I may have first seen William Friedkin's 1980 crime thriller Cruising decades ago, but I'll never forget how surprised I was that a film like this was made in the 1970s.
In Cruising, Al Pacino plays a straight New York City cop who goes undercover in the gay leather community to find a serial killer who picks up men in bars and then kills them.
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At the time, films dedicated to and graphically depicting the leather-wearing gay community—or any other part of the LGBTQ community—were unheard of.
I later learned that the film "Cruising" immediately sparked a backlash from gay rights activists when the script was leaked to the press and published by Village Voice columnist Arthur Bell. Activists claimed the film was exploitative and unfairly portrayed the gay community as overly sexual, depraved, and violent. During filming on the streets of New York in 1979, protesters repeatedly disrupted the production. When "Cruising" was released, it was a critical and box office failure.
The film "Cruising" was inspired by a series of murders in New York City in the 1970s. At the time, law enforcement officials believed there might be a serial killer targeting gay men when the body parts of six unidentified men and clothing associated with a local leather goods store were found wrapped in trash bags in the Hudson River.
Then, in 1977, the magazine's long-time film reporter Variety Addison Verrill was brutally murdered by Paul Bateson after Verrill picked him up at a bar in Greenwich Village.
In 1979, Bateson was convicted of Verrill's murder and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, after which he was paroled in 2003. Although some believed that Bateson, who died in 2012, was also a suspected serial killer, this theory has never been proven, and the cases remain unsolved to this day.
Friedkin knew Bateson because he had a cameo role in The Exorcist, playing the technician performing an angiogram on Regan (Linda Blair). The director cast Bateson after seeing him working as an X-ray technician at NYU Medical Center while researching material for a horror film.
Friedkin later stated that Verrill's murder was a major inspiration for Cruising after he visited Bateson in prison.
Until recently, I didn't know that Verrill was more than just a newspaper reporter. Variety , but also a close friend of my late uncle Arthur.
Two months ago, I reconnected with Arthur's ex-wife, Susan, his high school sweetheart, whom he married in the early 1970s. I hadn't seen or spoken to Susan for 35 years, since Arthur's funeral. After their divorce, my uncle came out as gay. He died of AIDS in 1991.
When recalling her friends, Susan mentioned that two of the closest were Verrill and Bob Geary, whom Arthur met when they were students at Stony Brook University.
«"Addison was murdered," Susan said. "It was horrible.".
And then she asked me, «Do you know about the serial killer who killed gays in the 1970s?»
«"Of course," I said. "That's exactly what the movie 'Cruise' was about.".
Susan told me that Verrill might have been one of his victims.
Then I remembered hearing that Jeffrey Schwartz, director of the LGBTQ documentaries Divine and Tab Hunter, was working on a film about the making of Cruising.
It turned out that Schwartz's film, "Mine: The Cruise Murders," would have its world premiere at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. I immediately contacted Schwartz and told him about my family connection to Verrill. When I mentioned Bob, Schwartz said he'd been one of the main interview subjects in the documentary.
The film—"Shaft," named after a popular New York leather bar in the 1970s—isn't just about cruising. It also chronicles Verrill's life and untimely death.
I was not only shocked but also saddened when I watched Shaft. It's a shame it took me so long to learn about Addison and Bob. But my late mother and her sister rarely talked about the past because they had their own traumas. Not only did Arthur die of AIDS, but they also lost their other brother, David, to the same disease in 1989.
«We’re looking for stories from the past, and that’s why I do what I do,» Schwartz tells me over Zoom. «I’m looking for those stories, and I’m trying to find gay love stories. I made a film [2021«s »Boulevard! A Hollywood Story«] about a gay couple who wanted Gloria Swanson to make a musical based on Sunset Boulevard. It was like, »Wow, a gay love story from the «50s that hasn’t been told yet. Let’s do it.» This film continues that line of looking for queer stories from the past. I feel a certain responsibility to bring those stories to the world.».
How did your film come about?
I was 11 years old and growing up in Queens, New York, when the movie Cruising was released in 1980. Manhattan wasn't that far away, but to me it was like another planet. I didn't understand my sexuality or my homosexuality at the time, but I remember the release of Cruising very well. I remember the TV commercials, the poster, the radio ads. I remember Siskel and Ebert reviewing the movie on Sneak Previews. I remember local newscasters reporting on the protests against Cruising. Much later, when I was coming out, I read Vito Russo's book The Celluloid Closet. I tried to see every movie Vito mentioned. Cruising was at the top of that list. I was captivated by the movie. I found it gripping, terrifying, sexually charged, and deeply provocative, with a lot of controversial messages. I understood the protesters' position perfectly, but at the same time, it represented a side of gay life that had never been depicted in film before. So, about 10 years ago, I had the idea to make a documentary. Initially, I thought it would focus on the making of "Cruising," the protests, and how it was rediscovered as a cult classic. Although I knew the film was based on real-life murders, as I delved deeper into the subject, I began to learn more and more about Addison.
You found Bob and Addison's sister, Pamela, but was it difficult to convince them to talk to you? I think they might not want to revisit the topic.
When I first started talking to Pamela, she was very cautious. She didn't know me. It took me a while to tell her about my work and explain my intentions. I think she ultimately decided to participate to reclaim Addison's story. In the film, we see her love for her brother, but also her frustration at not being able to understand his life as a gay man. When he died, she knew nothing about the gay world. But when she came to New York to settle his estate, she was warmly welcomed by his friends, all these gay people who loved Addison. She learned so much about him that she hadn't known before.
When did you talk to Bob?
I asked Pam if she remembered any of Addison's friends I could talk to. She said, "There was this guy named Bob, and I think he was his roommate for a while." All I had was "Bob" and "roommate." Bob turned out to be Robert Geary. But he wasn't just a roommate. He'd been his lover for several years. Bob didn't want to talk to me at all. Addison's murder was one of the most traumatic events in his life. But in the end, like Pam, he decided to do it to restore Addison's dignity.
Do you think Paul was a serial killer?
Those six bodies were never identified. I don't think the police did a thorough investigation. It was just a group of gay men who were murdered, so everyone was indifferent: "Who cares?" The assistant district attorney suggested that Paul might have been involved in other murders because, apparently, Paul bragged to a friend about committing other murders. There's no evidence that Paul was involved in any other murders. Personally, I can't say for sure, but I don't think Paul was a serial killer.
Just think, Shaft is premiering in Tribeca, probably within walking distance of Addison's apartment and all those '70s leather-loving gay bars.
From the theater where we're playing, you can walk to Julius's Bar, where Addison met Bob. You can walk to the Meatpacking District, where the Mineshaft bar was on Washington Street. One of the reasons I love Cruising is that you can see so many of these streets in the film. Telling Addison's story was a way to explore what was available to gay men at the time. But also, watching the film now, it's painful because you know it was filmed in the summer of 1979, and the first cases of HIV were reported in 1981. We know for a fact that many guys infected with the virus had it for years before they showed any symptoms. If you watch the bar scenes in Cruising, you can't help but wonder how many of those guys would still be alive in a year, two, or five years, because Friedkin cast real men from the leather industry and porn stars as extras. Friedkin very deliberately cast his actors among gay porn stars. The guy in the film's opening murder scene, tied up on a bed and stabbed in the back, is a very famous porn actor named Malo. He ultimately remained friends with Pacino. He's the bodyguard in Scarface who gets chainsawed to death in the bathroom.
This Q&A has been edited for brevity and clarity. "Shaft: The Cruise Murders" will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 6.
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