Tanya Mosley

It's on YouTube.

And, you know, like people do, I read the comments.

And the comments to this day, comments that were written just a few days ago, so many people still see him as a hero.

That goes back to what you're saying about what we hear when we hear this confession.

Yeah.

In real time back in the 80s, people wrote fan letters after hearing about what happened.

They sent him donations.

Joan Rivers even wrote him.

First off, how did you find out that detail?

You go on in the book in great detail that we continually see this.

I mean, we saw it with George Zimmerman after he killed Trayvon Martin.

More recently, as you write about Daniel Penny, who killed a homeless man named Jordan Neely on the New York subway.

As a historian...

When you look at this kind of public response to this case and then look at these modern examples, that through line, that continuity, what is the thing that strikes you the most?

Our guest today is Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Heather Ann Thompson.

We'll be right back after a short break.

I'm Tanya Mosley, and this is Fresh Air.

Heather, you talked a bit about the reality of life that these boys were living in New York in the 80s.

But these young men during that time period were vilified.

In some instances, they were characterized as the most dangerous criminals in New York City.