On May 1, 1998, a Carroll County jury found Shannon Blair, 21, guilty of killing his boss and lover, Bobby Payton, 39. Blair was convicted of stabbing Payton 37 times and then setting fire to Payton’s body and mobile home.
The two worked together at a Carrollton Subway shop and testimony revealed they had a relationship that spanned several years. But Blair’s defense was that he was heterosexual and attacked Payton after being “sexually molested” and feared being “anally raped” by the victim. Blair was sentenced to life plus 20 years.
The two took several trips together to Biloxi, Miss., and planned a trip to Las Vegas.
The crime put the word “homosexual” on the front pages of the local newspaper again. In 1996, a group calling itself “Concerned Christians of West Georgia” placed an ad in the Carrollton Times-Georgian newspaper denouncing State University of West Georgia professor Daniel Helminiak’s best-selling book, “What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality” as “a serious threat to the moral fiber of our nation.”
Southern Voice, May 7, 1998
The
following comments were posted by our readers and were
not edited by SOVO. We ask that you
treat others with respect; any post deemed offensive will
be removed.
