[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 10 (Thursday, January 16, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E97-E98]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           IN TRIBUTE TO WINTHROP BEAN OF STRAFFORD, VERMONT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. PETER WELCH

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 16, 2014

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Bean family of Strafford, 
Vermont, and in tribute to their exceptional young son and brother 
murdered thirty years ago because of his sexual orientation, I submit 
the following Herald of Randolph story. Winthrop Bean's story is a 
tragic tale of senseless loss in the face of homophobia and reminds us 
of the need to end discrimination and achieve fundamental equality for 
all.

                     [From the Herald of Randolph]

                        Winthrop Bean Remembered

                            (By Bruce Kogan)

       This month will mark the 30th anniversary of a guilty plea 
     entered in a New York City court by a man named Alfred 
     Desjardin, 25, pleading guilty to manslaughter-1 in 
     connection with the stabbing death of Strafford native 
     Winthrop Bean on May 19, 1983.
       It was a story little reported in the mainstream media, but 
     in the White River Valley of Vermont it was the major news of 
     the year, because of the effect that Winkie Bean had on all 
     around him.
       My own connection with this case came with my job at New 
     York State Crime Victims Board, where I was an investigator.
       A woman named Linda Strohmeier, who volunteered at the New 
     York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, approached 
     me on behalf of Alta Varney, Winthrop's mother, who had filed 
     a claim for funeral reimbursement. Ms. Strohmeier was from 
     the area and knew Winkie and his family.
       She told me of his ambitions for a career in the theater, 
     which was why he was in New York City, living with friends on 
     East 93rd Street. I knew that the location where his body was 
     found was right near a gay bar called Chaps, long since gone 
     now.

[[Page E98]]

       All the police of the 19th precinct in New York told me in 
     an official capacity was that he was indeed an innocent 
     victim, and there was no reason not to grant $1500 from the 
     state to Alta Varney to bury her son.


                           Another Dimension

       The case always nagged at me, and when I got a chance to 
     speak on my experiences for a documentary on anti-gay 
     violence, I decided to do some research on it.
       To begin with, 10 days after Winkie's death, there was an 
     arrest made of Alfred Desjardin, who was described as both a 
     truck driver and a junkie. As Jerry Orbach used to say on 
     ``Law and Order,'' ``I love it when they're stupid.'' 
     Desjardin left a steak knife with his fingerprints next to 
     Winkie's body.
       But it was Winkie's story that really got to me. The Herald 
     of Randolph provided a lot of answers. By all accounts, 
     Winkie was a charismatic young man who had the great good 
     fortune to grow up in a primarily loving and accepting 
     atmosphere.
       He came from South Strafford, population 1024 at the last 
     census, and that's about a 25% growth since 1983. It's a 
     community that is a haven for artistic types of all kinds, 
     sculptors, painters, and folks who make their living at the 
     theater. That's where Winkie, at an early age, developed a 
     love for the theater.
       It was the passion of his life. While still in grade school 
     he wrote plays, designed sets, and organized the other kids 
     into theater groups. Later on in high school he worked at 
     adult theater companies.
       Former Strafford resident Peter Smith, whom I met, told me 
     that his best memory of Winkie Bean was watching him build, 
     out of whatever scrap material he could find, a set for a 
     local production of ``The Elephant Man.'' Smith later wrote a 
     beautiful obituary for Winkie for The Herald of Randolph. 
     (Smith was for many years the director of the Hopkins 
     Center.)


                              Not an Issue

       For most people in Strafford, Winkie being gay was simply 
     not an issue. That in itself makes his story unique, as most 
     of the gay men and lesbians I've become acquainted with from 
     small towns couldn't wait to get out of them to move to the 
     big city because of the prejudice against them.
       To be sure, he heard the word ``faggot'' every so often, 
     usually from other kids. But Therese Linehan, whose mother 
     Kate was friends with Alta Varney and whose older brothers 
     were Winkie's contemporaries in school, said that those same 
     kids who called him ``faggot'' would listen to him when they 
     were part of his theater projects. Winkie had to have 
     extraordinary charisma and leadership skills for that to 
     happen.
       Kate Linehan told me that Winkie was loved by just about 
     everyone in the area, and by area I include the surrounding 
     towns in the White River Valley. She remembers him always 
     having a kind word for all, never failing to ask sincerely 
     about people's health and welfare.


