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Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

March 6, 1999, Saturday, ALL EDITIONS

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 01A

LENGTH: 805 words

SERIES: Home

HEADLINE: Grisly killing stuns Alabama town

BYLINE: Gita M. Smith

DATELINE: Sylacauga, Ala

BODY:

 

The people of Sylacauga knew that Billy Jack Gaither was a devoted son, that he was a computer operator at Russell Mills and that he drank Bud Light beer at The Tavern, his favorite bar.

But few knew Gaither was gay until two men told police this week they killed him because he made a pass at them. In this town of 13,000 people, homosexuality remains a taboo, but what seems to disturb residents most is that someone they knew and liked died a violent, gruesome death.

"Last weekend, we kept thinking Billy Jack would come through the door and smile like always," said Donna McKee, a bartender at The Tavern, a country-western bar where Gaither showed up regularly for Saturday night dances. "He was the slowest beer drinker because he'd have to walk around and talk to everyone and shoot a game of pool."

Authorities found a badly burned body --- enventually identified as Gaither --- on a stack of burned tires on a bank of Peckerwood Creek in neighboring Coosa County the night of Feb. 19. Two men, one of them described as a "skinhead wannabe," told sheriff's deputies this week they had beaten Gaither to death with an ax handle and set him on fire, according to authorities.

On Friday, President Clinton delivered a statement in Washington condemning the ''heinous and cowardly crime," and gay rights organizations compared the slaying to that of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming last fall. Shepard, a college student, died after a beating police said was motivated in part because he was gay.

''I share with many Americans a sense of grief and outrage at the tragic and violent death of Billy Jack Gaither in Alabama,'' Clinton said.

A candlelight vigil honoring Gaither's memory is planned for Monday evening in Sylacauga.

Randy Gaither, Billy Jack's younger brother, answered the door when deputies came to the Gaither home on Feb. 20 and asked what Billy Jack might have been wearing the day before.

"I told them he would have been wearing cowboy boots, a gold ring, necklace and bracelet," Randy Gaither recalled Friday. "We buried my brother without knowing why he was killed. It was only later that these boys confessed, and we found out why."

It was Randy who had to break the news to their father, Marion Gaither, 68 and suffering from emphysema and heart disease. Billy Jack had lived at home helping his dad with yardwork and driving his parents to doctor appointments, the younger brother Gaither said.

Charged with the killing are Steven Eric Mullins, 25, and Charles Monroe Butler Jr., 21.

Larry Hammond, owner of The Tavern, described Mullins as a skinhead wannabe who "tried to walk around like a bully." Acquaintances said Mullins was given to wearing racist insignias and spewing racial epithets.

Butler, by contrast, was described as quiet and a neat dresser.

Regulars at The Tavern, where Gaither met Mullins and Butler, said Friday they are in shock and are mourning. Donna McKee said Gaither often asked her to dance, especially when the Saturday night band got to cooking with a fast number. He also liked to dance with Shona Magouyrk, a regular at the bar.

"I know it definitely was a hate crime," Magouyrk said, as she ordered a sandwich at the Steak At Home next door. "He was a good person. There's a lot of rednecks around here, and they can't accept gays."

"I used to wonder why he didn't just go to a gay bar in Birmingham," she added, "but I think he was scared to drink and drive all the way back." Birmingham is about 40 miles away.

Jimmy Reynolds, owner of Steak At Home, said the killing "is the first of this type here."

"People here hadn't been exposed to gays being open as much as in Atlanta or Birmingham, and a minority is more visible in a small town," he said.

While serving up barbecue and sweet tea to customers, Reynolds said there's a separate code of behavior required of gay people in a small, Deep South town.

"Someone gay should know where he's at. In Deep South Alabama, you don't walk into a country-western bar and let people know you're gay. That's just the way it is," he said.

"Now that don't give someone the right to beat and burn a man," he quickly added.

At the sheriff's office in Sylacauga, Sgt. Kenny Archer said people are "upset about any homicide that happens in this town --- a person is a person regardless."

Currently in the Coosa County Jail on $ 500,000 bond each, Mullins and Butler will be processed through the courts in the county where the crime allegedly was committed, not in Talladega County, where Gaither and the two men lived.

The Gaither family will never recover from this, said Randy Gaither, who works at the Uniroyal tire shop in Sylacauga.

"I saw the remains of my brother," he said, "and I don't see how anyone could do what they done to another human being."

 

GRAPHIC: Map sylacauga.Ala. 0306.eps:

Alabama map shows location of Sylacauga. / Elizabeth Landt / Staff

Photo :

Charles Monroe Butler Jr.

