Panic True Queer Crime

In this episode, five cases of homophobic rage, mental illness, alcohol abuse, and murder. Dream City Fire: One of the worst fires in modern London that you've probably never heard of. A combination of alcohol and anger sparked a series of events that ended in the death of 11 men in an unlicensed and uninspected second and third-floor cinema. Ashia Davis: On June 01, 2023, Carlos Scotland and Ashia Davis met at the Woodward Inn in Highland Park, Michigan. By the end of the evening, Ashia Davis would be dead, and the search for her killer would lead to a young killer whose motives remain unclear. Jake Kelly: On August 27, 2023, 49-year-old Jake Kelly was brutally beaten in his Phoenix, Arizona home. Instead of calling for medical assistance, his roommates, Shannon Higgins (37) and Corey Young (44), moved him into a bathtub, delaying any hope of help. This tragic case raises questions about justice, accountability, and the events leading to Jake's untimely death. Gerald Declan Radford: An update to the 2024 Florida case of the murder of John Walter Lay. After a six-day trial and a quick verdict 66, Gerald Declan Radford, under the banner of the stand-your-ground law, left John Walter Lay's family in pieces. Kevin Baker: On March 8, 1977, having left his New Jersey home looking for adventure, 18-year-old Kevin Baker would find himself in a Las Cruces, New Mexico courtroom accused of murdering 47 Charles Thompson, a South Dakota truck driver on his way to a new life. Baker's trial would be filled with questions of sanity and, of course, homosexual panic.

In the television show The Sopranos, the character of "Big P*ssy" was based on a New York or New Jersey mobster targeted because of his sexual antics, but in Italy, there was a similar situation involving a highly respected hitman who stepped out of line by loving and wanting to make a life with the man he loved.

Anthony "Bubbles" Torres was a character, a creation. He tended to amuse and sometimes irritate people. On the night he was killed, witnesses saw the beginnings of a confrontation and Torres's murder. Years later, police struggle to solve the case.

In my research into the history of indecent proposals and indecent advances and the role of the homosexual panic used in court to explain murder, I've learned something new. In the later 1960s and all of the 1970s, there was a rash of robberies targeting gay men. It became so excessive that both Democratic and Republican politicians sought to cool the temperature when it came to some of the laws and rhetoric around homosexuality. Those efforts were shot down, of course, but the awareness on the part of defense lawyers that their clients might just be seen as a thief attempting to exploit a gay man made the homosexual panic defense even more urgently needed.

The cases based on people meeting up on apps are an ever-evolving story. Is it any more dangerous than meeting someone at a bar at 3 am? When imagining an open relationship, neither Scott nor his husband couldn't possibly imagine how it would end.

Filippo Gangitano - Gay in the mob

Anthony "Bubbles" Torres -Murdered on a San Francisco street

Harold St. John - AWOL, Kidnapping, and Homosexual panic

Bobby Scott - Murdered on a Date

While researching a story for the next episode I found a 1960 article examinign the growth of homophobic attacks on mostly gey men for financial gain. Rolling a Queer crimes grow to such a degree that lawmakers across the country sought to minimize legal prohibitons agaisnt LGBTQ folks as a partial remedy. Most of these efforts failed contributing to the mid-sixties appearance of homosexual panic as a legal defense.

The fisrt two stories in this episode involve murders that resulted from attempts to rob a gay man.

1. Charles James Mourey
2. Chelie Todd

Steve Marose story is one of murder but of the lingering effects of the governments pink scare that started in the 1950s when President Eisenhower signed on over ridding the governnment and the military of lesbians and gay men.

Marose was thrown out of the military in the 1990s after spending eight months in a military priison for the crime of being gay. Fulfilling a promise, President Biden issued a pardon for many of these men and women but the process is anything but easy and Marose remains without his pension and without having his name cleared.

If you know anyone in the same position pass along these links that might set them on the path to having their rights restored.

