Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

A tale of two murders: Connected or not?
Part One of a Series
by Gretchen Rachel Blickensderfer
2014-09-24

This article shared 15605 times since Wed Sep 24, 2014
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


Fewer than six miles west of the office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel at Chicago's City Hall sits the corner of West Madison Street and North Kilbourn Avenue. It is part of the neighborhood of Austin—a disregarded, neglected backyard obscured by the magnificent opulence of the Chicago loop and kept quietly hidden from the marveling eyes of the record 46.2 million tourists to which Emanuel proudly laid claim in 2012.

On March 29 of that year, Emanuel announced a $7 billion revitalization of the city that would "touch nearly every aspect of the city's infrastructure network." In his accompanying speech, Emanuel pledged "stronger communities and a better quality of life for all of Chicago's families. That's what I mean by building a new Chicago."

In December 2012, Crain's Chicago Business reported that the YMCA in Austin was closing its doors. Less than four months later, Chicago Public Schools announced the closure of four of its schools in the neighborhood. According to the Austin Talks Newsletter, educators at Francis Scott Key, Louis Armstrong, Horatio May and Robert Emmet schools all received notice of the closures on March 21, 2013. The concern of teachers and staff was not so much for their jobs, but the children who would be forced to walk "on their own at a farther distance through an area known for gang activity."

Elce Redmond is the Organizing Director of the South Austin Coalition, a community organization that has been mobilizing residents around Austin's economic and social issues for the past 37 years.

"There were fights to save the schools, there were fights to save the YMCA, there were fights to address the drug and crime problem with jobs," he told Windy City Times. "But the city, the county, the state, no one wants to really hear that. They don't want to solve problems, they want to increase the amount of people going to jail and that makes a lot of money for folks, but it doesn't address any of the concrete issues of the community. None of these leaders want to do that at all."

It was in this environment, on March 28, 2012—the morning before Emanuel's pledge to build a new Chicago—that a 22-year-old transgender woman of color named Eisha Love, along with another young trans* woman who has since been identified by friends and family members as Donta "Tiffany" Gooden, 19, were allegedly subjected to a verbal and then physical assault by two men at a Citgo station on the Austin corner of West Madison Street and North Kilbourn Avenue.

Love and Gooden fled in Love's vehicle with the two men allegedly pursuing on foot. Two more men reportedly joined the chase in a blue Pontiac. One and a half blocks north of the Citgo, Love lost control of her car. It jumped the curb, striking the lower left leg of one of her pursuers. Using male pronouns and Love's birth name, the arrest report stated that, at the time, Love was "in fear for 'his' safety." According to Love's mother, a group of male bystanders at the scene of the accident told Love "we're going to get you." [For the full report on the Eisha Love case, see last week's Windy City Times print and online editions.]

Love was subsequently placed under arrest at the District 11 police station on West Harrison Street on a charge of aggravated battery. An April grand jury then indicted her on a charge of "attempted first degree murder" with "intent to kill."

Soon after Love was arrested, another incident happened that may be related. One block east of the Citgo, a rusty viaduct crosses Madison at the corner of Kenton Avenue. It was under this viaduct that some of the transgender women who were engaged in sex work ( locally referred to as "on the stroll" ) with 23-year-old Paige Clay say they last saw Clay getting into a car with an unknown man or group of men. On April 16, 2012, less than a month after Love's arrest, Clay's body was discovered half a mile away from the viaduct in an alley in the 4500 block of West Jackson. She had been shot through the head.

An LGBT advocate and former child welfare worker who asked to be identified as "John" told Windy City Times that he was the man who identified Clay's body at the morgue and then had the task of informing her family of her death—a memory that haunts him to this day.

"Paige loved life. She was a strong-willed individual," he told Windy City Times. "Paige wanted to work in the fashion industry. Paige had the skills to be successful on so many levels but didn't have the services and support mechanisms around her to do that and that's why she had to resort to the kind of life that she had. We have a public school system that has let trans* people down. It's not inclusive enough to trans* individuals and is doing nothing help nurture them. Trans* women of color come out of it totally unprepared and they have to rely on prostitution as a means of survival. We may not like to think about it, but it's their truth. It's their reality. It was very disheartening for Paige to go on job interviews in retail stores and—even though she was very well put together and more than qualified to do the job—to be denied because she was trans*."

At the time of Clay's death, Brian Turner was a social worker with Taskforce Prevention and Community Services which has provided HIV and STI preventative services in Austin since 1990. In that capacity, he became close to Clay and her death devastated him. He organized a community forum to discuss violence against transgender women of color later that month. During the event, Windy City Times reported that a Taskforce outreach worker said "it saddens me that Paige was brutally murdered and no one cares."

