Buzz
Halloween no longer holds the same mystique it once did. While it’s an enjoyable holiday for children and a great excuse to curl up with a horror film, the genuinely terrifying elements have drifted away with our most absurd superstitions, vanishing into the ether. Yet, witches and ghosts aren’t the only specters of All Hallows’ Eve—some nights transform ordinary people into monsters, and whether by fate or intent, these horrors chose the Halloween season to reveal their darkness.
10. Martha Moxley
Greenwich, Connecticut, is the last place you’d anticipate stumbling upon a corpse. As one of the wealthiest towns in the United States, home to former President George H.W. Bush’s childhood and a dozen U.S. senators raising their families, it’s a picture of affluence. Yet, in 1975, amidst the grand estates, multi-million-dollar homes, and pristine lawns, the lifeless body of 15-year-old Martha Moxley was discovered on a chilly Halloween morning.
The gruesome find sent shockwaves through the community. Martha had been brutally struck with a golf club with such force that the club splintered, and she was then stabbed in the neck with a shard of the broken weapon. Her assailant dragged her 24 meters (80 feet) before abandoning her in her own backyard. Suspicion quickly fell on 17-year-old Tommy Skakel, the nephew of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Reports indicated that Martha had been out with friends the night before Halloween, attending a party at the Skakel residence. Tommy had left the party with Martha late that night, but she never arrived home . . . despite the fact that their houses were a mere 130 meters (450 feet) apart.
Despite the police identifying a suspect, no conviction was ever secured, leaving the horrifying Greenwich Halloween murder unsolved for more than 16 years. The Moxley case resurfaced in 1991 with fresh investigations, but it wasn’t until 1998, 23 years after the young girl’s death, that a killer was officially identified: Michael Skakel, Tommy’s brother. Novelist Dominick Dunne revealed that Michael had once climbed a tree outside Martha’s window and masturbated, consumed by an obsession with her. In 2002, Michael Skakel was finally found guilty of the murder by a grand jury.
However, the tale didn’t conclude there. Michael Skakel was later granted an appeal, and in 2013, he was released from prison on bail.
9. Peter Fabiano
Peter and Betty Fabiano were preparing to go to bed on October 31, 1957, when their doorbell rang unexpectedly. It was past 11:00 PM, unusually late for trick-or-treaters, but Peter reluctantly went downstairs with the candy bowl. After all, it was Halloween—what harm could one more child do? But when he opened the door, Peter was met with a shocking sight: a grown woman in blue jeans and a flimsy mask stood on his doorstep, aiming the bottom of a paper bag at his chest.
Upstairs, Betty Fabiano heard a loud bang followed by the sound of screeching tires as a car sped away. Rushing downstairs, she discovered her husband lying on the floor in front of the open door, struggling to breathe, with blood gushing from a severe chest wound. He died before they could get him to the hospital. The police were baffled. Peter Fabiano, a hairdresser in the San Fernando Valley, had no known enemies—certainly none who would want him dead.
As investigators delved deeper into the case, the situation grew increasingly convoluted. Two weeks after the brutal murder, police arrested Joan Rabel, a 40-year-old woman who had previously worked at one of Peter’s salons. She had lied about her whereabouts on the night of Peter’s death, but without concrete evidence, the police had no choice but to release her. A month later, an anonymous tip led them to a rented locker in a local department store. Inside, they found a .38 revolver, which ballistics confirmed was the weapon used to kill Peter Fabiano.
However, the locker wasn’t rented by Joan Rabel. It belonged to Goldyne Pizer, an employee at a nearby children’s hospital with no apparent ties to the Fabiano family. The evidence was puzzling until Pizer began to confess. It turned out that Goldyne Pizer and Joan Rabel were lovers. For months, Rabel had filled Pizer’s mind with stories about Peter Fabiano, describing him as “evil and vile.” Rabel recounted disturbing tales of Fabiano’s alleged abuse of his wife, fueling Pizer’s hatred for a man she had never met. Eventually, Pizer agreed to help Rabel kill him. Using Rabel’s money, Pizer purchased a gun. On the night of the murder, Rabel drove to Fabiano’s house, and Pizer, trembling so violently she needed both hands to steady the revolver, shot Peter Fabiano in the chest as he opened the door to offer her candy.
