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Andre Rand and the Legend of Cropsey · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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  Discretion is advised. This is ten minuted murder. It's the nineteen seventies and
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  we're in Staten Island. Islanders have embraced that seventies laid back lifestyle, and
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  children are given lots of freedom. They roam the streets freely, running errands
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  or playing until the street lights come on. Fast forward ten years later,
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  children are scared to leave their yards and parents anxiously scan the newspaper for any
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  new disappearances. So what's changed the emergence of a peculiar and disturbing man by
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  the name of Andre Rand. Andre Rand was born Frank Russian on March eleventh,
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  nineteen forty four, in Manhattan, New York. He had a relatively
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  peaceful childhood until fourteen, when his father died, and shortly after his mother
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  was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. As he grew older, he began committing
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  petty crimes, and those around him would describe him as getting increasingly peculiar.
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  However, our story doesn't begin with andre Rand, but instead with a story
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  of Cropsey. Cropsey was an urban legend about an escaped mental patient who hunted
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  children, taking them into tunnels of abandoned buildings to kill them. The story
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  was originally told around camp fires or by older siblings just having some fun,
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  but it soon took on a new use. Parents began telling it as a
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  cautionary tale against exploring a specific building, Willowbrook State School, and parents had
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  good reasons for this. Willowbrook State School was not a school, but a
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  horrifying mental asylum. To give you an idea of what Willowbrook was like,
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  in nineteen sixty five, Senator Robert F. Kennedy visited Willowbrook and described residents
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  as living in filth and dirt, their clothing in rags, and he described
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  the rooms as quote less comfortable and cheerful than the cages in which we put
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  animals in a zoo. And honestly, that might have been a generous description,
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  because this place was awful, like the stuff of nightmares. The school
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  was extremely understaffed, with about fifty residents for every one Willowbrook attendant, and
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  overcrowded, leading to frequent outbreaks of diseases such as hepatitis. Though Kennedy made
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  some suggestions to improve conditions, little changed until nineteen seventy two, when ABC
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  reporter Heraldo Rivera made headlines with a TV expose on Willowbrook's abuse. That expose
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  is available on YouTube, and the footage is truly chilling, but worth watching
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  anyway. The expose led to a national outcry and understandably a few lawsuits.
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  Willowbrook was promptly closed. Before we go on, it's important to note that
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  Willowbrook was built across three hundred seventy five acres of land, so the buildings
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  were all connected by a walkable underground tunnel or tunnels for the staff to get
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  around in the winter. When Willowbrook closed, most of its residents were released
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  into group homes or when to live with their families, but some were left
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  to basically fend for themselves. There are reports of former residents camping in the
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  nearby woods of Willowbrook and even occupying the tunnels themselves. The story of Cropsey
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  evolved to an escaped Willowbrook patient killing his victims in Willowbrook's underground tunnels, and
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  now that it involved a real place, the legend of Cropsey caught fire.
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  So Willowbrook shuts down and its grounds are admittedly a bit creepy, but everyone
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  lives happily ever after. Right where there's a bit more to the story.
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  Than that. When Willowbrook was open, they clearly did not do a very
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  thorough background check because from nineteen sixty six to nineteen sixty eight they employed and
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  orderly who went by the name of Brushette. Brushette was simply Frank Russian's alias.
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  When Willowbrook closed, Frank became unemployed, but instead of scrolling through Craigslist
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  because that didn't exist, he found a different, more sinister way to occupy
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  his time. In May of nineteen sixty nine, a passing police car noticed
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  a suspicious looking van in a vacant lot. Upon investigating, they discovered a
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  naked Frank and a nine year old girl. Frank was arrested and charged with
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  attempted rape, serving sixteen months in jail. Upon release, Frank legally changed
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  his name to Andre Rand. And I don't know about you, but if
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  I'm a Staten Island judge and an ex convict slash sex offender who's operated under
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  ATLAS in the past petitions me to change his name, I'd probably say no.
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  But that's not how it went down, because in nineteen seventy two,
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  Frank Russian legally became Andre Rand, and this new Andre Rand was not the
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  reformed man that he clearly convinced the courts that he would become. On July
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  seventh, nineteen seventy two, three thirty pm, Alice Pierra was playing with
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  her brother in the lobby of their apartment building. Her brother left her alone
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  for about a minute, and when he returned, she was gone. Andre
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  Rand was working as a painter in that very building and was brought in for
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  questioning, but released because of a lack of evidence connecting him to Alice's disappearance.