Photo :

Steven Eric Mullins

Photo :

Billy Jack Gaither

Photo :

Wrong place at the wrong time: This nightclub, which Billy Jack Gaither

visited the night of his slaying, was also a favorite hangout of the two

men who allegedly killed him. / Associated Press

 

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Copyright 1999 Times Mirror Company

Los Angeles Times

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March 6, 1999, Saturday, Home Edition

SECTION: Part A; Page 1; National Desk

LENGTH: 1104 words

HEADLINE: ALABAMA TOWN STUNNED BY NATION'S LATEST HATE SLAYING

BYLINE: EDITH STANLEY and J.R. MOEHRINGER, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

 

DATELINE: SYLACAUGA, Ala.

BODY:

People here never dreamed they'd become famous for hate, not in a town that prides itself on being the birthplace of Jim Nabors, TV's lovable Gomer Pyle.

But now, residents in this rural part of central Alabama must cope with the news that two local men have committed the latest hate crime to horrify the nation.

To a growing list of nationally mourned victims--including Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student in Wyoming, and James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old black man in Texas--officials here are adding the name of Billy Jack Gaither, a 39-year-old gay man whom one woman called "a sweetheart."

It happened Feb. 26. Gaither left his Sylacauga home for an evening's fun with two straight friends, unaware they had allegedly been plotting his murder for two weeks, ever since claiming he offended them by making sexual overtures.

The men, 25-year-old Steven Eric Mullins and 21-year-old Charles Monroe Butler, gave full confessions this week, telling police they bludgeoned their friend with an ax handle and then burned his body with a stack of old tires.

The crime prompted an outraged statement Friday from President Clinton.

"In times like this," Clinton said, "the American people pull together and speak with one voice because the acts of hatred that led to the deaths of such innocent men are also acts of defiance against the values our society holds most dear."

A local resident on an off-road romp found Gaither's body Feb. 27, lying in a remote area of Coosa County called Peckerwood Creek, about 30 miles south of here. The creek is where Christians have held baptisms for years.

"There's nothing there but dirt roads and trees and a creek," said Sheriff's Deputy Al Bradley.

Sylacauga, where Gaither and the suspects lived, is a quiet town of 13,000 people, about 50 miles south of Birmingham. Rockford, where the suspects were being held, isn't even that big.

"We're mostly country people," Bradley said. "There's only about 500 people inside our city limits. We don't have a traffic light per se. We got a four-way stop in town that has just a caution light. Most everybody has chickens and cows, and everybody has a dog."

Folks were stunned, he added, to learn what had happened in their midst.

Gaither was last seen Feb. 19, at the Tavern, a Sylacauga roadhouse where he was a regular. A low-slung country-and-western bar with two dartboards and a dance floor, the Tavern was filled with his friends, who included the owner, Marion Hammonds, one of his frequent dance partners.

"He didn't ever put anybody in an awkward position," she told the local newspaper. "People didn't know he was gay. I danced with him all the time."

"He was a sweetheart," said Donna McKee, a bartender. "He had a good soul. He was very social. Though I never saw him come in with anyone, he had a lot of friends here."

McKee said she used to needle Gaither about his fastidious appearance. "I used to tease him about his dark glasses and his well-combed hair. I wanted to mess his hair up. He was always meticulous."

In nearby Alexander City, where Gaither worked for years at the Russell Distribution Center, which manufactures sportswear, a co-worker said he was a pleasure to be around.

"We were shocked," said Jennifer Thompson. "He was a very nice person to work for, and he was well-suited to the job he had." Gaither was a supervisor at the distribution center, she said.

Of the suspects, she added: "I'm a Christian, and I can't say, 'Hang them.' But I sure would like to."

The two suspects are being held in lieu of $ 500,000 bond. They face a March 17 pretrial hearing, and both are waiting for lawyers to be appointed. Mullins was unemployed; Butler was a construction worker.

Bradley said the police case was helped when Butler couldn't sleep and confided to a friend about his part in the slaying. "He was having trouble in his conscience," Bradley said.

Local officials who saw the crime scene may have trouble sleeping too. They called it the worst they had ever run across.

"It's very bad," Bradley said. "I've been in law enforcement going on 17 years, and I've seen a lot of things, but this is tragic. Because somebody is the way theywant to be, you just want to take them and kill them and burn them up?"

Mark Potok, spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, said Americans are deluding themselves if they think Shepard, Byrd and Gaither have been the only victims of hate crimes in recent months.

"The level of violence and the ferocity of the violence has been really remarkable," he said. "We've heard of Shepard and we've heard of Byrd, now we've heard of this case, but who's heard of Sonya Thompson, a 38-year-old woman in Albany, N.Y., who was shot in the neck by two white guys who'd gone out to hunt down a black person with a semiautomatic rifle?"

