“He aimed his Uzi at a group of men standing in line outside the Ramrod bar and squeezed the trigger,” Edward M. Alwood wrote in “Straight News: Gays, Lesbians and the News Media.”“Blood spattered against the wall and door as bullets ripped into one man’s shoulder and another man’s arm,” Mr. Alwood wrote. “In barely the time it takes to light a cigarette, 40 rounds tore into the crowd.“As bullets sprayed the front window of the bar, panic swept the crowd inside. Customers dropped to the floor. Several crawled to a stairway at the back of the building in a desperate attempt to survive.”Vernon Koenig, 21, an organist at nearby St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, was killed instantly. Jorg Wenz, a 24-year-old Dutch immigrant working as a doorman at the Ramrod, died at St. Vincent’s Hospital after an hourslong struggle by doctors to save his life.Olaf Gravesen, 37, and John Litaker, 36, were wounded out on the sidewalk. John Gamrecki, 27, was hit inside the Ramrod. Thomas Ron, 54, was hit inside Sneakers. (Different accounts give varying name spellings and ages for the victims.)PhotoRonald K. Crumpley, the gunman, the morning after the shooting. “I’ll kill them all — the gays — they ruin everything,” he was reported to have said. Credit Jeffrey D. SmithMr. Crumpley made it plain to the police that he would have been satisfied with a higher toll.“I’ll kill them all — the gays — they ruin everything,” he was reported to have said.Though nowhere near as deadly as the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., or the arson fire at the UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans that killed 32 in 1973, the West Street rampage chills those who remember it.“It was especially stunning because it was hitting at the heart of what was the epicenter of gay life,” Mr. Alwood said this week.
Source: New York’s Own Anti-Gay Massacre, Now Barely Remembered – The New York Times













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