                            Off to New York

       When he left to go to New York to become a set designer in 
     the theater, it was with the well wishes of one and all in 
     the region. No exile to the big city for Winthrop Bean. He 
     could have been the local high school jock hero who signs a 
     major league baseball contract; it was how he was viewed. 
     This was a story about gay youth from a small town, a story 
     that I had never heard before.
       But on the night of May 19, 1982 after an evening of good 
     food and drinks with some friends, Winthrop Bean decided to 
     have a nightcap at Chaps Bar, which was on Third Avenue in 
     the upper eighties.
       Maybe feeling a bit liberated and not on his guard, he was 
     easy prey for Desjardin who was waiting outside the bar, no 
     doubt looking for a gay victim who would not put up much 
     struggle. Winkie was stabbed about eight times and left in a 
     pool of his own blood to bleed out and die in a stairwell at 
     229 East 88 Street.
       His screams did awake residents who called the police.
       I grew up in Brooklyn myself, and in the big city you do 
     learn street smarts. My own theory of the crime is that 
     Winthrop Bean, because of the loving and nurturing atmosphere 
     he was raised in, never developed them.
       Therese Linehan told me that Winkie believed in the best in 
     and of everybody. It was beyond his grasp that people could 
     want to harm him for any reason. Evil as a concept is 
     something that a lot of people can't comprehend.
       A police tip led to Desjardin's arrest, and the case was 
     ready to be tried by the New York County district attorney's 
     office.


                            Witness Recants

       A source in the DA's office told me that one of the 
     witnesses, a key witness who could have testified and linked 
     the circumstantial and forensic case that they had developed, 
     went bad on them. After that, Asst. DA Patrick Dugan had no 
     choice but to make the best bargain he could and Desjardin 
     copped to a manslaughter-1 plea and got eight to 35 years for 
     a brutal murder, which to me had overtones of bias.
       The fact is that Desjardin selected the area around Chaps 
     as a hunting ground. The fact that Winkie was stabbed 
     multiple times could only come from some primitive rage. And 
     most important for me was that not only was the incriminating 
     steak knife left behind with the killer's fingerprints, but 
     in what he said was a robbery, nothing was taken.
       Asst. D.A. Dugan himself was saddened by this turn of 
     events. In a letter to Alta Varney he wrote that ``during the 
     course of our investigation . . . I have learned that 
     Winthrop was a wonderful person whose loss to his family, 
     friends, and society is irreplaceable.''
       As for Desjardin, he got out after his minimum and went 
     back to a life of crime. He was caught and pled guilty to a 
     robbery and got 12 additional years that started in 1994. 
     After 2006, who knows where he is now?


                              A Hate Crime

       The savagery of the crime is similar to a few other crimes 
     motivated by homophobia, some that I handled claims for in 
     the course of my years at Crime Victims Board.
       And this crime seems similar to one that got national 
     attention, that of Matthew Shepard. There is another 
     similarity: The mothers in each case became activists of 
     sorts.
       Judy Shepard's life as spokesperson for hate crimes 
     legislation is well known. Alta Varney chose a different 
     route. A Winthrop Bean memorial scholarship was established 
     shortly after Winkie's death to give funds to students who 
     want to go into the theater. That's something that honored 
     his passion, and something I believe he would have approved.
       Winkie's name should be on a list of LGBT honored dead, 
     right up there with Matthew Shepard, Julio Rivera, James 
     Zappalorti, Henry Marquez, and so many others.
       Time and circumstance have allowed his name to fade from 
     consciousness in a way the others haven't except in the White 
     River Valley of Vermont, where people still talk of him as 
     one of the most unforgettable individuals they ever came to 
     know.

                          ____________________