All language subtitles for Last.Call.When.a.Serial.Killer.Stalked.Queer.New.York.S01E01.720p.WEB.h264-EDITH

(footsteps crunching)

(car door opens)

(keys jingling)

(car door closes)

(engine starts)

("Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte"
by Patti Page plays on radio)

♪ The red rose tells you ♪

♪ Of his passion ♪

♪ The white rose
his love's so true ♪

♪ Hush, hush,
sweet Charlotte ♪

♪ Charlotte ♪

♪ Don't you cry ♪

♪ Hush, hush,
sweet Charlotte... ♪

Reporter:
The murder of a married,

middle-aged businessman

from Massachusetts...

(tense music playing)

Man 1:
The night the gentleman

from Massachusetts disappeared,

it was relatively quiet.

Man 2:
I think he saw this guy

across the room
in the piano bar.

Man 1:
And then they were gone.

Next thing I know,
there he is in the papers.

He couldn't have
seen it coming.

And so many people
were so terrified.

Reporter: His body parts
were found in plastic bags

along roadways here
in New Jersey,

and his briefcase
was left nearby.

(wind whooshing)

(dramatic theme music playing)

Chief Thomas Macauley:
I was working a regular shift

when I was notified.

A few of the Department
of Transportation employees

found a, uh, a human head
in the back of their truck.

Nick Theodos: Evidently,
as maintenance workers

were throwing the bags
off the truck.

one of the bags caught
the edge of the wood

and split open,

and that's when
they noticed the head.

Around mile marker 70.

They found the bags
containing the legs.

I worked numerous murders,

but this wasn't like
a normal crime scene.

It looked like somebody
had washed the body

and then used newspaper
to wrap the body.

Chief Macauley: Our victim
was cut into seven pieces

and packaged

in several different
trash bags.

We went through each bag
and collected what we could.

Part of the body was wrapped
in a, uh, shower curtain.

There was a bag
from a shopping center.

Chief Macauley:
A Liz Claiborne

king size fitted sheet.

Theodos:
We found a keyhole saw.

We found some gloves.

One of the bags
contained his briefcase

that had his, uh, wallet,

which contained
his driver's license.

So at that point, we knew
our victim was Thomas Mulcahy.

Tracey O'Shea:
I would say half of these photos

are from trips of some sort.

My dad really enjoyed
taking us and traveling

and, and showing us things
and having us experience things.

And being together
as a family

was definitely important
to him.

This is at my senior prom,
I believe.

He was just, you know,
being sort of, Dad.

(laughs)

O'Shea: It was about six weeks
before my 19th birthday

when my father was killed.

It's been, gosh, 31 years.

So the hesitancy
to put it out there

and have, have it
sort of resurface

is just a lot.

It's good to kind of, go back,

and remember that point
in my life

where he was there,
(chuckles)

and able to do
these things with him.

My father was very kind,

kind of gentle...

funny in a quirky
kind of way.

(laughs)
Um...

This was more of his
"chilling attire,"

even though he looks
pretty buttoned up

for gardening
and being outside.

I always felt like
my dad was different

than maybe a lot of the other
dads that I grew up with.

Not hugely.

He loved our town

and what it provided
from a family perspective,

but he was more,
sort of, cosmopolitan,

traveling to
different parts of the world.

His life seemed bigger
than Sudbury.

He was into Hollywood glamour,

and he loved Broadway
and "Chorus Line"

and "La Cage aux Folles."

I'd say the big thing was,
he kind of, let us be ourselves,

or let me be myself,

and kind of, um,
was encouraging in that way.

In my teenage years,

I sensed that
there was more to him

and the life
that I experienced,

there was more to it.

Then he went down
to New York

on a business trip and...

never came home.

(solemn music playing)

Chief Macauley: When we started
trying to figure out

how Mr. Mulcahy became
a victim of a homicide,

we started tracing
his footsteps.

And we found out
that he was in New York

for a presentation.

My mom was
in regular contact

with the police

and, and getting updates,

especially in those
early days.

I know he had done
his presentation

at the World Trade Center,

that he had with a colleague,

that they had gone out
to lunch afterwards

and drank a lot of beers.

The detectives shared
with us

that there was some
ATM transaction somewhere.

Through looking
at his credit cards,

we were able to track
his movements.

