Boise homosexuality scandal
Encyclopedia
The Boise homosexuality scandal refers to a sweeping investigation of a supposed "homosexual underground" in Boise, Idaho
that started in 1955. Beginning with the arrest of three men in October 1955, the investigation broadened to encompass allegations that over 100 young men and teenage boys had been involved in sexual acts with a ring of adult homosexual men. By the time the investigation wound down in January 1957, some 1,500 people had been questioned, sixteen men faced charges, and fifteen of them were sentenced to terms ranging from probation to life in prison.
Reportage of the investigation and arrests set off a moral panic
in Boise, fueled by incendiary editorials in the city's newspaper. Although framed in terms of "protecting children" from adult predators, the probe was not confined to investigating charges of men having sex with underage boys and some of those convicted and sentenced to prison were found guilty only of sexual encounters with other consenting adults. The scandal highlighted the tension between the perception of homosexuality as a mental illness requiring treatment and homosexual sex as a criminal act mandating punishment and led to an examination of the problems of juvenile delinquency.
The reasons behind both the start and the end of the investigation are unclear. In his seminal book on the scandal, The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice and Folly in an American City, journalist and academician John Gerassi suggests that the investigation began as a means for the wealthy elite of Boise to assert and maintain economic control of the city and the state. He asserts that a gay millionaire known as "The Queen" was the target of the probe, although he was never charged. With the son of the loudest proponent of the investigation implicated, Gerassi suggests that the forces behind the probe realized that homosexuals were at every level of society and that their wealth and power would not necessarily insulate them, leading them to quietly halt the investigation.
. When the arrests were announced, Ada County
Probation Officer Emery Bess stated, without offering supporting evidence, that the investigation had only "scratched the surface" of "child molestation activities" in Boise involving several adults and over 100 teenagers.
According to Jim Brandon, at the time the chief of the Boise Police Department, the investigation began when the local YMCA
became concerned about the number of transients who were staying at the facility and possible sexual improprieties. Dice's "unnamed client", a lawyer connected with the YMCA and who was connected to the power elite of Boise, hired Dice to investigate. Dice initially discovered nothing, then began speaking with some youths who told him about "juvenile delinquents" who congregated at the YMCA and who engaged in homosexual acts with adult men. With the involvement of underage males, probation officer Bess became involved and, according to Brandon, compiled a list of 75 youths supposedly involved in homosexual activity. Bess refused to turn over the list to the police or the prosecutor and Dice, operating under the direction of local Mormon
organization the Allied Civic Group, continued the investigation that led to the three initial arrests.
The reasons behind the investigation are murky and complex. Gerassi asserts that a "power elite" in Boise, whom he refers to as the "Boise gang", sought to use the investigation (and the resulting scandal) as a means of maintaining control over the city of Boise and, by extension, the entire state of Idaho. He suggests that different members of this elite sought to aim the investigation at different targets. The editor of the Idaho Statesman
, Jim Brown, and others wanted to undermine the current reform-minded mayor and his administration. Others targeted the Boise City Council, specifically Councilman Harold T. "Buck" Jones,Gerassi identified Buck with the pseudonym "Henry Morton" in 1966. In his 2001 introduction, Gerassi revealed Buck's identity because Buck was dead (Gerassi, p. xx). whose son, Frank,Gerassi identified Frank with the pseudonym "Jim Morton" in 1966. In his 2001 introduction, Gerassi revealed not only Frank's identity, but also that Frank had committed suicide in 1982 (Gerassi, p. xxi). was one of the youths involved in the scandal. Still other "Boise gang" members were after a fellow member, a wealthy homosexual known as "The Queen", whom they believed was too powerful to be brought down by any other means. It is equally unclear what triggered the investigation. According to attorney J. Charles Blanton, who had worked in the County Prosecutor's office until September 1955 and who represented Cassel, the office did not routinely search for homosexual activity to prosecute. Between early September and late October, something unknown happened that caused the heightened pursuit leading to the three initial arrests.
, Boise's only daily newspaper, reported the arrests on November 2. News of the arrests ignited a panic in the citizens of Boise. In particular, mothers called the high school, the police and each other, turning in the names of suspected "perverts" and feeding their own and each others' fear. On November 3, the paper ran an editorial under the headline "Crush the Monster". In it, the editors called homosexuality everything from "moral perversion" to a "cancerous growth...calling for immediate and systematic cauterization". The Statesman then called for "the whole sordid situation" to be "completely cleared up, and the premises thoroughly cleaned and disinfected" using "the full strength of county and city agencies". The editorial increased the panic among Boise citizens, who decided that if the normally-staid Statesman was so alarmed at the situation then there must be good reason to be alarmed.
