Is 3rd Victim and Dozens More Linked To Gay Club Drug Killings?
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Political strategist Linda Clary, whose son John Umberger, a political consultant, was found dead June 1 says there’s a third victim in the NYC gay club drug killings and maybe more.
“There’s a possible other murder as well, or felony homicide,” Clary told WPIX News. And she said she’s learned of more than a dozen other cases where victims survived possible druggings but were cleaned out of their savings.
On Monday, the NYPD confirmed that the deaths of Julio Ramirez and Umberger are being investigated along with several other incidents in which victims were robbed or assaulted, according to a spokesperson for the department’s Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information.
“The story the NYPD initially presented to me was not consistent with who John was,” Clary said.
A toxicology report found lidocaine — a numbing agent — and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, were in John Umberger’s system when he died.
Umberger’s mother knew this wasn’t a typical overdose, especially when she realized all the activity going on with her son’s credit card accounts and the strange texting on his phone.
“So we began digging and pushing, and my sister identified the Julio Ramirez case,” a reference to the death — in a cab — of 25-year-old social worker Julio Ramirez, who got into a taxi with three men in the early hours of April 21, after leaving the Ritz Bar in Hell’s Kitchen.
“There’s a possible other murder as well, or felony homicide,” Clary said. And she said she’s learned of more than a dozen other cases where victims survived possible druggings but were cleaned out of their savings.
Clary, who’s based in Atlanta, has been deeply mourning the oldest of her four children.
“John was the light, a sunbeam since he was born,” Clary said. “John was so smart and just made people feel like they were his best friend.”
Clary compared her son’s achievements to those of Julio Ramirez, the son of immigrants from El Salvador who received a dual Master’s degree from the University of Buffalo and worked as a clinical social worker in Brooklyn.
“John was just a rare, exceptional human being, just like Julio was,” Clary said.
The NYPD has told PIX11 News in recent weeks its investigators are working closely with the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, which would have to draw conclusions from toxicology testing on the victims.
Clary said she was told the possible third death linked to the Hell’s Kitchen clubs happened in the month between the death of Ramirez and her son. The victim who died was a married man from out of town.
