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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Frying and I'm crazybe Wilson. So I know, uh,

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Speaker 1: as we've been leading into Halloween, we've been doing symp

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Speaker 1: thematic things, and I know the episode on the Valiska

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Speaker 1: Acts murders it was pretty grim, So I apologized that

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Speaker 1: was a little too dark for anybody. So I thought

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Speaker 1: to close out our Halloween episodes, it would be fun

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Speaker 1: to sweeten things up a bit and instead of talking

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Speaker 1: about another grizzly thing this year, as we kind of

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Speaker 1: edge up on the day itself, we could talk about

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Speaker 1: the history of Halloween candy. Uh. There was an episode

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Speaker 1: a couple of years back that Sarah was on and

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Speaker 1: Christen Conger guest hosted from Stuff Mom Never Told You,

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Speaker 1: and they talked a little bit about candy uh in

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Speaker 1: their history of trick or treating, but they focused more

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Speaker 1: on sort of a lot of the other cultural aspects

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Speaker 1: of trick or treating. So we're gonna dig a little

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Speaker 1: deep or and skip talking about the costumes and the

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Speaker 1: other trappings of Halloween night and just focus on the sweet,

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Speaker 1: sugary stuff. Also an interest of expectations management. We are

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Speaker 1: pretty much talking about modern trick or treating uh and

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Speaker 1: how it has existed in the twentieth century. We're not

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Speaker 1: really going to talk too much, although we'll touch on

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Speaker 1: it briefly, about the older historical rituals associated with the

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Speaker 1: holiday or the time of year that are sometimes discussed

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Speaker 1: as sort of the precursors of the trick or treating tradition.

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Speaker 1: So we will cover a little bit about how candy

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Speaker 1: kind of became the star of the show, and then

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about the history of a candy considered to

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Speaker 1: be a Halloween classic, even though it is apparently not

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Speaker 1: all that popular, and because I can't resist a little

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Speaker 1: bit of ghoulishness, we'll also talk briefly about the various

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Speaker 1: scares that have happened in the media, UH and in

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Speaker 1: sort of the urban legend arena about purposely tainted or

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Speaker 1: booby trapped candy. So to start it off, though, we're

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Speaker 1: gonna actually talk about a different day than Halloween, near Halloween,

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Speaker 1: that was also about candy. Yeah, before Halloween became the

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Speaker 1: candy holiday. I mean, there's lots of candy associated with

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Speaker 1: lots of other holidays, but candy Halloween is the big name,

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Speaker 1: so confectioners tried to launch a candy specific holiday and

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Speaker 1: they called it, in a huge amount of creativity, Candy Day. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Candy Day was first launched in nineteen sixteen and it

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Speaker 1: would fall on the second Saturday of October, and it

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Speaker 1: was pitched to the public as a way to sort

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Speaker 1: of encourage a spirit of giving and friendship. A lot

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Speaker 1: of the ad campaigns around it were about to take

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Speaker 1: a break and make sure someone you know is getting

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Speaker 1: candy today. Uh. They also were trying to allegedly recognize

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Speaker 1: the food value of candy. In the early twenties, it

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Speaker 1: was even marketed with a campaign to give candy away

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Speaker 1: to the elderly and orphans, so people who were candy needy.

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Speaker 1: But really it was a manufactured holiday to boost profits

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Speaker 1: for candy companies. Can The day was even renamed to

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Speaker 1: Sweetest Day to encourage this association with kindness and generosity,

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Speaker 1: and it continued to be celebrated on the second Saturday

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Speaker 1: of October right into the fifties and beyond. I remember

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Speaker 1: calendars when I was a kid having Sweetest Day on

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Speaker 1: them and be very confused about what that was. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Some US cities still celebrate it, though, and if you

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Speaker 1: ask most people what they were planning for it, you

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Speaker 1: would probably be met with a blank stare, which I

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Speaker 1: think is what happened when I said what the sweetest Day?

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Speaker 1: It says it here, I'm a calendar. Yeah, I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to remember which I know. Detroit allegedly still celebrates it,

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Speaker 1: and I'm trying to remember a couple of the other

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Speaker 1: cities that I saw. So if you're from any of those,

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Speaker 1: write us and let us know if they actually are

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Speaker 1: celebrated or if it's kind of just a holiday that's

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Speaker 1: on the books, but no one really does anything for

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Speaker 1: The idea though, of going door to door for treats

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Speaker 1: on Halloween is believed to have started somewhere in the

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Speaker 1: early part of the twentieth century, so that is different

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Speaker 1: from Sweetest Day, although the exact starting point of when

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Speaker 1: trick or treating really took off is a little bit fuzzy,

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Speaker 1: But we're talking about somewhere between nineteen hundred and nineteen

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Speaker 1: teens as the window of when people think it it

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Speaker 1: was first uh started yea that the how and the

