The six-year-old boy had no remaining family, other than an aged aunt in a nursing home. He was made a ward of the state and placed in foster care.
In 2011, Lucas was arrested on charges of cyber terrorism. His black hat attack on Sunshine Airways’ computer systems had grounded the entire airline for almost a week. Sixteen years old at the time, Lucas was tried as an adult and sentenced to ten years in a minimum security prison.
There is no evidence that Lucas was ever incarcerated. His trail goes cold two days after his sentence was announced.
“Franklin”
True identity unknown and presence at the Mandel Academy impossible to verify. Alumni interviewed do not recall a student by that name.
Marm Mandelbaum
Fredericka “Marm” Mandelbaum was one of the most notorious criminals in nineteenth-century New York. A portly Prussian woman, she worked out of a store at 79 Clinton Street in Manhattan (a building that may still exist today) and made a living fencing stolen goods. She also planned and financed some of the most impressive capers in New York history. But Marm wasn’t a common criminal. She threw swanky dinner parties for the city’s finest citizens, and was said to be a stickler for good manners.
In the 1870s, Marm started the Grand Street School, an academy for young criminals. There were classes in pocket-picking, safe-cracking, blackmail, and confidence games. Children under the age of ten were welcome to apply, and those who graduated at the top of their class were hired by Marm herself.
The Butcher of Brighton Beach
Aka Vladimir Mingulov
Born: 1968, near Moscow
Currently at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, serving four consecutive life sentences.
Almost nothing is known about Mingulov’s early life in Moscow. He came to the US sometime in the late 1980s and settled in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood (known as Little Odessa for its large Russian population). By 1990, he was working as a hit man for Boris Ivankov, then a mid-level figure in the Russian Mafia. Ivankov’s brains and Mingulov’s brutality proved to be a potent combination, and the two men quickly rose through the ranks of the organized crime world.
Mingulov may or may not speak English. During his trial, he was provided with a translator. He never spoke a word of any language in court, leading some in the media to speculate that he might be mute. (He is not.) During the height of his career, Mingulov’s silence sent a powerful message. Everyone in Brighton Beach knew that when Vladimir Mingulov came to the door, he wasn’t there for a chat.
Over the course of twenty years, Mingulov murdered dozens of Boris Ivankov’s enemies. (Some experts claim the body count reached three digits.) He was said to be fast, efficient, and absolutely pitiless. Though he employed a wide range of weapons, he enjoyed using his bare hands whenever possible. Given his formidable size (6’6”, 235 lbs.), few of his victims would have been able to fight back.
Most of Mingulov’s victims vanished without a trace. It was rumored that he dismembered the corpses before disposing of them, earning him the nickname the Butcher of Brighton Beach. However, at Mingulov’s trial, it was discovered that his wife, Olga, deserved the title. For the Mingulovs, the murder business was a family affair. Vladimir (and often his son) would provide the bodies, and Olga would dispose of them.
When Vladimir and Olga Mingulov were finally arrested in 2011, the remains of their last four victims were discovered in a hidden sub- basement beneath their home.
“Ivan”
Sergei Mingulov
Born: 1995
Died: 2012 (unconfirmed)
Vladimir and Olga Mingulov’s only child. Sergei’s juvenile records are sealed. However, there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that he had been actively participating in his family’s “business” for years before his parents were incarcerated. Only sixteen at the time, Sergei had already built a fearsome reputation among the Brooklyn Russian Mafia. It was said he had inherited both his father’s size and cruelty.
When the Mingulovs were arrested, Sergei was declared a ward of the state. He had dropped out of school at the age of twelve, and there is no sign that he ever returned. There is also no record of the boy being placed in a foster home.
I have contacted the Mingulovs. Neither has spoken with Sergei since 2011.
“Felix”
Aka Hector Guerra
Born: 1994?
