New information resource on Stonewall Riots launches

As the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots approaches, David Carter, author of the highly praised book STONEWALL, launches a new website with information and resources on this historic event.

In addition to basic information and documentation about the Stonewall Riots, Carter includes audio of the only known 1969 radio report on the riots, documentation of the nomination of the Stonewall Inn as a National Historic Landmark, and interviews with participants in the riots.

Carter is the author of STONEWALL: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution, A Randy Shilts / Publishing Triangle Award Finalist


"RIVETING…NOT ONLY THE DEFINITIVE EXAMINATION OF THE RIOTS BUT AN ABSORBING HISTORY OF PRE-STONEWALL AMERICA, AND HOW THE OPPRESSION AND PENT-UP RAGE OF THOSE YEARS FINALLY IGNITED ON A HOT NEW YORK NIGHT."

--BOSTON GLOBE

In his highly-praised definitive account of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, David Carter reveals the truth behind the times, the places and the riots themselves. STONEWALL: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution, reveals some surprising new facts about the raid on the bar and the resulting riots, including:

• Prior to the raid on the Stonewall Inn, Interpol uncovered the theft of negotiated bonds which were turning up on the streets of Europe. The bonds were being stolen by gay Wall St. employees who were victims of a blackmail operation run by Stonewall Inn manager Ed Murphy.

• Murphy, in spite of having been previously arrested for running an extensive national blackmail ring based on homosexual prostitution, had never been to jail because he had incriminating photographs of one of the prostitution ring's most prominent customers: J. Edgar Hoover.

• Once the NYPD learned that the theft of bonds was tied to blackmail at the Stonewall Inn, the order went out to shut down the club.

In his exhaustive research for STONEWALL, Carter reached previously unheard from and/or unexplored primary sources - such as the police inspector who led the fateful raid itself - as well as numerous persons who were present at and participated in the riots. Carter also had access to many primary source materials previously unavailable to any researcher.

In addition to these revelations, STONEWALL offers a clear and detailed look at what life was like, politically and legally, for gay men in New York in the 1960s, including the social life in gay bars, most notable of which is the Stonewall Inn. The book also recounts the events of the raid on the bar in June 1969, and the resultant riots that raid sparked, as well as the emergence of the gay liberation movement, including the birth of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. Carter also describes the triumphant first march held on the first anniversary of the riots, which is now celebrated worldwide through Gay Pride observances each June.

While one of the most seminal events in modern political movements, the Stonewall Inn Riots are poorly documented, and more myth than historical reality exists in most printed accounts. This exhaustively researched volume will be the definitive account from this time forward.

David Carter has had a varied career as a writer, editor, and filmmaker. He is the author of biographies of Salvador Dali and George Santayana, and he compiled and edited Spontaneous Mind, a collection of interviews with Allen Ginsberg. For Peter Townshend, he directed the film Meher Baby in Italy. Carter has a B.A. from Emory University and an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin. He is a resident of Greenwich Village in New York City.