The panic increased anew with the announcement of the arrest of Joe Moore. Moore, then the vice-president of the Idaho First National Bank, was arrested for an "infamous crime against nature" committed with Lee Gibson, a 15 year-old boy who had also been the complaining witness against Cooper. With his arrest, the Statesman published another inflammatory editorial under the headline "This Mess Must Be Removed". The editors characterized homosexuals as a "scourge" that "ravage our youth", lamenting the "number of boys [who] have been victimized by these perverts". Claiming that those so "victimized" would "grow into manhood with the same inclinations of those who are called homosexuals", the Statesman concluded, "No matter what is required, this sordid mess must be removed from this community." Anonymous calls to the police turning in the names of any man who in the opinion of an observer seemed to pay too much attention to any young male flooded in and the city's gay residents realized that a witch hunt was in full swing. One man, a teacher, was so terrified upon reading of Moore's arrest over breakfast that he abandoned the city for San Francisco without informing the school or even finishing his eggs.
With Boiseans terrified of the "monster" in their midst and Ralph Cooper sentenced to life in prison, the Statesman abruptly reversed itself. In a November 20 editorial, the newspaper called for "shock and disgust" to be "replaced with calm and calculated analysis and consideration". Noting that homosexuality existed in every community and had existed "as long as the weaknesses of the human mind have been evident", the Statesman declared that homosexuals were not criminals and that incarceration was not an appropriate solution. It claimed that as long as the focus was on punishing the adult homosexual, then the involved boys, who had been "infected" by the adult men in the same way that the men had themselves been "infected" as children, would "travel the same path and carry the identical threat to the next generation of youth". The paper concluded that homosexuals should still be pursued "before they do more damage to youth", but with a goal of psychiatric treatment rather than imprisonment, and that plans for assistance to the boys must be made immediately "in order that they do not grow into manhood to become homosexuals". The editorial did nothing to abate the panic and the investigation continued.
magazine published an article called "Idaho Underworld" in which it recounted the initial arrests and convictions and claimed that a "widespread homosexual underground" had "preyed on hundreds of teen-age boys for the past decade". Time followed up on January 2, 1956, reporting additional arrests and sentencing and the suggestion from Boise psychiatrist John L. Butler, who had been appointed director of the Idaho Department of Mental Health in December 1955, that rather than sentencing the homosexual adults to prison terms, the state should instead "build up community supports for them....One alternative might be to let them form their own society and be left alone."
On December 22, 1955, the Boise city council issued a statement in which it announced the hiring of a new private investigator to take over the investigation. Because the investigator was still operating in an undercover capacity in 1965, Gerassi assigned him the pseudonym "Bill Goodman". Goodman was known for his work investigating homosexuals
employed by the State Department
; the city, the county and the prosecutor's office jointly paid for his services. Goodman expanded the investigation and quickly developed a list of 500 suspected homosexuals.
, making $5–$10 each time they engaged in sex, and blackmail, threatening to expose the men to the police if they refused to pay.
On December 15, 1955, three days after Time broke the story and in the wake of closing arguments in the sentencing hearing of Joe Moore, Boise residents held a meeting to discuss the problems of homosexuality and juvenile delinquency
. Speakers included psychiatrist Butler; L. E. Clapp, the warden of the state penitentiary
; Jim Fowler, the counselor from the local junior high school; and Boise lawyer Frank Church
(who would go on to the United States Senate
in 1957). The meeting, featuring contradictory remarks from the various speakers on the nature of homosexuality and the role of parents in the lives of their children in preventing delinquency, angered many in the community who felt that Butler in particular, whom they viewed as an outsider despite his roots in the city, was casting aspersions on their ability as parents and calling for government interference in the lives of their families.
One boy who was particularly affected by the scandal was Frank Anton Jones. Frank was the son of Boise city council member and strong investigation proponent Harold T. "Buck" Jones. Frank was named in a statement given to Blaine Evans by Melvin Dir, an actor and director who had left Boise for San Francisco in the early days of the investigation, in January 1956. Dir stated that he had engaged in mutual oral-genital contact with Frank once in the summer of 1953, when Frank was 14. Frank was in 1956 a cadet at West Point
. Sheriff D. C. House flew out to retrieve Frank, who was separated from the Academy. Frank was not tried for the relationship. Dir initially pleaded not guilty, then later switched to a guilty plea and was sentenced to probation. Frank's father Harold maintained that sending the sheriff after his son was "a political witch hunt....There were other names, big shots, involved—one very big name. But nothing happened to them."
