Salt Lake City, 1978: Anthony Adams and Douglas Coleman (Ep. 61)

Anthony Adams and Douglas Coleman were two gay men murdered in separate, unsolved crimes in Salt Lake City in November 1978 — the same month Harvey Milk was assassinated. Basically, the universe turned to gay dudes and said "this isn't your month, babe."

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Transcript

Salt Lake City in 1978 was a mountain-ringed capital with conservative social norms, and a strong cultural imprint from the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the LDS Church. As it does today. the Church’s influence, shaped community life, politics, and public image; church networks doubled as social networks, and the city projected order and restraint. 

For queer people in Salt Lake City in 1978, daily life was often lived carefully and selectively out of view, shaped by the church’s strong cultural influence, conservative social expectations, and the real risk of stigma, job loss, or family rejection. Open visibility was limited, so community tended to form in discreet bars and coded social networks, But there were outliers, we’ll meet one in this episode. 

Police relations with gay communities in many U.S. cities during that era were strained,which affected how crimes were reported and investigated. Against that backdrop, two unsolved murders of gay men in the Salt Lake area in 1978 cast a long shadow, reinforcing fear within an already cautious community and deepening the sense that violence against marginalized people might not receive the same urgency or attention. And those murders? Still unsolved.

You;re listening to Wicked Gay, a true crime podcast about gay people doing awful things, or awful things happening to gay people. Unfortunately, it’s usually the latter. Not that both aren't a negative. Not that we want gay people to be doing awful things. No one should be doing awful things. 

I just thought it was sadly interesting that there were two still unsolved murders of gay men in Salt Lake City in 1978, In November of 1978, the same month that Our Father Who Art In heaven Harvey Milk was assassinate. It, obviously wasnt a great time for the american homosexual’s self-esteem, huh? Same month as Harvey’s murder aside, these two cases stood out to me mainly because my thought was people were openly gay  in salt lake city in 1978? Not just out - but in the case of one Anthony Adams - being  activists?  Hence this episode, cuz the subject matter surprised me.

My sources for this episode were the Salt Lake Tribute, YouTube, The Advocate, 

Let’s begin with slain activist Anthony Adams, imagine, black, openly gay and an activist in Salt Lake City, THAT’S vertebrae, kids. Anthony “Tony” Adams was born on July 30, 1953, in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved with his family to Salt Lake Cityn as  kid, where he was raised in a devout Catholic household. He excelled in school,  honor roll,  a National Merit finalist After high school he attended the University of Utah and became deeply involved in civil-rights and social justice causes, including the NAACP, protests against apartheid, gay-rights issues. Adams was also a leader in the Salt Lake City chapter of the Socialist Workers Party, helping organize local activism and campaigns. Friends and family remembered him not just as an activist but as a thoughtful, committed person — someone well-liked, involved in his community, and described by his fellow advocates as a “quiet warrior.”

On Nov. 3, 1978, 25 year old Anthony, whose day job was as a bus driver for the Utah Transit Authority,  left work early to recover from a recent dental procedure. The last person to see him alive spotted Adams at Salt Lake City’s Comeback Bar that evening. 

After he failed to appear at a scheduled Socialist Workers Party rally, fellow participants grew concerned. On Nov. 6, two friends went to check on him at  his apartment. Tragically, they found him.

His body was found nude, blood-soaked, and slumped against a radiator. He had been stabbed five times in the neck and twice in the chest, including one wound that cut deep into the spinal muscles. A bloodstained butcher knife was recovered from his bedroom, and a second knife with possible dried blood was later found in a kitchen drawer, suggesting he was attacked in multiple areas of the apartment. Cash was missing from his wallet, though it was unclear whether robbery was the motive.

The early investigation into Anthony Adams’ murder exposed friction between police and the gay and activist communities he belonged to. The climate of hostility extended even to Adams’ family: a few months later, his brother Keith went to the police station seeking an update, only to be announced aas the dead fag’s brother, sorta kinda  reinforcing the sense that the system was indifferent — or clearly worse — toward Adams and the community he represented.