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Speaker 1: why are kind of blurry. Also, there's some speculation that is,

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Speaker 1: Halloween became a night for pranks and vandalism. Early in

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Speaker 1: the twentieth century, more organized to or treating outings were

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Speaker 1: sort of arranged by communities as a way to distract

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Speaker 1: people from egging houses and whatnot. This isn't certain though,

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Speaker 1: and sugar rationtioning after World War Two broke out may

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Speaker 1: have gummed up that plan anyway. And despite the haze

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Speaker 1: of trick or treating its origins, we do know that

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Speaker 1: by the late nineteen forties and early nineteen fifties it

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Speaker 1: was pretty established culturally as a tradition. Uh. You know,

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Speaker 1: most people will say it kind of ebbed and flowed

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Speaker 1: in terms of popularity, but there is evidence of its

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Speaker 1: popularity at this point from the world really of entertainment.

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Speaker 1: So Jack Benny actually made jokes about the practice in

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Speaker 1: his radio show as early as ninety and tricker treating

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Speaker 1: appeared in Peanuts comics as early as nineteen fifty one.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty two, there was a Disney cartoon about

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Speaker 1: Donald Duck's nephew's Huey Dewey and Louie going trick or treating,

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Speaker 1: So we know at that point trick or treating was

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Speaker 1: firmly established. So in terms of there being an actual

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Speaker 1: recognized practice of trick or treating, it's actually really recent.

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Speaker 1: We're looking back at, you know, seventy years ago. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And why is candy part of the deal. This is

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Speaker 1: actually an interesting, um sort of sociological, anthropological approach to it.

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Speaker 1: According to candy historian Beth Kimberley, sugar and this desire

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Speaker 1: for sugar is an almost instinctive part of preparation for winter.

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Speaker 1: So even going back to Celtic festivals of fall, I know,

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Speaker 1: we said we were going to talk about this much,

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Speaker 1: but this is just a brief one. Uh. You know,

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Speaker 1: part of the activity was that they were using sugar

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Speaker 1: and then some honey to preserve foods to get through winter.

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Speaker 1: So to some degree there could be a little bit

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Speaker 1: of sort of ancient instinct factoring in the your craving

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Speaker 1: for caramel in autumn, you're also adding a little padding

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Speaker 1: to your person to get through the cold period when

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Speaker 1: fresh food might not be readily available, or at least

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Speaker 1: you would be if we needed it. And if we

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Speaker 1: were in an age, you know, in the modern era

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Speaker 1: where everything can be preserved and shifted worldwide, we're fortunate

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Speaker 1: enough in most places that would probably be hearing this

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Speaker 1: to have access to fresh food pretty much year round.

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Speaker 1: And this is kind of an aside, but last week

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Speaker 1: I went to a thing called bo Fest, which is

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Speaker 1: the festival of bad ad hoc hypotheses, and basically people

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Speaker 1: make up these are really off the wall hypotheses that

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Speaker 1: are weirdly supported by data but are made to be ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: And this whole candy hypothesis in the wintertime might have

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Speaker 1: had a good place at that festival. Yeah, it's it's

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Speaker 1: one of those that's in sticking to think about, and

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Speaker 1: I can see the logic of it. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if I buy into it, but it's fun to talk

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Speaker 1: about it is and bo Fest is fun and they say,

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Speaker 1: we hope you learn nothing because everything is saying uh so. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: once candy companies realized that trick or treating was a

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Speaker 1: for real tradition, it wasn't long before they started coming

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Speaker 1: up with ways to capitalize on it by making sweet

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Speaker 1: treats that had a specifically holiday focus, and initial efforts

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Speaker 1: on the parts of most of these confectioners were really

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Speaker 1: focused around not marketing directly to consumers with like special

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Speaker 1: holiday wraps and Halloween themed candy like we'd see today,

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Speaker 1: but more to shopkeepers. Uh So, they were pretty much

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Speaker 1: selling the same normal candy, but they were parceling them,

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Speaker 1: you know, in their palates and their big shipping cases

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Speaker 1: as autumn and Halloween specific in an effort to get

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Speaker 1: those shopkeepers to promote candy as Halloween drew near. And

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Speaker 1: this is actually important and since at the time candy

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Speaker 1: wasn't the only giveaway that you might reasonably expect as

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Speaker 1: a Halloween handout. Both kool Aid and Kellogg's were marketing

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Speaker 1: their products as perfect items to hand out to trick

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Speaker 1: or treaters in the nineteen fifties, and candy also competed

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Speaker 1: with nuts, brut small toys, and homemade treats. Yes, if

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Speaker 1: you know Kellogg's had one, we might all be getting

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Speaker 1: cereal on Halloween, which is not a bad thing, but

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Speaker 1: it would be very different holiday. Uh. Brocks, which is

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Speaker 1: a company that's still around and turning out caramels and

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Speaker 1: candy corn, among other suits, was one of the first

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Speaker 1: companies to market special Halloween candy directly to the consumer.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty two, they started putting images of Jack

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Speaker 1: O lanterns on their candy boxes, and this was actually

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Speaker 1: way ahead of most other candy companies. As we got

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Speaker 1: into the nineteen seventies, candy makers really started to step

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Speaker 1: up their game, and this is when marshmallow peeps first

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Speaker 1: started to appear in special Halloween editions like cat and pumpkins.

