CROPSEY

ORIGIN: New York, United States.

For decades, parents have warned their children about a shadow like figure named Cropsey, a boogeyman-like entity who hid in the woods and abandoned buildings, waiting to snatch disobedient or wandering kids. 

The legend is told differently from family to family, but the main story is just the same: Cropsey was a crazed maniac who loved to hold on to an axe for most of the hours in a day.

He is often described as an escaped mental patient or a deformed recluse, who preyed on children.

The fear of Cropsey became deeply sunk in and into the local culture, with kids daring each other to play hide and seek in the decaying ruins of the Willowbrook State School, which was a notorious institution for children with developmental disabilities. 

The school itself was one of the main places that only ended up increasing the fear of the legend, since there were rumors of the children being abused and neglected within its walls.

But what made Cropsey truly scary was that, in the 1970s and 1980s, the myth sort of blurred with reality. 

A man named Andre Rand, a former Willowbrook employee, was convicted of kidnapping and was heavily suspected— with large evidences against him— in the disappearance of several children.

This horrifying real-life connection gave Cropsey a kind of authenticity, making his story one of the most disturbing urban legends in American folklore.