01x02 - Tony

[bunniefuu]

[ambient street noise]

Anonymous Victim:
I can, I can do that.

I can do it more like
it's a slideshow

rather than a video,
because my memory--

it's, it's 30 years ago.

What I can remember is...

sitting in the Five Oaks.

There's a person
on my left.

I remember he had
a blue jacket on.

He bought me a drink,

and he had what he called
a gym bag with him.

And I remember thinking
that wasn't a gym bag,

that it was a tool bag.

I don't remember
how long after,

but I started feeling
what I thought was drunk.

I thought, "Gee,
I wonder if I'm sick."

And I remember excusing myself
to go home.

I was making my way home.

And then all of a sudden,
this man appeared at my side,

and it was the man
from the Five Oaks.

And he said, "Oh, are you okay?
You seem unsteady.

Let me help you.
Let me help you. Let me help."

So the next thing
I can remember

is making it
into my building,

he's still with me.

Making it to my door,

he's still with me.

I opened my door
and he comes--

He lets himself in.

I remember opening my eyes,
and my face was on the rug.

I'm passing out.
I can hardly stay awake.

I looked up,
and he was looking at me.

This I remember very clearly.

He looked at me like
I was a bug under glass.

He went to the bathroom.

I remember looking up
and seeing his bag,

and I reached for it

and I unzippered it
and I saw a rope.

And I thought, "Oh, sh*t,
this is, this is bad."

I got myself up onto my knees,
and I said, "I need air.

I need air."

Picked his bag up.

I opened the door.
I went out to the hall.

And I started walking
towards the elevator.

He started walking
towards the elevator.

And I just darted back,

darted right back
into my apartment,

slammed the door,
double locked it,

and he came back
and I heard the door going...

[imitating door rattling]

[tense music playing]

And I passed out.

♪ ♪

[dramatic theme music playing]

[footsteps crunching]

Thomas Hayes:
I was working as a detective

in the major crime
homicide unit

when that call came in.

It was May 10th of '93.

Male body parts were found

in a heavily wooded area
in New Jersey.

A gentleman who lived
in the area,

he heard the noise
of a blimp in the sky.

So he was trying to move
around through the woods

to get a better view
of the blimp.

And he came across a bag

where he thought maybe
it was a deer carcass.

And he saw a human arm
hanging out of a bag.

Detective Mike Mohel
did respond to the scene.

Mike Mohel:
As soon as we exited the car,

which was a distance away

from where the bags
were found,

the stench of decomposition
was heavy.

I knew right away

that we were dealing
with a dead body.

I-I think some animal activity
had taken place

where some of the bags
were opened,

and we could see
body parts in them.

Right away, we thought
of the Mulcahy m*rder.

Reporter:
The m*rder of a married,

middle-aged businessman
from Massachusetts...

Hayes: The wooded area
where he was found,

it was in close proximity
to the Mulcahy body.

And based on the way
the bodies were dismembered,

both cases,
the head was severed,

the torso was cut
in two pieces,

the arms were both severed,

and both legs
were severed with a saw.

Mohel:
The evidence was collected

from the scene itself
of our victim.

We had fingerprints
from our bags.

[Mark Woodfield speaking]

It doesn't happen
often anywhere

in the state of New Jersey
we're gonna have two crimes

that are that similar

in close proximity
to each other.

We knew we had
a serial situation.

[ambient traffic noise]

[birds chirping]

Jose Luis Marrero:
When the cops came to my house,

I'll never forget.
I was cleaning the basement.

My wife said,
"The cops are here."

I said, "The cops?
What's the, what's the problem?"

So I came up. One of the,
the cops tells me, you know,

"You got a brother
named Eddie or Tony?"

I said, "Yeah, that was
my little brother."

He said, "Well, we found him
dead in New Jersey.

They chopped him up
and put him in the bag. And..."

I went upstairs,
I took a shower.

I laid down,
and I said,

"My little brother is dead."

I-- I didn't believe it.
I didn't believe it.

I still don't believe it.

I don't even believe it
because I--

Tony nev-- never, you know,
get in trouble.

I got two sisters,

and we were five brothers.

The little one was, uh, Eddie.
That's Tony.

Since he was small,
we called him Tony.

