Cropsey

Growing up on Staten Island, Barbara and I had often heard the legend of Cropsey.

For the kids in our

neighborhood, Cropsey was the

escaped mental patient who lived

in the tunnels beneath the old,

abandoned Willowbrook mental

institution...

Who would come out late at night

and snatch children off the

streets.

Although we didn't know each other as children, Barbara and I had both shared versions of the

Cropsey legend as it filtered

through our separate

neighborhoods and seeped into

our collective fears.

Sometimes Cropsey had a hook for

a hand.

Other times he wielded a bloody

ax.

But it didn't matter.

Cropsey was out there, lurking

in the shadows, waiting to get

us.

We're... we're gonna get her

back.

Okay.

Later, as teenagers, we

assumed Cropsey was just an

urban legend, a cautionary tale

used to keep us out of those

buildings... to stop us from

doing all those things that

teenagers like to do.

But all that changed the summer

little Jennifer disappeared.

That was the summer all the kids

from Staten Island discovered

that their urban legend...

Was real.

Staten Island is one of the five boroughs of New York City. For the past century, the Island

was mostly just farmland and

woods...

That was, until they built the

Verrazano bridge in '64.

Now it's home to nearly half a

million people.

Before the Verrazano bridge

was built, that's all it was.

It was just this Island, this

forgotten Island.

All the children of Brooklyn,

you know, wanted their own home,

and everybody wants land.

You have a dog, you let him out

the backyard, just like, you

know, "father knows best."

It can be pretty quiet.

I mean, even though Manhattan

is, like, right across the

water, it's definitely a

different life out here.

If you travel around sometimes,

people would say, "oh, right,

that's where the largest garbage

dump was.

And, you know, rumor has it you

could see it from outer space."

So one big garbage dump.

It was the least-populated,

most heavily wooded borough.

From what I understand, like,

this is a big dumping ground for

mob bodies.

Someone needs to be disposed of,

it's like, "let's bring them to

Staten Island."

It's like there's almost too

many spaces to go to be

isolated and alone and do

whatever you want.

So if you have a bad idea in

your head, you can do it there.

Across the middle of the

Island lies a section of ancient

forest known as the greenbelt.

Bordering this forest is a

boy scout camp and an old

tuberculosis ward.

As kids, we used to roam around

these grounds, trying to scare

each other with stories about

Cropsey.

Is that pouch camp over

to the left?

No, that's JCC camp over to

the left.

And right here... this is

sea view, the T.B. Wards.

Our camp counselors would lead

us down this path, and they'd

come out of the buildings and

scare us.

You know, this is where we

thought that Cropsey lived... in

the basements down in here and

in these other buildings.

And, you know, we used to walk

through here, and you'd find

beds and papers of people who

had died here.

So, you know, it kind of made

sense to us.

"Cropsey," for some reason,

became the generic term for a

maniac in boy scout camps up and

down the Hudson river region of

New York state.

So it would've made perfect sense for a story about a maniac who was hiding out in the

woods and who abducted and

killed little children to be

called Cropsey.

First learned about Cropsey

in summer camp.

He was a doctor.

He was supposed to have a

hook.

With a knife about this big.

And he was an ax-wielding

madman.

The wife was killed.

He was being chased or

taunted.

He wanted kids.

And he would find them and...

He would hack you up.

...chop 'em up.

"Don't go behind the Sherwood

bunks.

Cropsey's out there."

"Make sure you get off at the

mall.

Don't continue to go any

further."

"don't go down by the lake at

night.

Cropsey's down there."

"No, don't go near

willowbrook park.

Willowbrook park is dangerous."

There are many communities

that have a subterranean

history, a house where

unspeakable things are said to

have happened, an institution

where people were...

Segregated from the rest of

society.

We got pictures of sea view.

These are like overall,

bird's-eye view of, you know,

the hospital.

This included the tuberculosis

wards.

This included tuberculosis

wards?

Yes.

And also on this property here

were a hospital for contagious

diseases, and then it got the

morgue and the cemetery.

Well, this was across the street

in the farm colony, which was

like a different part of the

hospital.

They called it the "poor farm."

Okay, here we have the

Halloran hospital in

willowbrook.

Right. It was Halloran, and

then it became the

willowbrook state school.

Exactly.

Willowbrook was strictly for

the mentally ill?

Back in 1972, the

willowbrook state school was the

subject of a famous exposé by a

young reporter looking for his

big break.

I first heard of this big

place with the pretty-sounding

name because of a call I

received from a member of the

willowbrook staff, a

Dr. Michael Wilkins.

The doctor invited me to see

the conditions he was talking

about, so unannounced and

unexpected by the school

administration, we toured