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Speaker 1: Um those were originally marketed as witch mellows, and I

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Speaker 1: will just say to this day the peeps um chocolate

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Speaker 1: Moose kiddies are one of my very favorite Halloween treats.

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Speaker 1: I love them. Uh. Candy an individual small rapper started

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Speaker 1: to be standard. Companies were starting to make value add

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Speaker 1: candies as well, so that you could give those out

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Speaker 1: to ghosts and ghouls who might arrive on your doorstep

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Speaker 1: demanding sugar. So this is when candy packs came with

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Speaker 1: rappers that would like turn into puppets, and boxes would

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Speaker 1: have little punch out windows so that they could kind

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Speaker 1: of become little temporary haunted house play set kind of activities.

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Speaker 1: I loved all that stuff when I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: to like, give me a candy plus an activity to

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Speaker 1: do once I was full of sugar and I was

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Speaker 1: the happiest child around. Uh. This is also the time

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Speaker 1: in the seventies when one of my very favorites, UH

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Speaker 1: known as Mr Bones, debut and Mr Bones was a

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Speaker 1: candy skeleton that came in a little black coffin, so

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Speaker 1: it was basically like bones and the skull and little pieces.

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Speaker 1: And I would always spend way too much time putting

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Speaker 1: him together, Like I would make sure that all my

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Speaker 1: bones were laid out as properly as could be given

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Speaker 1: the candy molds that they used to create them, and

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Speaker 1: then I would eat him from the feet up. And

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Speaker 1: I remember I was getting really dismayed if I had

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Speaker 1: not gotten enough of the proper parts to make the

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Speaker 1: full skeleton. But I loved Mr. Bones. But before we

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Speaker 1: get to another rather ghoulish candy trend, do you want

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Speaker 1: to have a quick word from a sponsor, I sure

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Speaker 1: do so. Gross out candy first appeared in the nineteen eighties.

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Speaker 1: There was just the whole trend of disgusting things. I

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Speaker 1: never liked it, but boy it sure was popular. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: thanks to garbage candy and garbage pale kids, this completely

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Speaker 1: gross out candy was now on the scene. And that's

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Speaker 1: when edible eyeballs and chocolate covered brains first hit the market.

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Speaker 1: And there's just really been no end to the grossness.

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Speaker 1: Since then, this turned into a trend and it quickly

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Speaker 1: grew in popularity, so a lot of companies started offering

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Speaker 1: this gross candy year round instead of just a Halloween

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Speaker 1: and the year round trend is something that's sort of

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Speaker 1: ironically is affecting the way in which candy is now

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Speaker 1: being offered. So Halloween candy got so popular that people

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Speaker 1: started offering it year round, But now many candy companies

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Speaker 1: are trying to find new ways to take the focus

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Speaker 1: off of exclusive Halloween pushes, so a lot of them

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Speaker 1: are offering treats that are more sort of autumn focused

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Speaker 1: instead of just doing Halloween specific packaging. So that way,

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Speaker 1: while the Halloween uh that's very clearly marked Halloween candy

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Speaker 1: gets marked down like half off or more on November one,

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Speaker 1: all of those yummy treats that have more general autumn

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Speaker 1: colored wrappers and flavors can still be offered at regular price.

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Speaker 1: So if you think about your local retail store, you

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Speaker 1: probably can quickly envision Reese's Cups and Hershey's Kisses and

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Speaker 1: other chocolates and candies that are now sort of wrapped

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Speaker 1: in gold, russet and copper foil wrappers, and that's part

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Speaker 1: of why that transition happened. Instead of marketing for one day,

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Speaker 1: their marketing for a season. Well, this is also reminding

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Speaker 1: me of like the rebranding of other holidays candies as

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Speaker 1: Halloween candy, like the advent of Cadbury scream eggs, which

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Speaker 1: I might need to go find some as soon as

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Speaker 1: we're done recording. Yeah, that's I have an unhealthy relationship

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Speaker 1: with the Cadbury Cream and Cadbury Scream mix. So with

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Speaker 1: all of this, they're hoping that candy consumption will go

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Speaker 1: right on through Thanksgiving before you transition into the winter

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Speaker 1: holiday candy. And this makes business sense. Instead of marketing

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Speaker 1: this one day holiday like Halloween, they can market through