The crime, Potok said, happened more than a year ago, and it's one of dozens of wanton acts of hate-motivated violence that have escaped national attention.

"We're seeing between a dozen and three dozen hate murders per year," he said. "Alabama reported zero hate crimes the last two years. There's no question that's patently false."

Alabama is one of 41 states with laws against hate crimes, but it's one of 20 states that don't consider sexual orientation grounds for hate crime status.

Researchers routinely report that hate crimes directed at homosexuals are more severe than others, Potok said. "It's rather as if the people are trying to eradicate the very persona of the victim."

Joan Garry, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said some of the blame for Gaither's death must be laid at the feet of hard-core conservatives and Christian preachers who vilify homosexuals.

"As an anti-defamation organization," she said from New York, "GLAAD sees time and time again that hateful rhetoric has real impact on real people's lives.

How many more times do we have to see tragedy before that becomes clear to the American public and policymakers?"

A candlelight vigil for Gaither was planned for Monday night in Sylacauga. There, Friday afternoon, a young mother carried her 4-month-old baby into the offices of the Daily Home. She pointed to the picture of one of the suspects, printed on the front page.

"I knew him," Amanda Barron said. "When I worked at Dollar General, he'd come in and he was real quiet. He'd buy his stuff and he'd be very nice."

She said she couldn't believe that the menacing picture on the front page was her former customer.

"That picture doesn't look like him. It makes him look evil."

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Suspect Steven Eric Mullins PHOTOGRAPHER: Associated Press PHOTO: Suspect Charles Monroe Butler PHOTOGRAPHER:

Associated Press PHOTO: Billy Jack Gaither, 39, was found slain Feb. 27 in remote area. PHOTOGRAPHER: Associated Press GRAPHIC-MAP: ALABAMA /

Los Angeles Times

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Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

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March 6, 1999, Saturday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 3; National Desk

LENGTH: 1400 words

HEADLINE: Murder Reveals Double Life Of Being Gay in Rural South

BYLINE: By DAVID FIRESTONE

DATELINE: SYLACAUGA, Ala., March 5

BODY:

The closets that gay people build in small, severe towns like this one are thick and difficult to penetrate, and Billy Jack Gaither's was locked even tighterthan most.

Until the day two weeks ago when he was beaten to death and burned, Mr. Gaither, who was 39, lived with his disabled parents in their white clapboard house, tending to their needs, cooking dinner and cleaning up, singing in the choir of his Baptist church. His parents swear they had no idea he was gay, and his father,

Marion Gaither, is still half in denial, desperately pointing out that his son once had a girlfriend in Birmingham whom he almost married.

But the small group of gay residents in this central Alabama city of 13,000 knew Billy Jack Gaither as one of their own, sharing their fears of public knowledge.

A friend who grew up with him and used to accompany him on the nearly 40-mile trip northwest to the gay bars of Birmingham said Mr. Gaither would have probably escaped Sylacauga, like most gay people who grow up here, but was too devoted to his parents to contemplate leaving. The friend, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing business, said Mr. Gaither had never wanted to hurt his deeply religious, Baptist parents by revealing the nature of his sexuality.

Now his parents and the rest of Sylacauga have found out about Mr. Gaither, and in the worst possible way. On Thursday, officials charged two local men with

Mr. Gaither's murder, saying the two had said they became angered after he made a sexual advance at one of them.

The murder is being called another signpost of hate, like the deaths of Matthew Shepard, killed in Wyoming last year because he was gay, and James Byrd Jr., the black man dragged to his death behind a truck last year in Jasper, Tex.

The Coosa County Sheriff's report said the men, Steven E. Mullins and Charles M. Butler Jr., had known Mr. Gaither and met him on the night of Feb. 19 at a local nightclub, the Frame. They then locked him in the trunk of his car and drove to a deserted boat dock where they bludgeoned him to death with an ax handle, then heaved his body onto a pyre of burning tires, the report said. His remains were found the next day on the banks of Peckerwood Creek, which churches use for baptizing.

Mr. Gaither's parents had barely absorbed the horror of his gruesome death before they were forced to learn the motive for his murder, and the secret life that he had led for so long. They knew him as the kindest of their four boys, the one who read his big illustrated Bible every night before going to bed, who never came home late on those rare occasions when he did go with friends to one of the local bars (all of them straight).

"If he was gay, he sure never showed it," his mother, Lois Gaither, said this morning. "He never flaunted himself as being gay or talked about it. And whether he was or not, it don't make me love him any less. He was my young'un."

