Real life stories that scared you when you were young...

[MichaelWinicki]

What real life stories shook you up as a kid?

I was 7 in 1969, but the whole Manson thing didn't register with me at the time... not until I watched "Helter Skelter" in the mid 70's.

The first time a heinous crime truly hit home was in the fall of 1970 when a local gal was murdered. I remember going on a short trip with my grandparents and going through a police roadblock. The whole thing just bothered the heck out of me at the time. I think it was made worse because her murderer wasn't immediately caught (and hasn't been as of today).

The second big crime that hit me hard was the Dean Corll "Candyman" killings in Houston that ended in 1973. It was just such a heinous thing. It was the first (of many) big time serial killing cases and it dealt with the killing of young boys which made it even more startling in my somewhat protected world. Coverage of this case was everywhere for a while.

 

[BigStar]

DC Sniper mostly bc live in the DMV.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

DC Sniper mostly bc live in the DMV.

We were visiting the Gettysburg, PA area during that and I'll tell ya the sniper-thing crossed my mind as I was filling my car up.

 

[Idgit]

Not as kids, but as an adult. We had a neighbor who's father took their 2 year old out for a walk and she shook off his grip and ran out in traffic. Our architect was working on their house, too, at the same time, and was in the process of designing her room. I go out of my way to not go by that house.

Same thing with a different neighbor who's 12 year old boy was out riding a quad at a job he was doing. Last run of the day, the quad fell backward on top of him going up a hill and crushed his torso. As a parent, this stuff that happens in your immediate circle of acquaintances is just terrifying.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Not as kids, but as an adult. We had a neighbor who's father took their 2 year old out for a walk and she shook off his grip and ran out in traffic. Our architect was working on their house, too, at the same time, and was in the process of designing her room. I go out of my way to not go by that house.

Same thing with a different neighbor who's 12 year old boy was out riding a quad at a job he was doing. Last run of the day, the quad fell backward on top of him going up a hill and crushed his torso. As a parent, this stuff that happens in your immediate circle of acquaintances is just terrifying.

Boy oh boy those are harsh. And you're right it is terrifying.

 

[BigStar]

We were visiting the Gettysburg, PA area during that and I'll tell ya the sniper-thing crossed my mind as I was filling my car up.

People were literally shuffle stepping while pumping their gas and intentionally making sudden jerking movements etc. They made their statement (whatever it was) and got the effect they wanted from the public tell ya that.

 

[BigStar]

Not as kids, but as an adult. We had a neighbor who's father took their 2 year old out for a walk and she shook off his grip and ran out in traffic. Our architect was working on their house, too, at the same time, and was in the process of designing her room. I go out of my way to not go by that house.

Same thing with a different neighbor who's 12 year old boy was out riding a quad at a job he was doing. Last run of the day, the quad fell backward on top of him going up a hill and crushed his torso. As a parent, this stuff that happens in your immediate circle of acquaintances is just terrifying.

That is disturbing. Almost the exact same scene was played out in the movie Pet Cemetery where the young child wandered off into the road. One of the tensest moments I remember watching in a movie bc of how terrible the outcome was. That is tragic about your real life example and don't intend to make light of course.

 

[TheCowboy]

Jaws. I was totally afraid of pools for a while back then haha.

 

[BigStar]

We were visiting the Gettysburg, PA area during that and I'll tell ya the sniper-thing crossed my mind as I was filling my car up.

Yep, right on the border of MD, was a tense era.

 

[Tabascocat]

The "Killing Fields" of Texas. I grew up in the 70's about a mile from Calder Drive(road between Houston and Galveston) where multiple victims were found, at that time and years later.

Looking back at it, we were lucky to never become another statistic. We walked up and down that street daily....and sometimes late at night.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-real-life-mystery-of-texas-killing-fields/

 

[MichaelWinicki]

The "Killing Fields" of Texas. I grew up in the 70's about a mile from Calder Drive(road between Houston and Galveston) where multiple victims were found, at that time and years later.

Looking back at it, we were lucky to never become another statistic. We walked up and down that street daily....and sometimes late at night.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-real-life-mystery-of-texas-killing-fields/

Reading the story, I can see how it would have and did bother a whole lot of people. Brutal.

It looks like this started about the same time Corll was doing his nastiness with young boys just a short distance away in Houston.

 

[blindzebra]

John Wayne Gacy lived next door to my aunt for a short time in Cedar Falls Iowa.

 

[Phoenix]

Oh man, yeah. I lived on the south side of Houston back then, the Candyman and Calder stuff, and was a young man, only 10-13 during the time frame and yeah it was a little frightening back then.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

John Wayne Gacy lived next door to my aunt for a short time in Cedar Falls Iowa.

Geez Gacy.

I don't know what it was that turned on the serial killer switch starting in the late 60's.

Before that you had the spree killer thing happening... Charles Starkweather, Charles Whitman but the serial killer seemed to be a much rarer animal during the 40's, 50's and early 60's.

Some experts have said that in times of unrest, serial killers are more apt to show up. That could explain the seeming explosion of them starting in the late 60's.

