Devil's Night

This article is about the Detroit cultural phenomenon. For the album by rap group D12, see Devil's Night (album).

'Devil's Night or Hell Night ' is a name associated with October 30th, the night before Halloween. It is related to the "Mischief night" practiced in other parts of the United States and the world, but is chiefly associated with the serious vandalism and arson seen in Detroit, Michigan from the 70s to the 90s,^[1] finally prompting the "Angel's Night" community response.

Description

Devil's Nights dates from as early as the 1940's. Traditionally, city youths engaged in a night of criminal behavior, which usually consisted of acts of vandalism (such as egging, soaping or waxing windows and doors, leaving rotten vegetables or flaming bags of animal feces on front porch stoops, or toilet papering trees and shrubs). These were almost exclusively acts of petty vandalism, causing little to no property damage.

However, in the early 1970s, the vandalism escalated to more devastating acts, such as arson. This primarily took place in the inner city, but surrounding suburbs were often affected as well. In addition, property owners unable to sell in the city's rapidly declining housing market would use Devil's Night as an opportunity to burn down their homes, collect the insurance money, and claim that an arsonist was at fault.^{[citation needed]}

The crimes became more destructive in Detroit's inner-city neighborhoods, and included hundreds of acts of arson and vandalism every year. The destruction reached a peak in the mid- to late-1980s, with more than 800 fires set in 1984, and 500 to 800 fires in the three days and nights before Halloween in a typical year.^[2]

Decline of Devil's Night arson

By the early 1990s, Detroit saw little decline in Devil's Night arson.^[3] After a brutal Devil's Night in 1994, then-mayor Dennis Archer promised city residents arson would not be tolerated. In 1995, Detroit city officials organized and created Angel's Night on and around October 29–31. Each year as many as 50,000 volunteers gather to patrol neighborhoods.^{[4] [5]} In 2010, however, the number of reported fires climbed to 169, a 42 percent increase over the previous year.^[6]

Devil's Night outside of Detroit

Outside the US, the last day of Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Denmark is marked by concert-goers torching the tents surrounding the area, even if they're not their own. This is called "Hell Night".

Appearance of Devil's Night in fiction

• Devil's Night is an integral part of the 1994 film The Crow. Set in Detroit, the film shows in flashbacks the murder of Eric Draven (Brandon Lee), and the rape and murder of his fiancée Shelley Webster (Sofia Shinas) on Devil's Night. At a meeting of criminal underworld figures later in the film, the main villain Top Dollar (Michael Wincott) is portrayed as having started the first fires himself, which were later emulated by others. He declares that the practice has become tiresome as "it's all been done before", referencing the perceived popularity of Devil's Night by claiming that there are even Devil's Night greeting cards. He intends to further escalate the destruction annually wrought by his organization by "setting a fire so big the gods will notice us again!". His plan is halted by Draven, who ultimately kills him in retaliation for ordering the murder of him and his fiancé.
• In the movie Grosse Pointe Blank, which takes place in the Detroit suburbs of Grosse Pointe, the character Debi Newberry says that her apartment burned down on Devil's Night.
• Devil's Night was also chronicled in journalist Zev Chafets' 1990 nonfiction book Devil's Night and Other True Tales of Detroit.
• Devil's Night is used as a plot device in the 2007 Canadian horror movie Left for Dead.
• The movie 8 Mile features a sequence where the characters torch an abandoned house in Detroit that was used for crime, in reference to Devil's Night.
• Detroit hip-hop group D12's 2001 debut album is titled Devil's Night.
• Devil's Night appears in Laura Bickle's urban fantasy novel Embers (Pocket Books, 2010).
• Mischief Night appears in an episode of the Nickelodeon animated show Rocket Power.
• The sixth episode of the sixth season of the CBS drama Criminal Minds was titled "Devil's Night", and revolved around a burn victim who plotted his arsonist murders on the three days around Devil's Night.
• Devil's Night is mentioned in NCIS episode "Code of Conduct".

See also

• Angels' Night

References

1. ^ Jack Santino, The Hallowed Eve, University Press of Kentucky (1998), Pg. 10.
2. ^ "The Mischievous History of Devil's Night". The Washington Post. 2007-10-30. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/offbeat/2007/10/the_mischievous_history_of_dev_2.html. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ Devil's Night Fires Decline By More Than Half in Detroit, The New York Times, November 3, 1991
4. ^ City of Detroit Angel's Night Homepage, Accessed July 4, 2007
5. ^ "Detroit fires drop over 3-day Halloween period". Daily Tribune. 2009-11-03. http://dailytribune.com/articles/2009/11/03/news/doc4aef43ca44335834433376.txt. 
6. ^ "Significant rise in Detroit fires over Halloween weekend 2010". Digital Journal. 2010-11-01. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/299676. 

Further reading

• Chafets, Zev. (1990). Devil's Night and Other True Tales of Detroit. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-58525-3.
• Davis, Adam Brooke. "Devil's Night and Hallowe'en: The Linked Fates of Two Folk Festivals." Missouri Folklore Society Journal XXIV(2002) 69-82

External links

• Official City of Detroit Angels Night Webpage