stories to get you in the mood for the frightening weekend

By By Keith DuCharme

Daily Staff Writer

Every year, people parade around in costumes and try to collect as much candy as possible. Celebrated on the eve of All Saint’s Day and Dia de los Muertos, Halloween is one of the most popular days of the year — a holiday where a good scare is always welcome.

Being a day knee-deep in religious controversy and horrific images, it is not surprising to see a wealth of tales told around Oct. 31. These range from the well-heard — such as tales of demons or trickery — to bizarre accounts of haunted places that harbor a wealth of activity around this time of year.

Below are four different tales that have a connection with Halloween. These may be familiar stories, or they could be new to you. Two of these tales are true and have been documented, while the other two are urban legends used to give people a scare during the holiday. Try to determine which stories pass the test:

1. Hanging out

To give someone a good scare, it’s important to make it look real. Such is the case with this story. At a haunted hayride, customers are taken past a staged gallows scene, where it looks as if someone is being hung by a noose.

What they didn’t know is that the hanging victim wasn’t in on the joke. His harness malfunctioned, and he was left for dead, while everyone around him assumed he was just putting on a good show.

Questions were finally raised when the hanging victim would not give his normal speech to the customers.

By then, he was already long dead.

2. The ultimate haunted house

All across the country, people set up haunted houses around Halloween to give willing customers an exciting scare. These usually involve darkened corridors, with flashing lights and loud sounds to scare the participants passing through.

But people talk about the ultimate haunted house. This attraction has a high price tag. But there’s a catch — if you can make it through the house, you can get your money back. In all its history, never once have the owners made that refund.

The scary attraction uses every trick in the book — secret doors, drop-away floor slides and live insects. The house used for the attraction has its own mysterious past, leaving the place ripe for ghostly activity.

3. Revealing prediction

On a late-night talk show, a famous psychic was one of the celebrity guests. As a joke, the host asked the psychic to make a prediction about an upcoming event. The psychic turned very serious and announced there would be a mass murder on Halloween on a university campus.

The psychic gave many details, including the murder weapon, body count and even what costume the murderer would be wearing — Little Bo Peep. Everyone thought it was a scary joke and dismissed it as such.

On Nov. 1, police were called to the university and shocked to find a number of grisly murders that happened over Halloween night — following the exact specifications the psychic gave.

4. Deadly candy

Every year, mothers warn their children about taking Halloween candy from strange people. Hysteria has grown over the offering of tainted candy or fruits, usually stuffed with razors or needles intended to harm the children.

There have been numerous cases where such warnings have proven true. People stuff needles into candy bars or slip razor blades into apples and pass them out.

While most people notice the harmful object before ingestion, there have been handful of cases where children have bitten into a shiny apple and gotten a horrible surprise.

1. “Hanging out” is a true story. There have been at least two documented accounts of such an incident. On Oct. 23, 1990, The Chicago Tribune reported that a teenager was found dead hanging in the gallows scene of a haunted hayride.

On Oct. 23, 2001, the Detroit Free Press ran an Associated Press article that detailed the account of Caleb Rebh, 14, who died in a similar fashion. People who saw Rebh struggling with the noose thought he was just acting.

2. “The ultimate haunted house” is another made-up story, but this one is steeped in true accounts. Richard Garriot, creator of the video game series “Ultima,” used to change his mansion and estate into a massive and elaborate attraction.

The legend of the ultimate haunted house has been documented in many states, including Iowa, where the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque ran a story on Oct. 31, 1999, about teenagers looking for the fictitious attraction.

3. “Revealing prediction” is an urban legend that saw its fame rise in 1998. On Oct. 16 of that year, The State News, the college newspaper for Michigan State University, reported on the legend that was spreading across campus.

The Daily Illini, newspaper for the University of Illinois, reported a similar story on Oct. 27.

4. “Deadly candy” is the other true story. On Nov. 2, 2000, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that resident James Joseph Smith had been charged with adulterating a substance after it was found that he had put needles into candy bars before passing them out to children.