The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

Hispanic teenage boys roaming the park; other
nearby incidents were also reported. At 10:40p.m.,
several boys were arrested leaving the park.
Five boys were subsequently charged with rape,
assault, and attempted murder: Raymond Santana
(fourteen), Kevin Richardson (fourteen), Antron
McCray (fifteen), Yusef Salaam (fifteen), and
Kharey Wise (sixteen). The police termed the boys’
behavior “wilding,” going out deliberately to cause
trouble and spread fear. None of the suspects, each
from a middle-class family, had previously been in
trouble with the police, and no forensic evidence
was found to link them to the crime. However, the
media coverage was overwhelming, helping convict
them in the eyes of the public. Donald Trump took

out full-page newspaper ads insisting on reinstating

the death penalty so the boys could be executed for

their supposed crimes. Pete Hamill’s incendiaryNew

York Postarticle predicted that bands of crack-addled

African Americans would start coming downtown

from Harlem to kill white people. The five defen-

dants were convicted and imprisoned.

Impact In 1989, New York City was experiencing a

serious rise in crime, increased crack-cocaine abuse,

and heightened racial tensions; two thousand homi-

cides, an all-time high, were reported that year.

Other so-called wildings had occurred in 1983 and

1985, and in December, 1986, three African Ameri-

can men were beaten by a white crowd in Howard

Beach, Queens. Members of various races living in

New York were frightened of one another. The Cen-

tral Park jogger case served as an emblem of the dan-

gers of increasing violence, lawlessness, and tensions

in U.S. cities in general and New York City in particu-

lar. It helped supporters to reinstate New York’s

death penalty and to enact harsher juvenile-offender

laws.

Subsequent Events In 2002, while serving time for

a different rape, Matias Reyes confessed that he had

committed the Central Park rape. Reyes claimed

that he acted alone, and his DNA matched the sole

forensic sample taken at the scene in 1989. All five of

the men imprisoned for the crime were exonerated

in 2002. In 2003, the jogger, Trisha Mieli, revealed

her identity and spoke publicly about the attack for

the first time.

Further Reading

Mieli, Trisha.I Am the Central Park Jogger. New York:

Scribner, 2003.

Schanberg, Sidney. “A Journey Through the Tan-

gled Case of the Central Park Jogger: When Jus-

tice Is a Game.”The Village Voice, November 20-26,

2002.

Sullivan, Timothy.Unequal Verdicts: The Central Park

Jogger Trials. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Leslie Neilan

See also African Americans; Brawley, Tawana; Crack

epidemic; Crime; Hawkins, Yusef; Howard Beach in-

cident; Racial discrimination; Rape.

The Eighties in America Central Park jogger case
191

Yusef Salaam, one of five teenagers accused in the Central Park
jogger case, arrives at the New York State Supreme Court building
in August, 1990.(AP/Wide World Photos)