Liberal LA Billionaire Ed Buck convicted for drugging, raping, killing gay Black men – The Black Wall Street Times
Two years after being arrested in connection with the fatal overdoses of vulnerable, gay Black men at his West Hollywood apartment, wealthy donor and liberal, political activist Ed Buck has been convicted on nine federal charges.
Buck, who’s been accused of enticing gay men, mostly Black, into sex for the purpose of drugging and raping them, was convicted near the end of July on multiple counts of distribution of methamphetamine resulting in death.
A jury also convicted him on four counts of distribution of methamphetamine, a single count of maintaining a drug-involved premises and two counts of enticement to travel in interstate commerce for prostitution.
For years, family members of Buck’s victims sought criminal charges against the wealthy donor, but the politically connected predator wasn’t arrested until 2019.
Mother of victim relieved after Ed Buck’s conviction
At age 65, Buck was arrested in 2019 in connection with the death of 26-year-old Gemmel Moore, who died from an overdose in Buck’s home back in 2017.
“Four years ago, I got the worst news that I ever could’ve imagined. But today, four years later, I got the best news that I ever could’ve imagined,” Moore’s mother, LaTisha Nixon, told KTLA5 following the guilty verdict.
“This is what we wanted from the beginning. He can’t hurt anybody else. That’s all we wanted,” Nixon added.
While prosecutors used the deaths of Gemmel Moore, 26, Timothy Dean, 55, and a third victim to finally indict Ed Buck, investigators say he abused as many as 10 or more victims in his effort to fulfill his fetish for injecting gay men with methamphetamine, who then become unconscious or unable to move while Buck sexually tortures them.
Authorities’ late response draws parallels to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer
One victim detailed an account of being drugged on Buck’s couch, waking up with anal bleeding, and finding out at a hospital that he’d been injected with a “tar-like substance,” according to a 2019 report from the Guardian.
Another victim explained how Buck shot him with a tranquilizer and chased him with a power saw when he tried to escape.
Billionaire Buck’s depravity draws parallels to infamous serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer. Unlike Buck, Dahmer wasn’t affluent. Yet, he also targeted predominantly low-income gay Black men by enticing them with sex before attacking, killing and later eating parts of his victims. Similar to Buck, police and prosecutors didn’t take accusations against Dahmer seriously when one victim escaped and alerted an officer. That officer refused to look into the situation, citing a “lover’s quarrel.” Yet, Dahmer was eventually convicted for killing 15 people.
For their part, Black LGBT activists in California have been pushing for years for Ed Buck to face charges, but then-LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey refused to investigate the wealthy and well-connected predator until a third victim surfaced.
“He has been allowed to do all of these things all of this time,” said Moore family civil rights lawyer Nana Gyamfi in 2019.