The Murder of Patricia Malone

Patricia Malone was a lesbian women working the London streets as a sex worker when she met and was killed by a police officier. The officier came in for a beating in the press but so did Ms. Malone whom they dobbed, "Pasty Butch Malone." Her treatment in the press and the twist to the story give you a glimpse into the times in which her murder took place.

The Murders of Page Cegelski and Paula O'Connor

The two women were discovered in a Green Bay, Wisconsin duplex. The killer would confess to the murders with an evolving story. Peter Sotka's long history of intimate partner violence and his contradictory statements make his confession suspect. There is no record of either woman's state of undress and there is no evidence from family and friends that the women who were best friends were having an intimate relationship. Using a version of gay panic as the setting for a double murder is worth noting.

Resources:

Resources chrome-

APPLICATION-FOR-PARDON

Legal Services and Information

https://ptsdlawyers.com/lgbtq-military-pardon-va-benefits/

Molotov Cocktail of Hate

Pamela Cobbas, Mercedes Roxana Figueroa, Andrea Amarante, Sofía Castro Riglos

Intimate Partner Violence

The Murder of Chen Chen Fei

The Murder of Quanesha Shantel

The Murder of William Nicholas Abraham

Disappearance

The Murder of Levi Davis?

Ex Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries Charged: Human Trafficking and Assault

The Shocking Murder Of Eduardo Xol

Ex-Partners, a Mysterious Friend, and Two Bodies Found in Suitcases on Bristol's Clifton Bridge

Kasim Omar: Escaped to America Seeking Safety, Only to Face a Horrific Tragedy

The Murder of Paul Taylor

The Murder of Howard Bresendine

Mental Health Resources

SAMHSA's National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders.

https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline

LGBTQ & Gay-Friendly Rehabs: Statistics, Risk Factors & Treatment

(888) 402-1504

https://www.addicted.org/

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

National Domestic Violence Hotline

1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

Online live chat: thehotline.org

If you or someone you know is in danger call 9-1-1 immediately.

Thanks to MysticMag for the global resource guide. One of the first to be compiled.

https://www.mysticmag.com/psychic-reading/domestic-violence-resource-guide/

In 1960, Smith College's Professor Newton Arvin and two of his colleagues were swept up in a scandal concocted in large part as a way of shaming being queer out of existence.

Efforts to control the flow of what is erotica or smut is an ongoing crusade in the United States and in many places in the world. When those crusades are weaponized against targeted groups of people they can be lethal.

Some of you listening to this episode might think a professor at a private college is a fairly privileged person, and you're not wrong, but his homosexuality stripped away much of that privilege.

The other reason I'm sharing this story is that Newton Arvin and his two colleagues are stand-ins for the hundreds, perhaps thousands of mostly gay men who were arrested, jailed, and had their lives ruined for the offense of being gay.

The potential loss of one's freedom and profession is both unbelievable from today's vantage point and entirely possible to imagine happening again.

Please subscribe the the podcast.

Thanks

This collection of cases includes the murder of three trans women of color, the most at-risk group in the LGBTQ+ community. Two cases of intimate partner violence, please see this description for help.

The murder of a 19-year-old murder in prison because he was gay and black. A gay man was murdered in his home by a jealous boyfriend and the victim's friend, and two gay men were murdered by a group of friends led by a homophobic leader.

Intimate Partner Help:

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

Online live chat: thehotline.org If you or someone you know is in danger, call 9-1-1 immediately.

Thanks to MysticMag for the global resource guide.

One of the first to be compiled. https://www.mysticmag.com/psychic-reading/domestic-violence-resource-guide/

Episode Description

Benjamin Renwick

Dylan Gurley

Micah Laureano

Leo Nunes

Tzatzi Sanchez

Savannah Williams

Starr Brown

Tommy Lee Trimble and John Lloyd Griffin

Vanity Williams

Peter Coshan

Lisa Stone

Curtis Marsh

Gaurav Gopalan

Matthew Mickens-Murrey

Ukea Davis and Stephanie Thomas

Vanity Williams

Several of the cases in this episode involve unsolved cases. In the next episode, I will delve into the reasons why this might be the case.

