Gay bars in everett ma

Inan arsonist set fire to a popular gay bar in New Orleans. When you work in an investigative unit, the stories you tell rarely have a happy ending. We cover attacks, shootings and disasters; crime, corruption and coverups; everything from foreign threats to our democracy to the scam artist who wants to separate you from your paycheck.

HistoryLink.org

This story seemed to fit a familiar mold. We wanted to know why. Using Robert W. There was Duane Mitchell, 11 at the time, whose father Mitch dropped him and his younger brother at the movie theater while he and his lover stole away for a quick drink at the UpStairs Lounge. Nobody wanted to talk about it. It was like my dad and all those other people never existed.

There was Buddy Rasmussen, the beloved bartender, who many hailed as a hero for his actions in leading so many bar patrons to safety. Rasmussen avoids interviews, and he declined to speak to us for our film, but a friend reportedly said that Rasmussen remains wracked with guilt over those he could not save. And there was the Rev.

Bill Larson, the pastor of the local chapter of the gay-friendly church that met in the bar, whose attempt to escape the blaze ended with his charred corpse hanging from a second-floor window for all passersby to see. We're gonna leave you hanging, too. But we also discovered stories of another kind, stories of resilience in the face of tragedy, the quality that has come to define post-Katrina New Orleans and its inhabitants.

There was Stewart Butler, who, according to The UpStairs Lounge Arson by Clayton Delery-Edwards, was inspired by the fire to enter a life of activism, organizing local efforts within the then-nascent gay liberation movement. So we did what we do best. We pulled documents. We pestered public and private officials.

We called lawmakers. One everett remains: Where is Panel Q, Lot 32? Both Resthaven and the city say their records, including any maps of the gay, were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. We heard rumors of a man -- a former cemetery employee and grave walker of sorts -- who could mark the plots in paces from a tree, but he has yet to come forward.

According to one interested lawmaker, the key could lie in the only surviving bar of the burial -- just a few seconds of grainy news footage -- which could be used to triangulate the site of the burial. Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana who has taken up the cause. I believe that we would. Marilyn and her family are now closer than they have ever been to finding Ferris.

Success in this endeavor would not be a happy ending. Stream on.