Charles O. Howard (January 31, 1961 – July 7, 1984) was an American murder victim in
Bangor, Maine
Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121).
Modern Bangor ...
in 1984. As Howard and his boyfriend, Roy Ogden, were walking down the street, three teenagers, Shawn I. Mabry, age 16, James Francis Baines, age 15, and Daniel Ness, age 17, harassed, assaulted, and murdered Howard for being
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
. The youths chased the couple, yelling
homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
s, until they caught Howard and threw him over the State Street Bridge into the
Kenduskeag Stream
Kenduskeag Stream is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 22, 2011 stream in the U.S. state of Maine. It is a tributary of the Penobscot River. The stream rises at ...
, despite his pleas that he could not swim. He drowned, but his boyfriend escaped and pulled a
fire alarm
A fire alarm system warns people when smoke, fire, carbon monoxide or other fire-related or general notification emergency, emergencies are detected. These alarms may be activated automatically from smoke detectors and heat detectors or may also ...
. Charlie Howard's body was found by rescue workers several hours later.
This event galvanized the Bangor community in ways similar to the killing of
Matthew Shepard
Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Pou ...
, although the case never attained the same level of national notoriety. As an adult James (Jim) Baines later spoke to various groups in Maine about his involvement in the murder and the damage that intolerance can do to people and their community. His story, ''Penitence: A True Story'' by Edward Armstrong, was published, although he received no royalties from the book. The Maine Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance, which later became
EqualityMaine
EqualityMaine (formerly the Maine Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance) is Maine's oldest and largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender political advocacy organization. Their mission, outlined on the organization's website is to "secure equality f ...
, was formed in part as a reaction to Howard's death.
The Bangor
City Council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
and members of the
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
,
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
,
bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
and
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
(
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
) community have erected a monument along the Kenduskeag Stream honoring the memory of Charlie Howard as the victim of a
hate crime
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
. On July 7, 2004, a twentieth anniversary walk was held in memory of Howard. The Maine Speakout Project maintains the Charlie Howard Memorial Library in Portland, Maine. The library is open to the public.
Background
Charlie Howard was from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
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/ref> A young, fair-haired man, Charlie was small boned and suffered from asthma. He was often made fun of as a small child, and was bullied in high school due to his sexual orientation. He did not attend his graduation to spare his family from the taunts he often received. With his poor grades, he knew college was not for him.
Charlie left Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...
and eventually landed in Ellsworth, Maine
Ellsworth is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Maine, United States. The 2020 Census determined it had a population of 8,399. Named after United States Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth, it contains historic buildings and ...
. When the relationship that he was in ended in January 1984, Charlie left Ellsworth for Bangor, Maine.
In Bangor, Paul Noddin and Scott Hamilton befriended Charlie. Charlie was homeless with no prospects and Scott and Paul welcomed Charlie into their home. After a month, Charlie's opportunities were nil and Scott and Paul convinced him to return home to Portsmouth to live with his mother and stepfather.
Charlie was not home a week when he knew he could not stay. He had a brief relationship that ended quickly. When he called his two friends in Bangor, they realized Charlie was hurting and invited him to come back to Bangor.
Charlie returned - in high spirits and determined. He joined the local supportive Unitarian Church on Union Street as well as the Bangor support group Interweave. Here he made new friends and was accepted for who he was. In thanks for their support, Charlie prepared an Easter dinner for Paul and Scott and decorated their home. Eventually Charlie took an apartment on First Street, near his church, and adopted a kitten.
Charlie lived at a time when most homosexuals were still closeted, but Charlie was "out" and even flamboyant; he wore jewelry and feminine accessories. He was known for singing the song " I Am What I Am" from the musical '' La Cage aux Folles''.
In 1984, many were not tolerant of homosexuals and victims of gay bashing often did not report incidents. Charlie was often tormented by local high school boys and was asked to leave a local night club when he danced with a man. Charlie was accosted by a woman in a local market one day, who shouted epithets at him such as "''You pervert''" and "''You queer!''" Frightened, Charlie quickly left, but as he was leaving, he stopped, turned around, and blew a kiss. After this, Charlie was more wary of strangers. Leaving his apartment one day, he found his pet kitten dead on the doorstep. It had been strangled.
July 7, 1984
On Saturday, July 7, 1984, Charlie attended a potluck supper at Interweave. Leaving the party about 10 pm with his boyfriend Roy Ogden, Charlie decided to walk to the post office to retrieve his mail. As Charlie and Roy walked up State Street and began to cross the Kenduskeag River Bridge, a car full of high school teenagers began to slow down.
In the car were Shawn Mabry, Jim Baines, Daniel Ness and two girls. They had been at a party and had left to purchase alcohol with a fake ID that one of the girls had in her possession. Seeing Charlie, the boys got out of the car and decided to give chase. The two girls remained in the car.
Charlie began to run when he recognized the vehicle from an earlier incident. Shouting epithets, the boys gave chase. Charlie fell because of his asthma, and could not catch his breath. Roy ran further down State Street and stopped and observed.
Pouncing on Charlie, the boys began beating and kicking him. Baines shouted to throw Charlie over the bridge and grabbed him by the legs. Baines and Ness grabbed Charlie and they began lifting him. Pleading for his life, Charlie grabbed the rail and begged them not to throw him in the river as he could not swim. Prying his hand loose, they began to pitch him over the rail, with Mabry giving the final push. The boys then returned to the car, which the girls were trying to start. Spying Roy, they threatened him not to tell anyone. Roy then ran for help and pulled the first fire alarm he came to on State Street.
