Poisoned Candy in the Streets: Aberdeen's Scare
Chocolates dusted with white powder and gumdrops bored and filled with some unknown substance turned up scattered across Aberdeen's streets — right after a wave of dog poisonings. The candy is headed to Pullman for chemical analysis.
ABERDEEN — Consternation and indignation have been aroused by the finding of candy scattered about the streets, bearing the appearance of having been poisoned. A bag of chocolates dusted with a white powder and separate pieces of gumdrops which had been bored into and had had some substance placed in them, have been secured for chemical examination, and will be sent to the state college at Pullman. Coming immediately after the wholesale poisoning of dogs that has so agitated this community, the incident has a stronger effect.
“A bag of chocolates dusted with a white powder and separate pieces of gumdrops which had been bored into and had had some substance placed in them, have been secured for chemical examination.”
A town on edge over tainted candy and dead dogs sounds like a modern true-crime podcast, but Aberdeen's 1910 scare predates Halloween panic legends by decades. Then as now, the fear spread faster than any lab result — and the state college at Pullman was the closest thing to a forensic lab.
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