Salvador Agron
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Salvador Agron a.k.a. "The Capeman" (April 24, 1943-April 22, 1986) was a Puerto Rican gang member who murdered two teenagers in a Hell's Kitchen park in a notorious 1959 gang fight.
Agron was born in the city of Mayagüez on the western coast of Puerto Rico. When he was young, his parents divorced. His mother took custody of Agron and his sister, Aurea. She earned a living by working at a local convent; however, according to Agron, he and his sister were mistreated by the nuns. Agron's mother met and married a Pentecostal minister and the family moved to New York City. Agron's relationship with his stepfather wasn't a good one and he asked his mother to send him back to Puerto Rico to his father. In Puerto Rico, his father had remarried, but one day Agron found that his stepmother had committed suicide by hanging herself. Agron began to get into trouble and was sent to the Industrial School of Mayagüez, a school for juvenile delinquents.
His father sent him back to his mother in New York and in 1958, he became a member of the notorious teenage gang, the Mau Maus from the Fort Greene section of the city. Eventually he became the gang's president and later created another gang called the Vampires. On August 29, 1959, the Vampires were on their way to a rumble with an Irish gang called The Norsemen. The Norsemen never showed up so Agron, Tony Hernandez, and other members of the gang decided to attack some bystanders in the park. Agron stabbed two teenagers to death before fleeing.
The murders threw New York City into an uproar. Agron was called The Capeman because he wore a black cape with a red lining during the fight, while Hernandez was labeled "The Umbrella Man" because he used an umbrella as a weapon. Agron was defiant, saying "I don't care if I burn. My mother could watch me." Many New Yorkers were outraged, while others like former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Robert Young, the father of one the victims, campaigned for leniency.
Agron was sentenced to death, which made him the youngest prisoner on death row. While on death row, Agron became a born-again Christian. In prison he learned to read and write, earning his high school equivalency diploma. He wrote poems about his life and about life on the streets, including "The Political Identity of Salvador Agron; Travel Log of Thirty-Four Years", "Uhuru Sasa! (A Freedom Call)", and "Justice, Law and Order", which were published by some newspapers. Later he earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in sociology and philosophy from State University of New York of New Paltz, New York. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Agron was released from prison in 1979. A television movie based on his life was proposed and he set up a fund for the families of his victims with the money he received.
Agron was hired as a youth counselor and spoke out against gang violence. On April 16, 1986, he was admitted to a hospital with pneumonia and internal bleeding and died eight days later at age 43.
A book about Agron titled Conversations with the Capeman: The Untold Story of Salvador Agron was written by Richard Jacoby. Agron was also the basis for the musical The Capeman by Paul Simon.
[edit] Bibliography
- Agron, Salvador, Rubinstein, Annette T., and Kresky, Harry. Salvador Agron: Puerto Rican, Prisoner, Poet, Charter Group for a Pledge of Conscience, 1978.
- Jacoby, Richard. Conversations with the Capeman: The Untold Story of Salvador Agron. University of Wisconsin Press: Madison, 2004.
