He committed suicide a year after the blaze. No one was charged with the attack, and a man viewed by many as the primary suspect was never arrested. The fire was an open wound for the gay community in New Orleans for years. people have a place at the table now that they did not have then,” said Clayton Delery-Edwards, who wrote a book about the arson that was published in 2014. Forty years later, a son of his, the current mayor, Mitch Landrieu, declared a day of public mourning for the fire’s victims on its anniversary. The mayor, Moon Landrieu, did not cancel his vacation. “They dug a hole in the ground and put a bag in it and covered it back up,” Mr. Those three were buried in unmarked graves in a potter’s field along with a fourth person, Ferris LeBlanc, whose family did not know his fate until last year, Mr. There are three people who were never identified at all. “His mother refused to collect his ashes because she was too embarrassed that she had a gay son,” Mr. Camina, who directed a documentary, UpStairs Inferno, about the blaze. He was one of many who died without ever coming out to their families, and his mother would not deal with his remains, said Robert L.
#FLASH NIGHTCLUB ORLANDO FULL#
His charred body was left slumped against the window bars in full view of passers-by for hours. When firefighters extinguished the blaze, they found a pile of charred bodies, some embracing and others pressed against the windows.Ĭongregants from the New Orleans chapter of the Metropolitan Community Church, an L.G.B.T.-affirming group, were meeting there after services. One group of patrons fled out a back exit, but another was trapped across the room, caught between the flames and floor-to-ceiling windows fitted with metal bars.