And he ultimately ended up
at the Townhouse...

Townhouse Pub in New York City.

It was learned
that, uh, that sometimes

he went
for male companionship.

I was the last person
to be seen

with Thomas Mulcahy.

It was a busy night,
but it wasn't overly crowded.

And I took my usual spot
at the bar.

My friend Jack came in
with a friend of his from Boston

named Thomas Mulcahy.

I liked older, professional,

well-dressed gentlemen.

Uh, so he introduced me.

Oh, he was
a very handsome man.

Tall, classic New England,

Brooks Brothers, businessmen,

executive look.

I knew nothing
about his home life,

just that he was here
on business.

I would like to have spent
more time with him,

but I noticed

that he was interested
in someone else

standing at the piano.

So I politely excused myself.

As I was leaving,
I was curious

as to who it might
have caught his attention.

So I did look back,
and I did see one gentleman

standing at the piano.

I had not seen him before.

Brown hair.

Wearing a polo shirt.

Kind of nondescript.

Two or three days later,

I get a knock
on my apartment door

at about six o'clock
in the morning.

And it's detectives
from the 17th Precinct

informing me that Tom--

body parts had been found
scattered throughout New Jersey.

♪ ♪

O'Shea: In the months
after my father was murdered,

the details were
kind of unraveling.

We had, kind of, a session

as a family, um,

with a therapist.

Um,

and I think
the way it was said,

was that my dad
had another life,

and that that life was gay.

And then... I learned

that a few years prior,

after he returned
from a business trip,

my mom found some brochures

around gay bars in London

or something like that.

Um, from my understanding,
my mom and dad

wanted to--

they made a choice
to work on things

and, um...

be in therapy.

In my world, homosexuality
wasn't really talked about.

Not that I was afraid of it

or opposed to it
or anything like that,

but I just didn't really
have much exposure

to what being gay was.

Just having gone
through my dad being murdered,

being dismembered,

being alongside
the Garden State Parkway,

like, and now
I'm being told he's gay.

Like, (voice breaking)
what else is gonna...

happen?

(somber music playing)

(ambient street sounds)

With the gay community?

Probably with
the gay community, yeah.

When we started investigating
and going to the bars

that were known
to be frequented

by the gay community,

we had contacted,
uh, in New York City,

the Gay Lesbian
Anti-Violence Project,

and, uh, mentioned to them
that we had this case

and that, um, you know,

if there was any way
that they could help.

Bea Hanson: The Anti-Violence
Project was founded in 1980,

and it was founded in order
to respond to a rash

of anti-gay bias attacks
that were happening.

We called ourselves
the New York City Gay

and Lesbian
Anti-Violence Project.

And at AVP, we functioned
kind of as a connector

between the police department
and the community in some ways.

Matt Foreman:
We're doing precinct
sensitivity training programs.

We're training state police
in New Jersey. Uh, we're try...

The New Jersey
State Police knew about us

because I was doing
sensitivity training class

with them
for a whole year

because they had
a horrible reputation

of harassing gay men.

Hanson:
The New Jersey State Police

called me wanting help,

wanting any information
we could,

we could help them with.

And they had no clue
about the gay community.

I mean, uh, you know,
it's just a different world.

Hang on to those wigs and pumps,
'cause here we go.

(funky electronic music playing)

Hanson: When I first moved
to New York,

you know, I came in '86,

New York was really a place,

and I think for a lot
of Queer people then,

it was a place
where you felt like,

you could be who you are.

Person 1:
I love New York.

Thank you, New York,
for being so fabulous.

Foreman:
Our movement was just growing.

Person 2:
So gay today.

Foreman:
Everything was just burgeoning

in terms of gay life.

I think it's hard for
straight people to understand

what it felt like to walk
into a gay bar back then.

("Show Me Love"
by Robin S. playing)

♪ You've got
to show me love ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Heartbreaks and promises ♪

♪ I've had more than my share ♪

Foreman:
I remember the first
gay bar I walked into,

I thought, "Oh, my God,
I've been missing this

my entire life."

It just felt like home.

♪ Show me, show me baby ♪

It was, uh, sexual.
Very sexual.

Narrator:
Come to Man's Country
and develop your body

or a friendship
with somebody else's.

Hanson:
We had the Clit Club.

It was really like,
the "dyke coming out,

sex-positive place."

