| Transcript |
DECEMBER 1973
UNTIUS
COMMUNITY
HOUSTON, TEXAS
RASTELLINI FOUND DEAD UNCOMFORTABLE
On November 7. Edward A.
Rastellini was founddead at MCI
Bridgewater. He was imprisoned
since 1968 on sodomy charges.
Eddie was apparently killed by a
fellow inmate(s). The coroner's
report revealed that Eddie died
of more than 20 stab wounds. He
was in a protective custody block
(at his own request) and was killed
in a recreation area.
Investigation is underway by
the Plymouth County D.A.'s office
under the direction of Lieut. Detec.
Robert Zullas (State Police Detective). A question of negligence
on the part of prison officials has
arisen and Eddie's family is planning to press charges against the
State.
Eddie was convicted in 1970 of
Mass. Gen. Law Chapter 272 Sec.
35a UNNATURAL AND LASCIVIOUS ACT WITH A CHILD OF 16
OR UNDER; and Chapter 272, Sec.
34 ABOMINABLE AND DETESTABLE CRIMES AGAINST NATURE. He was sentenced to 5 years
on the first count and 5 to 15
years on the second count. This
was his second "crimeagainstnat-
ure" offense and therefore was not
eligible for parole until 5 years
had been served. He had already
served 2 years of his sentence
while awaiting trial at the Suffolk County Jail.
The point stressed by everyone
that this reporter interviewed was
the "child" Eddie "was caught in
the act with" in June of 1968 was
a 16 year hustler with whom Eddie
was friends and that no money had
been exchanged. It is generally
tielived by outside parties who
were involved with Eddie that prison guards and administrators
were responisble for creating the
impression and spreading the rumor among inmates that Eddie was
in for child raping. This combined
with homosexuality usually creates
hostile feelings among inmates.
After conviction in 1970, Eddie
was sent to Walpole Prison where
fellow inmates twice set his cell
on fire.
In October 1970 he was sent to
Bridgewater State Prison for psychiatric examination and remained
there for 2 years.
Pleas for help went out to the
Homophile Union of Boston (HUB),
who had no facilities for legal aid
at the time, and to the Mass. Civil Liberties Union, who refused to
take the case.
It was not until Walpole again
threw out the welcome mat in preparation forEddie'sparolehearing
that FAG RAG put him in touch
with Attorney Richard Rubino(Spring *73).
Eddie arrived at the parole
hearing and was confronted with
the former probation of
eddie's
ex-lover. Eddie had had numerous
clashes with him. The officer disqualified himself but Eddie appeared quite upset and apparently left a
bad impression. The psychiatric
report received by the parole bo
ard was not overenthusiastic about
release. Before a decision was
reached, riots at Walpole caused
the sudden removal of Eddie and
14 others in his cell block to MCI
Bridgewater. Parole was denied.
Time was served completely on the
•'acts with a minor charge". Eddie was in for the "unnatural
act" of sleeping with another man.
In an interview, his sister stated
in amazement "I can't understand
why Eddie was never granted parole. He had a job and a place to
live. Yet he was never granted
parole."
GCN's Dennis Thomas, who
corresponded with Eddie since
1970 found him to be "a sensitive,
bright, well-meaningperson." Charlie Shivery who also corresponded with Eddie was impressed by
the "positive change in Eddie's
attitude during his contact with
Gay Liberation."
In July '73 Marilynn Haft, head
of the Sexual Privacy Project of
the ACLU was contacted for help
with parole procedures. Thepeople
from F@G RAG had contacted her.
No answer was received.
Rep Barney Frank has sent a
letter to Prison Commissioner
Frank Hall asking for "a thorough
and complete investigation into the
murder of Eddie Rastellini. It is
my job, not yours, to wipe this
vicious law off our statute books,
but as long as we continue the
barbarous practice of imprisoning
people for engaging in voluntary
sexual activity, your burden as
Commissioner of Correction will
be greater than it ought to be,
and special steps obviously have to
be taken to protect people jailed
for homosexuality from violence
within prison.
"I urge you to make special
efforts to provide a full airing of
the facts of this case—not just
those immediately incident to the
murder, but those leading up to it,
including the reasons, if any, for
Mr. Rastellini's failure to winpar-
ole and for his transfer from Walpole to Bridgewater.
"Beyond this I would very much
like to know the Department's
policy in dealing with men imprisoned for sodomy or related offenses."