Died: 2012 (unconfirmed)
Hector Guerra was one of the aliases used by a young man who was arrested for prostitution in Miami, Florida, three times between 2009 and 2011. He told police officers that he had come to America from Cuba with his mother. She died shortly after their arrival, and he began turning tricks to support himself.
According to Jose Garcia, one of the arresting officers, “Hector” was a well-known and beloved character in Miami’s law-enforcement community. Famously charming and humorous, the boy was also believed to be highly intelligent. He could have easily avoided arrest, but he attracted cops’ attention by handing out large sums of money—mostly to teenage runaways who were at risk of falling prey to the city’s pimps.
Trying to free the young man from the sex trade, police arrested “Hector” three times. After his first arrest, he ran away from a foster family. The second arrest was followed by an escape from a juvenile detention facility. Following “Hector’s” third arrest, the authorities contacted the Mandel Academy.
“Max”
Alan Davis
Aka Hunter Stone
Born: 1996
One of the “Wolves” who escaped from the Mandel Academy with an alumni file, Alan Davis was recently living in New York City under the name Hunter Stone.
Alan is the child of a Boston surgeon and a former model. His parents learned that their son was free when they saw his picture on the cover of a New York tabloid. The news apparently came as a shock. Their son was imprisoned in 2010 for aggravated assault. They—and two of Alan’s siblings—had been the boy’s victims. Mrs. Davis had nearly died after the incident.
When I spoke with the Davises, they were clearly afraid for their lives. The NYPD had informed them that they could not arrest the young man since they had no evidence that he was the same boy who had disappeared from a juvenile detention facility in May of 2012.
The rest of the Davis family went underground for several months, only to return to Boston when “Hunter Stone” was arrested for assaulting a traffic cop.
“Aubrey”
Catelynn Cabe
Born: 1995
Died: 2012 (confirmed)
Catelynn grew up in Chickamauga, Georgia. The events that led to her arrest (and later enrollment at the Mandel Academy) are as reported by Jonathan Brennan. She and her nineteen-year-old boyfriend built a meth lab in the basement of her family’s home. It exploded, killing Catelynn’s parents and boyfriend.
After the incident, she entered the Serenity Center, an elite (and expensive) drug rehabilitation facility near Atlanta. An “anonymous benefactor” footed the bill. Two weeks after Catelynn was admitted to the center, her aunt (and sole living relative) Brittany Cogdill attempted to visit the girl. Ms. Cogdill was informed that her niece had committed suicide.
Catelynn’s body was one of the two dozen discovered in the morgue beneath the Mandel Academy. Her fingerprints were matched with those on her arrest record, and her aunt later identified the body. Ms. Cogdill has filed suit against the Mandel Academy’s Board of Directors.
“Caleb”
Born: 1994–1995
Died: 2012 (confirmed)
Almost impossible to identify conclusively. He would have been seventeen at the time of his death in July 2012. He claimed to have been at the academy for seven semesters (roughly two years and three months). Therefore, he would have been between the ages of fourteen and fifteen when he entered the school. His corpse was found in the Mandel morgue, but his fingerprints were not on file with any law enforcement agencies. Given the physical description of “Caleb,”
and assuming he was in fact a true psychopath, there are two promising possibilities:
Carson Hinde: Born in 1994 to a wealthy California family. After several tragic incidents involving family pets, the boy was admitted to a privately run mental institution at the age of eight. The institution’s administrators will neither confirm nor deny that Carson is still a patient. Carson’s mother is now deceased. His father, when contacted, refused to discuss the boy’s whereabouts.
Edward (Eddie) Dean: Born 1995. Raised by a grandmother in rural Alabama. Appeared in New Orleans in 2009 and enrolled in the city’s most prestigious prep school. Edward befriended several of the wealthiest students, earned their trust, and then robbed their homes. It’s estimated he stole close to $200K worth of jewelry and art. Edward vanished without a trace. His grandmother claims to have had no contact with him in the last three years.
