Stonewall Riot Police Reports, June 28, 1969
Documents Reveal Name of Woman Arrestee and Three Men Arrestees
To honor the 40th anniversary celebration, in June 2009, of the Stonewall Riots, OutHistory.org is, for the first time, publishing nine pages of New York City Police Department records created early on the morning of the rebellion’s start, June 28, 1969.
Reproduced in facsimile with transcriptions, these sometimes hard-to-read but historic documents provide an immediate sense of the rebellion that has come to symbolize the start of the modern, militant LGBTQ movement for civil rights and liberation.
The NYPD records include new, important, and striking details:
- Officer Charles Broughton of the 1st Division arrested Raymond Castro, Marilyn Fowler and Vincent DePaul, charging they “with each other did shove and kick the officer.” This is the first time that Fowler and DePaul have been named and documented as rebellion participants. Fowler’s name is extremely significant, since no other woman’s arrest has so far been documented, and numbers of witnesses attributed the intensification of the resistance to the arrest and resistance of an unnamed butch lesbian. (Castro is named as a participant in David Carter’s Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution.)[1]
- Police officer Charles Holmes of the 6th Precinct was treated at nearby Saint Vincent’s Hospital after being bitten on the right wrist by a Stonewall rioter. Biting has not earlier been documented as a Stonewall resistance tactic.[2]
- Officer Andrew Scheu of the 6th Precinct charged that Wolfgang Podolski had resisted arrest and had struck the “arresting officer in the left eye with a rolled up newspaper causing officer to fall to ground sustaining a fractured left wrist.” This is the first documented reference to Podolski, a waiter or writer (the report is unclear), as a rebellion participant. This is also the first reference to a rolled up newspaper as a resistance weapon.[3]
- Officer Gail Lynch, of the 5th Precinct, charged that Thomas Staton interfered with an officer making an arrest “by throwing assorted objects [and] while with others did become very loud and refused to comply.” Staton has not earlier been named and documented as a rebellion participant, and Lynch has not earlier been named as one of the women police officers at the scene. The newly released records for the first time provide the full names of several other officers involved in the riot. [4]
- An unfortunate Volkswagen owner complained to officer Robert Hansen of the 6th Precinct that her car, parked near the rebellion scene, had been “stomped” on during the disturbance and sustained damage to the roof, hood, and rear.[5]
- Officer Gilbert Weisman of the 6th Precinct charged that David Van Ronk, “Actor” (he was actually a well-known folksinger) “Did assault the officer about the face with an unknown object.” The heterosexual, resistant Van Ronk was arrested, handcuffed, taken into the Stonewall, and later taken away in a patrol wagon. He eventually pleaded guilty to “harassment,” a violation, and was later sued by Weisman for assault, and paid the officer a fine.[6]
Seven pages of NYPD records were obtained in May 2009 by Jonathan Ned Katz, Director of OutHistory.org, in consultation with historian David Carter, and two additional pages reproduced here were obtained in 1988 by the late Michael Scherker, under the New York State Freedom of Information Law.[7]
For the first time, in the documents obtained by Katz, the names of those arrested are not blacked out, providing the public and historians with important new evidence about the rebellion. None of the nine NYPD reports made available on OutHistory.org have earlier been published
Katz asks that anyone with any knowledge of the persons arrested or charged, or any knowledge of the police officers named, contact him at: outhistory@gc.cuny.edu.
Any information about arrestees Vincent DePaul, Marilyn Fowler, Wolfgang Podolski, and Thomas Staton would be greatly appreciated. Data on Fowler is of “special interest,” says Katz.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall resistance, OutHistory.org is also republishing novelist and essayist Edmund White’s eyewitness letter about the riots, written to friends a few weeks after the rebellion, and playwright Martin Sherman’s recollection of the riots. Neither were earlier available online. See: Edmund White: Letter to Ann and Alfred Corn, July 8, 1969 and Martin Sherman: "A Hot Night in June," November 1994.
40th Anniversary Events
Events commemorating the Stonewall 40th are listed on OutHistory.org at “Stonewall 40th Anniversary.” Among these, “Stonewall Was a Riot!,” a fundraiser for OutHistory.org, will be held at the Stonewall Inn (“the scene of the crime”) on Monday, June 22, 8-10 pm, and will feature numbers of performers riffing on life since 1969. Space is limited and reservations may be made by emailing outhistory@gc.cuny.edu. A donation of $20 is requested.
OutHistory.org is also sponsoring a “Since Stonewall Local LGBT Histories Contest,” with substantial prizes for the best five entries. The entry deadline is June 28, 2009. See: Since Stonewall Contest
Stonewall Riot NYPD Reports and Transcriptions
Click on “Image” to see document, and click again to enlarge it. Click again to enlarge it further.