Two of these cases involve the murder of black trans women, the highest rate of murder in the LGBTQ+ community.

The last two cases happened at the same time in the same city

To watch any of these stories you can find them on the Queer True Crime YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK4r13FF8ExLGbhfSH6i4hw

For Help

National Domestic Violence Hotline

1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

Online live chat: thehotline.org

If you or someone you know is in danger call 9-1-1 immediately.

The International Domestic Violence Resource Guide (2024) is the largest resource worldwide.

https://www.cvpsd.org/post/domestic-violence-resources-in-the-north-america

If you suspect elder abuse, call 1-833-401-0832 and enter your 5-digit zip code to be connected to the Adult Protective Services in your county, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

Please subscribe to the channel.

Anna Flores

Pauly Likens

Alex Rodda

Liara Tsai

Bruce Becker

Curtis Marsh

Kevin Clewer

Charles Gibson

Brad Nelson Winters

Here is a collection of murders some of them due to intimate partner violence and some hate crimes. The thing they have in common is the loss and heartache of family and friends.

While might surprise some that young men, mostly, still struggling with their sexual identity resort to murder when threatened, ongoing scholarship suggests that the causes might be complicated, a mixture of internalized homophobia and other pathologies that fuel murder.

Intimate partner violence in the queer community remains underreported. Please use the resources below if you or someone you know needs help.

Finally, the murder of Kevin Clewer remains unsolved though it seems authorities have a suspect. The murders of Clewer, Charles Gibson, and Brad Winters were thought to be part of a serial killer's ramp-up thank goodness they were not.

Murders of queer people continue to be under-reported so I thank you for your loving attention to these cases.

To watch any of these stories you can find them on the Queer True Crime YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK4r13FF8ExLGbhfSH6i4hw

For Help

National Domestic Violence Hotline

1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

Online live chat: thehotline.org

If you or someone you know is in danger call 9-1-1 immediately.

The International Domestic Violence Resource Guide (2024) is the largest resource worldwide.

https://www.cvpsd.org/post/domestic-violence-resources-in-the-north-america

If you suspect elder abuse, call 1-833-401-0832 and enter your 5-digit zip code to be connected to the Adult Protective Services in your county, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

Please subscribe to the channel.

In 1998, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia became the location of two of the most violent murders Australia has ever seen. In 1998, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia became the location of two of the most violent murders Australia has ever seen. 19-year-old, Mark Valera's pent-up rage led him down the path of murder, leaving destruction in his wake and sparking an equal fury that ultimately led to the killing of his own father. The murders committed by Mark "Valera" van Krevel further revealed a disturbing wave of child molestation in New South Wales, implicating some of the community's most respected figures including one of Valera's victims. At the time, Australia, like many places worldwide, was experiencing a surge of violence against the LGBTQ+ community, involving the police on some occasions. Equally damaging is the capricious conflation of pedophiles, hebephiles, and homosexuals. Wollongong's former Mayor Frank Arkell, who was not gay, was shortly before his murder with 29 charges of child molestation. Valera's vigilantism removed the possibility of justice for the 29 victims and possible vindication of the alleged victims from a previous case. Valera's first victim, David O'Hearn, was a quiet man beloved by his family and friends. The extreme violence surrounding these events has unfortunately overshadowed O'Hearn's life and death. This retelling serves to honor his memory.

Six stories of possible greed, intimate partner violence, murderous internalized homophobia, and your garden variety homophobia.

Toslimy Bang and Terence Brown

Blaze Bernstein

Kelly Moriarty and Doris "Pat" Carter

Michael Causer

John Paul Kelso

John Walter Lay

John Edwards

To watch any of these stories you can find them on the Queer True Crime YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK4r13FF8ExLGbhfSH6i4hw

Or click on any of the titles.

For Help

National Domestic Violence Hotline

1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

Online live chat: thehotline.org

If you or someone you know is in danger call 9-1-1 immediately.

The International Domestic Violence Resource Guide (2024) is the largest resource worldwide.

https://www.cvpsd.org/post/domestic-violence-resources-in-the-north-america