Guynell Flanagan, first cousin of Vester Flanagan (pictured), the man who murdered WBDJ-TV reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward on live television earlier this week, spoke with the Daily Mail about how the family is coping with the heartbreaking situation.
Shortly after the killings, Flanagan emailed a 23-page manifesto to ABC News describing his motivation for the killings were a result of mistreatment he felt he received for being black and gay.
“He wrote the manifesto,” Guynell said, “but [the family] don’t believe a lot of what’s being said about him. We know Vester in different ways.”
Related: WBDJ Gunman Bryce Williams’ Bizarre Manifesto Reveals His Sexual Orientation
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“The whole family knew he was gay,” she continued. “We accepted him. He’s not the only one in the family who’s gay and, personally, I couldn’t care less.”
Guynell explained that the last time she actually saw Flanagan was in November 2013, when she invited him and a male companion over for Thanksgiving dinner. She isn’t sure whether the man was a boyfriend or just a friend, and she didn’t ask.
Guynell described the moment she learned her cousin was the one responsible for the murders as taking her by complete surprise, since she never knew him to be an angry person.
“I was sitting there looking at the news and it didn’t occur to me, I just woke up and it didn’t click it was our Vester. We can’t believe something like this would happen.”
The family now has the difficult task of grieving the loss of a loved one who committed a terrible crime.
“I’m grieving in my own way,” she said. “I don’t do a lot of crying. God will take care of this. I’m praying for my family and the victims’ families.”
Related: Before Becoming A Mass Murderer, Vester Flanagan Was A Male Escort
Grant Mealey
Omg….all so tragic from the unacceptable way he was treated to the unacceptable way he responded………
Glücklich
“We accepted him….” when he moved across the country. Outta sight, outta mind. And he was outta his mind, the loony toon.
mz.sam
A professional victim and a total wack-job. FYI: now let’s see if Gay USA will report on Flanagan”s heinous crime.
Glücklich
All of this crazy shit is coming out about all the places that fired him for his bizarre behavior and stirring the HR pot. Some of these places settled bogus claims, probably just to make him go away.
I guess his plan for grocery store slip-and-falls never got off the ground.
Captain Obvious
Continuing to bully a dead person who clearly had a mental break and was suffering only serves to further prove his point.
Some “people” really need to learn humanity and humility. Maybe all 3 people would still be alive.
Desert Boy
The fact Vester was gay isn’t the issue here. Vester is an example of what happens when you live in a “victim culture” and you’re taught everyone is out to get you. He filed a workplace complaint with the EEOC, they investigated his allegations and found there was nothing there — nothing. Vester needed intensive psychotherapy and possibly drug therapy too. He was dangerous to society. How many more Vesters are out there?
Stuart Senften
Stop bringing GAY into the motive, he was a Crazy Psychopathic Killer..GAY has nothing to do with it…
Curty
His sexuality is being way over reported. Gay or not he is a monster who killed innocent people and all queerty wants to discuss is his escort past, with him barely clothes on. So what he was accepted by his family. He was a killer and if there is a hell I hope he rots and burns. He was a coward and cold blooded murderer. Enough with articles about him. Any positive gay role models out here? Is that too much to ask?
ngblog
@Glücklich: If they do, they will screw it up just as they have with all the other recent controversies plaguing our community.
Bob LaBlah
@Curty: ” His sexuality is being way over reported.”
Guess what the headlines of the NYDaily News reported? The sex toys found in his apartment. I kid you not. I don’t know about the rest of you but I honestly don’t feel that I needed to know all of that:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/vester-flanagan-barren-apartment-article-1.2340296
ngblog
His crime notwithstanding, it seems everyone, which is no one, wants to admit mental illness, especially when its bought on by negative life stresses, including those associated with homophobia, discrimination, and other stigmas is a real problem for us and that this incident could have been prevented if his friends, and the people who had followed him on social media were paying attention to the warning signs.
Nobody was apparently. It was basically, “Oh it’s Vernon being an asshole again; Ignore him.”
Now that he’s dead, most if not all the popular gay blogs and writers want to blame it on his sexual orientation – go figure, gay bloggers playing the homophobia card, what a concept – or scapegoat social conservatives, as if.
