15. Halloween Candy Tampering
Legend: A neighborhood sadist either laces children’s Halloween candy with poison or places razor blades or needles in their treats.
Reality: Despite the ubiquity of this legend, there is only one documented case of a person purposely poisoning Halloween candy. In 1974, a Texas man named Ronald Clark O’Bryan, hoping to collect on an insurance policy, laced his son’s Pixy Stix with cyanide, killing him. (source)
16. Waking Up During Surgery
Legend: A patient resumes consciousness during surgery, only to realize to their horror that they are still unable to move or scream.
Reality: During a 2007 autopsy in Venezuela, 33-year-old Carlos Camejo woke up in a morgue in “unbearable” pain as examiners were slicing into his face. (source1)
In 2005 during an operation to remove her eyeball, Carol Weihrer regained consciousness but was still too paralyzed to notify physicians that she was awake:
In my mind, I was screaming at the top of my voice. I thought I should have flown off the table with all the effort I was making. I was praying. I was doing everything I could. I was willing to sell my soul to get off that table. (source2)
