The Last Call Killer (Part 2) | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

Hey weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid. [Music] It's morbid part two.
And boy is it morbid. Yeah, this is a very morbid case. Uh it's like deeply upsetting.
Yeah. But I think a case that everybody should hear because Wow. because Oh boy.
Yeah. Lots lots to dive into here. Lots happening. I guess since it's part two, do you want
to just get right into it? Yeah, I think we should. I think we bantered a lot in part one.
So yeah. All right. So, in part one, speaking of, we went over very, very brutal
discoveries of four men who had been dismembered and dumped in garbage bags at various locations between
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. The victims, Peter Anderson, Thomas Mkei, Anthony Morero, and Michael Sakura
were all gay men who had last been seen in or near uh piano bars in New York City. And while investigators knew it
was pretty likely that all of these men had been killed by the same person, they
didn't have much as far as evidence or leads went. And a lot of these cases were going cold after just like a couple
months Yeah. of investigating. But investigators now with another fourth body that was very clearly linked
to the other three needed to get to work. They're like, "All right, we got to start connecting these."
Yeah. Like we really got to got to get to it. Got to get on it. So, while they did
that, reporters across the tri-state area started putting the pieces together of their own investigation. To anybody
who was working a crime beat in the New York area, the details of the Michael Sakura murder sounded very familiar, and
it occurred to more than a few journalists that there was probably a serial killer in the region targeting
gay men. Within a few days, investigators responded to questions about that possibility, but it was clear
that they were keeping things close to the chest at this point. All they would say was that they were looking for quote
unquote possible links between the cases to which I would have said, "I think there's about 45 babes. I think we found
some." Yeah. But in the absence of information from investigators, local LGBTQ plus
activist groups stepped up to offer assistance and to educate the public about the serious problem of violence
that was, you know, queer people were facing every single day. Yeah. Matt Foreman told a reporter for
News Day, "It's a shame that we have to wait until there's a bonafide string of these infidants before we can get any
attention." Yeah. As the executive director for the Gay and Lesbian Antiviolence Project, Matt
Foreman was pretty well acquainted with the problem of of anti-gay violence across the country. And he himself even
offered to help the police with questioning members of the gay community who were typically a bit hesitant to
speak with law enforcement because of their past. Yeah. But within a week uh within a week
of the discovery of Michael Sakura's body, investigators were more forthcoming with information, but they
still remained cautious. Rockland County District Attorney Kenneth Grizz said, "We're not trying to cause panic, but we
don't want to be living in a dream world." He did though confirm the similarities between the cases. He said
they were undeniable and enough for the public to be concerned about. Okay. For him, one of the most
compelling details was that all the bodies were left in locations where they were almost sure to have been found
quickly, even though they were concealed. That's what's interesting. He said, "If you dump something in a
wooded area, there's a good chance it won't be discovered. But when you throw something in a trash can, there's a
great possibility it will be." Yeah. They all agreed, investigators, that it felt like the killer was challenging
them to find him. Within days, the press dubbed the killer the quote last call killer, which was a reference to the
fact that almost all of the victims had last been seen in gay bars around closing time.
The name gave the press and local activist groups something to latch on to and refer to as the threat of this
killer continued to completely terrify the gay community. Yeah, understandably. Yeah. In response, groups like the Gay
and Lesbian Antiviolence Project spread out across the city, handing out flyers with tips on how to stay safe without,
you know, sacrificing a social life. Yeah. Uh, a lot of groups also banded together
and offered a $30,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, but unfortunately, none of those leads ended
up being productive. Damn. But I do love seeing the community come together and really try to make a
difference. While community activists hit the street on to protect their own, law enforcement officials from New York,
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania got together and formed their own task force to address this interstate killer. Using
a description of the man seen with Michael Sakura at the Five Oaks, a sketch of the suspect was finally made
now and circulated to all law enforcement officers in all three states. In New York, detective visited
St. Vincent's Hospital working the most viable lead that they had because remember someone had seen Michael at the
bar and he had introduced him to whoever he was sitting with and said he's a nurse at St. Vincent's.
Yep. Unfortunately, after the sketch was passed around to every staff member at the hospital and even after key staff
members were interviewed, none of them remembered seeing anybody who even slightly resembled the sketch.
Damn. It seemed that if the killer was a nurse, he definitely didn't work at St.