I loved going there.

David Wertheimer:
Queer bars were

one of the few places
in the community

where we could come
and feel safe.

Hi. What are we doing here today
at Marie's Crisis?

Piano bars, poppers,
Barbra Streisand,

the whole deal, you know?

Yes!

(singing) ♪ And all because
of the man... ♪

Wertheimer:
And there were people

who, because
they... hated gay people,

or were afraid of gay people,
or were afraid of feelings

they may have had themselves,

would come
to places like this

specifically with the intention
of doing harm.

Hanson: There was always
this kind of...

"You got to watch your back
at the same time too,"
sort of feeling.

Reporter 1: It all started
just after midnight

when a pipe bomb exploded
in a West Village bar

called Uncle Charlie's.

A six-inch pipe bomb

had been placed in a trash can.

It exploded inside the club,

injuring a bar worker
and two patrons.

Reporter 2: Bouquets
of flowers and the candles

at the door
of the Ramrod bar.

They're really symbols
of the mourning,

the feeling of mourning
for the two dead

and the others
who have been shot.

Mike DeLa Hoz:
This is ridiculous!

I want to live my life out.

I don't want to be killed
on these streets.

It's ridiculous!

(sniffles)

I mean, you know
what it is to be,

to be assaulted
for just being alive?

I mean, for being
what you want to be.

If there's one thing
that is universal,

in my experience
to LGBTQ people,

that we all know intuitively,
it's violence.

So you used to do--
you, you admit

that you used
to do gay bashing?

Guest:
Yeah. Fag bashing.

Oprah:
And why would you do this?

Uh, we were young
and full of goofiness,

and we just--

it was the thing to do
on a Friday or Saturday night.

Yeah. And so did that give you
pleasure doing that?

At the time? It was fun, yes.

We had cases
where guys would come in with,

to the West Village
and Chelsea with golf clubs.

There's no golf course
in the West Village and Chelsea.

Simply to use those to,
to beat up gay people.

-(protestors shouting)
-(whistling)

Hanson: And, you know,
the AIDS crisis was raging.

One of the things we saw
is people were targeted

because they looked sick,

because gay people
and gay men, you know,

were, were blamed
for HIV and AIDS.

So the AIDS crisis,
the epidemic of AIDS

and violence definitely
connected and increased.

Foreman:
It's in all of us.

That fear of being hurt

because we're queer.

Probably not
a program goes by on "Gay USA"

where we don't talk about
the rising tide of anti-gay

and anti-lesbian violence.

"Gay USA" is a weekly
one hour news show...

(lively show theme playing)

Andy Humm: ...about everything
that happens

in the LGBTQIA community.

The brutal beating of...

Whenever anybody was beat up

or something bad happened,
we'd talk about it.

Hate crimes
against gays and lesbians

are up all over the country.

You know, I've had people try

to run me over in their car
because of it.

My best friend was beaten
severely in Brooklyn.

He had to live with me
because his jaw was broken.

Guest:
Two guys walked towards me,

and call-- one of them
called me a faggot.

The one who was closest
had his,

-his arm up--
-Oprah: Mm-hmm.

and, um, stabbed me
in the shoulder.

I had so much repressed anger

at how we were being treated.

(indistinct shouting)

Foreman:
I was just furious,

and I wanted
to do something about it.

Reporter: Can you
spell your last name for me?

F-O-R-E-M-A-N.

Executive director
of New York City

Gay and Lesbian
Anti-Violence Project.

Reporter: You told me yesterday
that the Anti-Violence Project

has been around for ten years,
um, here in New York.

What's new that's happening?

What's the phenomenon
that you see happening?

What's new is this
alarming escalation

in anti-gay
and anti-lesbian crime.

It's been on the increase
for years...

Every day, more and more,

especially on Monday mornings,
we'd have 10, 20 new reports,

which meant 10, 20 people

that needed
to be reached out to

to talk to, to help.

Our job was to be there
for the survivors,

try to help them
navigate the system,

whether it was crime victim, uh,
compensation for their injuries,

or to help them deal with
the psychological trauma of it.

If you're a member
of this community,

if you're a lesbian
or a gay man in this community

and you've been victimized,
come to AVP.

I mean,
that's, that's the root.

That's the bottom line there.

It was very much trying
to push law enforcement

to give a shit.

