Read About These 7 Halloween Homicides for a Dose of Horror

What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you on Halloween?

Since you're still able to read this, the chances are that these folk fared worse. Check behind you, then take a look at these seven Samhain slayings...

• The Priest, the Prostitute and the Pocketed Candy
• The Nun, the Psychic and a Condemned Man's Curse
• Bumping into Bundy
• The Halloween Party Shooting That Seemed Like a Prank
• The Last Victim of the Toolbox Killers
• The Man Who Killed Halloween
• The Brainwashed Lesbian Trick-or-Treat Vigilante

The Priest, the Prostitute and the Pocketed Candy

Squabbling over sweets on Halloween is the kind of thing you'd expect to see in young children - but in 2011, 49 year old Maria Adams and 55 year old Ledell Peoples got into a lethal fight over candy. If that wasn't strange enough, court documents indicate that Ledell was an ordained minister and that Maria was a prostitute.

It seems that Ledell had discovered "missing candy" in a coat owned by Maria, leading to first an argument and then an outright brawl between the two. Maria gave Ledell a cut over the eye when she hurled a plate at him - and in response, the minister picked up a knife and stabbed her.

Ledell was initially charged with attempted murder and aggravated domestic battery, but the charges were amended to first-degree murder when Maria succumbed to her injuries in hospital. The "ordained minister" was found guilty and subsequently lost his appeal.

The Nun, the Psychic and a Condemned Man's Curse

In 1981 the nuns of the St. Francis Convent in Amarillo, Texas awoke to find one of their number dead. 76 year old sister Tadea Benz had succumbed overnight and was sent off to a funeral home - despite having some blood on her face.

Around an hour later, the other sisters discovered the signs of a break in. The police were called, finding a steak knife under the bed and a second blade in the convent driveway. Preparations had already begun at the funeral home, but the corpse still had signs of multiple stab wounds, contusions and signs of strangulation.

The evidence all pointed towards 17 year old Johnny Frank Garrett. Eyewitness accounts claimed that he had been seen fleeing from the convent, his prints and pubic hair were found on the scene and a knife from the same range as those used in the murder was found in his residence. As well as the physical evidence, a local self-styled clairvoyant going by the name of "Bubbles" placed him at the scene of the crime.

This was enough for a jury to convict and put him on death row. Despite a request for reprieve by Pope John Paul II, Garret was executed via lethal injection at the age of 28.

There are some questions one can ask about the fairness of the trial. Garret was mentally handicapped and allegedly came from an abusive background... something that might have led him to make false statements under the duress of interrogation.

Garret went to his death proclaiming his innocence - and other people have suggested that Leoncio Perez Rueda (jailed for the rape and murder of another woman) might have been the real culprit. Garret left a letter cursing those who'd rushed to judge him, while his last words (allegedly) were “I’d like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me - the rest of the world can kiss my ass.”

Bumping into Bundy

A chance meeting with a serial killer on Halloween sounds like the plot of a low budget movie, but as this (and a case further down) shows, it really does happen.

17 year old Laura Aime left a 1974 Halloween party to buy cigarettes... and vanished without a trace. Roughly a month later, her remains were found near the American Fork Canyon road in Utah.

It was pretty clear that this was no accidental death. Aime had been dropped partway down an embankment, was nude apart from a nylon stocking around her neck and showed signs of being battered. To make matters worse, she had only been dead for around a week... suggesting that she had been held captive for the rest of that time.

Police quickly realized she had become the victim of a serial killer operating in the area. Several other girls went missing in the same period, including Nancy Wilcox, Debi Kent and Melissa Smith (who also seemed to have been held captive and was found with a stocking around her neck.)

A tip-off from an ex-girlfriend brought the name Ted Bundy to the attention of investigators. Bundy eventually confessed to 28 murders (though he may have been behind many more) and died in the electric chair during 1989.

The Halloween Party Shooting That Seemed Like a Prank

In 1967 Kenneth A. Lindstrand was attending a Halloween party in the Valley Country Club Apartments in San Fernando Valley. He'd turned up in the early hours of the morning with no costume, danced with some of the female guests and then became engaged in conversation another un-costumed man on the outskirts of the gathering.

Shortly afterwards, Lindstrad ran back into the party pursued by another man... who brandished and fired a .38 revolver at his quarry.

There were tons of witnesses, but most of them thought it was a prank. Supposedly a girl wearing a hula skirt started dancing over the fallen Lindstrand while exclaiming that this would "wake him up" though she lost her high spirits when blood started pooling beneath her feet.

