New leads resulted in the discovery of additional substantive documents. I sifted through police reports, autopsies, newspaper clippings, and more, searching for evidence to corroborate their claim. These conversations revealed specific information about when, why, and how they came to learn about their loved one’s connection to the UpStairs Lounge fire. I conducted lengthy, in-depth interviews with family members. However, fully recognizing that this revelation could significantly alter the historical narrative, I knew I needed to do my due diligence to determine the plausibility of the family’s claim before publicly announcing the identity of one of the unknowns. As I soon learned, details about her uncle’s death have circulated within the family for the past 45 years. However, without evidence or substantiation, these claims never progressed past hearsay.Īs I spoke to Lynette and other members of her family, it didn’t take long for me to realize that this situation was different and their claim had merit. Over the past 45 years, many have claimed to know the identity of the nameless victims. She asked if I could help her family get answers and her uncle get long-overdue recognition as a casualty of the arson. She wanted to break her family’s long, deafening silence and identify her uncle as one of the “unknown white males” killed in the fire. It would dramatically affect the way we look at the history of the UpStairs Lounge arson.
While a message like this is not uncommon, I’ll admit I was not prepared for the staggering news she was about to divulge. One day late this spring, I received a message from 54-year-old Lynette Moreland with information about her relative. If I have the ability to help families, I want to do all I can.
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Even though the movie was completed and released several years ago, I’m still passionate about that mission. When I committed to making the film, I did so with the mission to honor the victims and give them the respect and dignity they were denied over four decades ago. I’m honored that since then, many survivors, friends and family members of victims and witnesses have felt comfortable contacting me to share their stories or to ask for help. In 2013, I announced the production of UpStairs Inferno, the full-length documentary I made about the fire and its aftermath. However, after 45 years, we may finally have an answer, at least for one of the three unknown victims. It’s an unsettling question that has haunted the community for decades. Sadly, the exact location on the property remains a mystery. According to local laws, unclaimed bodies had to be buried as “indigents.” On July 31, 1973, those four were buried in unmarked graves at a New Orleans cemetery, identified in recent years as Resthaven Memorial Park. Over a month after the deadly fire, four bodies were still unclaimed: those of the three unidentified victims and Ferris LeBlanc. The remaining three victims were generically referred to as “unknown white males.” The fire killed 32 patrons, but only 29 were positively identified.
On June 24, 1973, an arsonist set fire to the popular gay bar located on the edge of the French Quarter in New Orleans. history for over four decades - until the Pulse massacre. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the UpStairs Lounge arson, an event that was the largest mass murder of gay people in U.S.