Edward Bernard Peter Buck (né Buckmelter; born August 24, 1954) is an American convicted felon, Democratic Party donor, former founder of the Mecham Recall Committee, and businessman.
The recall petition was signed by many of Arizona’s well known politicians like Barry Goldwater, Fife Symington, Morris Udall, John McCain, Carolyn Warner, Terry Goddard, and Dennis DeConcini.
[8] In particular, Buck highlighted Mecham's "opposition to a King holiday, his proposal for voluntary drug testing and his plan to reduce the state police force by up to 300 officers".
[9] Buck distributed bumper stickers that read "Mecham for Ex-Governor", and Arizona Attorney General Robert K. Corbin ruled that state employees were allowed to use them on their cars.
[12][13][15] Paramedics found Moore, who had worked as an escort, naked on a mattress in the living room with a "male pornography movie playing on the television", according to a Los Angeles County coroner's report.
[15] A spokesman for the coroner's office, Ed Winter, said Buck was inside his Laurel Avenue home at the time of Moore's death and that drug paraphernalia was recovered from the scene.
[15] Moore’s mother, LaTisha Nixon, skeptical of the claim that her son had accidentally overdosed, wrote an email to various newspapers and local TV news stations.
[18] Since the death of Gemmel Moore, multiple reports have indicated that Buck had a history of luring young, Black gay men to his apartment, where he would inject them with crystal methamphetamine for sexual gratification.
[18] On January 7, 2019, another African-American man, 55-year-old Timothy Michael Dean (a part-time adult film actor known professionally as Hole Hunter[19][20]), died at Buck's home.
[22] Buck was arrested on September 17, 2019, and charged with three counts of battery causing serious injury, administering methamphetamine and maintaining a drug house, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
[27] On July 27, 2021, Buck was convicted of nine federal charges, including the deaths of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean, maintaining a drug den, distributing methamphetamines, and solicitation of prostitutes.