Vincent's. Okay. So, for months, the 18 officer task force just poured over the details and
the evidence in the case, hoping that there might be some detail they missed that they would find and that would
break the case. Yeah. By that time, the consensus was that they were looking for one man in all
four homicides. But at the same time, this killer didn't seem to have a lot in common with the serial killers they were
familiar with, like Ted Bundy or the Hillside Stranglers. Those killers went out of their way to display their
victims. Yeah. New York police detective Ray Pierce said, "There are some killers who
kill once and could be sufficient for the rest of their lives. There are others who have a fantasy and who attack
again and again to refuel that fantasy." As far as Pierce and the other task force members could tell, the man they
were hunting definitely fell into that ladder category. But as it would turn out, things were not so black and white.
After a few months of pursuing leads, sending over undercover officers into bars late at night and interviewing
hundreds and hundreds of potential witnesses, the last call killer task force eventually hit a dead end.
Leads and tips from the public started to dry up, and by the end of 1993, the task force disbanded. And strangely,
after the murder of Michael Sakura, the murders simply and inexplicably stopped,
it seemed. Now cold, Michael Sakura's case was shelved along with Anderson, Mulah, and the Morero cases as
investigators just moved on to more immediate cases. Detective Jack Repa said it was always with the cautisil
that should something come up, we'll be here tomorrow. But it would be nearly a decade before anyone on the NYPD thought
about the last call killer again. But by then, forensic investigation had changed
substantially. Although the investigations into all cases had been switched to inactive,
they all remained open and were all assigned to detectives in their respective cities and counties who were
keeping them in the back of their minds as these years passed, hoping to get a break.
And that break finally came in the spring of 1999 when investigators in New Jersey learned about an advance in
forensic science that would allow for the collection of once undetectable fingerprints through a process known as
vacuum metal deposition, VMD. In VMD, the technician dusts the surface with metallic P powder and then follows that
by a layer of zinc dust and then places the item in a vacuum chamber. The vacuum
process causes the two metals to adhere to any fingerprints left on the surface,
no matter how faint they are. Oh, that's cool. And that leaves a clear, distinct print
that can then be used as evidence. That is so [ __ ] cool. Isn't that really cool?
That's really cool. So, detectives investigating the murder of Anthony Morero knew that they had a large amount
of physical evidence, but when it was tested so many years earlier, those tests hadn't come up with any viable
prints, but that didn't mean they weren't there. Yeah. By 1999, they hoped that maybe by using
BMD, they could get a clear set of prints and then circulate those to other states for analysis.
Yeah. And with over 5 years having gone by, they hoped their suspect might have possibly been picked up on some other
criminal charge, which would have required his fingerprints to be entered into some kind of state or federal
database. Yeah. In a statement to the press, Detective Matthew [ __ ] told to reporters, "Sure, it's a cold case, but
we have a lot of new angles to play. We could get lucky, and we owe it to the victim's families to try."
Hell yeah. Which again, good detective work here, and I love the fact that they still
stayed on top of this after so many years. Yeah, truly. Now, the problem detectives ran into was
that at that point in New Jersey, none of their state or local technicians were experienced in the VMD process. Yeah.
But they were still determined. It took a few more months, but in late 1999, investigators in Jersey found a team of
crime scene technicians in Toronto, Canada, who had been using the VMD process for years. And the trash bags
from the Morero murder were handd delivered to those technicians to ensure a proper chain of custody. good.
Which like we've all seen that break down before. It's so nice to see it go the right way.
Yeah. That they're actually taking the precautions to make sure that they don't [ __ ] up in some irreversible way.
And it seems like even extra precautions, you know. So, when the bags were returned to New
Jersey, the technicians in Toronto had managed to lift more than two dozen previously unseen fingerprints off the
bags as well as several clear palm prints. So, the new prints were circulated to the surrounding states,
but to investigators disappointment, they failed to match anything in local databases. Come on. In the months that
followed, Detective Cohen continued submitting the prints to law enforcement agencies around the country. And
finally, in 2001, he got a hit from the AFIS database in Maine. The prints matched those collected from a suspect
in a 1973 murder of a University of Maine student. Whoa. Oh, so whoever this was had been a
suspect in in a murder previously. Holy [ __ ] According to the evidence, the man
that Detective [ __ ] and countless others had been hunting for a decade was Richard Rogers, a nurse who worked at
Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital and lived on Staten Island. Oh [ __ ] Just like they thought. They just had
the wrong hospital. At first glance, nothing about Richard Rogers suggested that he could have been a serial killer.
