The Howard Appledorf Murder and me
The Junk-Food Murder was the headline in a September 20, 1982 Newsweek. Looking at the article, I gave a start because the victim was Prof. Howard Appledorf and I had once taken a seminar class in which he gave a lecture. I remembered him as an authoritative lecturer who held audience interest. I also recalled a joke he made. “Someone will come to me and say, ‘I can’t understand why I’m fat. I eat like a bird,’” he remarked. “I tell them to keep a written record of everything they eat and find out that they do eat like a bird – a buzzard.” At the time it only seemed funny. Thinking about it many years later, after I’ve been sensitized to discrimination against the heavyset – and after I have gained considerable weight with age – I tend to think of the remark as somewhat prejudiced.
Appledorf had been nicknamed the Junk-Food Professor because he publicly defended the nutritional value of fast foods. I read the article and found that he had been killed in a semi-ritualistic manner with the words “murder” and “redrum” – murder spelled backwards – written on the walls. Suspected were three young male homosexual prostitutes: Shane Kennedy, 15, Gary McNichols (actually an alias for Gary Bown), 21, and Paul Everson, 19. The article indicated that Appledorf had apparently been a customer and business had gone horribly wrong.
I cut out the Newsweek article and saved it. One reason I kept the article was that it included photographs of the three accused. To me, all three were very handsome and I could imagine a gay man seeing them together as a sensuous dream come to life. The youngest, Shane Kennedy, was especially attractive. He looks understandably pensive and suspicious in the photograph but with his layered, silky blonde hair, regular features, and sensuous mouth, I found him to reach a kind of golden mean in appearance. He looked extremely effeminate but I could not mistake him for a female because his jaw and nose had a masculine strength. Sometimes I would just gaze at Shane Kennedy’s picture because I found him so enthralling.
However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I showed the Newsweek photographs to a gay male friend and asked him what he thought of the young men picture. He made an expression of distaste. Indicating Shane Kennedy, my friend said, “Much too effeminate.” Then about Gary Bown, “Too effeminate as well.” He said about Paul Everson – whom I found the least attractive of the three – “He’s OK but nothing to write home about.”
Recently, I worked on the story of the Howard Appledorf murder for Court TV’s Crime Library. As I researched it, I was struck, as I had been before when researching the story of Robert Lee Bennett, Jr. the “Handcuff Man” who tortured male prostitutes, for Crime Library, at how similar prostitution is when it is heterosexual and when it is homosexual.
We tend to think of prostitutes as women but prostitution flourishes in the male homosexual community. Moreover, the backgrounds of female and male prostitutes tend to be similar with both being emotionally troubled and financially straitened.
There is a sense in which my Handcuff Man story and the Howard Appledorf story are reverse images of each other. In the former case, Bennett preyed upon homosexual prostitutes. In the latter case, homosexual prostitutes preyed upon a client. Both tragic scenarios have their parallels in heterosexual prostitution.
I faced several challenges in writing these stories. One was to keep my own views on homosexuality out of them. I also had to balance the need to familiarize readers with the backgrounds of both victims and victimizers without seeming to excuse heinous actions. I would be very interested to know how well readers of this blog think I did and how they believe I could improve in the future.
To some extent, I had to speculate as to the motives behind these crimes. The crimes perpetrated by Robert Lee Bennett, Jr. were especially baffling for I could not come up with much to explain his motives and the sort of vicious mindset he must have possessed to commit such horrors. I had more to work with in the Howard Appledorf case but would like to know what others think of what led to his murder.
My Robert Lee Bennett, Jr. story is at http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/handcuff/1.html and my Howard Appledorf story just went up at http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/index.html
Readers, your thoughts?
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December 15th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Denise: “We tend to think of prostitutes as women but prostitution flourishes in the male homosexual community.”
fourthwire: both female heterosexual prostitutes and male homosexual prostitutes capitalize on the male sex drive, pure and simple. And since most heterosexual men don’t want anything to do with male homosexual prostitutes, and do not frequent locations where the latter tend to congregate, there’s no reason why the latter are of any particular interest.
Of course male homosexual prostitutes have have done more than their share of spreading HIV/AIDS through their activities.