But why had Joan Rabel spent months poisoning Pizer’s mind with hatred? The answer was simple: Rabel had been having an affair with Peter’s wife and wanted him out of the picture. During their trials, Rabel pleaded not guilty, while Pizer claimed insanity. Both ultimately accepted a plea deal for second-degree murder and were sentenced to life in prison.
8. Patricia Ward
In 2014, just days before Halloween, witnesses observed a man dragging a headless body out of a Long Island apartment. He placed the body in the street and kicked the head to the opposite curb. The scene appeared to be a gruesome Halloween prank, and many dismissed it as such. One witness even remarked that the whole thing looked fake. The grim reality only became clear when a Good Samaritan attempted to move the body and realized it was real.
Police quickly identified the body as that of Patricia Ward, a 66-year-old professor at Farmingdale State College in New York. Before discovering her body, authorities had already received a report about another deceased Ward—this one struck by a train about a mile away.
The tragic details of the murder soon emerged. Patricia’s son, 35-year-old Derek Ward, had a history of mental illness but appeared to be recovering when he moved into a small Farmingdale apartment with his mother. Then, for reasons unknown, he snapped. He decapitated his mother, dragged her body out of the apartment, down the stairs, and into the street. After leaving the body there, he walked away and jumped in front of an oncoming train. The motive behind his actions remains a mystery.
7. The East Coast Rapist
On the night of October 31, 2009, three teenage girls were carrying bags of candy through a quiet Woodbridge, Virginia, suburb. Meanwhile, in Arlington County, a man named Aaron Thomas entered a yellow Chrysler 300 sedan. In his pocket was a cigarette lighter shaped like a 9-mm semiautomatic pistol.
Thomas had previously lived in Woodbridge, sharing a modest fixer-upper with a woman named Jewell Hicks and her young son, whom he treated as his own. Though their relationship ended, they stayed on good terms. In fact, Hicks was the reason Thomas was in town that Halloween—he was assisting her with a move and driving her car. Thomas had set out that evening to purchase a new shirt but soon found himself passing by their old home, lost in nostalgia.
He noticed three teenage girls out trick-or-treating. It was raining, the sky was darkening, and the girls were alone. Thomas parked the car. Before the girls could react, he was pointing the fake gun at them, forcing them into a wooded area behind a CVS pharmacy. A steep slope led them to the bottom of a rain-soaked ravine, where Thomas ordered the girls to line up and lie down.
One of the girls later recalled, “I was praying. I thought that was it. I thought I was going to die.” Another girl managed to send a terrifying text to her mother: “Man raping my friend in the woods behind CVS call 911.” She then dialed 911 herself. Thomas was too preoccupied to notice. Police arrived within minutes, causing Thomas to flee into the woods. He discarded the lighter, circled back, and casually walked past dozens of officers to his car in the CVS parking lot before driving off.
From 1997 to 2009, families across New England had an unseen reason to lock their doors at night. During those 12 years, Aaron Thomas, later known as the “East Coast Rapist,” had been abducting and assaulting women from Virginia to Rhode Island. The Halloween incident triggered a massive manhunt, but it took two more years and an anonymous tip to finally apprehend him. DNA evidence linked him to 13 unsolved rape cases, though he confessed to many more. In 2013, Aaron Thomas was sentenced to three life terms plus 80 years, and in 2015, he pleaded guilty to three additional charges, receiving three more life sentences.
6. The Liske Family
As he did every Sunday, Devon Griffin woke up early on October 31, 2010, to attend church. He was spending the weekend at his father’s house and stopped by his mother’s place to pick up a shirt to change into. Around 9:30 AM, the only person he encountered was his stepbrother, BJ Liske. BJ greeted Devon with unusual cheerfulness and asked how long he’d be gone—a strange question, given that the two rarely spoke and didn’t get along.