Foreman:
In the Mulcahy case,

Bea was the front person
with the police.

I was pretty involved
with keeping on top

of the New Jersey
Police Department,

helping them connect them
to the Townhouse.

The Townhouse wasn't
really connected in

with, you know,

the Queer organized community

like, in the, in the
West Village and in Chelsea.

There was
out gay people everywhere.

But this is uptown.

This was kind of a bar
where a lot of, like,

guys in suits went.

A lot of closeted guys went.

I would characterize it
back then

as a place
for older gentlemen

and, and younger men
who like older gentlemen.

Michael Ferreri:
For these men,

The Townhouse
provided anonymity.

So they felt safe
that anyone coming here

was obviously gay.

And, uh, if they're here, well,
you know, you're here, too.

Chief Macauley: We went
in the Townhouse several times

to, uh, interview people,

but they had no additional
information to offer.

Foreman:
I think a lot of potential tips

were missed because

the way in which they approached
people at the Townhouse,

with very little finesse,
as I understand it.

It's very difficult, especially
in a bar like The Townhouse

where people were
pretty closeted,

that they didn't really want
to get involved with police.

(tense music playing)

Theodos: So we tracked down
all of the items

that were recovered
from the scene.

We checked on
the Pergament bag

where the keyhole saw
was purchased.

We called Pergament.

"We have a, a keyhole saw.

Could you tell us where
somebody might buy this saw?"

And they say,
"Well, what's the SKU number?"

And when we give them
the SKU number,

they say, "Okay, that was
shipped to Staten Island."

Chief Macauley:
We couldn't identify
which Pergament it came from.

We took a SKU number
from the latex gloves,

and it, it identified
the location

where those latex gloves
were purchased,

which was a CVS
on, on Staten Island.

And there was only one CVS
on Staten Island.

And talking to the management
at the CVS,

these gloves were
probably purchased

within, like, a two-month period
prior to this homicide.

And in that aisle,

directly across from the,
from the gloves

was a box of, um,
of trash bags

that were similar
to the trash bags

that, that the victim
was found in.

Theodos:
They were all in Staten Island.

When we go back 30 years ago,

there wasn't the camera presence
that you have today, right?

If you probably
bought that today,

you'd probably have
somebody on video,

but, uh, not lucky enough.

Chief Macauley: We also tried
lifting several fingerprints

from the Mulcahy bags.

You put it in
a sealed container

with superglue

and you apply heat to it,

and your prints
are, are raised off that item.

But with our bags,

uh, it wasn't quite sealed.

So we didn't get the prints
at that time from those bags.

We were trying
to find any leads

or anything
we could discover.

Chief Macauley:
Lucky for us,

every homicide
that we had,

we were required to submit it
into ViCAP no matter what.

ViCAP stands for Violent
Criminal Apprehension Program,

and is the analysis
of similar cases

throughout the country.

Theodos: So we submitted
the ViCAP form.

And once it went
into the database,

the algorithms would push out
if there was anything similar

based on the
crime scene description.

It came back that there was
a very similar case

in 1991.

(intense music playing)

Reporter: Police say
he was stabbed to death.

So far, no motive,
no suspects.

Chief Macauley:
We realized

this person
has done this previously.

Carl Harnish:
Okay, here.

And then we're going west.

Jay Musser:
Here's, here's the bridge.

-Harnish: Yeah.
-Musser: So this is Mannheim.

So it has to be right around
somewhere in around in here.

Harnish:
Redding. Oh, we're going--

Musser: We're going--
That's where the body was found.

Harnish: Where's 72?
Yeah. Okay.

This is the location
where the barrel was located.

At a, uh, rest stop.

It's just a wide area.

He was about 40
to 45 feet off the road.

Yeah, okay.

Harnish: We were in charge
of Lancaster County.

This, of course, is where
the Pennsylvania Dutch live.

Musser:
It's different from the city.

We didn't have
a lot of homicides.

Harnish: The person who found
the body in the barrel

was a maintenance employee.

I think he tore
at least three bags open

before he realized,
"Oh, it's a body."

He immediately radios
his office.

I'm notified, Jay's notified,

and immediately
we went to the scene.

Musser:
When I got to the scene,

the body was on the ground,

removed from
the, the 55-gallon barrel.

The only thing
that really caught my attention

was how clean
the body was.

