10 of the scariest news stories to creep you out for Halloween
1. The real-life Candy Man
Every Halloween, there are horror tales of children being given sweets laced with needles, broken glass or razor blades — but only once has a child actually been killed by tainted candy.
Eight-year-old Timothy O’Bryan died after eating a Pixty Stix, which turned out to be packed with enough cyanide to kill two people.
It was given to him by his father Ronald, who did it so he could claim life insurance money to pay off his $100,000 debts.
Nicknamed The Candy Man or The Man Who Killed Halloween, O’Bryan was convicted of murder in 1975 and executed by lethal injection nine years later.
2. The girl in the water tank
To this day no one really knows what happened to 21-year-old Elisa Lam, who went missing in LA on January 31, 2013.
She was last seen acting strangely in a lift at the Cecil Hotel, which was notorious for murders, suicides and paranormal activity.
In CCTV footage released by police, Elisa appears to be trying to run away from someone, but no one else is seen in the video.
Her body was found 19 days later in the water tank on the roof of the hotel, after residents complained about strange tasting, black water.
The events around Elisa’s death are said to have been the inspiration for the American Horror Story series ‘Hotel’.
3. Slain zombie
Taylor Van Diest was dressed as a zombie when she was beaten unconscious as she walked to a party in the town of Armstrong in British Columbia, Canada, on Halloween night 2011.
The 18-year-old died in hospital the next morning — and the last text she sent her boyfriend was she felt she was being “creeped on”.
Police caught Taylor’s killer, Matthew Foerster, using DNA found under her fingernails and he was later jailed for life.
4. The toolbox killers
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris were known as the ‘Toolbox Killers’ because they liked to torture their victims with household tools.
They preyed on teenage girls in the LA area and their fifth and final victim was killed on Halloween night 1979.
Sixteen-year-old Shirley Ledford was hitchhiking home from a party when the pair picked her up in their van, which they called ‘Murder Mack’.
She was raped, murdered, and her body left on the lawn on a house in the suburbs.
Her killers were caught after Norris bragged to an old prison friend about his murderous crime spree.
5. Killer clowns
The ‘killer clown’ craze began in America in 2016 and made its way across the pond, where there since have been several sightings, especially around Halloween.
Culprits wearing scary clown masks, inspired by Stephen King’s Pennywise character in the IT films, have attacked and threatened people.
Last year, a man became the first to be jailed for such an offence in the UK after chasing a pregnant woman with an axe while dressed as a clown.
6. The black-eyed children
So-called ‘black-eyed children’ are said to have been spotted around Cannock Chase — an area of countryside in Staffordshire notorious for paranormal sightings — since the 1980s.
Recently, one woman claimed she heard the screams of a child and saw a girl with her hands covering her eyes. When she took them away, her eyes were completely black and then she vanished.
Similar sightings of youngsters with no whites in their eyes have been reported all over the world.
7. The most haunted house in the UK (and possibly Europe)
Ham House in Richmond, south-east London, is thought to be haunted by around 30 ghosts, including that of the Duchess of Lauderdale, who built the house in the 17th century.
If you stand on the third step of the Great Stairs too long you are likely to feel a “short, sharp shove” from the ghost of the Duchess, who is said to still believe the house is hers.
Other ghosts spotted at the National Trust property include the Duchess’ maids, who can apparently walk through walls, and her King Charles Spaniel, whose bones are on display in the house.
8. Cannibal rats
Remember the ghost ship carrying disease-ridden rats who started eating themselves to survive?
The abandoned ship, which broke free from a Canadian harbour during a storm in 2013, drifted across the Atlantic for the best part of a year.
At one point there were fears the cannibal rats would reach British shores, but experts now believe the ill-fated ship has sunk.
9. Vampire fish
In 2015, residents in Alaska got a shock when it started raining ‘vampire fish’.
The foot-long Arctic lampreys, which look more like eels and have five rows of sharp teeth, began falling from the sky.
After a fair bit of head-scratching, experts came to the conclusion they were being dropped by gulls who plucked them out of the nearby river.
Still not what you want to find on your front lawn!
10. The creepy nursery rhyme
A woman in Ipswich was left terrified after hearing ‘It’s raining, it’s pouring’ near her house for a year.
The nursery rhyme kept playing and she had no idea where it was coming from.
Turns out her creepy neighbours were using it as a burglar deterrent…
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