Happy Holiday's !

 Richmond Ave. 1930

 

Pictures Of The Castle

Staten Island's Bigfoot.

On December 7, 1974, Frank Piztolato and Phillip Vivolo were in the woods near Historic Richmond Town when they "saw a black, upright ‘bear’ which roared at them." A few weeks later, on the morning of January 21, 1975, a young couple "saw Bigfoot in a church car park in the early morning" and later that night, Mrs. D. Daly was "driving late at night [and] had to brake to avoid a Bigfoot under six feet tall crossing the road from a church car park and heading for the rubbish dump and the swamp behind the church."

If I told you that these three Bigfoot sightings were actually documented and published into the Bigfoot Casebook by Janet and Colin Bord, first published in 1982 that contained Bigfoot sightings from the 1800s to 1980, what would your first reaction be? 

You would laugh. As did I. I'll show you the so called evidence, and you can be the judge.

 "My first thought was some stupid kid was in a Halloween costume," she said. "I yelled, but this thing didn't hear me — or didn't seem to." Then, as if shrugging off a pesky child, "it just kind of loped off in the direction of the [St. Andrew's] church cemetery," Accounted Mrs. Daly. 

"I looked down from the hill and I saw this bear. ... I looked at him for about 10 seconds. I saw his snoot and the rest of his body. ... He was standing on two legs." Accounted Philip Vivolo, who at the time was 12, but is now in his 40s. This sighting caused a stir. 6 cop cars, emergency services, as well as a police helicopter searched for two hours. They turned up nothing. 

Two of these sightings happened on the same day. And the other only a few weeks before. At the time you could only imagine how underdeveloped this land was. The Green Belt is thick with trees and all kinds of plants now, so then it could have only been thicker.

A man named Tom Modern is convinced that this creature exists. He has been doing research for years here on the Island and says he has found evidence and is learning how to track them down. He says he has found things even in Great Kills Park. He says that the creature walks close to banks of water so that the water will wash away his prints or any other thing he may leave behind. But is he giving this thing to much credit? He also took the Staten Island Advance to one of the sites that hes camped at, and it was the exact location that Mrs. Daly said she saw what she believed had to have been Bigfoot. Tom said after an April snow fall that he went looking for some more evidence and he found a set of foot prints on both sides on Richmond Hill Rd in the woods, they measured 15 1/2 in long and 6 1/4 in wide on the top.

Mrs. Daly did not come forward right away, she didnt think people would take her seriously. However after seeing that the young couple saw a creature matching the same description as what she had seen on the same day as she, she did. She was driving to work and she took the same route she always did, when this thing walked in front of her car and stopped in her head lights. 

Heres a few links if your interested to learn more..

http://home.clara.net/rfthomas/news/could.html 

http://www.nypress.com/print-article-7469-print.html 

http://open.salon.com/blog/cloud_9/2009/09/18/bigfoot_sighted_on_staten_island_should_new_yorkers_worry




 enjoy! ... and be careful! ..lol

Explosion Of The Westfield II Ferry

The Staten Island Ferry has seen it's fair share of disaster. The first time I remember was in 2003, the driver crashed into the dock at the St. George terminal. The driver of the boat plead guilty to manslaughter, word has it not only was he high but he wasn't properly trained on safety regulations. This deadly crash killed 11 people and injured 70.

The next crash was in 2010, this one was far less of a disaster then the one in 2003. No one was killed and about 37 people where hurt with only 1 serious injury. This was also the same boat, the Andrew Barberi, that was involved in the 2003 crash. This time the crash was due to a mechanical failure, the brakes went out as the boat approached the pier.

