Oregon daily _ _
emerald
Wednesday, October 27, 1982
Eugene. Oregon
volume 84, Number 38
Crazies ruin
Halloween fun
for small kids
"Children love Halloween, and many
grown folks do, too Come now, Billy
Black Cat — call off your strike!"
Spirits on Strike — Helen Ramsey
In keeping with tradition, there will be
Halloween activities in the Eugene area
this weekend for almost every possible
persuasion — '50s' fans, vegetarians,
homosexuals, the exotic, the erotic and
the well-to-do.
Nary a strange nocturnal creature will
be left out in the cold when it comes to
the "fun and frolic of merry, scary Hal
loween.”
Except the children.
"It's the crazies out there that ruin
everything for the children,' says Marcia
Dahlquist of Timewarp Costumes in
Eugene "There s not much you can do
about it."
While Halloween warnings to parents
from police and health agencies have
become routine in the past decade, the
recent epidemic of cyanide-adulterated
Extra-Strength Tylenol and acid-laced
Visine eye drops will undoubtedly
redouble parental anxiety about letting
their children trick-or-treat
It's the “crazies,’’ that infinitesimal
sliver of psychotics, who are blamed for
ruining what was once a cherished insti
tution for children and grown-ups alike
Last year a Louisiana man shot and
killed a 13-year-old trick-or-treater who
showed up on his doorstep wearing an
Army outfit and armed with a toy subma
chine gun In Muncie. Ind , police found
lick-on stickers featuring Mickey Mouse
and Donald Duck that had been spiked
with LSD
A Texas man, convicted of poisoning
his son with trick-or-treat candy con
Police discover eighth tainted Tylenol bottle
CHICAGO (AP) — An eighth bottle of
Extra-Strength Tylenol containing cyan
ide-laced capsules has been found
among the scores of containers turned in
to police by consumers, the head of the
Tylenol murder investigation said Mon
day
Illinois Attorney General Tyrone
Fahner identified the bottle as having lot
No MC2873, which has not been
previously linked to the murders, and he
said it was purchased at a Frank’s Finer
Foods outlet in Wheaton, III
Fahner's task force is investigating the
murders of seven people in the Chicago
area who took cyanide-laced Extra
Strength Tylenol.
Fahner’s comments were in a sta
tement released by telephone by a task
force spokesman to the City News Bu
reau of Chicago Telephone calls to
Fahner at the task force headquarters
were not returned Monday night.
A law enforcement source in Wa
shington said the bottle was turned in to
police "some time ago, perhaps weeks
ago (but) it was just processed today
(Monday).”
The source, who declined to be iden
tified by name or department, said police
mailed the package for testing to a Maple
Plain, Minn., lab operated by McNeil
Consumer Products Co., the manufac
turer of the pain remedy.
The bottle was sent with ‘a notation
that it might be contaminated,” and tests
confirmed the presence of cyanide, the
source said. McNeil turned over the bot
tle to the FBI
It was at a Frank’s Finer Foods that
Mary Reiner, one of the seven cyanide
poisoning victims, purchased her fatal
dose. However, the store where she
made her purchase was in Winfield, not
Wheaton.
Meanwhile, NBC News reported Mon
day night that officials are investigating
whether a conspiracy to commit the
Tylenol murders existed between a rela
tive of one of the seven Tylenol victims
and Roger Arnold.
The Chicago Sun-Times had reported
earlier Monday that an unidentified rela
tive was under surveillance and con
sidered a “prime suspect" in the case,
but investigators denied that report
RCYB denies involvement in bomb threat
By Debbie Howlett
04 th» Emerald
The Revolutionary Communist Youth
Brigade has denied that they are re
sponsible for two bomb threats that
interrupted a midterm exam Monday
afternoon in Room 150 Geology.
“Obviously it’s not the kind of thing
we do," said Clare Chang of the RCYB
“People who know what we do know
this doesn't fall into what we'd do
“When I heard about it, I laughed
because it was so ridiculous (to think
the RCYB would make the threat),”
Chang said
The bomb threats were received at
the EMU main desk and the campus
security office at the University about
12:45 p.m. The callers, a man and a
woman, probably tape-recorded their
message and played it back into the
phone. They claimed they were with the
RCYB, and they had planted a bomb in
Room 150 Geology set to explode at 1
p.m
“They said something about capi
talist pigs," said Debby Martin, an EMU
employee who took one of the calls.
Police investigators said Tuesday
that the RCYB is not suspected.
"In essence my opinion, based on
what we have learned, is that the RCYB
is not involved — they're not the focus
of the investigation," said Sgt. Rick
Allison of the Eugene Police Depart
ment.
Allison said he is fairly certain that an
"individual in the class is responsible. A
pattern has developed over past years.
Things have come to light," Allison
said.
"We take it very seriously. We re
trying to investigate,” said RCYB
member John Kaiser. "We see it as an
attempt to paint us as off-the-wall and
to isolate us."
Kaiser said that using the RCYB's
name in the bomb threat incident is a
"classic example” of the way the FBI
"plants ideas” to picture revolutionar
ies as terrorists.
"It's more than just a good way to get
out of a midterm," Kaiser said “They
believed that they'd be believed if they
credited it to us.
"An atmosphere has been created
where somebody feels the system is
behind them when they do things like
this,” Kaiser said.
taining cyanide, is scheduled to be ex
ecuted this Halloween
Understandably, parents are wonder
ing what kind of society America has
become when children aren't safe on the
streets
"AH of us have heard those kinds of
(comments)," says Lt Dick Mann of the
Eugene Police Department Parents are
disappointed that their children can't
experience what they experienced.”
In at least one town (Dudley, Mass ),
officials have voted to outlaw trick-or
treating
Some communities are combating the
threat of poisoning or foreign objects in
treats by setting up X-ray and visual
inspection facilities Other cities, like
Chicago, are sending out flyers to
schools and churches that warn of the
possible danger.
Although the Eugene area averages
about one incident of poisoning or hid
den foreign objects each Halloween,
police say there is little they can do to
decease the hazard.
"Usually it s a foreign object in either
fruit or home-made goods," says Mann.
"There’s nothing we can do to K^se**
(the threat) The best defense is for the
parents to educate their children.”
Mann says that police patrols would be
at about the same strength as any most
other Friday or Saturday nights.
"We certainly don’t place as much
emphasis oo Halloween as we did 10
years ago But it’s still a big event
The owner of ABC Costumes in
Springfield agrees that Halloween is still
big with area residents
“Business is fine, no problem," says
Dorothy Setera.
But while adult costume rentals are
brisk, Setera discontinued her line of
children's costumes this year after 10
years in the business.
"Ittfidn't used to be that way. It used to
be that the kids would all go out and
trick-or-treat," says Setera. "But not
anymore, because of those people
messing around with the candy. It's a
shame for the kids."
By Sean Meyers
Photo by Bob Baker