Others in the community were embarrassed by the publicity and attention focused on Boise by the Time article. As a defense attorney later put it, "[I]t was as if there was a general feeling that the cases had gone far enough. Not only the court but the people of Boise felt this — I think."
Gerassi marks the sentencing of Melvin Dir on January 21, 1957, following a probation violation as the conclusion of the scandal. Along with the public unease over the Baker incident and the embarrassment of the Time publicity, Gerassi suggests that the crackdown was getting too close to people entrenched within the same power elite that had pushed the investigation in the first place. Boise police sergeant Don Jerome, speaking several years after the wind-down, concurred in this assessment. "The 1955–1956 scandal boomeranged. Too many people were hurt. The city's reputation was too drastically damaged." However, some of the men convicted in the crackdown dispute this interpretation. One stated, "The real big shots I knew as homosexuals never were arrested." Another agreed: "And they knew who that millionaire 'Queen' was. They knew all about him before they picked me up, because they asked me about him. And...I confirmed it." By the end of the investigation, 1,472 people had been interviewed.
Four more men pleaded guilty to infamous crimes against nature and received probation. Gerassi does not identify these men by name in his book, stating that although they were convicted, they were sentenced to probation "and were therefore capable of establishing new lives without the stamp of ex-con, and perhaps without their convictions disclosed." Martin, Larsen and two others were charged only with contacts with adults 18 and older.
rights of the newspaper, and the appellate court upheld the dismissal. The Idaho Supreme Court
reinstated the suit but eight months later reversed itself and unanimously dismissed it. Uranga appealed to the United States Supreme Court
, which in 2003 declined his appeal without comment.
removed homosexuality from its diagnostic manual
in 1973 (Hogan and Hudson, p. 647). Gerassi deplored how the cases of those homosexuals who were "unchangeable" and only "broke the law" with other adults were handled while calling those who had had sexual contact with teenagers child molesters who were "sick and should have been treated". When his book was republished in 2001, Gerassi wrote in the introduction that his tone was "a bit too superior." He said no reviewer had criticized him for "sharing the common assumptions of the day." He took credit for getting the last remaining incarcerated man released from prison.
CBS Reports: The Homosexuals
, a 1967 documentary and the first nationally broadcast program on homosexuality in America, includes a segment on the scandal. Producer Harry Morgan said that the case "illustrates the fact that homosexuality cannot be stamped out; that it is everywhere, not just in the big cities. Society must be made aware of the realities of homosexuality in order to evolve more educated means for dealing with the problem." The Fall of '55, a 2006 film written, directed and produced by Seth Randal, recounts the story, as does Boise U.S.A., a stage play written by Gene Franklin Smith and produced in 2008 by the Salem K Theatre Company in Los Angeles, California.
Former Idaho Senator Larry Craig's
arrest in 2007 for lewd conduct prompted a brief flurry of attention to the Boise scandal. Craig was ten years old in 1955 and a college student in 1966 when Gerassi's book was released. Fall of '55 director Randal argues that there is little to no chance that Craig was not aware of the Boise scandal and suggests that Craig, in trying to withdraw his guilty plea, had absorbed a lesson from the original scandal: "sexual misconduct — or even the mere perception that one is gay — could ruin a man’s reputation. But steadfast, straight-in-the-eye denial just might get him off the hook."
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
that started in 1955. Beginning with the arrest of three men in October 1955, the investigation broadened to encompass allegations that over 100 young men and teenage boys had been involved in sexual acts with a ring of adult homosexual men. By the time the investigation wound down in January 1957, some 1,500 people had been questioned, sixteen men faced charges, and fifteen of them were sentenced to terms ranging from probation to life in prison.
Reportage of the investigation and arrests set off a moral panic
Moral panic
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
in Boise, fueled by incendiary editorials in the city's newspaper. Although framed in terms of "protecting children" from adult predators, the probe was not confined to investigating charges of men having sex with underage boys and some of those convicted and sentenced to prison were found guilty only of sexual encounters with other consenting adults. The scandal highlighted the tension between the perception of homosexuality as a mental illness requiring treatment and homosexual sex as a criminal act mandating punishment and led to an examination of the problems of juvenile delinquency.