But my story is about 1871 so ill just get on with it. On July 30th, 1871 a speical boat was added to the tranist line to help deal with the mass of people traveling on Sunday afternoon. This boat was called the Westfield II. The boat wasn't normally apart of the SIT operations, but on this day was being used by it. The boat had about 400 people abored, and departed out of the City between 1 and 2 o'clock. In between this time one of the boilers under the front deck exploded causing an unspeakable amount of horrified screams and cries among passengers and people along the shore line. The explosion was so forceful The New York Times wrote about it as such: "The boiler exploded with terrific power, the whole end of the boat on which the people were gathered was torn to tatters; fragments went upward and outward. But that mass of humanity! Who can picture! Who dare to even think of it! Lifted into the air, hurled into the water, buried in the debris of the wreck, bruised mangled, scalded, roasted, men, women, children, babes, were mingled in a mass of indescribable horror." The New York Times called the Westfield "The Vessel of Death"
As it was first estimated that there were 40 deaths, but after all the passengers where accounted for it was about 125, with many more injured. This is the worst disaster in the ferry boat history since its opening in 1817. The boat was torn to shreds and there was debris floating in the waters near by. Even people who weren't on the boat where scolded and burnt.

this is a wood carving of bodies being discovered.

Following the disaster Jacob Vanderbilt, the president of the Staten Island Railway at the time, was arrested and brought up on charges for murder. There was much gossip about the man who engineered and designed the boat, for he was a colored man who wasn't really qualified as an engineer and who couldn't read, that didn't sit well with a lot of people at the time. Jacob Vanderbilt defended his employee who he had working for him for 16 years. Vanderbilt managed to escape the murder charges. The cause of the explosion is still unknown, though its thought to have something to do with a lose plate under the boiler that could have gave way. The ferry had been inspected as was deemed safe and usable for the public. The inspector said that there was nothing that seemed to be alarming at the time of the inspection. He also said that he cleared the use of 25 pounds of steam to be used, the most to be used under the legal amount. But the ferry’s superintendent, James Braisted said that the practice of  “carrying steam above the pressure allowed by the Inspector’s certificate was not uncommon” and that he “frequently had to reprimand his engineers for carrying steam in excess of that allowed by law.”

The Times ran a story about the survivors and their accounts of what happened here are a few.

Mrs. Abbie Cowan Phillips, was sitting with her husband, two infant children and paternal grandparents in a closed proximity of the ferry at the time the explosion occurred. Speaking through her son, Mrs. Phillips recollected the event:

"Mr. Phillips said that his mother still recalls the horror of the scenes as the boat went down, but clearest of all are recollections of the part her ofnw family played in the tragedy. The two tiny children and the grandparents were lost. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips were taken to the same hospital, but occupied different rooms. The wife was badly burned, and underwent what was then one of the pioneer skin-grafting operations. Mrs. Phillips had been told that her husband survived, but believed the doctors were deceiving her. As a matter of fact, her husband had been blinded, but this the hospital authorities feared to inform her. As Mrs. Phillips was recovering she was allowed to wander from ward to ward. One day as she walked about she was gladden by the sound of her husband’s voice, calling to a nurse for some attention. She rushed to him. Mr. Phillips threw his arms about her, and, in the shock and excitement of the reunion, suddenly regained his sight.
Thought for a time the doctors had abandoned hope, Mr. Phillips lived twenty years after the accident."

 Another eyewitness said:

"the forward part of the boat was lifted fifty feet in the air, the smoke stack fell, and everything was buried in the hold. Many persons were blown overboard. A father and a mother had their children blown from their arms. The water in an instant was alive with men, women, and children struggling for life. A number of persons, it is not known how many, were drowned. The debris in the fore part of the hold was first removed. The cries of the poor half boiled victims were heartrending. Stimulants were given them as they struggled beneath the beams, and oil was poured upon their burns. As fast as the wounded were recovered they were borne to the deck of another ferry boat moored alongside, where they were tenderly cared for. As fast as it could be done, they were removed to the various hospitals of the city."

 The engineer of the boat said:

"I have been employed by the Company for 16 years; I was in the fire-room five minutes before the explosion; asked the fireman, PATRICK FINNEGAN, about the water, and he said it was 'all right'; went to the boiler myself, and found the water above the third cock; went up through the engine room and noticed that the gauge indicated 27 pounds of pressure of steam; then I went on deck; in two minutes I came back, and just as I was going down the stairs to the engine room the explosion took place; I cannot say what caused the explosion; the boiler had a patch on the part where the break was; I examined it three days ago and found it in good condition."