Too bad Vernon wasn’t transgender; He would be a marytr and hero, there would be calls to demand WDBJ executives investigated for transphobia, and all kinds of protests and vigils taking place.
Captain Obvious
@Bob LaBlah: He’s black so rather than compassionately go into details of mental illness and how it went unchecked they will seek to humiliate and destroy him completely.
The Boston Bomber stories went into mental illness and how it wasn’t really his fault that he tried to kill so man people. The theater shooters? No humiliating stories. On and on.
This guy? Well he killed two people he cited drove him to it and shockingly didn’t gun for anyone else in the entire new station. Yet we’re not going to look into or focus on any of that we’re just going to keep reporting on anything that will humiliate and destroy him because he’s brown and therefore a piece of sh|t.
I’m not saying he was right to kill, I’m not saying I agree with anything he did whatsoever, but it’s startling how different the reporting is when the murderer is white.
He killed 2 people yet he’s labeled a mass murderer. White mass murderers killed over 4 and didn’t get any humiliating coverage or anyone bashing the hell out of them.
It’s ridiculous.
Hell I remember the story of Don Belton the black and out gay professor who was murdered by the closeted white guy he was sleeping with. People here said he must have raped his murderer because he was black and “unattractive” and he deserved to be murdered. The white guy who murdered a respected black professor got SYMPATHY on Queerty, but this guy who was clearly suffering from lack of support, friends, interaction, and love gets none whatsoever from the “gay community”. SMH…
Clark35
@Curty: Well said.
dean3000
@Curty: I think he was mentally ill. Let’s not ignore that as so many of us self medicate to cope. Maybe if he was part of something larger than himself or if there was someone he could talk to this maybe could have been averted.
dean3000
@Bob LaBlah: as he posts the link. im sure Geoffrey Dahmer had worse in his apartment but there will be no remberence day for his victims, all gay all young all blatino. No Matthew Shepherd types so let’s pretend it didn’t happen
Realitycheck
@Glücklich: LOL You might be very right about that.
Curty
Captin obvious, you keep making this a race thing, what difference does it make? He killed folks, he was a coward… he recorded it and enjoyed it. He was evil. The fact you keep making this about race is beyond moronic at this point. A serial killer is a killer that person could be Brown, black, white, Indian. Like myself. Or asian… or someone who has one arm, one leg, no dick, trans…. get my point? You to over and over keep making this mans skin color the in all be all is just pointless and does nothing to justify this senseless killing! Do you need mental help?
Giancarlo85
Captain Dipshit always tries to make everything a racial issue. This murderer killed two people in clood blood. And he was a psychotic coward indeed. Killing people just because they bother you? Captain Dipshit you need to check yourself in a mental hospital.
GayEGO
Discrimination is no reason to commit these murderous crimes. If he truly was discriminated for being black and gay, being a reporter should have given him the knowledge to publicize this discrimination, not shoot other human beings.
Alberto
Please stop covering stories about the murderer
Alistair Wiseman
@Giancarlo85:
I hate it when people are killed in “clood blood”.
Avery Alvarez
He clearly had mental problems that he was struggling with.
If he had decided to take himself out, that would have been his decision to make
But killing other people is NEVER justified. Do whatever you want with your own life, but you have no right to murder someone else, to make that decision for them.
Glücklich
@Avery Alvarez:
That’s the problem with these nut jobs. They always get the steps wrong.
Take YOURSELF out first, THEN go after others.
Kangol
@Bob LaBlah: They were trying to go for the most lurid, humiliating things they could find that have NOTHING to do with the tragedy.
The man snapped, he murdered two people and wounded one, then killed himself.
I don’t want to know what sex toys he used or that he used any. But the news media are in the business of playing up drama and stoking hom0phobia since the very mention of sex toys and someone being gay will make some people respond with revulsion, etc.
It’s sickening, and none of the sensationalism will bring those two murdered people back.
jantheman4903
i think he should have been shot down the second that he raised that gun. that said a psychological autopsy of his life SHOULD be done. but won’t..well because everyone is afraid they may be partially at fault. did where he worked not report something to human resources that would have flagged him ect.
