Murders of Hattie Mae Cohens and Brian Mock

On September 26, 1992, Hattie Mae Cohens, a 29-year-old Black lesbian woman, and Brian H. Mock, a 45-year-old white gay man with an intellectual disability, were killed after two gasoline-filled bottles were thrown into their basement apartment in northeast Salem, Oregon. Cohens died of smoke inhalation, trapped in her bedroom; Mock and six other building residents were injured, and Mock died in the hospital the following day.

The attack followed weeks of tension. Witnesses said Cohens had been in a feud with the group of skinheads later charged in the case, and that Cohens' nephew had been called racial epithets by at least one of the men. Mock had previously been attacked by a group of men using homophobic epithets, and after police found insufficient evidence to prosecute, Cohens and two friends confronted and beat the alleged leader of that earlier attack. The night before the firebombing, a group of skinheads reportedly came to the apartment and a fight broke out, which the Bay Area Reporter linked to the earlier attack on Mock and Cohens' defense of him.

Four people were arrested: Yolanda R. Cotton (19), Sean R. Edwards (21), Philip B. Wilson Jr. (20), and Leon L. Tucker (22), who was arrested a few days after the other three. They faced a total of 15 felony charges, including murder, aggravated murder, assault, arson, and intimidation, two of which were hate-crime related. Investigators initially treated the case as gang-related, while national LGBTQ advocacy groups labeled it a hate crime; police stated that race and sexual orientation played a role but were not the primary motivations, though witnesses said the defendants used racial and homophobic slurs during the attack.

At trial, which began jury selection in February 1993, Sean Edwards pleaded guilty to aggravated murder in hopes of parole consideration. The other three pleaded not guilty. Defense attorney Kevin Lafky characterized the incident as an alcohol-fueled "sad, tragic collapse in judgment," while prosecutors argued the attack was intentional and rooted in racial and homophobic prejudice. After three weeks of testimony and three days of deliberation, in April 1993 Leon Tucker and Phillip Wilson Jr. were convicted of murder, assault, arson, and racial intimidation, but acquitted of aggravated murder. Yolanda Cotton was acquitted of all charges. Marion County Circuit Court Judge Albin Norblad sentenced Wilson to 35 years, Tucker to 30 years, and Edwards to 25 years in prison.

The killings occurred against the backdrop of Oregon's Ballot Measure 9, an anti-LGBTQ ballot initiative, and the Salem LGBTQ community and the No on 9 Committee described Cohens and Mock as martyrs of the campaign's homophobic rhetoric. The deaths spurred vigils and demonstrations, including actions by ACT UP Columbia and the newly formed Lesbian Avengers, who staged fire-eating demonstrations in New York City and Washington, D.C., a practice that became an ongoing tradition within the group to honor victims of anti-LGBTQ violence.