 (* the Westfield II was named after the USS Westfield, this boat was sent out to war. I will do a post on this boat at another date)

Old Staten Island Pt II

Hillside ave, Great Kills

I wonder why the post card says L.I?

An old street sign

West Brighton

I know its blurry but what do you expect lol

Does anyone know where this is? It said Prince's Bay, but i have never seen this house.

Ichabod Crane

Everyone knows The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the famous character Ichabod Crane as well as the headless horse man, but Ichabod Crane was actually based on a real person, and hes buried on Staten Island, in Bulls Head.

The writer of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving created the well known school teacher that moved to Sleepy Hollow from a friend or rather an acquaintance that he knew. He wrote this story and also Rip Van Winkle to give America some of their own legends to tell. At this time America had only stories of Indians to talk about while Europe had the Brothers Grimm. So Irving created some American folk lore so to speak.

Irving and Crane met in Sackets Harbor, New York during the War of 1812, meeting him actually in 1814. The book was published in 1820 and Ichabod was horrified. He and Irving had only known each other briefly while Crane was a caption in the war. In fact they had only met twice but Irving liked the way his name sounded. Though the name is the same the characteristics are based on someone else.


Ichabod Crane died on October 5th 1857 in Staten Island. His tomb stone was in bad shape and had been hit up by spray paint, it has since been replaced.

He served his country for 48 years and was much beloved and respected by all who knew him

An Island on Painkillers

Staten Island easily topped the rest of the city for persriptions of oxycodone written by doctors in 2009.

What? Staten Island is the least populated borough out of all 5!
Around 115,000 prescriptions where written out last year, just for oxycodones. What the hell is going on? That's more then 2,200 prescriptions filled each week, for just painkillers. Most of the time people are selling them, selling them for a lot of money.

So when do you finally admit you have a problem? What once started out as a Saturday night thing turns into one of those waking up shaking things? When your actually selling possessions that belonged to loved ones and lying to cover your trail. How long do you think before they start to catch on?

This is definitely something that needs to be addressed. Because if you throw in Vicodin on top of just the Oxycodone that adds up to one out of three prescriptions being filled are for painkillers, of the 580,000 total. Even worse is that out of the states 62 counties, Richmond County ranked 2nd for painkiller use. Two years in a row. Its pretty unsettling to think about raising kids around such stupor. Eventually for a lot of people it does become a problem and people do seek help which is a great thing when they step up and admit they are in a bad place. But some don't. They leave behind messes for family to deal with and heart ache with a sense of not understanding exactly when this all began. Sometimes in cases the user moves to heroin. Its cheaper and has pretty much the same exact effect. They can become so desperate to feed the addiction that they sell themselves, and would rather get high then eat anything that they may have to spend the money on. Don't think i know what I'm talking about? Just google it. I know one to many people this is effecting or has effected. People i grew up with, most that I would be devastated to see in such a bad condition. I am not one to judge by all means have your fun, but know when its getting out of control too. Already in 2010 there have been 5 robberies at counters of pharmacy. That makes it pretty unsafe for your tween daughter to get her 1st job at C.V.S.

The Top Sellers:

Staten Island
Oxycodone 114,835 prescriptions, or 23.3 per 100 people
Hydrocodone 96,306 prescriptions, or 19.6 per 100 people
Zolpidem 78,257 prescriptions, or 15.9 per 100 people   

The problem here is the prescriptions, the legal drugs. Funny, pots illegal and really poses no threat to society. I often work in the ER at my job on the 11-7 shift, and wouldn't you know it, i have never seen someone come in overdosing on pot. Just saying. If this is what its like now i would really hate to see where its going to end up. Unless somethings done anyway.




Island teens face future health crisis 

If you or someone you know needs help click here to find a facility.