But his real name
is Eddie Marrero. Yeah.

All my brothers,
they were born

in Las Marías, Puerto Rico.

When we were in Puerto Rico,
we were real poor.

But it was still, it was nice.
It was nice.

We'd go swimming every day.
We'd go fishing every day.

Sunday, go to church.
That's the only thing we got.

Even Tony used to go
to church a lot.

I remember...

[chuckles]

I'll never forget that.

We used to get along

and when we moved
to Philadelphia,

that's when everybody
started going different ways.

You know?

[director speaking]

Oh, no,
I don't think he was, uh-uh, g*y

or anything like that,
you know?

No.

He must have hang around
with g*y people,

you know,
when he go to bars or something.

But he wasn't g*y,
you know?

Antonio Marrero:
This was in California, right?

Yeah, this is in California.

This is my father.
And my mother.

-That's Tony.
-Antonio: Yep.

Jose Luis:
When he was small. Yeah.

-I don't remember--
-Antonio: How, how tall was he?

-You always say he
was the small one.
-Jose Luis: No, he--

-Antonio: Like me? Like--
-Jose Luis: Yeah, he--

Antonio: Five, I'm 5'2"
on a good day.

Jose Luis: Yeah,
he's like 5'3" or 5'4".

Probably. He was little-
Just a little bit.

-Yeah?
-Jose Luis: Yeah.

Antonio: I am related
to Tony Marrero, Uncle Tony.

I am his great-nephew.

Um, and he would be
my great uncle.

He's my grandfather's brother.

Juanita:
Your grandfather and his sister.

Antonio:
For my grandfather,

there was this... hesitation

about Tony's sexuality.

There's this
still ingrained, um, sense

of he doesn't want
to see his brother,

who he knew for so long,

to suddenly
just this revelation,

um, of his sexuality
being anything different.

...California?
When you-- did you go to visit?

Jose Luis:
Yeah, I think...

Antonio:
The Marreros grew up

with a sense
of hypermasculinity

and this religious aspect
of, you know, family.

We were Roman Catholic

and from
my other family members,

I would hear,
"Your Great Uncle Tony,

"he was a f*gg*t.

"That's how
he ended up like that.

"If that's the kind
of lifestyle he led,

that's what ends up
to those, to those people."

And it was less of

"That's just the eventuality

of being in that lifestyle,"

and more of

"I hope that's what happens,

you know,
to people in that lifestyle."

I knew I was bisexual
since I was young.

So when my parents found out
about my sexuality,

they said, "Never come home.

Don't come home again."

And, uh,

I have not talked
to them since 2010.

This was in 2010.

Man: When my son told me
he was g*y, he said,

"What would be worse
than, than being g*y?"

And I said, "I'd rather
see you have cancer."

And when I went to see
my parish priest,

he said to me,
"He has to go."

That, that he has to
get out of the house

because he's gonna influence
my other two boys.

Matt Foreman:
I think a lot of g*y people

grew up in a household
where your father said

bad things about g*y people.

And part of that was,
uh, frankly,

the way in which institutions
in our society,

the Roman Catholic Church
in particular,

you know, demonized us.

That ingrained hatred
against us,

that doesn't come
out of nowhere.

You're not born hating

and wanting to m*rder
g*y people.

Something happened.

Anita Bryant [singing]:
♪ Yes ♪

♪ Jesus loves me... ♪

Reporter:
Anita Bryant was once known

as an orange juice saleswoman.

Not anymore.

With a religious fervor
that has made her

America's most
controversial woman overnight,

she has been selling her
Save Our Children group.

Bryant: According to
the word of God,

it's an abomination.

h*m* cannot
reproduce biologically,

but they have to reproduce
by recruiting our children.

Foreman: Anita Bryant was
a former Miss Oklahoma

who organized this
widely publicized attack

on our very basic rights.

Extremely religious,
she says she feels

that God has singled her out
to spearhead a crusade

to prevent admitted h*m*
from teaching her children.

Foreman:
She decided that an ordinance

in Miami Dade County

that was passed
to outlaw discrimination

against g*y people
needed to be repealed.

Reporter: Anita Bryant
has rallied thousands

of fundamentalist Christians
to her side

for a strong
anti-h*m*
counterattack.

