July's Minisode Madness: Unsolved - The Murder of Gary Raynal and The Murder of Ken Brennan - Beyond the Rainbow Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Scottish Murders is hosted by Me Dawn and as a
multi award shortlisted victim focused podcast covering the murders of
those from or living in Scotland. We tell each victim's
story in a respectful, sensitive, unsensational and unopinionated way. So
why not join us wherever you listen to your podcasts
and ensure you never miss an episode of Scottish Murders.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
This is darkcast Network, the best in indie podcasts. Check
out all of the amazing Darkcast shows at darkcastnetwork dot com.
Hey there, I'm Molena of Castle's Encryptids, and you are
listening to Rainbow Crimes with hopefully some Unicorn justice.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Hello and welcome to Rainbow Crimes. Flight seventy four to
Kansas City, Kansas and then we'll hop a transfer plane
to Sydney, Australia. Please put your seats in an upright position,
walk the tray in front of you, and fasten your
seat belts. Although these will be short commuter flights, a

(01:25):
snack and drink cart will be around to serve you
once we're settled in the air. As always, thank you
for flying Rainbow Crimes.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Hey, they're warriors. It's me CJ. I'm ready for a
vacation away. I'd love to afford my trip back east
or a trip to Hawaii. Hawaii will always hold a
special place in my heart, and I'd love to live
there again. I truly regret having to sell my house there.

(01:55):
It was perfect in so many ways. Yes, it was
lonely lot of the times, but lonely can happen anywhere.
So why not somewhere as perfect as Hawaii was?

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (02:08):
Well, live and learn. I guess this Minnesota. I have
two unsolved cold cases for you. In nineteen ninety six,
Gary Raynell had left his home in San Francisco, California.
He was going to live in Kansas City, Kansas. By
two thousand and one, the now forty four year old

(02:30):
gay man, he had been living in Kansas City for
five years. He earned his living as a server in
a restaurant. Gary was openly gay, living his truth in
a state that frowned upon homosexuality. In fact, Kansas is
the home of the Westboro Baptist Church. You remember them,

(02:52):
the scary people who, when their leader, Reverend Fred Phelps
was alive, they would infiltrate funerals of children and soldiers
with signs that read God hates fags. So to be
open about his sexuality in Kansas was a very bold
move for Gary, and perhaps Gary realized this as he

(03:15):
was starting to make plans for another move. He was
hoping to pick up and get to Florida soon, where
the weather would be much warmer and he might find
more like minded people. Around May of two thousand and one,
Gary had picked up a guy at a bar and
taken him home. The guy didn't hurt Gary, but he

(03:37):
did still Gary's truck when he left Gary's apartment. That
one incident didn't deter Gary from indulging in the Kansas
City bar scene. On Friday night, August twenty fifth, two
thousand and one, Gary walked alone to Kennedy's Bar. This
was located in the Waldo neighborhood of Kansas City. Whence

(03:59):
he was at the bar, Gary sat alone, and he
drank for several hours. Upon closing time of the bar, Gary,
who was by now more than a few sheets to
the wind, he walked unsteadily outside and into the cool
night air. It's important to note here that when Gary
had too much to drink, he became very friendly and

(04:22):
very affectionate towards others. While Gary was outside the bar,
a white pickup truck stopped along the curb where he
was standing. The truck's occupant began to talk to Gary,
and it is possible that there were two people in
that white truck, but either way, after a brief conversation,

(04:42):
Gary got into the truck and he drove off with
whoever was inside it. This would be the very last
time Gary was ever seen alive. The following morning, a
resident of some apartment complex in Leewood, Kansas found the
body of a man under the deck of the complex.
The body belonged to Gary. Gary had been badly beaten

(05:06):
and battered about his head and upper body. His pants
and underwear were pulled down, his ear had been partially burnt,
almost all of his body hair had been singed off.
But most alarming of all was a seventeen inch metal
bar that had been shoved into his rectum. Gary's murder

(05:28):
is suspected to be a hate crime motivated by his
sexual identity. Nobody has ever come forward, and no suspect
has ever been apprehended in Gary's death. It's known that
investigators are still seeking information to solve this case, anyone
who might have information related to the murder of Gary

(05:49):
Raynel is encouraged to contact the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department.
The homicide Unit can be reached at area code eight
one six two three four five O four three or
the Tips hot Line at eight Winds six four seven
four tips. The tips hot line allows individuals to submit

(06:13):
anonymous tips, and tipsters might be eligible for a reward
of up to twenty five thousand dollars should they have
information that leads to an arrest or the filing of
charges against the suspected killer or killers of Gary. Our
next unsolved case comes to us from Sydney, Australia on

(06:34):
June twelfth, nineteen ninety five. Fifty three year old Kenneth
Brennan was a high school history teacher, and there seems
to be a lot more personal information on him than
there was on Gary. Kenneth, who went by Ken, was
born in Snowtown, South Australia. His mom was a single

(06:55):
mother and the two of them lived with her parents
until she married. She married, Ken would take the last
name of Brennan, and this was from his new stepfather.
Although Ken didn't get along very well with his new
stepfather or his new stepbrother. He maintained a close relationship

