Episode 53 | Rita Hester & The Murder That Started A Movement, Allston, Massachusetts
- Anngelle Wood
- Nov 17, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
This is a true crime, local history, and storytelling podcast. I write about crimes, I set the scene, connect story themes, I talk about things that happened here, in Massachusetts and New England.
This episode is about violent crime, society, the LGBTQ+ community, Transgender women, unsolved murder, and the impact on the community. Listen with care. And always about where the events of the story take place.
Chanelle Pickett and Rita Hester were murdered three years apart. Chantelle in 1995 in Watertown, and Rita Hester in 1998 in Allston. Both were brutal crimes. Neither of them got justice. The attitudes and the language around gay and transgender lifestyles were very different back then. How the media covered violence against transgender people was cruel, if they covered them all. As a result of the mistreatment they got event in death, their murders were instrumental in the creation of the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th. Rita Hester's murder is still unsolved.
Mallery Jenna Robinson, transgender and HIV advocate and host of A Hateful Homicide podcast, joins me to talk about the violence transgender women face - then and now. We talk about the fight for justice for transgender victims, the urgent need for laws to protect the transgender community from hate crimes and the critical role empathy and compassion play in our society. A Hateful Homicide
2021 was the deadliest year to date. In the US, a record of 57, there are likely many more deaths that go unreported or inaccurately reported due to deadnaming and misgendering.
2022: At least 32 transgender and gender-nonconforming people have been killed in the United States
2023: 14 Trans and Nonbinary People were Lost to Violence in 2023
There is no relief in lower numbers, certainly we do not want them to go up. It needs to be zero,
Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) is Monday, November 20
Photos: Chanelle Pickett and sister Gabrielle, Gabrielle and Chanelle on the Jenny Jones show. Rita Hester, Rita with some of her many friends, Boston venues mentioned in this episode include the club formerly known as Playland (1937–1998, located at 21 Essex St, Chinatown, was Boston's oldest gay bar), The Model Cafe and The Silhouette in Allston, Jacque's in Boston's Bay Village - is Boston's oldest Gay bar, Transgender Day of Remembrance,
Gabrielle and Chanelle on Jenny Jones, 1992
SOURCES
Boston Globe - Hot Dogs for Life at The Silhouette
MassLive.com - Get a tattoo related to this Allston bar and get free hotdogs for life https://www.masslive.com/boston/2022/10/get-a-tattoo-related-to-this-allston-bar-and-you-can-get-free-hot-dogs-for-life.html
HRC.org - 2021 becomes the deadliest year on record for transgender and non-binary peopleHuman Rights Campaign
HRC.org - Fatal Violence Against The Transgender and Nonbinary Community in 2023
https://www.hrc.org/resources/fatal-violence-against-the-transgender-and-nonbinary-community-in-2023
Transquality.org - Fact Sheet Writing About Transgender People and Issues
LGBTMAP.org - Panic Defense Bans
Chanelle Pickett, Watertown, Mass
Chanelle Pickett on Jenny Jones
Gabrielle Pickett, Chanelle's twin sisterIs this Gabrielle? https://www.hartisland.net/burial_records/gabrielle-pickett
Rita and Chanelle
The Murder of Chanelle Pickett
Bay Windows reporting on Rita HesterBa Rita Hester https://www.baywindows.com/_Search?q=rita+hester&p=1
Bay windows misgendered Rita
19thnews.org - For years, Black Trans women have been told their life expectancy is 35 years. That’s false. While there’s no evidence to support the statistic, experts do worry that it creates a self-fulfilling prophecy for Black Trans women.
https://19thnews.org/2022/08/black-trans-women-life-expectancy-false OpenDemocracy.net - Who Was Rita Hester?
Boston Phoenix - Displaced anger, Is Rita Hester's murder being eclipsed by the transgender community's grammatical agenda? ityscape by Sarah McNaught https://bostonphoenix.com/archive/features/98/12/10/cityscape.html
Deadliest Year on Record for Trans and Non Binary people
Public Files Request, Rita Hester
NBC News report by Kate Sison, 2020 - Rita background story
A Murder That Started A movement - Rita Hester
Petition for Rita
Change.org - Name the Allston Yards Community Green Space After Rita Hester https://www.change.org/p/name-the-allston-yards-community-green-space-after-rita-hester
Boston.com - Rita's memorial mural
Rita Hester's Cold Case https://defrostingcoldcases.com/rita-hester-nov-30-1963-nov-28-1998/
PBS.org - 2021 Deadliest Year For Transgender people
WHYY.org - Grieving lives lost without reason on Transgender Day of Remembrance
Fenway Health - Transgender Awareness Month: Protect Transgender Rights Now And Every Day
Boston Globe - Boston’s transgender community gathers to remember Rita Hester
My South End - Rita Hester's life mattered, by Rev. Irene Monroe
