Panic: Queer True Crime
Paul Carlile and William Sakosky On November 5, 1982, Paul Carlile and William Sakosky checked into a room at the gay Florida resort Parliament House, only one of them would leave. Alana Miccolis and Megha Saluja Alana Miccolis and Megha Saluja agreed to spend a weekend at the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando, Florida. No one could have imagined how the trail of texts would lead detectives to a volatile trail of obsession, intimate partner violence, and death. Timothy Charles Lee On the evening of November 2, 1985, 23-year-old fashion design student Timothy Charles Lee fell asleep on the Bay Area...
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The story of Ian McLoughlin's murder spree contains mentions of crimes against teenagers and children. Viewer discretion is strongly advised. This content is intended for educational purposes only and aims to examine flaws in the justice system. It is not suitable for viewers under 18. Please prioritize your mental health and well-being. Ian McLoughlin - a serial killer who exploited the UK's controversial "provocation defense" to escape murder charges and continue killing for decades. In 1983, McLoughlin brutally murdered Len Delgatty but convinced a jury he was "provoked" by alleged audio...
info_outlinePanic: Queer True Crime
To belatedly celebrate Pride, this special month-long podcast series highlights four extraordinary figures—some queer, some allied—whose lives and work shaped LGBTQ+ history in ways both bold and quietly revolutionary. We begin with the mysterious, evocative collaboration between African American model T and famed artist John Singer Sargent. Their decade-long connection, hidden in Sargent’s private collection, speaks volumes about art, desire, and survival in the shadows. Next, we honor Lorraine Hansberry—a trailblazing playwright, civil rights activist, and quiet radical. Though best...
info_outlinePanic: Queer True Crime
Two corrections: The pronunciation of Beaulieu is closer to "B-you-ly" or BYOO-lee. In the episode, I mention that the age of consent was 16. That was the age of consent for heterosexuals only. Homosexuality was illegal across all ages until a minor reform in 1967. The Sexual Offences Act 1967 legalized homosexual acts between two men over 21 in private. This did not apply to the armed forces or the merchant navy. Lesbian acts were never criminalized, so there was no legal age of consent. In the spring of 1953, four men, including a British lord and two RAF officers, would become the...
info_outlinePanic: Queer True Crime
Several of these stories and their victims are part of the anti-queer wave of legislation put in place by the UK conservative government seeking to outlaw homosexuality. As the anti-queer rhetoric rose, so did the violence against the LGBTQ+ community. The de Gruchy case was the first time the mainstream press began to use the term “queer-bashing” to describe the murderous level of hate crimes. Before this, the tone was unmistakably mock and/or cruel, but the standard would not hold. In 1969, Michael de Gruchy was attacked and beaten to death by a teen gang trolling a gay...
info_outlinePanic: Queer True Crime
One of the reasons I wanted to cover the murders of actor, Michael Boone, and hotel porter William Dalziel is that, like me, some of you will be surprised at when they happened. As it turns out, the crackdown on gay men using indecency laws meant gay men were arrested, and the signal to the homophobes was that it was hunting season. In 1990, the lives of lesbians and gays, not to mention trans and gender nonconforming people, were under assault. Section 28, a cynical bit of anti-gay legislation hung a shadow over the well-being of queer folks. In researching these cases, one of the sad...
info_outlinePanic: Queer True Crime
When I started telling these stories, I understood the organized efforts to shame homosexuality out of existence. What I didn't expect was the level of criminality that would grow out of the demonizing of LGBTQ+ people. In the 1960s, Chicago police officer John J. Pyne began to organize a group of criminals and con men in an extortion ring that would go on to scam more than 1,000 men out of a million dollars across the United States, Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The FBI called the Chicken and the Bull extortion scheme the largest scheme of its kind up to that time. It is, in fact,...
info_outlinePanic: Queer True Crime
In my ongoing exploration of the history of homophobia in life and the law, I've been researching the trends, and I do mean trends, of attacks fueled by the targeting of mostly gay men. From the late 1950s through the 1970s in the United States, "Rolling a Queer" became such an epidemic that both Democrats and Republicans came together to introduce legislation that would create some minor protections for gays and lesbians. It failed, of course, and the attacks continued at pace. This crime wave helps to explain why the "Homosexual Panic Defense" began to be used in the 1960s in...
info_outlinePanic: Queer True 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...
info_outlinePanic: Queer True Crime
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...
info_outlineWhile 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.
- Charles James Mourey
- 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.
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Legal Services and Information
https://ptsdlawyers.com/lgbtq-military-pardon-va-benefits/