Urban legends are a fascinating cultural phenomenon. They’re the the life blood of sleepovers and playground whispers, and even as we grow up, they keep a tantalising hold over our psyche, coming back to haunt us during nighttime drives or every time the lights flicker.
But these are just modern day fairytales, aren’t they? They’re nothing more than stories, passed down the generations, right?
Let’s take a side-step into true crime and examine a case where a killer legends come to life.
The Cropsey Legend
A peculiar boogeyman has haunted Staten Island, New York, since the 1970s. Known as “Cropsey”, the unknown assailant was said to be an “escaped lunatic” from the abandoned Willowbrook State School – a now infamous home for mentally disabled children and adults, which closed amidst a scandal of abuse and neglect.
Cropsey was said to live in the tunnels below the former school and the woods surrounding it, only venturing into Staten Island at night to kidnap and murder unsuspecting children who stayed out past their curfew.
Staten Island’s boogeyman was so well known, that it even inspired the 1980’s slasher movies The Burning (1981) and Madman (1982).
On the surface, Cropsey seems like any other modern day boogeyman. In a parallel to other legends, he was often said to wield a hook for a hand, and even his hide-out, an “abandoned mental hospital,” is commonly repeated feature.
But despite these ableist tropes and their prevalence in popular culture, there’s something that sets the Cropsey legend apart.
It’s true.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, the children of Staten Island were being stalked by a boogeyman, and his name was Andre Rand.
Andre Rand and Willowbrook School
Born Frank Rostum Rushan in 1944, Andre Rand is a convicted kidnapper, sex offender and suspected serial killer. He changed his name in 1972 after spending 16 months in prison.
Although his father died when he was 14 and his mother spent time in a psychiatric centre, not much else is known of Rand’s childhood. She alleges that neither she nor her brother were abused by either parent.
Rand has convictions ranging from sexual abuse in 1969, to unlawful imprisonment in 1983 – when he kidnaped a bus full of children from the Staten Island’s YMCA, taking them to get burgers before traveling to the Newark Liberty International Airport where he was apprehended – to his latest conviction of kidnapping in 2004, which he was charged with while imprisoned.
Before this, during the late 1960s, Rand was employed under the name Frank Bruchette as a custodian and physical therapy aide at Willowbrook State School – later known as Staten Island Development Centre.
Willowbrook itself was something from a nightmare. Opening in 1947, Willowbrook School was designed for a maximum of 4,000 students, but had a population of 6,000 by 1965.
In its first decades, hepatitis was prevalent, leading to a controversial study being carried out between 1956 and 1971. During these studies children were perposfuely infected with hepatitis, with some becoming extremely ill. Public outcry brought the study to a close – and rightly so – but this scandal wouldn’t be the last for Willowbrook.
Robert F Kennedy toured the already crowded facility in 1965 and reported people were “living in filth and dirt, their clothing in rags, in rooms less comfortable and cheerful than the cages in which we put animals in a zoo”.
Abuse was rampant and the school and in 1972, journalist Geraldo Rivera investigated the state of the school, resulting inn the documentary Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace.
When the institute finally closed, Rand and others were known to camp in the woods and tunnels of the building.
Alleged Victims and Eventual Convictions
From the early 70s, children began to disappear in Staten Island. Rand has been suspected in the following cases:
- 5-year-old Alice Pereira, who disappeared in July 1972. She disappeared from the lobby of the Tysens Lane Apartments, where she lived. She has never been located, but Rand was working as a painter in the apartments at the time of her disappearance, as is the prime suspect in this case.
- 18-year-old Audrey Lyn Nerenberg, who disappeared in 1977. Audrey lived with schizophrenia and was an outpatient at a Brooklyn psychiatric centre when she went missing. Her illness often left Audrey disorientated, and caused her to repeat her actions. Her family and police believe this is why she traveled to a theatre in Staten Island, the day after she visited with her family. This theatre was opposite one of Rand’s campsites, although there is no official link between him and Audrey’s case.
- Ethel Louise Atwell, age 42, worked as a physical therapy assistant at Willowbrook School. After arriving in the parking lot at 6am in October 1978, two female employees inside the building screaming and a man’s voice. They called the police, but all that was left of Ethel was a pocketbook, earring, shoe, coat buttons and part of her dentures by the side of her car. Her keys were discovered in the woods.
- A few months earlier, 44-year-old Shin Lee, another Willowbrook staff member, was reported missing in July of 1978. She was last seen alive walking home from her shift at Willowbrook at midnight, but never made it. Her body was found in a shallow grave in the woods around the school. Both she and Atwell are believed to victims of Rand, although their is no evidence to prove this.
- 7-year-old Holly Ann Hughes was last seen in July of 1981. She had been sent to buy a bar of soap, but never returned home. Rand admitted to seeing Holly on the day she went missing – even claiming that they played hide and seek together, before giving her money to buy the aforementioned soap. Still, there are witnesses who claim to have seen Holly in Rand’s car, although his defence claim this is untrue. Rand wasn’t charged with Holly’s kidnapping until 2004. This conviction made sure that Rand was extremely unlikely to be released from prison, despite not having enough evidence to be charged with her murder.
- 11-year-old Tiahease Jackson was last seen leaving a hotel in Staten Island, where she was living with her family after a fire in their apartment. In August 1983, she was asked to run an errand by another resident, and has not been seen since. A man matching Rand’s description was seen loitering around the parking lot in the days before her disappearance. Rand was also known to have a camp less than half a mile away, in a local cemetery. No files against Rand have been made.
- 22-year-old Hank Gafforia, was last seen in June 1984, after a night out. He had last been spotted at a diner with Andre Rand, and has not been seen since. Hank had an IQ of 70 and was considered vulnerable. Similarly to others Rand was expected of being involved in, Hank has never been found.
It wasn’t until 1987 that Rand’s apparent killing spree came to an end, when he was charged and convicted of the kidnapping and murder of 12-year old-Jennifer Schweiger, who had Down syndrome.
After being spotted walking with Rand, Jennifer’s body was found in undergrowth in the woods around Willowbrook State School, near to one of the campsites Rand often used.
In 1988, Rand was charged with first-degree murder of Jeniffer. The jury could not come to a conclusion regarding the murder, but convicted Rand of her kidnapping and sentenced him to 25 years to life in prison. This would have made him eligible for parole in 2008, were it not for his 2004 conviction in the kidnapping of Holly Ann Hughes, and he will likely die in jail.
Urban Legends
So, does life imitate art more than art imitates life?
Rand was certainly a predator, but, according to the 2009 documentary, Cropsey, there are some who believe the legend goes further, allegedly speculating that Rand was involved in Satanism, child sacrifice and even cult-like behaviour. They refer to a network of unknown perpetrators on the margins of society, using the Willowbrook tunnel system as a lair for their nefarious activities.
Rand certainly didn’t have an axe, or a hook for a hand, but that being said, elements of the story inevitably coincide with popular legends.
The lack of legal conclusion in Rand’s suspected cases leaves the Cropsey tale eerily unfinished. Still, it seems we can’t let these victims rest without stretching the limits of already tragic circumstances and weaving in layers of fantasy. And why? Perhaps, it makes us forget that the real monsters live among us.
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