He was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts in June of 1950. [ __ ] And he was the first of five children
born into a working-class family. According to a cousin, he was quote normal normal as could be.
That's horrifying. Yeah, actually. When he was still very young, his family moved to Florida, where his
father found better paying work than his previous job as a lobster fisherman. In
general, Roger's life was pretty much the same as a lot of American boys in the 1950s. His dad took him fishing,
taught him how to hunt, and you know, just wanted him to develop a healthy appreciation for the outdoors. They had
a nice relationship. Things at home were cool, but things at school were not quite as ideal.
As a straight A student who was very neat, very tidy, and gangly and awkward, he was usually the target of bullies,
and they would pick on him for things like his high-pitched voice and his perceived girly nature.
Stop picking on people. Yeah, cut it out. Like, stop. Just There's probably something annoying
about you, too, so just That's the thing. Like, I love People pick on people and I'm like, "Yeah,
you're not [ __ ] perfect either. No one is." No. Like, look in the goddamn mirror.
Seriously. And it's always the people who are the most It sounds so cliche, but they're
always the most miserable and the most insecure. Anybody being mean to you anywhere in
your life, they're so [ __ ] unhappy. And take that and feel good about it. Yeah. They want to bring down to their
level. So, don't let them take you there. No. Don't let them take your piece. No,
you're great. So, Rogers didn't have a lot of friends, and according to Elon Green, he was quote teased mercilessly
about everything from his voice to the way that he walked. Instead of the more typical after school activities for boys
at the time, like boy scouts and things like that, Richard's mother also took him to Girl Scout meetings with his
sisters, even though his father was like, "Hey, can we not do that?" At a certain point, his father just gave up
and, you know, wasn't really teaching him quote unquote masculine activities anymore. and he switched his attention
to his oldest daughter who seemed to have an interest in hunting and really just left Richard on his own.
I know. It's just like, come on. Richard's life didn't improve much as he entered his teen years. In fact, it
probably got worse. His supposedly feminine behaviors only became more pronounced. And although he was not
openly gay at the time, he was tormented by his peers as though he was. By his mid- teens, the torment and the ridicule
from his classmates become became way too much to bear. And one afternoon, he stabbed his neighbor with a kitchen
knife. "Wow" escalated quickly. "Uh, holy shit." It's unclear what led to the stabbing of the young woman, and details
are pretty much non-existent, but the incident did get him placed in a psychiatric hospital for a period of
time. Wow. As they should. Uh-huh. Despite that though, he still managed to graduate from a high school
on time. And in 1968, he enrolled at Florida Southern, which was a small Methodist college just outside of Tampa.
His time at Florida Southern was pretty unremarkable. He graduated in 1972 with a BA in French. His peers and roommates,
at least those who remembered him, said he was a quiet but polite young man. He really didn't make much of an
impression. His sophomore year roommate, Don uh Donald Cberly, said that he was quote, "Extremely introverted, very
intelligent, but he would not talk unless you talked to him first." Okay. Understandably, he continued to hide his
sexuality while at Florida Southern because it definitely would have made him the target of the type of bullying
that he went through in his younger years. Yeah. Or possibly worse. Yeah, I would say so. Because don't
forget in the 1960s homosexuality was considered a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association.
Yeah. And homosexual activity was criminalized at this time. Cool. Yeah. So you couldn't be out.
Wow. Mhm. When he was younger, all he really would have to worry about was being ruthlessly bullied for being gay.
But as an adult, he could have been placed in jail or placed in harm's way. Actually, during his time as an
undergraduate, there was one student on the campus who was openly gay. And according to Elon Green, that student
was quote reportedly moved into an off-campus apartment by the administration for his own safety.
Holy [ __ ] Yeah. Where I would say, are we okay? But the answer is a resounding no.
No, because it's crazy that resounding no. History is like somewhat repeating itself. Yeah, it's again I say
I should even say somewhating history is repeating itself. On the afternoon of April 30th though
1973, two bicyclists riding along a back road discovered the body of a young man
laying at the edge of the woods about 10 ft from the road. This boy was short shirtless covered in blood and wrapped
in a large sheet of green canvas like you might use for a tent. Green. I was just I you couldn't see me but I
gave Ash a look that was like yeah green canvas. Not not green trash bags, but green canvas.