She added, in a kind of rueful acknowledgment of the truth, "Whatever he did, he never brought it home."

But Marion Gaither, debilitated by multiple heart attacks and a stroke, sat on the couch near his wife, holding his forehead in his hands, shaking his head at all references to his son's sexuality. When a television news report came on saying his son was killed because he was gay, Mr. Gaither shouted out: "If he was gay. If he was gay."

A tour of the house, however, gave a glimpse of the separate world that Billy Jack Gaither lived in. He had decorated his room with a large collection of Scarlett

O'Hara dolls and other figurines from "Gone With the Wind," for which he hunted at flea markets on weekends. A large picture of Clark Gable kissing Vivian

Leigh hung over his bedroom fireplace; pink chiffon curtains fluttered around antique etchings of antebellum women in hoop skirts.

The rest of the house, which his parents also allowed him to decorate, was more conventional. In the living room he hung a painting of the Last Supper, next to another of Jesus praying in the garden; between them was a golden plaque of the Ten Commandments.

The two rooms, one for the outside world, the other for himself, seemed to illustrate the traditional dichotomy of small-town Southern gay life. Billy Jack

Gaither's friend said there were about 100 gay people in town, but none were open about their sexual orientation. Though there had never been a violent incident like this one against a gay person, the friend said, there was plenty of evidence that homosexuality was not appreciated.

Not long ago, he said, citing one example, a group of downtown merchants hung up a series of flags on light poles to spruce up the image of the central business district. The merchants were not aware that one flag used a rainbow symbol sometimes employed by gay groups, but a local church recognized the symbol and began a strident campaign to remove it, saying that its presence promoted a gay life style in Sylacauga. The flag quickly came down.

Those gay people who have not moved out of town occasionally travel together to gay bars in Birmingham or Montgomery, the friend said. He said Mr. Gaither occasionally went on such trips, and was known to have had at least two short-term relationships with other men, whom he would meet out of town.

Sylacauga, with more than 70 churches in its boundaries, is not unlike most rural Southern towns in its conservatism and religious beliefs. It is industrial rather than agricultural, with many people working in one of the factories that ring Sylacauga. Mr. Gaither operated a computer terminal at the Russell Corporation, an athletic wear manufacturer, in nearby Alexander City. He dropped out of Sylacauga High School in the 11th grade, but later got his equivalency diploma and joined the Marines for a year before getting an honorable discharge because of high blood pressure, his parents said.

David W. White, the Birmingham coordinator for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Alabama, said Mr. Gaither had frequented a Birmingham bar called the Tool

Box, one of five gay bars in the city. Many gay people from surrounding small towns drive to Birmingham for companionship, he said, because the slightest indication of homosexuality in a town like Sylacauga would invite harassment, or worse.

"I would consider it difficult to live anywhere in Alabama other than Birmingham," Mr. White said. "Even in Birmingham, I would never in a public place grab my partner's hand and walk down the street. It would literally be a death wish in the state of Alabama. You would almost be inciting violence to do something like that."

Until now, Mr. Gaither's friend said, gay people in town have been more concerned about harassment and the loss of jobs or business than about violence. That all changed with Mr. Gaither's murder.

"We're all looking over our shoulders now," said the friend, who carefully closed the doors of his office before even discussing the subject. "You know, Mullins lived just two miles from here."

Mr. Mullins, who shaved his head, was known around town for wearing Ku Klux Klan T-shirts and making racist comments, but Mr. Gaither's friend said gay residents had not been aware of him or Mr. Butler as someone to fear. Mr. Mullins and Mr. Butler are being held in the Coosa County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond each; their case will be handed to a grand jury on March 17.

Although the two men could face execution if they are convicted of capital murder, they cannot be charged with a hate crime, because Alabama's hate-crime statute covers only crimes committed due to race, religion, ethnicity and disability, but not sexual orientation. Mr. White and other advocates of gay rights said the murder would increase the pressure on the Alabama Legislature to broaden the statute. Mr. Shepard's death led to similar calls for hate-crime legislation that would apply to gays.

President Clinton was explicit in comparing the two cases today in offering his prayers to Mr. Gaither's friends and family.

"In times like this, the American people pull together and speak with one voice, because the acts of hatred that led to the deaths of such innocent men are also acts of defiance against the values our society holds most dear," Mr. Clinton said in a statement.

Mrs. Gaither put it somewhat differently.