Soon, the sirens could be heard. An immediate search for Charlie began among the concrete walls that retain the Kenduskeag. At 1 am Charlie was found. An autopsy would show he had suffered from a severe asthma attack and drowned.
Returning to the party, the boys bragged about their encounter, the boys called the bridge "chuckahomo bridge". The next day one of the boys turned himself in after he learned that Charlie had died. The other two boys decided to leave town on a freight train and then thought better of it. Returning home, they were arrested.
The aftermath
The boys were sent to the Hancock County Jail and later released into their parents' custody. They were tried as juveniles and sentenced on 1 October 1984 to the Maine Youth Center not to exceed their 21st birthdays. According to the ''Bangor Daily News'', "Baines was released after serving two years and Mabry was released after 22 months." Charlie Howard was buried in Orchard Grove Cemetery, Kittery
Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals. The southernmost town in t ...
, Maine. His grave, previously unmarked, now has a stone.
Twenty-five years later
Twenty-five years later, ''The Bangor Daily News'' tried to locate Shawn Mabry, Jim Baines and Daniel Ness, now middle-aged men, for their views on the murder. They were unable to locate Mabry and Ness at that time, but did find Baines, who was living and working in Bangor. Following his release from the detention center, he spoke regularly about tolerance to local students and even addressed the Maine State Legislature in "support of a bill to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation". In addition, he co-authored the book ''Penitence'' with Ed Armstrong in 1994. Baines did not receive any of the profits of the book. That same year, Mabry expressed his regrets about his participation. He stated that he thinks about Charlie Howard every day.
Today, a short distance from the site of Howard's death, a memorial has been erected; engraved on the stone are the words: “May we, the citizens of Bangor, continue to change the world around us until hatred becomes peacemaking and ignorance becomes understanding.”
July 7, Howard's death date, is now Diversity Day in Bangor.
Memorial vandalized
In May 2011, vandals spray-painted graffiti and an anti-gay slur on Charlie Howard's memorial. Family and friends cleaned it up and rededicated it.
In 2021, a stone bench was installed in Portsmouth’s Commercial Allery with an inscription of Howard’s favorite song “I Am What I Am,” from the musical “La Cage aux Folles…”
Legacy in pop culture
Charlie Howard's murder inspired a similar scene in Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
's 1986 novel '' It'', in which three homophobic teenagers throw a young gay man, Adrian Mellon, over a bridge and into the Kenduskeag, where he was set upon and murdered by the novel's antagonist Pennywise. In the 2019 film adaption ''It Chapter Two
''It Chapter Two'' is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti, with a screenplay by Gary Dauberman. A follow-up to '' It'' (2017), it is the second of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel '' It'' by Stephen King, ...
'', Canadian actor Xavier Dolan
Xavier Dolan-Tadros (; born 20 March 1989) is a Canadian filmmaker, actor and costume designer. He began his career as a child actor in commercials before directing several arthouse feature films. He first received international acclaim in 2 ...
portrayed Adrian Mellon in the opening scene.
Mark Doty
Mark Doty (born August 10, 1953) is an American poet and memoirist best known for his work ''My Alexandria.'' He was the winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008.
Early life
Mark Doty was born in Maryville, Tennessee to Lawrence an ...
wrote a poem about the murder called "Charlie Howard's Descent".
The murder is also the inspiration for a novel by Bette Greene
Bette Jean Greene (née Evensky; June 28, 1934 – October 2, 2020) was the author of several books for children and young adults, including '' Summer of My German Soldier'', ''The Drowning of Stephan Jones'', and the Newbery Honor book ''Philip ...
titled ''The Drowning of Stephan Jones''.
The line "faggot kicked into the icy river" in Adrienne Rich's poem Yom Kippur 1984
Yom Kippur 1984 is a poem by the Jewish-American poet Adrienne Rich. One of Rich's key poems, it was reprinted in her 1986 collection ''Your Native Land, Your Life''.
About
The poem opens with two contradictory statements; a verse from the Torah, ...
is a reference to Charlie Howard.
See also
* History of violence against LGBT people in the United States
The history of violence against LGBT people in the United States is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals ( LGBT), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United States of A ...
* Violence against LGBT people
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people frequently experience violence directed toward their sexuality, gender identity, or gender expression. This violence may be enacted by the state, as in laws prescribing punishment for hom ...
References
*Armstrong, Edward J. (1994). ''Penitence: A True Story''. Bangor: Lucie Madden Associates.
*Preston, John. (1995). ''Winter's Light: Reflections of a Yankee Queer''. Hanover NH: University Press of New England.
*Carnes, Jim. (1996). ''Us and Them: A History of Intolerance in America''. New York: Oxford University Press.
*Gagnon, Dawn
"Hate crime memorial plan debated"
' Bangor Daily News
The ''Bangor Daily News'' is an American newspaper covering a large portion of central and eastern Maine, published six days per week in Bangor, Maine.
The ''Bangor Daily News'' was founded on June 18, 1889; it merged with the ''Bangor Whig and ...
August 26, 2006 (accessed September 8, 2006) A Rose for Charlie.
External links
* http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmid=46997510&GRid=62191915&
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Charlie
1961 births
1984 deaths
American victims of anti-LGBT hate crimes
Deaths by person in Maine
Deaths by drowning in the United States
LGBT people from Maine
LGBT people from New Hampshire
People from Bangor, Maine
Murder committed by minors
People from Portsmouth, New Hampshire
People murdered in Maine
Violence against gay men in the United States
Violence against men in North America
LGBT rights in Maine
20th-century LGBT people