“James Polchin’s Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall, excavates garish true crime headlines to reveal the forgotten murders of gay men. In pursuing these trails and trials of blood and ink, Polchin exposes American society’s exploitative misunderstanding of gay men, as well as the initial cultural shifts that fueled the revolution that was Stonewall.”
Read more at Lambda Literary.
“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.”
Read more at Crime Reads.
“In my research into newspaper crime pages, I discovered a shocking public record of queer true crime stories published between World War I and Stonewall. Most of these stories had never been read since their original publication, their documentation of injustices and discrimination buried for decades. In these stories, I encountered stories of men found stabbed, shot, or strangled in hotel rooms, apartments, public parks, and subway bathrooms. I witnessed accounts of brutal violence between roommates, 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 homosexual men, single or partnered, participating in the queer worlds that were emerging in many cities across the country with increasing visibility. Not surprisingly, such crime reports were mostly stories about encounters between white men. When men of color were present in the mainstream press, they were usually, if not always, the killers of the white men they met. While stories of queer people of color murdered and assaulted did make headlines in the black American press, the mainstream crime pages in these decades embodied the broader racial segregation of the times.”
Read more at Slate.
Chee writes, “a fascinating new book on the treatment of gay men in true crime and crime fiction reexamines the violence that people at the Stonewall Inn had faced every day, and the rage crackling up underneath.” And, “What makes Polchin’s readings stand out is the way he pursues an underlying story across several seemingly separate crimes. He is interested in the way the stories of these crimes, their prosecution in court and in the press, are shaped by socioeconomic class and race.”
Read the full article “Finding Stonewall.”
“What sparked your interest in true crime reportage involving queer men?
Years ago, I came across these scrapbooks by Carl Van Vechten at the Yale archive. He was a pretty big character of modernism in the 1920s and ’30s in New York and Paris. He collected all sorts of books and records and ephemera. One of his scrapbooks was homoerotic material—photographs he’d taken, drag ball flyers. Interspersed with all these materials were true crime clippings. It was the first time I’d encountered small articles that were coded in their queer subtext. They were clearly important to Van Vechten as part of this world, and this period, that he wanted to memorialize. That started me thinking about how true crime played a role in, or was important to, queer sensibility.”
Read more at Publishers Weekly.
Come join me at one of these independent bookstores this summer or at the OutWrite Conference in DC. More details can be found on the Events page.
I’ll be in conversation with the brilliant historian and writer Eric Marcus, creator of the Making Gay History podcast, on June 4th to launch Indecent Advances in New York. The event in free, but please RSPV at the Housing Works page.
"Compact and powerful, Polchin’s social history of crimes against queer men in the first half of the 20th century coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City. An important book for an important anniversary . . . Highly Recommended."
Read more at Historical Novel Society
Spring is here, and this box of books arrived. Thrilled by how beautiful the final book looks. Many thanks to all the folks at Counterpoint for making this a reality!
Polchin “looks at cultural trends, such as the courtroom defense of “acute homosexual panic” in response to “indecent advances” from the victim, but also digs deeply into individual high-profile cases, often quoting the most lurid details from the original reporting, which will likely delight true crime fans and satisfy academics”
Read more at Publishers Weekly