"If he was gay or not," she said, "that still didn't give them no right to kill him."

http://www.nytimes.com

GRAPHIC: Photo: Billy Jack Gaither, 39, led a life his family knew nothing about in Sylacauga, Ala., where even the slightest indication of being gay could

provoke harassment. (pg. A10)

Map of Alabama showing location of Sylacauga. (pg. A10)

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Copyright 1999 The Washington Post

The Washington Post

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March 06, 1999, Saturday, Final Edition

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A03

LENGTH: 965 words

HEADLINE: Ala. Killing Draws Comparisons; Deputy Says SuspectsShowed Some Regret

BYLINE: Sue Anne Pressley, Washington Post Staff Writer

DATELINE: SYLACAUGA, Ala., March 5

BODY:

 

People who noticed Steven Eric Mullins at all thought he worked hard at appearing sinister with his heavy boots, shaved head, rebel flags and "KKK" T-shirts.

But they dismissed him as a mixed-up country boy who worked at construction jobs and still lived with his family at 25.

Charles Monroe Butler, 21, who also did construction work, had been Mullins's sidekick for a while.

Somewhere along the way, their paths crossed with Billy Jack Gaither, 39, a gregarious textile factory worker who seemed comfortable enough with his

homosexuality, even in this rural town of 13,000, that he could discuss it with friends at the Tavern, a straight bar where he liked to play pool.

The result, authorities here say, was a senseless crime that left Gaither beaten to death and his body set on fire atop some old tires in a remote area of neighboring

Coosa County. On Thursday, Mullins and Butler were charged in connection with the Feb. 19 death, and this bustling community 50 miles southeast of

Birmingham, with its lush hills and abundant streams, began to deal with an ugly national spotlight as reporters poured in to record the latest example of someone being killed for being himself.

The two suspects confessed to Coosa County sheriff's deputies that they plotted for two weeks to kill Gaither after claiming he had made an unwanted sexual advance at Mullins. But Gaither's friends said they doubted the claim, contending that that would have been out of character.

Initially, deputy Al Bradley said, Mullins and Butler had expressed remorse about the crime, but it apparently was short-lived. "Nah, they don't seem worried today. They're acting like nothing happened," he said today about the suspects, who are being held under $ 500,000 bond in the county jail. "They're just waiting for their day in court."

Mullins had been arrested earlier this week on a warrant for failure to appear in court for an earlier driving-under-the-influence charge, Sylacauga Police Chief

Louis Zook said. Then, after Mullins spoke with investigators, Butler was picked up in connection with Gaither's slaying. Local news reports today quoted a woman who identified herself as Butler's stepmother who said Butler told his family he thought the intention was to beat Gaither up, not to kill him.

The case drew inevitable comparisons to the October slaying of 21-year-old gay college student Matthew Shepard in Wyoming, who was pistol-whipped, tied to a fence post in an isolated area and left for dead by two young men who made a similar claim of homosexual advances. That killing aroused a wave of indignation and demands for strengthening hate crime laws.

President Clinton, comparing it to the Shepard murder, condemned Gaither's killing in a White House statement today, calling it a "heinous and cowardly crime" that "touches the conscience of our country."

The arrests brought some relief to residents who are largely unaccustomed to violent crime--Sylacauga has had two homicides in the past five years, Zook said--and who had been shaken by the gruesome details.

Bradley said the three men drove to a remote boat ramp, where Gaither was badly beaten with an ax handle and locked in the trunk of his car. The car was then driven to Peckerwood Creek, once a baptismal spot for area churches about 15 miles from here, where Gaither was taken out and further beaten until he was dead. His body was then thrown onto flaming tires doused with kerosene.

"This is a big good-news type city. There's a lot of club news out of here," said Daily Home newspaper reporter Rob Strickland about the community's shock.

"There were some rumors going around for awhile that this was about money, but they didn't pan out. But there were also people who knew; a woman who works here knew from day one what this was all about."

Unlike other areas that have been associated with a sudden incident of violent crime--like Jasper, Tex., where a black man was dragged to death last year by white supremacists--residents here seemed able to distance themselves from what occurred.

Diane Cleveland, for example, an administrative assistant at city hall, pointed out that the slaying did not occur in town, and that the two suspects, whom she described as "trash," lived in outlying rural areas. "I do not know that anybody here is viewing this as some indictment on Sylacauga or Coosa County or this area," Chief Zook said. "It certainly is a relief to everybody that the people who may be responsible for something as horrible as this have been caught."

David W. White, state coordinator for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Alabama, said he knows of no specific incidents of gay harassment around Sylacauga. But he said, "We've got our cities and we've got our country in Alabama, and that is what this area is--the people who talk real Southern, who are just a little bit backward."

He said he has new hope for a legislative bill that would add sexual orientation and gender to the state's hate-crime law.

