‘Last Call’ Review: HBO Doc on Serial Killer of Gay Men 1990s NY – The Hollywood Reporter

Contents:

• ‘LAST CALL’ TE STORY: HBO DOC IS ABOUT THE SERIAL KILLER RICHARD ROGERS, WHO TARGETED MANHATTAN’S GAY BARS
• STREAM IT OR SKIP IT: ‘LAST CALL: WHEN A SERIAL KILLER STALKED QUEER NEW YORK’ ON HBO, A DOCERI THAT TAK A LOOK AT 1990S POLICE INDIFFERENCE IN THE FACE OF GAY MEN GETTG MURRED

‘LAST CALL’ TE STORY: HBO DOC IS ABOUT THE SERIAL KILLER RICHARD ROGERS, WHO TARGETED MANHATTAN’S GAY BARS

The four-part seri vtigat the stori surroundg a serial killer who targeted gay men a seri of btal murrs and dismemberments the 1990s. "Like his victims, who were bisexual and gay, Rogers is a gay man, per his trial ’s book go over some of his bgraphil tails: Rogers was the elst of five children born to a fay Plymouth, had had n-s wh the law before for siarly morbid allegatns.

A total of four murrs were brought up at his trial, but he was only charged Thomas Mulhy and Anthony Marrero’s four victims were middle-aged, gay or bisexual men, last seen at gay bars Manhattan.

In July 1993, Michael Sakara, a gay man his 50s, left Five Oaks Piano Bar, where he was a regular, wh Rogers and was never seen aga.

STREAM IT OR SKIP IT: ‘LAST CALL: WHEN A SERIAL KILLER STALKED QUEER NEW YORK’ ON HBO, A DOCERI THAT TAK A LOOK AT 1990S POLICE INDIFFERENCE IN THE FACE OF GAY MEN GETTG MURRED

Though the men didn't know one another, all of them had one thg mon: They were last seen New York Cy, areas and bars equented by gay men.

Usg terviews wh muny anizers, archival footage, and news reports om New York's Gay USA public-accs broadst, Last Call pos a vivid illtratn of the distst and spicn that divid the cy's gay muny om law enforcement at the time. At the ncln of his terview wh Anthony Caronna, former Pennsylvania State Police rporal Carl Harnish asks the director, "Why is the emphasis on the gay part? Directed by Anthony Caronna and executive produced by Howard Gertler om Elon Green’s 2021 nonfictn book, “Last Call” pulls back the curta on the killg spree of Richard Rogers, a male nurse who, as far back as the 1980s and until 2001 when he was eventually ught by thori, targeted gay men New York and New Jersey.

(Prr, 1973, he was acquted of killg his llege hoemate what he alleged was a f of gay panic.

Beneath the grislier aspects tailed the seri — Rogers’ mod operandi volved dismemberment and strewg body parts around the Tri-State Area — is also an evotive snapshot of gay New York the early 1990s.