Episode 210: Rita Hester
A mural of Rita painted by local artist Rixy in Allston, Rita’s neighborhood
Rita Hester was born in Hartford, Connecticut on November 30th, 1963 and was one of five children. Her younger sister Diana shared that as Rita was growing up, her personality and mannerisms from very early on in her childhood were in such a way that her family accepted her as a girl when she was young. While Rita’s family accepted her, she had a difficult time finding acceptance outside of her home growing up in Hartford, Connecticut. As she got older, Rita found solace and community in Boston, Massachusetts and was drawn to rock clubs, parties and social scenes in Boston where she met other trans people and found community and acceptance. This became a huge part of her life and she ended up moving from Hartford to Allston, Massachusetts in the Boston area. Rita actually frequented other bars aside from the gay bars in the area and ventured to more “high end” bars in uptown Boston. She began performing at rock shows in the rock clubs she loved to go to, even traveling to Greece for some of these performances.
R. Lopez the author of The Hub of the Gay Universe: An LGBTQ History of Boston, Provincetown, and Beyond, wrote a quote that Rita’s friend said, stating “Rita Hester was statuesque and glamorous. Usually clad in her favorite colors, black and purple, perhaps in a slinky tube dress adorned with ruffles, she was a familiar figure both at Allston bars such as the Model Cafe and the Silhoutte Lounge and at Jacque’s Cabaret.” Another friend said that Rita “liked to wear opera-length gloves with rings on top, big pieces of costume jewelry.” Aside from clubbing and enjoying a night out, Rita loved cooking and was known as being a great cook. She also had two pets: a cat and a boa constrictor. Some of her favorite nights were spent staying in and hanging out with her best friend Brenda Wynne. Brenda stated, “You meet your best friend in life, and as soon as you meet them, it's like you've known them your whole life, and you just hang out. It's very normal and comfortable that we had that, like, right away. It was nice."
Rita and Brenda spent Thanksgiving of 1998 together. This was the first year that Rita hadn’t gone home to her family’s house in Hartford for the holidays. Just two days later, everything would change completely. Brenda and Rita had plans to hang out together after Rita came back from “Silhouette,” a local nightclub, and when Rita didn’t show up, Brenda didn’t initially panic. Brenda thought that maybe Rita met someone at the club or she was out later than she originally planned. It turns out that Rita never got to go out that night.
On November 28th, 1998, 34-year-old Rita was stabbed 20 times in her first-floor apartment in Allston, Massachusetts. A neighbor called police at 6:12 p.m. after hearing commotion and sounds of a physical altercation from Rita’s apartment. First responders arrived on scene after what seemed like forever, and Rita was still alive when they came on the scene. Between the time police were dispatched to her apartment and the time Rita arrived at Beth Israel Hospital, an hour had passed. She died at the hospital from cardiac arrest later that night, two days before her 35th birthday. There were signs of a brutal attack as well as an immense struggle from Rita against her perpetrator. Her phone was ripped from her wall, there was a partial bloody shoe print on the floor and blood splattered all over the walls and floor. Both sets of locks on the front and back doors were in place, and as there were no signs of a break-in, Rita’s friends, neighbors and family feel the perpetrator was someone Rita knew.
Rita’s case was not handled appropriately at all by police from the start. Rita’s mom, Kathleen Hester, was not given the courtesy of police telling her in person that her daughter was murdered. Instead, they called her over the phone when she was alone. At a vigil held for her after her murder, Reverend Irene Monroe said that Kathleen was beyond devastated and was inconsolable. At the vigil, Kathleen had stated, “I would have gladly died for you, Rita. I would have taken the stabs and told you to run. I loved you.” Rita’s family could not afford to pay the thousands of dollars it costs for a service to clean up after a crime scene, so devastatingly, this task of cleaning Rita’s apartment after her murder fell on her loved ones.
In the eight months surrounding Rita’s death, eight other trans people were murdered in and around the Boston area. Just two months before Rita’s murder, another Black trans woman named Monique Thomas was murdered in her Dorchester, Massachusetts apartment. Her car, wallet, jewelry and credit cards were stolen. Her perpetrator was arrested after her car was found several weeks later. In May of 1994, trans woman Debbie Forte was fatally stabbed multiple times by a man named Michael Thompson in his Haverhill, Massachusetts apartment. Three years before Rita’s murder, on November 9th, 1995, another black trans woman named Chanelle Pickett was murdered after leaving a bar with a man. Chanelle’s twin sister, also a trans woman, was a key witness in identifying the man as William Palmer and told police that William knew Chanelle was trans when they were talking in the bar before leaving together. Rita herself was actually interviewed regarding Chanelle’s murder, stating, “I'm afraid of what will happen if he gets off lightly. It'll just give people a message that it's OK to do this. This is a message we cannot afford to send.” William Palmer ended up being acquitted of Chanelle’s murder, serving just two years for assault and battery.
While the aforementioned murders all had the perpetrators identified, Rita’s remains unknown after all this time. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon as less than half of all murders of transgender people are solved. Researcher Brendan Lantz, an assistant professor in the college of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University, stated, “We see on average that the clearance rates are lower among trans homicide victims relative to other homicides. It’s still markedly different from our national estimates.” Brendan has done extensive research into crimes involving transgender victims, and he found that between 2010 and 2020, 48% of murders where the victims were trans were solved. The percentage of 48% drops even lower in cases where police have either deadnamed or misgendered victims, which is what happened in the police statement with Rita’s murder. Police instead referred to her as a male John Doe, and newspapers reporting on her murder referred to her as her dead name, or name given at birth that was no longer used, and called her a “cross dressing man.”
Earlier in 2023, the Boston Police Department assigned detective Matthew Fogarty to Rita’s case for a fresh set of eyes. On the 25th anniversary of Rita’s murder later that year on November 28th, 2025, the Boston Police Department renewed its request for information from the public about the case. Angela Smith, Rita’s niece, stays in contact with detectives and has stepped up to advocate for Rita as her mom Diane, Rita’s sister, and her grandmother Kathleen, Rita’s mother, are exhausted, defeated and heartbroken at there being no answers after all of this time. Kathleen passed away in October of 2020 at the age of 82, never getting to see her daughter’s murder be brought to justice.
Anyone with any information on the murder of Rita Hester is asked to please call the Boston Police Department through their anonymous tip line at 1-800-494-8477 or by texting “TIP” to CRIME (27463).
In honor of Rita Hester, the Transgender Day of Remembrance was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith and fellow activist Penni Ashe Matz. The first Transgender Day of Remembrance was a vigil for Rita as well as all trans people who lost their lives as a result of violence. The day has since controversially been moved to November 20th to avoid conflicting with Thanksgiving. Gwendolyn stated, “Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence. I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice.”
Image sources:
nbcnews.com - “Her death sparked Transgender Day of Remembrance. 22 years later, still no answers.”
boston.gov - “‘Rita’s Spotlight’ By Rixy”