At the Tavern--on U.S. 280, or "the Jim Nabors Highway," after the "Gomer Pyle" TV star who hails from the area--bar owner Marion Hammond remembered her friend Billy Jack Gaither. He would drink a Bud Light, stand at the jukebox laughing with his friends, shoot a little pool. Among the Tavern regulars, she said, nobody cared who he was in his private moments.

"We cared about him because he was a fine human being," she said. "He was such a good ol' boy."

Beating victim Billy Jack Gaither, a gregarious textile factory worker, was a regular at the Tavern, on the "Jim Nabors Highway," where bar owner Marion

Hammond said he shot pool and none of the customers cared about his sexual preference. Billy Jack Gaither, 39, was beaten to death with ax handle and set afire.

 

 

 

GRAPHIC: Photo, the daily home/bob crisp;ph,,the daily home via ap

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

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Copyright 1999 Journal Sentinel Inc.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

March 5, 1999 Friday State

SECTION: News Pg. 9

LENGTH: 148 words

HEADLINE: Police say 2 killed man because he was gay

SOURCE: Journal Sentinel wire reports

DATELINE: Sylacauga, Ala.

BODY:

Two men charged with the murder of a man whose body was set afire told investigators they killed him because he was homosexual, police said.

Charles Monroe Butler Jr., 21, was arrested Monday and Steven Eric Mullins, 25, was arrested Wednesday in the Feb. 19 slaying of Billy Jack Gaither, 39.

Bot h men confessed, Coosa County Sheriff's Deputy Al Bradley said.

Bradley said both men knew Gaither, whose charred remains were found Feb. 20.

"Mullins and Butler stated the reason they killed him was because he was a homosexua l," he said. "We believe this to be the true motive."

According to the statements, Mullins called Gaither and asked him to go to a bar, where they met and apparently left together. Authorities said the men apparently took Gaither to a remo te location, bludgeoned him to death and set fire to his body, using an old car tire as a pyre.

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Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

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March 5, 1999, Friday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 10; Column 3; National Desk

LENGTH: 593 words

HEADLINE: 2 Confess to Killing Man, Saying He Made a Sexual Advance

BYLINE: By KEVIN SACK

DATELINE: ATLANTA, March 4

BODY:

Two Alabama men told the authorities this week that they beat a man to death with an ax handle last month and then burned his body because the victim had previously made a homosexual advance to them.

Al Bradley, a sheriff's deputy in Coosa County, Ala., a rural area between Birmingham and Montgomery, said today that the two men had confessed this week after waiving their right to counsel and were then charged with the Feb. 19 murder of Billy Jack Gaither, a 39-year-old textile worker.

The two men, both of whom are being held in the Coosa County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond, are Steven Eric Mullins, 25, and Charles Monroe Butler Jr., 21.

Both are construction workers from Sylacauga, Ala., Deputy Bradley said. Mr. Butler confessed on Monday and Mr. Mullins on Wednesday, he said.

"This Steven Mullins, the Butler boy and the Gaither man were acquaintances," Deputy Bradley said in a telephone interview. "How long they've known each other is not determined. But we do know they had known each other at least two weeks, because that's when Mullins said Gaither approached them in a sexual manner. Nothing took place at the time," he continued, "but Mullins states in his confession that that made him upset, that he didn't like it because Gaither was gay."

Deputy Bradley said that Mr. Mullins called Mr. Gaither at home on the night of the killing and that Mr. Gaither then drove to pick up Mr. Mullins and Mr. Butler at their homes. They drove to a reservoir outside Sylacauga, where the two men beat Mr. Gaither and placed him in the trunk of his car, Deputy Bradley said.

They then drove the car to Mr. Mullins's house, picked up some kerosene, matches and two old tires, and drove to an isolated area.

The deputy said the men lighted the tires with the kerosene, removed Mr. Gaither from the trunk, beat him in the head with an ax handle and then placed his body on the burning tires.

"He died of severe blunt head trauma," Deputy Bradley said. "Once they saw that the body was going to burn they drove Gaither's car to a landfill in Sylacauga and burned it up."

Mr. Gaither's remains were found the next day by a passer-by.

Deputy Bradley said Mr. Butler emerged as a suspect after he told a friend about the crime and said he was having trouble sleeping. The friend tipped off the authorities.

Leaders of gay rights groups quickly compared Mr. Gaither's killing to that of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay college student in Laramie, Wyo., who was severely beaten after he left a bar and left to die tied to a fence for 18 hours. Two men have been charged with Mr. Shepard's murder.

"What's becoming very clear is that hate in this country is turning lethal with alarming frequency," said David M. Smith, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian political group in Washington.

