Sex-Crime Panic
A Journey to the Paranoid Heart of the 1950s
1 edition
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Word Count
78,250 words, Guess
Page Count
313 pages
Physical Format
Paperback
Identifiers
- Internet Archivesexcrimepanicjou0000mill
- ISBN-101555836593
- ISBN-139781555836597
- Library of Congress Control Number2001045807
- OCLC Control Number47844729
and 2 more
- Better World Books9781555836597
- Open LibraryOL8575373M
Classifications
- LCCHV6534.S53 M55 2002
- LCCHV6534.S53M55 2002
Description
Following the brutal murders of two children in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1954, police, in an attempt to quell public hysteria, arrested 20 men whom the authorities never claimed had anything to do with the crimes. Labeled as sexual psychopaths under an Iowa law that lumped homosexuals together with child molesters and murderers, the men were sentenced to a mental institution until cured. Their shocking story is brought to light for the first time by award-winning journalist Neil Miller, author of Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present. Shedding a harsh light on 1950s attitudes toward homosexuality, Miller's carefully researched account shows how the paranoia of the McCarthy era destroyed the lives of gay men in the American heartland. Interviews with the formerly incarcerated men, law enforcement officials, lawyers, mental hospital staff, and relatives of the murder victims provides a vivid and disturbing glimpse of a town that betrayed its own sons and a mental institution where patients provided cheap labor and shock treatment was the therapy of choice. A gripping story of murder and antigay hysteria, Sex-Crime Panic presents a dark chapter in the history of postwar America.
First Sentence
When Jimmy Bremmers disappeared the year before, on the last day in August 1954, Doug Thorson was far away.
Description
"In 1955, following the sexual assault and brutal murder of two children in Sioux City, Iowa, police, in an attempt to quell public hysteria, arrested 20 men who authorities never claimed had anything to do with the crimes. Labeled as sexual psychopaths under a state law that lumped homosexuals with child molesters and murderers, the men were sentenced to a mental hospital until deemed "cured." Neil Miller's carefully researched account shows how the paranoia of the McCarthy era destroyed the lives of gay men in the American heartland. A gripping story of murder and antigay hysteria, Sex-Crime Panic presents a dark and strange chapter in the history of postwar America."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects
Topics
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