Cropsey was a killer rumored to haunt Staten Island during the 1970s. The legend talks about a man who kidnapped young children after he lost his own son. This man was mentally unstable, so the story went. Out of grief, he had resorted to stealing the children of others as replacements.
In the 1970s, the children of Staten Island were regaled with spooky tales of a boogeyman called “Cropsey.” A shadowy figure with a hook for a hand, Cropsey was said to have escaped from a nearby mental institution and to be camping out in its ruins. It was there that he supposedly killed young children he kidnapped.
New Yorkers often emphasize the physical when they describe the figure of Cropsey. For example, it is said that, like a Disney film villain, Cropsey has a hook for a hand.
Some people believe that Cropsey looked horrible with scars and burns on his body and face. Such deformities are common in these urban legends, adding to the ghoulish nature of the killer.
However, remove the hook hand, the scars and the burns, and you start to approach the truth. There was a real Cropsey, and his name was Andre Rand.