Turner pushed Chicago Police Department ( CPD ) investigators for answers and even started a Facebook page demanding justice for Clay with the goal of ensuring that "another of ours won't be swept under the rug." The page asked anyone with information to get in touch with him.

It was then that Turner said he received an unexpected phone call.

"The CPD contacted me at Taskforce and told me that I was hindering the case and that, if I did not stop, they were going to lock me up," he told Windy City Times. "The detective never said his name but he did threaten me."

"I don't find that hard to believe," John said. "Bottom line, I don't care how many gay and lesbian officers or LGBT liaisons they have, I believe the CPD is an entity that is still very transphobic. They have no concern in finding out who did what in Austin because Paige was a trans* woman. That's just how they operate."

Donta "Tiffany" Gooden may have been another victim connected to the Eisha Love case. She was the one reportedly in the car the day Love was arrested. In an interview with Windy City Times, Gooden's mother—who asked to be identified as "Mary" and prefers to refer to her daughter as Donta—said that both Clay and Gooden were friends who spent a lot of time at Gooden's home before Clay's murder. "[Paige] was calling and coming over," Mary said. "They were kicking it, like women kick it, switching each other's outfits. That's just what they did." She added that the two girls looked very much alike, so much so that when Clay's body was discovered, Mary's family members and friends were genuinely concerned that it was Gooden.

According to Mary, while growing up, Gooden was exceptionally smart, graduating at the top of her class following a three-month educational program that she attended. "Donta got a diploma and everything. I was so proud," Mary said. "And we were so very close. But what with peer pressure and neighborhood pressure, the streets were calling."

She asserted that Gooden only expressed her feminine identity when going out onto those streets. "I knew what Donta was doing," Mary said. "But all you can do as a mother is love your child for who they are, no matter what."

When Clay was found dead, Gooden became noticeably frightened. According to Mary, for the following four months, she would only go out on the stroll as the sun was beginning to rise in the morning. "I knew my child was scared," Mary said. "But Donta didn't want me to worry."

After Clay's funeral, Gooden told her mother that she had been in the car with Love. Despite Mary's repeated questions, she offered little beyond that.

Mary and the family were also trying to cope with the Memorial Day death of Mary's mother. Gooden had told her aunt that she intended to go back to school and get herself together so that she could help shoulder some of the bills.

On the morning of Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012, Gooden and her mother had been enjoying time together as they usually did. Shortly after midnight on Sunday, Gooden inexplicably left the home with a group of neighborhood friends. "It was unusual because Donta had stopped going out at night," Mary said. "I don't think she was going out on the stroll."

It was the last time Mary would see her daughter alive. "I just remember Donta's smile and, after that, I never seen my child again," she said.

When Gooden didn't return home, Mary frantically called everyone she knew before filing a missing person's report with the CPD. "First thing they said was 'you sure you don't want to give it another day or so'?" Mary remembered. "But I knew something had happened to my child. There was an emptiness in my soul. All I could do was pray."

For two days, she heard nothing. Three blocks from where Clay's body was found, there is a line of three abandoned buildings on the corner of South Cicero Avenue and West Jackson Boulevard. It was on the second floor of the center building that Gooden's mutilated body was discovered on Aug. 14, after complaints about an unpleasant smell. She had been stabbed multiple times. "They stabbed my child in the face," Mary said. "They chopped at Donta's neck; there were stab marks around the back area. It was just a mess."

CPD investigators told Mary that Gooden's blood was found in the front hallway leading to the second floor, as if she had been dragged up there. Provided with no more information, Mary desperately tried to piece together the last hours of her daughter's life. "I figured that Donta might have got there and realized it was a set up and got snatched in there," Mary said. "They had pulled the stairs down in the back of that building so there was no way out. So whoever did this knew the area. They knew Donta could holler as loud as she wanted to but, on a Sunday morning, nobody was going to hear."

Witnesses on the floor below said that they heard Gooden fighting for her life. Mary asserted that within three weeks after her daughter's death, the crime scene was torn down. Today, all that is left is an empty lot conspicuously located between boarded-up buildings.

Mary remembered that shortly after her death, a transgender friend of Gooden's told her that threats had been leveled against her daughter's life. "She said that somebody in a green van was looking for Donta," Mary stated. "They were saying they was going to kill her. They were saying they were going to 'get 'his' ass because 'he' was riding in the car'."

Next Week: Part Two examines walking the streets of Austin.

