McDonald’s is an American staple. Almost every town has at least one and many have upwards of three. It’s even spread and branched out to become a worldwide brand!

It’s in our movies, our books, the ads are everywhere, it’s one of those brands that’s woven into the fabric of everyday life to the point that we don’t even notice the product placement anymore when it pops up in a show.

It’s so ingrained in our culture that it’s considered, consciously or not, to be a safe and familiar place, with its bright lights, colorful mascots, and 24/7 availability. Underneath that cheerful, safe veneer, however, beats the same sort of danger you can find everywhere else, and the terrifying possibility of being murdered.

The unlucky locations below have all suffered the tragedy of serving up a helping of McMurder.

See Also: Top 10 Failed McDonald’s Products

5Taiwan Blood Pool

On March 26th, 2018, a McDonald’s customer stopped into a McDonald’s in Tainan City at just past midnight for a quick bite to eat. Finishing his meal, he wandered into the bathroom, only to be confronted with something horrible: a bathroom stall with a rapidly expanding puddle of blood spilling out from under the door.

The authorities were quickly called and opened the locked stall to a gruesome sight: the corpse of a 46-year-old man, an empty syringe, and a scene drenched in blood. The man, identified only as Chiu, had apparently been dead for some time, and was covered in blood from his face to his shoes. Though authorities could not confirm nor deny a murder, the state of the body suggested murder most foul.

4Chinese Cult Killing

Monday, August 18th of 2014, found Wu Shuoyan in a McDonald’s in Zhaoyuan, China, with her 7 year old son. They sat down to eat, when a group of people (Zhang Fan, Zhang Lidong, Lü Yingchun, Zhang Hang, and Zhang Qiao, and a 12-year-old child) entered the McDonald’s and began to preach.

The group of 6 were from a known Christian splinter cult, The Church of Almighty God, that frequently hold public demonstrations like this. They were mostly ignored. Until, that is, they started badgering the crowd for their phone numbers, in order to contact them later about the church.

Most gave up their numbers, albeit reluctantly, just to get the cultists to leave them in peace. Wu, however, refused, rebuffing several attempts to pressure her into giving over the number. At which point, the cultists became frustrated, and then insulted, and then infuriated.

Wu was reportedly then tied to a chair, accused of being an evil spirit, and beaten to death by the members of the cult, who struck her first with a metal mop handle and then, as they became more furious and frenzied, chairs, and their own bare hands. Wu was left so injured that it was hard to identify her body, as the cult menbers had also knocked her to the ground and stomped on her face, shattering her features.

When questioned, the cult members showed no signs of remorse, claiming that Wu was an evil spirit, and that they also did not fear the law nor any repercussion for their murder, claiming that they have God on their side, and are in direct opposition to “the Great Red Dragon” together. Said Great Red Dragon is, according to Chinese officials, an allegory for the Chinese government, to which the cult is opposed.

The act was recorded on video, and the accused arrested and tried.

3 Bronx Drive-Thru Hit

Mob hits are something we usually imagine to be a thing of the past, the sepia-toned 1940’s, a bygone era of blood-red zoot suits, feather caps, Cadillac Series 62s, and tommy guns. Yet, just last year, on June 18th of 2019, a mob hit was carried out in a McDonald’s in the Bronx.

71-year-old Sylvester “Sally Daz” Zottola, alleged Bonanno crime family associate, was waiting in line for a hot, fresh cup of McDonald’s coffee, when his life was ended in a rain of gunfire (and, presumably, thick New York accents screaming Mafia cliches).

The gunman, reported to be one Bushawn “Shelz” Shelton, was a member of a local gang allegedly hired by Sylvester’s 41-year-old son, Anthony Zottola Sr. to kill his father in order to take control of the ‘family business’—gambling.

Anthony is also accused of making an attempt on the life of his brother, Salvatore Zottola, in an attempt to lure his father out, a single act in a murder plot that apparently spanned years, and included multiple attempts on his fathers life, as well as sending hundreds of texts in film-themed code to his hitman.