Denise: “I faced several challenges in writing these stories. One was to keep my own views on homosexuality out of them. I also had to balance the need to familiarize readers with the backgrounds of both victims and victimizers without seeming to excuse heinous actions. I would be very interested to know how well readers of this blog think I did and how they believe I could improve in the future.”
fourthwire: Just how many MND readers have been clamoring for any stories about homosexuality, Denise?
Or stories about homosexual “predators”?
Or stories about homosexual “victims”?
Most heterosexual men don’t give a rat’s *ss about the activities of homosexual men behind closed doors.
I don’t doubt that some MND readers are homosexuals…… but they are undoubtedly a minority.
I suspect that most MND readers don’t feel any overwhelming need to read about homosexual “predators”, homosexual “victims”, or homosexuality in general.
I would suspect that you would be more likely to strike a sympathetic cord, or at least a measure of interest with a story about William Hetherington’s prison sentence for “spousal rape” (where his wife wanted him out of the house so that she could carry on her adulterous affair without him getting in the way…. or being able to see their children) than with blogs about homosexuals on this particular forum.
December 15th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
fourthwire: I would suspect that you would be more likely to strike a sympathetic cord, or at least a measure of interest with a story about William Hetherington’s prison sentence for “spousal rape” (where his wife wanted him out of the house so that she could carry on her adulterous affair without him getting in the way…. or being able to see their children) than with blogs about homosexuals on this particular forum.
(Denise) Did you write to Crime Library about this case?
Since you know so much about Mr. Hetherington, it might be a good idea for you to write an essay on this case and send it to Mike LaSalle. It does indeed sound like something he would probably put up on this forum.
Suggestion: You might want to end your essay with various addresses that people can write to in order to make their feelings known about the case and possibly help Mr. Hetherington.
December 15th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Denise: “Did you write to Crime Library about this case?”
fourthwire: No. I already know plenty about the case (and about the misandry inherent in our nation’s “spousal rape” laws”).
You’re the one apparently needing an education about both, Denise.
Or are you still filtering reality?…….
Denise: “Since you know so much about Mr. Hetherington, it might be a good idea for you to write an essay on this case and send it to Mike LaSalle. It does indeed sound like something he would probably put up on this forum.”
fourthwire: I do not intend to become a blogger right now.
Besides, MND regulars such as Zed, Denis, or the Gonzman would be far better bloggers on MND than I could ever hope to be.
How very much like a woman…… you seek helpful advice on how to improve your writing on a men’s forum……. but you don’t seem to actually be RECEPTIVE to my advice that might ACTUALLY LEAD TO IMPROVEMENT of that writing.
Running another rocky channel with your radar off again?….;-)
December 15th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
fourthwire said,
Denise: “Did you write to Crime Library about this case?”
fourthwire: No. I already know plenty about the case (and about the misandry inherent in our nation’s “spousal rape” laws”).
(Denise) I know you’re already up on the case. I suggested you write to Crime Library so they might decide to put something up on it and hire a writer to thoroughly research this case. I even thought that perhaps I might be the writer assigned to it so I would have the resources and time available to thoroughly research it.
fourthwire: You’re the one apparently needing an education about both, Denise.
Or are you still filtering reality?…….
(Denise) I’m aware that justice can, and does, go wrong. I wrote the Crime Library article on the Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle case. That comedian was falsely accused of a rape-murder. I also wrote the crimemagazine.com article about Leo Frank, a man lynched for a sex-murder he did not commit.
Denise: “Since you know so much about Mr. Hetherington, it might be a good idea for you to write an essay on this case and send it to Mike LaSalle. It does indeed sound like something he would probably put up on this forum.”
fourthwire: I do not intend to become a blogger right now.
(Denise) I wasn’t suggesting you become a permanent blogger. Perhaps Mr. LaSalle would put up your essay as a stand-alone piece.
fourthwire: Besides, MND regulars such as Zed, Denis, or the Gonzman would be far better bloggers on MND than I could ever hope to be.
How very much like a woman…… you seek helpful advice on how to improve your writing on a men’s forum……. but you don’t seem to actually be RECEPTIVE to my advice that might ACTUALLY LEAD TO IMPROVEMENT of that writing.
(Denise) I do consider your advice, fourthwire. If I could get a contract to research the William J. Hetherington case, I would take it.
December 15th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Denise:
As a woman, you could provide a grest service to readers of mnd by telling us what women owe men. We have been told ad nauseam about what men owe women however we have heard heard precious little about the reverse.