Alcohol/Drug Abuse Hotline
1-800-662-HELP

Be Sober Hotline
1-800-BE-SOBER

24 Hour Cocaine Hotline
1-800-992-9239 

Drug Help National Helplines
1-800-378-4435

Ecstasy Addiction
1-800-468-6933 

National Institute on Drug Abuse & Alcoholism
1-888-644-6432      

A mob hit in New Springville

It was September 11th 1989, a nice morning in New Springville. Fred Weiss was leaving his girlfriends apartment and getting into his car at 8:30 am when two men ran up on him and shot and killed him. He was shot a number of times in his head and once in his right arm, his Jeep, that he was found next to, also had bullet holes in it. Not a trace of bullet shells or a weapon were found at the site.

Fred Weiss was a partner of a real estate company called W. & W. Properties, and also owned a recycling company, along with that he was a former journalist to the Staten Island Advance.  He was out on $250,000 bail at the time. Weiss was facing 6 counts of mail fraud as well as conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Mr. Weiss's co-defendants - Angelo Paccione of Brooklyn, Anthony Vulpis of Queens and John B. McDonald of Demarest, N.J. - each faced prison terms of up to 70 years and $2 million in fines if convicted.

The problem was, and why Weiss had a hit on him, was due to illegal dumping of medical waste that he was apart of. Weiss had been paid to get rid of whatever waste was being brought to him. He was dumping it in a landfill on the Northwest corner of Staten Island that he and a few others leased. It is said they all made close to 7 million dollars off of the illegal activity. The waste that was being dumped there ranged between garbage, asbestos and infectious medical waste.

Well after Weiss became front and center of the investigation, Mob boss John Gotti became nervous. Weiss was doing this for two major crime families: the New York Gambino crime family and the Decavalcante family. So needles to say it was felt that he had to be eliminated because of the paranoia of both families that he may cooperate with the Feds. So the hit was ordered by Gotti and was carried out by Anthony Capo, James "Jimmy" Gallo, and Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi. Riggi, who was in jail at the time he plead guilty to the crime in 2009 said  " I and others met and we agreed that Fred Weiss should be murdered" " Pursuant to that agreement, Fred Weiss was murdered, thats it." 

UPDATED 1/21/2011

Yesterday in court, Joseph Watts age 69, a one time friend and hit man of John Gotti, plead guilty to setting up the hit on Fred Weiss. The case was going to go through some of the earlier and gory crimes of the so called Gotti Era and re cap the evidence they had against Watts that implicated him in another 11 killings. Watts chose to plead guilty instead and is now facing 13 years in prison. "I conspired and agreed with others to murder Fred Weiss to prevent him from cooperating with the government," Watts told Federal District Judge Colleen McMahon. The day before Weiss was murdered a team put together by Watts went to kill him but he managed to get away. The next day they caught up with him and he was killed outside a home in New Springville.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/the_mob/2011/01/21/2011-01-21_gotti_pal_yeah_i_did_it.html?r=news#ixzz1BhCvFvYU

Mob Boss Riggi during the trial of the 1989 slaying of Weiss

1960 New York Air Disaster

The New York air disaster of 1960 was at the time the worst plane crash in the history of the USA. The crash happened at 10:33 am on Dec 16,1960 crashing west over Miller Field in Staten Island, New York. Half of the crash fell on to Miller Field in New Dorp, while the other half went down in Park Slope in Brooklyn. The crash killed 84 people aboard Flight 826, 44 on Flight 266 and 6 people on the ground. There was one sole survivor, an 11 year old boy on his way to visit his mother and sister in NY. Stephen Baltz was thrown from the plane on impact and fell into a near by snowbank. The boy only survived the crash, he lost his battle for life about 26 hours after the crash at Park slope's New York Methodist Hopital, the cause of death was due to burns that covered about 90% of his body.

11-year-old Stephen Baltz of Wilmette, Illinois

When asked about the crash and the last thing he remember the boy said when it happened he was looking at the snow fall over the city; "It looked like a picture out of a fairy book. It was a beautiful sight."  The only description of the crash he gave was "I heard a big noise while we were flying. The last thing I remember was the plane falling."

