On Trial in Newport and Washington

The arrests of the Rev. Samuel Neal Kent and other civilians inaugurated a second phase in the navy’s systematic persecution of gays. Military investigators collecting evidence for Erastus Hudson and Ervin Arnold now faded into the background as virtually all sleuthing ceased. “This old investigation petered out”; operator Clyde Rudy recalled; “no work was actually done.” ¹ The focus of events turned instead to those government agencies that would determine whether the evidence was sufficient for conviction. Moreover, as the general public became aware for the first time of what had transpired over the previous months, defenders of the accused organized to demand justice, initiating the process by which the Newport scandal achieved national prominence.