10 Of The Worst Crimes In Halloween History

Forget about Michael Myers – throughout history real-life people have taken the term “Devil’s Night” to a literal extreme.

Probably the most famous, and certainly one of the most heartbreaking crimes in Halloween history is the murder of 8-year old Timothy O’Bryan. On October 31, 1974, his father, Ronald O’Bryan, laced his Halloween candy with potassium cyanide, killing him. Nothing like this had ever happened before – Halloween safety campaigns launched soon after, teaching parents to inspect their kid’s candy.

Sadly the danger doesn’t stop at tainted candy. From gang shootings and kidnappings to brutal rapes and gruesome murders, people have committed some truly horrendous acts between Devil’s Night and Halloween.

1. The Murders Of Ronald Sisman And Elizabeth Platzman

Smith Collage honor student, Elizabeth Platzman (20), and photographer Ronald Sisman (39), were murdered on Halloween night, 1981. Unknown assailants broke into Sisman’s apartment, tore the place apart and killed the two occupants. They were severely beaten and shot execution-style.

Ronald Sisman was rumored to be involved with drugs. So naturally, authorities assumed a deal must have gone bad. But then things got a little creepy…

This crime had already been predicted by an inmate a week prior. The man bragged to a fellow inmate that a ritualistic murder would be committed in Greenwich Village on Halloween by his former cult-members. 

Who was this inmate that knew more about this heinous crime than investigators? It was none other than the notorious “Son of Sam” killer, David Berkowitz. Police always suspected that Berkowitz could’ve had help committing the series of murders in 1976. They also felt he’d been heavily involved with a Satanic cult. This gave even more validation to those suspicions.

Berkowitz revealed details of the crime, the apartment, and gave a possible motive when interviewed by police. Sisman apparently had snuff footage of one of the “Son of Sam” shootings. He allegedly planned to hand it over to authorities to get out of drug charges. So the cult killed the couple and trashed the place looking for it. There was never any solid evidence to support Berkowitz’s claims. But there wasn’t evidence to refute them either. The case remains unsolved.

2. Liske Family Murders

In 2010, Halloween night the Liske family was brutally slain in their Ohio home. Teenager Devon Griffin came home from Sunday church services to find “something out of a haunted house” was all Devon could muster up to describe what he walked into.  

His mother Susan had been raped and shot three times. His brother Derek was bludgeoned to death with a claw hammer, His new stepfather, William Liske, had been shot five times.

Police found the killer was William Liske’s biological son from a previous marriage, William Liske Jr. He had a history of violence and was suffering from schizophrenia and apparent rage towards his father’s new family.

Liske plead guilty and apologized for the three murders. He went on to blame Satan and mental illness for his actions. He ended up committing suicide in 2015 while in prison.

3. The Murder Of Nima Louise Carter

Halloween night of 1977, 19-month-old Nima Louise Carter disappeared from her Lawton, Oklahoma home. The next morning, Nima’s parents discover her crib was empty despite the locked bedroom windows and secured house. There was no sign of forced entry anywhere in the house, police were baffled. All they could come up with was that someone must have snuck in earlier and hid in the closet until nightfall, taking Nima and letting themselves out after everyone fell asleep. About a month later, a group of kids made a gruesome discovery about four blocks away from the Carter’s home while playing in an abandoned house. They opened up an old refrigerator, and the decomposed body of little Nima Louise Carter fell out, she died of suffocation.

A similar crime happened a year prior, a pair of three-year-old twin sisters. Mary and Tina Carpitcher were lured from their home and locked inside of a refrigerator in a different abandoned house. They were found two days later. Tragically, Mary had suffocated, but Tina survived and identified Jacqueline Roubideaux – a teenage babysitter in the area – as the person who locked them in.

However, Tina’s age made her testimony unreliable and there wasn’t enough physical evidence so Jacqueline Roubideaux remained free and eventually became Nima Louise Carter’s babysitter. Those old accusations made her the main suspect in Nima’s disappearance.

It wasn’t until June of 1983 that Roubideaux was finally charged with murder in the first degree and sentenced to life in prison. She never did confess to murdering Nima Louise. Her repeated appeals were denied and she died of liver cancer in prison in 2005.

4. Murder of Tony Bagley

Halloween night in 1994, 7-year-old Tony Bagley dressed up as a skeleton and went trick-or-treating in his Las Vegas neighborhood. Along with him was his 10-year-old sister, their mother, and their aunt. As they were walking down the street a man in a hoodie ran up to them and starting shooting, then jumped into a waiting car.

Tony was shot in the head and died, his sister required massive surgery and had part of her liver removed but thankfully lived. His aunt was shot in the leg, his mother in the chest – they both lived as well. It was believed the shooting could have been an act of revenge against Tony’s father over a drug deal gone bad.

Anthony Bagley, Tony’s father, was arrested and convicted of murder several years later. He has never revealed whether he knows who could have been responsible for his son’s death.

The case remains unsolved but certainly not from a lack of trying. The heartbreaking mystery has attracted a lot of attention of the years. Including Crime writer Cathy Scott, the show ‘America’s Most Wanted’, and even a psychic was consulted by police in hopes of solving the case. Sadly, national exposure, an in-depth investigation, and even turning to the supernatural for insight hasn’t rendered any new leads.

Anyone with information that could help solve this case is encouraged to call the North Las Vegas Police Department at: (702) 633-9111.