The texts repeatedly referred to Sylvester as “the star” and “the actor”, with one allegedly reading “Today was supposed to be the end until the actor wanted to do his own stunts and throw it in reverse in the middle of shooting a scene and drive in the opposite direction.”

Anthony is currently on trial for the murder, as well as several other felonies in connection to the murder and the events preceding it.

2 Sydney River Mcdonald’s Massacre

On May 7th, 1992, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, three young men (Derek Wood, 18, an employee of the restaurant, Freeman MacNeil, 23, and Darren Muise, 18) broke into a Halifax McDonald’s after closing with the intent to rob it. Unfortunately for everyone involved, however, there were still employees inside when the break-in occurred.

James Fagan, 27, Donna Warren, 22, Arleen MacNeil, 20, and Neil Burroughs Jr., 29, where closing up shop when the three men broke into the fast food restaurant. The men reportedly didn’t hesitate much before drawing their weapons and opening fire.

James, Donna, and Neil were killed almost instantly, but Arleen, who was shot in the head, survived to testify against the men, although she was left permanently disabled by brain damage. The robbers then looted the register, making off with a measly 2,017 dollars.

The three robbers were caught, convicted, and sent to prison, although as of 2020, at least two are out on parole. Muise, who admitted to being the one to kill Fagan, was released on parole in 2012, and at last check lives with his girlfriend in lower British Columbia, “stable and financially secure” according to the parole board.

Freeman MacNeil was awarded day parole, while Wood was denied it twice on appeal.

1 San Ysidro Massacre

July 18th of 1984 saw one of the deadliest, most gruesome shootings in American history happen in a San Ysidro McDonald’s. Over the course of an hour and 17 minutes, James Oliver Huberty rampaged through the small restaurant, killing 21 people and injuring 20 more.

With no apparent motive, and no spoken cause, Huberty spent the little more than an hour inside the McDonald’s repeatedly firing into bodies both living and dead, attempting to kill everyone in the restaurant and parking lot.

Rescue workers and cops were no exception to the rule, as Huberty fired upon them as well the moment they crossed into the parking lot, shots pinging off the cars and fire engines, even the ambulances.

Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over, as one officer managed to get off a careful shot and strike Huberty dead center of the chest, killing him instantly. The 20 people still alive inside were taken to the nearest hospital for emergency treatment.

Although the McDonald’s no longer stands, a monument to the victims is still displayed in the town, in remembrance of the 21 dead and 20 injured in the shooting.

It’s no secret that McDonald’s food is unhealthy and the company is prone to scandals. But it might surprise you just how unhealthy it really is and how many scandals there truly are. The company—the single largest restaurant corporation in the world and one of the largest in general—has a long history of mistreating its managers, employees, customers, and even the food itself. As a result, they’ve stacked up a lot of skeletons in their many closets around the globe. Though every secret in this list is a matter of public record, it’s surprising how few people are aware of them. For McDonald’s, secrets are less about ‘is the information out there’ and more about ‘can we make people forget about it with our new, creepy Hamburglar.’ Here are ten open secrets that McDonald’s would love you to ignore.

10 The Vegetarian Options are Not Vegetarian

For decades, McDonald’s listed its french fries as vegetarian options. After all, it’s just potatoes, salt, and vegetable oil, right? Wrong. McDonald’s fries contain 19 different ingredients, one of which is beef fat. The company tried to hide this by listing the beef fat as simply “natural flavoring” for years but they were eventually found out.

Naturally, the company was sued for its false claims, most famously by several prominent Jewish and Muslim groups. McDonald’s’ use of beef fat was neither kosher nor halal, and so by lying about it, the company had forced millions of people to unknowingly violate their own religious beliefs. McDonald’s was forced to settle for undisclosed tens of millions of dollars with an assortment of groups but only removed the beef fat from non-U.S. fries.

9 “Super Size Me” Actually Worked

In 2004, Morgan Spurlock released his documentary “Super Size Me,” in which he ate only McDonald’s for an entire month to demonstrate the unhealthiness of its food. Fitting the film’s name, Spurlock always supersized his meal if an employee offered. As expected, Spurlock’s health was atrocious at the end of the month. Many viewers were left thinking ‘well, duh’ and moved on. But the film did have a significant effect on McDonald’s.

