Halloween decor draws fire

To a tavern's owners, it's part of a ghastly tableau. But some say it depicts a lynching.

By ERIN SULLIVAN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 31, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Halloween decor, or racism? What do you think of the hanging body in the Halloween display outside the tavern in Crystal River? It's clearly racist. It's a bad idea, but not racist. It's a Halloween decoration, nothing more. [Ron Thompson | Times] A mannequin hangs by a noose next to a disembodied torso outside the Softails Tavern near Crystal River. The display has brought at least six complaints to the Citrus Sheriff's Office. Troxler's take

CRYSTAL RIVER -- Rich and Chantal Dolata try to decorate their Softails Tavern bigger and better each Halloween.

This year, the dim orange and black watering hole in Crystal River is full of body parts, corpses and even a coffin.

But a new decoration has raised the ire of a handful of passers-by.

From a tree out front, the Dolatas used a thick rope noose to hang a life-sized dummy, barefoot and dripping fake blood.

"It's just a Halloween decoration," Chantal Dolata, 40, said Tuesday.

The Dolatas say the body is white. Others say it looks black.

It has been there for three weeks. But Sunday, two women riding home from church saw the body and complained to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office.

"There is a body of a man with rope around his neck and his hands are tied," said Mary Ulyat. "That is not a Halloween decoration.

"That is a lynching."

Ulyat is white, 70 years old and a native of Ireland who lives about a mile from the bar.

"It's racist," she said. "I thought those days were over."

Her friend and neighbor, Elvia Dickerson, also complained to the Sheriff's Office. Dickerson, 79 and African-American, moved to Crystal River 16 years ago from Philadelphia.

"It's very insensitive," said Dickerson, who helped integrate two schools in the 1950s.

Her grandparents were from the South and they told stories about what it was like. They wanted to move "so their girls wouldn't be raped and their boys wouldn't be lynched," she said.

Dickerson said there will never be a time when a decoration like this will be okay -- not given the country's history.

Four other people have called the Sheriff's Office to complain. Deputies went out to the bar at least twice to check it out. Sheriff's spokeswoman Heather Yates said they contacted the state attorney, who said the decoration is covered under freedom of expression.

With no crime, deputies could not force the Dolatas to take it down. They asked them to, but the Dolatas refused.

"We don't want to turn this into a big deal," Chantal Dolata said Tuesday afternoon. "This is NOT a racial issue."

The Dolatas feel frustrated, as if people are making an issue out of this because they run a biker bar. They emphasized they have patrons of all races, plus multiracial couples who are regulars.

They talked about the things they do for the community: parties for the Boys & Girls Clubs at Christmas, a toy drive, free cookouts every Sunday afternoon. They want parents to bring their kids in to see their haunted house decorations.

The bar is crammed with spooky stuff.

A flattened black cat greets visitors in the doorway. Bob, a life-sized corpse in a suit and tie, sits at a table near the front, clutching a Bud Light. The Dead Bartender, as he's known, is all bones and cobwebs behind the bar, a Marlboro Red between two fingers and a Coors Light in his left hand.

"We've got body parts everywhere. There's a foot there. An arm there," said Rich Dolata, 42, as he walks through the bar.

Chantal shouts from the bar: "The coffin's not plugged in."

"Oh, yeah," Rich Dolata said, plugging in the coffin. It glows green and skeletal arms wave.

He moves on, near the pool table.

"Here's the rotating head."

The couple said they didn't intend to offend anyone with their display. But they won't remove the hanged man until after Halloween, when they take everything else down.

Times researchers Carolyn Edds, Caryn Baird and Mary Mellstrom contributed to this report. Erin Sullivan can be reached at esullivan@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4609.

FAST FACTS: Noose incidents

• October: A dark mannequin in Greenfield, Wis., hung from a noose as part of a homeowner's Halloween display drew complaints from members of the black community, prompting the homeowner to remove it.
• Oct. 9: Madonna G. Constantine, professor at Columbia University's Teachers College in New York, finds a noose on the doorknob of her office.
• Sept. 28: A noose is found in the Hempstead Village (New York) Police Department locker room along with a news clipping about recently promoted Deputy Chief Willie Dixon.
• August 2006: The day after a black Jena (Louisiana) High School student asked the principal whether blacks could sit under a shade tree that was a frequent gathering place for whites, nooses appeared in the tree.
• October 2004: A group of Democratic Uhuru Movement members tore down a Frankenstein dummy from a homemade gallows in the Allendale neighborhood of St. Petersburg.

[Last modified October 31, 2007, 01:31:33]