For the first time, uh,

I know the Christian community
have never been involved

in any political
controversial issue,

and they're not only involved,
uh, but they're committed.

Foreman:
That Anita campaign

was wildly successful
for them.

[audience applauding]

Reporter 1:
It was a decisive end

to Dade County's
h*m* controversy.

Miamians told
their elected officials

they wanted no part of a law
which protects h*m*.

Bea Hanson: It is kind of
a watershed moment

that then creates
this tsunami effect

across the country.

Reporter 2:
Opponents declared

that h*m*
is a disease

and called for repeal
of the amendment...

Pat Buchanan:
It is my deep-felt belief

that it is morally wrong,
that it is socially ruinous...

Jerry Falwell:
h*m* promiscuity,
it's a violation

of God's laws,
laws of nature and decency...

It's just as big an aberration
as bestiality or...

Spreading disease
from one to the other...

You cannot be saved
in h*m*.

Crowd [chanting]:
Gays suck!

Gays suck! Gays suck!

Gays suck!

Foreman:
And, you know, people say,

"Oh, politicians, you know,
say just anti-g*y rhetoric,

but it doesn't mean anything."

It absolutely
has consequence.

It's basically a call to arms.
"Go after them, beat them up."

m*rder*d out in Queens
in a g*y cruising area.

Brutal k*lling of a g*y man...

Brutally m*rder*d
by three men...

When you have people
in power talking hate,

there's a resulting increase

in violence
in those communities.

Newsreader:
Witnesses have told police

that the accused murderers
in stabbing Hillsborough

more than 15 times

said, "Here's one for Anita."

Hanson: And most
of those homicides had

what we called overkill.

They were particularly brutal.

It wasn't just like sh**ting
somebody in the head.

It is beating them

and stabbing them
multiple times.

Andy Humm:
In the last three years,
there have been


anti-g*y murders.

And 60 percent were victims
of what is called overkill.

Hanson: For this case,
there was a serial k*ller

where people's bodies
were dismembered.

Foreman:
There was something,

is something,
inside this man's mind

that made him hate
g*y people

enough to want to,

to butcher them.

It was something deep

that was coming out
that was angry.

It wasn't just,
"I want you dead."

It was,
"I want you to suffer."

[ambient traffic noise]

Hanson: At AVP,
we were constantly looking

at the newspapers
to identify

possibly g*y men
who were k*lled.

And that's how I found out
about Anthony Marrero.

Foreman: Well, I remember
the m*rder of Anthony Marrero

because he was different,

uh, from the preceding
two victims.

Hanson: At the Townhouse
you had Peter Anderson

and Thomas Mulcahy.

Older g*y white male.

Foreman:
Anthony Marrero was young.

He was a person of color,

and the work he did

was very different
from everyone else.

[light music playing]

[Jose Luis speaking]

Jose Luis:
Tony used to travel.

He'd go to Washington,
he'd go to New York,

he'd go to Boston.

He even went
to California one time.

I always asking, "Tony, how you
get dressed all the time,

nice shoes, nice clothes,
and you don't work?"

He said,
"Well, this is my business.

That's none of your business."

I said, "Okay.
That's all I say.

I'm not gonna ask you
no more. That's all."

No, I cannot say

what kind of work
he was doing or not.

Because we never
did talk about it.

You know, we didn't talk
about it.

Mohel: One of my people
interviewed the brother

of Marrero and, uh...

they kind of knew
what Anthony was,

but they, they really
didn't have much

to, to share with us

because of his lack
of visibility to them,

his lack of visiting,
lack of discussions.

There's this kind of,
I think,

instinctual feeling that
I think is wrong that, like,

because somebody's related
to somebody

that you kind of know them
the best, you know?

And, and, and, you know,
the reality is people can hide

a lot of things from people
that they care about and love.

I thought that the reason,

the only reason, no one
ever talked about Tony

was because
of what happened to him.

And in the past ten years,
you know, I was like,

I should look
into that more.

This person in the community
was part of my bloodline,

and what happened to him should
not have happened to anyone.

No one deserves
something like that.

And, you know, a quick
Google search would show up,

you know, his mugshot.