Mr. Gaither had worked for 19 years at a large distribution center for the Russell Corporation, a manufacturer of sporting apparel, in Alexander City, Ala. Bobbie

Jo Story, a co-worker, said Mr. Gaither lived with his parents and was well liked. "He was a real nice, loving boy, good hearted," Ms. Story said.

An article today in The Birmingham News quoted Mr. Gaither's father, Marion H. Gaither, as saying that he did not believe that his son had been gay and that he suspected robbery as the motive for the killing.

Deputy Bradley said, "We have no reason to believe that the statements Mullins and Butler gave us about him being gay are not true."

Marion Gaither, reached at his home today, declined to comment.

http://www.nytimes.com

GRAPHIC: Photo: Charles Monroe Butler, 21, one of two men charged with murder. (Associated Press)

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Copyright 1999 Gannett Company, Inc.

USA TODAY

March 5, 1999, Friday, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 2A

LENGTH: 352 words

HEADLINE: Anti-gay bias cited in killing Ala. man beaten to death; body is set on fire

BYLINE: Larry Copeland

BODY:

Less than five months after a gay University of Wyoming student

was pistol-whipped, tied to a fence and left to die, two Alabama

men have confessed they planned a lethal attack on a man they

claim had propositioned them.

 

Law enforcement authorities said the two arranged a meeting with

the man, then beat him and threw him into the trunk of his car.

 

Coosa County Sheriff's Deputy Al Bradley said that the assailants

drove the victim to a remote location and beat him to death with

an ax handle. Then they burned his body.

 

Bradley said the suspects, Charles Butler, 21, and Steven Mullins,

25, have been charged with murdering Billy Jack Gaither, 39.

 

"In their confession, they said that at least two weeks earlier,

Mr. Gaither had made a sexual advance toward Mr. Butler and Mr.

Mullins," Bradley said. "Mr. Mullins didn't like it. He had

been planning this out for about two weeks."

 

Gaither's father, Marion, told The Birmingham News that

his son was not gay and that robbery was the motive for his murder.

He could not be reached Thursday.

 

Last October, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old University of Wyoming

student, was pistol-whipped, tied to a fence and left to die.

Police said that robbery was the motive but that Shepard's attackers

singled him out because he was gay. Two men are awaiting trial

in the slaying.

 

Bradley said that on the night of the killing in Sylacauga, Ala.,

Mullins and Butler met Gaither at a bar, then drove with him to

a boat ramp. There they beat him the first time. Then they drove

him to Mullins' house, where they got kerosene, car tires and

matches.

 

They then drove the victim to the remote Peckerwood Creek area

and set the tires afire, Bradley said. They took Gaither out of

the trunk and used an ax handle to beat him to death, he said.

 

"He was conscious" before the second beating, Bradley said.

"He knew he was going to get beat again."

 

Sylacauga, a town of about 25,000 people 40 miles southeast of

Birmingham, was shaken by the attack, said David Cohen, the city

clerk. "It's disturbing," he said.

 

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: March 05, 1999

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Copyright 1999 The Washington Post

The Washington Post

View Related Topics

March 05, 1999, Friday, Final Edition

NAME: CHARLES MONROE BUTLER JR.; STEVEN ERIC MULLINS; BILLY JACK GAITHER

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01

LENGTH: 737 words

HEADLINE: 2 Accused of Killing, Burning Gay Man

BYLINE: Sue Anne Pressley, Washington Post Staff Writer

DATELINE: MIAMI, March 4

BODY:

 

Two young men in the central Alabama town of Sylacauga who told police they were upset over a sexual advance by a gay man have admitted they planned his murder for two weeks, then bludgeoned him to death with an ax handle and threw his body onto burning tires.

Coosa County sheriff's deputies identified the men today as Charles Monroe Butler Jr., 21, and Steven Eric Mullins, 25. The two were arrested earlier this week and charged with murder in the Feb. 19 slaying of Billy Jack Gaither, 39, who friends said made no secret of his homosexuality.

The slaying, whose details emerged only today, carried horrific echoes of the murder of Matthew Shepard by two young men in Wyoming last October in similar circumstances. That killing aroused a national outcry against hate crimes and generated calls for federal legislation to impose stiffer punishments on such conduct.

Marion Hammond, owner of a straight bar called the Tavern in Sylacauga, said she saw Gaither the Friday night of the killing with one of the accused men. "The last time I saw Billy Jack," she said, "I was standing outside the bar talking to my husband and he said, 'Don't worry about that man sitting in my car -- he's just not ready to come in yet.' Well, I respected his privacy, and I said fine."

