Halloween Special
SPINE-CHILLING LEGAL CASES
Written by Alexandria Martins-Hesp
Marketing Executive
The witching hour ticks ever closer, as Halloween is almost upon us. But with tricks and treats come scary stories, so we thought we’d dedicate today’s blog post to giving you your horror fix. From a homemade costume catching on fire to murder by demonic possession, here are 3 frightful legal cases that will make your skin crawl.
“The Devil Made Me Do it”
The Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson goes down in history as the first court case where the defence sought to prove innocence by claiming he was possessed by a demon, and denied personal responsibility for first-degree manslaughter.
This story takes place in 1981, where Johnson murdered his landlord, Alan Bono, after an altercation and then fled the scene. Though this seems like a pretty straightforward trial, it’s the events that took place before-and-after that puts a supernatural touch on this case.
This tragic story begins to unfold several months prior to the murder, in the home of the Glatzel family, where 11-year-old David Glatzel (the younger brother of Arne’s fiancée) allegedly had played host to a demon. After witnessing several increasingly sinister incidents involving David, the family enlisted the help of the famous paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, in the final hope to “cure” David. Reviewing the case, the Warrens concluded that this was a case of demonic possession and proceeded to perform a number of exorcisms on David. On one occasion, Arne Johnson began to taunt the demon, telling it to stop bothering his fiancée’s brother. “Take me on, leave my little buddy alone,” he cried. According to those present, this was the moment the demon left David’s body and fulfilled Arne’s wishes by entering his.
Several months later, Arne killed his landlord, Alan Bono. Arne’s lawyer argued in court that he was possessed, but the judge ruled that such a statement could never be proven and was therefore infeasible in a court of law. Arne was then convicted of first-degree manslaughter, though he only served five years of a 10- to 20-year sentence.
Mary had a Legal Case With Her Lamb
In 1984, Frank Ferlito and his wife, Susan were invited to a fancy dress party. Since this was the perfect time of year for couples costumes to come out, Mr and Mrs Ferlito decided to go as Mary and her little lamb.
Mrs Ferlito created a lamb costume for her husband by gluing cotton balls to a suit of long underwear and a headpiece for lamb ears. The cotton material was manufactured by Johnson & Johnson Products (“JJP”), and Susan covered the entire outfit with it.
During the party, Frank went to light a cigarette but accidentally dropped it, and his whole costume became engulfed in flames. He suffered severe burns to 1/3 of his body.
The Ferlitos then sued Johnson & Johnson (the manufacturer of the cotton balling) for failure to warn. The verdict: A jury said the Ferlitos were at fault and awarded them $625,000. On appeal, the verdict was aside.
The Man Who Killed Halloween
Our last frightful case actually takes place on the night of Halloween, where Ronald Clark O’Bryan earns his nickname The Candy Man and The Man Who Killed Halloween. On the 31st October 1974, Ronald’s son, Timothy, returns home after the fun adventures of trick or treating. Little did Timothy know, his dad was about to hand him the last sweet he would ever eat. Ronald gave his son a cyanide-laced Pixy Stix, which resulted in Timothy being violently sick and eventually dying.
Ronald also distributed poisoned sweets to other children that night in an attempt to cover up his crime. Luckily no one else consumed the cyanide-laced sweet, and Ronald was eventually arrested on 5th November 1974 and later found guilty of capital murder and four counts of attempted murder.
O’Bryan later admitted he took out a $40,000 life insurance policy on his children and wanted to claim $20,000 on his son’s death.
