Leslie Elaine Perez

Leslie Elaine Perez (January 3, 1938 – July 28, 2005), born Leslie Douglas Ashley, was an American political activist and prostitute who was convicted for the murder of Fred Tones, a Houston-based real estate broker, with Carolyn Lima. Lima and Perez were both working as prostitutes at the time of the murder. Following a 1963 mass meeting in Houston headlined by William Branham to appeal for clemency, Perez's sentence was stayed and she was declared legally insane by a federal judge after she told authorities she was the return of Elijah the Prophet.

Perez was a transgender woman. Beginning in the 1970s, she became a leader in the gay community of Houston and involved in Democratic politics in the United States, being elected secretary of a local LGBTQ+ organization and running for Democratic Party leadership twice.

Murder case Tones' body was found on February 6, 1961, the same night that Lima and Perez arrived at Tones' office for a prearranged threesome; Lima and Perez had been engaging in paid sexual activity with Tones since December the previous year. During a negotiation on February 6, Lima and Perez say that Tones struck the pair with a bayonet. When Perez refused Tones' requests for anal sex, he became agitated. When engaging in anal sex with Lima, Tones began "tearing at her private parts". Lima began to cry out, causing Perez to intervene; Tones then began to hit and strangle Perez, who grabbed a pistol from Lima's purse and began to shoot. When Tones grabbed his bayonet and tried to attack Lima and Perez, Lima grabbed the pistol and shot Tones five more times.

Tones' body was later found dead with six bullet wounds on him, his body burned with gasoline.

Escape from hospital, further developments Perez later escaped, spending six months on the run as "Bobo the Clown" and was on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list before being apprehended by the FBI. She was later tried again and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. She served five and was released.

A transgender woman, Perez underwent gender confirmation surgery in 1971 after she was released on parole. She later became active in gay politics in Houston, becoming the Secretary of the Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, and effectively took over the local ACT UP group alongside her mother Sylvia Ayres. David Mincberg (1994), losing in run-off elections. Her selection of "Perez" (taken from a former lover's name) was considered controversial, as many at the time said it was responsible for her support among the local Hispanic population.

By the end of the 1990s, Perez left the Democratic Party.

Death Perez died on July 31, 2005.