After church, Devon returned home and spent some time playing video games. The house was unusually quiet, and BJ was nowhere to be found. By 1:30 PM, Devon decided to wake everyone up. He went to the master bedroom and found his mother still in bed with her husband, William Liske. The blanket was pulled over their heads, as if blocking out the afternoon light. Devon tried talking to them, but when there was no response, he pulled the cover down.
Within hours, police swarmed the house. Devon had accidentally stumbled upon a murder scene. Earlier that morning, 24-year-old William Liske Jr., known as BJ, had shot his father in the head five times. He then turned the gun on his stepmother before brutally killing his stepbrother with a claw hammer. The victims were Devon’s mother and brother.
BJ was apprehended by police at the family cabin and taken into custody. He was convicted of the triple murder and sentenced to life in prison.
5. Taylor Van Diest
On the evening of October 31, 2011, a young woman dressed as a zombie stepped out of her home in Armstrong, British Columbia, excited for a night of Halloween festivities. Taylor Van Diest, an 18-year-old student, was on her way to meet a friend for trick-or-treating. However, she never arrived at the meeting point. Before her disappearance, she sent a disturbing text message to her friend, expressing her fear that someone was following her. This was the last communication anyone received from her.
Later that night, Taylor was discovered near a railroad track, suffering from a head injury and bruises around her neck. She was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to her injuries. The shocking murder deeply affected the small community, leading to the swift arrest of Matthew Foerster. After a two-hour interrogation, Foerster broke down and confessed. While the specifics of the assault remain unclear, Foerster admitted that his initial intention was to sexually assault Taylor. He revealed that he had followed her to a secluded area before attacking her.
Taylor fought back during the assault, prompting Foerster to grab her by the neck and force her to the ground. In the struggle, he either struck her with a flashlight or slammed her head against a metal pipe. After the attack, he abandoned her and fled to Ontario, where authorities eventually apprehended him. Foerster was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
4. The Hanging Woman
For hours, drivers passing through Frederica, Delaware, noticed a woman hanging from a tree but assumed it was part of the Halloween decorations. The woman was suspended 4.5 meters (15 ft) above the road, making her impossible to overlook. With Halloween just four days away, the town was filled with glowing jack-o’-lanterns, stuffed witches, and plastic skeletons, leading people to believe the hanging figure was another macabre display.
The body, however, was genuine. Authorities were alerted to the location hours after the woman was initially spotted, and it appeared she had been suspended there throughout the night. Police disclosed that the woman was 42 years old and suggested that she had taken her own life by hanging.
This incident isn’t the only instance where a Halloween hanging was mistaken for decoration. In 2015, a woman in Ohio was found suspended from a fence for several hours before anyone investigated whether she was an actual person.
3. Lisa Ann French
On Halloween night in 1973, Gerald Turner wasn’t feeling well. He and his girlfriend, Arlene Penn, who lived with him, had planned to visit Arlene’s mother for dinner. When Arlene returned from work, Turner stopped her at the door and insisted she go ahead without him. It was around 7:00 PM, and Arlene, thinking little of it, drove to her mother’s house only to realize her mother wouldn’t be home for another hour. She returned home, spent an hour downstairs with Turner, and then left again.
When Arlene returned home at 11:00 PM, Turner was still awake. She spotted the blanket from their bed tossed on the laundry room floor but dismissed it and went to bed. It wasn’t until later that she discovered the young girl from the neighborhood had been murdered in that very bed just hours before.
Lisa Ann French left her home shortly before 6:00 PM, dressed as a small hobo—wearing torn jeans, a parka, and a worn-out felt hat. Around an hour later, she arrived at Gerald Turner’s house, where the door was ajar. The exact details of what followed are unclear, but Turner managed to lure Lisa upstairs to his bedroom, where he assaulted her and ultimately strangled her to death.