5. The Murder of “Orange Socks”

On Halloween in 1979, the unidentified body of a woman in her twenties was discovered along the interstate just outside of Georgetown, Texas. The victim was found wearing nothing but a pair of orange socks. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

It was 40-years after her death that “Orange Socks” was was finally identified as 23-year old Debra Jackson. An updated artistic rendering created by forensic artist Natalie Murry, caught the eye of Jackson’s sister. She contacted the sheriff’s office and a DNA test performed in August of 2019 confirmed her suspicions. But who killed her?

Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to the murder of “Orange Socks.” He claimed he picked her up while she was hitchhiking in Oklahoma and that her name was Joanie or Judy (he couldn’t quite remember). He also claimed to of had sex with her after she was already dead. He was sentenced to death in 1984, but recanted his confession to have his sentence commuted to life in prison.

Lucas recanted almost all of his confessions while serving six life terms, two 75-year sentences and one 60-year sentence.

He had a habit of derailing investigations by confessing to murders he didn’t commit. In fact, he confessed to killing 600 people across 20 states back in the 1980s. He claimed to have committed some on his own and others with the help of fellow serial killer and his occasional lover, Ottis Toole. It’s uncertain if Lucas really killed Debra Jackson – no one knows how many victims he actually had before his own death in 2001.

6. The Walker County Jane Doe

The morning of November 1, 1980, revealed the body of an unidentified teenage girl. Found right off Interstate 45 just outside of Huntsville in Walker County, Texas. The last time she’d been seen alive was Halloween night. It was exactly one year after “Orange Socks” was found in the area, and the circumstances were eerily similar.

This young girl had also been sexually assaulted, beaten, and strangled. She was also an out-of-towner that authorities couldn’t identify: she became known as the “Walker County Jane Doe.” 

Witnesses reported seeing the girl dropped off by a man at the South End Gulf station on Halloween. She had asked numerous people for directions to the Ellis Unit Prison so she could visit a friend, but no one at the prison admitted to knowing her. A truck stop waitress said the girl claimed to be 19 years old, from the Aransas Pass area, with parents that didn’t care about her. That’s all anyone ever knew about this girl. The Walker County Jane Doe remains unidentified and her death, unsolved.

7. The Woodbridge Abductions

Halloween of 2009 was a living nightmare for three teenage girls in Woodbridge, Virginia. They were abducted at gunpoint while heading home from trick-or-treating.

Two of the girls were sexually assaulted, the third was able to get a call out to her mother while the attacker was distracted. Once he realized she had gotten through to someone, he ran off.

Two years later, Aaron Thomas was arrested as a suspect in a series of rapes tracing back to 1997. Thomas ended up pleading guilty to the string of sexual assaults as well as the kidnappings and rapes of those three teenage girls on Halloween in 2009. 

8. Pasadena Gang Shootings

Five members of the Bloods gang in Pasadena, decided to open fire on a group of kids on Halloween of 1993. The six friends were simply returning home from a party when the gang started shooting at them.

Three of the kids suffered injuries and the other three, Edgar Evans (13), Stephen Coats Jr. (14) and Reggie Crawford (14), were killed. Police quickly apprehended the gang members and soon discovered the kids were not even the intended targets. They shot the wrong group of kids. 

Lorenzo Alex Newborn (25), Karl Holmes (20), and Herbert Charles McClain Jr.(26) were found guilty and sentenced to death.

9. The Murder of Martha Moxley

On ‘Devil’s Night’’ of 1975, a Connecticut teenager named Martha Moxley headed out to a Halloween party in her neighborhood. Her body was discovered the next morning beneath a tree in her backyard.

The young girl had been brutally beaten to death with a golf club. The iron shaft of the club shattered during the assault and a jagged shard from it had been stabbed through her throat. Police later connected the pricy murder weapon to the Skakel’s residence. The Skakel brothers, Michael (15-years old) and Tommy (17-years old) were both with Martha on Halloween night.

It took 25-years for Michael Skakel to finally be charged and convicted of her murder – even though his DNA was found on Martha’s body. Michael claimed he had gone to that tree earlier in the night to masturbate and that’s why his semen was there.

Michael Skakel also just so happened to be a nephew to Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, which has a lot to do with the delay in his arrest. The Skakel family stopped cooperating with police early in 1976, and Michael spent most of his life ushered in and out of rehabs. He allegedly confessed to the murder during treatment at one of these facilities. Skakel remained behind bars for over a decade despite numerous appeals and the support of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 

Skakel was granted a new trial and was released on a $1.2 million bond on November 21, 2013. He is monitored with a GPS device and cannot have contact with the Moxley family, or leave the state of Connecticut unless granted permission.

10. Murder of Peter Fabiano

It was Halloween night, 1957, when Los Angeles hair stylist Peter Fabiano made the fatal mistake of opening his front door. What he thought was a trick-or-treater, was a costumed adult with a .22 concealed in a brown paper bag. The unknown assailant shot Fabiano in the chest and quickly fled the scene. 

Goldyne Pizer and Joan Rabel were arrested for the murder. The motive ended up being a confusing web of lesbian romance and jealousy. Pizer and Rabel were friends and believed to be romantically involved. As it turns out Rabel was also in love Fabiano’s wife, Betty Fabiano. The two women decided to get rid of the man between the three of them. They decided this without asking Betty if she even wanted to be with either of them. Rabel bought the gun and Pizer shot Peter – both women pleaded guilty to the murder. Needless to say, Rabel didn’t get her happily ever after with Betty.

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