With him being stabbed

and this big gaping hole
in his stomach,

there had to be
a lot of blood,

and yet there was nothing,
and his whole torso was clean.

I saw that.

And for the moment,
I didn't see anything else.

Musser:
Five days later,

approximately 38 miles
east of that,

that's where his personal
belongings were found.

They found his clothes

driver's license...

Harnish: That's the first time
the name come up.

That was Peter Anderson.

Musser: That's when the
investigations really started.

You've got to find the trail.
"When was Peter last seen?"

(vehicles passing by)

Tony Hoyt:
I met Peter...

let me think,
I've got,

I've gotta just do
a little arithmetic here.

(softly)
'63...

I'd say that I
probably met Peter

in 1964 or 1965.

In New York.

We were all hanging out
in the city together,

some party
or something like that.

I remember he was very dapper.

He was always dressed
to the nines.

In perfectly pressed
Brooks Brothers suit.

Always wore a bow tie.

And he had
a little round face.

He was very enthusiastic about,

about life
and about meeting people.

He went to Trinity.
He was a smart guy.

He liked to entertain,

and he'd have
little dinner parties

and he always liked to keep
the cocktail hour going

for hour after hour.

The-- I sensed that
there was some sort

of electricity
between the two of us.

But we didn't talk about it,
because you didn't talk

about those things.

And then I got married.

Once I got married,
I moved to Long Island.

I had the kids.

Peter and I...

we just went
our separate ways

for a while.

(Director speaking)

Yeah. I, I, I think I can,

I think I can answer
that question.

First night
when there was hanky-panky.

I hadn't seen him in...
(trills lips)

six or seven years.

And one night,

I had a client dinner
in the city.

After dinner was over,
I'd missed the last train,

and I'd had
too much to drink.

I called Peter on the payphone.
Cost a dime.

And I said,

"I, I need a place to sleep.
Can I spend the night?"

And he said, "Sure,
come on up."

Well, one thing led to another,

and that was the start
of, of our relationship.

Peter was the first guy
I was with.

No words were spoken.

It just happened.

We were both attracted
to each other,

and, uh, we had
some pretty good sex.

It was quite a romance
because we were so close

and we were so intimate.

We fit together.

And we were safe together.

It's trust.
We trusted each other.

Obviously, this relationship
could not see the light of day,

or we would both be
in serious trouble.

Me with my wife and my family
and Peter at the Bank of--

Bank, Bank of New York.

Where I grew up, uh,
everybody was straight.

One wasn't gay,

one was not a homosexual.

One grew up, went to school,
went to college,

got out of college, got married,
had babies, and died.

And that's what nice,
nice people did.

(cheerful vintage music playing)

Lieutenant Williams:
I'm Lieutenant Williams,

a police officer attached
to the juvenile division.

I'm on my way to talk
to a group of young people.

Humm: Before Stonewall,
no one was out

except, you know,
ten people. Alright?

Coming out was considered
insanity before that.

"Are you out of your mind?

Why would you
tell anybody this?"

In the old days,
psychiatrists,

they were making
so much money

off making gay people think
we were sick.

Lieutenant Williams:
What Jimmy didn't know
was that Ralph was sick.

A sickness that was not
visible like smallpox

but no less dangerous
and contagious.

A sickness of the mind.

You see,
Ralph was a homosexual.

Even when the psychiatrists
removed us

from the index
of mental disorders in 1973,

the psychiatrist who testified
for it wore a big, ugly mask.

If he was identified,
he was gonna lose his job.

Foreman: Back in the '50s
and '60s and '70s,

if you came out,

you would, in fact,
lose your job.

You would, in fact, be thrown
out of your church,

you would lose your children.

Narrator: The CBS News
Public Opinion survey indicates

that sentiment
is against permitting

homosexual relationships

between consenting adults
without legal punishment.

Man: I was terribly frightened
by the homosexual feelings

and the guilt associated

with having feelings
of attraction

towards other males.

(pensive music playing)

Hoyt: One night,
Peter said to me,

"Well, I've got something
to tell you."

And I said,
"Well, what's that?"

And he said, "I'm going
to get married."

And I said, "You what?"

It was his cover.

He needed a cover.

And, um, I said,

"Well, this is...
good for you."

(inaudible dialogue)

Hoyt:
It wasn't an issue.

