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On Halloween night in 1974, an eight-year-old boy in Pasadena, Texas, ate a giant Pixy Stix from his trick-or-treat haul and died less than an hour later. The straw had been filled with cyanide and stapled shut, and four other children were carrying ones just like it. The case of the man the press called the Candyman became the most famous poisoned Halloween candy story in America. In this episode of Killer Marketing, Emily Rask follows the case from a dark porch on a rainy trick-or-treat route to a Houston courtroom, then digs into the villain the killer was counting on: the stranger who hides poison and razor blades in Halloween treats. Parents had been warned about him for years, and that fear sent families to the store for factory-sealed candy. When the 1982 Tylenol murders spread the panic to Halloween, candy sales dropped, candy makers moved to fully sealed bags, and a safe Halloween turned into something malls and churches could offer families. Researchers have been tracking reports of that stranger back to 1958, and what they found changes how this case reads. Killer Marketing is a Lies We Bought podcast, hosted by Emily Rask. Follow Killer Marketing: https://www.instagram.com/killermarketingpodcast Follow Lies We Bought: https://www.instagram.com/lieswebought Sources: Harris County District Clerk, Case of the Month, October 2021 (State of Texas v. Ronald Clark O’Bryan): https://www.hcdistrictclerk.com/Common/HistoricalDocument/pdf/COTM_Oct_2021.pdf UPI (March 25, 1984), “The neighbor who accompanied condemned killer Ronald Clark O’Bryan”: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/03/25/The-neighbor-who-accompanied-condemned-killer-Ronald-Clark-OBryan/3945449038800/ KPRC Click2Houston, “A legacy of fear, 50 years after ‘The Candyman’ tainted trick-or-treating”: https://www.click2houston.com/news/investigates/2024/10/31/a-legacy-of-fear-50-years-after-the-candyman-tainted-tick-or-treating/ Houston Chronicle, “‘Man Who Ruined Halloween’: Recounting the horror story of Houston’s notorious ‘Candyman’”: https://www.chron.com/local/article/Man-Who-Ruined-Halloween-Recounting-the-14662451.php ABC13 Houston, “The Candyman: Houston’s own real-life Halloween horror story”: https://abc13.com/post/1974-candyman-turned-halloween-terrifying-pasadena-texas/375883/ The Conversation, “When Halloween became America’s most dangerous holiday”: https://theconversation.com/when-halloween-became-americas-most-dangerous-holiday-123132 Washington Monthly, “The Myth About Strangers Poisoning Kids’ Halloween Candy”: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2012/10/31/the-myth-about-strangers-poisoning-kids-halloween-candy/ Contemporary Legend, “Institutional Supports for Halloween Sadism”: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/cl/article/download/38410/40726/103411 NPR, “Why the urban legend of contaminated Halloween candy won’t disappear”: https://www.npr.org/2023/10/31/1208459235/why-urban-legend-contaminated-halloween-candy-wont-disappear-razor-blade-poison JAMA Pediatrics, “Pedestrian Fatalities Associated With Halloween in the United States” (2018): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2711459

