Dear Friends,
As you may know, we lost over 300 archived blog postings during our transition to a new web hosting company. From time-to-time, I’ll revisit a few important topics using the handful of postings that still exist. Today, I want to repost a blog item from last fall, when I noted an important passing — the death of the last man prosecuted in these Boise cases.
-Seth
THE LAST BOISE BOY COMES HOME
He grew up in an era that seems tougher and tougher to imagine in these days of gay marriage and pride parades. When men who loved other men were compelled to either deny their feelings or hide in the water closet. In the 1950s, men could go to prison for having sex with another man. And arrest, publicity, prosecution, could bring great shame and tear lives and families apart.
With his white hair, leisurely gait and easy smile, Jim didn’t necessarily look like a trailblazer or a pioneer. And he certainly didn’t view himself as one. Still, he stood at an important moment in LGBT history.
Until his passing last month, he was the last survivor of the 16 men prosecuted in the 1955 Boise Morals Drive, the so-called “Boys of Boise” cases. He pleaded guilty to “Infamous Crime Against Nature” for an encounter with another man.
After Jim’s prosecution and subsequent probation, he and his parents left Boise. Despite the experience, he was not bitter or resentful. Jim had clearly made peace with the past. He said he did not blame the men responsible for the scandal. He moved on, and would not let the frightening ordeal of 1955 consume his life.
Jim and I corresponded numerous times, by phone and letter, starting in 2000. Ultimately, he did not appear in “The Fall of ‘55″ for family reasons. However, he did help fill-in-the-blanks in a number of areas, giving me ― and history ― a better sense of what really happened.
In September 2006, we had an opportunity to finally meet in person. I was in New York City with Alan Virta, the film’s historian, for NewFest, the Big Apple’s LGBT film festival. Jim invited us to dinner at an old favorite hangout, a hotel restaurant more than a generation beyond its glory days, with cracking blue plaster and dingy paint. In this comfortable environment, we talked more about his life and experiences in Boise in the 1930s-50s. Meeting him face-to-face was a unique privilege. His kindness, tenacity and peaceful spirit were striking.
The following evening, he attended the World Premiere of “The Fall of ‘55″ at NewFest. He also offered a lot of positive feedback on the film and its fairness.
Afterward, he was our guest of honor at the post-film dinner in a chic Manhattan penthouse. Jim was joined by several of his friends, also older gentlemen, and I could tell he was deeply loved. These men were like family to him.
Like so many of the other men who fled Boise, Jim chose to come back for his final rest. He lies next to his parents, shaded in the long shadows of several large trees at a local cemetery. The last Boise boy comes home.
Although he is buried within several miles of his childhood home, an obituary has not yet run locally.
Jim was 86 years old. He is missed by many.
-Seth Randal
* The first of the defendants to pass away died in San Francisco in 1961. That man drank himself to death within five-and-a-half years of his prosecution. He is buried less than 100 feet from his childhood friend and classmate, Jim.