🏺ric gay spaces 2/6

In the 70s, much of Richmond’s gay nightlife fell under the grip of Leo Koury, a married Catholic softball umpire with mob connections who became known—half in jest, half in fear—as the “Godfather of the Gay Community.”

Koury opened gay bars like Eton’s Inn on Grace Street—which VCU police harassed, had shuttered—and used strong arm methods to control the Dialtone and 409, and made Smitty’s, Leo’s and then The Malebox through intimidation and payoffs. Leo controlled all the bars around “The Block”, that was the center of gay life—and unfortunately prostitution. He skimmed profits, and convinced police to look the other way, as gay bars were still illegal. Patrons often felt the tension: he himself seemed gregarious and his bars provided some of the only places in the city where queer people could gather openly, but they also operated under a cloud of exploitation, high prices, and control that forced out competition by bribes, threats, or eventually murder.

Despite that, Koury’s clubs became central to Richmond’s gay culture of the era. On weekends, the dance floors were packed and drag performers lit up the stage. At the same time, everyone knew the environment was precarious—one man’s monopoly stood on crime and threats.

That house of cards collapsed in 1977, when a shooting at the Mailbox was feared to be a hate crime, but was actually due to Koury’s attempt to take back control of the bar. Facing numerous charges—including the murder of a bouncer at a rival club—Koury fled, eventually becoming one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted fugitives. His disappearance left space for a new generation of gay owned venues in the years that followed, a topic for next week.

For better and worse, his clubs defined a decade of the city’s LGBTQ history.

Koury himself finally died of natural causes, nearly two decades later, having lived out the rest of his life in California as a convenience store clerk.