More than three decades after a serial killer began targeting gay and bisexual men in New York City bars, the victims and their families, as well as the activists who fought to bring the elusive killer to justice, are the subject of a four-year investigation. Partial docuseries premiering Sunday on HBO and Max.
Directed by Anthony Caronna and based on Elon Green’s 2021 award-winning book, “Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York” the true crime series revisits the years-long search for Richard W. Rogers Jr., a former surgical nurse at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital who was convicted of killing and dismembering two men in 1992 and 1993 – and suspected of killing others. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2006.
Using archival footage and interviews for the first time with investigators, prosecutors, family members, and activists, “Last Call: When a serial killer stalked Queer New York” aims to humanize victims while highlighting the efforts of community leaders and organizations, such as the city Anti-violence Projectwho fought for the fair treatment of LGBTQ crime victims.
“Being able to tell the story in a documentary format would allow us to get to the heart of the nature of anti-queer violence and also the response to anti-queer violence,” executive producer Howard Gertler said in a joint interview with Caronna. “It seemed like an opportunity to tell a historical story that has resonance both in terms of where this violence is coming from and how we respond to it, at a time when we most need to hear it.”
In 2020, Caronna, whose directing credits include the feature “Susanne Bartsch: On Top” and the FX docuseries “Pride,” had the opportunity to read Green’s manuscript on the search for the “Last Call Killer,” but initially passed on the project, citing a lack of interest in the true crime genre and a fear of re-victimizing victims and families. But it wasn’t until a year later, when Caronna met Gertler, that he began to see the potential for a broader conversation about the history of violence against the LGBTQ community.
After getting the green light at HBO in early 2022, Caronna and Gertler worked closely with nikita pastor, a Columbia University graduate student whose areas of focus include LGBTQ history. Shepherd walked the producers through the major people and events of the second half of the 20th century that shaped public attitudes toward LGBTQ people, including the AIDS epidemic.
“Nikita would take us through people like Anita Bryant, in the early ’70s and ’80s, and say, ‘This is where this kind of backlash came from and started,'” Caronna said.
Gertler, best known for producing the Oscar-nominated documentaries “How to Survive a Plague” and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” said the show’s work went beyond the “who, what, where and when” presented. . in Green’s book and examine the “how” and “why” behind the murders and the protracted police investigation.
“You can’t understand the ‘how’ or the ‘why’ without understanding and illuminating the historical context,” he said.
In November 2005, Rogers was found guilty in a New Jersey court in the stabbing deaths of Thomas Mulcahy, a 57-year-old computer salesman visiting New York City on business in July 1992, and Anthony Marrero, a 44 year old man. old Puerto Rican sex worker who was last seen in May 1993. Although never convicted for lack of evidence, Rogers is also suspected of killing at least two others: Peter S. Anderson, a 54-year-old Philadelphia investor, broker whose dismembered remains were found in Pennsylvania in May 1991, and Michael Sakara, a 55-year-old printer whose remains were found in New York in July 1993.
The docuseries even delves into Rogers’ run-ins with the law prior to the 1990s. In 1973, while attending the University of Maine as a graduate student, he was tried for the murder of his roommate, Frederick Spencer, with a hammer. He claimed self-defense and was acquitted. In August 1988, a 47-year-old Manhattan man told police that Rogers had drugged and assaulted him. Rogers was acquitted in a bench trial a few months later.
In directing their own investigation of the victims with sensitivity, the creative team wanted to “peel the onion of homophobia” by creating the familiar feel of most true crime documentaries, and then adding a twist, Caronna said.
“By the time we get to 1973, I hope we’ve set it up enough for the audience to say, ‘Oh my gosh, this is just another example of extreme homophobia that allowed these murders to keep happening,'” he said.
Gertler said that one of the big themes of “Last Call” is “the way that institutionalized homophobia and transphobia works, and that was one of the most horrible things.” [they discovered] when we were investigating and reporting on the circumstances surrounding the 1973 murder and trial and the 1988 assault and trial.”
“This is someone who should never have been on the streets: 15 months after his second acquittal, he killed his first victim,” Gertler said. “So, unfortunately, to understand how this poison works, you have to explain it, show it. and include it in the program to understand the forces that organized against justice in this case.”
Following the controversial success of Ryan Murphy’s “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” which received backlash from the families of Dahmer’s victims after it debuted on Netflix in September, “Last Call” arrives on a true-crime boom. both in scripted and unscripted programming. .
Confronted with the ethical dilemma of not wanting to re-traumatize people who lived through that era by not beating around the bush in their reporting, the producers said they felt it was important to be honest about their intentions and let their subjects control the flow of interviews. , especially since many of them have rarely sat down to talk about their advocacy work or memories of loved ones.
Gertler singled out a dinner scene with the Marrero family at the end of the second episode, in which the older, more conservative family members are trying to figure out how to talk about Anthony with two younger, openly gay relatives, as an example of the constructive approach. conversations that can come from revisiting this dark period of LGBTQ history.
“Something I’m very proud of is that every single person that sat down with us came out having had a really cathartic experience, very happy to have participated,” he said.
“I think historically, the position that queer people find themselves in today, we’ve been here before as a group, and we’ve figured out strategies for resistance and change,” she added. “So I think it’s important for us to be able to feel like we can draw on those same strategies today to understand that community and creating community is one of our greatest strengths, and using that community to resist and make change is one of those great strengths, also.”
Caronna said HBO’s outreach may appeal to an audience that may not be aware of the history of anti-LGBTQ violence in the US.
“I think the power of true crime is that it’s something that’s clearly very loved by a lot of people and a genre that people enjoy watching,” he said, “so I hope we can use the genre as this kind of Trojan horse so that people to see this fascinating story, but also on the way to learn something they had no idea about.”