How about it?
December 15th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Gus said,
Denise:
As a woman, you could provide a grest service to readers of mnd by telling us what women owe men. We have been told ad nauseam about what men owe women however we have heard heard precious little about the reverse.
How about it?
(Denise) Good idea, Gus! I am planning to research an essay tentatively entitled “How Men Liberated Women” about how men’s inventions have so lightened the burdens of traditional women’s work with innovations like the sewing machine, the washing machine (although not the dishwasher which was invented by a woman), the microwave, and other items that men created and women most commonly use. It was men who made childbirth relatively safe. Women also, I believe, owe The Pill and other contraceptive developments to men.
I have to some extent already written about what women owe men. I published two blogs on the Titanic and how women — quite literally — owed their lives to the sacrifices of men. My article on Memorial Day is about how women owe the safety of their societies to the sacrifices men make in war.
December 15th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
women invented the dishwasher? No wonder they are always telling men how to properly load one. smile
December 15th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Denise: “I know you’re already up on the case. I suggested you write to Crime Library so they might decide to put something up on it and hire a writer to thoroughly research this case. I even thought that perhaps I might be the writer assigned to it so I would have the resources and time available to thoroughly research it.”
fourthwire: Are you telling me that you can only write about cases that the Crime Library is paying you to write about?
Denise: “I’m aware that justice can, and does, go wrong. I wrote the Crime Library article on the Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle case. That comedian was falsely accused of a rape-murder. I also wrote the crimemagazine.com article about Leo Frank, a man lynched for a sex-murder he did not commit.”
fourthwire: When men are completely at the mercy of women to tell the truth, as are cases involving “spousal rape”, justice not only cannot go wrong…. justice has been completely perverted, just to satisfy the feminazis and their sychophants.
Men who go to prison because their words are not enough to protect them from lies about spousal rape are being raped themselves, Denise.
And most women (yourself included) don’t seem to mind that men have been provided with inferior criminal rights, particularly regarding spousal rape or even rape in general.
Denise: “I wasn’t suggesting you become a permanent blogger. Perhaps Mr. LaSalle would put up your essay as a stand-alone piece.”
fourthwire: Still not interested. It’s much more satisfying to poke holes in bloggers’ hypocrisy and double standards, anyway.
Or observe the extent to which they will go to keep their heads in the sand………;-)
Denise: “I do consider your advice, fourthwire. If I could get a contract to research the William J. Hetherington case, I would take it.”
fourthwire: I doubt very much that you need a contract to support what you write, Denise….. Who keeps giving you contracts to write about Lizzie Borden, obscure literary works, and other aspects of your usual fare?
For that matter, who has been giving you contracts to write about homosexuals?
Nobody.
So….. why is it that you need a contract in order to write about the rape of William Hetherington by his own wife in criminal court (with support from Michigan’s feminazis…..)?
December 15th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
fourthwire: So….. why is it that you need a contract in order to write about the rape of William Hetherington by his own wife in criminal court (with support from Michigan’s feminazis…..)?
(Denise) I may write something about it. Heck, I HAVE written more than a bit about it — in my correspondence with you!
I also put Phyllis Schlafly’s column on the case up at soc.men.
A contract would be helpful to do a really THOROUGH investigation of any case. I know that the Hetherington case has become something of a cause celebre for you and some other people. It could very well be an injustice as the Arbuckle and Frank cases were. However, it is also true that some cause celebres seem to fall apart when the other side is presented or at least to appear far more ambiguous than they seem when discussed by their partisans.
I will state that I don’t believe “prisoner denies the offense” should be grounds for denying parole and Schlafly said in her column that this is the reason Hetherington has been denied parole.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Denise: “I may write something about it. Heck, I HAVE written more than a bit about it — in my correspondence with you!”
fourthwire: Indeed. Adding a blog with your name on it would be another step forward for you.
Denise: “I know that the Hetherington case has become something of a cause celebre for you and some other people. ”
fourthwire: No more and no less than the Matt Winkler case is, precisely because both men suffered and both of their wives got away with murder, legally (one of them literally so).
Denise: “It could very well be an injustice as the Arbuckle and Frank cases were.”
fourthwire: That depends on whether you consider a man being incarcerated for 30 years without parole simply to suit his ex-wife’s greed and adultery….. because our nation’s laws and courts are fraught with misandry.
