sean hennessey has more. >> reporter: these young members are accused of targeting and torturing twonagers and a 30-year-old man because they were gay. >> these suspects had employed terrible wolf pack odds of nine against one. >> reporter: the three victims were lured separately sunday to an apartment where they were stripped, beaten and robbed. the two 17-year-olds were not only tortured themselves but police say one of them was later forced to punch the man in the face and burn him with a cigarette. >> the man was beaten for hours and dumped outside of his home. >> reporter: it was the latest tragic incident involving teens singled owz because they were gay. just last month, rutgers freshman tyler clementi took his life after a roommate streamed video of him having sex with another male. in the wake of the violence and tragedy, the gay community is taking to the street. >> i sat there paralyzed and then, of course, you cry. >> reporter: in 2008, crimes related to sexual orientation rose 11%, suggesting the problem is getting worse. >> these are things that happen to me every day.

sean hennessey now on why it took so long. >> i felt we should have helped those men. >> reporter: forge lived a humble life as a salesman in blue collar queens, new york, but during world war ii he was a 29-year-old officer for the office of strategic services, the cia of its day training men for top secret rescue behind enemy lines. >> i feel great that i helped to save them. >> reporter: called operation halliard, a massive airlift of more than 500 applied pilots and crew. >> i was the operations officer, knew the circumstances over there, knew the country. >> reporter: it was the summer of 1944. hundreds of allied airmen, mostly american were shot down in the hills of yugoslavia, surrounded by nazi troops. george's wife who worked for the yugoslavian embassy tipped her husband off about the secret location of the downed men. >> my wife wrote me a letter, see what you can do. >> reporter: and so a bold mission was born. >> we trained them in es meanage as much as we could. >> reporter: to get them out he had to build a makeshift air field from c-47 to make quick daring rescue drops,