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Speaker 1: this whole season of candy consumption. Yeah, because candy, uh

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Speaker 1: for Halloween comes out so early now, I mean that's

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Speaker 1: almost a full half year of just solid candy marketing

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Speaker 1: now by the time you factor in Fall and the

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Speaker 1: winter holidays. So inn it was tomated that Halloween candy

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Speaker 1: sales made up for two point three billion dollars of

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Speaker 1: the six billion dollars associated with Americans spending around the

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Speaker 1: Halloween holiday. So while costumes and decor are gobbling up

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Speaker 1: an ever bigger chunk of the Halloween spending numbers. Candy

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Speaker 1: still holds a strong position. They pull in more than

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Speaker 1: a third of the consumer dollars that are spent on

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Speaker 1: this holiday. According to the California Milk Processors Board, the

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Speaker 1: average candy toting Halloween jack o lantern holds two fifty

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Speaker 1: pieces of candy and that's about nine thousand calories and

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Speaker 1: three pounds of sugar, which if you are a long

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Speaker 1: time listener of the podcast, you know my mother would

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Speaker 1: disapprove of. Yeah, we kind of had a free for

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Speaker 1: all in our house. That's one of those statistics that

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Speaker 1: I read in. It was startling because I know how

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Speaker 1: many times I devoured a solid half of my bucket.

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Speaker 1: Or I mean, not all kids only stick to the

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Speaker 1: jack o lantern. We had pillowcases. Some you are just

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Speaker 1: like I remember the trick or tre getting with pillowcases

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Speaker 1: that we definitely took in more than three pounds of

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Speaker 1: sugar at a time sometimes. But now we're gonna shift.

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Speaker 1: Now that we've kind of talked about how candy and

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Speaker 1: Halloween got married, we're going to talk about candy corn.

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Speaker 1: And for full disclosure, I love candy corn so much.

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Speaker 1: This is my one of my very favorites. I know

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Speaker 1: that's not the case for everyone, but I love it

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Speaker 1: all caps love It's At the same time, well, a

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Speaker 1: lot of people really hate it. I am not one

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Speaker 1: of those people, but a lot of people hate it,

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Speaker 1: and that is the word they use. But somehow candy

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Speaker 1: corn remains a standard part of the Halloween candy repertoire.

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Speaker 1: There are thirty five million pounds of candy corn made

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Speaker 1: every year, which is nine billion pieces. Yeah. I read

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Speaker 1: one statistic. Uh, I believe it was at the National

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Speaker 1: Confectioners Association, UM and it it They had done a

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Speaker 1: survey and it was basically like most people hate more

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Speaker 1: people hate dislike candy corn than like it. But those

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Speaker 1: same people say that it's still like a required part

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Speaker 1: of the holiday, Like it's such a an iconic element

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Speaker 1: of Halloween candy that they're like, well, you can't have

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Speaker 1: Halloween without candy corn. Oh, I hate it. It's like

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Speaker 1: the people who eat the cranberry sauce from a can

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Speaker 1: and they don't really know why they do it at Thanksgiving,

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Speaker 1: but they do because I feel like they have to. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a pity they should try some homemade cranberry song

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Speaker 1: and as an aside. In another survey that was conducted

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Speaker 1: by the National Confectioners Association, in they surveyed one thirty

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Speaker 1: five adults about the proper way to consume candy corn,

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Speaker 1: forty six point eight percent felt that you should just

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Speaker 1: pop the whole piece in your mouth at once. However,

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Speaker 1: very close behind forty two point seven think that you

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Speaker 1: should start with the narrow end, which is usually white,

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Speaker 1: but when you get into specially specialty flavors is different,

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Speaker 1: and ten points six percent things starting with the wide

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Speaker 1: end is the way to go. But I also have

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Speaker 1: to wonder, given what we were just saying about how

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Speaker 1: many people dislike it, how many of those respondents said

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Speaker 1: you should throw it out before actually giving their eating preference.

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Speaker 1: Regardless of how you feel about it and the reason

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Speaker 1: that we're talking about it today, it's been around for

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Speaker 1: a long time. Yeah. The invention of this ubiquitous candy

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Speaker 1: is normally credited to a candy maker named George Renninger,

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Speaker 1: and he was working at the wonder Lely Candy Company

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Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the eighteen eighties when he is

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Speaker 1: said to have first made it, and there were other

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Speaker 1: convectioners that were making candies with very similar texture. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and that's sort of just general sugar flavor that were

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Speaker 1: molded into foliage like you know, leaves and other nature

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Speaker 1: shapes acorns, etcetera. But Renninger was the first to create

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Speaker 1: this multicolored stripe design. It was the striping that really

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Speaker 1: drew people's attention, and it also made candy corner real

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Speaker 1: alans to make kettles of boiling sugar slurry were mixed

