Phillip Crawford Jr. is a retired attorney from the New York bar.
He attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine from which he graduated with a B.A. in English in 1985. At Bates he was President of the Gay-Straight Alliance in 1983, and spearheaded a campaign to oust military recruiters from the campus for their discriminatory policies against the LGBT community.
Following college Phillip attended George Washington University Law School where he was a Notes Editor for the Law Review. After graduating with highest honors as class salutatorian in 1988 he clerked for Chief Judge Judith W. Rogers on the D.C. Court of Appeals, and then with Judge George H. Revercomb on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He practiced law for fifteen years in New York City including several years with the plaintiffs' class action bar, and then retired after exposing his concerns about billing practices. Professor Lester Brickman characterized him in "Lawyer Barons" as a "whistle blower."
Crawford was interviewed for VICE about his first book "The Mafia and the Gays." Culture Trip includes the book on its list of "10 Books About the Mafia You Need to Read" as "a surprising but essential history of the mob's control over New York's gay club scene well into the 1980s," and Cosa Nostra News says it is "a worthy addition to your library of books about the Mafia." The History Channel website cited "The Mafia and the Gays" in its overview of the historic role of organized crime in LGBT nightlife, and Professor Marc Stein included the title among "Suggestions for Additional Reading" in his book "The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History." Crawford further appeared as a guest on podcasts Gangland Wire, Mob Queens and GayBarchives, and provided comment for articles about New York City gay bar history by Chelsea News and New York Daily News.
Crawford's second book "Railroaded: The Homophobic Prosecution of Brandon Woodruff for His Parents' Murders" has been featured by ABC 20/20, OutSmart Magazine, South Florida Gay News, and Dallas Voice. Brandon Woodruff's defense counsel stated "Mr. Crawford has done an excellent job of setting forth facts—not speculation or prejudice—that show Brandon Woodruff is innocent."
His most recent books are "Queer Joints, Wiseguys and G-Men" (2019) about the crossing paths of gay bars, Italian mobsters and FBI agents during the late 1950s and early 1960s and "Jersey Queens: Darling & Delightful at the Gay Bars in the 50s & 60s" (2021) about a thriving subculture in which gays and lesbians were existential heroes who celebrated their identity in defiance of the meddling state.