"Well, well, God, we're,

"we're in bed together,
maybe we should,

"maybe we should talk
about this.

Uh, maybe we should come out."

We didn't really know
anybody who was out.

And he said, "It doesn't
necessarily have to end."

I said, "No, it doesn't."

But it did.

The last time I saw him,
he was getting married

the next week.

And after that,
I didn't see him

until that night
in-in New York City in 1991.

Reporter:
Lancaster police
have identified him

as Peter Anderson
of Philadelphia.

He was a former Assistant
Vice President of Mellon Bank.

(ambient street noise)

Harnish:
With his identification,

we knew where he lived.

Trooper Musser obtained
a search warrant

for Peter's apartment
in Philadelphia.

Musser:
Went through the apartment

with Trooper Kevin Dykes.

Just going through
anything to see

if we can find
any, any more leads.

The gay thing
wasn't really relevant

to the investigation
other than finding out

who might've killed him
and where he hung out.

Harnish:
We conducted interviews

at various bars
in-in Philadelphia

that we knew or had heard
that Peter frequented.

Musser: One of the interviews
let us know that

Peter went to New York
on a Friday

for a fundraiser

in the apartment
of Robert Brown,

up by Central Park West.

I guess he ran into
an old relationship,

an old friend.

Hoyt: At the time,
I was living in New York.

I was working. I was publisher
of "House Beautiful" magazine.

A good friend of mine, Robby,

was giving a fundraiser.

For Tony Brooks,
who was running,

I think, for city council.

I walked
into Robby's apartment,

and there was a table set up

and sitting at the table
collecting money

and checking off names
was Peter Stickney Anderson.

And we looked at each other
and said, "Holy Christ.

How long has it been?"

He had the same bow tie on

and the same
Brooks Brothers suit.

And there he was.

And we gave each other,
I'm sure, a big hug.

It was great to see him.

We'd gone on.
He'd had a kid.

He'd gotten married.

He was married twice.
He was like me.

He was a slow learner.

As the party wound down,

Peter had a good buzz going,

and he said,

"Let's go have
a drink somewhere."

And I said, "Fine."

"Where should we go?"

He said, "Well,
the Townhouse

58th Street
between 2nd and 3rd."

We went to the back
of the room

and ordered a cocktail,
maybe two.

And, uh, suddenly the bartender
said, uh, to Peter,

"I'm sorry, you've had
too much to drink

and I can't serve you
any more liquor."

So I said, "Look,

why don't I get you a room
at the Waldorf Astoria?"

Went to the payphone,
called the Waldorf Astoria,

made a reservation for him.

Took him down the stairs
at the Townhouse.

Put him in a taxi,
told the cab driver

to take him
to the Waldorf Astoria.

And I said, "Peter,
great to see you."

(pensive music playing)

(Robby Browne speaking)

Myself and Trooper Dykes went up
there to interview Robert Brown,

who ha-- hosted the party.

(Robby Browne speaking)

Hoyt: I went up to Robby's,
and these two state troopers

from Pennsylvania were there.

They talked about,

"Mr. Brown, you had a party
on Friday night."

Da-dee-da-dee-da.

He whips out a picture of Peter
and shows it to Robby and said,

"Was this gentleman
at your party?"

And Robby said, yes.

And then he showed me
the picture.

He said,
"Do you know who this is?"

I said, "Yeah,
it's Peter Anderson."

Then we found out that,
we found out

that he'd been killed

and where he'd been found
and how he'd been found.

It was terrible.

Terrible.

The Pennsylvania guys asked me
a couple of questions,

and I told them
what I knew

about the Waldorf Astoria
reservation.

We followed up
on the Waldorf Astoria,

and they recalled him
being there.

Peter arrived up
at the check-in desk, drunk,

and started to check in.

And there was a bellman
or somebody

who he started
to, sort of, pinch his butt.

And the guy said,
"I don't come with the room."

So they put him
back out on the boulevard,

and that was the last
anybody saw him.

We checked the cab company,
but they told us

nobody's tracking
where they go,

what they do
or nothing like that.

So cabs was a zip.

The train station was a zip.

Where he went after that,
nobody knew.

Hoyt:
I think Peter probably forgot

that he'd been turned off
by the Townhouse bartender.