[poignant music playing]

Hayes: We were able to identify
Anthony Edward Marrero

through some fingerprints
that were submitted to AFIS,

which is an
automated fingerprint
identification system,

and we eventually got a hit.

Mohel:
Anthony was in the AFIS system

because he had been
previously arrested

for male prostitution

in, uh, New York City.

Hayes: So it, it was there
that we went.

Mohel: We were looking
for friends of his.

New York City was, I mean,
it was just, it was a zoo.

["Digital Versicolor" by
Glass Candy playing]

Person 1:
I will break out tonight,
New York City.

Person 2: Basically,
you're getting paid

to get a man's rocks off.

Ceyenne Doroshow:
Back in the '80s,

I was working
in Adonis Male Movie Theater,

and that's when I met Anthony.

This was Adonis porn theater.

♪ Green, green, green,
green, green ♪

♪ This is blue... ♪

Doroshow:
There was a lot of nudity,

a lot of blowjobs,

a lot of f*cking,
a lot of fisting.

A lot of carrying on
in corners.

♪ This is violet ♪

♪ This is violet ♪

Doroshow:
One night in the bathroom,

Tony is getting done.

I was in one mirror.

He was in another mirror
putting on his t-shirt,

his jeans,
wiping off his sneakers,

and putting concealer
over pimples.

And I was like,
"Guys do that?"

Wow.

And I-- he caught me looking

in the mirror
and he said,

"Yes, girl,
we do that, too."

And I said, "Oh."

He said, "Where are
you going, chica?"

I said, "Nowhere, Paco,
where are you going?"

He said, "I'm gonna
hit the clubs.

"There's a few places I go
before I go.

Come with me to Houlihan's."

And I said, "What the f*ck
do you do in there?"

He says, "So. Yes.

"It's a place where Irish
and drunk people go,

"but it's also a place
where my niche market lies.

"I'm a stud.
I go into this place

"and I'm in these rooms
playing pool,

"and eventually they smell
my female wiles,

and eventually I'm going home
with them for a nice price."

And we went.

And then I got to see him,
like, be on.

["Digital Versicolor" continues]

Doroshow:
Working the old q*eers,

you couldn't really tell
they were q*eer,

but you could tell
by the chemistry and that,

"Oh, this is how..."

And then you would see
the transaction go down.

I said, okay, this is, this is
how it's done on that side.

♪ ♪

As our friendship progressed,
we would bump into him,

see him in
the most unusual places.

The guys worked
their whole little circuit.

Leather bars
and old queen bars,

or walking through
Port Authority.

[ambient traffic sounds]

Reporter: Morning rush hour.
Midtown Manhattan.

Commuters hurry
to work passing

through the Port Authority
bus terminal.

Because it is located

near the city's
red light district,

prostit*tes,
male and female,

work in and outside
the terminal.

Hi, I'm Glennda Orgasm,

and I'm reporting from
Port Authority and Times Square.

This is exciting.

[light music playing]

It's just the glamour and
the excitement of Times Square.

You just can't get that in other
neighborhoods in New York.

♪ ♪

Person: You're going to find
dealers out on the street.

p*mps, junkies,
drag queens.

Foreman: I lived in
the Port Authority block

on 41st Street
for several years

in the late '80s.

Port Authority was
a magnet

for sex workers,
g*y or straight.

Doroshow:
Port Authority was the hub.

It was kind of the place
for the sex worker runaways.

It was kind of the place
where p*mps still existed.

You would get off the
red and tan line

and see somebody getting it.

It was in the nooks
and crannies all up in there.

In, in the darkest coves,
in the staircases.

It was not sort of
a hidden thing.

Hayes: From the time
we got to Port Authority,

we saw prostit*tes, johns,

drug use, panhandling,

mental illness.

It was a mess.

I'll never go back
to New York City

as long as I live.

Mohel: We knew Anthony
had been arrested

by the Port Authority police.

And we went there, and they,
they kind of directed us

to where he would hang out.

Hayes:
There was a restroom

on the second level
of Port Authority

where Anthony Marrero

made a lot of money

turning tricks for $10.

The bathrooms were
high volume clientele.

Tony could just drift
in there,

make a couple of dollars
and... [snaps fingers]

be out.

