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 cruising spot in Wimbledon, England. In 1972, Leonard Bestwick was stabbed and left to die after an attempted robbery by two young men who “Set out to roll a queer.” The murder of Mr. Bestwick highlights the capriciousness of hate. Bestwick and his friend were just out, as many others were having a drink, and for this, he was brutally murdered. If his friend had gone into the bathroom first, he might have met the same terrible fate.

On the evening of September 18, 1989, 40, Christoph Schliack, a German immigrant living in the UK for more than 20 years, was murdered in his Shepherd’s Bush, London flat. Kenneth Williams, the 20-something who killed him, managed to flee the city of London for Ireland. Mr. Schliack had attended Leeds University, studying Chinese. He was also a lawyer, but did not practice at the bar for unclear reasons.

On August 30, 1987, Richard Lynn Earnest went to his estranged wife's home, where he removed his wife's and her lover's shoes from the car, replacing them with his carpentry tools. Before driving off, he left two notes, one for his son and the other for his wife. A day later, Richard Earnest would be dead. Mr. Earnest left behind a son and a family who loved him.

On Monday, June 9, 2008, 37, Jeremy Waggoner, a Royal Oak, Michigan hairdresser, was last seen leaving a Detroit, Michigan bar getting into his SUV with a man identified as Rich. When he didn't return home, his partner of seven years called the police, reporting Waggoner missing.

On Monday, March 31, 2025, 31, Kaitoria “Kai” Bankz and 27, Kelmen Merrell King made arrangements to hook up in Autaugaville, Alabama, around 11:40 pm. When they did meet, King and an accomplice attempted to carjack Bankz and her brother, resulting in the death of Bankz.

Watch any of these stories of any of the cases covered on the podcast, check out and subscribe to the YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/@queerpanic

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, the largest organized extortion of gay men ever. It is also another example of the depths and cold brutality of homophobia unchecked.

Here's the link to the fantastic article William McGown wrote for Slate. The article has become one of the few references to this scandal.

To watch this episode:

https://youtu.be/qSvPhDqNXKU

William McGowan's 2012 article in Slate:

https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/07/the-chickens-and-the-bulls-the-rise-and-incredible-fall-of-a-vicious-extortion-ring-that-preyed-on-prominent-gay-men-in-the-1960s.html

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 courtrooms across the country. A young man defending himself from the advances of a predatory homosexual is much more defendable than a defendant targeting gay men for fun and profit.

I have many more of these stories from the 1950s through the 1970s to share.

Please subscribe.

In this week's episode:

Sam Nordquist left home to visit his online girlfriend. When his mother and other family members couldn't get ahold of him, they begged authorities to help him, but sadly, help came too late.

In September 2024, Zsolt Zsolyomi disabled his leg monitor and disappeared onto the north Florida Island of Miami Beach and Little Havana using an alias to court, rob, batter, and then murder two older men with disabilities. Would the police stop him before he could kill again?

In 1973, the Long Beach murder of a World War II veteran and beloved school teacher, Hollis Voas, exposed the escalating cycle of rolling a queer that spiked during the 1960s and 1970s in the U.S. Law enforcement quickly tracked down the suspects Don James Myers and Kenneth Evans, after discovering the victim tied to his blood-soaked bedroom. Thirty-nine pieces of evidence, a stolen Cadillac, and a childhood friend would lead police to the perpetrators a few hours after the murder. I saw this 1973 news item so quietly tucked away in a newspaper that I knew I had to share his story. Thanks to one of Mr. Voas' relatives for sharing a picture of him for the YouTube coverage.

The 1953 murder of bartender Walter Thalen by a drifter who wandered into the bar where Thalen worked at the end of a night of drinking would have a devasting impact far and wide.

In March of 2025, Buffalo, New York, Allentown was rocked by the double murder of two beloved men. Mickey Harmon and Jordan Celotto contributed to their community in art and activism, and they were snatched away senselessly and violently.

49, California Fire Captain Rebecca Marodi and 53, Yolanda Olejniczak-Marodi, began dating in 2018, marrying in 2022. By February 2025, Marodi was ready to end what friends called a controlling and isolating marriage, but she would never get the chance. This wasn't the first time Yolanda Olejniczak-Marodi was involved in a murder.

Reports of intimate partner violence among lesbians are the most underreported. If you or anyone you know needs help, use the resources below.

Finally, an update on cases we've covered on the channel and a cold case.

I hope you stay with me as I continue to share more of these hidden stories of lives lived and snuffed out. They deserve our loving attention.

If you'd like to watch any of these episodes, you watch them all at:

https://www.youtube.com/@panicqueertruecrime

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233

Online live chat: thehotline.org

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

Thanks to Mystic Magazine for the global resource guide, one of the first to be compiled.

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

Please subscribe to the podcast and YouTube Channel.

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/