The date was October 31st, 2008. A harsh frost had invaded the night before in Shermanville, a sleepy 6,500-person town in the heart of Ohio. The frost shocked the leaves of every neighborhood tree or downtown city grove, dead autumn leaves catching the wind throughout the Halloween day and evening. In retrospect, many survivors of what has been called SLASHER NIGHT have recalled that the sudden chill that settled on Shermanville was an omen that no one cared to notice, much like the other problems slowly bringing the town into a desperate moral crisis.

In twenty four hours, over thirty people would be dead, dozens injured, three buildings burned down, and an entire town driven mad by confusion, resentments, and the general fear of one another.

Conrad J. Kessler, senior tuba player for the Shermanville High band and chess hobbyist killed nineteen individuals while wearing three different Halloween masks and costumes over the course of the night. His motives were never uncovered despite years of attempts through therapy, psychological studies/papers, documentaries, and serious literature. First identified as “The Butcher” by Shermanville High newscaster/ class valedictorian, Margie Harper on her live radio show three hours before midnight, Kessler ended the joyous night of tricks and treats with a terrifying town-wide lockdown.

The Shermanville Butcher would become the world’s first masked killer to be widely known, escape custody and kill, become captured, and escape and kill again multiple times throughout the 2010s (there are seven heavily documented encounters across the United States, including the abandoned Swampwater Adventure Camp near Tomahawk Lake, New Jersey in 2016). His modus operandi of switching through multiple masks and weapons throughout the night captivated and frightened the nation as more and more evidence via cell phone footage, CCTV, and recovered news camera broadcasts from the final hours of the hellish night came to light as the Internet blossomed.

When the sun finally rose on the ‘sleepy’ town on November 1st, a massive police standoff occurred between concerned Shermanville residents at the city hospital with several wounded individuals. One person was wounded in an accidental pistol discharge and several were critically injured in a chaotic stampede which occurred after the gunshot. Several of the people in the crowd during the small riot at Grand Erie hospital would become the first members of the revolutionary vigilante group called the Slashers, wearing masks to beat police corruption and incompetence into submission.