“Violet”
Tabitha Berry
Born: 1997
Tabitha and her three younger siblings were orphaned when their parents died in a car accident in 2010. They were taken in by their mother’s cousin, who neglected the younger children, abused the older ones, and embezzled money from the children’s trust funds.
Increasingly worried about her siblings’ safety, Tabitha decided to act. One night, she spiked her guardian’s dinner drink with two crushed sleeping pills. She wasn’t aware that the woman had already consumed a cocktail of drugs. The guardian lost consciousness, and Tabitha loaded her brothers and sister into the woman’s car. They were halfway across the country when they were pulled over by the police. Tabitha was arrested for driving without a license. At the police station, she learned that her guardian had died. She was then charged with murder.
Tabitha now lives in a building owned by Jonathan Brennan and attends a Manhattan high school for the academically gifted. After her arrest, her brothers and sister had been sent to live with three different foster families. They recently have been reunited.
Simon Hodenfield
An alumnus of the Mandel Academy as well as an instructor (“Mr. Martin”). He is currently under investigation by the NYPD and FBI. Both organizations are trying to determine what role he may have played in the murder of the Mandel students discovered in the academy’s basement morgue.
I have been unable link Hodenfield to the (presumed) blackmail of Congressman Glenn Sheehan. However, several employees of the Browning School have been willing to go on the record to accuse Hodenfield of extortion. Three people say they were contacted by Hodenfield, who threatened to release sensitive information about their private lives if his son Nathaniel was ever expelled from the Browning School. (Nathaniel is, by all accounts, a shameless bully and pathological cheater.)
Fortunately the Browning School was able to expel Nathaniel after his father was accused of propositioning several of his son’s classmates online. With nothing to trouble their consciences, the school’s employees are willing to testify publicly against Hodenfield.
Arthur Klein
A psychopharmacologist previously employed by Moorland Laboratories, makers of Exceletrex. Klein was the first scientist to come forward with his concerns about the drug’s potential for causing long-term neurologic damage. He says he decided to blow the whistle on his employers shortly after the death of his six-year-old son, Peter. (Yes, Peter.)
Exceletrex
Developed by Moorland Laboratories to treat a range of conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Exceletrex was intended to be marketed as an alternative to Adderall and Ritalin. It is said to improve mental focus, inhibit impulsive behavior, and promote docility. Initial laboratory tests were encouraging. However, animal subjects (both rats and nonhuman primates) eventually began displaying signs of premature senility. Those findings were removed from all official documents.
According to Arthur Klein, Exceletrex was initially touted as a treatment for psychopathy. However, key figures at Moorland Laboratories became convinced that the drug was not well suited for persons with the disorder. While Exceletrex might help combat a psychopath’s impulsive behavior, it would not make him/her less violent. In fact, by improving mental focus, Exceletrex could exacerbate obsessive tendencies.
This might have sounded ideal to Lucian Mandel. He had no interest in curing psychopathy. But by focusing his “predators” on a single goal (graduating from the Mandel Academy), they would have been far easier to control.
“Ms. Smith”
Cassandra Keene, former anchor on the Fox Business Network. Won the Miss New York pageant in 1998. Second runner up in the Miss America pageant. Resigned from her position at Fox in 2011 when rumors began to circulate that she had assaulted an intern. No charges were ever pressed.
“Austin”
Born: 1994
Real name: Jared Holt
Currently on Rikers Island awaiting trial on three counts of aggravated assault.
Below is a transcript of an interview with him.
Q: According to your police file, your name is Jared Holt.
A: If that’s what it says, I suppose it must be right. [Big, wide smile. No sign of anxiety.]
Q: They were able to identify you using your fingerprints. You must have a juvenile record, but it appears to be sealed. How many times have you been arrested?
A: Is there a reason you need to know? Who are you again, anyway?
Q: I’m a reporter. I work for the New York Times.
A: The cops claim I beat up some bar bouncers. That the sort of thing that makes the news here in New York? Where I come from, that’s just a regular Saturday night.
