Essay on the Queer True Crime and the Talented Mr. Ripley at Crime Reads

“But then, it wasn’t only faked murders that Highsmith would have found fascinating in the crime pages in the early years of the Cold War. As I reread The Talented Mr. Ripley, I was finishing a manuscript about queer true crime stories in mid-century America. Lost to history, these press accounts detailed violent crimes of men found stabbed, shot, or strangled in hotel rooms, apartments, public parks, and subway bathrooms. There were stories of brutal violence between roommates and lovers, sailors and civilians, young men and older men, working-class men and wealthy companions. Many of the victims were married men, living their sexual lives in secret rendezvous, under false names to hide their identities. Others were clearly living as gay men, single or partnered, participating in the queer worlds that were emerging in many cities across the country with increasing visibility. At the time, these stories simmered and boiled with sensational headlines of sex deviancy and homosexual criminality. I couldn’t shake the reality that the crime pages were offering me variations of Tom Ripley.”

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