He'd been 86'd and, uh,
went back to the Townhouse.

(suspenseful music playing)

Musser:
We didn't go to the Townhouse.

In hindsight, maybe it would
have been a good idea

to follow up
with the Townhouse.

I mean, it would be nice
if we had a picture.

We could have went
over there.

At that time, we didn't know
it was a, a gay bar.

I don't know anything about

where all the gay bars
in New York are.

I don't know about anything
about the community.

It really is irrelevant.

I mean, we don't--
all we do--

All we know is
we got a body,

and we gotta find out
who would do it,

but it's not really
relevant to anything.

Hoyt:
So after that initial rush,

you know, the initial times
with the state troopers,

it went quiet.

I think it went quiet.

Harnish: There wasn't any
information developing on it.

You take the investigation
until you have no more leads.

And then once you have
no more leads,

then you have to move on.

And so after five months,
I moved on to another job.

So...

(Director speaking)

Yeah. Why is the emphasis
on the gay part?

(pensive music playing)

Hanson:
We have so many examples

of law enforcement thinking

that they're doing
the right thing...

where they were more kind of
connecting to,

you know, the evidence
that they had collected

and, and looking at that.

But they weren't
really connecting

to the community.

What we saw that law
enforcement couldn't see was

that this was connected
to a larger problem.

And I think some
of that's deliberate,

and I think some of it
is just unconscious.

We saw working
with the NYPD

that more often than not,

the police back then were
either indifferent or hostile.

(indistinct shouting)

Crowd (chanting):
Shame! Shame!

Wertheimer: The New York City
Police Department

is, is a huge entity.

There are some
30,000 police officers,

and those police officers
represent, very frequently,

the full spectrum

of attitudes and opinions
about lesbians

and gay men that you see
in the larger population,

which may include
hostile feelings.

When you're talking
about homosexuals,

you're talking about somebody
that commits a crime.

Uh... what they do.

Interviewer:
What do you mean?

It's sodomy.

And sodomy is a crime.

Foreman: The NYPD is
a, a military operation.

It is a very macho
operation.

And, uh...

I mean, to this day,
homophobia is rampant.

It was deadly dangerous.

It was prevalent
within the ranks.

I'm not saying every cop
was like this.

There were so many cops
I worked with back then

that were just amazing,
beautiful human beings.

But before I came out,

the fear I felt...

within the NYPD
was significant.

Um...

I really felt that
I couldn't be visible.

I really felt like
I wouldn't survive

if I came out.

I can remember being
in my locker room

and one of the older cops
that were there,

um, really aggressive cop,
you know, one of the cops

that you don't want to
run into, uh, in the streets,

came into
the locker room furious,

slamming the locker room
door closed

and screaming out,
"Fucking faggots!

"If I ever find out one of us
is a fucking faggot,

"I'm gonna blow his
fucking head off by accident,

running up the stairs
on a job."

And I'm changing.

And when he said that,
I was like,

"Holy shit,
I'm not coming out.

I'm not coming out.
Not here."

(solemn music playing)

Foreman: We knew that
there had been

these horrific crimes

and yet no sign of the NYPD
taking it seriously.

I don't want to minimize
how challenging

a case like this would be

to try to find witnesses
and pursue them and--

But...

inexplicable that NYPD

wouldn't have just
mobilized for this.

And... and they didn't.

It was extremely difficult
to understand

what the NYPD
was responsible for.

And it was never clear to me

who was responsible for what.

Musser:
When we went to New York,
we stopped at the precinct

and told them
what we were there for.

But I don't know
how much they were involved.

Harnish: The jurisdictions
that were involved.

You have Philadelphia
and you have New York City.

Aggravating part to me is
we're not in our home turf.

We don't know where we're at
when we go to those places.

So that puts us
at a handicap.

Hanson:
I think, for the NYPD,

it's like, "Eh,
it didn't happen here."

The reality is
they really didn't want

to get involved
in the gay community.

One thing I don't understand
about the assault problem

is when you're assaulted,

why can't you just
press charges

regardless of whether
you're gay or not?

You would think
that would be so.

-Guest: There is why--
-Dee. Let me get Dee in here.

Dee:
Okay. When I was assaulted,

I was taken
to the emergency room

because the police failed
to respond to the call.

When the police officers,

uh, come into
the emergency room,

they, uh, suggested that
this was a lover's quarrel.

