The Plum Tree Hanging

I’ve noticed that in recent years, Halloween decorations have grown increasingly macabre. In my neighborhood, at least, grinning Jack o’lanterns and innocuous ghosts are being replaced by ghoulish skeletons (both human and animal,) gravestones, knife-wielding devils, and various other ugly monstrosities. Last year, a house near me put in their yard such a revolting handmade display of chopped-up doll parts covered in unsettlingly realistic-looking fake blood that some neighbors complained vigorously enough to get the DIY abattoir removed. However, as ghastly as it all is, at least nobody around here has hung a genuine dead body outside anyone’s house. To date, at least. For an example of such real-life Halloween horror, you would have to look back to Evansville, Indiana in 1925.While returning from a party on October 31, a couple named George and Helen Erhard saw something large dangling from a plum tree in their front yard. At first, they assumed it was a mannequin someone had left…