Box Turtle Bulletin

Today In History, 1976: Richard J Heakin Murdered

Richard J. Heakin, Jr.

40 YEARS AGO: You could only cruise Tucson’s Speedway Blvd on a hot summer night for so long before boredom sets in. But if a carload of bored teens turned north onto Euclid and kept going past where Euclid merges onto First, and then kept going another six blocks past Grant, they could relive their boredom by harassing the faggots going in and out of the Stonewall Tavern. That’s why in the very early morning hours of June 6, thirteen of those high school teens were prowling Stonewall’s dirt parking lot, looking to liven things up.

Richard J. Heakin, Jr., a 21 year old microfilm technician from Lincoln, Nebraska, was in Tucson for a week, visiting friends. He had been out to everyone he knew, and was active with gay organizations in Nebraska. His family welcomed his partner into their home. Heakin had saved enough money to buy a new car, and he drove it to Tucson. As the week came to a close, his friends suggested they go to the Stonewall for one last night out before he began his trip back home the next day.

But by 12:30 a.m., things inside the tavern were getting tense. As patrons tried to leave, they were harassed and accosted by a menacing gang of high school students roming the parking lot that surrounded the bar. When one patron tried to leave, a student tripped him, called him a faggot and took a swing at him. The swing missed, and the patron went back into the bar to call the police.

Before police responded, Heakin and six of his friends decided it was time to leave. They stepped outside, and four of the youths approach them. “Somebody yelled run,” one of Heakin’s friends told a reporter, “but he (Heakin) held back. He didn’t expect it.” Charles J. Shemwell, 17 and a varsity football player, delivered two karate-like kicks and a solid punch to Heakin’s neck. Heakin, five foot eight and all of 136 pounds, fell back against a car and was immediately out cold. The county medical examiner would later testify that the single blow to his neck caused extensive hemorrhaging. Heakin’s friends rushed to his side to find him breathing laboriously. Someone called an ambulance, and Heakin was rushed to the University hospital where he died 45 minutes later of brain injuries.

A few hours later, police tracked down the four assailants. Arrested at their homes were Shemwell, Herman J. Overpeck, 15 and a freshman football player and wrestler, Scott McDonald, 16 and a football player, and Russell Van Cleve, 16.

The local gay community, which had not been big on organizing until now, circulated a petition demanding justice. Al DeLabio, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church said, “We’ve had four or five murders in this city that I’ve heard of, and they’ve been swept under the rug.” Stonewall Tavern owner John Morgan said harassment of customers at his bar and at the other three gay bars and bathhouse in town “ranges from vandalism to egg-throwing to beating, and, obviously, murder.” Several others complained of ongoing police harassment, a charge that Police Chief William J. Gilkinson denied. “In some jurisdictions,” he said, “police have paid too much attention to homosexual bars… It is my opinion that any citizen has a right to conduct himself in any particular lifestyle he enjoys.” But Morgan countered, “The police just don’t have an accurate picture of crime in this area… If a guy was beaten up in the parking lot of the Stonewall, and he happens to be a teacher, his is not going to go to the police because he’d be out of work in two days.”

The Pima County Attorney’s Office quickly announced that they would seek to try the four teens as adults for first-degree murder. But before the four could stand trial as adults, a state Superior Court judge would have to certify that they “were not amenable to treatment or rehabilitation as delinquent children … and the safety or interest of the public requires that the children be transferred for criminal prosecution.”

Judge Ben. C. Birdsall began hearing testimony from witnesses on June 29. On July 1, he released the four youths from Juvenile Court custody. On July 9, he reduced the charges to involuntary manslaughter, after ruling that there was “no evidence” of premeditation (for first degree murder) or malice (for second-degree murder). During the hearing to determine whether the four would stand trial as adults, he heard a long parade of witnesses describing the defendants — and especially Shemwell — as model students from good families. Prosecutor James Himelic got tired of the five hours of the parade of witnesses singing the students’ praises. At one point he objected to the introduction of Shemwell’s trophies and 4-H ribbons as evidence, saying they were irrelevant. Judge Birdsall overruled his objection.

On July 23, Birdsall ruled that Shemwell would stand trial, but only as a juvenile. Birdsall justified that it was “the first and only unlawful act of violence Shemwell has engaged in. I don’t believe anything like that will happen again.” With Shemwell being the only one of the three who witnesses identified as physically assaulting Heakin, it wasn’t surprising that over the next few days, Birdsall ruled that the other three also would not face trial as adults.

Birdsall found the four delinquent in the manslaughter charge. All four remained in their parents custody until sentencing. The options available ranged from probation to detention in the Juvenile Center until they turned 21. On October 21, Burdsall selected the most lenient sentence possible: probation.

But in case anyone should think they got off scott-free for killing a man, Birdsall let it be known that there would be conditions for their probation: No more cruising, a 10 p.m. curfew (unless their parents decided otherwise), and mandatory summer jobs. “This is not a slap on the wrist,” Birdsell said, after delicately slapping their wrists.

Members of the recently-formed Tucson Gay Coalition were outraged. At a press conference, Cathy M Hemler said Judge Birdsall’s sentences were “not even a slap on the wrist.” In a statement, the group said, “We and many other gay people in this community have withheld our judgment until our criminal court system acted upon the law. We didn’t have much faith, but we had hoped that gays could expect justice from this society’s institutions.” Gordon Wilson said that Birdsall’s decision meant that killing gay people wasn’t really a serious crime. The Tucson Daily Citizen opined that “the disturbing pattern set by Birdsall ever since he assumed the case” represented a “tragic Tucson example of lost justice.” Tucson’s citizenry seemed to agree, as letters to the editor flooded in to the two daily newspapers. One letter writer said that the sentence wasn’t so much a slap on the wrist as it was a pat on the back.

The Richard J. Heakin, Jr. Memorial in Sunset Park.

Community outrage over Birdsall’s decisions prompted several important changes in the city of Tucson. The Tucson police department established a Community Liaison-Safety patrol to check Tucson’s gay bars and parking lots. On February 4, 1977, Tucson joined the first wave of cities to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance based on sexual orientation. On June 26, 1977, Tucson held its first Gay Pride Picnic/Heakin Memorial in Himmel Park. In 2002, community activists placed a memorial to Richard J. Heakin, Jr., in Sunset Park in front of City Hall, commemorating “a tragedy that has transformed us and our history into a triumph of community spirit.”

[Sources: Edward Bassett. “4 teen-agers held: Man beaten to death at North Side bar.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 7, 1976): 1, 2.

“Adult trials asked for teen-agers in tavern beating death.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 8, 1976): 1.

San Negri. “Gays charge harassment.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 15, 1976): 21.

“Youth testifies victim kicked twice: Killing ended trip to ‘hassle queers’.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 30, 1976): 5.

Cheryle Rodriguez. “Bar death suspects home after 24 days.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 2, 1976): 29.

Cheryle Rodriguez. “Bar death charges might be reduced.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 8, 1976): 25.

“Judge reduces charges in bar-beating death.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 10, 1976): 11.

“Beating death hearing begins: Teen admits kicking Heakin.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 22, 1976): 25.

“Youth to face slaying trial as a juvenile.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 23, 1976): 31.

“Three slaying suspects face trial as a juvenile.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 24, 1976): 2.

“3 youths face jail in attack.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Sep 6, 1976): 46.

“Teens get probation in killing at tavern.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Oct 21, 1976): 1.

“Gays criticize sentence.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Oct 23, 1976): 4.

Editorial: “A tragic Tucson example of lost justice.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Oct 23, 1976): 36.]