Green canvas. Still a strange coincidence. Police found tire marks on the road near
the body. And in the boy's pocket, they found a key to a post office box. So, they took that to the post office, and
the key was identified as belonging to 22-year-old graduate student Frederick Spencer.
According to the uh to the medical examiner, Spencer had been killed by at least eight blows to the back of his
head with a hammer. Holy [ __ ] any of which the medical examiner said would have been fatal.
Yeah. The murder came as a shock to the small community of Orono Main where students and faculty of the university
accounted for a significant portion of the only 9,000 or so residents. As far as anybody there knew, Fred Spencer was
wellliked. He was a hardworking young man. He got along with pretty much everybody. Um he was a student at the
college of life sciences and agriculture and he'd been actually recruited to the
school according to one adviser based on his outstanding academic record and future promise as a research scientist.
Wow. So this kid had a bright future ahead of him. While the body was being moved to the
nearest mortuary for autopsy, investigators went to the house that Fred shared with a couple of roommates
and other grad students. And after being invited inside by one of Spencer's roommates and taking a quick look
around, it was pretty obvious that they had found the scene of the murder. There
were dark brown and red stains on the carpet on the stairs, and it looked like somebody had tried to clean them. With
the roommate's permission, they continued to look around the house. Upstairs in the hallway, they found a
spongy material on the floor, which they had also discovered wrapped in the canvas with Spencer's body. The material
was scattered lightly on the floor in a trail that led to the bedroom. of Richard Rogers.
Oh, yep. In Rogers bedroom, they also discovered blood droplets on the walls, floor, and ceiling. They also uh found
bloody fingerprints on the wall beside the door and in the bathroom on the floor. And it was in Roger's bedroom
that the they found their murder weapon, a standard claw hammer. And you're telling me he's he was just a
suspect in this? You'll see. Okay. The evidence um all pointed to Rogers and he was picked up by police
later that day. Now, there's some conflict surrounding the nature of Richard and Fred's relationship. Most of
Roger's classmates recalled that they were roommates and had a strained relationship. There was like always a
kind of tension between them. But then other people said that they were very close and spent a lot of time together.
So, I don't know if maybe both of those things are true and they had some kind of falling out.
Yeah. and maybe they were close, spent a lot of time together, but there was always like an underlying tension. Yeah.
You know, but either way, investigators couldn't seem to identify any kind of motive for
this killing. As far as they knew, neither Richard or Fred had a history of violence, and there was nothing in
either of their past that would suggest something like this was possible. I don't think they knew about the
psychiatric stint. I was like I was like, I'm sorry. Are we are we pretending that he didn't stab
someone or I think they had not come across that, it seems. Okay. They they should they should look
into that. They for sure should before saying that they don't see a history of violence because
cuz that's a violent history because there's one. I see it. Oh, found it. I got it.
There it is. Found it. It's like where's Waldo? But history of violence. I'm so glad you saw my face being like I
was like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait." I was like, "Excuse me." Yeah. So, at the state police barracks,
Richard was brought into an interview room and it didn't take long for him to fully confess to this murder.
Okay. He claimed that the two had been in his bedroom when an argument broke out and he said Fred came at him with
the hammer. He claimed he rustled the hammer away from Fred and in self-defense hit him on the head several
times. After being hit with the hammer, Spencer was still struggling, Richard said. So, he put a plastic bag over his
head to quote knock him out. He said it was simply a matter of self-defense in what he thought was a fight for his
life. Uh, investigating officers were pretty [ __ ] skeptical of this because self-defense doesn't often include
esphyxiation. Yeah. And aren't all the hammer hits to the back of the head? Mhm.
That's also a little It's also a little telling. A little sus, I would say. They had found their killer, so now it
was up to a judge and jury to determine whether or not he was telling the truth.
Why the [ __ ] is this guy out and doing it again? Um, because societyy's [ __ ] gross.
That's why this is horrifying. Yeah, it gets worse. Oh, Richard's attorney, Errol Payne, had
hoped to avoid a trial at all. And even the judge actually tried to arrange for a plea agreement with the prosecutor,
uh, Fo Salem, but Richard refused to accept a plea deal and seemed eager to prove himself in court.
