Murder Case Photographs: #8

Murder Case Photographs: #8

1958


I remember this case. The Clerk's file contained a confession, I remember. It was the murder of a gay young man who had been set up by a straight young man feigning sexual interest in him. Once the killer got the gay victim to a remote location he robbed and killed him.

Don't know for sure what the defense was but have a good guess:

"He seemed like a regular guy. We talked, drank, he bought me a couple of drinks and he said he'd take me home. Next thing I know I'm in [remote location] and he wanted to perform these perversions on me. We fought, he had a gun, I was able to disarm him and shot him in self-defense."

I make that guess based on demoralizing experience. There is no group of people in American life so victimized for who they are as gay people. I have handled or tried maybe a half-dozen murders of gay men by straight men. All of them have had the same defense. It is discrimination, and the defense makes the most despicable homophobic arguments that are the counterpart to the racist arguments that prosecutors used against African-American people in 1958, but which no lawyer would get near today for fear of contempt and bar proceedings.

This is a beautiful photograph, the car is rendered in cameo by the old flash bulb against the dark, remote background. As with photo #2 in this series the black and white double as moral metaphors.

-Benjamin Harris