Murder on Capitol Hill: Violence in the LGBTQ Community and the Effort to Bring Justice to Two Unsolved Murders

The deaths of James “Jim” T. Torchia aka Olympia V Empress of Seattle (left) and Kenji Spurgeon (right) are two of the unsolved murders in Seattle’s LGBTQ community.

As we commemorate National LGBTQ+ History Month and look ahead to Trans Awareness Month and TDOR, it’s important that we put a spotlight on the senseless violence against the LGBTQIA+ community – and bring justice to those who have been victimized. Here are two stories that spotlight such violence – decades apart from one another – and how you can help.

July 1985

On Sunday July 7 1985, James (“Jim”) T. Torchia (47) aka Olympia V Empress of Seattle and the Olympic and Rainier Empires was found murdered in the blood-splattered bedroom of his apartment on Capitol Hill.

On Friday night July 5, Jim had told a friend he had to go home because he had a guest coming over and he had a casserole in the oven. When friends became concerned because Jim did not show up for Sunday brunch, they entered his apartment with the help of the manager and found him dead and the remains of a casserole.

On July 14, a tear-filled memorial service was held at the Capitol Hill Methodist Church /M.C.C. with music by the Seattle Men’s Chorus. As reported by Dr. Katherine Grant-Bourne in the SGN, over 500 people filled every seat, stood along the aisles, filled the balcony, and crammed into an adjoining room that opened on the sanctuary. Several people spoke and remembered Jim’s long involvement with the LGBTQ community in Seattle, up and down the west coast, and across the country. He was “genuinely and totally involved in the life of the community”; “was spontaneous and lived for today”; and lived “with such gusto, such energy, such pride without vanity”.

Reporting on his murder filled the front page of the July 19, 1985 issue of the SGN. The entire second page was filled with the offer of a $1,000 reward from the GSBA and the Imperial Sovereign Court for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer.

With a similar pattern to current unsolved murders on Capitol Hill, the investigation continued with the community questioning if it was related to two other unsolved murders of gay men on Capitol Hill that year although the police felt they were unrelated due to the circumstances of Jim’s murder. A year later the murder remained unsolved. And 39 years later it remains unsolved.

Jim worked as a manager at the famous gay bar and restaurant The Mocambo in Pioneer Square. In 1975 he ran for Empress, won, and was crowned Olympia V at the Annual Coronation Ball held at the Eagles Auditorium in 1976. The Court played an early major role bringing the LGBTQ community into the light with grand coronation balls in Seattle mainstays like The Spanish Ballroom at the Olympic Hotel, Eagles Ballroom, The Seattle Center Arena (with 1500 people attending including Mayor and Mrs. Charles Royer and many other officials), Jack McGovern’s Music Hall (with 1700 people attending including again Mayor and Mrs. Charles Royer). In the 70s and 80s they held numerous events and fundraisers throughout the year in various venues and in the many bars, taverns, and discos of the time. As a member of the Court, Jim played a major political role working to convince Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman to declare the 1st official Pride Week (which didn’t happen until after his reign ended in 1977). Jim and Wes were known as the “two most famous Greytops”.

Jim was also known as the bicentennial empress. After the death of Jim Christensen “J.C.” (his Emperor) from a heart attack in 1979, Lady Graytop set up the James W. Christensen Memorial Scholarship Award “for any member of the Seattle Gay Community to attend the college of his/her choice”. It continues to this day and has raised over $60,000.

July 2024

Seattle’s Annual Pride celebration arrives late in June this year due to the vagaries of the calendar. After a full month filled with crowded street parties, parades, house parties, and events across Seattle and the surrounding areas, the LGBTQ community is front and center. Just after midnight on July 1, shots ring out in the parking lot of Teto’s Cantina across from Cal Anderson Park. And another murder on Capitol Hill has occurred.

Kenji Z. Spurgeon, 23, lies dead.

Kenji may not have been widely known within Seattle’s LGBTQ community but was fondly remembered on the GoFundMe page set up by Summit Sierra High School, the Seattle charter school that Spurgeon attended. “Kenji was a bright light in our lives, known for an infectious smile and quick wit. Kenji had an extraordinary ability to uplift everyone around with laughter, a joke, a song, or a dance. Kenji inspired us all to seek joy and be cheerleaders for one another. Kenji was a cherished member of Summit Sierra High School’s founding class. From the very beginning, Kenji stood out, capturing the hearts of teachers and classmates. During Kenji's first week of school, Kenji was interviewed by reporters about the importance of school choice and radiated confidence. As Kenji grew, Kenji continued to be a passionate speaker and advocate. At 23, Kenji was building an independent life and becoming the person Kenji aspired to be.”

