21-year-old Joel Larson was walking through a popular gay cruising spot in Minneapolis, Minnesota around 11:30 in the evening on July 31, 1991, when he was killed by a bullet to the back. Only ten days later, 19-year-old Cord Draszt and 48-year-old former Minnesota State Senator John Chenoweth were shot at another gay hangout spot. After a six-page letter from the fictitious AIDS Commission claimed responsibility for the hate crimes, authorities realized they had the wrong suspect and raced to track down the real killer before he made good on his threats of more murders to come.

Sources:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/diversity/assault/ 

https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-murders-in-1990s-targeted-gays/512683912 

https://thecinemaholic.com/joel-larson-murder-where-is-jay-thomas-johnson-now/ 

https://www.sctimes.com/story/news/2025/06/16/heres-a-timeline-of-past-attacks-against-minnesota-politicians/84231203007/

https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/serial-killer/minnesota-gay-community-1990s-serial-killing-joel-larson 

https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=10097 

https://coms.doc.state.mn.us/publicviewer/OffenderDetails/Index/168950/Search 

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/family-of-man-targeted-for-being-gay-says-more-needs-to-be-done-for-everyone-to-feel-safe/89-7ce40ed5-5d3d-49a7-be74-a711c16c468a 

https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/articles/10097STobit.pdf 

https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=10630 

https://www.au.org/the-latest/articles/death-of-pat-robertson/ 

https://qlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/MN_Gay_Movement_MCLU.pdf 

https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/turning-anti-gay-hate-love-loring-park-memorial-joel-larson/ 

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED423939.pdf

https://review.gale.com/2017/05/17/the-homophobic-aids-crisis-of-the-1980s/ 

https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline#year-1981 

https://www.history.com/articles/aids-epidemic-ronald-reagan 

https://www.aidschicago.org/about-hiv/hiv-aids-milestones/ 

https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/fact-sheets/hiv-and-aids-basics

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8493181/ 

https://www.cnn.com/us/lgbt-rights-milestones-fast-facts 

https://www.amfar.org/about-hiv-aids/snapshots-of-an-epidemic-hiv-aids/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20809130865&gbraid=0AAAAADvUAaRnj4Wat_2e_0ipgy6R3DA8e&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9czHBhCyARIsAFZlN8Ss0s21Wh6xan459lczdDMVrjgEkNyfKuVh5dTd8e_JDtvx_D5C5mIaAuljEALw_wcB 

https://www.prb.org/resources/hiv-aids-and-african-americans-a-state-of-emergency/ 

https://www.kff.org/hiv-aids/the-impact-of-hiv-on-black-people-in-the-united-states/ 

https://www.cdc.gov/Mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001998.htm#:~:text=During%20the%201980s%2C%20the%20number,reported%20cases%20(Table%201). 

https://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9828348/ronald-reagan-hiv-aids 

https://aidsunited.org/examining-hiv-criminalization/ 

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/sodomy 

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/three-decades-later-men-who-survived-gay-plague-speak-out-n825621