Oh boy. The trial started on October 29th, 1973 in Banger Superior Superior Court. Over
the course of several days, Sem called several character witnesses to testify as to Fred's easygoing nature and strong
moral character. He also had the medical examiner go into great detail about the
extent of Spencer's injuries. The prosecutor acknowledged, "Sure, it was possible that Roger was telling the
truth about the initial self-defense claim, but if it was purely a matter of self-defense, why had Richard put a bag
over the victim's head after he'd been subdued?" Yeah. And also, why had he gone to such
great lengths to get rid of the body, clean the crime scene, and all of that rather than report the attack to police
right away? Exactly. The prosecution made a compelling argument for murder and expected an equally strong uh strong
response and defense from Payne. But when the time came for the defense to present their case, Payne didn't have
any follow-up questions for any of the prosecution's witnesses, and he really didn't even call many of his own
witnesses. Actually, just a few days into the trial, he made a motion to reduce the charges from murder to
manslaughter, arguing that the state's evidence didn't support a murder charge, and the judge agreed.
What? He said it was clear Rogers had been provoked and that quote, "The jury could
not find that the actions of the defendant exceeded the crime of manslaughter." I'll have an explanation for you
shortly. I will you? I will. What the [ __ ] It's homophobia. Oh, cuz I'm like, what?
We'll get there. What? We will get there. This man hit another man on the head, back of the head eight times. All of
which, any of which, according to the medical examiner, could have it was the fatal blow.
Mhm. And then esphyxiated him with a bag and dumped his body in a wooded area. Yeah.
After tried to clean up and tried to clean everything up. We're claiming that is not sufficient enough
evidence. They're literally being like, "Well, he provoked him. No, it's manslaughter."
Whoa. Just wait. So, at the opening of the trial, Sem was con confident that he could get a conviction based on the
evidence alone, which Elena just laid out for us. Again, thank you. But within less than a week, that confidence was
undermined when things got even less certain because Rogers took the stand to testify on his own behalf. Despite the
very serious charges, he was remarkably calm, collected, and even persuasive. His lawyer argued that the bludgeoning
of Fred Spencer had been committed, quote, in passion under sudden provocation. And any reasonable man
would have reacted the same way. Oh my. Any reasonable man would have climbed on top of him, hit him in the
back of the head 18 times and then strangled him with a plastic bag over his head.
Wow. It's just reasonable. Yeah, that's just man things, you know. Yeah. Facts. Richard confirmed this and
said, "I didn't know what to do. I wanted very much to go to the police, but by then I felt it would look very
suspicious." Oh, yeah. So, instead, he wrapped the body in a tent and dumped it in the woods.
Yeah. Which which like Yeah, you're right. That doesn't look suspicious. Not at all. No. On November 2nd, 1973,
the jury deliberated for just under three hours before emerging to acquit Richard Rogers of the charges that were
put against him. Shame. Shame. Shame. After the verdict on all of you, shame. Shame. After the verdict was read, he
told a reporter, "I just had no idea how this was going to turn out. I mean, I'm
not guilty, but I am really thankful." And as the jury filed out of the courthouse, he yelled after them,
saying, "Thank you very much. I assure you, you did the right thing." Wow. Yeah.
I'm simply without a thought. You're not alone. Because under the circumstances, and given not only the
evidence, but his own [ __ ] confession to murder, his acquitt came as a surprise to pretty much everyone close
to this case. Wow. But author Elon Green pointed out none of the newspaper coverage suggests
Payne used a gay panic defense, but at least one spectator remembers something to that effect.
In fact, decades later, many residents who were alive at the time did recall that there was some kind of quote
unquote gay angle to the story. Assuming that that's true, his acquitt does make
a lot more sense because in 1973 Maine, it was entirely likely that even the implication that Frederick Spencer made
some kind of pass at Rogers would have been viewed as a justifiable defense of Roger's actions. Gay panic.
Wow. Mhm. Wow. the subject just like is gross and it's when you really like dive into that
like it's just like panic insane one man making a which I'm not saying happened here I'm just saying like the
whole idea of it one man making a pass at another man is justifiable enough for them to say yeah you can hit him on the
head eight times with a hammer and then esphyxiate him and dump his body in the woods
do you know how many But then men who hit on women and end up unc like totally like
sexually assaulting them, making them feel uncomfortable, making them feel in danger. If you were to touch that guy,
you'd have like an assault charge. Mhm. Yep. It happens to women all the time. So, it's totally fine in that sense. But
if but if you're if you're implying that I'm gay, like that logic doesn't reg it's like
how does that make sense to anyone? It doesn't make any sense. It can't it can't make sense.