On the part of the cops who were actually working the case, I’m assuming not the helpful desk sergeant who hopefully died in a fire,they believed the killing was likely a crime of opportunity, possibly targeting gay individuals as vulnerable to robbery. In 2012, police identified a person of interest: Mickey Ann Henson, whose fingerprints were discovered in Adams’ apartment. At the time of her death, investigators knew little about her beyond her late‑1970s life as a drug user and occasional sex worker and her alleged associations with people suspected of robbing gay men. Police theorized that Anthony Adams may have been lured into a vulnerable situation — potentially becoming intimate before an attempted robbery that turned violent — though swabs from his body did not detect semen. Supporting this theory, one police report notes Henson’s sister recalled hearing her allegedly say, “Let’s go roll a f-- [slur],” though the sister disputes the context, insisting it was a distorted recollection of a conversation with Adams’ killer and not a plan by her sister.

Cindy Henson paints a very different picture of Mickey Ann: she remembers her sister as warm, compassionate, and bisexual, with a stable home and employment, not the type to harm gay men. 

Police theorized that Adams’ murder might be connected to a criminal element because of a prior arrest for prostitution: in May 1978, undercover vice officers claimed he left his phone number in bar bathrooms and arranged a meeting at a downtown hotel, where he was arrested. He pleaded not guilty and was scheduled for trial later that year, but the case was dismissed just days before his murder. Adams’ family, however, strongly rejects the idea he was involved in sex work; his sister-in-law, who knew him well when he lived with her family, recalls him as responsible, busy with school, work, activism, and even babysitting her children, saying, “Anthony wasn’t just my brother-in-law, he was also my best friend.” Following his death, Socialist Workers Party publications alleged that the prostitutuon arrest may have been a frame-up by vice officers attempting to coerce Adams into acting as a confidential informant against activist groups.

The investigation into Anthony Adams’ murder stalled due to a mix of cultural bias, strained relations with the gay and activist communities, inconsistent follow-up on leads, and missing or unprocessed evidence. At the time, homosexuality was still criminalized in Utah, which complicated cooperation and trust. Over the years, police have reopened the case and identified persons of interest — including one linked by fingerprint — but no arrests have been made, some details remain sealed, and key evidence such as the knife is missing, limiting modern forensic testing. Salt Lake City police now acknowledge the investigation’s early shortcomings, say they would handle it differently today, and continue to list the killing as an active cold case while seeking new tips.

The Salt Lake City Police Department still lists his killing as an active cold case on its official cold case webpage, so Justice is still sought for Anthonyt, Let’s meet his fellow victim that chilling winter of 1978.

Douglas Ray Coleman was  born on Dec, 1, 1951, and grew up in Box Elder County, a county at the northwestern corner of Utah. In May of 2023, The Salt Lake Tribune published an article looking into Doug’s unsolved murder, and his brother Dennis showed the reporter photos of Doug as a child in 1968, with a wide grin, and the same thick rimmed glasses worn by the all the Coleman kids back then. Dennis said Doug had been gone for so long that it was hard to recall him when he was alive, but recalled that his brother was both athletic and artistic. He was an ambidextrous pitcher and when he wasn’t on the diamond, he could be found in front of an easel with a paintbrush. 

His brother Dennis ultimately described him as a “normal kid from a normal family who had the unfortunate experience of having a disease.”

You see, when Doug was in high school, he began to behave unpredictably. He would physically twitch, and the family would realize he was having conversations with people in his head that made it hard for him to focus on reality. He eventually relocated to Salt Lake City, and his brother said Doug began using marijuana to self-medicate, and felt that this was when Doug was lost to his family and himself. Keep in mind here that weed back then did not have the same perception and legality that weed has now, particularly in a staunchly conservative Salt Lake City in 1978. But Doug;s mental health issues seemed to have worsened.

During this period, he once hitchhiked to Kansas City and walked into a bank for help because his father was a banker back home. The teller did call his father, and they managed to get Doug on a bus back home. 

Doug was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and he would spend the remainder of his young life cycling in and out of mental health facilities while trying to make his way in the world. In addition to his mental health struggles, Doug was also queer. It reads like he was fairly quiet about this, he wasn't flamboyant, but police did find out he was a regular at Salt Lake City’s Sun Tavern, one of the first openly gay bars in Utah, where the other patrons described him as someone who kept to himself.

