Leslie Cochran

Leslie Cochran (born as Albert Leslie Cochran on June 24, 1951) is an American peace activist, cross-dresser, street person and local celebrity in Austin, Texas. He is a critic of police treatment of the homeless.

Early life

Leslie Cochran was born and raised in Miami. He is the third of six children (3 boys and 3 girls). He was born "Albert Leslie Cochran," to Albert and Enid Atwater Cochran, both now deceased. Leslie attended Florida State University, but never graduated. He lived in the Pacific Northwest and at one time worked as a truck driver frequently traveling up and down the West coast. Cochran has told the Austin American-Statesman that he was briefly married in 1985 and 1986. He spent nine months in the Naval Reserve in 1974 and 1975, worked for Safeway grocery stores in Seattle, skinned road-kill in Colorado and tanned the hides, worked as a disc jockey near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, lived in a converted bookmobile in Shreveport, Louisiana, Tampa, Florida, and Atlanta, and then took a year to ride a three-wheeled bicycle to Austin in January 1996.

As an Austin fixture

Cochran loiters near 6th Street, usually around 6th and Congress during business hours. He is most frequently seen wearing women's clothing; his most popular attire is a leopard thong and high-heeled shoes. Leslie prefers to be known as a man.<ref...
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