Iraqi militants brutally cut off the head of Paul Johnson, Jr. and the video that followed caused an uproar stateside. Obviously, there is a reason to be upset about the beheading of anyone but this video was, unlike Daniel Pearl’s three years prior, accompanied by a weird sense of outrage that wasn’t appropriate — a fake outrage, of sorts.
“They killed a civilian!”, was their cry. “He was just there working!”, they lamented. Outrage was rampant.
It got me wondering, “Where is this outrage when U.S. civilians are beheaded right here on our own soil by fellow citizens? Shouldn’t murder in our neighborhoods be MORE outrageous than one half a world away considering that our communities are not immersed in war, battle and death?”.
This got me interested in looking for home grown news articles about beheadings and, low and behold, in the days following Mr. Johnson’s demise domestic articles popped up of civilians, kids and old people, having their heads lopped off! Where was the outrage? There was none.
One of these tales actually occurred just days before the Iraqis decapitated the civilian contractor and it involved Keven Lee Graff, a 27-year-old from San Diego who beheaded Robert Lees and murdered Morley Engelson in Hollywood, California on June 13.
Why was this particular news item interesting? Because five years prior I was on a party bus with a group of gay men waving dollar bills at one Keven Lee Graff, go-go boy and stripper, who took off his clothes for cash on the way home from Baja California.
What the hell did I just admit to!?
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JANUARY 22, 1999 — Barry and Phil invited the missus and I to join them in celebrating Barry’s birthday on a party bus with a few friends going to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico for dinner and then bars for dancing and drinks. Not weary of being among a few token heteros on a bus full of drunk queens, the missus and I accepted the offer and boarded the bus, left the states and enjoyed dinner and a lot of alcohol at a Mexican disco on the beach.
All was tame until the ride back home when, as anyone familiar with strippers has likely experienced, a boom box appeared and one of the “party goers” took off their clothes and accepted currency as encouragement for removing clothing. Before murdering senior citizens Keven, a regular of the San Diego gay club scene, stripped for money.
> SEE ME GIVE GRAFF $1.00
> SEE MY WIFE & FRIEND LAUGH AFTERWORD
> SEE GRAFF IN G-STRING WORKIN’ IT
I am a good sport and the dude wasn’t down to the g-string yet so, when Graff passed, I gave homie a buck. You can rest assured that if I knew the guy was going to kill a couple of old men five years down the road that I would not have given him that greenback.
Some names have been changed to protect the identities of those not accused of drug-induced double-murder. An exhaustive article about Keven Graff and the Lees/Engelson homocide is available from Gay & Lesbian Times.
Tags: Beheading, Go Go Dancer, Hollywood, Keven Lee Graff, Mexico, Morley Engelson, Murder, Party Bus, Paul Johnson Jr., Robert Lees, Stripper, Tijuana
I am kevin lee graffs half brother. I never knew kevin, I onley meet him twice. I would have liked to think he was a stand up guy. I knew little adout him. I knew he was good at wresteling in highschool. His dad was verry abusive. He tried to kill our mom a couple of times, my mom said that he used to put guns in my brothers mouth. Then he went to the mereans and that’s when things went south. He started to talk a lot about god in a crazy kinnda way. He had a girl friend that he loved but things got to be to much for her and she left him. That’s when he started doing drugs. He saied he dident remember do what he did. Maybe its true maybe its not.
thank you for the reply mr watson. if you are, in fact, who you say you are then i appreciate that you’d take the time to contribute to the post.