Similar to Jim’s murder, at first the mainstream local media did not cover Kenji’s murder in any depth. As said eloquently by the Lavender Rights Project: “On July 1st, 2024, we lost a young Black trans sibling and we heard not an outcry. Not a vibrant buzz from our community in Capitol Hill, not an outpour of outrage for a call to rally. Our local news sources retracted their resources and the publishing of the senseless death of Kenji Spurgeon was made invisible on the pages. Or the information provided was so limited it made her virtually invisible. Kenji’s Black Trans life mattered and we mourn the absences and the invisibility of what we cannot know. We mourn the silence of her story that has taken 18 days to reach our community. We mourn the ways gun violence took a 23 year old’s life, full of promise, and we bear the weight of knowing these tragedies are not Washington state specific….We know that young people, especially Black trans young people are the key to overturning a world riddled with anti-Blackness, transphobia, misogynoir, and premature death. So we honor the lives Kenji’s touched, and we grieve the future possibilities of the new world Kenji may have ushered us into if given the opportunity at life.”

Kenji was not the first trans women in our area to be murdered this year. Reyna Hernandez, a 54-year-old Latina trans woman from Renton was missing for two weeks when on March 2, 2024, locals discovered her body in Mexicali, Mexico. Owner of Reyna Hair Salon in Renton, she was remembered by her sister Sara Carillo as “a dreamer, a hardworking and empathetic person with a lot of love to give”.

Thankfully, King County prosecutors charged Louie Hernandez, Reyna’s 61-year-old ex-partner with first-degree murder. He was arrested in Mexico in March in possession of fentanyl, methadone and gun ammunition while driving Reyna’s car. King County prosecutors are in the process of extraditing him to the United States. Prosecutors allege Louie Hernandez killed Reyna in Renton and drove her body in her own car to Mexico, where he disposed of her in a cemetery.

But as often happens, little mention of her being a trans-woman was made in the reporting of her death in the mainstream media.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

In the almost 40 years separating the deaths of Jim Torchia and Kenji Spurgeon, the LGBTQ community has come a long way: marriage equality, job and housing protection, the ability to have children and grow visible families.

But one thing has not changed: murder. And gun violence has increased to become an unacceptable everyday occurrence.

In both cases, we cannot know if Jim or Kenji were targeted for their identities until their murderers are brought to justice. But we can ask for these murders to be solved. And unfortunately, there are many other historic and recent murders of LGBTQ people in the Seattle area that remain unsolved.

With the many advances in forensic investigation, Seattle police have solved a murder from nearly 52 years ago with the help of DNA and a family tree, a method that has revolutionized cold-case investigations across the U.S. We call on the SPD detectives to continue to actively pursue Jim’s murderer using all possible means, as well as other unsolved historic murders of LGBTQ people in Seattle.

With the ubiquitous use of cell phones as cameras, and social media posts, we call on the SPD and the general public to scour their pictures taken in the area of Kenji’s murder on the morning of July 1. Someone knows who pulled the trigger. Someone probably has a picture of them by accident on their phone.

To help solve either of these tragic unsolved murders, you can report tips or information to:

Crime Stoppers: 1 800 222 TIPS (8477) line or on the free P3 Tips App downloadable to your phone.

Seattle Homicide Tipline: 206-733-5000

Email: spd_homicide@seattle .gov

The authors based this post on previous reporting and wish to thank the SGN, Capitol Hill Seattle blog, Seattle PI, Seattle Times, Fox 13 News, Lavender Rights Project Instagram Post, and the Kenji Spurgeon GoFundMe page.

Steve Nyman and Nathan Benedict are the founders of Come Out Seattle, a LGBTQ history project focusing on the long history of bars, taverns, and discos in Seattle. For more about this project visit www.ComeOutSeatle.org

References

• “Jim Torchia (Lady Greytop) Murder Still Unsolved a Year Later”. Chris Dziewiontkoski. SGN July 7 1986 p.8

• “Bartender Found Slain in his Apartment”. Seattle PI July 9 1985 p.29

• SGN July 19,1985

• “Seattle Mourns the Death of a Friend: James Torchia”. Dr. Catherine Grant-Bourne. SGN July 19,1985 p1.

• “Lady Greytop Murder Investigation Continues” George Bakan. SGN July 19 1985 p.1

• “Our History The Imperial Sovereign Court of Seattle”. Shaun Knittel. SGN Feb.4,2011

• “Succes of 1st Annual Rollerthon”. Chris Dziewiontkoski. SGN Aug.1,1986 p.10

• “Woman reported dead in Capitol Hill parking lot shooting — UPDATE” Capitol Hill Seattle Blog. July 1, 2024.

• “Victim identified, no arrests in deadly Capitol Hill parking lot shooting”. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog. July 4, 2024.

• Kenji Spurgeon GoFundMe page. Malia Burns. July 12, 2024

• “Rest in Peace” Lavender Rights Project. Instagram Post July 19,2024

• “Capitol Hill vigil remembers shooting victim, honors Black trans lives” Caitlyn Freeman. Seattle Times. July 25, 2024.

• “Missing Renton woman found dead in Mexico, suspect in custody” Alejandra Guzman FOX 13 News March 11, 2024.

• ” 54 Year Old Latina Trans Woman from Washington Kidnapped, Tortured, and Murdered by Estranged Partner, Found in Mexican Cemetery”. PGH Lesbian Correspondents. March 15, 2024

• “52-year-old Seattle murder case is the oldest ever to be solved using genealogy”. Seattle Times. May 7, 2019.