In American Honor Killings: Rage and
Desire Among Men, writer David McConnell examines six gay murder
victims and the men who killed them.
“I wanted to stir things up,”
McConnell told alternative LA
Weekly about the book's title. “I wanted to get people
thinking differently about these cases. It's too easy to just
classify them as hate crimes and be done with it. Hate is a factor
in all of them, but it's much more complex than that.”
“We refuse to believe honor killings
happen in America. People think they only occur in the mountains of
Afghanistan, among tribes and other primitive people. But the insane
impulse behind honor killing is at work right here in America among
the minds of many young men.”
The most well known story in the book
is the so-called Jenny Jones “secret admirer” murder case.
Appearing on the Jenny Jones talk
show in 1995, Jon Schmitz was shocked when he found out his secret
admirer was not his former girlfriend but his friend, Scott Amedure.
During the taping, Schmitz laughed off the revelation but three days
later he showed up at Amedure's house and shot him to death.
“He picked on me on national TV,”
Schmitz told police. “He fucked me.”
“Schmitz felt his personal honor
needed defending,” said McConnell, who is openly gay.
American Honor Killings is due
out in March.