Fear Stalks Gays in Wake of Slayings

The shadow cast on San Diego’s gay community by fear of the AIDS epidemic has grown darker and longer recently with the presence of a mysterious serial killer who may be targeting gay men in Balboa Park.

This week in San Diego, gay leaders cited what they called a growing incidence of “gay-bashing” by Skinheads in Mission Hills and Hillcrest, as well as periodic outbreaks of violence against gays in other parts of the city.

Scott Fulkerson, executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Men’s Community Center, said he has heard from San Diego police that two of the three victims found dead recently on the west side of Balboa Park were homosexual men.

“It’s a big concern,” Fulkerson said. “From the information I’ve gotten, the murders were brutal and definitely planned. What we’re dealing with here is somebody who has a great deal of rage and who, for whatever reason, is venting that rage against gay men.”

At ‘Most Dangerous’ Point

Fred Scholl, director of legal services for the Center for Social Services as well as Fulkerson’s organization, said he had advised gay men to be especially wary of the park, which he believes is “at its most dangerous point” in 20 years.

Scholl said fears surrounding Balboa Park have become so intense that gays are avoiding it altogether.

“In the 20-something years I’ve monitored the park for legal services, it’s the first time I’ve seen a total shutdown of cruising,” Scholl said. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad--it’s just the reality. I’d say there’s significant fear. The park used to be active from sundown to 11 p.m., and now it’s desolate.

“A lot of violence has been going on on the west side of the park for two years or more,” Scholl said. “Robberies, drug dealing--it’s really a high-crime area. I’m not so sure that this killer is targeting gay men. It may be that a large number of gay and bisexual men favor that part of the park as a cruising area and simply ended up as targets of opportunity.”

Lt. Phil Jarvis, who directs the homicide division of the San Diego Police Department, said police believe two of the three victims were homosexual because of statements made by friends and relatives. He said all three men were believed to be homeless.

“My advice is, were I a homosexual male, and were I accustomed to going to Balboa Park in pursuit of sexual liaisons, I would be very, very cautious of being approached by strangers,” Jarvis said. “We have no idea who we’re looking for. We don’t have a description. We don’t have a race. We don’t have a sex. The assumption is that the killer is male, but we don’t know that. Based on our total lack of information, we’ve told homosexual men to be cautious about dealing with anybody in that part of the park.”

Jarvis said the body of the first victim, 31-year-old David Siino, was found Nov. 19 in an area known as Redwood Circle. It lies off Balboa Drive, north of Laurel Street and just north of the lawn-bowling court. He said homosexuals refer to the area as “Queen Circle” because of its popularity as a cruising spot.

The second body, that of Edward Hope, 60, was found six days later on the western edge of the park, just above California 163, near an on-ramp for Interstate 5 northbound and up the hill from the tennis courts at San Diego High School.

The third body, that of Brian Russell Poole, 36, was found Saturday in a restroom near Marston’s Point, in the 2300 block of 8th Avenue.

All three men bore multiple gunshot wounds.

Don’t Know Motive

Jarvis said he does not know whether gay men or homeless men or both were being targeted by the killer. “So, we’ve taken a pro-active stance in notifying everybody in the park to be careful. Be on guard.”

Jarvis said one of the grimmest truths about the killings is that Balboa Park isn’t the sanctuary it used to be.

“The patrol division has made a concerted effort to clean the park up, and, until the recent past, they believed they’d succeeded,” he said. “Well, this is a definite setback. It only takes one person to do this sort of thing, but the park, assuredly, is not the place it was 10 years ago, when children could wander there freely day and night. Now, you have absolute townships living in the bush out there.”

Fulkerson said he worries not just for the safety of gays in the park but also for those townships of homeless men and women. He said downtown redevelopment has pushed transients north, away from Horton Plaza.

“We have a large number of people living on our streets, who are suffering in a lot of ways,” he said. “This is just one more way. Now they have one more place where it won’t be safe to sleep at night.”

Fulkerson said he worried that the slayings have spawned fresh bigotry against gays, fostering an attitude that homosexuals “will get what’s coming to them. I’ve got news for you,” he said. “The park is unsafe not just for gays, but for the general population. Contrary to popular belief, gays are not going there in mass numbers to have sex in the bushes.”

He said the killings add to “the stress level” of gays, a level already “soaring at a fever pitch” because of AIDS.

“The stress we live under is tremendous,” he said. “Something like this makes it harder for gay men to come out. It pushes them farther into a closet. It’s a terrifying stress on an already-stressed community.”

Fulkerson praised the San Diego Police Department for “outreach” efforts and, in particular, for curbing the “gay-bashing” by Skinheads that he said had been a problem--and an ever-growing fear--in Hillcrest and Mission Hills, especially earlier in the year.

“Police response to that has been immediate and forceful,” Fulkerson said.

Scholl said Skinhead activity has been heavy in Mission Hills, especially in the area of Grant Elementary School and Pioneer Park. He said a Mission Hills businessman, accused by Skinheads of being gay, but who, in fact, is not, was brutally beaten in a recent attack.

“Because of police surveillance, Skinheads have toned down and almost eliminated any activity in Mission Hills,” Scholl said. “So far, I haven’t heard reports of Skinheads infiltrating Balboa Park. Gays do worry about Skinhead attacks.”

Scholl said it isn’t just the intolerant or the I-told-you-so’s who say that gays killed in the park have gotten “what’s coming to them”--it’s homosexuals as well.

“I’ve heard numerous gays say the same thing,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s a general feeling in the community, but more conservative gays are saying, ‘Those people shouldn’t have been in the park anyway.’ They know the park is a dangerous place--especially for gays.”