Posted by November 4, 1973, an event shook the entire American community, with consequences still visible today. This is the story of the Halloween Killer.
Halloween Night 1973
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin (USA), early 1970s, Halloween night. Children were certainly given more freedom than they are today, and at six in the evening, 9-year-old Lisa French was knocking on neighborhood doors to ask the fateful question: “Trick or treat?”
Lisa was alone—after all, she didn’t have to go far from home, and she lived in a quiet neighborhood. She knocked on the doors of neighbors she knew well, and the first two houses went great: she collected a haul of candy and chocolates. The third house she knocked on belonged to Gerald Turner, a 25-year-old family friend whom Lisa knew well. As she held her bag open, ready to receive treats, a smile on her little face, Gerald Turner opened the door.
The man started talking to the little girl about candy and managed to lure her into his bedroom. There, he tore off her clothes and brutally assaulted her. After committing the violence, he strangled her.
At 7:15 PM, Turner’s girlfriend, along with her young daughter, returned home after attending a Halloween party. The woman noticed that Turner kept going back to the bedroom, but he told her he wasn’t feeling well, and she didn’t think much of it. Shortly after, around 8:00 PM, she left again to visit her mother.
Turner then hid little Lisa’s body in a trash bag. A second bag was used to hold the girl’s clothes. He then dumped the bags on a dirt road just outside town.
The Discovery of the Body
Lisa’s mother anxiously checked the clock: her daughter’s curfew, 7:00 PM, had long passed, and she began to worry. She called relatives and friends, but no one seemed to have seen her. By 10:00 PM, Lisa’s parents decided to call the police, who launched an investigation.
For four days, the search continued until a farmer made a gruesome discovery. On a road next to a field on his farm, the man found the bags containing Lisa’s body and clothes.
The police investigation began, and a few months later, they interrogated Turner. The police asked where he had been on Halloween night, but his answers were full of contradictions. They then asked if he would take a lie detector test, and Turner agreed.
After the polygraph results showed Turner was lying, the man confessed to the crime.
Arrest and Sentencing of the Halloween Killer
Although he was charged with first-degree murder, the judge convicted him of second-degree murder, taking indecent liberties with a minor under 16, and abnormal sexual perversion. He was sentenced to 38 and a half years in prison but was released in 1992, only 17 years later, on parole.
In 2003, he was arrested again for possession of sexually explicit material and sentenced to 15 years.
Precisely to prevent other sexual predators from being released, Turner’s Law was passed in 1994, requiring violent sex offenders to be committed to a secure treatment center if they request parole and are deemed a threat to society.
Authorities tried to have him registered as a violent sex offender, but the judge denied the request. In 2018, he was released again and held in a supervised residential facility in Juneau County during a court battle over his placement.
His latest request for release was in 2022, but it was denied.
Lasting Repercussions
Following the horrifying story of the Halloween Killer and Lisa French, children in Fond du Lac are no longer allowed to go “trick-or-treating” alone. The activity now takes place on the Sunday before Halloween, ending by 5:30 PM, with children accompanied by their parents.
Halloween should be a carefree holiday for children, a time to collect candy and have fun with friends. The naivety of parents in the ’70s and the cruelty of one man forever changed the spirit of this holiday in Fond du Lac, where, even today, the name Lisa French echoes as a somber warning.
