The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson Page #6

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Love dont always rhyme

And love is all we have for now

What we dont have is time

[Coco Rodriguez] She tried to help

through the AIDS epidemic.

If you were sick,

she'd sit right by you.

She'd stop by and say, "Hey, are you okay?

Do you need something?"

She was helping a person survive.

[Marsha] I always meet these young people

that don't have nobody

who wants to stick by them and help them.

So I help them out with,

like, a place to stay,

or some food to eat,

or a little change for their pockets.

They don't call me

"Pay It No Mind" Johnson for nothing.

[Coco] And you can't find

another butterfly like that in life.

She always changed from her cocoon.

And you never knew

what she was gonna wear.

You never knew what she was gonna wear.

Did you see this morning's treatment?

Didn't you love that?

[Randy] What was this morning's treatment?

With the little hairdo and everything.

Did you see the fur coat I got her?

There she is, Miss America.

Well, tomorrow morning,

I'll give you the breakfast treatment.

-I'm fixing breakfast for ya.

-Yes, yes, yes.

-I'm gonna put on my Valentine outfit.

-I love it.

-And you're gonna be--

-For breakfast?

Yes, you're gonna be gagging.

You'd be surprised

how many gorgeous clothes

Randy got around here for me

that I don't even wear.

Oh, the red velvet suit?

Yes, and all the furs.

We're gonna give you the treatment

tomorrow morning,

just to get your heart ready

for heart failure.

-[Alexis] Are you taping all this?

-[reporter] Yeah.

-[Alexis] Right now?

-[reporter] Right.

[Marsha] He's gonna try and

write an article to try and help us.

[reporter] I'm trying to

get some information

about what's going on on West Street,

with the police harassing everybody.

[Alexis] In my whole time

of having any dealings

with the Sixth Precinct Vice Squad,

these little creeps slapped me...

threatened to kill me,

told me right in the precinct,

in front of everybody.

The one with the glasses,

he says, "What are you, a girl or a boy?"

Next thing I knew,

I was getting punched in my jaw.

[Chichi] The first time,

we was all on the corner,

and somebody had just said, "Run."

And they just started beating on me

and kicking me in the chest.

[Marsha] They do that

to a lot of people that run.

[Tina] He pulled out his gun.

He said, "If you come back down here,

I'm gonna shoot you."

Then the other cop said,

"I oughta throw him in the water.

But he might be too skinny.

He might not hit the bottom."

[Marsha] Yeah.

[Alexis] They seem to believe

that it is their job and duty

to extricate all transvestites,

to torture transvestites.

[Victoria] How many trans murders

did AVP record in 1992?

That summer was the worst summer ever.

We had many, many marches.

We were demonstrating all the time,

because that was a way

to get public and police attention.

But anti-LGBT violence was at a peak.

That year we had 1,300 reports

of bias crime.

[Victoria] Some were from the police?

Yeah. If you look at

the annual reports there,

you're gonna see, whatever,

12, 18% of those

were based on violence

perpetrated by police.

Was this after or before Marsha's demise?

[indistinct shouting]

[Matt] It was going on

before what happened to Marsha...

and it went on for a long time.

It's that whole period.

We were sick at heart

about this unrelenting wave of attacks,

particularly given the circumstances

surrounding Marsha's death.

[crowd shouting]

[Victoria] What was the community's

relationship with the Sixth Precinct?

It was not positive because

it was not an adequate response

from the police to all this violence.

It wasn't an adequate response

from One Police Plaza

that went all the way down

to the Sixth Precinct.

[crowd clamoring]

[Matt] They did not pay

sufficient attention

to crimes like what happened to Marsha.

It was obvious that she had been murdered,

and it was obvious that the police werent

giving it the attention that it deserved.

I mean, I don't have any peace

at home anymore, doll.

My roommate Randy's really after

the people from the Festival Committee.

-Tommy, thank you.

-[Tommy] You're welcome.

I mean, he's doing

this whole great big trip

with all these organizations

to change all these people around lately.

Which can get you murdered, you know.

Honey, and wait until they get ahold

of you for taking their money away.

Randy tried to put me in the middle of it.

I tell him I don't bite my tongue

for nobody.

I tell him I dont want to be bothered.

So, honey, we're wondering when the Mob

is gonna come with the bullets. [laughs]

[interviewer] I understand you.

[Marsha] And when the Mob comes,

darling, they say,

"Why are you giving out these flyers?

What do you got against us?"

"Oh, I dont have anything against youse.

It's just that my roommate suspects...

[chuckles] that youse have been

racketeering and stuff."

[Randy] Hi, my name is Randy Wicker.

I have started the campaign

to expose and replace

the Christopher Street Festival Committee.

I'm tired of shady operators running

the Christopher Street Festival

on Gay Pride Day.

Where do all those festival dollars go?

[indistinct chatter]

The Christopher Street Festival Committee

is widely rumored to be Mob-controlled.

We're gonna take this festival back,

run it for our community.

Take back the day.

[Victoria] Remember this event here,

Take Back the Day?

Where Randy was trying to take back

the Christopher Street Festival

from the Mob?

I remember he had signs about it.

It was a...

concern with him.

I don't remember a particular day.

Who was running

the Christopher Street Festival

during that time that you remember?

If you take charge and make

a logical decision, people will follow.

Heritage of Pride would organize

the annual march, rally and dance.

And we'd march downtown

along Fifth Avenue, into the Village.

-[marching band music playing]

-[crowd cheering]

In the Village, there was the annual

Christopher Street Liberation Festival,

which was basically booths

and meat on a stick,

and your standard street festival.

The guys who ran the festival

were Ed Murphy,

who had been a bouncer at the Stonewall,

and his friend Red Mahoney.

And Red Mahoney was his...

you know, um...

assistant.

They worked for whatever part

of the Mafia ran the gay bars at the time.

They did their thing

and we did ours, and--

The reason I'm bringing this up is because

Marsha would go around saying

the Mob was after her.

-That's why I'm asking these questions.

-I can see getting that upset.

But the gay bar business wasn't gonna be

where you put your folks

who could shoot well,

and it wasn't where you put folks

who could run the business.

It was what you did with the idiot nephew

who wasn't capable of being a mobster.

He was capable of showing up and getting

whatever percentage at the door he got,

and selling overpriced toilet paper.

[Victoria] Well, Randy Wicker

hired Sam Ciccone

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