The Truth:
The fine citizens of Frederica were perhaps a bit slow on the uptake, the people involved in this hanging-related legend are on the dipshit honor roll. Mainly because it's happened at least 3 times.
Yes, people have repeatedly tried to pull off an imitation hanging for a Halloween show, forgot to include the "imitation" part and went ahead and accidentally killed themselves. Yes, they were pretty much all teenage males.
Youth Hangs Self at Halloween Party SPARTA, Mich. –– A 14-year-old boy trying to make his role in a haunted hayride scarier accidentally hanged himself in front of a group of people who thought he was acting.
Caleb Rebh's post at the ride at Alpine Ridge Farms included a skeleton hanging by a noose in a nearby tree. His mother, Kathy Rebh, said he telephoned her Saturday night to say he felt awkward simply jumping out of the woods to scare passers-by.
He apparently spoke with other teens working at the event about replacing the skeleton with himself, his mother said.
Caleb put the noose around his neck but when he let go of the rope, he apparently was not heavy enough to prevent the branch from whipping back up and choking him, his mother said.
When he started scrambling to get the double-knotted rope off his neck, fellow workers seemed to think he was acting, she said.
"I think he thought he was safe because his feet were touching the ground," Kathy Rebh said.
Hayride employees and participants tried to resuscitate Caleb, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
"To have ... people right there watching him die, choking to death and not do anything – I don't know if I can ever get over that," said Bryan Rebh, the teen's father. "They just thought he was doing his scene. But he wasn't doing his scene – he was dying."
The Kent County Sheriff's Department said the death was considered an accident.
In one instance, an entire working gallows was built for a show, with the "victim" secured by a harness so that he’d stop just short of actually being hung (take a wild guess how that turned out). Now we’re just thinking aloud here, but if we were standing on a gallows, fake or not, with a rope around our necks, we’d want to take a few precautions. For example, and again just blue-skying, maybe don’t use a real rope that is tied into a real noose that is wrapped around your real neck in a way that could really kill you.
Los Angeles Times,
"Teen Dies In Halloween Accident" A 15-year-old staging a gallows scene at a Halloween party accidentally hanged himself when the noose somehow tightened, authorities said today. William Anthony Odom of Charlotte, N.C., was pronounced dead Friday night amid fake spider webs and plastic bats decorating an aunt's home. Odom and several of his friends had staged a haunted house in the basement.
and finally,
Chicago Tribune,
"Teen Dies During Halloween Hanging Stunt" A teenager who pretended to hang from a gallows as part of a pre-Halloween hayride died while performing the stunt. Police said Monday that hayride customers on Saturday found the body of Brian Jewell, 17, hanging from the gallows, his feet touching the ground. The stunt had worked on other nights and there was no indication of foul play, prosecutor James Holzapfel said. The gallows was being checked for flaws, and an autopsy was performed Monday. ". . . He's supposed to have the noose around his neck, but it's not a noose that tightens," said Holzapfel. Jewell would step down about one foot to the ground, making it appear he had been hanged, Holzapfel said. During the ride, about 40 people are driven past several Halloween fright exhibits. The stunt went off without problems earlier Saturday. But the tractor driver became concerned later, when Jewell failed to give a speech he normally made as the wagon passed.
Perhaps the saddest thing about the above stories is how completely unnecessary the whole thing were. Here’s a tip for anyone trying to thrill kids on Halloween in the future: You don’t need to hang yourself. Just give out full-sized chocolate bars instead of those not-so-fun "fun-sized" ones. We can guarantee the tykes will be talking about the house that gave out full-sized Snickers bars long after some life-risking stunt was forgotten.
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