Jack Gentry Stearns was eventually accused of the murder, but the trial was hampered by an unfairly constructed lineup during the investigation. It seems that Stearns eventually took a plea deal - and that his motive may have been jealousy after he saw Lindstrand dancing with his girlfriend!

The Last Victim of the Toolbox Killers

On the Halloween of 1979, 18 year old Shirley Ledford accepted a lift from a pair of men as she hitchhiked home from work. This turned out to be far from a helpful ride - the duo were the serial murderers Roy Lewis Norris and Lawrence Sigmond Bittaker, AKA the Toolbox Killers.

After driving away from potential witnesses, the pair took turns to assault and torture Ledford before strangling her to death with a coat hangar. As if this wasn't enough, the pair decided to leave her body in someone's front yard - they hoped to see the body in the newspapers.

Ledford turned out to be the last of their five victims. Police acted after receiving a tip-off about the pair's activities and eventually uncovered a trove of evidence... including audio recordings of the crimes taken by the killers. Also brought up at trial was the fact that Bittaker had started writing a book containing detailed accounts of some of the murders.

Both the killers eventually died of natural causes in prison.

The Man Who Killed Halloween

In 1974, 8 year old Timothy O'Bryan returned from trick or treating with his father and sister. They'd had a fair amount of success, but Timothy was only allowed one item from his haul before bed - he chose a Pixy Stix candy.

His father Ronald Clark O'Bryan later said that Timothy had complained the sweet tasted bitter and drank some Kool-Aid to wash away the taste. Within an hour, he was dead.

Medical testing revealed the boy had died from potassium cyanide poisoning - and the Pixy Stix seemed like the source. Five sticks had been given out, Timothy had eaten one, three of the trick-or-treaters had held on to theirs and the fifth... well, it was found in the hands of a sleeping child who hadn't quite managed to break through the packaging.

It turned out that the tops of the sticks had been opened, some of the contents replaced with potassium cyanide granules and the packaging resealed. Fortunately O'Bryan remembered the man who'd handed out the Stix... or so he claimed.

O'Bryan's story started coming apart when the suspect turned out to have been working at the airport, with his house being empty that night. Further investigation revealed that O'Bryan was heavily in debt and had just taken out big life insurance policies on both of his children. He'd also been asking a chemical salesman a lot of questions about poisons.

Though O'Bryan pled innocent, it took a jury less than an hour to find him guilty. He was executed by lethal injection in 1984.

The Brainwashed Lesbian Trick-or-Treat Vigilante

Aside from sounding like a pulp magazine story, this has to be one of the weirdest Halloween murders that's ever happened.

Late on the Halloween of 1957, Peter Fabiano opened the door to a trick or treater. Though a visitor at that hour was surprising, I'd imagine that the bullet ripping through the treat bag and lodging beneath his heart was a bigger one.

Fabiano owned and ran a pair of beauty salons in Los Angeles with his wife Betty. The marriage had had a few rough patches, with Betty even moving in with Joan Rabel (a former employee of Fabiano) for a stint. Papers of the time were rather coy about the nature of the relationship between the two women, but Rabel was a lesbian - and she didn't take it well when Betty and Peter patched things up.

Rabel decided that things would be better if Fabiano left the picture for good. She seduced a rather naive woman named Goldyne Pizer, then convinced her that Peter was an evil man that needed to be killed.

Having brainwashed the Pizer with fabricated tales of Peter's misdeeds, Rabel dressed her in a costume and drove her to the Fabiano house on Halloween evening. When the lights went out, Rabel sent Pizer to the door... where the "trick or treater" blasted Peter with a .38 revolver.

The mastermind and killer sped off, burned their clothing and parted ways. It could have been the perfect (if utterly deranged) crime... but police discovered the .38 in a locker hired by Pizer in Downtown Los Angeles. Found guilty, the pair were sentenced to 5 years each.

Perhaps the judge and prosecutor were taken aback by the surreal circumstances of the crime, as this doesn't sound like a heavy sentence for premeditated murder!

Thanks for reading - perhaps you'd also be interested in...

• Burke and Hare: Anatomy Murderers on Vocal
• Wolf, Monster or Murderer: The Beast of Gévaudan on Vocal

Sources and Further Info:

• People v. Peoples
• Johnny Frank Garrett, Petitioner-appellant, v. James A. Lynaugh, Director, Texas Department of Corrections
• Dead Man’s Curse
• Remains identified as missing girl Laura Ann Aime
• Los Angeles's Dark, Strange History of Trick-Or-Treat Murders
• People v. Stearns
• People v. Bittaker (1989)
• Halloween death planned for convicted candy killer
• Candy Man's legacy still haunting today
• Beauty Shop Owner's Mate Slain at Door
• Mystery "Caller" Kills Man Answering Bell