Ed “Skull” Murphy of the Stonewall Inn: From Gay Blackmailer to Activist

High-contrast black-and-white close-up of Ed Murphy, an older man with a white beard, gazing upward
Ed Murphy, 1978

Ed Murphy is not a relation, but he’s an interesting story in my life.  Ed was an integral figure in the “Chickens and the Bulls” homosexual blackmail scandal in the mid-1960s.  He was probably involved in a series of blackmail schemes run by the Mob out of the Stonewall Inn in New York as well.  He stole, and threatened and blackmailed most of his life.  He got away with it, and wound up a gay liberation hero.  Ed is mostly forgotten now, but I will never forget him.  I still can’t decide if he was a bad man who did some good things; or a good man who did some very bad things.  I sensed goodness in him, and he was good to me; but the other part of him, which I can’t forget or reconcile, is the terror and misery he caused hundreds of gay men and their families.

Here is my story of Ed_Murphy_Gay_Blackmailer_and_Activitist

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