Picture this...Staten Island, New York, 1970s, kids are being kidnapped by a man with a hook for a hand, severely disfigured by scars and burns. He might also be carrying an axe. No, I'm not talking about Freddie Kruger from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies...that's a scared guy with razor hands who kills kids in their dreams...or nightmares. I'm talking about Cropsey...the guy who, after his son died, was admitted to a mental health hospital and escaped. In his despair of wanting his son back, he would kidnap children in the Staten Island area.
Of course, this is all urban legend...a story that parents would tell their children to keep them from misbehaving. 'Don't go over there, Cropsey will get you!' Summer camp counselors would tell the story of Cropsey around the campfire for entertainment...and scares.
But...what happens when an urban legend becomes reality? Let me introduce you to Andre Rand. He was born in 1944. As an adult, he worked as a custodian at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island. Willowbrook, itself, is a nightmare story. It was originally built for children with intellectual disabilities, but ended up being a literal hell for all the children who lived there.
In 1972, Geraldo Rivera did an expose on Willowbrook which showed the horrible conditions that the children lived in. There were reports of sexual abuse and corporal punishment as well as unethical medical experiments being done on these children. Remember, these were disabled children. The parents forgot about them, the system forgot about them. So many people did nothing for these children. Even with Geraldo's expose', authorities did not close the school until 1987.
Let me back up a second...in 1969, Andre Rand was sentenced to 16 months in jail for the attempted sexual assault of a nine-year-old. In 1983, for unknown reasons, Andre took a school bus with 11 children from a New York City YMCA to New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport. He was caught and thankfully no kids were found physically harmed. He was arrested and sentenced to 10 months. Why only 10 months? I have no idea. The moment I think I understand the law...turns out I really, really don't!
Sometime after his release, Andre was known to hang out with kids in the area, some people had seen him taking walks with little kids or taking them out to local places for something to eat. Obviously his brief stint in the prison system completely rehabilitated him...I say in complete sarcasm. There became moments where children had gone missing and Andre Rand was the last person seen with them. So he was quickly arrested and put away forever...story over! Just kidding!
Andre Rand would not be in big trouble for any of the disappearances until 1987, after the disappearance of 12-year-old Jennifer Schweiger...a sweet child with Down Syndrome. At the time of Jennifer's disappearance, Andre was homeless and living in a makeshift campsite on the grounds of the abandoned school. He was not too far from the Seaview Hospital that is closely tied to the Cropsey legend. Jennifer's body was found a little bit over a month later in a shallow grave on the school grounds. Andre Rand was then charged with murder.
Police also suspected Rand in the disappearances other children and some adults that were missing from Staten Island going back more than ten years: Alice Pereira, five, who disappeared in 1972; 22-year-old Sylvia Alice Lwowski, who disappeared in 1975; Audrey Lyn Nerenberg, 18, who was last seen in 1977; Ethel Louise Atwell, 42, who disappeared in 1978; sixteen-year-old Brenda Cecilia Crowley, last seen in 1980; Holly Ann Hughes, seven, who disappeared in 1981 and was last spotted with Rand on the day of her disappearance; 11-year-old Tiahease Jackson who disappeared in 1983; and Hank Gafforio, a mentally disabled 22 year-old who was last seen with Rand at a diner in 1984. These people have never been found...alive or dead.
The jury in the murder case for Jennifer Schweiger could not reach a verdict on the murder charge as there was not enough physical evidence linking Rand directly to Jennifer's death. The jury did find Rand guilty of kidnapping and he received a sentence of 25 years in prison. Rand was eligible for parole in 2008, but in 2004, some new evidence was found linking him to the disappearance of Holly Ann Hughes. Again, she had disappeared in 1981. Rand described details of the abduction to a fellow inmate, who took notes of the conversations. Andre Rand ended up being convicted on a second kidnapping charge and given another 25 years added to what he was already serving. He now will not be eligible for parole until 2037, at which time he will be 93 years old. I hope the guy never rests in peace.
To get more of the legend, you can watch the 1981 movie, The Burning. The movie is about a once-respectable man named George Cropsey, who goes insane after a prank gone wrong that leaves him disfigured and he begins killing unsuspecting summer camps with an axe. I'll go get the popcorn!
Something else interesting to watch would be the 2009 documentary made by Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio named Cropsey. They both grew up on Staten Island and heard many stories of Cropsey when they were children. The documentary talks about the legend and the real Andre Rand and, most of all, the missing children.
Legend versus truth? Unfortunately, sometimes the boogeyman is real.
-- Audre
Photo by: the-line-up.com
Sources:
wikipedia.org
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