It may have been decades ago that I first saw William Friedkin’s 1980 gay crime thriller Cruising, but I’ll never forget my astonishment that such a film could be made in the 1970s.
“Cruising” stars Al Pacino as a straight New York City police officer who infiltrates the gay leather community in search of a serial killer who picks up men in bars and murders them.
Films that centered on the gay leather community, or even parts of the LGBTQ community, in a graphic manner were unheard of in this era.
I later learned that Cruising received immediate backlash from gay rights activists when the script was leaked to Village Voice columnist Arthur Bell and reported. Activists argued that the film was exploitative and unfairly portrayed the gay community as oversexed, depraved, and violent. While filming was taking place on the streets of New York in 1979, protesters kept interrupting the filming. When “Cruising” was released, it was a huge flop at the box office.
“Cruising” is a work inspired by a series of murders that occurred in New York in the 1970s. At the time, law enforcement officials believed there may be a serial killer targeting gay men after the body parts of six unidentified men and clothing associated with a local leather shop were found wrapped in garbage bags in the Hudson River.
Then, in 1977, Addison Berrill, a longtime film reporter for Variety magazine, was brutally murdered by Paul Bateson after he picked her up at a Greenwich Village bar.
Bateson was convicted of Beryl’s murder in 1979 and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison before parole in 2003. Some believed that Bateson, who died in 2012, was also a suspected serial killer, but that theory was never proven and these cases remain unsolved to this day.
Friedkin knew Bateson from his part in The Exorcist, playing the technician who performs Regan’s (Linda Blair) angiogram. The director cast Bateson after observing him working as a radiologist at New York University Medical Center while researching a horror film.
Friedkin went on to say that Beryl’s murder was the main inspiration for “Cruising” after visiting Bateson in prison.
What I didn’t know until recently was that Beryl was not only a variety reporter, but also a close friend of my late Uncle Arthur.
Two months ago, I reunited with Arthur’s ex-wife, Susan. He was my high school sweetheart whom I married in the early 70’s. In the 35 years since Arthur’s funeral, I have never seen or spoken to Susan. After they divorced, my uncle came out as gay. He died of AIDS in 1991.
Reminiscing about her friends, Susan said that her two closest friends were Beryl and Bob Geary, whom she met when Arthur was an undergraduate at Stony Brook University.
“Addison was killed,” Susan said. “It was horrible.”
And she asked me, “Do you know about the serial killer who was murdering gay men in the 1970s?”
“Of course,” I said. “That’s what the movie ‘Cruising’ was about.”
Susan told me that Beryl may have been one of his victims.
Then I remembered hearing that Jeffrey Schwartz, the director of queer-centered documentaries about Divine and Tab Hunter, was making a film about the making of Cruising.
It has been announced that director Schwartz’s “Mineshaft: Cruising Murders” will have its world premiere at this year’s Tribeca Festival. I immediately contacted Schwartz and told him about Beryl’s connection to my family. When I mentioned Bob, Schwartz said he was one of the main interviewees for this document.
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This movie — “Mineshaft” refers to the leather bar of the same name that was popular in New York City in the ’70s — is not just about “cruising.” It also chronicles Beryl’s life and untimely death.
When I saw “Mineshaft,” I was not only surprised, but also sad. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to find out about Addison and Bob. However, my mother and sister who passed away were both traumatized, so they didn’t talk much about their pasts. Not only did Arthur die of AIDS, but he also lost his other brother David to the disease in 1989.
“You and I are both looking for stories from the past, which is why I do what I do,” Schwartz told me over Zoom. “I’m looking for those stories, and I’m trying to find gay love stories. I made a movie (2021’s Boulevard! A Hollywood Story) about a gay couple that I worked with Gloria Swanson to turn Sunset Boulevard into a musical. I was like, ‘Wow, this is a gay love story from the ’50s that hasn’t been told before.” let’s do it. ” This film follows in their footsteps as they try to find strange stories from the past. I feel a certain responsibility to share these stories with the world. ”
How did your film come about?
When “Cruising” was released in 1980, I was 11 years old and growing up in Queens, New York. Manhattan wasn’t that far away, but to me it might as well have been another planet. At the time, I had no concept of my sexuality or being gay, but I do remember the release of Cruising. I remember the TV commercials, posters, and radio ads. I remember seeing Siskel and Ebert’s review of this film on “Sneak Previews.” I remember watching a local news anchor report on the “cruising” protests. When I came out much later, I was reading Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet. I tried to watch every movie Vito talked about. “Cruising” ranked high. I was transfixed by that movie. I found this work to be fascinating, scary, sexual and very provocative with many mixed messages. I completely understood where the protesters were coming from, but it was also a side of gay life that had never been portrayed on film before. So about 10 years ago, I had the idea to start making documentaries. Initially, I thought it would focus on the making of Cruising, the protests, and how it was rediscovered as a cult classic. I knew the movie was inspired by a real-life murder case, but as I started digging deeper, I learned even more about Addison.
You found Bob and Addison’s sister Pamela, but was it difficult to convince them to talk to you? I imagine this was something they didn’t want to revisit.
When I first started talking to Pamela, she was quite wary. She didn’t know me. I took the time to share my work with her and let her know what my intentions were. I think ultimately she decided to come on board to reclaim Addison’s story. The film depicts her love for her brother and her disappointment at not being able to understand his gay life. When he died, she knew nothing about the gay world. However, when she came to New York to settle his estate, she was accepted by his friend group, all gay men who loved Addison. She learned a lot about him that she didn’t know.
When did you talk to Bob?
I ask Pam if she remembers the name of Addison’s friend that she could talk to. She said, “Well, there was a guy named Bob, and I think I was his roommate at one point.” All I had to go on was “Bob” and “roommate.” Bob turned out to be Robert Geary. But he was more than just a roommate. He was his lover for several years. Bob didn’t want to talk to me at all. Addison’s murder was one of the most shocking things that ever happened to him. But in the end, like Pam, she decides to do it to restore some dignity to Addison.
Do you think Paul is a serial killer?
The bodies of these six people were never even identified. I don’t think the police conducted a thorough investigation. It was just gay guys getting killed, so it was like, “Who cares?” The assistant prosecutor raised the possibility that Paul was involved in other murders, as he had apparently bragged to friends about having committed other murders. There is no evidence that Paul is involved in any other murders. Personally, I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think Paul is a serial killer.
“Mineshaft” would premiere in Tribeca, presumably within walking distance of Addison’s apartment and a gay ’70s leather bar.
You can walk from the theater where we’re performing to the Julius Theater where Addison met Bob. You can walk to the Meatpacking District, which used to be an abandoned mine on Washington Street. One of the reasons I love “cruising” is because I get to see so many of these streets. Telling Addison’s story was a way to explore what was available to gay men at the time. But watching this movie now, knowing that it was filmed in the summer of 1979 and that the first HIV case was reported in ’81, makes it painful to watch. We know for a fact that many men who contracted the virus were infected for years before showing symptoms. When you look at the bar scene in “Cruising,” you have to wonder how many of these guys will still be alive in a year, two years, or five years, since Friedkin cast real men in the leather scenes and featured porn stars as extras. Friedkin very consciously used gay porn stars. In the first murder scene at the beginning of the movie, the man who is tied to a bed and stabbed from behind is a very famous porn star named Malo. He ended up remaining friends with Pacino. He’s the bodyguard who gets stabbed with a chainsaw in the bathroom in “Scarface.”
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. Mineshaft: Cruising Murders will premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 6th.
