Lisa Ann French, The 9-Year-Old Halloween Murder Victim Killed While Trick-Or-Treating
TwitterLisa Ann French was trick-or-treating when a neighbor murdered her in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Halloween in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, was a jovial affair in the 1970s. But everything changed after a nine-year-old girl named Lisa Ann French was murdered in 1973 by a neighbor while trick-or-treating.
French, who’d dressed as a hobo that year, had already visited two houses when she knocked on the door of 25-year-old Gerald Turner. According to the FDL Reporter, Turner wasn’t a stranger to French. He had once rented the other half of French’s family’s duplex, and the little girl had often visited to say hello or show Turner things that she’d found.
But on that Halloween night, Turner invited French in. “I doubt that I could ever fully realize the terror you experienced at my hands,” Turner later said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “I can still see you standing in the doorway with that felt hat beaming at having recognized me. Then I see the delight in your eyes turn to fear as I close the door behind you.”
Wisconsin Department Of CorrectionsGerald Turner was 25 years old when he murdered Lisa Ann French.
Turner brought French to his bedroom, where he brutally sexually assaulted the nine-year-old until she stopped breathing. According to the FDL Reporter, French died of asphyxiation and shock.
Though Turner attempted to cover up his crimes by wrapping French in a garbage bag and dumping her body, police soon showed up at his door. Turner admitted to killing the nine-year-old, and though he later recanted his confession, he was sentenced to 38 years and six months behind bars.
Today, Halloween in Fond du Lac has a different feeling than it did in 1973. Following Lisa Ann French’s Halloween murder, trick-or-treating is held during set hours — and never after dark.
