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Killers Who Mimic Films and Horror Legends



Remember that kid you knew in high school who loved to follow up any horror movie viewing session with a claim about how he “totally knew someone that actually happened to”? The odds are high that your old classmate was just making up stuff for attention (I mean, he had to, what with the way everyone was always refusing to listen to his demo tape and all!). But he actually wasn’t that far off the mark about the sometimes twisty, reality-bending relationship between horror myth and horrific reality because not only are many popular horror tales based on true stories – some of them end up inspiring new true stories, too.



Of course, the fact some people claim that horror stories inspired them to engage in actual violence doesn’t mean horror fiction is dangerous. It’s important to remember there is no film, TV show, story or other piece of art that actually “makes” anyone kill or injure others. (If you want proof, recall that Charles Manson claimed he was inspired to plan multiple brutal murders after listening to the Beatles.) For most of us, horror movies and legends provide a safe cultural space to confront our anxieties and fears and also a good excuse to grab our best girl or guy’s arm and then be all “Oh, I didn’t even notice I did that!” And the fact millions of people have heard these stories and managed not to kill anyone is a strong argument that scary stories don’t drive people to commit crimes, no matter what some cultural commentators would have us believe. But, with all this noted, it can still be fascinating to untangle the web where creepy fantasy meets nightmarish reality. With this in mind, check out the following crimes supposedly inspired by scary movies or urban myth:



Dangerous Halloween Candy. The Story: In this urban legend, evil people consider Halloween the perfect time to kill some kids without getting caught – by poisoning, or inserting sharp objects such as razor blades into the candy they pass out to trick-or-treaters. This is the reason many kids had to turn over all their candy to their parents on Halloween, who always seemed to mysteriously “misplace” half of it before returning it to their kids. The Reality: It all started on Halloween 1964, when a woman by the name of Helen Phiel of Greenwood, Long Island, New York, added arsenic to the treats she handed out to three teenage girls because she thought they were too old to be trick-or-treating.



The three New York girls didn’t eat the candy and no one was injured, but the second poisoning incident resulted in the death of an 8-year-old boy. In 1974, Ronald Clark O’Bryan (above) of Deer Park, Texas, took out $20,000 life insurance policies on both his son and daughter, Timothy and Elizabeth. He then laced Pixy Stix (tubes of powdered sugar candy) with cyanide to do away with his children and collect the $40,000 (equivalent to around $200,000 today). To avoid suspicion, O’Bryan waited until Halloween so it would appear his children were the victims of a random candy-poisoning maniac. To convince investigators there was a mad poisoner in the neighborhood where he took his kids trick-or-treating that night, O’Bryan also handed out poisoned candy to two other children, however, Elizabeth and the other kids opted to save their Pixy Stix for later. Timothy ate the poisoned treat, began vomiting and convulsing and died a horrible death. Apparently, O’Bryan was a gullible sort who actually believed the news media hype about people tampering with Halloween candy and assumed the practice was fairly common. He was wrong. O’Bryan was swiftly caught, tried, convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in March 1984.



So far as is known, there has been just one actual recorded incident of a stranger inserting pins and needles into Halloween candy. In 2000, James Joseph Smith, 49, of Minneapolis was charged with one count of adulterating a substance with intent to cause death, harm or illness after handing out Snickers bars in which he had inserted needles. One 14-year-old boy suffered a slight prick to his mouth, but no one was seriously injured or killed.



Natural Born Killers. The Story: In this extremely controversial 1994 film, a young man and woman go on a road trip that becomes a cross-country murder spree. The Reality: This one gets a little confusing. This film was actually loosely based on true events inspired by the real-life 1958 murder spree involving Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. (Starkweather’s crimes also inspired the classy Terence Malick film Badlands and the excellent Bruce Springsteen song “Nebraska.”) However, this didn’t stop people from blaming the film for a number of crimes in the decade that followed its release.



But the farthest anyone went in blaming the film for a real-life crime came in 1995, when teen criminals Sarah Edmondson and James Barras killed one person and injured another while on a multi-city road trip. Edmonson and Barras claimed, like many others, to have been inspired by the film, which they watched in a cabin in Muskogee, Oklahoma, several days before committing their crimes. Patsy Byers, who was shot by Edmondson, but survived, filed a lawsuit against Natural Born Killers director Oliver Stone and Time Warner, claiming the film was an incitement to violence. Byers found support from author John Grisham, who had been a friend of William Savage, the man murdered by Barras. The case bounced in and out of court for nearly a decade before it was determined that Stone’s rights as an artist were protected by the First Amendment.



Interview with the Vampire. The Story: In this 1994 film (based on the 1976 Anne Rice novel of the same name), two men and a little girl are immortal vampires, drink people’s blood and wear white pancake makeup (not necessarily in that order). The Reality: Daniel Stirling of San Francisco saw Interview with the Vampire in the theater with his girlfriend, Lisa Stellwagen November 17th, 1994. The following morning, when Stellwagen asked Stirling why he was distracted, he told her he was going to “kill [her] and drink [her] blood.” Stellwagen blew off the comment, but that evening, Stirling stabbed Stellwagen seven times and drank her blood; Stellwagen was able to stop the attack by convincing Stirling he would go to jail if she died. Stirling went to jail anyway, telling the Los Angeles Times soon after his arrest: “I was influenced by the movie. I enjoyed the movie ... but I cannot sit here and blame the movie.” Luckily, a jury agreed – despite his lawyer’s contentions the film incited Stirling to violence – and found him guilty of attempted first degree murder. “It was an obvious case of domestic violence,” juror Dina Dimopoulous told the San Francisco Gate.



‘Slenderman.’ The Story: According to this internet-based myth created by Eric Knudsen in 2009, Slenderman is a faceless, tentacle-armed villain who stalks and spies on his victims and can eventually drive them to madness. The Reality: In May 2014, two 12-year-old girls in Waukesha, Wisconsin, lured a third 12-year-old girl to some woods near where they lived. The two girls then turned on the third and stabbed her 19 times. The victim survived, and was able to crawl to safety after her attackers left. Once apprehended, the girls told police they had tried to murder their classmate so they could become closer to Slenderman, whom they believed would accept them and allow them to live with him if they killed on his behalf.





Scream. The Story: In this cult 1996 horror film, a small town in California is menaced by a killer who seems hyper-aware of the genre rules that govern horror films. The Reality: Though Belgian murderer Thierry Jaradin claimed to have been inspired by the film to murder 15-year-old Alisson Cambier in 2001, Jaradin’s assault was not exactly a copycat crime. He simply donned a black tunic and ghoulish mask (above) like that of the killer before stabbing Cambier to death. He then immediately called his family and confessed.



While some psychologists argue that violent media may cause real world aggression, no one has argued that scary stories are a threat to public safety. No film or story made these people kill, or attempt to kill. Scary stories – like guns – don’t kill people, people kill people.



Sources: Gabrielle Moss, Bustle, October 15, 2015; Matt Bartosik, WMAQ, July 16, 2009; and State of Texas v. Ronald Clark O'Bryan.