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Speaker 1: with marshmallow and fondent, and this resulting concoction was poured

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Speaker 1: into buckets. Stringers were men tasked with walking and pouring

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Speaker 1: out these pound buckets into the candy molds. Because of

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Speaker 1: the striping, they had to make three passes to make

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Speaker 1: every batch of candy corn. And as I was researching

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Speaker 1: this and how they did it, my first time was like,

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Speaker 1: they've never mentioned it, but that seems like a really

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Speaker 1: dangerous job to me. If any of our listeners have

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Speaker 1: ever made candy and come in contact with boiling sugar,

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Speaker 1: it's terrible. That's like an instant, horrifying burn on your skin. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And it sticks because it's sugar, So it's really hard

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Speaker 1: to get off, and the burn gets deeper and worse,

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Speaker 1: like while you're trying to clean it. Um. And they

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Speaker 1: didn't talk about that, but I feel like carrying forty

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Speaker 1: five pound buckets of this hot sugar mixture seemed had

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Speaker 1: to be like a high risk of injury or at

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Speaker 1: the very least holding um. Not the scalding isn't an injury,

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Speaker 1: but you know what I mean, Like it just seems

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Speaker 1: rough extremely bad. Seems like a really dangerous job to me.

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Speaker 1: The process has really not changed that much today, except

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Speaker 1: that now it is mechanized, so there is not risk

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Speaker 1: to human skin, uh, and it's not as time consuming

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Speaker 1: or backbreaking. But other than that, it's pretty close to

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Speaker 1: the original process, even though it's now really closely linked

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Speaker 1: with Halloween. This wasn't always the case. In the nineteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: there were ad campaigns promoting candy corn, which had also

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Speaker 1: gone by the name chicken feed and early incarnations as

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Speaker 1: a summertime street or something for year round. As with

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Speaker 1: other sweet makers, the companies that made candy corn really

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Speaker 1: started to focus their energies on Halloween marketing in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, So the fall and Halloween colors of the

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Speaker 1: candy which it had originally made it a very natural

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Speaker 1: fit for the holiday. So it's sort of made a

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Speaker 1: home there, as it were. But in recent years candy

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Speaker 1: corn has been made over as well, just as we

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Speaker 1: talked about other candies taking on sort of a more

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Speaker 1: seasonal approach, uh so that it could, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: kind of spread across the calendar. So Bronx and Jellybelly,

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Speaker 1: which are the two main candy corn manufacturers today, are

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Speaker 1: trying to keep it relevant year round. You can get

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Speaker 1: spring colored bunny corn for Easter baskets. They make pink

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Speaker 1: and red cupid corn for Valentine's Day. There is red

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Speaker 1: and green reindeer corn at Christmas time, I think one year,

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Speaker 1: and I'm not sure if this is a consistent thing

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Speaker 1: that they still offer, but I remember seeing a fourth

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Speaker 1: of July red, white, and blue candy corn one year.

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Speaker 1: I don't remember what manufacturer made it. But they're also

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Speaker 1: innumerable specialty flavors of candy corn available today in addition

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Speaker 1: to the classic sort of general sugar flavor. And if

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Speaker 1: you do like candy corn like I do, um Brox

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Speaker 1: caramel Machiatto flavor this year is my absolute favorite. I

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Speaker 1: have eaten uh an absolutely unconscionable amount in the last week. Um.

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Speaker 1: You can celebrate National Candy Corn Day on October so

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Speaker 1: we're right there at it. Go run out and buy

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Speaker 1: a bag if you want. And if you're not in

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Speaker 1: the US, you can still celebrate even though that's one

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Speaker 1: of our national holidays. Uh. But now that we have

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Speaker 1: had my candy corn fangirl situation, we're going to talk

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Speaker 1: about some of the scarier aspects of Halloween candy. But

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Speaker 1: before that, do you want to take a word from

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Speaker 1: a sponsor? I do, And now, Tracy, do you want

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Speaker 1: to transition us to this sort of darker aspect of

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Speaker 1: Halloween candy? Unfortunately, Yes, there's a huge irony to Halloween's

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Speaker 1: candy collecting tradition. Unlike the rest of the year, when

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Speaker 1: kids are not supposed to take candy from strangers. On

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Speaker 1: October one, unless your mother is like my mother and

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Speaker 1: you only trick or treated at the homes of people

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Speaker 1: you knew personally and extensively, you're encouraged to do exactly that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the risk inherent in doing so has of course given

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Speaker 1: rise to all manner of stories and myths and third

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Speaker 1: and fourth hand accounts of horrible things that people will

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Speaker 1: allege really happen to their cousin, sisters, best friends, and

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Speaker 1: it's completely natural to be fearful of the unknown. There's

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Speaker 1: certainly enough real life horrors that are reported on the

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Speaker 1: news all the time to feed the fear of a wicked,

