torvald Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 one of my main loves of buildings & architecture is nostalgia. i like the urban tales & myths -- construction, odd factoids, quirky first hand stories, whatever. when i say this to folks i usually get a few good stories, from "my dad used to go there and this would happen..." or "i read in the paper once..."recently, someone mentioned to me (this fits in the urban myth category) that there was a crime committed in a dry cleaning shop that was located at the current location of the empire cafe on westhemier. as i don't know what it was called or the time period that it was a dry cleaners,so it is hard for me to look into it. the crime was serious enough to make the papers (if it actually occurred) and i wouldn't want to write what it was otherwise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 I think this came up on the old forum. There was some crime there, only it wasn't a dry cleaners, it was a bar that catered to people with, *ahem*, unusual preferences. I think someone was killed in an unusual way, but don't remember the details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted June 10, 2005 Share Posted June 10, 2005 The ex-owner of the dry-cleaners killed a lady there. They had a business argument that went nasty. I think she may have owned it at one time, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groovehouse Posted June 10, 2005 Share Posted June 10, 2005 <skeerd>do we have any idea about what year the murder occurred... </skeered> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midtown 4.2 Posted June 10, 2005 Share Posted June 10, 2005 I seem to recall (back in the late 80's - early 90's) when it was a club that catered to the Montrose clientel, that a teenaged boy was wrapped in duct-tape and died from asphyxiation. My memory is kinda foggy, but I believe I heard it on the news . . . and not by word of mouth. Does that jive with your urban legend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestGrayGuy Posted June 10, 2005 Share Posted June 10, 2005 Here's is the version of the story I have heard:Empire Cafe used to be a gay leather bar back in the day. The owner liked teenage boys, tying them up etc. After the bar closed it remained empty for a while. When it was reopened as a cafe, they discovered several young bodies wrapped in plastic in the back.I have asked the staff and Empire Cafe and they have confirmed this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbigtex56 Posted June 10, 2005 Share Posted June 10, 2005 Here's is the version of the story I have heard:Empire Cafe used to be a gay leather bar back in the day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestGrayGuy Posted June 10, 2005 Share Posted June 10, 2005 I love stories about Gay Houston History.Fascinating...Thanks for setting the record "straight". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted June 10, 2005 Share Posted June 10, 2005 Well, I have to throw in something else in this..it's been at least 10 years ago, but there was a body that was discovered in the montrose (I believe it was actually in a row of townhomes across where pacific street was) that was essentially just a skeleton. It the victim was never ID'ed but it was part of an S&M ritual of "mummfication". Perhaps we're getting the various stories confused?THIS story is true because I saw the body being pulled out while I was watching the news on KTRK and there was a big thing about it for several days about it. Ricco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torvald Posted June 10, 2005 Author Share Posted June 10, 2005 The stories just keep getting better and better...<{POST_SNAPBACK}>"discovered several young bodies wrapped in plastic in the back" would be the polite clue to the story i am mentioning. the fella who mentioned this to me is usually pretty reliable and i would not assume that he would not say something like that if there was no reason/evidence. i mentioned at a pub that i didn't like it in the empire cafe building and my friend and some regulars had words on whose story was accurate... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssullivan Posted June 13, 2005 Share Posted June 13, 2005 I've heard stories of some sort of mummification death and discovery of a body/skeleton wrapped in plastic or in a coffin. It's always involved a townhouse or apartment in the area but haven't heard the legend linked to the Empire Cafe Building. With the number of versions of this legend, there probably is some truth to it, although I doubt any of the stories are the exact truth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torvald Posted June 13, 2005 Author Share Posted June 13, 2005 With the number of versions of this legend, there probably is some truth to it, although I doubt any of the stories are the exact truth.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>how would you verify such things concerning that story without looking like a weirdo? since i do like the more undocumented side of buildings/sites sometimes verification is an issue, as i am only curious on my own behalf and the stories usually aren't so unsavory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danterich Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 It’s true I was working at Public News when they wrote about it. They found the poor fellow in a closet after being abandoned there by a S&M group that hired him to mummify him and have sex with him. He apparently overindulged in cocaine and had a cardiac event and died. They left him there and the owner wasn’t a dry cleaners it was the owner of the old leather bar Chutes on Westheimer where empire café is now. Which never doesn’t make me laugh when I see “Ladies Who Lunch” Enjoying their avocado and toast at approximately the same space where the pool table where gentlemen were chained by their feet and wrists and plundered like a person chained to a ceiling by their wrists and feet. They found him closet in a condo somewhere on Pacific Street. By the time they found him he was essentially mummified. I Don’t think anyone was ever charged with a crime because the owner of the condo was incompetent to stand trial because of some brain parasite and other complications due AIDS and he died soon after. I also have no idea why I remember the story so vividly I’m not a Hardcore S&M enthusiast 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danterich Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 (edited) 5 minutes ago, danterich said: It’s true I was working at Public News when they wrote about it. They found the poor fellow in a closet after being abandoned there by a Hardcore gay S&M group called “The Brotherhood of Pain”. They hired him to mummify him and have sex with him. He apparently overindulged in cocaine and had a cardiac event and died. They left him there and the owner wasn’t a dry cleaners it was the owner of the old leather bar Chutes on Westheimer where empire café is now. Which never doesn’t make me laugh when I see “Ladies Who Lunch” enjoying their avocado and toast at approximately the same space where the pool table where gentlemen were chained by their feet and wrists and plundered like a person chained to a ceiling by their wrists and feet. They found him closet in a condo somewhere on Pacific Street. By the time they found him he was essentially mummified. I don’t think anyone was ever charged with a crime because the owner of the condo was incompetent to stand trial because of some brain parasite and other complications due AIDS and he died soon after. It’s a goddamned shame what’s happening to Montrose since. Edited June 25, 2020 by danterich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brittanie Shey Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 From the Houston LGBT history project, here's the entry on Chutes. Scroll down to the very bottom to see a story from This Week in Texas, the leading local gay paper at the time, on the discovery of the body. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBC2HTX Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 Clicked through all of those links... crazy, weird shit. Convinced Lenz left the guy there before the aneurysm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaronSteven Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 Oh dear god, Lenze and Lutz, now I remember! So horrible. A dark tragedy of a dark side of a usually lovely scene in my old hood. Miss ya, Houstonians. (RIP, Public News) -Steve Schaumberg, Red Square/ Boy Bar, 1993 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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