Jimmy Zappalorti Lane
overview
On January 22, 1990, Vietnam War veteran Jimmy Zappalorti was murdered near his home on the South Shore of Staten Island because he was gay.
The highly publicized murder became the borough’s first officially-designated gay hate crime and helped lead to New York State’s first hate crimes bill, which passed in 2000.
On the Map
VIEW The Full Map
Jimmy Zappalorti on graduation from Recruit Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois, 1963. Source: Zappalorti family via Staten Island Advance.
Jimmy Zappalorti on Thanksgiving Day, November 1988. Source: Zappalorti family via Staten Island Advance.
Jimmy with his brother Robert and nephew Robert Jr. at Jimmy’s beach hut, April 1989. Source: Zappalorti family via stainedglasswindowsjimmy.com.
Screenshot of article appearing in Metro Edition, January 26, 1990. Source: Stained Glass Windows – The Movie via YouTube.
Detectives investigate the scene of Jimmy Zappalorti's murder, January 24, 1990. Source: Staten Island Advance file photo.
Jimmy Zappalorti’s siblings, Robert, Peggy, and Michael, with Ralph Vogel, executive director of the Pride Center of Staten Island, at the planting of the memorial tree in front of the family’s former stained glass studio at 123 Androvette Street, November 30, 2014. Source: Zappalorti family via stainedglasswindowsjimmy.com.
Jimmy Zappalorti Memorial Tree in a new location in front of the family's former stained glass studio at 123 Androvette Street, 2017. Photo by Christopher D. Brazee/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
Jimmy Zappalorti Memorial Tree in a new location in front of the family's former stained glass studio at 123 Androvette Street, 2021. Photo by Cristiana Peña/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
Plaque placed by the United States Navy near the memorial tree, 2017. Photo by Christopher D. Brazee/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
Plaque placed by the Charleston Civic Association near the memorial tree, 2017. Photo by Christopher D. Brazee/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
American Legion metal near the memorial tree, 2021. Photo by Cristiana Peña/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
Jimmy Zappalorti Lane, 2021. Photo by Cristiana Peña/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
History
Brooklyn-born James “Jimmy” Zappalorti (1945-1990) was a Vietnam War veteran who grew up in the neighborhood of Charleston on Staten Island’s South Shore. According to his brother, Zappalorti came out as gay while serving in the U.S. Navy and was subsequently beaten by his fellow sailors. Following a nervous breakdown, he was discharged in April 1965.
Zappalorti worked in his family’s stained glass business at 123 Androvette Street after his return to Staten Island. Given the borough’s socially conservative nature, he also spent time in Greenwich Village where he could exist more openly as a gay man. On January 22, 1990, he was murdered by local residents Michael Taylor and Phillip Sarlo at his beach hut near the Arthur Kill because he was gay. The men had already served time in prison several years earlier for kidnapping and threatening to kill a gay man.
The murder of Jimmy Zappalorti was highly publicized and became the first on Staten Island to officially be designated a gay hate crime. (Sarlo later died in prison and Taylor was denied parole in 2014.) Through continued advocacy from Zappalorti’s family and gay rights activists, New York State’s first hate crimes bill was finally passed in 2000. The murder galvanized the borough’s LGBT community and led to the founding of the Zappalorti Society – which offers mental health support to LGBT people – in 1992, and the Pride Center of Staten Island in 2013.
[Jimmy’s murder] became the kernel of an LGBT center for Staten Island … we knew that we needed to speak up for ourselves and we needed to educate the community and we needed a safe and welcoming place for that community to go to.
Zappalorti was known for planting trees in his neighborhood and so a memorial tree was planted in front of the family’s former stained glass studio on November 30, 2014. Separately, bronze plaques were placed there by the Charleston Civic Association and the U.S. Navy (another hangs at the Pride Center). On May 29, 2015, a portion of Androvette Street was co-named Jimmy Zappalorti Lane.
Entry by Amanda Davis, project manager (October 2017).
NOTE: Names above in bold indicate LGBT people.
Sources
Andy Humm, “Staten Island Street Named for 1990 Gay-Bashing Victim,” Gay City News, June 11, 2015. [source of pull quote]
Donatella Lorch, “Death of a ‘Lost Soul’: A Gentle Man is Killed in His Sanctuary,” The New York Times, January 26, 1990.
Jim Smith, “Gay Blogger Reflects on One of Staten Island’s Bloodiest Bias Attacks,” Staten Island Advance, January 23, 2012.
Jim Smith, “Staten Island LGBT Community Center to Remember Murder Victim Jimmy Zappalorti,” Staten Island Advance, January 14, 2014.
Robert Zappalorti, Stained Glass Windows: The Life and Death of Jimmy Zappalorti (Words Take Flight Books, 2014).
Virginia N. Sherry, “Tree Planted Sunday in Memory of James Zappalorti, the Gay Vietnam Vet Murdered in Charleston in 1990,” Staten Island Advance, December 1, 2014.
Read More
Do you have more information about this site?
This project is enriched by your participation! Do you have your own images of this site? Or a story to share? Would you like to suggest a different historic site?
