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Dracula—A Symbol Of FailureNEW YORK ■ AP‘ There are people a ho wish .Salvador Agron was never born,“(hey call us .Spies because of his kind, they said.But wishing cannot wipe out Sa! v ad or A gr on' s memor v For New York Puerto Ricans, he symbolize'* the worst failures among a people struggling to ouild a new and better life.This slight, black-haired, fuzz-chceked 17-year-old is called Sal by his mother, Dracula by others Ho is to die in the electric chair for committing slaughter on 10th Avenue—a bloody, senseless killing of two 16-year-old boys.I don't care if 1 burn—my mother could watch me.”What kind of boy says such a thing?lie was born in A silo de An-cianos. a home for the aged, in, Mayaguez on the west end of Puerto Rico His mother, Esmeralda Rodriguez Agron, divorced. worked there as a domestic.As a child. Salvador always wet bis bed His teachers. Esmeralda say s. made him drape his wet sheets on his head and stand in the sunny courtyard. The other children surrounded him, pointing fingers.He hated school. When he was dragged there by the ear, he cried “.Vo one loves meOne day, when he was 7, he saw his mama and sister Aureo got in a car and go away. He was left standing in the road, crying. They went to New York.Sal screamed all the time.” a cousin says ‘Mama, mama!' he screamed.”In New York. Esmeralda gave up her Roman Catholic faith and married Carlos Gonzales, a stern Pentecostal minister.Esmeralda sent for Salvador They moved into the first of many cold-water flats. Each day Esmeralda went to her job in the hat factory and Gonzalez to his in a textile factory. Aureo andSalvador sat at the window, watching the world go by One day, some boys teased Salvador, saying Aureo was his girl and that, they did forbidden things together, Salvador ran into the streets.Then he found rooftops to explore and used to peek at lovers and learn about grown-up sex He stood in awe and listened to the brave talk of older boys about rumbles with Italians and Irish and Negroes.At the age of 10. Salvador went to a special school for troubled boys, He got the regular counsel* ing of a psychologist and, for a time, special therapy of a psychiatrist.At 13, he came home Aureo was gone. She hated Gonzales so much she married at 14 to make a home of her own.When Gonzales was too stern Salvador went to Aureo's house He liked her husband. Diaz. Sal did orazv things there, dressingin Aureo's clothes, wearing lipstick and imitating girls.Sal joined other outcasts. They had a name, the Vampires.Away from home there were easy touches, like a homosexual who was generous with those he favored There was stulf to make a man giddy, beer or something stronger There were the pushers with heroin and the guys with pot —marijuana There were girls But the best times were with the VampiresHe was with some of them the night of Aug 2ft He was 16There was big talk The 20 boys weic going to get even with some Irish and Italian guys for beating up a pal.Salvador put on a black cape witli a red lining, and became Dracula. He had a I2l4-inch dagger. Others carried pipe lengths,.Just alter midnight, they invaded a playground on Manhattan's west side. They found someneighborhood boys and girl-, not , the ones they were seekingSalvador, by him-olf lor a moment, was jeered “They were booing, booing. he saysThe blade of Salvador x da. ,t r i went quick and deep into \n jfhony Krzesinski’s chest, pier, his lung ami heart H drove , r. the back of Robert Youn.{his arms were pinned by oihn boys. It plunged into the stoma; n I of Ew ald RiemerKrzesinski ran across the street and died. Young ran into a flat I in (he adjoining building and died Riemer lay in agon on die j ground but lived to face Salvador in court.What does Salvador think about his act?The follows that got killed I shouldn’t be in the park at 12 {o'clock at night They should be in bod. Maybe God wanted them iso that if it was going to happen ! it was going to happen, it hap ; poned.”“St??- mms ■■nr - aOBITII A DICC
Newspaper Details
Brandon Sun
Brandon, Manitoba, CA
Mon, Dec 19, 1960
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Kenneth J.
NA, NA 24 Oct 2023
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