'Last Call': Who Is Richard Rogers, Serial Killer Who Went After New York’s Gay Men In the 1990s? Where Is He Now? - FirstCursy

Contents:

• 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
• SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE
• THE SERIAL KILLER WHO PREYED UPON GAY NEW YORKERS
• NEW HBO DOCERI REVISS 1990S SERIAL KILLGS OF GAY MEN OM PHILLY AND N.Y.
• TOM HOLLAND LAKONI AGAN SEKS GAY INTENS DI SERIAL THE CROWD ROOM
• IN 'LAST CALL', A SERIAL KILLER TARGETS MANHATTAN'S '90S GAY BARS. INSI THE TE STORY
• ‘LAST CALL’: WHO IS RICHARD ROGERS, SERIAL KILLER WHO WENT AFTER NEW YORK’S GAY MEN IN THE 1990S? WHERE IS HE NOW?
• [WATCH] UNSEEN FOOTAGE OF KG VON CLAIMG HE’S GAY TO BE PLACED PRISON PROTECTIVE CTODY
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• KG VON TELLS POLICE HE'S 'GAY' IN RURFACED JAIL VIO

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

It turns out that the last place anyone saw Mulhy was an Upper East Si gay bar named The Townhoe, where olr, sophistited men met each other, or met younger men attracted to their type. Through extensive archival footage and terviews wh people who participated the AVP particular and New York’s gay scene general, we are remd of jt how dangero was for people who were jt beg themselv, ually via vlence perpetrated by people who ma a practice out of queer-bashg.

But the realy is brought home by the members of AVP and Edgar Rodriguez, a former NYPD sergeant and a member of the Gay Officers Actn League, who discsed the rampant and open homophobia the partment, which was so severe that Rodriguez knew was unsafe for him to e out while he was a p. This is illtrated a really tellg scene durg the terview wh the two Pennsylvania State Police, when the director asks them if he missed anythg durg the terview and one of them potedly says, “Why is the emphasis [of the terview] on the gay part?

” To them, the fact that Anrson was gay was irrelevant, but ’s important for a lot of reasons that they jt n’t wrap their mds around. 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.

SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE

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.

Rogers also picked up and murred Thomas Richard Mulhy, a married father of four who lived an unrver gay life and whose dghter reunts touchg memori of him. There was also Michael Sakara, the mayor of Townhoe, who is warmly remembered by former employe of the bar and by his sister, who is also gay.

In the harrowg send episo of “Last Call, ” which is primarily foced on Marrero and the fallout wh the unrground gay muny of his murr, one of Rogers’ alleged attempted victims speaks anonymoly about his bsh wh someone whose MO sounds closely like the killer’s.

THE SERIAL KILLER WHO PREYED UPON GAY NEW YORKERS

The NYPD’s often futile pursu of him across the years turns the seri to a documentary thriller s fal stag — futile also bee of the police’s own seemgly homophobic refal to take the murrs more serly.

NEW HBO DOCERI REVISS 1990S SERIAL KILLGS OF GAY MEN OM PHILLY AND N.Y.

In a timely harkeng to recent ntroversi surroundg The New York Tim’ verage of trans people, “Last Call” touch on the bias at the Tim and other New York media outlets that emed Rogers (before his inty was known) as the “gay-slay” killer obvly bee had a tchy, if--bleeds--leads rhyme to . More than three s after a serial killer began preyg upon gay and bisexual men at bars New York Cy, the victims and their fai, as well as the activists who fought to brg the elive murrer to jtice, are the subjects of a four-part doceri that premier Sunday on HBO and Max.

Rogers was acquted a nonjury trial a few months leadg their own vtigatn to the victims wh sensivy, the creative team wanted to “peel back the onn of homophobia” by creatg the faiar feelg of most te-crime documentari — and then addg a queer twist, Caronna said. "By the time we get to 1973, I hope we set up enough so that the dience go, ‘Oh, my God, this is jt another example of extreme homophobia that allowed the murrs to keep happeng, ’” he said. Gertler said one of the big them of “Last Call” is “the way that stutnalized homophobia and transphobia works, and that was one of the most horrifyg thgs [they disvered] when we were dog our own diggg and reportg to the circumstanc around the 1973 murr and trial and the 1988 asslt and trial.

However, the pellg hook of Anthony Caronna and Howard Gertler’s four-part HBO vtigatn (July 9) is that ’s both a whodun and a soclogil crique of the era and environment which s tale took place: early 1990s New York Cy, whose climate of homophobia facilated s villa’s homicis. Wh anti-gay and trans legislatn currently sweepg the natn, ’s an all-too-relevant story about persecutn and vlence, and the way which public rhetoric—and actn—fosters further hate. Otherwise, however, there was ltle eful physil evince procured om the ems, so ps shifted their attentn to Mulhy’s movements the days and hours leadg up to his they soon learned, Mulhy had last been seen on July 8, 1992, at midtown Manhattan’s Townhoe Bar, an upsle gay waterg hole where olr well-to-do gentlemen often met younger suors.

