Candy Man Killer Ronald Clark O'Brien put cyanide in his children's pixie sticks on Halloween. Scott Perry: The fear of stranger danger has been weaponized by the religious right and local law enforcement. He says this is a very anxious period in U.S. history, post-Vietnam War. Perkins: Our laws represent the collective moral voice of a free society.
This year’s fear of rainbow fentanyl in kids’ trick-or-treat bags is just the latest unfounded Halloween candy freakout. But the yearly panic has its roots in a very real crisis: the 1982 Tylenol murders.
This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard with help from Jillian Weinberger, engineered by Efim Shapiro, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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