Raymond Nels Nelson

Raymond Nels Nelson (1922 - June 1, 1981) bureau chief of The Providence Journal and Evening Bulletin in Warwick, Rhode Island when tapped to join the staff of candidate for Senate Claiborne Pell (a former officer with the Foreign Service, and intelligence agent groomed for political office) of Rhode Island.

Nelson began his career at The Journal as a typist after his honorable discharge from the Navy. Nelson managed Pell's first senate campaign and when Pell was elected, Nelson went to Washington DC as his Administrative Assistant ("AA"). Nelson was seemingly a happily married family man with three children and a home in Bethesda, MD.

In the 1970's, Nelson changed his conservative style of attire and began dressing in the popular Carnaby Street style of the era. Shortly thereafter he openly declared himself a gay man and left his suburban home to live in the city. He remained good friends with his wife and maintained contact with his children.

Pell, while himself an active supporter of gay rights, relegated Nelson to a lesser job in a basement office of the Senate Rules Committee and appointed another important member of his staff, Paul Goulding, as his new AA.

Nelson was murdered in his apartment near Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. at 701 Quincy Street, NE, in Washington on June 1, 1981. Rumors abounded hinting that the murder was a result of a lovers' triangle, as well as decades old speculation about Senator Pell, after he was arrested during a raid at a New York City gay bar in the early 1960s

There is a $25,000 reward for information. Nelson was 59-years-old.

External links

• Raymond Nels Nelson remembrance
• Nelson's story
• police notice on open murder case