The death toll from that June 24, 1973, arson - the deadliest crime against gays in the U.S. But because the Up Stairs Lounge was a gay bar and all but one of the dead were gay men, the police investigation of the arson was casual and incomplete. It had been the worst fire in New Orleans’ history.
The smell of burnt flesh was overwhelming.īy the time the flames were extinguished, 32 people were dead. Firefighters found grisly spectacles: a dead man hanging from one window with horror seared on his face and, upstairs, piles of charred bodies, some melted together. Those trapped inside desperately tried to squeeze through the iron bars on the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Mississippi Center For Investigative ReportingĪ fireball rushed inside the Up Stairs Lounge and raced through the bar, and the flammable decor and patrons’ polyester clothing.
