The Falcon

The Falcon is a gay bar in Derry, Maine, that served as the social hub of the town's small, closeted gay community. Opened in 1973 by Elmer Curtie, the bar was initially intended to serve bus-riders from the adjacent terminal, but by 1977 Curtie was on the verge of bankruptcy. An unexpected quiet prosperity then arrived, and by 1981 Curtie finally realized his clientele was almost exclusively male and gay. By that time, he no longer cared; the bar was making money, and its patrons were notably peaceful, avoiding the fights common in heterosexual bars. The Falcon was located near the bus station and the Main Street Bridge, a geography that placed it at the center of the tragedy that unfolded on the last night of the Canal Days Festival in July 1984.

Location and Clientele

The Falcon was situated next to the bus terminal, which serviced Trailways, Greyhound, and Aroostook County lines. Curtie had hoped to attract travelers, but the bar's real patrons were local gay men. They were young, polite, and dressed outrageously, but they understood the shadow under which they existed in provincial Derry. The bar was painted black and gold inside and decorated with stuffed birds, the work of Curtie's amateur taxidermist brother. Despite lurid rumors circulating in town about orgies and sex in the bathrooms, none of these stories were true. The Falcon's regulars were discreet, saving their flamboyance for trips to Portland or Boston.

The Night of the Murder

On the evening of July 21, 1984, Adrian Mellon and Don Hagarty left the Falcon after having two beers. They walked up past the bus station, linked hands, and turned left toward the Main Street Bridge. As they crossed the span, a car carrying three teenagers—John "Webby" Garton, Steven Dubay, and Christopher Unwin—drew abreast of them. The teenagers, who had been at the Canal Days Festival, recognized Mellon by the paper top-hat he had won there. Garton, enraged by the hat and by Mellon's sexuality, ordered the driver to cut in. The three boys attacked Mellon and Hagarty on the bridge, beating Mellon severely before throwing him over the railing into the Canal below. Hagarty, who had been kicked and beaten, crawled to the railing and saw a figure in a clown suit dragging Mellon from the water under the bridge. The clown, later identified by both Hagarty and Unwin as Pennywise, was holding a bunch of balloons. Hagarty heard the clown say, "They float. Down here we all float; pretty soon your friend will float, too." Mellon's body was found floating against one of the bridge's pilings.

Aftermath and Significance

The murder of Adrian Mellon was the event that finally convinced Mike Hanlon that the cycle of violence in Derry had begun again. Hanlon, who had been researching the town's history and tracking the pattern of child disappearances and murders that occurred every twenty-seven years, saw the similarities between Mellon's death and the murder of George Denbrough in 1957. Both involved a clown, a drain or waterway, and a victim who was, in some sense, a child-like figure. The police investigation into Mellon's death uncovered the testimony of both Hagarty and Unwin about the clown under the bridge, but the story was suppressed by the Assistant District Attorney, Tom Boutillier, who feared it would undermine the case against the three teenagers. Garton and Dubay were convicted of first-degree manslaughter, and Unwin was convicted of second-degree manslaughter as a juvenile. The clown was never mentioned at the major trial. The Falcon itself, as the place from which Mellon and Hagarty emerged, became a silent witness to the town's deep-seated homophobia and the supernatural horror that fed on it.