The reasons behind both the start and the end of the investigation are unclear. In his seminal book on the scandal, The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice and Folly in an American City, journalist and academician John Gerassi suggests that the investigation began as a means for the wealthy elite of Boise to assert and maintain economic control of the city and the state. He asserts that a gay millionaire known as "The Queen" was the target of the probe, although he was never charged. With the son of the loudest proponent of the investigation implicated, Gerassi suggests that the forces behind the probe realized that homosexuals were at every level of society and that their wealth and power would not necessarily insulate them, leading them to quietly halt the investigation.
Investigation and first arrests
The first arrests in the scandal came on October 31, 1955, following an investigation by private detective Howard Dice at the behest of an unnamed client. Those arrested were Ralph Cooper, a 33-year-old shoe repairman; Charles Brokaw, a 29-year-old freight worker; and Vernon Cassel, a 51-year-old store clerk. Cooper and Brokaw were charged with "lewd conduct with a minor child" (Cooper based on an incident from June 1954) and Cassel with "infamous crimes against nature", in other words, sodomySodomy laws in the United States
Sodomy laws in the United States, which outlawed a variety of sexual acts, were historically universal. While they often targeted sexual acts between persons of the same sex, many statutes employed definitions broad enough to outlaw certain sexual acts between persons of different sexes as well,...
. When the arrests were announced, Ada County
Ada County, Idaho
Ada County is a county in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2010 Census, the county had a population of 392,365. The county seat and largest city is Boise, which is also the state capital. Other cities in the county with over 10,000 residents include Meridian, Eagle,...
Probation Officer Emery Bess stated, without offering supporting evidence, that the investigation had only "scratched the surface" of "child molestation activities" in Boise involving several adults and over 100 teenagers.
According to Jim Brandon, at the time the chief of the Boise Police Department, the investigation began when the local YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
became concerned about the number of transients who were staying at the facility and possible sexual improprieties. Dice's "unnamed client", a lawyer connected with the YMCA and who was connected to the power elite of Boise, hired Dice to investigate. Dice initially discovered nothing, then began speaking with some youths who told him about "juvenile delinquents" who congregated at the YMCA and who engaged in homosexual acts with adult men. With the involvement of underage males, probation officer Bess became involved and, according to Brandon, compiled a list of 75 youths supposedly involved in homosexual activity. Bess refused to turn over the list to the police or the prosecutor and Dice, operating under the direction of local Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
organization the Allied Civic Group, continued the investigation that led to the three initial arrests.
The reasons behind the investigation are murky and complex. Gerassi asserts that a "power elite" in Boise, whom he refers to as the "Boise gang", sought to use the investigation (and the resulting scandal) as a means of maintaining control over the city of Boise and, by extension, the entire state of Idaho. He suggests that different members of this elite sought to aim the investigation at different targets. The editor of the Idaho Statesman
Idaho Statesman
The Idaho Statesman is a U.S. daily newspaper serving the Boise, Idaho metropolitan area. The paper has a circulation of 61,000 daily, 83,038 Sunday, and employs about 300 people. It is owned by The McClatchy Company....
, Jim Brown, and others wanted to undermine the current reform-minded mayor and his administration. Others targeted the Boise City Council, specifically Councilman Harold T. "Buck" Jones,Gerassi identified Buck with the pseudonym "Henry Morton" in 1966. In his 2001 introduction, Gerassi revealed Buck's identity because Buck was dead (Gerassi, p. xx). whose son, Frank,Gerassi identified Frank with the pseudonym "Jim Morton" in 1966. In his 2001 introduction, Gerassi revealed not only Frank's identity, but also that Frank had committed suicide in 1982 (Gerassi, p. xxi). was one of the youths involved in the scandal. Still other "Boise gang" members were after a fellow member, a wealthy homosexual known as "The Queen", whom they believed was too powerful to be brought down by any other means. It is equally unclear what triggered the investigation. According to attorney J. Charles Blanton, who had worked in the County Prosecutor's office until September 1955 and who represented Cassel, the office did not routinely search for homosexual activity to prosecute. Between early September and late October, something unknown happened that caused the heightened pursuit leading to the three initial arrests.