Documents Listed by Time of Occurrence, from Earliest to Latest
Document 1
Modus Operandi and Pedigree Report
Against David Van Ronk by Officer Gilbert Weisman
Date and Time of Arrest: 2 am, 6/28/69
Image:NYPD 1.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 1: Transcript NYPD 1
Document 2
Complaint Report,
Against David Van Ronk by Officer Gilbert Weisman
Date and Time of Arrest: 2 am, 6/28/69
Image:NYPD 4.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 2: Transcript NYPD 4
Document 3
Complaint Report
Against People (Raymond Castro, Marilyn Fowler, Vincent Depaul) by Officer Charles Broughton
Time of Occurrence: 2 am, 6/28/69
Image:NYPD 3.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 3: Transcript NYPD 3
Document 4
Modus Operandi and Pedigree Report
Against Wolfgang Podolski by Officer Andrew Scheu
Time of Occurrence: 3 am, 6/28/69
Image:NYPD 2.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 4: Transcript NYPD 2
Document 5
Complaint Report
Against People (Wolfgang Podolski) by Officer Andrew Scheu
Time of Occurrence: 3 am, 6/28/69
Image:NYPD 7.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 5: Transcript NYPD 5
Document 6
Complaint Report
Complainant [blacked out name] re Volkswagen taken by Officer Robert Hansen
Time of Occurrence: approximately 3 am, 6/28/69
Image:NYPD 5.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 6: Transcript NYPD 6
Document 7
Complaint Report
Against People (Thomas Staton) by Officer Gail Lynch
Time of Occurrence: 3 am, 6/28/69
Image:NYPD 6.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 7: Transcript NYPD 7
Document 8 A
“Saturday, June 28, 1969 5 am, Unusual Occ[urrence] [3 crossed out] 4 Ptl [Patrolmen] injured”
Image:NYPD 8A.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 8A: Transcript NYPD 8A
Document 8B (bottom of Document 8A)
Image:NYPD 8B.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 8B: Transcript NYPD 8B
Document 9A
“Saturday, June 28, 1969 [time unclear] am, Unusual Occ[urrence] (cont), [page number] 175”
Image:NYPD 9A.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 9A: Transcript NYPD 9A
Document 9B (bottom of Document 9A)
Image:NYPD 9B.150dpi.jpeg
Partial Transcription of Document 9B: Transcript NYPD 9B
People Named in the Above Documents
OutHistory would like information about any of the following, listed in alphabetical order:
Arrestees
Castro, Raymond DePaul, Vincent Fowler, Marilyn Podolski, Wolfgang Staton, Thomas Van Ronk, David
Police Officers
Atlas [or Athos?], Sergeant, 10th Precinct Bellin, Patrolman, 4th Precinct Bradley, Patrolman, 4th Precinct Broughton, Charles, 1t Division Burns (?), Patrolman, 4th Precinct Carr, Patrolman, 10th Precinct Colongelo [?], Patrolman, 10th Precinct DeMatte, Patrolman, 5th Precinct Graniew, (?), Patrolman, 5th Precinct Hansen, Robert, 6th Precinct, Shield No. Holmes, Charles, 6th Precinct, Shield No. 4026 Johnson, Sergeant, 5th Precinct Lynch, Gail, 5th Precinct, Shield No. <?> Mallon, Patrolman, 5th Precinct Micucci, Patrolman, 10th Precinct Quinn, Patrolman, 10th Precinct Rosenblum [?], Captain, 6th Precinct [?] Rossi [?], Patrolman [no division or precinct Scheu, Andrew, 6th Precinct, Shield No. ??? Sternisky, Patrolman, 5th Precinct Tembo, Patrolman, 5th Precinct Sgt Thraick (?), Sergeant, 4th Precinct Twily [sp?], [first name?], 6th Precinct [?] Van Arsdale, C.Y. (?) 1st Division Weisman, Gilbert, 6th Precinct, Shield No. 18228 Zalusky, Patrolman, 4th Precinct
Other Officials
Pine, Seymour, Deputy Inspector, 1st Division Smyth, Deputy Inspector, 1st Division Tatem, Adam, Inspector, Div of Licensing[?], Department of Consumer Affairs
===Doctors at Saint Vincent’s Hospital Campanella, Dr. Donnelly, Dr.
References
- ↑ See: Image:NYPD 3.150dpi.jpeg
- ↑ Holmes’ first name, Charles, does not appear in any of the nine NYPD documents viewed by Katz, and was supplied from notes taken by David Carter in preparation for his book on the Stonewall rebellion. See: Image:NYPD 8A.150dpi.jpeg
- ↑ See Image:NYPD 2.150dpi.jpeg and Image:NYPD 7.150dpi.jpeg
- ↑ See: Image:NYPD 6.150dpi.jpeg
- ↑ Image:NYPD 5.150dpi.jpeg
- ↑ See Image:NYPD 1.150dpi.jpeg and Image:NYPD 4.150dpi.jpeg. Information about Van Ronk from the notes of David Carter.
- ↑ In 1988, Michael Scherker, with the aid of Joan P. Gibbs, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, sued under the New York State Freedom of Information Law, and the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, for copies of New York City Police Department records of the raid on the Stonewall, and for records of surveillance of gay and lesbian political groups. In November 1988, Scherker won his case and received numbers of redacted police records, two of which are reproduced here from the Scherker file in the Cornell Universitiy Library. See Scherker v. Ward, New York State Supreme Court, Index No. 19024-1988, and City of New York, Police Department Legal Bureau, F.O.I.L. Unit to Jonathan Ned Katz, May 1, 2009.
