THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 29, 1995 TAG: 9505290036
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
In the gay and lesbian community, he's simply called ``the killer.'' And most everyone has the same three questions about him: Who is he? What's his motivation? Who will be the next victim?
A lot of people have theories for the first two questions. But no one is sure of the answer to the third as police hunt a suspected serial killer who has taken the lives of 10 men since 1987, many of them gay or with links to the gay community.
``He's a closet case . . . and he can't deal with the truth that he's gay,'' said a 31-year-old carpenter and electrician from Virginia Beach. ``He kills the people he picks up because he feels guilty.''
A 27-year-old Portsmouth cook disagreed. ``I think he's a religious fanatic. He thinks he's doing God's work.'' She's not deterred from that view, even though evidence indicates the killer may have had sex with some of the victims. ``Sick minds do sick things,'' she said.
They agree on one thing: They feel certain they're safe. ``I don't do drugs and pick up `tricks' on the street,'' said the Virginia Beach carpenter. He said he has been in a monogamous relationship for three years. ``I'm not who he's after.''
But that sense of safety could prove terribly false.
``It's very, very dangerous,'' said Tom Donegan, co-chairman of Gay Men and Lesbians Opposing Violence, a Washington-based group. ``You need to worry about more than this single person. In Washington, we have lots of murder cases that are not connected. Just because one is getting noticed doesn't mean there isn't a second killer out there.''
Patrick Heck of Virginians for Justice, a Richmond-based gay and lesbian lobbying group, which also tracks hate crimes in the state, agreed. ``The profile of the killer is so sketchy that it is too soon to feel safe,'' he said.
The mood among gay men who said they don't feel threatened by this killer is in contrast to the mood in September 1993 when news reports linked the first eight of the murders. At the time, police stopped short of saying a serial killer was at work. Back then, a wave of fear swept the gay community.
``This guy's going after street types, hustlers, low-lifes,'' said a 23-year-old graduate student from Norfolk. ``I don't like that life; I don't lead that life. So why should I be scared?''
Kathleen Vickery, editor of Our Own, one of two local gay newspapers, said she is surprised at the reaction she has seen.
``I'm kind of shocked at our community for not being more concerned,'' she said. ``It might sound harsh, but it seems to me that our community is eager to dismiss this and find a reason why they shouldn't worry about it. But it's always dangerous to dismiss an incident like this.''
And, Vickery added: ``These are real people who are getting killed, and we should care about that.''
Earl Jones, who operates Out Right Books, a gay and lesbian store in the 9200 block of Granby St. in Norfolk, said he thinks his customers are concerned but not panicked.
``Basically, I'm just telling people to be careful,'' Jones said. ``They need to know who they are dating or going out with.''
Jones said he thinks police are treating the case seriously and are trying to track down the killer. ``But I hope the Police Department will start working closer with the (gay) community,'' he added. ``I think they would get further if they did.''
``Everyone is concerned,'' said Heck, a Norfolk resident, ``but we're at a loss to know how to help potential victims because they are so marginalized.''
Since it appears that the people being victimized do not move within the mainstream gay community, reaching them with information through traditional means - the local gay press, pamphlets, word of mouth - may be difficult, he said.
Heck said he understands why many gay men may feel safe. ``In some ways, they shouldn't feel like they are direct targets at this time,'' Heck said. ``But they should always be cautious about any dealings with strangers, especially considering the climate of intolerance we live in.''
Heck said that in 1994, his group tracked an increasing number of attacks on homosexuals or people perceived as being homosexual - including four murders. Many appeared to be motivated by anti-gay bias.
``Several were somehow related to pick-up activities,'' Heck said, where the victim met a stranger, left with him and was later found dead. Only one of the four murders was in Hampton Roads, and that case - in Portsmouth - was the result of a domestic dispute in which the father of a gay man killed his son's lover.
The statistics have been kept only a few years and are based largely on reports phoned into the Virginians for Justice office. But Heck said there is one worrisome trend: The level of violence appears to be increasing.
``Our statistics show that the hate crimes are moving away from the bars and the street,'' Heck said, ``and into not only people's homes but also into the workplace and other environments that are traditionally considered safe.''
KEYWORDS: HOMOSEXUALS GAYS LESBIANS MURDER SERIAL KILLER by CNB