It may be a distant memory now, but you remember being told to go to your room at the sight of your angry parents.

You may have stayed up too late or broken something in the house when you were running around in there, even though you were not supposed to do that.

But most commonly, it was that they sent you straight to bed in order to wake up early for school the next morning.

Sometimes you would stay up later than usual.

Close your eyes, they would say, and you'll fall asleep.

Parents, without knowing it, would literally scare you to sleep.

Telling you, if you don't fall asleep, the boogeyman would come get you.

The old hag, La Jorona, El Cucui, El Coco, Baba Yaga. They wait for you under your bed.

But for those unfortunate enough to live in Staten Island during the 80s,

the legend of Cropsey had a completely different meaning.

A creature or a man that would come and take you in the middle of the night to an abandoned area to kill you.

Go to sleep or a Copsie will come get you.

Little did the parents know that a very real person at the time had been kidnapping children,

taking them to the grounds of a mental facility in Staten Island. He would stalk his victims,

children preferably.

He'd approach, perhaps choosing to become familiar with them first.

Not all the time, though.

Before you knew it, you felt a grip around your mouth and nose, and you couldn't scream.

You were overpowered by the real-life boogeyman.

And then, things would go dark.

Forever.

They I'll share with you the story of a real-life kidnapper that terrorized children,

...