Flight 826 was 12 miles off course according to its "Black box" and also dived 3,600 feet in 81 seconds and dropped its speed from more than 500 miles per hour to 363 miles per hour when it hit the right side of the TWA plane at between 5,250 and 5,175 feet. This crash was the 1st time the black box was ever used to report extensively on crash details. Shortly before the crash, the crew reported its VOR receivers had stopped working, this made it difficult to fly on instrument conditions. They didn't however notify traffic controls. The flight was given a holding point as to where to stay and at 10:25 air controls cleared it. But not in time to advise other traffic near by to be aware and the two planes hit.

If you know where to look, there is still evidence of the crash in Park Slope. One man still has debris rusting in his backyard. Considering the crash hit in a very populated area in Brooklyn its amazing that only 6 people lost their lives on the ground. The plane that fell into Park Slope tried to make it to Prospect Park so that it at least wouldn't be on the streets. Unfortunately it landed on Sterling Pl and 7Th Ave., right in front of The Pillars of Fire Church.

Park Slope

 New York Times

On behalf of the NFL's opening day- The Staten Island Stapletons.

The Staten Island Stapletons also known as The "Stapes", was a football team in the NFL that was founded in 1915. They played for the National Foot Ball league between 1929 to 1930, and then two more seasons in 1931 and 1932. The  team was ran by  Dan Blaine, who also served as the team's halfback. Blain later became rich by building up a chain of restaurants. The Stapletons played similar semi-pro neighborhood teams from the New York City area. 


In the earlier years the team played for fun and only got paid about $10 per game. The team went inactive in 1918 due to WWI. Blain was in the army an had been deployed over seas. He came back a year later in 1919 and became the sole owner of The Stapes and retired himself as a player. He also became successful with a string of restaurants in Staten Island that sold alcohol during the prohibition. 


The team won the New York Metropolitan championship in 1924 by beating out the best Semi-Pro teams in the area. But in 1925 Tim Mara formed the New York Giants who moved into the Polo Grounds. The Giants stole the spotlight for the Statepltons because of a bigger stadium and the ability to support larger crowds and fans. The rivalry between The Giants and The Stapes began on Thanksgiving Day in 1925 when the Giants beat them out 7-0. On Nov 14th 1926, the Newark Bears beat the Stapes 33-0. Blain recruited most of the Bears players including their star rookie  Doug Wycoff who was more then willing to leave the Bears due to nonpayments. The Stapes greatly benefited from this and the Bears went out of business in 1928. Blain then hired a few NYU players as well. 


In 1927, the Stapes fielded their ex-Newark Bears squad, although Wycoff signed to the Giants. The Giants would go on to win the 1927 NFL championship and defeated the Stapes twice in non-league games, 19-0 and 18-0. The Stapes though did manage to beat the NFL's Duluth Eskimos, featuring Ernie Nevers 7-6 on November 27, 1927. By 1928, Blaine wanted the Stapes to become an NFL franchise. He bolstered his squad by resigning Doug Wycoff back as a player-coach and by signing six graduates from the nationally-ranked New York University team. The Stapes had their best season on record, going 10-1-1, including a 3-1 record against NFL teams. They even pulled out a 7-0 victory over the Giants on Thanksgiving Day.

After their record was set Blain applied for an NFL franchise. He had to obtain permission from Tim Mara, the owner of the Giants, because Staten Island was in his territory. But he actually had an extra franchise that originally belonged to the Brooklyn Lions but was handed over Mara when the team folded in 1927, because they owed him money. Mara had then allowed the New York Yankees, owned by Grange's manager C. C. Pyle, to use the franchise when they moved from the AFL to NFL. The Yankees went out of business after the 1928 season, so the franchise again went back to Mara and he passed those franchise's rights on to Staten Island.Blain hired Ken Strong who later became a Stapletons Hall of Famer, to play with the newly franchised team.

