Between 1991 and 1993, the dismembered bodies of five gay and bisexual men were discovered in garbage bags along the highway in New York and New Jersey. The cause of the death for each was multiple stab wounds, and each victim had been disarticulated into eight pieces and placed in eight garbage bags before being deposited into trash barrels, where they were quickly discovered by a curious member of the public.
Despite being discovered in different locations in different states, it didn’t take long for investigators to identify the similarities between the victims. They were all older men, single or separated, and all had been seen last around closing time at various New York gay bars. Moreover, the scant evidence found with each body appeared to connect the murders back to Staten Island, but told detectives nothing else about the killer. Then, in late 1993, the murders simply stopped and the case went cold.
The case of the man the press dubbed “The Last Call Killer” sat on a shelf for nearly a decade before a team of cold case investigators picked it up again, determined to make progress. In the years that passed, advances in technology had allowed for the collection of previously unseen evidence, and it was thanks to that technology that the case was finally solved.
Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!
References
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Frederick, Henry. 1993. "Body parts found in Haverstraw." Journal News (White Plains, NY), August 1: 1.
Green, Elon. 2021. Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York. New York, NY: Celadon Books.
Hoober, John. 1991. "Turnpike murder victim was ex-banker." Lancaster New Era, May 15: 1.
Lueck, Thomas. 2001. "Complicated portrait of a suspect in killings of gay men." New York Times, May 31.
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State of New Jersey v. Richard W. Rogers. 2008. 03-01-00050 (Superior Court of New Jersey, April 16).
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