It wasn't a drastic means.

(audience groans)

Foreman:
People are like, why bother?

Why do I want to put
myself out for that?

Are they actually going
to do anything about this?

Probably not.

Dee: It was weeks before
I ever heard from them again,

and they told me that
this pro-- this, uh, violence

would probably never come
to court or anything

because they would
never be found.

I think the most vital service
that AVP served

was that people knew
there was an organization

that wanted to hear
what had happened to them.

Narrator:
If you've been victimized,
the New York City Gay

and Lesbian Anti-Violence
Project can help you.

Foreman:
We had a crisis line.

The main thing is that
you survived the crime.

-Uh, we do encourage...
-Wertheimer: The group decided

to, uh, establish a hotline

where individuals who wanted
to report crimes against them

could, could call
for assistance,

uh, for help in reporting crimes
to the police

to document attacks
against them.

And, uh, very quickly,
as that hotline was established,

calls began to come in
from all over the city.

The whole time I was at AVP,
it increased every year.

Foreman: Our figures
continue to exceed

the figures of
the NYPD bias unit

by about seven to one.

That ratio has been constant
in three of the four last years.

We saw a lot of,

you know, what we
were calling "pickup crimes,"

or these, or these crimes
where somebody picks

somebody up at a bar

with the promise of, like,

"We're gonna
go home together,

we're gonna have sex."

And then something
horrible happens.

We get a tremendous number
of calls about pickup crimes.

And, you know,
since it's a crime that happ...

Hanson:
When we look at these cases,

you know,
clearly Peter Anderson

and Tom Mulcahy
were pickup crimes.

They were last seen
at a gay bar,

the Townhouse.

And that's what we've seen
over and over again.

I actually am
at the point now,

where I feel like
we're getting hunted down.

Foreman:
This is a map of the village

in, in lower Chelsea
of anti-gay incidents

during the first nine months
of 1991.

Over six hundred.

Six hundred.

That's what it was like
working at AVP

on a daily basis
was just--

All those little dots represent

someone being... brutalized.

This was probably (sniffs)
one of the last pictures

towards the end
of his life.

In the last few years,

he and I started to have
more kind of, real conversations

about things beyond
just father-daughter,

about life,

just having
more adult mature talks,

connecting about ideologies
and all of that.

And I got the sense
that he was processing

and confronting things that...

had been buried.

That's the hard--
the hardest part for me

is, sort of,
that being cut short

and not having
the opportunity

to build that relationship

with him further.

(sharp inhale)

Hoyt:
When I think about Peter,

it's just, it's,
I-I still can't believe it.

I think those years
when we had our relationship

were important to Peter

because he finally had somebody
who he could hug.

(sniffles)

And would--
could get hugged back.

There's layers to relationships

and different things

that I just don't know
that I can speak to.

But my parents loved
each other,

and I think they had
a real partnership in,

in raising our family.

So after he died,
my mom was a wife and a mother

who was trying to make sure

that this didn't get swept
under the rug.

(inaudible)

Chief Macauley:
We continued to work tips

and leads that came in.
We never gave up.

HANSON: I'm from
the Anti-Violence Project...

Foreman:
At AVP,

we wanted to get the word out
to the community.

"Did you see anything?
Do you remember anything?"

And there was very little
to go on.

Hanson: We were making
the connections

between these homicides

because I absolutely believed

that something was gonna
happen again,

that somebody else
was gonna be killed.

We cannot count
on anyone else

to help us in this fight.

When we see a brother
or a sister in trouble,

don't turn our backs.

Remember, it could be you
next time.

Theodos: We were concerned
about, did we make a mistake?

Was there something there
that we overlooked?

And now was somebody gonna
die because of that mistake?

Less than a year later,

I get a phone call
from the guys that,

"Hey, we got another one."

(tense music playing)

(radio static, distortion)

("Safe" by
Debby Friday playing)

♪ I watch the night
turn into day ♪

♪ So many things
I dare not say ♪

♪ Pacing a square
into a sphere ♪

♪ So scared to check
if you're still there ♪

♪ Are you still here?
Are you still near? ♪

♪ Are you still safe? ♪

♪ Are you still here?
Are you still near? ♪

♪ Are you still safe? ♪

♪ Oh... ♪

♪ ♪