The supersize option, which had existed for 12 years at that point, was removed from the McDonald’s menu just six weeks after the film premiered. The company denied that the film had any impact on its decision, but the odds of that coincidence occurring on its own are minuscule.

8 The McAfrika

You might assume from the name that this was a racism controversy (no, those are later in the list), but really the McAfrika was just a story of terrible marketing and management. In 2002, McDonald’s released the McAfrika, and every aspect of its release was flawed.

For one, the burger—which was just beef, cheese, and tomatoes on pita bread—was marketed as an “authentic” African recipe, which makes you question if McDonald’s knows the definition of the words “authentic,” “African,” “recipe,” and “pita.” And the sandwich was released at the height of a severe famine in South/Central Africa, so selling fattening food named after the area was a bad look. Even worse is that the burger only came out in Norway, a country that is about as non-African as it gets and one of the richest nations in the world. The burger did not live a long life.

7 They Don’t Clean Their Machines

This is a weird one because there are actually two secrets wrapped up in one here. The McDonald’s ice cream machines are famous for always being out of service and the company is constantly mocked for it. The truth is that often when an employee tells a customer that the machine is out of service, it’s actually because the machine is in the middle of its nightly four-hour self-cleaning process. That seems good because four hours of cleaning a day must make the machines exceptionally clean, right?

Actually, the machines can be filthy. That self-cleaning process for the ice cream machines only cleans the main internal chambers, not any outside trays or nozzles. And it’s not just the ice cream machines. At any given point, there is a decent chance that most of the machines in any McDonald’s location are dirty. As many employees have confessed on assorted Reddit threads, Quora, and other anonymous locations, many of the machines are a pain to clean, and without much incentive to clean them, employees will just let them get dirtier and dirtier until they grow mold.

6 Just How Often They’re Sued

The answer: constantly. And for every reason you could think of. Aside from the beef fat incident mentioned above, a lawsuit was raised because supervisors in three locations had complained that there were “too many black people in the store” and fired most of their black employees. Then there’s the time that 52 former owners of over 200 stores sued McDonald’s for being forced into “financial suicide missions” when white owners were not. 

Then there’s the time that one franchise had forced workers into 25-hour shifts without overtime pay, which the company defended. A quick stroll through news outlets will reveal dozens of other major suits, including their most famous: the hot coffee incident.

5 The Hot Coffee Incident was Their Fault

The hot coffee incident was a widely publicized case in which an elderly woman sued McDonald’s because its coffee gave her third-degree burns. The plaintiff, Stella Liebeck, was heavily ridiculed in the media, with most major outlets labeling her claim as a textbook frivolous lawsuit. In reality, McDonald’s lost the case and was forced to pay Liebeck damages.

As much as the media demonized Liebeck, it turns out she had been (mostly) in the right. McDonald’s coffee was actually almost 40 degrees hotter than normal coffee, and literally, hundreds of people had complained about its temperature to McDonald’s before. Liebeck even had to get skin grafts to replace the skin that the hot coffee tore off of her pelvis.

4 Their Health Initiative are Totally Fake

Over and over, McDonald’s promises to make their menu healthier in one way or another, and it always comes with a big asterisk. A recent marketing campaign claimed that McDonald’s burgers would no longer contain preservatives. About a third of them still do. Before that, a campaign made waves when it promised to remove high-fructose corn syrup. But only from the buns. You can still find it in dozens of other items, including every sauce that comes on those buns.

About the same time as the removal of supersizing, McDonald’s started offering salads. Of course, a quick look through the nutritional facts will show that those salads contain even more calories than the burgers once the dressing and cheese are put on. Still, another campaign around that time promised to simplify menu items and lower their number of ingredients. Again, a quick look at the official ingredients listed on their website shows how dishonest this claim was. (I counted the ingredients in a standard Big Mac, and it was a staggering ~70, including the high fructose corn syrup they claimed to have removed.)