TOM HOLLAND LAKONI AGAN SEKS GAY INTENS DI SERIAL THE CROWD ROOM

Cops, meanwhile, found difficult to nvce people and around this tablishment to talk to them, sce 1992, the relatnship between the police and the gay muny was fed by distst, if not outright antipathy, much of born om the former’s history of prejudiced harassment and hostily. Like Mulhy, Anrson was a closeted gay man, and on the night of his disappearance on May 5, 1991, he too had vised The Townhoe. Clearly, someone was killg gay men after meetg them at clubs, and bee of his mod operandi, the assailant was dubbed by The New York Daily News as the “Last Call Killer.

Jt as ptivatg, though, ’s a vivid snapshot of s particular moment, narrated large part by two dividuals who were on the ontl of the fight for equal LGTBQ+ rights: The New York Gay & Lbian Anti-Vlence Project’s Bea Hanson and Matt Foreman.

Rellg a time when gay Amerins were both emergg om the shadows force (pecially NYC) and facg creased antagonism and threats (cludg om the ragg AIDS epimic), Hanson and Foreman offer timate and passnate first-hand acunts of the cultural and polil atmosphere of the early ’90s. In dog so, they help ntextualize the murrs as an outgrowth of the long-standg btaly that gay (and trans) men and women faced on a daily basis. Employg plentiful archival material, Last Call is a simultaneoly vibrant and sorrowful look backwards, s nostalgia for the burgeong gay movement lored by the fear that so many felt bee of homophobia and the mortal danger posed—as well as the anger that was a direct byproduct of beg ignored, slanred, and opprsed.

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

Still om Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New YorkHBO In separate terviews wh different tectiv, Last Call highlights police officers’ ignorance about the gay muny and their reticence to relate to the murrs. —was also a gay man. When wrer Elon Green stumbled upon the all-but-fotten story of a strg of murrs of gay men that seemed to foc on New York Cy, he beme trigued.

‘LAST CALL’: WHO IS RICHARD ROGERS, SERIAL KILLER WHO WENT AFTER NEW YORK’S GAY MEN IN THE 1990S? WHERE IS HE NOW?

That's somethg to be thankful for, as otherwise, the story of how a killer stalked the cy's gay bars might have been lost to obscury. The puzzlg nsistenci between victims (one a banker, another a htler, a third who worked sal for a puter pany) and mor partur MO (subsequent bodi were dismembered more btally) were overshadowed by strikg siari that poted both to a killer wh medil knowledge and a general class of victims: The murrer was stalkg gay men. The NYPD seemed unenthiastic, eher for reasons of jurisdictn (some victims were found New Jersey) or simple distert a killer who foced on gay men.

[WATCH] UNSEEN FOOTAGE OF KG VON CLAIMG HE’S GAY TO BE PLACED PRISON PROTECTIVE CTODY

Once Green reveals the killer, he div to background and personal tails wh the same meticulo re he brgs to the victims' liv and the i of the gay bars they equented (along wh the wns and iends who also equented those tablishments).

The story is a chillg one that speaks to the enormo st of life, social fabric, and law enforcement effort that n rult om homophobia. The fact that the story unfolds agast a backdrop of the AIDS crisis – another lethal problem that ernment agenci failed to prrize a timely manner – only pots up the multifaceted and eply stutnal nature of such homophobia. His profsnal memberships clu the Natnal Lbian & Gay Journalists Associatn, the Boston Onle Film Crics Associatn, The Gay and Lbian Entertament Crics Associatn, and the Boston Theater Crics Associatn's Ellt Norton Awards Commtee.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

HBO's latt doceri exam a rash of murrs the early '90s known as the "last ll killgs, " as each victim was a picked up the middle of the night at a gay bar New York Cy. It vers a perd of three years, durg which four gay men disappeared om Manhattan, only for their dismembered bodi to be disvered off highways Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. A father of two, he was tranged om his send wife and seekg work the fancial dtry after leavg a high-profile job at Mellon Bank the doceri, his iend and former lover rells bumpg to him at the Manhattan fundraiser, gettg a drk wh him afterwards at the Townhoe Bar, a posh piano bar that tered to a gay clientele, and then sendg him a b to the Waldorf Astoria hotel after a bartenr cut Anrson off.

KG VON TELLS POLICE HE'S 'GAY' IN RURFACED JAIL VIO

It tells the story of Richard Rogers, – dubbed “The Last Call Killer” – who targeted gay and bisexual men. As per the official synopsis: “In the 1990s, as hate crim were on the rise and the AIDS crisis lated, a serial killer preyed upon New York Cy’s gay men.

Though he is spected to be the perpetrator to have murred and dismembered four gay and bisexual men between 1991 and 1993, police only found enough evince to nvict him of two of the crim.

Rogers targeted vulnerable gay men, preyg upon their margalized stat and the stigma surroundg their sexualy. His victims were often dividuals who equented the gay scene New York Cy, seekg pannship and acceptance bars, clubs, and other meetg plac. Homophobia wh the ranks of the force led to a dismissive and apathetic approach to vtigatg crim agast the LGBTQ+ muny, wh disappearanc attributed to a supposed unrground world of dgs and promiscuy, rather than beg regnized as the horrifyg crim of a serial killer.