American Honor Killings

September 24, 2012
Utilizing an empathetic narrative nonfiction approach, novelist McConnell (The Silver Hearted), co-chair of the Lambda Literary Foundation, casts a humanizing eye upon monstrous deeds, but fails to prove his central thesis that the somewhat high-profile murders of gay men he revisits are the result of “pure masculinity enraged.” Covering 1999 to 2011, he attempts to demonstrate how the adherence to a rigid definition of masculinity caused these particular murderers to commit their crimes, and the case of Darrell Madden almost proves the point as McConnell, in a journalistic tour de force made all the more impressive by jailhouse interviews, traces the killer’s trajectory from traumatized farm boy to gay porn pinup, white supremacist, and eventually murderer of Steve Domer. But the central premise, detailed on the opening page (“The fact is, all relationships between men—friendship, rivalry... murder—are casually characterized by sexual metaphors...”) simply does not play out in the combination of research, interviews, and restated news coverage of the murders of George Weber, Gary Matson, and Scott Amedure. Even the author seems unconvinced by the conjecture and muddled references used to connect the dots. Adoring physical descriptions of the killers contrast oddly with misogynistic descriptions of women, but it does not undermine McConnell’s unquestionable skill as a writer, which gives both literary heft and immediacy to the narratives. Sociologically, however, little is revealed.

November 15, 2012
A graphic recounting of a series of gruesome murders involving young males. Lambda Literary Society co-chair McConnell (The Silver Hearted, 2010, etc.) explores "a shadowy and explosive tension...in the minds of young men," which he considers to be the "prime mover of violence" in certain cases identified by lawyers and activists as "hate crimes" and "gay panic." The author equates that tension with a fear of real or apparent exposure of unmanliness or homosexuality, and thus, he believes the killings he discusses resemble vengeance-driven "honor killings." While his conclusion may be questionable, McConnell convincingly shows how fluid terms like "gay" and "straight" can actually be. One such example is the case of Darrell Madden, a former homosexual porn star who became an anti-gay neo-Nazi and murdered a homosexual in 2007. This was one of five cases where young men, with homosexual pasts or fears, killed homosexuals, or suspected homosexuals, in crimes discussed as hate crimes. The author compares these to the Wyoming killing of Matthew Shepard or the murder of African-American James Byrd Jr. by white supremacists. "Hatred was a critical factor in these murders. It would be poisonous to pretend otherwise," he writes, but it is not the whole story. In McConnell's opinion, a review of the perpetrators, victims and circumstances indicates more--"hatred often seems to exist prior to its having a clear object." The author's case studies reflect an intensive investigation into the economic and cultural backgrounds of a wide variety of extremist cultures, research that involved interviews with law enforcement officials, families of victims and the convicted criminals themselves. A shocking look at the subculture of violent crime, not for the fainthearted.

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December 1, 2012

Homophobia is not accepted as a mitigating circumstance in murder, but there is no doubt that men are still murdered for being gay. From Jon Schmitz ("The Jenny Jones Killer") to John Katehis (the teenage hustler who murdered radio personality George Weber), novelist McConnell (cochair, Lambda Literary Foundation; The Silver Hearted) has compiled a number of these cases and looks into the culture of masculinity for clues to the dynamics behind these killings. Many of the murderers discussed here belonged to a hypermasculine subculture (e.g., skinheads, gangs, fundamentalist religious cults), while others acted alone. But in all the cases, some affront to the killer's sense of manhood seemed to require a very public act of violence, as if the violence itself reaffirmed his masculinity. Some of the killers might have been secretly bisexual or gender confused, but not so often as to be the common thread in these murders. VERDICT With no clear answers, but some very intriguing questions, these vignettes of masculine pride and rage will appeal to those interested in gender politics and gay studies as well as true crime fans.--Deirdre Bray Root, Middletown P.L., OH

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