Later, she said, she learned the man was Mullins; Gaither and Mullins drove to another Sylacauga bar, the Frame, and picked up Butler, she said, citing local news reports. The next morning, when Gaither had not returned to the home he shared with his parents, Lois and Marion, his friends began a search. But Hammond said she had a bad feeling.

Gaither's charred remains were found the next day on a concrete platform near the trash-strewn banks of Peckerwood Creek. His burned-out car was found on a country road. Deputies said the suspects allegedly set two old tires on fire with kerosene and tossed the battered body on top.

Residents of Sylacauga, a town of 13,000 about 50 miles southeast of Birmingham, said they were shocked by Gaither's murder, and gay rights activists expressed similar outrage.

"Flags go up any time one of us is murdered and there is no other motivation," said Tracey Conaty of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "We're tuned into a tragedy channel."

Alabama is "pretty hostile" to gay issues, said Conaty. It is one of 19 states where the hate crimes law does not cover crimes related to sexual orientation.

Recently, a local court removed a child from a mother's home because she was openly lesbian, Conaty said.

Gay activists said they had received anonymous tips about the nature of the crime. They told police what they heard but remained silent in public, officials said, after a request by authorities that any statements could jeopardize the investigation.

"We got an anonymous tip from someone in Alabama about a week ago, who knew Billy Jack and was terrified," said Dan Hawes, of the National Gay and

Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D.C. "It was pretty evident to him it was a hate crime."

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Alabama also learned of the killing through a contact in the area, members reported.

Hammond described Gaither, who worked at Russell Industries in nearby Alexander City, as a likable man who, while never denying he was homosexual, "made a point of never doing the gay thing when he was at our place." She said he would often spend part of the evening at the Tavern and the rest at a gay bar in Birmingham.

"He was not obvious about anything," she said. "My husband, Larry, didn't even know he was gay until about a year ago, and I had to tell him."

Gaither was "a good-looking man," she said, "dark-complected, about 6-foot-2. He was one of those people who looked better with his glasses on. Those

pictures they've been showing on TV don't do him justice."

Hammond said she knew Steven Eric Mullins by sight. "He'd wear the dungaree pants inside the boots and provocative T-shirts, with 'White Power' on them and stuff like that," Hammond recalled.

Mullins and Butler were being held tonight on $ 500,000 bond. According to a sheriff's deputy who spoke to the Associated Press, Mullins said "God told him he needed to confess."

Staff writer Hanna Rosin in Washington contributed to this report. Charles Monroe Butler, accused of murder with Steven Eric Mullins. Steven Eric Mullins, 25, is being held with Butler on $ 500,000 bond.

 

 

GRAPHIC: PH,,DAILY HOME/BO CRISP; PH,,DAILY HOME; MAP,,TWP

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

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Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company

The New York Times

August 6, 1999, Friday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 15; Column 5; National Desk

LENGTH: 302 words

HEADLINE: Accomplice Convicted in Killing

BYLINE: AP

DATELINE: ROCKFORD, Ala., Aug. 5

BODY:

A man was convicted today of helping to kill a homosexual because of what he called an unwanted advance and sentenced to life without parole.

The defendant, Charles M. Butler Jr., 21, was convicted of capital murder in the killing of Billy Jack Gaither, 39, who had his throat slashed and was beaten to death and his body burned on a pile of old tires.

The victim's father, Marion Gaither, had asked that Mr. Butler not be sentenced to death, saying, "I can't see taking another human beings life, no matter what."

Mr. Gaither said he hoped his son would not be remembered as a gay murder victim, but as "one of the finest sons a man could want."

The case drew national attention after the authorities said the younger Mr. Gaither was killed because of his sexual orientation.

President Clinton compared the case to the dragging death of a black man in Texas and the fatal beating of Matthew Shepard, a homosexual college student who was lashed to a fence in Wyoming.

The man who actually killed Mr. Gaither, Steven Mullins, pleaded guilty earlier and testified against Mr. Butler. Mr. Mullins, 25, is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday, and the prosecution said it would recommend that he get life without parole.

Mr. Butler said he had no idea that Mr. Mullins planned to kill Mr. Gaither when he was asked to meet the two men on a February night.

Mr. Mullins testified that he decided to kill Mr. Gaither because Mr. Gaither had made a pass. He said that he asked Mr. Butler along, and that Mr. Butler understood what was to happen.

Mr. Mullins cut Mr. Gaither's throat, and when Mr. Gaither fought back, Mr. Mullins cracked his skull with an ax handle.

Asked today about his reaction to the killing, Mr. Butler, said, wiping away tears, "I was in shock and didn't know what to do."

http://www.nytimes.com

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: August 6, 1999

 

 

 

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