“Then I see the joy in your eyes transform into terror as I close the door behind you,” Gerald Turner later wrote in a letter from prison addressed to Lisa. Her body was discovered in a field on the town’s outskirts three days after Halloween.
The timeline raises disturbing questions. Had Turner already carried out his horrific crime when Arlene returned from work, or was he still anticipating Lisa’s arrival? Did Arlene unknowingly sit downstairs, holding hands with a man who had just committed murder, while his victim lay lifeless upstairs? Or had Turner already disposed of the body in a trash bag and discarded it?
The jury showed no leniency. Turner was handed a 39-year prison sentence. After public outrage, he was paroled in 1998 but was sent back to prison in 2003 for a parole violation. His scheduled release was set for 2018.
2. Shirley Lynette Ledford
On Halloween night in 1979, 16-year-old Shirley Ledford was walking home from a party in a Los Angeles suburb when two seemingly friendly men in a van offered her a ride. The following morning, a jogger stumbled upon her brutally disfigured body lying in an ivy patch on the front lawn of a house. What seemed like a senseless act of violence soon led investigators to Roy Norris and Lawrence Bittaker, thanks to a tip from a former inmate. The duo, an electrician and a mechanic based in Los Angeles, became the prime suspects.
Investigators soon uncovered hundreds of photographs of young girls, bloodied tools, and horrifying audio recordings of women pleading for their lives. The evidence pointed to the Tool Box Killers, a pair of serial killers who had kidnapped, tortured, and murdered at least five teenage girls in recent months.
The full extent of their brutality came to light when Roy Norris confessed to their crimes. He recounted the horrifying events of that Halloween night after they lured Shirley Ledford into their van. Bittaker was driving when they picked her up, and Norris offered her marijuana, which she declined. Norris then took the wheel while Bittaker moved to the back with Shirley. For two hours, Norris listened to “screams . . . endless screams” from the backseat. As Norris drove calmly through Los Angeles, Bittaker viciously assaulted Shirley, breaking her elbows with a sledgehammer and torturing her with pliers. The entire ordeal was recorded.
Eventually, Norris stopped the van and strangled Shirley with a coat hanger tightened by pliers. They dumped her body on a random lawn, with Bittaker expressing a desire to “see how the newspapers would react” when it was found. Bittaker was sentenced to death, while Norris received a 45-year-to-life prison term.
1. Rebekah Gay
John White, a pastor at a small Michigan church, harbored dark fantasies of necrophilia. On a freezing Halloween night in 2012, armed with a mallet and a zip tie, he visited the home of Rebekah Gay, his fiancée’s 24-year-old daughter. Rebekah, who lived alone with her three-year-old son, welcomed him in without hesitation, as White frequently babysat her child.
However, Rebekah was unprepared for the horror that followed. White viciously attacked her with the mallet, striking her multiple times before strangling her with the zip tie. He then disrobed her and dragged her lifeless body into the woods behind her trailer.
After the brutal act, White returned to the house where Rebekah’s young son was still waiting. Calmly, he dressed the boy in his Halloween costume and drove him to his father’s house. Rebekah’s body remained undiscovered for 20 hours, during which White urged his congregation to pray for her.
White was eventually convicted but took his own life in prison. The true terror lies in his prior freedom. In 1981, at age 22, White attempted to murder his 17-year-old neighbor, Theresa Etherton. Luring her to his basement under the pretense of showing her a race track, he stabbed her repeatedly, even pausing to kiss her before continuing the assault. Theresa survived with 15 stab wounds, and White served only two years in prison.
In 1994, White committed another heinous act, murdering the woman with whom he was having an affair and abandoning her unclothed body in a forest. However, due to insufficient evidence proving premeditation, prosecutors could only secure a manslaughter conviction. By 2007, he had regained his freedom, allowing him to resume his life, pursue a role as a minister, and ultimately commit yet another killing.
