Gay tragedy the subject of Mardi Gras opening play
On June 24, 1973, an arson attack at the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in New Orleans' French Quarter, killed 32 people who were drinking there that night. Until the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, this was the deadliest known attack on a gay club in US history. The chief suspect, Roger Dale Nunez, who had been ejected from the bar earlier that day, committed suicide in 1974.