Stonewall riots

[Guest]

I read up on the event in Wikipedia. According to them, "Historian David Carter presents information[67] indicating that the Mafia owners of the Stonewall and the manager were blackmailing wealthier customers, particularly those who worked in the Financial District.[10] They appeared to be making more money from extortion than they were from liquor sales in the bar. Carter deduces that when the police were unable to receive kickbacks from blackmail and the theft of negotiable bonds (facilitated by pressuring gay Wall Street customers), they decided to close the Stonewall Inn permanently."

I guess that makes me wonder why anyone would patronize a bar that blackmails him (or would blackmail anyone). Was this a problem with all or most bars of the time? I know that some of our more venerated members may have been around at the time, so I'm hoping perhaps even for a 1st-hand account. Was it just not well-known at the time that the bar was mafia-owned, and the blackmailees got taken by surprise? For how much were people being blackmailed?

[+ ArVaGuy]

I read up on the event in Wikipedia. According to them, "Historian David Carter presents information[67] indicating that the Mafia owners of the Stonewall and the manager were blackmailing wealthier customers, particularly those who worked in the Financial District.[10] They appeared to be making more money from extortion than they were from liquor sales in the bar. Carter deduces that when the police were unable to receive kickbacks from blackmail and the theft of negotiable bonds (facilitated by pressuring gay Wall Street customers), they decided to close the Stonewall Inn permanently."

I guess that makes me wonder why anyone would patronize a bar that blackmails him (or would blackmail anyone). Was this a problem with all or most bars of the time? I know that some of our more venerated members may have been around at the time, so I'm hoping perhaps even for a 1st-hand account. Was it just not well-known at the time that the bar was mafia-owned, and the blackmailees got taken by surprise? For how much were people being blackmailed?

 

I have read similar articles about this and PBS American Experience covered the subject in an episode a few years ago.

 

Nearly all the gay bars in New York, as well as other major cities, were owned or controlled by mob organizations. If the mob didn’t own an establishment they collected protection money to keep the police from raiding the businesses.

 

Much of what occurred on that fateful day is somewhat murky. What actually precipitated the police raid is debatable. Were the police shaking down the Genovese crime family for more graft and all hell broke loose? No one can really be certain.

[+ Charlie]

I spent plenty of social time in gay bars in the 1960s and 70s, I knew bar managers (e.g., my first partner) and even a few owners fairly well, and I never heard any gossip about blackmailing customers. Given the customer base of the Stonewall, I find it hard to believe that the owners had a lot of wealthy Wall Street types whose identities they knew well enough to blackmail them.

[thickornotatall]

I lived around the corner from Stonewall ...on W 10th st. There were dozens of bars all up Christopher St. Julius on 10th St..Danny's..The International aka Stud. So many I can't remember them all. The biggest problem was the cops. The mafia ran most bars. I don't recall any blackmailing. I do remember a raid on an after hours club where a student jumped from a window and was impaled on an iron fence.

My friends and I always felt free to go anywhere in GV...I am so happy things have changed. I was in high school then and never imagined all the strides.

[+ WilliamM]

 

New York, June 30, 1969

 

I returned from a year in Vietnam the day Judy Garland (June 22, 1969). My aunt lived in Staten Island, so my first time in the city was early July. Congratulations to those who took part in the events 50 years ago.

[edjames]

Not only did we have to worry about the mob, but the cops were all in one the scams and frequency accepted, or demanded, bribes from gay bars. I saw many an "officer" stop in go to the end of the bar and accept his envelope for payoffs.

There were a number of beatings from mob goons against bartenders and managers who were under suspicion of stealing from the till.

It was not uncommon to walk into a gay bar in the sixties and be faced with a sign that said This Is A Raided Premises. Gay men were not allowed to face each other. A lot of cruising went on via the mirror behind the bar.

[spider]

I wouldn’t call it blackmail in terms of seeking out wealthy individuals who would pay for someone’s silence.

 

It was complicated. From what I’ve read the mob owned many of these sketchy establishments that weren’t on the up and up in many ways.

 

I’m sure the mob paid off the cops to look the other way. But that only goes so, far and there were raids. I’m sure the gay bars were an “easy target”. And we all know what the police thought about gays back then.

 

In any case. Brave people stood up, said enough is enough, and a movement was born.