Throughout history Gays have
been burned at the stake, decapitated, hanged, murdered, robbed,
imprisoned, castrated, disgraced,
spat upon, and entrapped by the
police. Psychiatrists called us sick
Men of the church called us sinners
Hitler tried to annilate us. We
have been the unwilling victims of
lobotomy and aversion therapy.
Yet we exist. Millions of us.
IN GAY BARS?
How many of you readers have
been uncomfortable in Gay Bars?
Have you ever hadthe temperature
soar up to 90 or plunge down to the
60's or 50's? Have you ever been
a customer when the music(racket)
has been turned up so loud that you
could not get the bartender to hear
your order? Have you been with
lights so low and gloomy that you
have been unable to count money or
the bartenders have been unable to
see to mix drinks?
All of these offenses happen
every night and many more. Have
you ever asked for relief on any
of these discomforts from the bartenders or bar operators? If so,
what response did you get? Occ-
sionally did you get compliance
with your request, and more usually did you get a go to Hell, insolent response, such as F.U.,
with more of the whatever offense
inflicted? This high handed position of the bartenders is more than
contrary to good business practice
and does lose business. What these
bartenders/bar operators can not
seem to learn is that the custoner's
comfort IS the customer's BUSINESS, and much more so than the
proprietor's. Most bartenders
can't be told anything and remain
pleasant.
Now, do you know of any straight bars that wouldpermit overflow of w.c. and urinal waste to
pour out over the bar room floor
and out to the street, off and on
for several years? Do you know
any straight bars who never clean
their latrines for several years to
a point where you have to hold
your nose upon entering?
Does the gay scene need this
type of inconsideration from our
profiteers? Of course not, we are
paying the freight.
On with the bar operator's
scene. A number of them get to
feeling successful and stop any and
all bartending behind the bar of
their goodselves, and come in only
occasionally sezted at tables, and
more often than not, drunk.
In several of the bars there is
no mirror to comb hair in the boy's
rooms. In some more there are not
also in the girl's rooms. In several other bars, the lights are so
dimmed that one can not see to
comb hair nor to do anything else
properly such as to see to try
to aim to hit the plumbing connection. In 3 local bars which do
have mirrors in the boy's room,
the lighting is such tat one can
not see one's goodself in the mirror, due to the horizontal lighting
reflected in the mirror from behind
This brings up a big problem,
"horizontal lighting". Practically
all of the bar operators take it
upon themselves to inflict horizontal lighting upon the gays as if
they know all about lighting and
don't even know the elementary
principles of lighting. Generally,
the bar owners are hostile toward
any suggestions of improvement.
Any and all studies of lighting
including the most elementary of
same demonstrate that lighting for
all animals should be from overhead, NOT HORIZONTAL. The bit
is simple; the light should not be
shining in the vieser's(customers)
eyes to obstruct his vision: It
should be directed instead on to
what he is looking upon, being the
rest of the room, and tricks. This
requires overhead lighting, not
horizontal lighting which both,
blinds all animals, and annoys them
Sometimes in bars persons are
annoyed by 3rd degree horizontal
light in near black darkness and
leave the bar without knowing why
they were feeling uncomfortable.
Amateurish, cheap, sleazy decor is tolerated by the gays perhaps because so many gays consider being gay indecent and adopt
a shabby life style and behavior
to match. However gays do take
more notice of shabby service in
the bars. Here is a sequence
that you can find every night at
most of the bars. Customer walks
up to bar to get a drink. Customer is unable to get bartender's
attention while he passes close
several times and goes to wait
on newcomers. Next time bartender comes close customer tells
bartender for the 4th time what
he would like. Bartender hears this
time but does not acknowledge by
so much as a batted eyelash, or a
nod and goes on to take more drink
orders, which he fixes and then
brings customer's drink.Customer
pays bartender who returns with
change. Customer puts out his hand
for change to be dropped in his
palm, but bartender dodges the
hand and reaches around and drops
change on bar. From the flat bar
top customer is obliged to pick
up each coin separately. In this
case customer did not think a tip
was deserved and bartender flew
off too fast ot have one handed
him anyway. This customer was
standing, and a tip left on the bar
would have gotten mixed with other
crowded seated customer's change
lying along the bar.
The main moral of this story
is that no bartender is ever too
busy to nod, wink, wave or acknowledge thathehasheardanorder
before turning away.
Listed here is a barowner's
tip list of things that annoy customers, listed in descending order
of importance.
Loud music
dim and gloomy lighting
temperature extremes
poor service
warm beer
overflowing plumbing
underworld connections
out of stock brands
forced purchase double drinks
harsh horizontal lighting
threatening owner
foul desposition owner
|