Glücklich
@jantheman4903:
Uhh…where he worked and human resources are the same thing. HR is not some over-arching police force that exists *outside* where he worked. Every place he worked has its own HR department. At every place he worked, HR was involved in his dismissal. Have you never worked for a company of any size?
Louis
This man should have seeked serious psychological help plain and simple.
It’s sad that any of this happened it never should have to begin with.
Cagnazzo82
Queerty is basically now using this guy as an acute form of torture against its readers.
I truly, truly want this guy to disappear from all reality from now till forever.
Glücklich
@Louis:
Yes he should have *sought* help but unless someone’s 5150’ed (or whatever it is in VA – on psych hold for 24-72 hours) i.e. deemed crazy/dangerous by the police, the folks who truly need help, like this guy with a persecution complex (for starters) did, don’t usually seek it. They think everyone else has the problem.
I had a friend, long time ago, who thought the TV was speaking *to him* and everyone around him was whispering about him. It’s a high threshold to force someone to get help. I know my limitations so I cut him loose. I’m not equipped to deal with that sort of thing.
blackberry finn
Uh, I don’t want this crazy f***** associated with the gay community in any way. He should be forgotten asap by everyone.
LadyL
One thing is certain–this man did not “snap” as some have said. The one completely true and revealing thing Flanagan said about himself was that he was a human time bomb “waiting to go boom.”
Everything else, all his rationalizations about why he did what he did, was self-serving horseshit. He was paranoid, delusional and self-entitled. He projected all of his insecurities about himself on to everyone around him, seeing slights and insults wherever he looked. It is disgusting to me that he would use the S. C. church killings as justification for shooting his WDBJ-TV coworkers.
Let’s be clear–what Flanagan did was not “vengeance” for anyone but himself. Recording the murders of Parker and Ward as they were doing their jobs live on television, and then posting the act to Facebook was breathtaking in its cold, calculating cruelty.
But then, he must at least have realized how reviled he would be, and with all the palaver about racism and the church killings was making a pathetically lame bid for some kind of anti-hero/folk hero status. The bitter joke is on him–with his vile act the best he could ever hope for is to appeal to the world’s next revenge-killer loser.
Yes, he was clearly mentally ill and possibly drug-addled as well. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t know what he was doing was wrong. That he was trying to escape capture and killed himself only when cornered by police, says volume about his lucidity.
Bob LaBlah
@Captain Obvious: I have lived and drove across the entire country (retired 18 wheeler commercial driver) and many a day felt like a stereotypical “dumb ass trucker”, as many of my fellow drivers are referred to. But having done that exposed me to a lot of different cultures that had I stayed in the little country hick town what wants to call itself a big city I would have never known how to get along with others who are completely different.
I say that because this guy was brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness. I am now beginning to believe that he may have not been allowed to associate with no other children other than those in the faith. No friends outside of the community is rampant in the Hasidic Jew communities of NYC and Israel. Before long they see no other way in life except what they have been taught to believe. In the case of this guy it sounds as though as he got older and struck out on his own he slowly became more and more isolated from society. He was like present in it but not really there with everyone else. I have no doubt he was familiar with drugs due to his being an escort. Ninety percent of the people who hire those guys are high off of something and many times share what they have with the trick when he arrives. This guy was fucked in the head in some many ways it now requires pad and pencil to keep track.
I reading different views of the world and the United States EVERY chance I get and I wanted to ask you and several others when was the last time you ever read/or do you even REMEMBER this publication:
http://www.jetmag.com/news/the-latest-on-the-tv-station-shooting/#.VeETTLoz55g
This is how they reported on the story. You guys have to remember one very important thing: Queerty is what it is. That is it is a publication aimed at gays and it is THEIR decision to report what and in whatever form/direction THEY choose. There ARE alternatives for sure, but when you invite yourself into THEIR “home” you are under THEIR roof. Personally, I didnt like the way comments on the latest media queen from that despicable family of no talented……well, lets just say “her”, were sanitized like they were, but I had to live with it.