"Crush the Monster"
The Idaho StatesmanIdaho Statesman
The Idaho Statesman is a U.S. daily newspaper serving the Boise, Idaho metropolitan area. The paper has a circulation of 61,000 daily, 83,038 Sunday, and employs about 300 people. It is owned by The McClatchy Company....
, Boise's only daily newspaper, reported the arrests on November 2. News of the arrests ignited a panic in the citizens of Boise. In particular, mothers called the high school, the police and each other, turning in the names of suspected "perverts" and feeding their own and each others' fear. On November 3, the paper ran an editorial under the headline "Crush the Monster". In it, the editors called homosexuality everything from "moral perversion" to a "cancerous growth...calling for immediate and systematic cauterization". The Statesman then called for "the whole sordid situation" to be "completely cleared up, and the premises thoroughly cleaned and disinfected" using "the full strength of county and city agencies". The editorial increased the panic among Boise citizens, who decided that if the normally-staid Statesman was so alarmed at the situation then there must be good reason to be alarmed.
The panic increased anew with the announcement of the arrest of Joe Moore. Moore, then the vice-president of the Idaho First National Bank, was arrested for an "infamous crime against nature" committed with Lee Gibson, a 15 year-old boy who had also been the complaining witness against Cooper. With his arrest, the Statesman published another inflammatory editorial under the headline "This Mess Must Be Removed". The editors characterized homosexuals as a "scourge" that "ravage our youth", lamenting the "number of boys [who] have been victimized by these perverts". Claiming that those so "victimized" would "grow into manhood with the same inclinations of those who are called homosexuals", the Statesman concluded, "No matter what is required, this sordid mess must be removed from this community." Anonymous calls to the police turning in the names of any man who in the opinion of an observer seemed to pay too much attention to any young male flooded in and the city's gay residents realized that a witch hunt was in full swing. One man, a teacher, was so terrified upon reading of Moore's arrest over breakfast that he abandoned the city for San Francisco without informing the school or even finishing his eggs.
With Boiseans terrified of the "monster" in their midst and Ralph Cooper sentenced to life in prison, the Statesman abruptly reversed itself. In a November 20 editorial, the newspaper called for "shock and disgust" to be "replaced with calm and calculated analysis and consideration". Noting that homosexuality existed in every community and had existed "as long as the weaknesses of the human mind have been evident", the Statesman declared that homosexuals were not criminals and that incarceration was not an appropriate solution. It claimed that as long as the focus was on punishing the adult homosexual, then the involved boys, who had been "infected" by the adult men in the same way that the men had themselves been "infected" as children, would "travel the same path and carry the identical threat to the next generation of youth". The paper concluded that homosexuals should still be pursued "before they do more damage to youth", but with a goal of psychiatric treatment rather than imprisonment, and that plans for assistance to the boys must be made immediately "in order that they do not grow into manhood to become homosexuals". The editorial did nothing to abate the panic and the investigation continued.
Story breaks nationally
On December 12, 1955, TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine published an article called "Idaho Underworld" in which it recounted the initial arrests and convictions and claimed that a "widespread homosexual underground" had "preyed on hundreds of teen-age boys for the past decade". Time followed up on January 2, 1956, reporting additional arrests and sentencing and the suggestion from Boise psychiatrist John L. Butler, who had been appointed director of the Idaho Department of Mental Health in December 1955, that rather than sentencing the homosexual adults to prison terms, the state should instead "build up community supports for them....One alternative might be to let them form their own society and be left alone."
On December 22, 1955, the Boise city council issued a statement in which it announced the hiring of a new private investigator to take over the investigation. Because the investigator was still operating in an undercover capacity in 1965, Gerassi assigned him the pseudonym "Bill Goodman". Goodman was known for his work investigating homosexuals
Lavender scare
The Lavender Scare refers to the fear and persecution of homosexuals in the 1950s in the United States, which paralleled the anti-communist campaign known as McCarthyism....
employed by the State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
; the city, the county and the prosecutor's office jointly paid for his services. Goodman expanded the investigation and quickly developed a list of 500 suspected homosexuals.
The boys
When news of the arrests broke, Probation Officer Emery Bess claimed that close to 100 underage boys had been involved in sexual activity with adult men. Gerassi interviewed 28 men who had been enrolled in Boise High School during the scandal. They all disputed the notion that 100 underage boys were involved with adult men. Psychiatrist Butler agreed, stating his belief that only 65 boys were involved in any same-sex sexual activity, including mutual masturbation. There were only four or five boys whose sexual involvement with adults went as far as oral-genital contact. These boys were characterized by Butler as "tough gang members", who engaged in prostitutionMale prostitution
Male prostitution is the practice of engaging in sexual acts for money. Compared to female sex workers, male sex workers have been far less studied by researchers, and while studies suggest that there are differences between the ways these two groups look at their work, more research is needed.Male...