3 They Served Tainted Meat and Didn’t Care

In 2014, a reporter secretly filmed inside a food-processing plant in China that belonged to the OSI Group and discovered abhorrent conditions within. Workers touched food with their bare hands, dropped it on the floor, repackaged it, and even repackaged expired meat. The OSI Group supplied meat to many major fast-food chains in China, and upon learning of its subpar conditions, all of them cut ties with the company. All except one, that is.

McDonald’s responded to the controversy by blatantly lying, saying that they had never received any meat from that plant or any other OSI-owned plant. This was quickly found out to be untrue. Then, in defiance of common sense and ethics, the company decided to keep using the OSI Group as their source of chicken and beef in China. And again, every single other company—Burger King, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, KFC, and others—had cut ties with the OSI Group immediately.

2 There’s a Best Time (and Way) to Eat There

This is true for most restaurants, as well. To maintain certain standards of service, corporations rely on mystery shoppers, undercover agents who buy items and rate the food, cleanliness, and service. It’s a common practice, and anyone who has ever helped run a restaurant can tell you: the shoppers tend to come at certain times. That makes those times the best times to eat there.

Whether directly or not, employees are taught to be on the lookout for mystery shoppers and give them their A-game. Mystery shoppers tend to come at busy times like breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they tend to order in similar ways. They have to order a certain number of items, for example, and they always have to leave with a receipt. So ordering from McDonald’s at the busiest times and asking for an itemized receipt is likely to nab you the best service possible.

1 The Monopoly Game Was Fake

The McDonald’s Monopoly game was a favorite of mine as a kid, so it’s heartbreaking to hear that, for five years, it was all fake. From 1995-2000, almost none of the top prizes were awarded to McDonald’s customers. The winning pieces simply weren’t on public items. 

Instead, the most valuable pieces were all given to friends and family of a man named Jerome Jacobson. Jerome was the head of security at Simon Marketing, the company with which McDonald’s ran the game. He was able to get to the pieces before they went out and keep all the most valuable ones secret. Knowing he couldn’t cash them in himself, he gave them all to his family and friends and asked for a piece of their prize money in exchange. All told, his social circle racked up $24 million in prizes before he was caught.

If there were something kids in the 1970s through to the early 2000s looked forward to, it was the trip to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal. The scent of the paper wrappers, the conversations, the laughter…

Beyond stuffing ourselves with gloriously greasy chicken nuggets and piping hot fries—without worrying about calories—we looked forward to what cool trinket we’d find inside the cheerful red and yellow box.

Are you smiling yet? Come relive those memories with us as we explore 10 of the most nostalgic McDonald’s Happy Meal toys ever.

10 Grimace, Hamburglar, & Birdie (1979)

Yes, we know, Ronald McDonald always looked like something from a creepy movie, and that cup on his nose… We were definitely relieved when McDonald’s introduced Grimace, the affable monster, Hamburglar, the burger hoarder, and Birdie, the girly early bird, to take the edge off.

The three popular figurines released in 1979 have made a nostalgic comeback targeting adults in 2022 through a limited edition collaboration with Cactus Plant Flea Market. The Adult Happy Meal (aimed at the ’70s and ’80s, well, and maybe ’90s kids) will also include a new figure-Cactus Buddy.

There is an unmistakable twist to these figurines, though. They now spot two sets of eyes, which is creepy, but nothing new if you’re familiar with McDonald’s Happy Meals. Fans who are eager to relive their childhood have come out in droves to snag these meal boxes before it’s too late.

We’re never too old to enjoy a Happy Meal, especially if it includes some of our beloved but mostly forgotten character toys.

9 Hot Wheels (1983)

Back in the day, toy cars were a favorite. We raced them at home, in the car, and just about every place our parents took us. So you can imagine how awesome it felt getting a brand-new toy car for free, along with a delightful lunch.

McDonald’s partnered with Mattel to offer a collection of 14 quality metal cars in different colors and shapes. You could find ambulances, police cars, and race cars to keep you on the fast lane at the restaurant or in your car as you left the drive-thru.

In later years, McDonald’s conjured their own car designs and distributed those instead. These cars were made of cheaper plastic bodies but were cool nonetheless.