Times like these are when I wish rod online.typepad.com was still up but he has been gone since last December and to tell you the truth I think that was it as far as the black gay community that I knew of. If there are any others PLEASE come back and let the rest of us know. There are some very hot pictures of this guy that failed to make it to this page. You have to learn to hunt for your satisfaction and not let one source be your guide.
Ogre Magi
@Bob LaBlah: What do they mean by “human material” ?
Bob LaBlah
@dean3000: If you think Dahlmer was sick wait till you get a load of this ol’ hillbilly and his wife, whose lawyer got her off from a death sentence by claiming spousal abuse even though she made a damn QUILT out of the clothes of those he killed and knew damn well why and whom they came from. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind there are far more “employees” this guy killed, but they settled on what they could “find”.
I looked high and low for an article about them from a “reputable” site because your mentioning of Dahlmer triggered my memory of them but the only thing I could find was on Wikipedia, which I personally don’t care for but I do know this sure as hell did happen cause I remembering reading about it in the Washington Post:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_and_Faye_Copeland
Bob LaBlah
@Ogre Magi: Hopefully (with that comment) you and others who read that link now understand what I mean when I say way TOO much information is being given about this guy. I mean really, did any of us just HAVE to know that he needed a few more “rinses” before he………..I do mean it when I say I didn’t need to know that. Now MILLIONS of us do. Those NYC tabloids still trying to pass themselves off as newspapers will report any damn thing as long as it can generate the clicks because no one buys the printed version except for the Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving sales) edition.
Magnus
Please stop giving this vile, putrid, repugnant, pathetic worm of a man attention. You’re giving him what he wants queerty and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves for doing it. Give the attention to his victims, not this slime ball.
Magnus
I don’t want to see this man’s face and I don’t want to read about him. Write articles about his victims, not this putrid disgusting pathetic worm.
Magnus
If anymore “articles” are written about this slime, I’m simply going to stop visiting Queerty and encourage my friends to do the same. You should be ashamed of yourselves Queerty for giving this worm the attention he so desperately sought. Shame on you.
WayDifferent
Let’s see he lost a job at another news station, then worked as a customer service phone clerk at a utility company, owned the domain names to various porn sites, somewhere along the way was a male escort for 2 years while unemployed, then……landed a job at another news station. My resume in these tough times doesn’t stand out to the best employers but geez! And I had a legit self-employment stint to fill in a gap but had to come up with all types of documentation to prove it before being hired elsewhere.
“So what did you do from 1998-2000 where you list self employed on your resume?”
“Ummmmmm, social services. Yeah, it was social services”.
“Oh, that’s such an interesting field. Can you expand on your daily routine for that job?”
“No, I don’t remember now”.
“And what is your real name anyway?”
“Hold on, let me check my drivers license”.
“OK, well we’d like to bring you back for a second interview on Wednesday to meet our Station Manager. You’re exactly who he’s looking for and this is just a formality. How does 2:00 pm sound?”
Doesn’t sound like he was fired for being a gay black male but you can best believe he was HIRED there…..for being a gay black male. Those diversity quota things, ya know? Obama just hired a transgender. I don’t why he didn’t apply at the White House before going to the EEOC.
WayDifferent
@Grant Mealey: I find it peculiar that the guy he killed he formerly told at the station to “lose that gut”. In the road rage incident posted on liveleak (I would assume this was before he killed himself) he was arguing with the other guy with sissy playground jabs which included calling him “fat”. Quite the pattern right before your eyes and a wake-up call for all gay males.
He obviously had self-image problems.
WayDifferent
@Captain Obvious: There will be no blacks stepping up to call him a movie theater mass murderer or pedophile. Usually, they burn their “mentally ill” in an abandoned garage or throw them out on the street as disowned.
Blacks are making leaps abounds in acceptance though.
Magnus
Can Queerty at least remove the image of this snake in the “articles” you have written about him? I really don’t want to see it.
Magnus
Can Queerty at least remove the image of this snake in the “articles” you have written about him? I really don’t want to see it. This being who belongs in the sewer is ugly both on the inside and the outside. If there is a hell he is most certainly burning there.
Magnus
If anymore stories about this worm are reported instead of stories about his victims I will boycott queerty and encourage others to do the same.