Windy City Times would like to acknowledge the contributions of Channyn Lynne Parker, Joy Morris, Emmanuel Garcia and Project Vida, Jen Richards, the Sex Workers Outreach Project ( SWOP ), Brian Turner, Terry Dean and the Austin Weekly News for their invaluable assistance in this investigation.

See related stories:

www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Trans-woman-claims-self-defense-in-case/49008.html .

www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Mother-of-Eisha-Love-Heartbreak-and-courage/49009.html .

www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/One-night-in-the-area-of-Austin/49141.html .


This article shared 15605 times since Wed Sep 24, 2014
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

WORLD Leaked messages, Panama action, author dies at 32, Japan court, out athletes
2024-03-15
Hundreds of messages from an internal chat board for an international group of transgender health professionals were leaked in a report and framed as revealing serious health risks associated with gender-affirming care, including cancer, according to ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition'
2024-03-15
Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ people attacked by mobs in Greece
2024-03-14
Just weeks after a landmark law granted same-sex couples in Greece the right to marry, nearly 200 people dressed in black chased a transgender couple through the town square in Thessaloniki, the country's "second city" and ...


Gay News

WORLD Canadian politics, Australian murders, Finnish study, 'Anatomy'
2024-03-01
Canadian conservatives are divided over an anti-trans policy that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith handed down in her province, The Guardian reported. The policy includes a ban on hormonal treatment, puberty ...


Gay News

NATIONAL School items, HIV/AIDS activist dies, Nex Benedict, inclusive parade
2024-03-01
In a new survey, the Pew Research Center asked public K-12 teachers, teens and the U.S. public about the ongoing scrutiny placed on classroom curricula, mainly regarding race and LGBTQ+ identities, ABC News noted. Among other ...


Gay News

911 calls, videos show cascade of failures in Nex Benedict's death, GLAAD responds
2024-02-24
"It is haunting to hear Nex Benedict, in their own words, describe how school and state leaders failed, at every level of leadership, to keep them safe from bullying and harm. Less than 24 hours later, ...


Gay News

Federal jury finds man guilty of killing trans woman in landmark case
2024-02-24
In a groundbreaking case, a federal jury in Columbia, South Carolina found Daqua Lameek Ritter guilty of killing transgender woman Dime Doe after deliberating for almost four hours, The State reported. It is the first time ...


Gay News

HIV criminal laws disproportionately impact Black men in Mississippi
2024-02-21
--From a press release - A new report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that at least 43 people in Mississippi were arrested for HIV-related crimes between 2004 and 2021. Half of all arrests in the state ...


Gay News

Owasso High School student of Bridge v. Oklahoma State Board of Education case dies, groups respond
2024-02-20
--From press releases - Oklahoma City, Okla. — In response to the death of 16-year-old Owasso High School student Nex Benedict following an assault in the school restroom, Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Oklahoma ...


Gay News

Yemeni court sentences 13 men to death for being LGBTQ+
2024-02-09
In the Arabian Peninsula country of Yemen, a court has reportedly sentenced 13 people to death who had been charged with homosexuality, The Washington Blade noted. Agence France-Presse reported that the court in Ibb Governorate, which ...


Gay News

Smollett asks state supreme court to overturn conviction
2024-02-07
Embattled actor Jussie Smollett has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to review and overturn an appellate ruling upholding his conviction for a hate-crime hoax that took place more than five years ago, The Chicago Sun-Times noted. ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Marriage news, fighting fentanyl, anti-LGBTQ+ crimes, Grindr
2024-02-02
The Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would affirm marriage equality in the state, The Washington Blade noted. House Bill 174, introduced by state Del. Rozia Henson (D-Prince William County), passed in the Democratic-controlled ...


Gay News

Seattle LGBTQ+ bars push back against raids
2024-01-30
In Seattle, a group of Capitol Hill gay bars and clubs are teaming with neighborhood queer community leaders Dan Savage and Terry Miller in calling for the state's liquor control board and Seattle police officials to ...


Gay News

Ohio man sentenced for firebombing pro-LGBTQ+ church
2024-01-30
On Jan. 29, 2024, Ohio resident Aimenn D. Penny was sentenced to 216 months (18 years) in prison followed by three years of supervised release for attempting to burn down a pro-LGBTQ+ church, according to a ...


Gay News

WORLD Arrest in Brazil, athlete dies, Ghana attack, World Economic Forum
2024-01-26
A 30-year-old man was arrested in Brazil on Jan. 18 for his alleged role in the stabbing murder of prominent NYC art dealer Brent Sikkema, Gay City News reported. Authorities took Cuban resident Alejandro Triana Trevez ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.