Last Call

Starred review from November 1, 2020

Opening with the discovery of the mutilated body of a Philadelphia gay man, journalist Green's work devoted to the victims of the Last Call Killer appears at first to be another lurid account of homicide. However, the author treats the victims, gay men murdered in the early 1990s, who were picked up at gay bars in New York City, with respect, describing how they shared an identity that left them vulnerable not only to a sadistic criminal but also to indifference and sometimes open hostility from those charged with solving their murders. These crimes have been covered before, but Green sets his work apart by offering nuanced portraits of the victims and exploring how they navigated lives that led them to the bars that might have seemed like safe spaces but turned out to be anything but. The author examines the shortcomings of the justice system and how a group of queer Chelsea residents formed an antiviolence group, pushing elected officials and the police to take the crimes seriously. Reflecting both its author's compassion and journalistic chops, this gripping narrative also focuses on forensic innovation and jurisdictional intrigue. VERDICT A stellar tale of justice eluded, to add to the growing queer true crime genre justice.--Bart Everts, Rutgers Univ.-Camden Lib., NJ

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2020
The grisly account of a serial killer's stint of murders in Manhattan in the early 1990s, unknown to many true-crime fans because his victims--older gay men--were viewed as dispensable. It's not until nearly halfway through this gripping book that Green cites the name of the killer, Richard Rogers Jr. That approach allows the author to expertly direct the suspense, leading readers to speculate about the background and personality of someone who was capable of dismembering a victim and placing the remains in trash bags. Those bags in particular--Rogers had a penchant for stuffing his targets in bags--were discovered by a maintenance worker at a rest area along the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1991. Born in 1950 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Rogers was a "gangly, awkward teenager" teased for his effeminacy, and he had few friends. Eventually, he developed into a bland, fanatic neatnik who commuted from his apartment on Staten Island to his job as a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. Rogers liked to chat up patrons of the Townhouse, a gay bar in Midtown that catered to professionals and had a "famous tendency for generous pours." Green focuses on five of Rogers' victims, though there is speculation he may have killed more. In addition to bestowing humanity and dignity on the victims, Green demonstrates impressive reporting chops. For example, he unearthed Rogers' earliest killing in Maine even though the trial ended in an expunged record. The author also provides substantive documentation of the New York media's and New York Police Department's callous neglect of the murders. Only occasionally is the text marred by insipid writing--e.g., "Dead bodies tend to smell bad after a while." Even though Green made dogged, repeated attempts to interview Rogers, who refused, the narrative would have benefitted from an analysis of the abnormal psychology that compelled Rogers, a gay man, to choose other gay men as his prey. A deeply researched reclamation of a series of unfairly forgotten, gruesome crimes.

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January 25, 2021
Journalist Green debuts with an ambitious if flawed look at an obscure serial murder case. In the early 1990s, five men were picked up in gay bars in Manhattan by a man who stabbed them to death and dismembered their corpses. Green provides detailed backstories of the Last Call Killer’s victims, showing how their life paths led them to their fatal encounters with the man who murdered them, Richard Rogers. Rogers was a respected nurse in Mount Sinai’s cardiac surgical intensive care unit until his arrest in 2001 after a technology called vacuum metal deposition, previously unknown to the investigators, enabled them to match Rogers’s fingerprints to unidentified ones recovered from plastic bags used in the disposal of one of the bodies. In 2005, he was convicted of two murders and, the following year, sentenced to 30-years-to-life on each charge. While Green devotes attention to the lives of the five victims, those sections aren’t as memorable as the ones focusing on the investigations of their tragic deaths. Green’s at his best in analyzing how the crimes were handled at the time, when the victims’ sexual orientation led to the murders being treated less seriously. The author did his homework, spending over three years reviewing records and interviewing those who knew the victims, but his methodology can be spotty. At one point, he quotes then NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik about the handling of Rogers’s case, noting in a footnote, without elaboration, “Off the record, Kerik said something different,” leaving readers to wonder what that was and its significance. Green deserves credit for reviving awareness of the killings, but this won’t stand out amid the current true crime boom. Agent: David Patterson, Stuart Krichevsky Literary.

February 1, 2021
The Last Call Killer brutally murdered several gay men in 1980s and '90s New York City. However, journalist Green's first book is more than just a standard true crime exploration of these killings. Using meticulous research and engaging prose, The Last Call tells the complete stories of the men who died in these killings, giving them dignity after death and shining a light on the issues queer people faced several decades ago that still ring true today. Green creates a detailed, sometimes sobering picture of both queer New York in the time period of the killings and the places throughout the country where the men lived before, highlighting the lengths they went to gain acceptance and, often, the sad consequences of never receiving it. Green uses the same detailed approach in his retelling of the crimes, which may prove too gory for some squeamish readers; however, the book never veers into the purely salacious, and every detail feels necessary. This captivating and thought-provoking read is a humanity-filled twist on the true crime genre.

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