If you remember, Happy Meal toys depended on whether you requested “boy” or “girl” toys. The boys got the Hot Wheels cars meal box, while the girls received the Barbie doll meal box. Of course, that has changed now, and kids can choose whatever toy they like.

8 Ghostbusters (1984)

If there’s something strange in your neighborhood… who you gonna call? Who can forget that catchy Ghostbusters theme song? And to imagine that your next meal included all the RGB TV show characters was blissful.

Behold, Staypuft the sharpener, Slimer pencil topper, Ghostbusters pencil, a ghost-shaped notepad, and pencil pouch were just one part. The boxes contained a bonanza of fun-filled games and activities to fill your day.

My favorite Happy Meal Box had an “Ecto’s Defectos” puzzle on one side, and I needed to name everything wrong with Ecto-1. I’m certain we mostly thought about the ghost settled in the driver’s seat, yet the car also had a flat tire, broken light, and a missing door. No, I didn’t forget the busted bumper.

On the other side of the box, the “Bedtime Surprise” activity was the quickest ever. All you needed to do was match the ghosts (all set to surprise our friends) to their slime trails.

The “Total Confusion” puzzle had these distinct-looking but weirdly shaped ghosts trapped in an Ecto-Containment Unit. Your job was to count them, and if you found all 13, hurray.

Last was the Ghostbusted jigsaw puzzle, where Slimer, unfortunately, broke into little pieces thanks to Egon’s ghost net. Reassembling Slimer meant popping out all his parts which caused major damage to your box, but it was worth it.

Other boxes had different activities to keep you delighted as you dug into your deliciously greasy fries.

7 Transformers/My Little Pony (1985)

So back then, a perfect Happy Meal allowed boys to add a Transformer character to their collection while girls could show off their My Little Pony Charms.

Transformers figurines included Cliffjumper, my favorite Bumblebee, Brawn, and Gears, while Blossom, Butterscotch, the all-too-cute Snuzzle, Minty, purple-haired Blue Belle, and Cotton Candy completed the My Little Pony Charms set. The toys were so popular that they spawned addictive animated series and movies.

Moving into 1996, McDonald’s added five different toys to their Transformers Happy Meal line to aggrandize the Beast Wars cartoon. These characters comprised Beetle, MantaRay, Rhino, Panther, and an under-3 toy.

The franchise distributed two meal cardboard boxes—one featured punch-out cards of Optimus Prime and other heroes, while the other box had punch-outs of Megatron and his villain partners.

My Little Pony’s ’97 collection had kids wowed with turnable heads, brushable tails, and intricate decals. While girls mostly clipped the original toys to their back pockets, the design evolved beautifully to make them even more playable toys.

6 Changeables (1987)

With the Transformer toys being such a hit among kids, McDonald’s decided to create its own version: the Changeables.

So what typically passed for an ice cream cone, fries, burgers, Egg McMuffin, Chicken McNuggets, and hotcakes were robots, dinosaurs, and many other creatures. You just needed to unfold these food items, and voila! You’d be off to whatever world-changing rescue mission you imagined.

The ’87 wave of Changeables didn’t have much of a story going, save for a couple of jokes on the box, but McDonald’s did come up with lore in ’89.

The Munchoids (food thieves) were intent on stealing every Happy Meal from Earth. It became the Changeables’ mission to stop them. So, Fry, the robot, had this idea where the Changeables would shrink down to cross the galaxy and arrive on Earth, where they would duplicate themselves so every kid would have one.

And they did just that.

5 Fraggle Rock Toys (1988)

Muppets aside, the Fraggle Rock series was a winner. For an early ’80s musical fantasy show, it was artistic, silly, downright raucous, and appealed to all ages.

McDonald’s saw the opportunity and jumped right in. This particular meal box contained one of four characters: Gobo in an orange carrot car, Mokey doing her thing in a purple eggplant car, Red in a red radish car (red has always been a thing), and the duo Wembley and Boober in a shared green cucumber car. Weird how Boober was facing the wrong way. He probably lost the toss and was mad about it.

With choking possibilities, kids under 3 received Gobo holding a carrot or Red with a radish in his hand.

