Who is Richard Rogers? Details explored ahead of Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York

Richard Rogers, also known as The Last Call Killer, was an American serial killer who targeted gay and bisexual men in 1990s New York. He tortured, murdered, and dismembered his victims and in doing so, terrorized the queer community which was in its initial stages of growth in society.

In 2001, almost eight years after the Last Call killings, Rogers was caught and booked into the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, New Jersey, where he now serves two consecutive life sentences.

The upcoming HBO Max true crime docuseries, titled Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York, will revisit the horrific crimes committed by Rogers and will provide a deeper insight into his psyche.

Not only that, but the series will also feature interviews with the victims' family and friends and several members of the queer community who describe the heightening of hate crimes against them amidst the killings.

The official synopsis of the series, as per HBO Max, reads:

"In the 1990s, as hate crimes were on the rise and the AIDS crisis escalated, a serial killer preyed upon New York City's gay men. The HBO Original, four-part documentary series Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York dives into the deep-rooted biases of the criminal justice system and illuminates how the LGBTQ+ community fought to solve the murders and demand fair treatment of queer crime victims."

The upcoming docuseries will also shed light on Richard Rogers' early life and profession and will detail his assault cases and his infamous deadly brawl with university housemates that many viewers don't know about.

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Richard Rogers was found guilty of manslaughter and third-degree murder

Richard Rogers (Image via IMDb)

The Last Call Killings started in the year 1991 and continued over the course of three years. Rogers would employ the technique of luring men he encountered at piano bars throughout the city and inviting them to his apartment.

The serial killer would then torture, murder, and dismember the victims and dispose of their body parts in different trash barrels throughout the city so as to not get caught.

Rogers' first victim, Peter Stickney Anderson, a 54-year-old man who was last seen alive at the Townhouse Bar, had been stabbed in the chest seven times, and his body completely dismembered.

His remains were found in a trash barrel by a maintenance worker who was horrified to find Anderson's decapitated head at the top of the garbage pile. Anderson had been mutilated so beyond recognition that it took the police months to ascertain his identity.

Similarly, Richard Rogers chose his new victim, Thomas Richard Mulcahy, a 57-year-old man, and stabbed him in the chest multiple times. However, the most disturbing aspect of this particular killing is that Rogers had reportedly disposed of Mulcahy's remains in five different trash barrels.

But perhaps the killing which caused the most uproar from the Queer community was the murder of Anthony Edward Marrero, a gay prostitute from Manhattan who had also been dismembered by Richard Rogers.

The inability of the police force to find the person who committed these crimes at the time appeared to the communities as a deliberate attempt to belittle their gender identity, a discussion that is still prevalent in today's time.

People protest against the NYPD (Image via HBO Max)

Amidst the rising tensions between the community and the police force, Richard Rogers claimed his fourth victim, Michael J. Sakara, a 56-year-old man who he also bludgeoned to death and dismembered. It is important to note that all of Rogers' victims were either gay or bisexual, but the reason why he targeted them has never been clarified to this day.

Almost eight years after the crime, the police were able to lift fingerprints from the evidence using new technology, namely the vacuum metal disposition. Having a more nuanced federal database, the police were able to trace Rogers' fingerprints from all the way back to his University times, leading to his immediate arrest and interrogation.

The serial killer was however indicted for only two of the killings. Due to the lack of evidence for the other two killings, Rogers was never legally charged. However, every single case was presented to the jury during the legal proceedings which eventually lead to their decision of handing Rogers not one but two life sentences.

Eerily enough, the investigators and lead prosecutors revealed that during the sentencing Richard Rogers showed absolutely no remorse and kept staring at the wall in front of him. The killer was then booked into the New Jersey State Prison, where he now serves his life sentence.

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Watch Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York on July 9, 2023, exclusively on HBO Max.