Between the World Wars, Germany had several of them roaming around. So maybe the "unrest" explanation has some plausibility.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Oh man, yeah. I lived on the south side of Houston back then, the Candyman and Calder stuff, and was a young man, only 10-13 during the time frame and yeah it was a little frightening back then.

I was staying with my grandparents at the time and they always had the news on, where at home with my parents, the national news was hardly on... so if I was with my grandparents, I got the national news front & center. And then on top of that they subscribed to "Life" and "Time" and I'm pretty sure the Corll thing was well covered in one of those with plenty of ghastly pics to scare the bejesus out me.

 

[punchnjudy]

The Korean airliner the russians shot down in the early 80's. I was very young; that was the day I found out what a nuclear bomb was.

Then, a little bit after that incident, that made for TV movie (The Day After?) came out about a nuclear holocaust (parents probably shouldn't have let me watch that lol). I remember being scared by the news after that, and especially if there was a breaking report in the middle of a TV show because that was how you would find out nukes were on the way...

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

Eton Patz abducted, then appearing on milk carton.
First missing child on milk carton.

 

[The Fonz]

For me it was (the night stalker) Richard Ramirez.We used to lock up doors and windows in the heat of the summer.

 

[RonSpringsdaman20]

Both of these stories....

&

 

[RonSpringsdaman20]

Eton Patz abducted, then appearing on milk carton.
First missing child on milk carton.

Is Etan Patz ALIVE? FBI questions man living in Europe if he’s the NYC boy missing since 1979
Etan went missing after he left his SoHo apartment on his way to the bus in May 1979. His body was never found but Pedro Hernandez, 52, confessed to murdering Etan in May 2012. It's unclear why the FBI is still looking for Etan if a man has been indicted for the boy's murder.
BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, February 10, 2014, 5:17 PM

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HO/AFP/GETTY IMAGESThe face of missing Etan Patz has been splashed around the city since 1979, when the 6-year-old disappeared. His body was never found but he was legally declared dead in 2001.
Is Etan Patz still alive?

The FBI reached out to an American man living in Europe just last month to see if the 30-year-old man was the 6-year-old boy who went missing from Manhattan in 1979.

The man, who is 11 years younger than Etan would be today, told ProPublica he thought the whole thing was a hoax.

“Obviously, I was surprised,” the man, who asked not to be identified, told the news outlet. “I chuckled. I thought it was funny because it was so unlikely that it would be possible that I could be this person. I had no idea who Etan Patz was.”

The FBI inquiry is the latest revival in what was long a cold case.

BRYAN SMITH/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWSFBI agents and members of the NYPD remove concrete, wood and other pieces of the basement as they search in May 2012 for the remains of long-missing 6-year-old Etan Patz in the basement of a Prince Street apartment building.
Etan disappeared as he walked alone to a bus stop on May 25, 1979. Several leads arose over the years, though the boy’s body was never found.

Police and the FBI searched the basement of a SoHo apartment building in May 2012 after a strong lead that Etan may have been buried in the basement of the Prince St. home.

Nothing was found, but around the same times, as the 33rd anniversary of the boy’s disappearance rolled around, Pedro Hernandez, 52, confessed to the killing.

He said he lured little Etan into the bodega at 448 W. Broadway, where he worked as a stock boy, with the promise of a cold soda. He said he strangled the boy in the basement — then dumped his body a block away in an alley with the trash.

POOLPedro Hernandez appears in Manhattan criminal court, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2012, in New York. Harvey Fishbein, the lawyer for Hernandez, charged with 1979 killing of Etan Patz, says his client will plead not guilty because he made a false confession.
Hernandez did not say why.

Hernandez was 18 when Etan vanished. The boy’s disappearance stunned New York and helped launch a nationwide movement to put the photographs of missing kids on milk cartons.

Etan was declared dead in 2001, but his case was not closed. And for years, a pedophile named Jose Ramos was the prime suspect.

While police scoured SoHo searching for clues and questioned Hernandez’s co-workers at the bodega, the suspect somehow eluded police and moved to South Jersey a short time later.

MARCUS SANTOS/MARCUS SANTOS FOR THE NY DAILY NThe search of this apartment building revealed no new evidence in the search for Etan Patz. But Hernandez is set to go on trial for the boy's murder in April.
Hernandez later recanted his confession and questions of his mental illness have some law enforcement, including the FBI, doubting how solid the case may be.

Hernandez is charged with second-degree murder and scheduled to go to trial in April. He'll next appear in court Feb. 19.

But the man who spoke to ProPublica said the FBI may be second-guessing itself about the suspect — or if the boy is even dead. Agents asked the man about where he had gone to school and where he’d lived over the years, the news outlet reported.

They also suggested to him that basic facts about his past — including the identities of his biological parents — might be different from what he thought.

ANONYMOUS/APThe boy's disapperance transfixed the city for years.
The agents never told the man why they were still pursuing anonymous leads, despite the fact Hernandez has been charged in the disappearance.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment on the story. The FBI did not respond to a Daily News request for comment.

With Shayna Jacobs

sgoldstein@nydailynews.com or follow on Twitter




Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...n-patz-report-article-1.1608830#ixzz3BMFhCqCM