, making $5–$10 each time they engaged in sex, and blackmail, threatening to expose the men to the police if they refused to pay.
On December 15, 1955, three days after Time broke the story and in the wake of closing arguments in the sentencing hearing of Joe Moore, Boise residents held a meeting to discuss the problems of homosexuality and juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...
. Speakers included psychiatrist Butler; L. E. Clapp, the warden of the state penitentiary
Old Idaho State Penitentiary
The Old Idaho Penitentiary State Historic Site, also known as the Idaho Territorial Prison, was constructed in the Territory of Idaho in 1870. The territory was less than ten years old when the prison was built east of Boise, Idaho in the western United States...
; Jim Fowler, the counselor from the local junior high school; and Boise lawyer Frank Church
Frank Church
Frank Forrester Church III was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from Idaho from 1957 to 1981....
(who would go on to the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
in 1957). The meeting, featuring contradictory remarks from the various speakers on the nature of homosexuality and the role of parents in the lives of their children in preventing delinquency, angered many in the community who felt that Butler in particular, whom they viewed as an outsider despite his roots in the city, was casting aspersions on their ability as parents and calling for government interference in the lives of their families.
One boy who was particularly affected by the scandal was Frank Anton Jones. Frank was the son of Boise city council member and strong investigation proponent Harold T. "Buck" Jones. Frank was named in a statement given to Blaine Evans by Melvin Dir, an actor and director who had left Boise for San Francisco in the early days of the investigation, in January 1956. Dir stated that he had engaged in mutual oral-genital contact with Frank once in the summer of 1953, when Frank was 14. Frank was in 1956 a cadet at West Point
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
. Sheriff D. C. House flew out to retrieve Frank, who was separated from the Academy. Frank was not tried for the relationship. Dir initially pleaded not guilty, then later switched to a guilty plea and was sentenced to probation. Frank's father Harold maintained that sending the sheriff after his son was "a political witch hunt....There were other names, big shots, involved—one very big name. But nothing happened to them."
Investigation draws to a close
The end of the investigation was perhaps as murky as its beginning. On December 29, 1955, William Harvey Baker admitted shooting and killing his father. Baker was convicted of manslaughter in June 1956 and sentenced to ten years in prison. Baker was a key prosecution witness against Moore and other defendants and his involvement in the shooting was one factor which seemed to shift public opinion regarding the witch-hunt. If Baker could kill his father, some of the public reasoned, his credibility as a witness was compromised.Others in the community were embarrassed by the publicity and attention focused on Boise by the Time article. As a defense attorney later put it, "[I]t was as if there was a general feeling that the cases had gone far enough. Not only the court but the people of Boise felt this — I think."
Gerassi marks the sentencing of Melvin Dir on January 21, 1957, following a probation violation as the conclusion of the scandal. Along with the public unease over the Baker incident and the embarrassment of the Time publicity, Gerassi suggests that the crackdown was getting too close to people entrenched within the same power elite that had pushed the investigation in the first place. Boise police sergeant Don Jerome, speaking several years after the wind-down, concurred in this assessment. "The 1955–1956 scandal boomeranged. Too many people were hurt. The city's reputation was too drastically damaged." However, some of the men convicted in the crackdown dispute this interpretation. One stated, "The real big shots I knew as homosexuals never were arrested." Another agreed: "And they knew who that millionaire 'Queen' was. They knew all about him before they picked me up, because they asked me about him. And...I confirmed it." By the end of the investigation, 1,472 people had been interviewed.
