Initially, Fred Krueger was intended to be a child molester, but Craven eventually decided to characterize him as a child "murderer" to avoid being accused of exploiting a spate of highly publicized child molestation cases that occurred in California around the time of production of the film. By Craven's account, his own adolescent experiences led to the naming of Fred Krueger. He had been bullied at school by a child named Fred Krueger, and named his villain accordingly. The colored sweater he chose for his villain was based on the DC Comics character Plastic Man, and Craven chose to make Krueger's sweater colors that of red and green, after reading an article in "Scientific American" in 1982 that said the two most clashing colors to the human retina were this particular combination.