The Stapletons would never have a winning season in the NFL. During their first NFL season in 1929, the team went 3-4-3, defeating the Dayton Triangles, Brooklyn Dodgers and theMinneapolis Red Jackets. They also managed to tie the Frankford Yellow Jackets once and Orange Tornadoes twice. The team improved to a 5-5-2 record in 1930. That season the Stapes managed to defeat the rival New York Giants 7-6, after a four yard touchdown run from Doug Wycoff and an extra point kick from Strong.

In July 1931, the team's official name on the league records was changed from the Stapleton Football Club, Inc., to Staten Island Stapes. At this time, Doug Wycoff left the team to rejoin the Giants. In need of a coach, Blaine hired Hinkey Haines, who had played briefly for the Stapes in 1929. The Stapes opened at home by beating the Dodgers 9-7 before 7,000 fans. However a week later at Ebbets Field, the Dodgers forced 3 interceptions to defeat the Stapes 18-6. The team would post a 4-6-1 record in 1931, defeating the Giants (once), Dodgers (twice) and the Cleveland Indians. (Resources *)

In 1932 the Stapes finished last. They managed only to defeat the Giants and the Cardinals, and in 1933 the only team they beat was the new Philadelphia Eagles. Their star player Ken Strong went on to sign with the Giants and won the NFL Championship that year. In 1935 Blain's franchise was declared forfeit and the team folded. 

Giants beat Staten Island - November 13, 1932
Old Newspaper Clipping - footballhistorian.com - Archives

Staten Island fumbles away game Football History November 13, 1932 - Old Newspaper Clipping The New York Giants' home-field advantage and its far superior line was too much for the Staten Island Stapletons to overcome Sunday. The 15,000 in attendance at the Polo Grounds watched as quarterback Jack McBride guided the Giants to a 27-7 rousing win. McBride, the former Brooklyn Dodgers' quarterback, teamed up with his favorite pass catchers, Ray Flaherty and Red Badgro, and the New York city-team linemen played rough football much to the glee of their fans. The Stapletons, who have one of the best players in fullback Ken Strong, were no match for the Giants' aggressive style of play. The gate receipts should come in handy for the visiting Staten Islanders, whose owners reported last week that the financial loses suffered throughout the last four years (1929-1932) are causing them to think about folding after this season ends. Note: Staten Island folded after the 1932 season ended. footballhistorian.com - Football History - The Great Depression

Football Historian 

Greenridge & The abandoned Highway.

                      As a teen living on Annadale Rd. i often walked to Greenridge to meet up with my friends. There werent many places for kids our age to go hang out and not get chased away by cops all night. I would walk to Greenridge and meet up with the rest of my friends knowing that they would be there ( this was before everyone had a cell phone). I would walk down Dorval till it hit the Korean War Vets and like everyone else cross through the abandoned highway. We would all hang out on that highway, away from people that could yell at us and of course cops. I remember always thinking about how that highway got there and where was it supposed to be going anyway? I've walked all the way up it literally leads to no where. I'm sure I am not the only one who thought about this, because we've all talked about it. Well I found out the answer as to how it got there and why it never got finished, along with a couple more interesting facts.

                  In 1921, on the corner of Aurthur Kill rd and Richmond ave were safari golf now sits, sat a amusement park and restaurant call Al Deppe's. It was an indoor play ground with small rides and pin ball machines, a beautiful carousel that was imported from Germany, as well as shooting booths for target practice. . The owner who opened this place also bought a mansion built in the 1850's across the street, known to me and you as the Elks Club. 

              

After buying the house, Al built a 200 ft tunnel that ran from his house to the restaurant across the street so that he could go back and forth with money and other such valuables unnoticed and unharmed. Some people say Al was so paranoid he actually hid some of his money in the tunnel for safe keeping and that its still there today. Along with this tunnel there are a few other tunnels that lead to various locations in the area, some dating back to the civil war era as legend has it. Before the construction of the Korean War Vets and the West shore Richmond Ave was the only way to travel from Eltingville, so of course this place did very well and was a well known establishment. They were best known for the hot dogs and their fresh clams.