In his final year he kept painting and worked as a produce manager at a Brigham City Safeway store while also working at a pizza parlor in downtown Salt Lake City. A coworker  of his at the pizza parlor who was also a friend let Doug stay with him and his girlfriend. Unfortunately, relations between Doug and the girlfriend were strained, bordering on hostile. 

In police interviews after Doug’s murder, the girlfriend described Doug as someone who would stare at you like you were a wall or crank his stereo up loud and dance strangely all by himself. I mean, she sounds judgey cuz’ I do that. She also said he once propositioned her in a way that offended her so much she complained to their neighbor, a close friend of hers, who we’ll get to in  a second. This action on her part might have gotten Doug killed.

On Nov. 30, 1978, Doug Coleman left the Sun Tavern alone,some hours later , a railway worker discovered Doug in an empty boxcar along a stretch of railroad tracks not far from the Pacific Union rail depot. He had been shot in the head, stomach, and hand. It was later surmised that one bullet went through his hand because he may have been holding it up in a desperate attempt to ward off being shot. Instead, the bullet passed through his palm and lodged in his temple. Shell casings from a .22 pistol were found near his body.He didn’t die immediately, but was unconscious when the worker found him and called for help . Doug Coleman was later pronounced dead at the hospital. He was not in close contact with his family, in fact, his life was a mystery to them, it reads like they might not have known he was gay, but it was reported that his mother dropped to her knees in grief when police told her of his murder. His family loved him very much, and they had tried very hard to get Doug help when he was still in contact with them, unfortunately treatment and resources for his particular illness were in short supply. 

Police launched an investigation, and they quickly zeroed in on two suspects. The first was a man named Perry, who Doug had met at a mental health facility and with whom he had been staying with after moving out of his pizza place coworker’s apartment. 

Police considered Perry because he somewhat hurriedly left Salt Lake City the day after Doug’s murder, and during their interview he was evasive about the killing and warned that his arrest would lead to “the greatest drought in history” and that the detectives would never see snow or rain again. Finally, some comic relief in this sad tale. Perry threatened to make it real dry there in the Salt Lake City region.

Perry’s mom told police that her son “thinks that he has the spirit of God in him and when he becomes violent he says that he is doing what God tells him to do.” She believed it possible that he could have killed his friend Doug Coleman. Perry was eventually dropped as a suspect. For two reasons, one - his mom told them Perry didn't have access to a gun, which is ok, mom we’ll take your word for it, that was me playing the cops, and two, an even better suspect presented himself. Let's hope Perry got the help he needed cuz threatening drought without the aid of a futuristic weather controlling satellite is a weird flex. 

That second suspect? He was 62 year old retired railyard worker Bruce Hughes. Bruce was the neighbor to Doug Coleman’s pizza parlor buddy and pizza parlor buddy’s girlfriend. He and the girlfriend, with whom he had a three decade age difference with, were especially close - it was described as a father/daughter thing. It was Bruce to whom the girlfriend told the story of Doug propositioning her in an offensive manner. Which doesn’t really track with Doug being a regular at the Sun Tavern, but shrug - sexuality is a spectrum, or maybe people lie. Also Doug had mental health issues, so it could have been a lot of things. We’ll never know. 

There were several reasons why Bruce Hughes became the prime suspect while ole weather wizard Perry receded in the cops minds. Here’s a handy list:

Bruce had worked at the rail yard where Doug Coleman was killed, meaning he knew the layout of the yard and the boxcards.

He admitted to seeing Coleman near the rail yard the day of the murder, claiming he was in the area looking for scrap metal.

Someone had been seen fleeing leaving the railyard near the time of Doug’s murders, described as wearing a three quarter length brown coat, and having  an older style, short bouffant haircut, unlike the long hair worn by most young people in the 70′s. Bruce Hughes owned and wore a coat like that, according to neighbors, and guess who had himself a man’s bouffant? I’m trying to picture this cut in my head and im coming up with like  Elvis before it got way long and shaggy and chicken greased stained, right?