I as a gay man am disgusted by you Queerty. You ought to be really ashamed.
Magnus
@Captain Obvious:
Really? Really? You’re showing sympathy for the devil instead of his victims? You sicken me.
Magnus
@Captain Obvious: Also your name “Captain Obvious” as well as your posts are really quite pretentious. You have an attitude problem, I’ve seen it time and time again in your comments. Please get over yourself.
John McKenzie
He had anger issues that he didn’t accept — stupid cunt should have shot himself first
Realitycheck
@John McKenzie: In my own gay doctor words: “look is very important for gay men, even more important then for women”.
I think The guy never liked the way he looked in spite of younger hunky body, and as he got older and out of shape he couldn’t deal with it.
Clearly he was mentally ill, another person would have a middle age crisis, this guy went around shooting people.
@Magnus: There are no winner in this story, yes the victims are the one we all feel sorry for, and their families, but we can also have a bit of sadness left for this crazy person that had a very bad life.
Louis
@Glücklich: I understand when its difficult to know what to do in cases like that.
Just my own opinion personally about situations like that I know I couldn’t force someone to get help unless they were actually willing to get it.
But id give it my best shot to try to let them know they weren’t alone anyways.
Sometimes even the smallest amount of care can change what could possibly happen later on down the line.
Maybe if this mans family would have reconnected with him and advised him to get help before it was too late this horrific tragedy never would have happened to begin with.
Sadly all that’s left are the what ifs and whys in this tragic event.
LadyL
@Louis: Being Jehovah’s Witnesses may have meant his family was not prepared to accept him as gay, despite what family spokesmen are saying now. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’d been struggling with who he was and who he’d been taught he was supposed to be for many years. In and of itself that wouldn’t have caused his spiraling mental health issues but would surely have played a significant part in his confused and conflicted self-image.
Maybe ultimately his victims were only stand-ins for the people he really wanted to kill but couldn’t.
BJ McFrisky
@Magnus: Hear, hear. Funny how the reaction when a crazy white guy shoots down a bunch of innocents in a black church is attributed to all-out racism and the evil symbols that encourage it . . . but when a gay black man kills a couple of white innocents, it’s suddenly the fault of the gun, the mental health system, and the oppressions this poor victim of society suffered at the hands of those who did nothing to make his life perfect. The hypocrisy of the liberal mind knows no bounds. And their sympathies always seem to reside with the perpetrator over the victim.
@Realitycheck: You stated, “we can also have a bit of sadness for this crazy person that had a very bad life,” so I’m assuming your heart has a big warm spot in it for Dylan Roof too, right? James Holmes? Is it because these crazy shooters all seem to have liberal/Democratic/Lefty radical backgrounds, like Nidal Hassan, Aaron Alexis, Seung-Hui Cho (whom Flanagan boasted as someone he admired), Amy Bishop, Andrew Stack, Jared Loughner, hell, even Lee Oswald? Is that where your loyalties lie?
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enfilmigult
@Desert Boy: “Victim culture” doesn’t turn people into homicidal maniacs. Guy brought his own problems to the table.
Kevin White
If we are going to make a big deal that he was gay then lets make a big deal for each straight person who commits similar crimes. Don’t propagate info that is unrelated and only fuels bigots with unnecessary information irrelevant to the case. Him being gay is a none issue here.
Captain Obvious
@Magnus: The irony of your post speaks for itself. I don’t need to follow your silly hostility on the internet. Maybe one day you’ll realize how ridiculous you’re being over an internet post. You might need to look into some sort of medication for your anger issues because trying to insult me, some guy you don’t know, won’t really do anything to make you feel any better. Nice try though. Have a nice day. 🙂
Giancarlo85
@Magnus: Captain Obvious is Captain Big Fucking Idiot that makes the rest of us look bad. Don’t pay much attention to him. He has mental problems.
Daggerman
..OK it’s a sad story, but considering the enormous amount of frustration and bullying Mr. Flanagan went through it’s hardly surprising that the result was terribly regrettable. I would like to say ‘watch out you bastard, crappy heterosexuals who think you’re better.’