The teleplay is based on the New York teen gang murder case of Salvador Agron (April 24, 1943 - April 22, 1986), AKA: "The Capeman," the youngest person to be placed on death row in New York at that time. He was a Puerto Rican gang member who murdered two teenagers in a Hell's Kitchen park on August 29, 1959. Agron mistook both teenagers for members of a gang called the Norsemen who were supposed to show up for a gang fight. His sentence was commuted to life and he was paroled in 1977.