EP 53 | Rita Hester & The Murder That Started A Movement, Allston, Massachusetts

Crime of the Truest Kind

17-11-2023 • 1 hr 11 mins

Chanelle Pickett and Rita Hester were murdered three years apart. Chantelle in 1995 in Watertown, Mass, and Rita Hester in 1998 in Allston. Both were brutal crimes. Neither of them got justice. The attitudes and the language around gay and transgender lifestyles were very different back then. How the media covered violence against transgender people was cruel, if they covered them all. As a result of the mistreatment they got even in death, their deaths were instrumental in the creation of the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th.

Chanelle's murderer was prosecuted and used the Trans Panic Defense.
Rita Hester's murder is still unsolved.

Mallery Jenna Robinson, transgender and HIV advocate and host of A Hateful Homicide podcast, joins me to talk about the violence transgender women face - then and now. We talk about the fight for justice for transgender victims, the urgent need for laws to protect the transgender community from hate crimes and the critical role empathy and compassion play in our society.

A Hateful Homicide with Mallery Jenna Robinson

Transgender Day of Remembrance is Nov 20

Resource Kit for Journalists

Crime of the Truest Kind
hosted by Anngelle Wood
Online CrimeoftheTruestKind.com
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#ritahester #transdayofremembrance #chanellepickett #ahatefulhomicide #TDOR #malleryjennarobinson #allston #massachusetts #watertown #homicide #unsolved

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Music included in episodes from
Joe "onlyone" Kowalski - Joe Got A New Heart Fund
Dug McCormack's Math Ghosts
Shredding by Andrew King