Mohel: We were looking
for some homicide suspects.

We spoke to 10
or 15 sex workers.

People recognized
his picture,

but they didn't
really know his name.

Some of the people
in there.

It was tough to traverse
that community of sex workers

because they don't trust
law enforcement.

But we expect that
they're not gonna tell us

a hundred percent
of the truth.

We were walking around,

and we had our g*ns exposed
and, and badges exposed.

So they knew they were
talking to the police.

[indistinct radio chatter]

Mohel: And our badges
look very similar

to New York
Police Department.

Police officer.
Everybody decent in here?

Person:
Everybody's decent.

Officer:
Got everything closed up?

Person:
Yes, sir.

Doroshow:
I was doing sex work.

And I remember

there were
those cops that said,

"If I see you
one more time,

I'ma f*ck you up
and arrest you."

And that's what
scared me the most.

Newsreader: Cops say aggressive
surveillance of bathrooms

has cut solicitation
in half.

Officer: Prostitution
on a midnight tour.

We have officers working

on the patrol
on the perimeter.

Officer [on radio]:
We just directed
three females downstairs

that missed their bus.

They started putting undercovers

in the bathroom.

[undercover officer speaking]

It was quite a production.

And depending on the cop

and depending on
his comfortability,

you might actually blow him off
and then go to jail.

And there were also
so many incidents of girls

literally fighting with police
because they were brutal.

At this time, we wouldn't put it
past the police to k*ll us.

So...

[sighs]

The police are often more

part of the problem
than the solution.

Every year, we receive thousands
of reports of, of harassment,

uh, abuse, unequal enforcement
of the law,

deliberate mishandling
of cases

involving l*sbian and g*y
crime victims and the like.

The police,
they were entrapping us.

They were raiding our bars.

Uh, they were making
false arrests of g*y people.

So, it was very tough to,

to get, to get
their attention

and get them to do things.

And while I think
most police officers

try to be professional
and do their jobs,

many view g*y people
as second-class citizens,

as people that you can,
uh, walk away from,

who you don't need to protect
because they're,

they're less than fully human.

They're-- they don't count.

Tell us what happened
on the night of February 11th.

Police charged the crowd,

at which point
I was clubbed in the head

and went down to the ground

and then repeatedly clubbed
and abused.

[crowd shouting]

About 10 percent of
our 900 cases last year

involved police abuse
of g*y men and lesbians.

It doesn't just happen
in demonstration.

It happens all the time.

[crowd shouting]

I was wearing a baseball cap
and a big hooded sweatshirt,

so I must have looked
like a guy.

And so one of--
a man picked me up

and was saying, "What should
we do with this f*gg*t?"

And another cop said,
"Well, bash his head in."

[crowd shouting]

Right after
Anthony Marrero was k*lled,

we wanted to get involved

and see if we can provide
any kind of support.

Call the police,
leave messages,

and hear nothing back
from them.

They didn't want
our participation

or help or support

or to give us
any information.

The police didn't really want
to connect Marrero

because I think
as much as the NYPD

sort of, uh...

didn't, didn't really take
seriously crimes

in the,
in the q*eer community,

it was just exponentially more

if somebody was black
or brown,

or somebody was trans
or somebody was a sex worker,

or any combination
of those things.

And the more combinations,
I think the tougher it, it was.

We did not see the NYPD

making any sort
of substantive effort

to investigate these crimes.

Mohel: Once in a while, a
NYPD detective would help you,

you know,
if you needed some information.

But at that time,

we didn't have
anybody assigned to us.

If you have three people
that disappear from your city

and they're k*lled just outside,

it, it doesn't make sense
that they wouldn't get involved

and help in some way.

Hanson:
The officer from New Jersey

was working the case,

but we needed NYPD's
resources and money.

Mohel: In hindsight,
to have an NYPD involved

would have been helpful.

They would know
the city better.

They would have informants
on the street

and provide a wealth
of information.

They definitely could have been
involved from the get-go

if they wanted to.

Whether we
invited them or not.

And believe me,
it was an open invitation.

Foreman: This, uh, serial k*ller
enjoys the hunt.

He enjoys, uh, going after men

that are savvy,
that are smart,

that it is a thrill for him to,
in a sense, entrap them.

