5
Copyright 1999 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
View Related Topics
August 11, 1999, Wednesday, Final Edition
NAME: BARRY WINCHELL
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1563 words
HEADLINE: Hate May Have Triggered Fatal Barracks Beating;
Slain Soldier Had Been Taunted on Base as Secret Emerged About His Sexuality
BYLINE: Sue Anne Pressley, Washington Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: FORT CAMPBELL, Ky., Aug. 10
BODY:
Pfc. Barry Winchell enjoyed being a soldier. He studied
military manuals, relished the physical training. He was so accurate at
firing a .50-caliber machine gun that
he was named best in his company, and someday, he
vowed, he would be one of the best helicopter pilots in the Army.
But Winchell, 21, also had a secret that was becoming
known among the other soldiers in his unit: He was gay.
That realization may have cost the young soldier his
life, gay rights groups believe.
During the early-morning hours of July 5, Winchell
was brutally beaten with a baseball bat in his barracks here at one of
the nation's largest Army bases, allegedly
by another soldier in his unit while his own roommate
encouraged the attack. The next day, Winchell, his face swollen beyond
recognition, died at a civilian
hospital.
Although Army officials have not disclosed a motive
for the attack -- Winchell had gotten the best of the soldier in a fight
a few days before the killing -- local and
national gay rights groups contend there is mounting
evidence that Winchell was the victim of a hate crime. If true, they said,
this would be the first known case of a
soldier being killed at a U.S. military base because
of his sexual orientation in the five years since a new federal policy
was adopted toward gays in the military.
In the era of "Don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue"
-- the law passed by Congress that took effect in 1994 and allows gay
service members to serve as long as their
sexual orientation is not discovered -- the Winchell
case illustrates the deep-seated prejudices that continue to plague gays
in the military. It also has placed the Army
and Fort Campbell, home of the celebrated 101st Airborne
Division, the Screaming Eagles, in an uncomfortable spotlight.
Officials at Fort Campbell, which sprawls across the
Kentucky-Tennessee border and has nearly 24,000 military personnel, have
had little comment about the
slaying. Maj. Pamela Hart, a spokeswoman for the base,
said the probe is ongoing, with investigators "looking into all rumors
and reports."
But during the last six months of his life, Winchell
apparently was taunted frequently by fellow soldiers and superiors who
had learned of his homosexuality,
according to service members who testified this week
at a court hearing and his friends. Lawyers and potential witnesses in
the case are under a gag order forbidding
them to speak to reporters, but a picture began to
emerge nonetheless of an environment where a macho image is still highly
valued and where a slur for a male
homosexual was used freely as an insult. Alcohol in
excessive amounts also apparently played a large role in the tragedy.
"Pretty much everybody in the company called him derogatory
names," said Sgt. Michael Kleifgen, Winchell's section leader, in sworn
testimony today. "Basically,
they called him a 'faggot' and stuff like that. I
would say on a daily basis. . . . A lot of times, he was walking around,
down in the dumps."
Pvt. Calvin N. Glover, of Sulphur, Okla., has been
charged with premeditated murder in Winchell's slaying. This week's Article
32 hearing, comparable to a grand
jury hearing in civilian court but open to the public,
was held to determine whether enough evidence exists to court-martial
Glover.
A second soldier, Spec. Justin R. Fisher, 25, of Lincoln,
Neb., was later charged with being a principal to premeditated murder
and acting as an accessory after the
fact, among other charges. Fisher was Winchell's roommate
in Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry regiment.
Several soldiers testified this week that Glover and
Fisher were heavy drinkers, perhaps alcoholics. Pfc. Arthur Hoffman said
that Glover, in particular, who at 18
cannot drink legally, became unpleasant and "aggressive"
when he had been drinking.
Winchell, a native of Kansas City, Mo., was described
by friends as a quiet young man with a masculine demeanor and down-to-earth
attitudes. Although he had
dated women exclusively in the past, he confided to
friends that he had long questioned his sexuality and had been curious
about gay life. His mother and stepfather,
Patricia and Wally Kutteles, told the Louisville Courier-Journal
that they were stunned to learn only after his death that he was gay.
Rumors about Winchell began to circulate widely through
his platoon some six months ago after Fisher informed Sgt. Kleifgen that
he had seen a soldier, whom he
did not identify, at the Connection, a nightclub 60
miles away in Nashville that has a large gay clientele. Kleifgen told
investigators today that he and a staff sergeant
immediately went through a list of their soldiers
and "asked every Pfc. in the company where they were that weekend."