Arrests and convictions
| Defendant | Arrested | Charge | Result | Sentence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infamous crimes against nature | Pleaded guilty | Six years of probation. | ||
| Lewd conduct with a minor | Pleaded guilty | Six months in prison plus probation. | ||
| Infamous crimes against nature | Pleaded guilty | Ten years in prison | ||
| Lewd conduct with a minor | Pleaded guilty | Life imprisonment. Served nine years. | ||
| Lewd conduct with a minor | Pleaded guilty | Five years in prison, suspended. Later violates probation and is sentenced to seven years. | ||
| Lewd and lascivious conduct | Pleaded guilty | 15 years in prison | ||
| Infamous crimes against nature | Tried, found guilty | Five years in prison | ||
| Martin is identified by the pseudonym "Mark Rome" in Gerassi's book. | Infamous crimes against nature | Tried, found not guilty | None | |
| Infamous crimes against nature | Pleaded guilty | Seven years in prison. Loses appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court. | ||
| Infamous crimes against nature | Pleaded guilty | Five years in prison | ||
| Infamous crimes against nature | Pleaded guilty | 15 years in prison | ||
| Infamous crimes against nature | Pleaded guilty | Five years in prison. Loses appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court. |
Four more men pleaded guilty to infamous crimes against nature and received probation. Gerassi does not identify these men by name in his book, stating that although they were convicted, they were sentenced to probation "and were therefore capable of establishing new lives without the stamp of ex-con, and perhaps without their convictions disclosed." Martin, Larsen and two others were charged only with contacts with adults 18 and older.
Invasion of privacy lawsuit
In 1995, the 40th anniversary of the start of the scandal, The Idaho Statesman printed an account of the scandal that included a photograph of a statement written by Melvin Dir in which Dir claimed to have had a sexual affair with a cousin. The cousin was Fred Uranga, although he was not identified in the story. Uranga sued for invasion of privacy. The trial court dismissed the suit, citing the First AmendmentFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
rights of the newspaper, and the appellate court upheld the dismissal. The Idaho Supreme Court
Idaho Supreme Court
The Idaho Supreme Court is the state supreme court of the state of Idaho, composed of the chief justice and four associate justices.The decisions of the Idaho Supreme Court are binding on all other Idaho state courts.The only court that may reverse or modify its decisions is the Supreme Court of...
reinstated the suit but eight months later reversed itself and unanimously dismissed it. Uranga appealed to the United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
, which in 2003 declined his appeal without comment.
Media coverage
The most comprehensive account of the scandal written to date is The Boys of Boise, a 1966 book by John Gerassi. Gerassi uses the language of the day regarding homosexuality, which at the time was considered a mental illness.The American Psychiatric AssociationAmerican Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
removed homosexuality from its diagnostic manual
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders...
in 1973 (Hogan and Hudson, p. 647). Gerassi deplored how the cases of those homosexuals who were "unchangeable" and only "broke the law" with other adults were handled while calling those who had had sexual contact with teenagers child molesters who were "sick and should have been treated". When his book was republished in 2001, Gerassi wrote in the introduction that his tone was "a bit too superior." He said no reviewer had criticized him for "sharing the common assumptions of the day." He took credit for getting the last remaining incarcerated man released from prison.
CBS Reports: The Homosexuals
CBS Reports: The Homosexuals
"The Homosexuals" is a 1967 episode of the documentary television series CBS Reports. The hour-long broadcast featured a discussion of a number of topics related to homosexuality and homosexuals. Mike Wallace anchored the episode, which aired on March 7, 1967...
, a 1967 documentary and the first nationally broadcast program on homosexuality in America, includes a segment on the scandal. Producer Harry Morgan said that the case "illustrates the fact that homosexuality cannot be stamped out; that it is everywhere, not just in the big cities. Society must be made aware of the realities of homosexuality in order to evolve more educated means for dealing with the problem." The Fall of '55, a 2006 film written, directed and produced by Seth Randal, recounts the story, as does Boise U.S.A., a stage play written by Gene Franklin Smith and produced in 2008 by the Salem K Theatre Company in Los Angeles, California.
Former Idaho Senator Larry Craig's
Larry Craig
Larry Edwin Craig is a former Republican politician from the U.S. state of Idaho. He served 18 years in the U.S. Senate , preceded by 10 years in the U.S. House, representing Idaho's first district . His 28 years in the Congress rank as the second-longest in Idaho history, trailing only William...
arrest in 2007 for lewd conduct prompted a brief flurry of attention to the Boise scandal. Craig was ten years old in 1955 and a college student in 1966 when Gerassi's book was released. Fall of '55 director Randal argues that there is little to no chance that Craig was not aware of the Boise scandal and suggests that Craig, in trying to withdraw his guilty plea, had absorbed a lesson from the original scandal: "sexual misconduct — or even the mere perception that one is gay — could ruin a man’s reputation. But steadfast, straight-in-the-eye denial just might get him off the hook."