Andre Rand and the Legend of Cropsey

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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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name is Joe. I'm the host, and I really appreciate you listening.

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If this is your first time tuning
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Connect with me on social media too. You'll see the visuals that go along

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and it helps this show grow.
So, Joe, how was your day

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today? I appreciate you asking,
and I'd love to tell you I had

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an exciting day. I slipped down
in the target parking lot zero out of

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ten would not recommend. And you
know how, when you fall down,

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you officially know how old you are
because the people. If you fall down

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and people laugh, you're cool.
Everything's good. When you fall down and

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people look concerned, that means you've
gotten old. It was a mix of

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the two when I fell today in
the parking lot, So that tracks all

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right quickly. This email today comes
from Robert in Tallahassee. Hi Joe,

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great podcast. I'm curious. Your
audio always sounds so good, unlike many

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other true crime shows I listened to, not Robert throwing shade. What kind

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of microphone do you use, Robert? It is a Sinheiser mk H four

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sixteen. And if you don't know
anything about microphones, that means nothing to

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you. That's like another language.
But just know that it looks like I'm

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talking into a giant magic marker.
When I first started this podcast, I

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bought the one that all podcasters seem
to use, that Shore SM seven B,

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and I've had this one that I'm
using now four years and years and

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years from doing voiceovers. But I
bought the one that looks like a podcast

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microphone because I thought, hey,
this will make my voice sound more podcasting.

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I used it on a couple of
episodes and I didn't like it,

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so I sold it and I went
back to the microphone that I've been using

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for a very long time. Well, okayd okay, that's going to do

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it for this episode today. I'm
so glad that you to spend a few

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minutes of time listening to this podcast. It means the world to me.

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Thank you. For listening to ten
minute murder