"We figured out it was Winchell. I asked Winchell
if he was gay. He said no," Kleifgen said, as gay rights activists in
the audience gasped at the apparent flouting of
the "don't ask, don't tell" law.
At first lauded as an advancement in relations between
gays and the military, the law instead has received mixed reviews as many
gay rights groups say that
hostilities have only increased since its adoption.
In this case, gay rights groups fear, soldiers who come forward with information
could be subjecting themselves to
questions about their own sexuality.
Incidents of gay harassment have increased every year
since 1994, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington-based
group that assists
gays in the military. Last year alone, reported incidents
increased 120 percent over 1997, according to an annual report released
by the group.
Although much of the compiled evidence that a hate
crime occurred in the Winchell case has been "anecdotal," according to
Clarence Patton of the New York City
Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, "our antenna
always goes up when someone known to be gay or lesbian is the victim of
a violent crime."
"In hate crimes," he said, "there are certain indicators
-- an element of overkill. . . . I do not believe this was an ordinary
fight. That does not ring true."
Gay rights advocates say they want the military to
more vigorously investigate soldiers harassed because of sexual orientation.
They say doing so can prevent it from
escalating to physical violence.
Since March, Winchell had been involved in a relationship
with a performer at the Connection, a self-described preoperative transsexual
named Cal "Calpernia"
Addams, who attended this week's hearings dressed
as a woman.
"When I heard what had happened, I thought, 'Oh God,
they've killed him because he was dating me,' " said Addams, a former
Navy medic who served in the
Persian Gulf War.
Hostilities in Winchell's unit apparently began to
reach a peak on the evening of July 3 when he and Glover, who had been
drinking, got into a fistfight, which
Winchell won handily. Hoffman said that Glover had
been bragging about his exploits when he was challenged by a disbelieving
Winchell.
"He [Glover] was trying to make himself sound like
a bad [guy]," Hoffman said. "The stories were pretty out there. . . .
Winchell kicked Glover's [butt]. It was a
long time coming."
Later, Glover may have been teased by other soldiers
about his defeat, said Kathi Westcott, a staff lawyer with the Servicemembers
Legal Defense Network. Several
soldiers reported to the group, she said, that "Glover
was taunted basically for getting his [butt] kicked by a [gay man]."
Chief Warrant Officer Alfred Brown, a special agent
for Fort Campbell's Criminal Investigation Division, testified that soldiers
told him that Glover had vowed to
"get even, kill him."
The next day, July 4, alcohol was flowing freely in
the barracks, as many of the soldiers in the company emptied a keg of
beer. Winchell, Glover and Fisher were
drinking heavily, other soldiers reported. Several
said they last saw Fisher and Winchell at about 2 a.m. on July 5, sitting
at a picnic table outside the barracks.
By 3 a.m., the fire alarm in the barracks was clanging
and men were piling out of their rooms, stunned to learn that Winchell
was gravely injured. Fisher raced into
the room shared by Pfc. Jonathon Joyce and Pfc. Nikita
Sanarov, yelling that "Winchell's dying."
The two men said they saw a blood-splattered Winchell
lying unresponsive in a second-floor hallway. Sanarov, who ran outside
to get his car at Fisher's request,
said he first saw Glover running from Winchell's barracks
toward his own barracks. A few minutes later, Sanarov said he saw Glover
sprinting toward a trash bin
with what appeared to be an armful of clothing.
Investigators later found Glover in his room, along
with a bloodstained shirt and blood smears on the door.
After Glover's arrest, Pfc. Ryan Futch, who guarded
the soldier, said he overheard Glover and another prisoner exchanging
epithets against blacks and
homosexuals. Futch said Glover told him that he had
beaten Winchell with a bat.
If Glover is court-martialed and found guilty, he
will face life in prison.
In death, it seems, Pfc. Barry Winchell's secret was
finally and fully exposed. At a memorial service in Nashville last month,
Cal Addams spoke about what "a
kind, calm gentleman" Winchell had been. Behind him,
four people in civilian dress held aloft an American flag -- while four
others held the rainbow banner, a
symbol of the gay rights movement.
GRAPHIC: MAP,,TWP
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: August 11, 1999
|