Did you see 'Oprah'?
Legend spooks, tricks students for Halloween

By MARK PARFITT
Collegian Staff Writer

Like many people, Cristina Lara heard it from a friend -- a psychic appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and predicted there would be a massacre this Halloween in a H-shaped dorm on a Big Ten college campus.

Not willing to take the risk, Lara (freshman-liberal arts) decided to find other accommodations instead of her Simmons Hall dorm room -- just to be safe.

"There's probably some psycho out there like in ‘Scream,' " Lara said. "I'll make sure I'm sleeping somewhere else this weekend."

But Lara, like thousands of other Big Ten students, got tricked early this Halloween season.

There was no such episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," or any other talk show for that matter. The rumor is an urban legend -- one that has been circulating on college campuses for decades.

"The rumor is false," said Audrey Pass, senior publicist for Harpo Productions Inc. in Chicago, which produces "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Pass said she first heard about the rumor a few weeks ago, about the same time it was circulating at the University of Illinois, University of Iowa and Michigan State University campuses.

Although versions of the legend vary, common details among the current version say the massacre will occur at a Big Ten or Big 12 university and it will take place near a building or a dorm shaped like an "H," according to the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society. Some versions have the killer dressed as Little Bo Peep and the murder weapon as a hatchet, knife or another sharp object, according to the society.

The myth currently circulating is actually a version of a classic fright legend that resurfaces every few years, according to the society. This year is the legend's 30th anniversary since it began in the Midwest in 1968.

After the rumor resurfaced in 1974, psychic Jean Dixon eventually sent a denial of the prediction to The Daily Collegian in 1980. The last time the society said there was an outbreak of the legend in central Pennsylvania was in 1986.

However, some students, such as Maria Lashinger (freshman-aerospace engineering), never believed the rumor.

"It's ridiculous," Lashinger said. "I know three people that are going home this weekend because of this supposed massacre."

Locally, the legend has mostly been confined to the immediate Centre Region area. Lisa McManus, operation manager of WTAJ, the local affiliate of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," said yesterday she had not heard of the legend and Channel 10 had not received any calls by viewers asking if such a program had aired.

The current urban legend circulating through campus is not the first time a widespread rumor has caused panic among Penn State students. In March 1993, a rumor spread in State College about a Domino's Pizza driver who delivered a pizza contaminated with HIV-infected bodily fluids.

The legend became so widespread that both the State College Police Department and Penn State Police Services had to issue letters stating their departments had not received any complaints pertaining to the rumor.

• The Oprah Winfrey Show
• San Fernando Valley Folklore Society

Coverage in other university newspapers
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• The Daily Iowan: "News flash: 'Oprah' massacre NOT coming to Mayflower"
• The Daily Illini: "Legend fuels massacre rumors"
• The (Michigan) State News: "Urban legend strikes 'U'"

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