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Speaker 1: cruel person poisoning candy to pass out to kids on Halloween. Well,

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Speaker 1: and even with so many communities having like a safe

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Speaker 1: trick or treating event, I was always like that just

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Speaker 1: seems like you could hurt more kids at once. Um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. If we're paranoid, I have very similar thoughts. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm glad I'm not a parent, because I would be

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Speaker 1: the mom that never let my kid do any of

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Speaker 1: this stuff. Right. However, most of the stories of tainted

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00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:47,200
Speaker 1: candy don't really stand up to close their inspection. There

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Speaker 1: are definitely a few which have made headlines over the years,

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Speaker 1: and Snopes, which I love. Snopes dot com visit if

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Speaker 1: you're wondering if something is true or not. They have

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Speaker 1: a long list of these events. We'll cover just a

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Speaker 1: few of them. So in a case where there was

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Speaker 1: actual poison involved, but it seems like not so much

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Speaker 1: evil intent stick with me. A woman in Green Lawn,

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Speaker 1: New York made a really terrible decision, uh when she

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Speaker 1: decided to teach teams a lesson about being too old

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Speaker 1: a trick or treat in nineteen four, so Helen File

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Speaker 1: prepared these special packages of non treats to hand out

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Speaker 1: to her to hand out to teenagers when they came

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Speaker 1: to her door for trick or treating. And these packages

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Speaker 1: had steel wool pads, dog biscuits, and arsenic laced candy buttons.

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Speaker 1: And File told the older kids that she handed them

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Speaker 1: out to that they were a joke and that they

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Speaker 1: were in fact poisonous. They had skulling crossbones on them

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Speaker 1: and poison written on them, and no one ingested any

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Speaker 1: of them. But she was handing out poison to kids.

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Speaker 1: So she was charged with child endangerment. She pled guilty

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Speaker 1: and she received a suspended sentence. That just seems like

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Speaker 1: maybe she went a little too far trying to make

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Speaker 1: her point. Yeah, it seems like the arsenic laced candy

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Speaker 1: buttons was was one step over the line, maybe more

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Speaker 1: than one step that was over the line. In Detroit

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Speaker 1: in v Kevin Tossen, who was five died after spending

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Speaker 1: four days in a coma following a heroin overdose, and

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Speaker 1: the drug was found in his Halloween candy. So while

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Speaker 1: his death was accidental, the family actually staged a cover

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Speaker 1: up of what had really happened. Kevin had gotten into

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Speaker 1: his uncle's dash and the family had been sprinkled heroin

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Speaker 1: into his Tricker treat candy in hoping that a mystery

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Speaker 1: villain would be blamed for it. Yeah, and it was

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00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:46,800
Speaker 1: one of those things that even once the truth sort

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Speaker 1: of came out that he had actually gotten into separate

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Speaker 1: from his Halloween candy, his uncle's drugs, by that point,

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00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:57,520
Speaker 1: like the newspaper headlines had already spread everywhere, you know,

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Speaker 1: that this five year old had died from poison Halloween

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Speaker 1: candy or from drug laced Halloween candy. And so that

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00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:06,480
Speaker 1: was really the thing that people remembered. And even though

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00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:10,960
Speaker 1: there was an explanation, uh, that's sort of the fear

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00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 1: was already pretty placed at that point. Um. And then

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy four, and what was really just a

431
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:21,520
Speaker 1: horrible and tragic event, Uh, there was what initially appeared

432
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:25,119
Speaker 1: to be a legitimate poison candy incident. Uh, there was

433
00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:28,520
Speaker 1: an eight year old in Deer Park, Texas named Timothy O'Brien,

434
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:32,920
Speaker 1: and he died after eating tainted pixie sticks candy after

435
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:35,879
Speaker 1: he went trick or treating on Halloween nights. Uh. And

436
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,240
Speaker 1: the truly horrific turn of events is that the boy

437
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:41,400
Speaker 1: had been poisoned, but not by a stranger handing out

438
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:44,520
Speaker 1: bad candy. It was in fact the child's father, Ronald

439
00:24:44,520 --> 00:24:47,640
Speaker 1: Clark O'Brien, who was found guilty in the murder investigation

440
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:51,359
Speaker 1: around the poisoning. Yeah, it turned out that the boy's

441
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:54,760
Speaker 1: father had handed out pixie sticks laced with cyanide to

442
00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:58,199
Speaker 1: his son and daughter and to a friend's children, and

443
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,200
Speaker 1: his actual target was his one because he had taken

444
00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: out a forty dollar life insurance policy on him. His

445
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: distribution of the candy to other kids was to support

446
00:25:08,800 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 1: this story that somebody at one of the houses where

447
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:13,720
Speaker 1: where they'd stopped took or treating had given out the

