XPost: alt.politics.homosexuality, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: aids@glaad.org   
      
   In article    
    wrote:   
   >   
   > ...Alvin has my vote!   
   >   
      
   A gang that preys on gay men at Hell’s Kitchen nightclubs is   
   suspected of killing at least two victims and of drugging and   
   robbing more than a dozen other men — but Manhattan District   
   Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is impeding the investigation, law   
   enforcement sources say.   
      
   An NYPD homicide investigation into the serial killings has   
   expanded to include robberies with the unexplained deaths of two   
   well-heeled young men, who were attacked under nearly identical   
   circumstances five weeks and two blocks apart last spring.   
      
   Their phones were missing when their bodies were found, and   
   their bank accounts had been emptied of tens of thousands of   
   dollars. Each victim was last seen with three unidentified men   
   in the hours before they died.   
      
   Five months later, New Yorkers still have not been warned that   
   the predatory gang is on the loose.   
      
   But the mother of one victim has decided to break her silence to   
   protect other young men from suffering the same fate as her son,   
   John Umberger, 33, a Washington, DC, political consultant who   
   disappeared after a night out in May while visiting New York for   
   work.   
      
   “I can’t be quiet anymore,” Linda Clary told The Post.   
      
   “Word needs to get out, especially in the gay community, that   
   they are targeting gay men. … This same group of killers have   
   drugged, robbed and murdered countless young gay men in New   
   York.”   
      
   Final moments   
   Her son last used his credit card around 3 a.m. Saturday, May   
   28, at The Q NYC, a multistory gay nightclub at 795 Eighth Ave.,   
   where he had gone alone after a late dinner with friends at Tao   
   Downtown in Chelsea.   
      
   He ordered and canceled a cab at 3:15 a.m. and was last seen   
   about an hour later on a surveillance camera with three   
   unidentified men in a car outside the Upper East Side townhouse   
   where he was staying. The footage from a nearby building shows   
   Umberger getting out of the car with two of the men, who entered   
   the townhouse with him but left without him after about 45   
   minutes.   
      
   Between 5:19 a.m. and 5:37 a.m., someone responded to six text   
   messages on Umberger’s phone, but Clary believes it was not her   
   son. At 9:18 a.m., Umberger’s phone stopped sharing its location   
   with his younger sister and two brothers. A text message sent by   
   Clary to her son at 8:24 p.m. was marked as “read,” so she   
   thought he was safe.   
      
   “I thought John was reading my texts but was too busy and   
   ignoring me. You let a day go by, a day go by and then you say,   
   ‘This is weird.’”   
      
   Her son’s body was found four days later, on June 1, in a fifth-   
   floor apartment of a townhouse at 34 E. 61st St., which is owned   
   by conservative lawyer Jay Sekulow’s American Center for Law and   
   Justice, where Umberger was director of diplomacy and political   
   programs.   
      
   His cellphone was missing, and his credit cards had been stolen   
   from his wallet. More than $25,000 had been transferred out of   
   his accounts through cash apps on his phone such as Venmo and   
   PayPal, by changing the passwords, says his mom. There also was   
   a failed attempt to empty his Charles Schwab trust fund account.   
      
   His credit cards later were used to buy booze at a liquor store   
   near a homeless shelter and items at a Foot Locker.   
      
   Five weeks earlier, in similar circumstances, Brooklyn social   
   worker Julio Ramirez, 25, was captured by a security camera   
   leaving the Ritz Bar and Lounge, a gay club on West 46th Street,   
   two blocks from The Q NYC, with three unidentified men around   
   3:17 a.m. Thursday, April 21.   
      
   He was found dead in the back of a taxi an hour later, on the   
   Lower East Side. His phone and wallet were missing, and his bank   
   accounts had been emptied of about $20,000. Like Umberger, his   
   money was cleaned out by his tech-savvy killers via apps such as   
   Venmo and Zelle; his credit cards were maxed out on expensive   
   dinners and spa services.   
      
   Earlier that night, Ramirez and a friend had visited two other   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)