of them ate theirs, narrowly escaping the same fate. Drowning in debt, O’Bryan had secretly taken out life insurance policies on his children, planning to cash in after their deaths.
O’Bryan tried to blame a mysterious neighbor, but the story fell apart fast, and the evidence led straight back to him. He was convicted of murder a year later and executed by lethal injection in 1984.
Unsurprisingly, the case shocked the nation and forever changed Halloween. Parents began checking every piece of candy, hospitals offered X-rays of trick-or-treat hauls, and the urban legend of “poisoned Halloween candy” went from myth to mainstream fear — cementing O’Bryan’s legacy as “the man who killed Halloween.”
3.
If you’ve seen this iconic horror film, which is a popular Halloween time rewatch, you know it’s packed with scares. But the set of Poltergeist (1982) was almost as terrifying as the movie itself…
For starters, the skeletons floating around Diane (the mom, played by JoBeth Williams) in that muddy pool were REAL human skeletons, not props. Apparently, it was cheaper and easier for the filmmakers to buy real ones from medical supply companies. Even worse, Williams didn’t find out until later, and she was, understandably, horrified.
Then there’s the clown scene, which quickly went from fake to frightening when the doll’s mechanical arms actually started choking little Oliver Robins until the crew realized he wasn’t acting and pulled it off him.
And as if that weren’t enough nightmare fuel, real-life tragedy followed the film. Dominique Dunne (the older sister) was murdered by her ex-boyfriend just months after the film’s release, and Heather O’Rourke (the little girl who said, “They’re heeere”) died unexpectedly at just 12 years old a few years later in 1988, as a result of an acute bowel obstruction, complicated by septic shock.
So, the legend goes that Stingy Jack was a mischievous drunk who managed to trick the devil himself into promising not to take his soul. But when Jack died, neither Heaven nor Hell would let him in, leaving him to wander the Earth forever with only a burning ember tucked inside a hollowed-out turnip to light his way.
The eerie tale is said to have inspired the modern jack-o’-lantern, carved each Halloween to echo Jack’s ghostly glow. So if you carve a jack-o’-lantern this year, maybe say hi to Jack — just in case he’s still out there.
On the night of Oct. 30, 1993, the rising Hollywood star went to The Viper Room nightclub in Hollywood with his girlfriend, Samantha Mathis, and his siblings Joaquin and Rain. River was supposed to perform that night with Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but had reportedly taken a speedball — a mix of cocaine and heroin — earlier that evening.
Around 12:45 a.m., River began feeling sick and disoriented inside the club, then stumbled outside to the sidewalk, where he collapsed and started convulsing. Joaquin called 911 while Rain tried to resuscitate him as Mathis watched in shock. Paramedics arrived within minutes, but despite their efforts, River was pronounced dead at 1:51 a.m. on October 31, 1993. He was just 23 years old.
6.
Finally, this week, we’re bending the “serial killer” rule to spotlight the last meal of aforementioned Halloween killer, Ronald Clark O’Bryan.
His last meal: T-bone steak, French fries with ketchup, whole kernel corn, sweet peas, a lettuce and tomato salad with sliced egg and French dressing, iced tea, sweetener, Saltines, Boston cream pie, and rolls.
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