448
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:18,119
Speaker 1: bad candy instead of him. He was found guilty in

449
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:21,199
Speaker 1: the investigation and he was sentenced to death. He was

450
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:24,640
Speaker 1: executed by lethal injection almost ten years after the murder

451
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 1: of his son in ur And this is one that

452
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,840
Speaker 1: is bad enough on its own, but when people retell

453
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,920
Speaker 1: the story. They often embellish it and they'll say exactly

454
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:37,440
Speaker 1: ten years later on Halloween, but now he was executed

455
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:40,399
Speaker 1: at a different time of year. But I've kind of

456
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:42,360
Speaker 1: feel like that one is bad enough on its own,

457
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:45,600
Speaker 1: you don't need to add, you know, a poignant timing

458
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 1: details to it. So, while there haven't actually been any

459
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 1: documented cases of like widespread distribution of tainted candy to

460
00:25:55,600 --> 00:26:01,440
Speaker 1: stranger children, you've myths persist and pair are understandably fearful,

461
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:04,640
Speaker 1: and you know that taking candy from people you don't

462
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 1: know is an inherently risky thing to do. But if

463
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: there is an upside to all of the fear surrounding

464
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:14,479
Speaker 1: potentially tainted candy, it's actually the benefit that it offers

465
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:18,600
Speaker 1: candy companies. So parents have become less suspicious of factory

466
00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 1: sealed candies and individually ramped these little smaller packages, uh

467
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 1: than they would be of homemade treats, which used to

468
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:26,080
Speaker 1: be a lot more common. I know when I was

469
00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:28,159
Speaker 1: trick or treating as a kid, we had neighbors that

470
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:32,200
Speaker 1: would make like popcorn balls, or we had um one

471
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,680
Speaker 1: neighbor that would give out she would do the little

472
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,040
Speaker 1: chocolate mold candies of her own. Like that would never

473
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 1: fly today unless you were going to like a specific

474
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,600
Speaker 1: friend's house for a party. You could not go to

475
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 1: a stranger's house and get a popcorn ball and probably

476
00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:48,880
Speaker 1: be allowed to eat it once you got home. Yeah.

477
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:50,880
Speaker 1: I remember my mom going through all of the Halloween

478
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 1: candy and throwing away anything that was suspicious to her,

479
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,359
Speaker 1: which was mostly stuff that was homemade. Um. Yeah, that

480
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 1: was even even after only trick or treating at always

481
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:04,639
Speaker 1: the people that we knew, you know, better safe than sorry.

482
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 1: I mean I kind of can't faulter for it. I

483
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,719
Speaker 1: really can't either. You know, she had your best interests

484
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:12,480
Speaker 1: in mind. She kids were safe. She also had some

485
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:14,639
Speaker 1: pretty strict rules about how much candy we could, Like

486
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:18,040
Speaker 1: we are the Halloween candy at our house usually lasted

487
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,240
Speaker 1: a really long time because it was sort of rationed

488
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:24,399
Speaker 1: and we'll be on in our house. It was like

489
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: a crazy, wild free for all at our house. We

490
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:31,200
Speaker 1: were very horrible. Um So yeah, that's sort of Halloween

491
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 1: candy through history. A lot of that's more modern history

492
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:35,480
Speaker 1: than we usually cover, but one of those things that

493
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:37,840
Speaker 1: we don't really get to kind of delve into. And

494
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:40,240
Speaker 1: it's the perfect time of year to play around with

495
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:45,640
Speaker 1: candy and sweets discussions, which I always love. So even

496
00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:48,399
Speaker 1: in some cities today, like I know, there are a

497
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:50,840
Speaker 1: few local police precincts and stuff that will sometimes do

498
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: like a candy inspection station on Halloween night, or you

499
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:55,639
Speaker 1: can go and have your candy X ray to make

500
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:59,359
Speaker 1: sure there's nothing dicey in it of a metal nature

501
00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 1: or anything. So those are still out there as safeguards,

502
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:05,560
Speaker 1: even though as we said, there haven't been any documented cases.

503
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:09,120
Speaker 1: If it makes parents feel better, I think that's great. Uh.

504
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,040
Speaker 1: And now I just want to go eat three pounds

505
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:15,640
Speaker 1: of candy corn, but I'm probably alone in that, so

506
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:20,200
Speaker 1: instead I will read some listener mail. This particular piece

507
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,840
Speaker 1: of listener mail is about our diatlow Pass episode and

508
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:26,919
Speaker 1: it is from our listener J And he said, Uh,

509
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:29,439
Speaker 1: I just listened to the diatlo of past episode. And

510
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:31,879
Speaker 1: since I am an r N and have an interest

511
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,639
Speaker 1: in wilderness and prehospital medicine, I would like to provide

512
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:38,040
Speaker 1: a little insight into paradoxical undressing. While it is true

513
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:42,200
Speaker 1: that hypothermia does cause confusion interrational behavior, the path of

514
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:46,200
Speaker 1: physiology of paradoxical and dressing is unique Basically, all the

515
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 1: temperature receptors and the human body are located on the surface.

