29. Halloween: Joan Rabel and Goldyne Pizer & Helen Pfiel (Halloween Series)

Nathalie tells the story of a twisted love triangle (love square?) involving Goldyne Pizer, Betty Fabiano, and Joan Rabel. Betty was having some issues with her husband, Peter, causing her to move in with her “friend” Joan. Back in the 1950s, two women having a romantic relationship was quite taboo. However, Betty reconciled with Peter and moved back in, this made Joan really upset. Joan began seeing Goldyne and during their time together Joan would complain about Betty’s evil husband. Goldyne, desperate to please Joan, dressed up as a superhero and went to the Fabiano residence on Halloween night to murder Peter. Rachel then takes us through the history of Halloween candy poisoning panic. She discusses cases of presumed random Halloween poisonings, including the death of Timothy Marc O’Bryan and Kevin Toston. Next, she moves on to the history of random poisonings, briefly covering the case of the Tylenol murders and the false alarm poisonings of Sunkist Fun Fruits Dinosaur candies. She concludes with the case of a Halloween prank gone wrong. Helen Pfiel of Greenlawn, NY, was getting frustrated with the teens trick or treating in her neighborhood. Helen put together a trick for the teens, instead of candy they would get dog treats, steel wool pads, and ant poison. Helen warned those darn kids they were getting prank treats, but the parents in the neighborhood were not pleased. Helen was arrested for endangering children and received a suspended sentence. Rachel’s Sources https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/halloween-non-poisonings/ https://www.history.com/news/how-americans-became-convinced-their-halloween-candy-was-poisoned https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/247053-worse-man-who-poisons-halloween-candy https://gothamist.com/food/halloween-legend-long-island-lady-who-gave-trick-or-treater-arsenic https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/tylenol-murders-1982 Nathalie's Sources https://www.pleadthebelly.com/noosenotes/2018/10/30/haunted-love-the-story-of-a-deadly-halloween-love-rectangle https://medium.com/the-true-crime-edition/the-trick-or-treat-murder-of-peter-fabiano-151eb6a3983d https://medium.com/true-crime-addiction/unreturned-love-killed-on-halloween-true-crime-e6255ad408d9 https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2007/10/they-had-planne.html