'Last Call': Book Reviss Serial Slaygs of Gay Men '90s N.Y.C.

Contents:

• IN 'LAST CALL', A SERIAL KILLER TARGETS MANHATTAN'S '90S GAY BARS. INSI THE TE STORY
• FOUND MURRED AND DISMEMBERED, THE BODI OF 4 GAY MEN PUT POLICE ON THE TRAIL OF A SERIAL KILLER''
• THE GAY MEN FREQUENTED MANHATTAN PIANO BARS. SO DID THEIR KILLER.

IN 'LAST CALL', A SERIAL KILLER TARGETS MANHATTAN'S '90S GAY BARS. INSI THE TE STORY

In fact, the people who were most at risk – this se, gay men who met for hook-ups at New York Cy bars that served the muny – were given no staed or amplified warngs by eher the thori or the media, creatg a safe space for the murrer to ntue to wreak havoc. In fact, the se got so ltle attentn relative to s horror that today few remember , even wh the gay muny.Now, three s after the murrs, journalist Elon Green has wrten a book tled Last Call: A Te Story of Love, Lt, and Murr Queer New York that go beyond the facts of the story to reveal the larger issu that surround them. Worse, that perd reprented the height of ignorance and fear about Aids, as well as the peak ath toll the gay muny the wt, greatly impactg how the muny was viewed.

“Aids took what was, at bt, a level of difference towards gay people and turned to revulsn,” said Green.Consir, too, the general level of vlence New York Cy at the time. Between 1987 and 1994 the cy saw a greater number of killgs than any other stretch more than half a century.Back that benighted era, gay bars were often ‘the one refuge om the perils of everyday life’, says Green. ‘Their functn was extraordary.’ Photograph: Wonwoo Lee/Getty Imag/Image SourceI n speak to the equency of vlence the gay muny back then.

In that same time ame, a close iend was gay-bashed to unnscns by a gang of young men, g a days-long stay the hospal, and I was punched so hard the stomach outsi a gay dance club I thought the guy mt have ed a hammer.

FOUND MURRED AND DISMEMBERED, THE BODI OF 4 GAY MEN PUT POLICE ON THE TRAIL OF A SERIAL KILLER''

Several years later, on a sunny day on Christopher Street (then the center of New York’s gay life), a man g an anti-gay ephet smashed my bt iend the head wh a rock.

When we ran across the street to tell a policeman stg his squad r, he surveyed my iend’s mcular build and said, dryly: “If I were you, I’d fd the guy and beat the sh out of him.”Meanwhile, the officer did nothg.The story at the re of Last Call ptur a time the cy, and the liv of gay men, that seem far removed om the current one.

THE GAY MEN FREQUENTED MANHATTAN PIANO BARS. SO DID THEIR KILLER.

Back that benighted era, gay bars were often “the one refuge om the perils of everyday life”, said Green. At the same time, was a particular type of gay man equentg a specific kd of bar, who tend to be the victim this se. As to why he elud jtice the s, Green said, “most likely the jury believed that this was a gay man attackg another gay man and they didn’t re about the circumstanc.

Given a chance to acqu, they took ”.At the same time, Green said that he “ultimately realized that the killer (who was himself gay) was laborg unr the same societal nstrats his victims were. While Green believed homophobia played a major part that, he also said “cisns that law enforcement ma ntributed to the long lay. In tellg that story, Lg unvers the latent homophobia and racism that kept the s unsolved and unseen.

This grippg book (one of a tr of books related to gay or bi men and murr) also reveals how police agenci across the untry fail to treat missg person s serly, and how polici and laws, wrten at every level of ernment, phed McArthur's victims out of the light and to the reportg really shows how the tersectns of racism, homophobia and transphobia, and police procr Toronto really failed gay and bi men.