And he also was enjoying
playing with the police.

I felt that
the NYPD's primary role

since they're here
in New York City,

would be to push
as hard as they could

within the g*y bar community

to come up with,
uh, potential witnesses,

potential leads.

I felt like
the New Jersey State Police

did a much better job of that,

a much more sensitive job.

They were relentless in ways

that the NYPD wasn't.

Hayes:
Through the investigation,

we did come across
Carlos Santiago,

who lived in an apartment
across from the Port Authority.

He was a close friend
of Anthony Marrero.

When we told him that his friend
was dead, he cried.

He was very upset.

Hayes:
Carlos Santiago,

he directed us
to a married couple,

that him and his wife
were actors on Broadway,

and that the husband

would pay Anthony Marrero,
on occasion, for sex.

When we spoke to him,
he was upset.

He was friendly with him.

He hadn't seen him, I believe,
in a couple weeks

prior to finding out
of his death.

But we did glean
some additional information

that, um, we thought
might, might be helpful.

Um, that Anthony,

he was also turning his tricks
on Second Avenue.

[David Corvino speaking]

Michael Ferreri:
The area around the Townhouse

is historically
a red light district

for male prostit*tes.

["Somebody to Love Tonight"
by Patrick Cowley playing]

Guys who were hustlers here

knew that they were going
for big bucks.

The crowd was older, moneyed.

And we found out
that Marrero was seen

in the area of Townhouse,

would hang out
in front of it periodically.

[indistinct chatter]

[tense music playing]

Mohel: That was a surprise.
It was huge.

Because Peter Anderson
and Tom Mulcahy's last location

that we could discern
was also the Townhouse Bar.

Antonio: I mean,
I guess I could also...

[indistinct chatter]

Woman:
How you doing?

Antonio:
Wait, where's the flan?
Where's the flan?

Woman:
You have the rice, right?

Woman 2:
Si, mi amor.

Man:
He was a good guy.

Antonio: There's still some,
some gaps in the story

about, you know, what happened
to Tony and stuff like that,

that we're also
finding out.

Growing up, all that became,
"Let's keep it private."

But when they die,

-the stories disappear.
-Family members: Right.

And if we can't talk about it,
he disappears.

Man:
Mm-hmm.

Antonio:
I'd ask about Tony.

I was like, you know,

"Why doesn't anyone
talk about him?"

"What if this happened to me?

"Would you guys

bury me like you did,
you know, Tony?"

Tony was buried by more
than just cemetery dirt.

He was buried
with... the shame.

And that really, like,

really put him
into the ground forever.

I'm trying to change that
and trying to get my family

to talk about him now.

Antonio:
You said he was like, you know,

a little quiet or loner,
you know?

Yeah. Tony was like,
if you needed Tony,

-Tony was there.
-Antonio: Okay.

You know?
But other than that,

he wanted to be by himself.

Woman:
What's his name, John Travolta?

That's the way
he used to dress.

No. They just like to dress nice
and look nice.

And that's the most thing
I remember about him.

He was a very cool dresser.

Man: But, you know,
Tony did whatever he had to do--

Antonio: Yeah.

-Man: to make
a living, you know?
-Yeah.

Man: And that's, you know,
that's something

that, um, is very,
very private for him.

Antonio: Mm-hmm.

Woman: That was very hard
on my brother-in-law.

It was very hard
on him to know

that they k*lled his brother.

Didn't know why...

Antonio:
When Tony was k*lled,

his life in New York
was this microcosm

that was so separated
from his life with his family.

We didn't-- they didn't know
that universe existed.

There was an absence
of information.

What I knew about Tony
from the media

was that Tony was
a male prost*tute

and a drug addict.

That couldn't have been it.

No one lives just--

And even if that was true,

no one lives
just one... article

or one headline of a life.

There's more.

[poignant music playing]

Hanson:
Anthony Marrero
was identified

as a prost*tute
in "New York Times,"

it actually says, "His death
ended what appeared to be

"44 turbulent years

"marked by a failed marriage,
drug addiction,

and ultimately
g*y prostitution."

Anthony Marrero
was treated differently.

Peter Anderson
and Thomas Mulcahy

were pictured as, like,
these white business guys

who, you know, had
these upstanding lives

and were m*rder*d.

