Ed Buck, a former West Hollywood Democratic donor and political activist, was last week sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for fatally injecting two gay men with methamphetamine in exchange for sex, which led to their deaths.
Sixty-seven-year-old Buck, who was white, preyed on vulnerable Black men who were struggling with addiction and homelessness for around a decade.
The prosecution said that between 2011 and 2019, Buck engaged in a pattern they described as “party and play”. Buck would lure the men via social media, dating apps, escort websites or through referrals by his former victims, who were paid a “finder’s fees”.Ed Buck Moore (centre) and his victims Gemmel Moore (left) and Timothy Dean (right)Once the men were at his apartment, the prosecution alleged that “Buck prepared syringes containing methamphetamine, sometimes personally injecting the victims with or without their consent.
Buck also injected victims with more narcotics than they agreed to take, and sometimes he injected victims while they were unconscious.