          And so the story always ends the same, in the late 1960's or early 1970's the city wanted to build a better way to travel the Island, and proposed the building of The Richmond Parkway, currently the Korean War Vets, and Al Deppe's stood right in the way. So the place was condemned and knocked down to make way for the exit off the Parkway. As we know this never came about though there are 4 over passes ( 2 on each side) that were built, along with a street sign, and paved roads with guard rails and all. The plan was to make a quick exit from the Richmond Parkway to the Staten Island Expressway, it was to cut though CSI as well, however it was never even fished due to a change of plans.It must have been a heartbreak for the Deppe family and other people who frequented the spot.

1947

*Any pictures and info about any topic would be great.

Cropsey: the Staten Island booggie man...

                             I am only 23 years old, so i wasn't aware of this story growing up on Staten Island. I have heard about just about every other story this island has to offer, I mean this is said to be the most haunted borough. We have Richmond Town, Sea View, The Farm Colony... I could keep going.. and I will get to these stories sooner or later, but what got me was the story of cropsey. I was flicking through the channels and came across a commercial about a documentary that's to be aired on channel 23 (if you have timeWarner cable) on Friday at 9 pm. I figured if they were making a whole documentary about this then it may be worth exploring. So i googled it, of course. And so here is what i came across.

Alice Pereira

It was the 1980's, at the time, the island was much less populated then it currently is. It was a very family oriented place with more wooded areas then the other 4 boroughs. There was an urban legend called cropsey about an escaped mental patient ( no surprise there) that lived in the woods and would pray on little kids. This was mostly passed along by kids trying to scare each other or parents trying to keep their children close by and keep them from wandering out of the neighborhood. But in the 80's an urban legend took on its own real life antics when children around the island started going missing. Enter Andre Rand, who worked as an orderly in the Willowbrook State School in the 1960's. As it turns out he actually lived on the grounds after the closing of  the Willowbrook school at various make shift camp sites he set up in abandoned buildings and also in the under ground tunnels that ran under the institution. 

Holly Ann

        The 1st girl to grab attention but no the 1st to go missing, and the only one who's body was recovered  was 12 year old Westerleigh girl Jennifer Schweiger, who had down syndrome. She disappeared on July 9th 1987 and was found later in August of that same year. She was found in a shallow grave near the abandoned building. Andre Rand was the last person to be seen with her alive for whatever reason a 42 year old homeless guy is the only one with a 12 year old not to mention a young girl with down syndrome is beyond me. It took over 30 days of searching and combing the island to find this girl. He was arrested but only convicted of kidnapping, not for murder and is currently serving 25 years to life. But if you thought it ended there it doesn't. In 2004 Andre took the stand again facing charges on kidnapping and murder charges in the case of  7 year old Holly Ann Hughes who went missing in 1981, before Jennifer was taken. She was playing with her friends near a local Port Richmond deli. A witness saw a green Volkswagen shadowing her. Witness Elsie Caban, says she saw this car about 6 times over a 2 hour span moving closer to Holly and her friends. "The Volkswagen moved next to the tracks on Park Ave.," Caban said, recalling how she had previously seen the car up the street. 

