Did Drag Performer Dorian Corey Really Hide a Mummy For Over 2 Decades?

Dorian Corey’s profound impact on the New York "ballroom" scene (balls are competitions involving LGBTQ+ and drag performers) as well as the drag community around the world was immortalized in the iconic 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning—but the legacy she left behind has been tainted by a gruesome discovery made after her death. 

Corey began her career in the 1960s while touring as a snake dancer with the Pearl Box Revue, a cabaret drag act. When she returned to New York City, she immersed herself in the Harlem ball circuit, becoming known for her over-the-top costumes, talent as a designer and captivating personality. She eventually formed the House of Corey (houses are groups of ball competitors), serving as a surrogate mother to members of her chosen family. 

When Paris Is Burning premiered in 1990, Corey shot to new levels of stardom, introducing a mainstream audience to the underground world of drag.

“I didn’t do it for the money,” Corey told The New York Times after the premiere. “I did it for fun. Always have. You see I was in show business for years, so when my 15 minutes finally came, it was gravy.”

Unfortunately, by that time, Corey had been diagnosed with AIDS. She spent the next three years of her life battling the disease, all while maintaining her place in the drag community. She performed at Sally II’s up until several months before her death. 

Corey ultimately died in August 1993, leaving behind a lasting impact on the ballroom scene. It wasn’t until a discovery made later that year that her legacy would be changed forever. 

Following Corey’s death, her friend and caretaker, Lois Taylor, made a grisly discovery inside her New York City apartment. While attempting to sell some of Corey’s old costumes, Taylor discovered an impossibly heavy garment bag. The bag, stored inside a trunk and tucked away in a closet, was emitting an incredibly foul odor. Fearing the worst, the police were contacted.

“They called us up because they had a suspicious trunk, and they didn’t know what was in the trunk at the time, but it had a foul odor, which was very common to a D.O.A. [dead on arrival]. It’s an odor you’ll never forget,” former NYPD detective John Roe told Inside Edition.  

When the bag was taken to the medical examiner, they found the body of a man with a gunshot wound to the head, per The Seattle Times. His corpse had been preserved, wrapped in faux leather and stored away for decades. With no identification or matching missing persons reports, authorities were stumped about the victim’s identity.  

After the medical examiner and anthropologist’s exams were complete, authorities set off to uncover the body’s identity. However, because of how long the victim had been deceased, they were unable to use traditional methods like dental records, which would have been inaccessible after so many years. 

Investigators eventually received permission to use the mummy’s fingers to attempt to retrieve fingerprints. By rehydrating the digits, they were able to roll fingerprints off each one. Using those prints, they uncovered who the body belonged to: Robert “Bobby” Worley. He had been missing for over 25 years. 

While not much is known about Worley, a young Black man estimated to have been in his 20s or 30s at the time of his death, he had spent time behind bars for sexually assaulting a woman in 1963, per In Magazine. It was that crime record that helped connect his fingerprints to his identity. Estranged from his family, the last time anyone reported hearing from him was 1968. 

The nature of Corey and Worley’s relationship is unknown, but it’s been speculated that the pair were lovers. According to Roe, he was told by Worley’s brother that they were likely in a relationship—and the detective has long theorized that Worley’s life came to an untimely end in the midst of a lover’s quarrel or an abusive situation.  

“He was just a boyfriend of Dorian Corey, from what the brother had told me. He said 20 years prior … he was dating some drag queen,” Roe shared with Inside Edition.

He continued, “[From] all the interviews we conducted at the time, some of the people told me that Bobby, he drank heavily, and so did Dorian Corey, from what I understand. And whenever they drank heavily, they ended up arguing and fighting from the people that knew them. So basically they thought that it was one of these violent crimes of passions. She just shot him in the head.”

There have been other theories that Worley attacked Corey during a robbery, and she shot him in self-defense, or that she was hiding the body for someone else, but authorities have never been able to uncover the exact motive behind his killing. 

If it was Corey who took Worley’s life, whether in the midst of an argument or as an act of self-defense, her motives for storing the body for so many years are unknown. But based on the political and social climate of the 1960s when the crime likely took place, Corey likely could not have risked coming forward. Living as a Black transgender woman in a dangerous area of New York City, she would have faced severe repercussions. 

“If this crime happened in the ‘60s, Dorian would’ve had even less of a chance of getting any sympathy from the cops if she killed Worley in self-defense. In the ‘60s, ‘gay’ was a mental illness. It was illegal to even hold hands down the street with someone of the same gender,” journalist Michael Musto told Inside Edition. 

Former NYPD Sergeant Mark Giffen added, “I believe that they probably had a dispute between Ms. Corey and Mr. Worley and it resulted in Mr. Worley being shot. The subculture at the time was not socially acceptable by our community. So Ms. Corey, in a panic, packaged up the body to store it temporarily, and she never figured out what to do.”