Police also learned that Hughes, after his young lady neighbor friend told him that Doug Coleman had offended her while also having a staring problem and dancing on his own too much for her liking, she claimed Bruce Hughed went and told Doug he would kill him. In fact, he told Doug that he was going to shoot him and make it look like a robbery. And yes, Bruce Hughes was a gun owner. (It should be noted that Doug didn't appear to have been robbed after he was shot, in fact his wallet was found on him, and it hadn’t been touched.)

Police realized they should have Bruce Hughes in for a sitdown. Now I am not sure of the exact timing here. From my research, I know that A) the cops had Bruce Hughes in for a single sitdown, B) a ballistics expert got ahold of Bruce’s gun at one point, and C) Bruce is said to have pawned his gun a few days after Doug Coleman’s murder. It sounds like the ballistics guy handled the gun prior to the police interview, because the cops would ask Hughes why he pawned his gun, Gimme a sec here. Crime cases that were sorta kinda poorly investigated back in 1978 can have conflicting or missing details. It was awhile ago. 

“How can you explain the fact that your gun is the same gun that killed Doug?” a detective asked Bruce Hughes. This wasn't one of those things where the cops lie to trick the suspect into a confession. According to police reports, their ballistics expert quote “feels that the bullets taken from the body of the victim were fired from the gun owned by Bruce Hughes, however, the microscopic markings are lacking on the bullets making it impossible to be positive.” That doesn't sound very scientific but ok. Shouldn’t a lab be utilized her somewhere? The cops would later admit they did not have definitive evidence that it was the same gun other than their experts opinion, 

“Oh gee, I have no explanation for it,” was Buce’s answer. Yeah, no I didn't do it, or you're crazy, cop, or  i want a lawyer, or  how could you, i work with orphans, no, he said, oh gee i have no explanation for it. The cops then asked him why he threatened to kill Doug Coleman, his response was, “because he was ignorant.”

They then asked him how his gun, remember he didn’t dispute that his gun was the murder weapon, they asked him it could have been used to murder Doug Coleman if he didn't pull the trigger, he replied that someone would have had to broken into his place, found the pistol under his mattress, used it to kill Doug Coleman and then placed it back under his mattress. Uh huh. Ole’ other suspect Perry playing Mister Snow Miser for real sounds more plausible doesn’t it?

He even admitted to police that he’d seen Coleman the day of the murder at the rail yard, but said he was there “looking for scrap metal.” Arrest this man! 

And when asked why he pawned his guns so quickly after his former neighbor's murder, Bruce said that it was so no one would quote “misuse them” end quote. How considerate of him. 

And that was that, Bruce Hughes left the station a free man, there was one interview.  That was it. The case was allowed to go cold. 

Most of the cops who worked the case are now deceased. the Salt Lake Tribune had Legal experts review it who said it likely stalled not just because of limited evidence, but because of who the witnesses were and the cultural climate of 1978. One former prosecutor noted that charging decisions depend heavily on how credible a witness group appears to a jury, bluntly observing that the majority of people who were witnesses in this case were “colorful characters” Translation: they were  queer, or had substance issues, or run-ins with the law or they came off as slutty,  remember the young lady neighbor reportedly worked as a go-go dancer. Which, you can imagine the cops reaction to that in Salt Lake City in 1978. Joseph Smith didnt run around with golden tables or whatever just so you could show those dirty pillows for dollars, young lady! 

This same guy  added that “if it were two Mormon missionaries and six nuns, the prosecutor is going to have a lot more confidence to bring that case.” He compared standards of proof to school grades, explaining that “probable cause is less than 50% compared to the need to getting an A to win at trial,” and said that with anti-gay bias at the time, a prosecutor might have needed “an A+” to secure a conviction in a case involving a gay victim. That reads accurate to me.

Another prosecutor Ts agreed, saying “there was a very different culture, mindset and mentality in Utah back then compared to today,” and warned that unanswered questions — like whether someone else could have accessed the suspect’s gun — would have created reasonable doubt. He also criticized the investigation’s limited follow-through, noting that leads mentioned in the police file were apparently never pursued and calling that lapse potentially “laziness, if not negligence.” Amen.

