“The majority of these people seem to regard this whole incident as a big joke,” Goldstein continued. Hyman Goldstein provided context for this influx “We have received word that Washington police are conducting a drive on homosexuals apparently some of them are coming to Baltimore for their entertainment.” In the 1950s McCarthyism orchestrated a witch hunt & mass firing of gay government workers, as well as increased policing for the D.C. NOTE I theorize the Pepper Hill Club was a refuge away from the Lavender Scare. They collapsed suddenly suffering a fatal heart attack in 1980 while performing Patti Labelle's “Joy to Have Your Love” Pictured is Che Che Timmons, known in their performances as “The Transparent Lady”. One officer heard one man say to another, “Do you still love me?” and the long arresting process began. This description was apt in that it described the lack of control police had over the mass of patrons as well as police’s inability to distinguish homosexuals in the crowd. on October 1, 1955, police arrived on the Pepper Hill Club’s premises and were met with what Goldstein referred to as a “living wall” of disorderly patrons.
Arresting officer and head of the vice squad Hyman Goldstein also claimed that he warned the owners not to “allow homosexuals to congregate there,” but Lance denied this.Īround 11 p.m. Club co-owner Victor Lance described it irreverently as “a gag most people got a kick out of.” ”At least we put panties on ours,” he said. Male patrons were seen hugging and kissing each other, along with other unnamed acts of “indecency.” Two weeks prior to the arrests, police told the club’s owners to take down the lower half of a female mannequin hanging from the ceiling. The Pepper Hill Club was located at 200 North Gay Street, only a block from the main police station, two blocks from City Hall, and on the fringes of “The Block,” Baltimore’s sex & entertainment district containing many strip bars and peep shows. This story comes from the archives of the Baltimore Sun reporting on the arrest & subsequent mass trial. Six police wagons had to make 24 trips to shuttle all the arrested men from the club to the nearby police station. Histories exploring Baltimore’s queer history from independent trans/researcher Jamie Grace Alexander & illustrator Josie Breck years before Stonewall, a raid by the Baltimore police on the Pepper Hill Club netted 162 gay men.