It only makes sense to homophobes. Like that's wild. So he got away with murder and was able to do all that he did.
Mhm. Whatever the case may have been, he was a free man. And after completing his
graduate studies at the University of Maine, I was like, you stayed? Everyone just like hung out with you after that?
What the [ __ ] But after that, he moved to New York and he started taking nursing courses at Pace University,
which is also just another [ __ ] dichconomy. And then he's just becoming a nurse.
He's a nurse. What? He completed his program in 1979 and that's when he took the job at Mount
Sinai Hospital where he was employed until his arrest in the early 2000s, which is crazy. Discovering that Rogers
had at least one murder in his past put their suspect in a new light. The fingerprints confirmed that if nothing
else, he had been involved in the dismemberment and the disposal of at least Anthony Morero.
Yeah. But when they compared the prince from Toronto to the prince in every other
case, they were a match. Oh [ __ ] Yep. Now, the more investigators dug into Richard's past, the more confident they
were that he was 100%, even without the the fingerprint evidence, definitely the
last call killer. Yeah. When they spoke to one of his ex-boyfriends, a British man who he had
dated briefly in 1996, investigators learned of an incident where the two were out to dinner one night and Richard
suddenly turned to the man and said, "You should really be careful who you who you're with because the police are
out there looking for a serial killer." Ooh. At the time, the ex thought it was just
a joke and a joke and poor taste at that. Yeah. But in retrospect, he said the comment
took on an entirely different and very macob. He said, "Toward the end, I realized something wasn't quite right."
Damn. It would have been unusual for Rogers, or really any serial killer for that
matter, to commit one murder and then stop for two decades only to just start again. But when they learned more about
who he was and his past, the more investigators questioned whether he actually had stopped committing acts of
violence. On a trip to Florida to visit family in 1982, a man named Matthew Pierro dis uh disappeared from a Daytona
Beach gay bar after last call and his body was found a few days later along Interstate 4. He'd been suffocated and
stabbed six times in the chest and back. A few days after that, Richard returned
to New York after having visited family in Florida in that time frame. Holy [ __ ] Then in 1986, the remains of
a man named Jack Andrews were discovered in multiple garbage bags at a rest stop
in Lichfield, Connecticut, just a few hours outside of New York City. He was 100% suspected in both of those deaths,
but unfortunately, there was never enough evidence to officially connect him to those murders.
Wow. But there were other crimes they could connect him to, like the 1988 assault on
a man named Sandy Harrow. According to Harrow, he had met Richard in the uh in early July at the GH Club, which is a
gay bar in Manhattan. Mhm. Sandy noticed Richard standing against the wall of the bar and looking for a
place to sit. So, Sandy made some room for him and they got to chatting. Around 8:00 p.m., Richard suggested they go
back to his apartment and Harold said he seemed nice enough, so he agreed. Back at Roger's apartment, Richard
immediately disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a drink for Sandy, which Sandy remembered being orange
juice or something like that. He said, "I was drinking the orange juice. I didn't taste anything strange, but I
remember passing out and as I fell forward, there was a very dark blue rug on the floor." Oh,
it reminded me of that movie Fresh. Yes. Yeah. Oh, it really does. He said when he woke
up later, hours later, he had been stripped nude and his wrists and ankles were bound with hospital ID bracelets.
I need you guys just to sit with that for a second. Yeah, fully. He woke up completely nude and was bound
at his wrist and ankles with hospital ID bracelets. I hate it. He started to scream and at
that point, Rogers came over and injected him with a needle. So, he lost consciousness for a second time and then
woke up again a few hours later. Rogers had him dressed and left him outside on the sidewalk a few blocks away. What the
[ __ ] Sandy called his friend who picked him up and took him to the hospital. He
was treated at Roosevelt Hospital where they conducted a rape exam and found no evidence of sexual assault.
He's got like Jeffrey Dmer vibes. He does. He very much does. Sandy obviously reported the assault to
the police and Rogers was arrested and charged with kidnapping and assault, but he ra he waved his right to a jury trial
and instead chose a bench trial where for some reason he was acquitted and allowed to go free. Are you [ __ ]
kidding me? I'm not. They just kept letting this They were like, "Yeah, please do more."
