Though he confessed to the shooting in which two men died and eight others were wounded, Crumpley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Crumpley spent the rest of his life in mental institutions.[2]
Crumpley was born on January 26, 1942, in Andalusia, Alabama, the son of a minister. An African American, he was the married father of two children who had been dismissed from the Transit Authority for stealing credit cards.[citation needed]
He claimed after the shooting that he was dismayed by the interest gay men he knew had shown in him.[3] When his father reacted to his homophobia by commenting that he "had a homosexual problem himself," Crumpley apparently suffered a breakdown. Already suffering from mental illness due to drug abuse, he stole his father's automobile and drove to Virginia, where he broke into a gun store and stole an Uzisubmachinegun, a .357 magnum revolver, and two semi-automatic pistols. He then returned to New York City.[4]
On November 19, 1980, shortly before 11 p.m., Crumpley started shooting indiscriminately at gay men in the Greenwich Village neighborhood with two stolen handguns. Crumpley first shot and wounded two men outside a delicatessen located on the corner of Washington and 10th Streets, but they survived by hiding behind parked cars. The Ramrod, a popular gay leather bar, was two blocks away, located between 10th and Christopher Streets, sharing the blockfront with another gay bar called "Sneakers."[2]
The New York Times headline for the story of the shooting was entitled "West Street Massacre."[2]
Armed with an Uzisubmachinegun outfitted with a 40-round magazine, Crumpley fired into the line of people waiting to go into the Ramrod and shot through its window, hitting four people. Vernon Kroening, an organist at the nearby St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, died instantly. Four others were wounded, including Ramrod doorman Jorg Wenz, who died later that day at St. Vincent's Hospital. Two Ramrod patrons standing outside the bar were wounded as was another patron on the inside. After shooting a man inside Sneakers, Crumpley moved on, shooting and wounding two more men at Greenwich and 10th Streets, where he was arrested.[2]
The day after the shooting, Crumpley said, "I'll kill them all — the gays — they ruin everything."[2]
Crumpley justified his murders based on his religious beliefs, believing that gay men were instruments of the Devil and were trying to "steal my soul just by looking at me."[5] He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and put in a mental facility. In 2001, he had a competency hearing, claiming he was now sane, but displayed homophobia during the court proceedings.[3] Crumpley remained incarcerated in mental institutions.[2]
