I'm looking for something that's really going to, I don't know, make me be afraid of Halloween, how about that?

Pulled up to the second window and we'll see you next time.

Welcome to True Crime to Go. I'm John here with Jamie. How are you, man?

I'm good. I usually don't get excited for Halloween, but we've been doing a lot of Halloween theme true crime to go, so it's kind of got me, I don't know, a little more ready than normal.

Well, that's, you know, I wish that you get excited about Christmas as much as you have Halloween this year, but let's talk about some Christmas murder when the time comes, and maybe I will.

I think we did some, we did some bonus episodes for Christmas last year when you talk about whether we're going to do that again.

Okay, yeah, I can't wait to talk about more work that I'm not going to do with you.

Listen to less of our hard chest today. You'll get it. All right, Jamie, we got a true crime story in 10 minutes or less. Get us rolling.

Let's go. Yeah. So another Halloween story that's a night that's supposed to be filled with fun and being carefree. You dress up as a ninja turtle. Somebody gives you Milky Way, like it's, it's a kid's heaven for a lot of people.

We're going to go to Fort Dodge, Iowa back in 1982, just a few weeks before I was born. We're going to talk about Marvin and Ethel Brandland, and they were enjoying an evening at home.

I say it was Halloween Eve. This was the designated trick or treat night in their area. So they were handing out candy and having a good time.

But the night quickly took a horrifying turn when somebody came in dressed in a makeshift costume. Basically they just took a pillowcase and cut eye holes and put it over their head.

And this occasion where they were having fun quickly shifted to terror.

At first, Ethel thought this might be a relative trying to play a prank, but her playful gesture soon turned serious. The trick or treater demanded money or else claimed that someone would get shot.

The Brandland's confusion and fear escalated when the intruder pulled out a gun and ordered them to go to their basement where they had a safe that was hidden.

But Marvin wasn't going to go along without a fight. When Marvin tried to resist, the intruder resorted to violence, took out the weapon and shot him in the throat.

The shooter then discarded the pillowcase costume and fled the scene, leaving the Bradlead family shattered.

The aftermath of this crime continues to be marked by heartbreak. Ethel's life took a dark turn.

First of all, their granddaughter who had just left their house was just devastated with guilt.

And Ethel the weight of her loneliness just added to her suffering.

She tried to stay strong, but she wasn't able to. Around Thanksgiving of that year, she had somewhat of a mental breakdown.

This is what her daughter had to say about it, Jan Horton. She said she was eating and she just quit eating.

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