I always wondered why the Fraggles drove veggie cars. Perhaps, they were trying to inspire us to eat our vegetables. Or were they predicting a future where we would replace our gasoline-powered cars with eco-friendly vegetable-powered ones…?

4 Super Mario Bros. (1990)

By now, the ’70s and ’80s kids were older, Nintendo video games were the thing, and we were gobbling up every available game, including Super Mario Bros. 3.

We weren’t even done talking about the Super Mario Bros. 3 game when McDonald’s introduced its characters. Our interest in getting these toys was beyond casual; it was absolute—like we had to get those characters.

The original set comprised four characters, well, five if you count the stoic Racoon Mario designed purely for younger kids. Jumping Mario had this spring-loaded doohickey that let him fly while Luigi held on to a starman as he sat on his pull-back cloud car. A bouncing Koopa Paratroopa and somersaulting Little Goomba rounded things off.

We all had a favorite figure, but there really wasn’t a bad one. You just needed to figure out how to work them into your action figure adventures without them jumping off and away.

3 Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers (1995)

McDonald’s has never shied from partnering with popular TV shows or movies, so it was an absolute thrill when they released MMPR Happy Meal toys just as the MMPR movie premiered.

Lunch or dinner now included cool Power Ranger devices like the “Power Siren” and “Alien Detectors.” You could also chance upon the “Power Com,” or if you were lucky, the “PowerMorpher Buckle.”

The actual Power Ranger figurines, complete with Zord merch, were available at McDonald’s, but you purchased them separately. These figurines were pretty well made (even by today’s standards) and resembled their TV counterparts. The perfect collection for kids in the ‘90s.

2 Teenie Beanie Babies (1997)

We remember the Beanie Babies craze more than we do the toys. Or maybe we remember everything and still have our favorite collection tucked somewhere in the back of the closet or the attic.

Those squishy, cuddly, irresistibly adorable bean-filled toys had kids, parents, and grandparents clamoring for one or all of them. It was so bad that fights even broke out at multiple McDonald’s locations.

McDonald’s partnership with Ty Inc. was such that new beanies would be introduced yearly at the former’s locations until 2000.

The 1997 set contained 10 Beanies that included Patti platypus, Chops the lamb (I doubt that name would fly today), Pinky flamingo, Chocolate moose, Snort the bull, Goldie goldfish, Seamore the seal, Speedy turtle, Quacks the duck, and Lizz lizard.

While we all had our favorites, popular Beanies in the 1998 set included Doby dog, Inch Worm, Pinchers Lobster, and Bongo monkey. And 1999 saw Freckles the leopard warm our hearts along with Chip the cat, Strut Rooster, and Nuts squirrel.

If you were still interested in Happy Meal Beanies, you found that the critters were now grouped as “Pet Pals,” “Garden Bunch,” “At the Zoo,” and “Under the Sea.” And let’s not forget Libearty Bear.

So even though the internet screams about the “worthlessness” of these pocket-sized Beanie babies today, we know that they hold an invaluable spot in our hearts.

1 Mini Furbies (1999)

Furby toys were an overnight sensation in the ‘90s, and McDonald’s jumped on the bandwagon by creating Mini Furbies for their Happy Meals.

McDonald’s tweaked the original toys’ design, so their eyes didn’t stare at you creepily. Yup, Mini Furbies blinked and could move their ears. Still, their eyes were gigantically creepy (there’s no moving away from that), and their ears remained batlike. At least the Mini Furbies didn’t talk to you in the middle of the night (unlike their larger cousins), or you would have blasted through the walls in fright.

Perhaps the “horror feel” they inspired in us drew us to them… I wonder if they have been spying on us all this time and will wake up one day and take over the world…

Anyway, the 1999 figures were 80 in total. So if you were a die-hard fan, you probably went in search of all eight series that contained ten mini Furbies each.

In 2000, McDonald’s introduced 12 mini Furby stuffed keychains based on the 1998 Furby toys. Okay, so maybe these didn’t look too shabby, and they had names too if you can recall—Diamondback Snake, Elephant, Cow, Lamb, Giraffe, Tiger, Fox, Raccoon, Monkey, Owl, Tree Frog, and Dinosaur.