(07:15):
with his mom and his new stepsister. In the early
nineteen sixties, Ken married Rosemary Ferguson. She was also a teacher.
They both shared a love of art. After years of
their marriage, Ken became restless he'd been hiding the fact
that he was gay. He approached some of his family

(07:37):
members and he outed himself to them because he wanted
to make sure Rosemary had herself a support system when
he came out to her. I think that was a
very considerate move on Ken's part, for sure. When Ken
came out to Rosemary in nineteen eighty eight, she was devastated.
He also told her that he would be moving forward

(08:00):
from South Australia to Sydney in pursuit of his truth.
She was very sad about it and she was shocked,
but she was not angry with him. She did her
best to understand. Ken told her he didn't want a
divorce her, just separate, mostly because he decided should he
pass away before her, he wanted her to inherit his estate.

(08:25):
Ken and Rosemary stayed in contact with each other and
they remained close friends. While he was in Sydney, Ken
became intimately involved with a man who became his living
partner in nineteen ninety Although this man is never named
in documents, his name was redacted and he's listed only

(08:46):
as a reference number. Saturday, June tenth, nineteen ninety five,
Ken's partner had left to stay with a friend for
the weekend. This didn't seem to be an unusual occurrence
because the two men didn't seem to be in a
codependent relationship where they needed to be with each other
twenty four to seven. It also appeared that the two

(09:08):
had somewhat of an open relationship and they would dally
around with other males sexual partners on occasion. On June twelfth,
nineteen ninety five, Ken's partner returned home at five twenty pm.
Once he was home, he found Ken naked and on
their living room floor. Ken was covered in blood from

(09:30):
having been stabbed to death. The scene was pretty gruesome,
as there was blood all over in just about every
room of their home. A blooded knife was found on
the floor of their bedroom. It appeared that Ken had
been entertaining another man the evening he was murdered. There
were three used condoms found in the couple's bathroom and

(09:54):
a pair of used underwear that didn't belong to either
of the men that lived there. However, there was a
main person of interest in this case who also had
his name redacted in the case documents from twenty twenty two.
He is said to have been an unlawful immigrant of
Australia and he was born in nineteen sixty three. Either

(10:16):
police were never able to track this person of interest
down or he was cleared as a potential suspect. A
few other persons of interest were also being looked into
at the time as well, including one police did find
and they were able to interview in December of nineteen
ninety five. This case, however, remains cold. It seems to

(10:40):
me if the condoms had been preserved as evidence, then
with DNA as good as it is today, they should
be able to track down Ken's killer, unless, of course,
it was Ken who was the one who was wearing
all of the three used condoms. But guess what, The
condoms and the underwear were never forensically tested, so we

(11:02):
don't know if it was Ken who was even wearing them.
Great job, police. It's been speculated Ken's partner and a
fit of jealousy might have been the one to kill Ken,
but again police didn't do their jobs correctly, so there
would be no evidence to solve this case. Incidentally, just

(11:22):
three months before Ken's murder, another gay man, fifty one
year old James Meek, was also found dead. His body
was found in the hallway of his Sydney apartment. He
had a bunch of bruising on his body and blood
on the back of his head, but his ultimate cause
of death was a heart attack after his assault. Evidence

(11:46):
found in James Meek's case points to him being attacked
by a sexual partner. A used condom in two packets
of open lubricant were found in James's bedroom, but again
none of it was tested by the police. Could it
have been the same man who attacked and killed Ken.
We might never know unless somebody comes forward. It was

(12:10):
around this time in the nineteen nineties that Australia was
having issues with their police. The police were not taking
crimes against gay men seriously. They would just wave it off.
That is until an investigation into the lackadaisy old police
work took place many years later. It was the Sydney

(12:30):
gay beat murders where gangs of young adults would attack
gay men and then throw them off cliffs into the ocean.
That finally led to the evaluation into the police force
and their disdain for the LGBTQ. Findings were that police
there adopted the attitude that gays were throwaway people and

(12:52):
they just didn't matter enough to investigate the poofsters. Also,
in James's case, there was a man believed to have
a regular sexual relationship with James. This man was charged
but acquitted for james murder, so james case remains unsolved

(13:12):
as well. One hundred thousand dollars reward is being offered
for information leading to the arrest of Ken's killer. Should
you or someone you know have a tip, you're urge
to call Crime Stoppers of Australia at one eight hundred
three three three zero zero zero. You know, it's really

(13:35):
sad to me that any law enforcement wouldn't take a
murder of any kind seriously. I know Australian police were
reemed pretty hard for it in the early two thousands.
They had to go through many evaluations in retraining just
to break through their shitty gay people don't matter mentalities.

(13:56):
But whatever they went through, I believe it's helped to
tie them up and force them to take all homicides.
More seriously, rest in power, Gary, Ken and James. Hopefully
someday you will all receive some Unicorn justice. Well, warriors.

(14:16):
That concludes our third Minnesota July. Until next time, you
matter very much, and remember it's not a crime to
be gay or to live your truth unless you're a murderer.

(15:01):
Stop stop

Speaker 3 (15:05):
Stop stop stop

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July's Minisode Madness: Unsolved - The Murder of Gary Raynal and The Murder of Ken Brennan

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