You know, I think
it's both racism

because he was Puerto Rican,
uh, and h*m*,

and because he was
a sex worker,

you know, just put him
in a different category.

Heterosexual reporters
in the mainstream press

have a whole range
of assumptions about

the l*sbian, g*y, bisexual,
and transgender community.

I think they never question
those assumptions.

They might not even
be aware

that they have
those assumptions.

But they certainly
will appear

in their coverage
of the LGBTQ community.

It was important for me
to get me and Bea

and anyone else
we could on TV

to, to humanize g*y people.

But more importantly,

to humanize
the victims of violence.

These are not statistics
out here.

These are real people

that have suffered terribly
for no reason

other than they were l*sbian
or g*y or bi or trans.

I mean, g*y hate crimes
were never written about

unless, like, I think we made
a huge fuss about it.

[protestors shouting, whistling]

And we're heading down to NBC.
Why NBC?

Well, not NBC so much
as all of, all of the media.

The media has played
a large role in their refusal

to cover hate crimes
against lesbians and g*y men.

During the '90s,
there was a real development

of LGBT organizations.

[protestors chanting]

It wasn't just AVP.

It was Act Up,
it was q*eer Nation.

It's about time
that we took some action

to counter
all this violence against us.

Hanson:
It was Pink Panthers.

[group chanting]

Person 1: We're gonna do
our own community patrol

and take care of one another
because g*y bashing has gone up.

It was l*sbian Avengers.

Person 2 [on PA]: What about
the murders of Julio Rivera,

Marsha Johnson,
James Zappalorti,

The constant
and uninvestigated violence

on the streets
on any given day or night.

[crowd chanting]

Foreman: So many marches,
so many demonstrations,

so many, like, all the time

to highlight,
"This happened this weekend.

What are you doing about it?"

Foreman [on PA]:
About six weeks ago,

there was a pool of blood
right over here.

That pool of blood

is part of a sea of blood

that has been rising
in this city

relentlessly
over several years.

Hanson:
It was to just express outrage.

[protestors shouting]

I'm worth existing.

And if they say, "f*gg*t,"
I say, "f*ck you."

Hanson:
Anger.

Protestors:
NYPD go away.

r*cist, sexist,
anti-g*y. NYPD...

Hanson:
Desperation.

Protestor:
We are not gonna put up

with this sh*t anymore.

And it was very connected
to the A*DS activism

that was going on.

It wasn't until HIV and A*DS

that we saw
how powerful we could be.

[protestors chanting]

Foreman:
I think the difference was
in HIV and A*DS,

straight people did step up,

but not around violence.

And it felt like
it's us against the world.

Hanson:
We put together this report

of hundreds of murders.

It's data from 29 states
and DC.

We had a 151 homicides
in just under two years.

Foreman: We knew that
g*y men, lesbians, trans people

were being m*rder*d.

We decided to do studies
as best we could,

reaching out to anti-violence
programs across the country,

and scouring the media.

And that resulted
in our national report.

And that included the victims
of the serial m*rder*r.

Hanson:
We were doing demonstrations.

We really wanted to get
some attention paid

to these murders
that were happening.

When Anthony Marrero
was k*lled,

I did some, like, flyering
you know, in the bars

in that, in that area
where he was last seen.

At AVP, you know,

we were these
untrained investigators.

You know, we had, we--

And I didn't know
what I was doing,

but, like,
we let people know,

and people in the community
were scared.

You know, they were t-totally,
they were afraid.

There was a, another m*rder

in May of this year
of a g*y man

who was a, a part-time hustler
out of the Port Authority.

It's just really
sort of horrible, you know,

thinking about
the way he did it.

But he does seem to know

what he's doing,
or the person does.

[tense music playing]

Foreman:
It wasn't just a random,

so, so to speak,
horrible m*rder.

It was clearly
a serial m*rder*r

was on the loose.

Serial murderers
generally keep on going.

They don't just stop.

Mohel: Well, at the time,
we were keyed on Staten Island.

The problem was, you have
to know who you're looking for.

There's a million-plus people
in Staten Island.

But, what, what we do is
you find yourself profiling

as you're looking
at the evidence

to see what type
of individual

you might be dealing with.

