SAN DIEGO — Confronted with charges of a cover-up, Navy officials have confirmed that a sailor about to be discharged because he was homosexual was beaten to death more than two months ago by a shipmate.
Navy officials in Japan said that Seaman Allen R. Schindler, 22, may have been a victim of gay-bashing, allegedly killed by a fellow sailor assigned to the Belleau Wood, an amphibious assault ship with a home port in Japan.
Lt. Kenneth Ross, Navy spokesman in Hawaii, refused to discuss what provoked the killing except to say that gay-bashing "is also being looked at as a possible motive." For now, Navy prosecutors are viewing the case as a murder, he said.
At the time of his death, Schindler, a radioman, was being processed for an administrative discharge because he was an acknowledged homosexual, Ross said. Family members said that Schindler, a four-year Navy veteran and native of Chicago Heights, Ill., joined the Navy despite its no-homosexuals policy because of a desire to serve his country.
Coming as President-elect Bill Clinton is planning to lift the ban on gays in the military, the case is stirring strong feelings. Gay rights advocates are urging Clinton to take swift action to legitimize the presence of homosexuals in the military, and have accused the Navy of trying to cover up circumstances of the killing. The killing occurred in October, and the Navy waited until gay rights groups demonstrated in front of the Pentagon in December before announcing a few details of the crime.
Schindler was beaten to death in a public restroom three blocks from the Navy base at Sasebo, Japan, on Oct. 27, at 11:19 p.m., Ross said. Officials have released few details of the incident, refusing even to reveal the cause of death or whether a weapon was used.
However, Schindler's mother, Dorothy Hajdys, said in an interview that her son was beaten beyond recognition. Hajdys and her daughter, Kathy Eickoff, said they were able to identify him only through tattoos on his forearms.
Hajdys said all but two of Schindler's ribs were broken, and both lungs and his brain had hemorrhaged. She also said that Schindler's penis was lacerated in the attack. The autopsy report listed the cause of death as "multiple blunt force injuries from head to trunk," Hajdys said.
Tanya Domi, spokeswoman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, said her group has asked the attorney general-designate and secretary of defense-designate of the incoming Clinton Administration to investigate the killing.