The fact that he was not permitted to even cross-examine his ex-wife after her accusations of “spousal rape” might also point toward injustice.
Do you need me to draw it in crayon?……;-)
Denise: “However, it is also true that some cause celebres seem to fall apart when the other side is presented or at least to appear far more ambiguous than they seem when discussed by their partisans.”
fourthwire: Consider that Michigan’s feminazis keep pressure on the Michigan state parole board to ensure that William Hetherington is never given parole. That, in conjunction with the harshness of the sentence itself, the dubious fashion in which he was never allowed to properly defend himself, had his assets seized so that he could hire legal defense, the inadmissable letter from their babysitter pointing out that Mrs. Hetherington was engaging in adultery and wanted her husband out of the way without risking losing the house and children to him…… is any of this scenario pointing at misandry through “spousal rape” laws yet?
Denise: I will state that I don’t believe “prisoner denies the offense” should be grounds for denying parole and Schlafly said in her column that this is the reason Hetherington has been denied parole.”
fourthwire: Well that’s big of you. Long ago, you pronounced your support for “spousal rape” laws. And now I’m showing you just how women use those very laws to demonize men, lock them up for decades, take away their freedoms, and have them branded the most heinous of criminals…….
….. to satisfy the hatred for everyone born with a penis by the feminazis………
….. not to mention to provide women with safe, convenient ways of disposing of their husbands.
December 16th, 2007 at 7:04 am
steven deluca said,
women invented the dishwasher? No wonder they are always telling men how to properly load one. smile
(Denise) I believe that the vast majority of household appliances, which have done so much to ease women’s lives, were invented by men. However, the dishwasher was indeed invented by a woman. But not the sort of woman you might expect. She was a wealthy socialite who had never washed a dish in her life. She often gave parties and was upset that her servants tended to break some of her precious dishes. She went to the garage and got a few wires and things and put together a rough version of a dishwasher to address this problem.
Anyway, back to the topic of the blog: have you checked out my Howard Appledorf story? I’d be most interested in any reaction you might have, Steven.
December 16th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Denise, Thank you for an answer which satisfies the letter if not the spirit of the question.
December 16th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Denise, please answer WHY you are able to write on any number of subjects without me writing to anyone……………
……. yet for you to write about William Hetherington, you want me to convince someone to give you a contract?
Who wrote letters in order for you to cover Lizzie Borden’s case?
Mind you, I’m not above writing letters, but I hate I smell a rat here……
December 16th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Another typo – last sentence should read:
“Mind you, I’m not above writing letters, but I smell a rat here……”
December 17th, 2007 at 4:08 am
fourthwire said,
Denise, please answer WHY you are able to write on any number of subjects without me writing to anyone……………
……. yet for you to write about William Hetherington, you want me to convince someone to give you a contract?
(Denise) As of yesterday, there is a new file in my filing cabinet. It is called “Hetherington” and contains articles I ran off about his case. I plan to run off more, read them, and eventually devote a blog to him.
fourthwire: Who wrote letters in order for you to cover Lizzie Borden’s case?
Mind you, I’m not above writing letters, but I hate I smell a rat here……
(Denise) Write that letter! The materials I put on my blog have usually previously been published at “The Hatchet: The Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies.” I have a job with them writing “Denise Noe’s Lizzie Whittlings.”
December 17th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Denise: “As of yesterday, there is a new file in my filing cabinet. It is called “Hetherington” and contains articles I ran off about his case. I plan to run off more, read them, and eventually devote a blog to him.”
fourthwire: Taking you at your word, I am well-pleased. I ask only that you DO write the blog, to the best of your considerable writing ability, Denise.
Denise: “Write that letter!”
fourthwire: It will be done. I cannot possibly write it before January 2nd of this New Year, but since you are apparently showing good faith, how could I do less?
Now, just to be certain that my letter is written properly, please give me any special instructions about the letter that you see fit.
You are welcome to provide such “advice” either as a post, or else to use one of my “throwaway” email accounts: beltfed.weapon@hotmail.com
I want you to get that contract. Help me to help you……
December 26th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
I cannot seem to find out whether anyone was prosecuted for the death of Professor Appledorf. Do you have any information about this?
I was also a student in his food science class back in 1979 or 1980.
Thank you,
Dr. Charlotte Laws
Los Angeles, California