Police records from 1978 show Salt Lake City officers were also handling a surge in violent crime, with murders up 75% over the previous year alongside 459 assaults, 451 robberies, and 131 rapes. Even with that workload, the department cleared 18 of 21 homicides — an 86% clearance rate — but two of the three unsolved killings were gay men, including Doug Coleman, and Anthony Adams, at a time when “homosexuality” itself was still classified as a sex crime, with police logging 27 reports under that category. Despite questions raised later about missed leads, one retired detective, who now reviews cold cases for the department, maintained to the Salt Lake Tribune that  investigators put in significant effort on Coleman’s case in real time, saying officers circulated composite sketches through gay bars across the city — a process that could take weeks — and insisting, “They covered all the bases they could.”

Investigators also face modern limitations because key physical evidence from the era no longer exists. This seems to have happened in both Doug Coleman’s case and Anthony Adams. Before Utah established a state crime lab, materials were often sent to the University of Utah’s Center for Human Toxicology, and much of what was collected in older cases has since been lost. In Doug Coleman’s murder, cigarette butts recovered at the scene — items that today could yield DNA evidence — are missing. A Retired detective explained that in 1978 technicians could only test those butts for blood type, whereas now “less than a nanogram — a little less than a billionth of a gram — can yield a full DNA profile.” He also noted that the suspect’s gun was returned rather than preserved in evidence, eliminating any chance for modern ballistic re-testing. I’m still puzzling over that. You gave Bruce his gun back even though you were pretty sure it was used to murder a mentally ill man in a boxcar. Ok. 

In 2014, the Salt Lake City Police Department reviewed the case and quietly marked it “exceptionally cleared” in an internal budget document — a designation used when investigators believe they identified viable suspects but cannot prosecute, in this instance because the suspects were deceased and limited by statute of limitations. Police took the unusual step of naming two prime suspects, Bruce Hughes and Snow miser Perry, both dead since 1989. Members of Doug Coleman’s family later said they had never been told Hughes’ name and only learned it years later through a reporter. So, yeah, the cops pretty much thought either Perry or Bruce killed Doug. My money’s on Captain Save A Ho, save a go go dancer , Bruce. Just a hunch. 

In the aftermath of the murders, the damage was done — fear rippled through Salt Lake City’s gay community. At a time when homosexuality itself was still criminalized and hostility against even the notion of queer people was high, the fact that both cases went unsolved deepened mistrust in the system and reinforced a sense that queer victims did not receive equal protection as the normies. Activism that had been growing slowed as many people pulled back from public visibility and community spaces, worried they could be next and doubtful anyone would be held accountable. 

A Local historian and gay activist told the Salt Lake Tribune, “We were a very vibrant community until Tony Adams’ murder and that sent a lot of people right back into the closet, slamming that door.” He added, “not until 1981, ’82, did things start to pick up again.”

Decades later, the unresolved status of both cases still stands as a stark reminder of how bias, and cultural climate can shape not just an investigation — but an entire community’s sense of safety and belonging.

Happily though, I also want to point out that thing do changes, progress happens, To end on a high or a higher note: Salt Lake City today is far removed from the fear that gripped the gay community in 1978. The LDS Church, while historically opposed to same-sex marriage, now supports federal marriage-equality protections through the Respect for Marriage Act and has backed LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws in housing and employment as “common-sense rights.” City leadership has shifted too — the current Salt Lake City Council holds a historic majority of women and LGBTQ members, an inclusive leadership thats reflecting the makeup of the city

Still, I’m sure people who loved and care about Anthony and Doug would like to have some answers about what really happened to them, and maybe some justice.

Thank you so much for joining me this evening. As always, you can reach me at wickedgaypod at gmail. and on the socials. I put jaunty little vids on TikTok promoting the eps you might enjoy, and I apparently tapped into a new fandom with the Interview with the Vampire pop whatever ep, cuz I got an unusual amount of likes, and even some reposts and some followers. So maybe I should be doing some new pop culture stuff. Oh, and as evidenced by the fan mail read I recently did, you can also leave me a note through there on Buzzsprout. If you like Wicked Gay, review it maybe or tell your therapist or the guy who teaches you ceramics or that one girl Mary. Yeah, her. Love you, goodnite!