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  Alice was five when she disappeared and has never been found, and the
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  disappearances only continued. On a summer day in nineteen eighty one, seven year
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  old Holly Anne Hughes was sent to the store to buy a bar of soap.
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  Storekeepers at the Port Richmond Delhi confirmed that Holly bought the soap, but
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  she never made at home. In investigating her disappearance, police discovered that she
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  had been seen talking to Andrea Rand outside the shop. They brought Andre in
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  for questioning, and he admitted to talking to Holly, even that he played
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  hide and seek with her. Other witnesses reported seeing Andre's green Volkswagen circling the
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  Deli that Holly disappeared from. Once again, authorities didn't have enough evidence to
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  hold him, so Andre was released. Despite many searches, Holly has never
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  been found. Okay, so far we have two disappearances that Andre Rand seemed
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  suspiciously connected to. But maybe he was just really in the wrong place at
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  the wrong time. But probably not when you hear what he got up to.
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  In nineteen eighty three, just two years after Holly's disappearance, Andre drove
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  a large van into a Staten Island YMCA. Andrea convinced eleven children to get
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  into the van, claiming that he would drive them to a park. He
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  then drove them to the Newark State Airport, where he bought them all Whitecastle
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  burghers. Why he did this is truly a mystery. He claimed he only
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  wanted to take the kids on a fun excursion, and to be fair,
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  he didn't actually harm the children, but still he kidnapped and transported them across
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  state lines without parental consent. Andrea was arrested and the children returned home unscathed.
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  He was given ten months in jail. Just twelve days after he was
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  released, Andrea was on the prowl again. On August fourteenth, nineteen eighty
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  three, Tiahis Jackson disappeared on a short errand to the supermarket. Police investigated,
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  and wouldn't you know it, Andre Rand was a suspect. He had
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  a campsite at a cemetery creepy just a half mile from where Tiahis lived,
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  and Tiahise's mother had reported seeing a man fitting his description lurking around the parking
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  lot. Andrea was questioned, but charges were not filed. Eleven year old
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  Teaheis was never found. So this trend of people going missing and being last
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  seen with Andre Rand continued for several years, most notably with the disappearance of
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  Hank Gafario and Ethel Atwell. As usual, Andrea is taken in for questioning,
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  but there's not enough evidence to connect him to the crime and he walks
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  free. However, after years of frustration, the police finally catch a break.
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  On July ninth, nineteen eighty seven, twelve year old Jennifer Schweiger went
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  for a short walk around her neighborhood. She had down syndrome, and when
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  she felt restless, her mother would instruct her to take a walk. On
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  this particular day, though she did not return Her parents called the police,
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  and an investigation and search quickly ramped up. Two eyewitnesses reported seeing Jennifer walking
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  around with a middle aged man in her last known moments. Others reported seeing
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  Andrea's car circling the block that Jennifer was walking on. Andrea was taken in
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  for questioning, but authorities didn't have enough evidence to reach conclusions, so he
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  was released. It wasn't until the thirty fifth day of the search that a
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  volunteer noticed an unusual clumping of dirt and clay. He began digging under that
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  spot and discovered a little foot and then Jennifer's entire body. Her body was
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  buried just one hundred fifty yards from a campsite that belonged to Andre Rand.
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  Even worse, her body was found on the grounds of Willowbrooke State School.
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  Finally, authorities had enough evidence and arrested Rand. He was charged with kidnapping
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  and first degree murder. The jury couldn't reach a verdict on the murder charge,
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  but convicted Rand of kidnapping, sentencing him to twenty five years to life
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  in prison. Finally, eighteen years after his reign of terror began, Andre
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  Rand faced significant jailed time, and the families of the victims received some sort
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  of closure and a sense of justice. Andre Rand is still in jail.
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  In two thousand and four, investigators had enough evidence to bring charges on Rand
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  for Holly Anne Hugh's disappearance. As a new witness came forward, investigators pieced
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  together that Andrea had offered Holly candy, pulled her into his car, and
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  drove away. Rand was found guilty of kidnapping and given twenty five years to
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  life. Currently, he's serving time at the Great Meadows Correctional Facility and won't
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  become eligible for parole until he's ninety three years old. So that's the story
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  of Andrea Rand, the man that showed us that often reality can be worse
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  than imagination. More than half a century after his first crime, much is
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  still unknown about him, as he operated in the shadows, darting around tunnels
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  and graveyards, praying on the most vulnerable. Still, one thing is certain.
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  He has ensured that the legend of Cropsy will live on and on.
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  That's ten minute Murder for today, brief and binge able true crime. My
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• 12:11
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