Q: And where is it you come from?
A: [Big smile.]
Q: Judging by your accent, I’d say East Texas.
A: [Big smile.]
Q: There was a Jared Holt in Beaumont who killed a kid on his football team.
A: That was just a prank that got out of hand.
Q: You thought forcing a fifteen-year-old to drink a half-gallon bottle of grain alcohol wouldn’t do him any damage?
A: [Big smile.]
Q: You seem to have disappeared right after you got arrested. Where have you been for the past two years?
A: Around.
Q: I have it on good authority that you were a student at the Mandel Academy. Is it true?
A: Who’s your good authority?
Q: I’m afraid I can’t reveal my sources.
A: Then I’m afraid I can’t answer your question. In fact, I think I’m through answering any questions.
Beatrice Mandel
Born: 1942
Died: 2007
Beatrice Mandel became headmistress of the Mandel Academy in 1975, following the death of her father, Frederick. The school thrived under Beatrice’s management, and she was respected by the alumni and the academy’s board of directors. Former students recall her “fairness.”
Those who knew Beatrice socially often describe her as cold and robotic. She was highly intelligent and physically attractive (tall, blond, athletic), yet she seemed to be missing a soul. According to a neighbor who lived in the same Fifth Avenue apartment building as the headmistress, Beatrice “wasn’t quite human.” The man recalled an incident in which Beatrice demanded that another neighbor’s new puppy be euthanized after it urinated in the building’s elevator.
Beatrice’s daughter, Marjorie, is said to have been her mother’s clone. Neither of the women appeared to possess much interest in the opposite sex (or any sex at all). And although the family was wealthy, they lived quite simply. The Fifth Avenue apartment they occupied was still in the Mandel family at the time of Lucian Mandel’s death. Investigators say that the furnishings and appliances all dated to the early 1970s. Beatrice hadn’t purchased anything new since she had inherited the apartment from her father.
“Average Gamblers”
A lady senator.
A CEO.
Two big-shots from Goldman-Sachs.
A businesswoman who’d flown in from China.
Henry Brennan
Real name: Patrick O’Conner
Born: 1966
Died: 2012
Former CEO of the Westman Group. Attended the Mandel Academy 1982–1985. Graduated from Yale in 1989. Married Elizabeth Chapman in 1993. The couple had two sons: Jonathan and Jude. Married Eva Nelson in 2011. Their son Franklin was born in June 2012. Henry Brennan died in July after being hit by a fire engine arriving on the scene of the Mandel Academy fire.
“Julian”
Real name: James (Jimmy) Matsujiro
Born: 1995
Fourth generation Hawaiian, he comes from a family of Japanese ancestry. Currently in the Tombs, awaiting trial on drug charges. His father, Thomas Matsujiro, has made repeated attempts to contact his son since he learned of the boy’s imprisonment, but James refuses to speak to anyone but his lawyers. Mr. Matsujiro says his son became involved with a Honolulu street gang in 2008. He stopped attending school in 2009 and was arrested for drug possession later that year. In early 2010, James was questioned in connection with a fatal drive-by shooting in the Kalihi neighborhood in Honolulu. He disappeared shortly after that, and his parents assumed he had been murdered by members of a rival gang.
“Leila”
From: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 12:11PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Your Questions
My name is Selam. That’s all I can tell you. I grew up in the Midwest. My parents came from Yemen. I have four older sisters. They were all married before they turned 18. My father chose their husbands. I didn’t want to spend my life as a slave to the men in my family. When I was thirteen, I ran away from home. I had taught myself how to hack using the computers at school. I was never allowed to have one at home. When I left, I needed a way to support myself. I broke into a classmate’s home and stole his computer. I used it to empty my father’s bank account. I was on my way to Los Angeles when I was stopped by a police officer who thought I looked too young to be traveling alone. My family didn’t want me back. My father pressed charges. Lucian Mandel had me released into his custody.
How to Lead a Life of Crime Page 38