By Austin Price, Editor in Chief
Warning: This article contains descriptions of violence, sexual assault, torture, murder, and child abuse. Reader discretion is advised.
As you’ve probably noticed in my Spooky Stories Series throughout these past few weeks, I love Halloween. I am obsessed with Halloween. It is my favorite holiday, and it happens during my favorite time of the year, fall. It is the event that surrounds some of my favorite childhood memories. And to say it outright, it’s one heck of a holiday. Halloween is the only holiday that lets you be creepy, selfish, and allows you to tap into your inner spooky self. So yes, I love Halloween.
I also love true crime. I love learning the nitty, gritty details of some of the most horrific cases in history. I love studying the twisted mentality of the world's most prolific criminals. I love hearing the court cases, the testimonies, the denials, and the confessions. I love discovering the final verdict, that seals the fate of the villains of society.
Before we continue, I know that’s a lot of dark stuff. And yes, I am a rather dark person. Not in a bad, potential serial killer way, but more of a wannabe Wednesday Adams way. While I terrify my relatives and worry my therapist, I assure you, I’m fine. I’m sure some of you readers share this same niche interest and if not, you might after reading this article.
Because of my love of Halloween haunts and tales of true crime, I decided that the best way to combine these two passions was to tell you the stories of some of the most unbelievably gruesome, shockingly vile, and disturbingly true crimes that take place during my favorite day of the year, October 31st
The Toolbox Killers Halloween Murder
On October 31st, 1979, 16-year-old Shirley Lennette Ledford, was leaving a Halloween party when she was hitchhiking and picked up by a dingy van belonging to Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris. This deadly duo was known as the Toolbox Killers, whose main practice was picking up female hitchhikers in the 1970s and then torturing them with toolbox tools. They committed the kidnapping, rape, torture, and the murder of five teenage girls in southern California over a five-month long period.
Shirley was the 5th and final victim of Bittaker and Norris. She was held captive for nearly 2 hours in which she experienced a night of brutal torture, sexual assault, intense bodily beatings, and verbal abuse. Shirley died through strangulation by a wire coat hanger and her body was left on a front lawn and was discovered by a jogger the next morning.
The Candyman Murder
On Halloween night of 1974, Timothy O’Bryan, an 8-year-old Trick or Treater returned to his home in Houston Texas, after a night of candy collecting. Upon returning home, Timothy’s father, Ronald, gave him the popular candy called a Pixy Stix. Seconds after enjoying this tasty, and seemingly innocent treat, Timothy began to vomit, and died on the way to the hospital. According to Alabama Bio Clean, “Police would later learn that Ronald had poisoned the candy with cyanide to collect a life insurance policy to pay off his debts.”
Timothy’s father, Ronald Clark O'Bryan, was nicknamed The Candy Man and The Man Who Killed Halloween. Using a potassium cyanide-laced Pixy Stix, his motive was to murder his son and claim the life insurance money to ease his own financial troubles, as he was $100,000 in debt. In a desperate attempt to cover his tracks, O'Bryan distributed poisoned candy to his other child, Elizabeth, and three other children to cover up his crime. However, his plan failed when neither his daughter nor the other children ate the poisoned candy.
The Last Trick or Treater
Peter Fabiano and his wife, Betty, had gone to bed on Halloween night in 1957 believing that they were finished with trick-or-treaters. However, the last, late-night visitor was seeking more tricks than treats. Upon hearing the doorbell ring, Peter got up from bed, grabbed the nearly empty candy bowl, and walked to the front door. Peter opened the door, and the ultimate trick was played. On his doorstep stood a woman wearing a mask who raised a gun and shot him in the chest, killing him instantly.
According to Vice.com, “Betty Fabiano found her husband with a bullet lodged just below his heart. Judy Solomon, Betty's 15-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, called the police. Peter was rushed to a nearby hospital, but he never woke up.”
Upon further investigation, the police discovered Goldyne Pizer was the murderer. Goldyne Pizer, a 43-year-old widow, admitted to the killing when arrested at her home. She said a friend of hers, 40-year-old Joan Rabel, a former employee at one of Fabiano’s beauty shops, talked her into committing the crime. Friends for four years, Goldyne and Joan planned the murder for three months. The motive behind the murder was that Peter stood in the way of Joan’s plan to pursue a romantic relationship with his wife, Betty.
A Halloween House of Horrors
On October 31st, 2010, Devon Griffin discovered a gruesome scene that he initially believed to be a Halloween prank. Upon entering his home in Martin, Ohio, Devon found his mother, 46-year-old Susan Liske, stepfather, 53-year-old William/Bill Liske & brother, 23-year-old Derek Griffin, brutally murdered. According to CrimeandCoffeeCouple.com, “A preliminary exam by the coroner determined that the deaths had been a result of either a gunshot or a blunt object; obvious trauma was found to all the victim’s heads. There were no signs of a struggle & it was suspected that they had been murdered as they slept, completely unaware of the danger they were in.”
Through later investigations, police found that William Liske Jr, who the family called “BJ,” was the murderer of his own parents and siblings. The motive behind BJ’s murders is connected to his multitude of mental illnesses. By 2007, BJ had been hospitalized for bipolar schizoaffective disorder. BJ received treatment through in-patient therapy and medications and was stable when using a combination of the two. BJ went through spurts of rebellion when he refused to continue his treatment plan, and he would start drinking & smoking pot instead, causing the adverse effects and spiraling his mental health.
The Slaying of a Sister
On the morning of October 31, 1981, 76-year-old Sister Tadea Benz was raped, strangled, and killed. Sister Tadea Benz was a Catholic nun, living in the St. Francis Convent in Amarillo, Texas. Her murderer had a substantial age difference between himself and his victim.
Johnny Frank Garrett was accused of murdering a Catholic nun who lived across the street from him. Johnny was only 17 years old as he brutally raped and murdered a woman nearly 60 years older than him. On November 9, 1981, Garrett, who lived across the street from the convent, was arrested and charged with murder. Johnny was eventually executed at age 28 at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, also known as the Huntsville Unit on February 11, 1992, by lethal injection.