When we skimmed a headline about a white supremacist who might have propositioned a black man for sex before being killed, we thought we were reading some old news about South African stain Eugene Terre’blanche, who is posthumously being accused of sexually assaulting at least one of his two alleged killers. But no, this is a story about Richard Barrett, founder of the Mississippi-based Nationalist Movement, who called homosexuality “the most detestable crime against nature,” and who police say was killed by his black neighbor. Who he tried to lay into?
The parallels between the two slayings are bizarre. Two murdered white supremacists. Multiple black suspects each. And both suspect and deceased engaged in an employer-employee relationship.
The suspect charged in Barrett’s murder is [Vincent McGee,] a 22-year-old African American ex-con with tattoos linking him to the Vice Lords gang. The Rankin County Sheriff’s Office also arrested 22-year-old Michael Dent, 38-year-old Vickie Dent and 42-year-old Alfred Lewis this morning, Rankin County Sheriff Ronnie Pennington said. The Dents are booked on charges of being accessories after the fact and arson; Lewis, who is murder suspect Vincent McGee’s stepfather, is charged with accessory after the fact. Barrett’s body had multiple stab wounds to the neck and blunt-force trauma to the head; 35 percent of his body had been burned, Pennington said.
McGee has confessed to the stabbing murder. And now, here comes the speculation:
As the leader of the Mississippi-based Nationalist Movement, Barrett regularly railed against homosexuality, calling it “the most detestable crime against nature.” But in white supremacist circles, Barrett’s sexual orientation has been known by some. (His white supremacist publication, All the Way, regularly featured articles on young white men, including some photographed shirtless.)
[…] On Wednesday, Barrett hired McGee to do lawn work in Hinds County, and the two traveled together on the almost hourlong trip each way. (Barrett had an office near Learned, where he also had a firing range.) McGee’s 42-year-old stepfather, Alfred Lewis (one of three now charged as accessories after the fact), told Clarion-Ledger reporter Justin Fritscher that Barrett had hired McGee before when he was 17. Both times Barrett paid McGee poorly, Lewis said. This past time, he said, McGee expected received only $26 for six hours of work when he was expecting much more.
“Resolving a pay dispute by murder doesn’t require a sadistic attack that was perpetrated in this,” said Northeastern University professor Jack Levin, co-author of Overkill. Overkill has been reported in a number of killings where the victims were gay, he said. In Barrett’s killing, “the overkill indicates the perpetrator saw his relationship with the victim as something that stigmatized him,” Levin said. “There was no need to stab someone multiple times.” Levin has witnessed similar overkills in slayings of the disabled, he said. “The presence of the victim made the perpetrator feel inferior and vulnerable.”
Ugh. So we don’t actually know whether sex or propositioning of any sort took place?
How about we take this to the next level?
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Ogre Magi
What is it about black men that is so irresistible to white supremacists?
The Artist
@Ogre Magi: Hmmm…. maybe we should measure it up! PEACELUBNBWILD!
Cassandra
“What is it about black men that is so irresistible to white supremacists?”
The same thing that makes some people white supremacists in the first place.
delurker again
It’s possible. During slavery, feelings of superiority did not stop slave owners from having sex with slaves.
Kieran
Another “gay panic” defense? Hey, it’s Mississippi so the murderer may well get off if it can be proved he off’d a faggot.
mulletkitty
I’d be skeptical of overkill here. White supremacist hires black youth, pays him as if he were a slave, says who knows what when confronted … dispute ends badly. 2nd degree murder, prob.
james_in_cambridge
If he did off him he off’d a bigoted, homophobic piece of shit. I don’t want to live in a country without laws so he absolutely needs to be prosecuted, but I’m not crying for this piece of white supremacist shit either. And if a black jury looks the other way like white juries always did when a white man killed a black man in Mississippi up until 30 years ago or so, well, again, no tears from me…
SSCHIEFRSHA
Accusing the deceased of attempted sodomy is a great way for the accused murderer to get away with murder by “damning” his victim’s memory. Something to consider.
Brian
Murder is murder. Anger is not a defense to murder, whether you are mad that gays are destroying the country, or made that someone is a bigot. Justice is blind to both forms of anger. The rule of law protects us all, and we need to stand by her and defend her.
james_in_cambridge
No Brian, murder is not murder. That is why we make a distinction between murder 1, murder 2, manslaughter, manslaughter 2, involuntary manslaughter, etc. If you decide to go on a rape & murder spree because it’s Wednsesday and why not, then you get murder 1 & the death penalty or life without parole and rightfully so. If you murder your hubby in his sleep because the night before he raped and beat you, you are more likely to get a manslaughter charge and be out in 5 years or so. Our society clearly makes distinctions between types of murders and sometimes juries let people go, sometimes out of bigotry (O.J. Simpson) or maybe out of a sense that justice isn’t served by sending someone to jail. The jury in this case should have that same honor. Take in total this piece of shit’s life & what he may have done to his killer, and this might not be a murder 1 or murder 2 case. We just don’t know. Plus, this is still Mississippi and I don’t know if this kid is going to get a fair trial. Just a few years ago, he would have been hung in jail and never even made it to a jury because he killed a white man. And although they probably won’t get to, because it might “prejudice the jury”, the jury should certainly know if his white supremacist views led to his murder.
