Leslie Elaine Perez

Leslie Elaine Perez (a trans woman assigned male at birth and formerly known as Leslie Douglas Ashley, her birth name) was a convicted murderer of Fred Tones, a Houston-based real estate broker, alongside Carolyn Lima. Both of whom were working as prostitutes at the time.
She later became a figure in Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic politics in the United States.
==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.
The appellants both testified that they were in fear of their lives during the struggle with the deceased in his office, and that they had gone to his office only for the perverted purposes but that when they realized how this would look to others they 'panicked' and fled. hey further testified that the various items of deceased's property were taken only because they knew that they would need money for their flight, and that they did not know of the $115 in deceased's billfold until they found it where it had fallen on the floor of the Lincoln. The appellants also testified that the pistol had been purchased because of trouble with teen-age boys with whom the appellants had been engaging in various sexual acts, and a policeman corroborated that he had been called to the appellants' apartment about February 3, 1961, because of trouble there.The appellants' contention that they killed the deceased in self defense and in defense of each other was properly submitted to the jury, but rejected by them, and the evidence is sufficient to support their verdict.}}</ref>
Perez's was later found dead with six bullet wounds on him, his body burned with gasoline. Lima and Perez evaded police and Federal Bureau of Investigation, who were investigating the pair on charges of capital murder. They were later apprehended by the FBI in New York City|New York. Legal claims of self-defense made by the pair were rejected in court.
However, on May 24, they were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death (Lima being the first woman legally executed in Texas for almost a century). On March 29, Federal Circuit Judge John Robert Brown (judge)|John Robert Brown issued Stay of execution|stays of execution four hours before the pair were scheduled to be killed, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit|Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later ruled that the prosecution had Suppression of evidence|surpressed evidence in favor of the pair, including psychiatric reports which deemed Perez to be Insanity defense|legally insane. Lima was later sentenced to five years in prison and Perez was declared Insanity|insane and sent to a psychiatric hospital in San Antonio.
==Escape from hospital, further developments==
Perez later escaped, spending six months on the run as "Bobo the Clown" and became on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives|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 who was assigned male at birth, Perez underwent sex reassignment 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. She also ran two times for the chair of the Harris County Democratic Party and came in second to Ken Bentsen Jr. (1990) 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.