516
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:52,520
Speaker 1: When you become hypothermic, your body shunts all the warm

517
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:55,480
Speaker 1: blood to its core to keep vital organs warm and functioning.

518
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:58,360
Speaker 1: When you're in the final stages of hypothermia and getting

519
00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 1: close to death, your body stops stricting the blood vessels

520
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 1: in the extremities hold that we are holding all the

521
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 1: blood in the core, and when this happens, the warm

522
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 1: blood is released into the extremities and surface of the body,

523
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 1: and your previously freezing temperature receptors are bathed in warmth.

524
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:17,239
Speaker 1: At this point, hypothermia victims are usually totally disoriented and

525
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 1: now feel like they are incredibly warm, so they take

526
00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 1: their clothes off to try to cool down. I just

527
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 1: wanted to point out that paradoxical undressing is not a

528
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,240
Speaker 1: result of just the standard confusion that hypothermia causes, but

529
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 1: instead has its own unique mechanism. It is unlikely that

530
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: the paradoxical undressing is something that would have happened to

531
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 1: a group that we're in a tent together with clothes

532
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: and sleeping bags. It's also unlikely they would have had

533
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:40,959
Speaker 1: the energy to run around and rip through tents if

534
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:43,280
Speaker 1: they had reached the stage of hypothermia. I was a

535
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:45,480
Speaker 1: little sad you didn't report what cycle the moon was

536
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 1: in at the time of these events, because I like

537
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:52,000
Speaker 1: the werewolf theory. Uh so in case I wasn't clear

538
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,600
Speaker 1: on like how that all played out. Uh The one

539
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: of the popular and sort of makes the most sense

540
00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:01,840
Speaker 1: opinions is that they were in the tent fine more

541
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 1: or less heard a noise that they perceived to be

542
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 1: potentially an avalanche and ran out, and it was once

543
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 1: they were outside that they developed hypothermia after they had

544
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 1: been out in the cold. We did get a lot

545
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 1: of people asking about the cycle of the moon, and

546
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:16,360
Speaker 1: I think we discovered that it was in fact a

547
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:19,480
Speaker 1: new moon and not a full moon's, so the werewolf

548
00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:22,200
Speaker 1: theory not so much. Someone did say that on our Facebook.

549
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 1: I have not confirmed it, but I just took their

550
00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:27,600
Speaker 1: word for it. Unless they were a magical reverse werewolf,

551
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 1: I did say that. That was my response one time

552
00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:32,880
Speaker 1: when somebody said it was a new mood. Uh. You know,

553
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 1: if vampires can sparkle, werewolves can come out at other times.

554
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 1: That's what I know. If you would like to write

555
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: us and share your thoughts on werewolves or hypothermia. You

556
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 1: can do that at History Podcast at household works dot com.

557
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:47,240
Speaker 1: You can also connect with us at Facebook dot com,

558
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: slash missed in History, on Twitter at miss in History,

559
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:53,640
Speaker 1: at misst in history dot tumbler dot com, at pinterest

560
00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 1: dot com slash misst in history. And you can visit

561
00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:00,160
Speaker 1: the spreadshirt store at misston history dot spreadshirt dot com

562
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: and get fun and exciting missed in History garments and

563
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 1: bags and mugs and all kinds of other goodies if

564
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:09,480
Speaker 1: you would like to do so. If you want to

565
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:11,600
Speaker 1: learn a little bit more about what we talked about today,

566
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:13,280
Speaker 1: you can go to our parent website, which is how

567
00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. Type in the words trigger treat in the

568
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:17,600
Speaker 1: search bar and you will get an article called why

569
00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: do we trick or treat? And it will talk a

570
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:23,360
Speaker 1: little bit about that historical precursors to trick or treating

571
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:26,239
Speaker 1: that we did not talk about today. Uh. And you

572
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 1: can also visit us at our home website, which is

573
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 1: missed in history dot com, where you will find show notes,

574
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 1: all of our episodes, archives, the occasional also blog posts

575
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:37,520
Speaker 1: usually from Tracy because she kicks but and a number

576
00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:39,120
Speaker 1: of other things. You can also look at our pretty

577
00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: pictures that we have associated with all of our article uh.

578
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:43,920
Speaker 1: If you would like to do that, you absolutely should

579
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:45,520
Speaker 1: visit miss in history dot com. If you want to

580
00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:48,560
Speaker 1: research almost anything else that's maybe outside the purview of history,

581
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 1: go to our parents site and research there. That's how

582
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands

583
00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 1: of other topics, because it has to works dot com.

584
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 1: But the foot in the d