Hilarious
I’m mildly amused that people are crying for a white supremacist who was murdered just because he was secretly gay.
And screaming for justice? Really?
Does anyone get justice when they get together and look the other way for their own crimes against others INCLUDING gay men?
Get a grip and stop raging against the black guy. That closeted white supremacist would’ve bashed your head in to keep his secret and kept you out of his club because you’re not wanted in white supremacy.
Your skin is just as brown as the man’s pictured above to a white supremacist so pull your heads out of your asses and stop crying over a bigot.
james_in_cambridge
Thank you Hilarious. Apparently the fact that the victim is white and might have been gay overrides all. I’ve seen this before in other threads where people will defend ANY gay person accused of a crime, not matter how heinous it is, but if a black gay is the victim, the attacker will always have some really strident defenders. Race seems to override everything. I remember a Black gay professor who was murdered by a white marine and it certainly looked like a hate crime but my goodness…the defenders the white marine had in that Queerty thread! The marine had said the professor had sexually assaulted him. The guy was twice the size of the professor and normally gay-panic defenses get brutalized here but not in that thread. But I’m sure the fact that the attacker was white and really good looking had nothing to do with it…and let’s not forget the thread from a few days ago where a black transsexual was brutalized by a white police officer. A “case closed” if there ever was one but there were a couple of people who unbelievably made excuses…I supposed a white man or woman is going to more easily relate to someone of the same race so I’m not saying they’re necessarily bigots but it’s still kind of weird to me how people can’t often see a little beyond their own experiences. Especially gay people who should know better.
Kieran
Sorry James, but whether Richard Barret was a homophobe, a “white supremacist”, or gay himself, does NOT mean he deserved to be murdered. Can you understand that? In a civilized society we don’t go around murdering people we don’t agree with or because we don’t like their skin color, political views or sexual orientation. Those charged with this crime will get a trial and if found guilty will spend the rest of their lives rotting in prison or on a chain gang. But atleast they’ll get a trial.
Hilarious
@Kieran: White supremacists murder others including gay men and use their pull to get light sentences if they’re charged with anything at all. Can you understand that?
Can’t believe morons like you are actually defending white supremacists. Wow.
Remember that if you ever get your head bashed in by one. White skin won’t save you, they don’t like gays, you’re just as brown as anyone else they hate in their eyes.
Kieran
It’s ‘hilarious’ that you would be lecturing on hate since you sound like you stew in it all day long. I can’t and won’t defend murder, and you shouldn’t either simply because the victim is white and the accused is “brown”.
Hilarious
@Kieran: Wow you’re an idiot if that’s what you pulled from what I said.
A white supremacist would sooner bash your gay head in than care about anything that ever happened to you.
How stupid are you? Do you really not understand that white supremacists hate gays as well as blacks? Are you actually that dense?
That closeted gay bigot would have killed you given the chance and never paid for it.
You’re screaming for this guy’s head on a pike for murdering someone who hated you, hated anyone who wasn’t white, and most likely hated anyone who wasn’t blonde with blue eyes.
Oh and hiding behind morality when it’s pretty clear you have a problem with race is ‘hilarious’. It’s no secret why you’re defending and crying over a white supremacist as a gay male, you can’t actually be dumb enough to think they would include you in their little club. I’m laughing at you right now. Do you understand that?
OMG
This is nothing new at all. It’s just like the white guys that put “no blacks” in their profiles and then hit up every cute black dude they see. lol It’s the overall hypocrisy of the white community.
who dat
first of all,i am sick and tired of hearing you stupid liberals with that “homophobic” bullshit every time someone has something to say about faggots and dykes.
just because some of us don’t agree with that lifestyle doesn’t necessarily mean that we fear anything about homosexuality.
we just don’t think it’s right and believe it’s a mockery of what marriages and relationship are really about……
BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN!
now, as for that racist,cocksucking,peckerwood assed piece of shit cracka MOFO….
JUSTICE WAS SERVED!
i hope the young brotha gets off just like those devil son of bitches have been doing for years.
KARMA’S A MOTHERFUCKER AND PAYBACK’S A BITCH:)
kalifani
@delurker again: “It’s possible. During slavery, feelings of superiority did not stop slave owners from having sex with slaves.”
Not just possible…It’s the reality.In fact, as slaves were regarded as property, the ‘owner’ saw it as well within their ‘rights’.
To put it mildly, the women weren’t the only ones subject to sexual abuse.