Jennifer

"Now, the car was on the other side of the street with the children around down by the trestle." Caban said she first saw the car parked outside her Park Ave. home in Port Richmond and across the street from where her children were playing with Holly Ann outside the child's home. A short while later, as Caban walked to a deli to buy soap, she saw the car parked near the railroad tracks. Caban testified that the last time she saw Holly Ann was between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. as the child strolled alone on Ann St. toward Port Richmond Ave. Caban, who was on her porch, said she noticed several minutes later the Volkswagen was gone. Perhaps the strangest twist in this story is that the sales clerk that was working that night at the deli remembered Holly come in and bought a bar of ivory soap. He said she came in at about 9:30 pm to buy a bar of soap and she was a nickle short. Why is this strange? Well because Elsie Caban stated that she too went into that same deli and bought a bar of soap, and according to the clerk she too was a nickle short. Andre has admitted to being there and states that he actually gave the girl money and told her to go buy a bar of soap because she was dirty. Oh no it doesnt end there, Rand is also likely connected to the kidnappings of additional girls: Tiahease Jackson, 10, who disappeared Aug. 13, 1983, out of The Mariner's Harbor Hotel where she was staying with her family. Her mother was asleep around 1:30 pm and a neighboor asked her to run to the store for her. She was never seen again after buying chicken wings at Crown Supermarket, 900 Richmond Ave.; and Alice Pereira, 5, who disappeared on July 10, 1972, near her apartment in the Tysens Ln area of the New Dorp section, several miles southeast of Willowbrook. She vanished after her brother left her alone for all of 5 minutes. Audrey Lyn Nerenberg is another girl about the age of 18 although she had the mentality of a 14 year old when she was taken. She lived in  Flatbush, Brooklyn but was at a theater on Staten Island the day before her disappearance on July 5th 1977.  The theater is the former Jerry Lewis Theater that was on Forest Ave., not far from Rand's makeshift campsites. Audrey was last seen at her house in Brooklyn where she told her mother she was going two blocks away for a pack of cigarettes. Though her father received a call claiming to be the abductor, and demanding ransom, she was never seen or heard from again. He has also been linked to the disappearance of Ethel Atwell and the rape and murder of Shin Lee, both Willowbrook aides. 

Tiahease Jackson

                     Andre Rand has not given cops any extra information to help solve any of the cases, and to this day no body knows exactly what happened in the events leading up to the death of little Jennifer and the others. Few speculate that he passed some of the girls around among his friends, who knows if this is true. What really gets me is that this could have all been stopped before it all started. His first encounter with the law was May 25, 1969, when he some how got a 9-year-old Bronx girl into his car and drove to a vacant lot. He took off his clothes and hers, but a passing police car interrupted the crime. Charged with attempted rape, Rand pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced to four years. He served 16 months. In 1979, he was accused of raping a young woman and a 15-year-old girl, but neither pressed charges. In 1981, he offered a 9-year-old girl a lollipop and tried to lure her to ride in his Volkswagen. When she refused, Rand followed her to her home and searched for her while she hid under a rug. No charges were filed. And in January 1983, he drove to a Staten Island YMCA, lured 11 children into his van and drove to Elizabeth, N.J., where he bought them White Castle. He then took them to Newark Airport, where they watched planes arrive and depart. When he brought them back to the YMCA five hours later, Rand was charged with unlawful imprisonment and served 10 months in jail. Of course he and his lawyer maintain his innocence saying  that Rand was "thoroughly investigated at the time. . . . His photograph was shown to persons who had seen Holly Ann Hughes shortly before her disappearance and none of them have identified [him] as having been near or with the child on July 15, 1981."

Audrey

            In a letter Rand wrote he said that that he has been the victim of "a slanderous/scapegoat article resurrecting [so-called] 'notoriety,' thus encouraging hostility against plaintiff. Focusing and arousing public attention toward plaintiff from so-called 'missing persons' old cases - such persons plaintiff has never met!" In a jailhouse interview with The News in 1987, Rand repeatedly lied to a reporter, saying he had never met Jennifer Schweiger. Though he changed his story real quick at trial, after his defense lawyer learned there were several witnesses who saw him with his bicycle leading the trusting little girl with Down syndrome by the hand away from her house toward the woods at Willowbrook. And inmates have said that Rand in his own words  referred to him self as similar to Ted Bundy notorious women killer. "You know me and [Ted] Bundy are alike in many ways. We both used Volkswagens. Bundy's thing was women. My thing is kids. . . . Do you think the police could figure that out?" Andre also boasted to inmates that no one will ever find Holly's remains. He also asked a prison mate where he could find a porn magazine similar to his but with children instead. 

The search for Jennifer

Even 20 years later Friends of Jennifer, a group of people that dedicated much efforts to the recovery of Jennifer, still search the Willowbrook area once a year in hopes to recover anything that would help any of the cases against Rand.