Jack the Ripper is the most famous serial killer in history, and the name may have been written in a newsroom to sell newspapers. In 1888, a red-ink letter signed "Jack the Ripper" arrived at a London news agency, and the men who led the investigation later said they believed a journalist wrote it. In this episode of Killer Marketing, Emily Rask follows the Whitechapel murders from the Leather Apron panic to the Dear Boss letter, then into the marketing behind them: The Star's circulation boom, the hoax letters that kept the name alive, the waxworks show and the museum that cashed in, and the DNA claims still being sold as a solved case. It also remembers the five women whose names were buried under his: Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Kate Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. Behind every crime, there's a killer campaign. Follow Killer Marketing on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/killermarketingpodcast From the creator of Lies We Bought: https://www.instagram.com/lieswebought   Show notes  Casebook: Jack the Ripper, "Dear Boss Letter": https://www.casebook.org/ripper_letters/dear_boss_letter/ Casebook, Sir Robert Anderson, "The Lighter Side of My Official Life": https://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/rps.lighterside.10.html Jack the Ripper Tour, "Was It A Journalist That Created The Name Jack The Ripper?": https://www.jack-the-ripper-tour.com/generalnews/who-created-jack-the-ripper/ Casebook, "Thomas Bulling and the Myth of the London Journalist": https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-bulling2.html Jack the Ripper Tour, "T. P. O'Connor, Founder of The Star Newspaper": https://www.jack-the-ripper-tour.com/generalnews/t-p-oconnor-the-star/ OUP Blog, "The journalist who created Jack the Ripper": https://blog.oup.com/2019/10/journalist-created-jack-the-ripper/ Fox News, "Jack the Ripper letter mystery solved? Expert sheds new light on notorious case": https://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/01/30/jack-ripper-letter-mystery-solved-expert-sheds-new-light-on-notorious-case Literary London Society, "Review of The Five by Hallie Rubenhold": https://www.literarylondon.org/lambert-rubenholdreview/ Eastlondonlines, "Angry crowd turn up in protest as Jack the Ripper hijacks plans for women's history museum": https://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2015/08/angry-crowd-turn-up-in-protest-as-jack-the-ripper-hijacks-plans-for-womens-history-museum/ Journal of Forensic Sciences, "Expression of Concern: Forensic Investigation of a Shawl Linked to the Jack the Ripper Murders": https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1556-4029.15595

In 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died after taking Tylenol laced with cyanide, and the killer was never caught. Someone poisoned bottles right on store shelves, and Johnson & Johnson had days to decide whether its most profitable brand would survive. What the company did next became the crisis PR playbook brands still follow more than forty years later. Next episode: Jack the Ripper, and how newspapers turned a killer into a brand. Out October 15. Killer Marketing is a Lies We Bought podcast, hosted by Emily Rask. Follow Killer Marketing: https://www.instagram.com/killermarketingpodcast Follow Lies We Bought: https://www.instagram.com/lieswebought Sources: WTTW, "The Tylenol Murders Remain One of Chicago's Most Haunting Mysteries": https://www.wttw.com/chicago-mysteries/mystery/tylenol-murders-one-of-chicagos-most-haunting-mysteries HISTORY, "How the 1982 Tylenol Poisonings Nearly Canceled Halloween": https://www.history.com/articles/extra-strength-tylenol-poisonings-1982 PBS NewsHour, "How the Tylenol murders of 1982 changed the way we consume medication": https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/tylenol-murders-1982 Knowledge at Wharton, "Tylenol and the Legacy of J&J's James Burke": https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/tylenol-and-the-legacy-of-jjs-james-burke/ Retail Brew, "Total recall: How the Tylenol murders of 1982 ushered in tamper-resistant packaging": https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2022/10/13/total-recall-how-the-tylenol-murders-of-1982-ushered-in-tamper-resistant-packaging Washington Post (1982 archive), "Tylenol Is Reintroduced In Triple-Sealed Package": https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/11/12/tylenol-is-reintroduced-in-triple-sealed-package/1831aa9c-be08-4c93-a4de-b54e8c0428ed/ Templock, "FDA Tamper-Evident Packaging Requirements": https://www.templock.com/resources/fda-tamper-evident-packaging-requirements Yahoo Finance, "Inefficient Market Theory: The Tylenol Poisoning Case": https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inefficient-market-theory-tylenol-poisoning-205335551.html Right Attitudes, "Tylenol Made a Hero of Johnson & Johnson": https://www.rightattitudes.com/2021/03/11/crisis-management-case-study-tylenol/ Journalism University, "Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol Crisis": https://journalism.university/media-ethics-and-laws/tylenol-crisis-ethical-management-lessons/

Killer Marketing is a true crime podcast with a twist, because every case comes with the marketing story that played out behind it. Hosted by Emily Rask, creator of Lies We Bought, each episode digs into real crimes, cover-ups, and scares, and how brands, headlines, and public fear shaped what we believed about them. The first episode drops October 1st and goes back to the 1982 Tylenol murders, when seven people died from poisoned capsules, the killer was never caught, and the company behind the bottle pulled off one of the most famous comebacks in marketing history. Follow Killer Marketing so you don't miss the premiere, and if you love finding out what brands never wanted you to know, check out Lies We Bought wherever you listen.