DESCRIPTION:
Wigstock 1998

The New York Times
October 5, 2007
A Fond and Boisterous Memorial Is Held for a Symbol of Gay Night Life
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
For years, Dean Johnson was a rollicking fixture in rock 'n' roll clubs, gay bars, drag queen circles and poetry readings. He was 6-foot-6, with a gleaming shaved head, and he often wore outsize sunglasses to match his outsize frame and personality.

Two weeks after his puzzling death in Washington, hundreds of people gathered at Rapture Café & Books on Avenue A on Wednesday night to remember a man who was rarely forgotten by anyone who met him.

"Dean was a landmark like a tall tower or a tourist attraction," one of the eulogizers, Dale Corvino, told the crowd.

It was a fond, boisterous memorial. The crowd spilled onto the sidewalk, and some lingered past midnight. They spoke about their love for Mr. Johnson, 46, and about his bewildering death.

Friends said that he went to Washington on Sept. 19 after an exchange of e-mail messages with an acquaintance there, but never returned.

On Sept. 20, officers responding to a call went to a building in the 2400 block of 16th Street Northwest and found Mr. Johnson unconscious, the police said. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

Four days earlier, officers had gone to the same address and found another man, Jordan Cronkin, 26, and he, too, was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, said Inspector Rodney Parks of the Metropolitan Police Department.