ISTANBUL, TURKEY – JANUARY 9, 1995 In the Kurtuluş district, at the well-known tavern Madam Despina, a shocking double murder took place, which became known in Turkey as the so-called “Rock Hudson case”.
Three longtime friends – İshak Benlioğlu, Vahan Kartallıoğlu, and Nişan Serapyan – met up with two other women to drink and have fun. During the gathering, one of the men took a jab at Benlioğlu by saying he looked like the famous American actor Rock Hudson, who died from AIDS-related complications. Benlioğlu saw the comparison as insulting and humiliating, and after a while he pulled out an illegally possessed handgun.
Under the influence of alcohol, he first shot Serapyan and then Kartallıoğlu, killing both on the spot. Shortly afterward, he put the gun to his own head – but in the chaos that followed, police overpowered and detained him.
Benlioğlu was later charged with murder and sentenced to a long prison term (originally life imprisonment, later reduced to 30 years by a ruling of the Court of Cassation). At the time of the crime, he was heavily intoxicated and claimed he did not remember anything about the incident.