[Woodfield speaking]

Mohel:
We felt that the individual
was driven sexually,

and he liked k*lling
the specific individuals

from the g*y community.

And we felt that he was probably
also from that community

that he would be able
to get access to these people

and take them from bars.

Mohel: This guy knew
what he was doing.

We expected
more bodies to drop

because, you know,

he was definitely...

in that type of mode.

He was enjoying
what he was doing,

and he was enjoying fooling us.

Doroshow:
When Anthony disappeared,

I didn't know
what had happened.

There was no directory

for, "Find Your Dead
h*m* Friend."

In my life,
people disappeared a lot.

A lot.

And for several reasons:
HIV and A*DS,

domestic violence,

just being m*rder*d,
"John Doe."

I think for almost
two decades,

we were looking for Anthony.

Not all the time
but almost two decades

of wondering, "Why?"

"Where? Did he go home?
Did everything work out?

"Did he get his life together?

Did he get off drugs?
Did he die of the virus?"

[director speaking]

When you sent me the text.

I found out
Anthony was m*rder*d

literally when
you sent me the text.

I was in shock
because Tony,

he had became a part
of our family,

our small, q*eer
community family.

[poignant music playing]

Doroshow:
Tony was working nonstop.

One time, you could see
that he was,

like, physically tired.

He had been up for days.

He said, "Listen,
I haven't taken a bath.

I need to sleep.
I need to eat."

We hopped on the train,
the A to the L.

I lived in a loft
in Bushwick.

The first night that we went,
we played cards,

we played Monopoly.

We'd be kiki-ing.
I could cook.

I could turn potted meat
into a deluxe empanada.

So, Tony knew
he was safe with us.

We would go out, run to VIMs,

get some little stud outfits,
some underwear, socks.

Then he'd be like,
"Okay, children, I got rest.

"Look at the skin.
I need to go out.

"I had a fresh shave.
Washed my a*s.

Y'all bought me
some clothes."

And he'd be gone again.

And, you know,
those were memories.

That is food
for your soul.

When there's
somebody there to say,

"I may not know you well,
but my home is your home."

We are sisters and brothers
without asking.

[patrons chattering]

[tense music playing]

Anonymous Victim:
After I encountered this person

in my apartment,

I did not go to the NYPD.

Because, what are they going
to do? Nothing.

But I did go back
to the Five Oaks...

because my friends
were there.

When you walked in,
they said hi.

And you knew the bartenders

and you knew
what nights they were there.

And I would say
a hundred percent of the times

that I walked
into the Five Oaks,

my bar buddy Michael
would be sitting there.

You come down the steps,
and he was the last barstool

right in front of you
at the bar,

same place every time.

Sometime in '93,
I, I went into the Five Oaks,

and Michael was not
at his usual station.

He just disappeared.

And then I heard
that Michael had been k*lled.

Last place he was seen
was the Five Oaks.

I was like, "Holy sh*t."

Reporter: Sakara was g*y,
lived alone in Manhattan,

and was last seen alive
at this piano bar

in Greenwich Village
on Thursday night.

[Woodfield speaking]

[tense music playing]

["Temperamental" by
Ah-Mer-Ah-Su playing]

♪ I wish I wasn't so ♪

♪ Temperamental, I ♪

♪ Wish I could be like ♪

♪ Everybody else ♪

♪ I sit alone in my room ♪

♪ And I think about
all the ways ♪

♪ I'm like no one that I know ♪

♪ I feel tired ♪

♪ Yes, I'm tired ♪

♪ Of putting on my
brave face and ♪

♪ Walking out the door ♪

♪ So I wish I could
be left alone ♪

♪ Wish I could be all alone ♪

♪ Won't you leave me alone? ♪

♪ Leave me alone,
leave me alone ♪

♪ Da-dum ♪

♪ Da-dum, dum ♪

♪ Da-dum, da-dum ♪

♪ Da-dum, dum-dum ♪

♪ Da-dum ♪

♪ Da-dum, dum ♪

♪ Da-dum, dum-da-dum ♪

♪ Da-dum ♪

♪ Dum-dum-dum ♪

♪ Da, da, da, da-da ♪

[song ends]