Yeah, go ahead. Escalate. Yep. Escalate more. Escalate more. Like what the [ __ ]
Just go ahead and shame on all these people that let him out several times. So, in just a matter of a few weeks,
investigators had gone from a fingerprint a fingerprint match in one of the last call cases to establishing a
thorough and very violent history for their suspect. Detective Cohen and investigators from other agencies
conferred and it was decided that the two New Jersey cases uh the because they had both been found in New Jersey,
Thomas Mkei and Anthony Morero were the strongest in terms of physical evidence and eyewitness testimony from staff and
patrons at the townhouse bar. So the prosecutor planned to charge Richard Rogers with both of those murders.
Yeah. On May 28th, detectives from NYPD's major case squad started monitoring Richard Rogers and shadowing
him as he traveled to and from work and just other random places. To everybody involved, this made the most sense. He
lived in New York, and even though they didn't have crime scenes there, they knew that Thomas Milke and Anthony
Morero had been picked up in Manhattan. So, that part of the case went to the NYPD. In following Rogers, they hoped
that he might lead them to a new location, maybe where the crimes had taken place, or that they might find
additional evidence. But in the two days that they surveiled him, he kind of just
traveled to and from mundane locations. Yeah. So, finally on May 28th, uh the police
commissioner at the time, Bernard Kirk, gave or Carrick, excuse me, gave the order to arrest Richard Rogers for the
murders of Thomas Mke and Anthony Morero. Not wanting to tip him off, detectives from the major uh from Major
case visited him at Mount Si that afternoon and told him they had evidence that he had been a victim of credit card
fraud. Oh my goodness. And they just needed his assistance in catching this horrible individual.
We need you. So he said, "Of course, I will go with you to one police plaza." And they sat
down there in an interrogation room where they revealed that they were in fact actually investigating the murders
of Thomas Volkee and Anthony Morero and that Rogers was their prime suspect. Despite what they knew about his past,
they the detectives still found it hard to believe that the man who was sitting in front of them in this interview room
had brutally killed and dismembered at least five people cuz you just can't picture anyone doing
that. Like even if you know that about this man, you know, like he's very capable of it clearly.
But unlike a lot of the other violent criminals that they had been used to dealing with throughout the years, he
was quiet, he was polite with them, and he seemed timid to them. He was cooperative even to the extent that he
signed all the forms indicating he understood his rights, but he wasn't very forthcoming with useful
information. When New York detectives asked uh why he thought they were eager to speak with him about the homicides,
he didn't show any signs of anxiety or distress and suggested it was maybe because of that 1988 assault with Sandy
or maybe because of the death of Fred Spencer in 1973. Oh, the death. I think you mean murder.
Yeah. But they showed him pictures of the victims and asked him to identify his or to verify his whereabouts when
the murders were committed. And he seemed somewhat compliant, but told them that quote, "Other than recognizing Mr.
Sakara, I don't know if I can help you with anything else." Mhm. So, the conversation went back and forth for a
few more minutes before detectives informed him of the real reason they picked him up. They said, "We have
indisputable evidence, both physical and circumstantial, that links you to all four of these homicides. We literally
know for an absolute fact that you did this. Yeah. Like your palm prints and fingerprints are literally all over
everything. As soon as he heard that, he sat straight up in his chair and two investigators finally appeared to become
guarded. Oh. Two detectives started walking through the details of each murder and gave
their theories as to how things happened and how Rogers might be involved. And he
listened, but he didn't say anything, just nodded to show that he was listening. The interrogation went on for
several hours. They went over graphic details of all the deaths, all the dismemberments, hoping that he would
just give up and confess. But by 12:30 that morning, everyone was exhausted, and he invoked his right to counsel. So,
the interview had to come to an end. Yeah. As soon as the courts opened up the next
day in Ocean County, New Jersey, he was charged with first the first-degree murders of Thomas Bulke and Anthony
Morero, but he refused to wave his right to extradition. So, he was transferred to Riker's Island and held on $1 million
bail. In the meantime, detectives in New York had received a warrant to search his apartment, where they found, among
other things, carpet fibers consistent with those discovered on Anthony Morero's body, heavy duty garbage bags
like those found at all four crime scenes, and a bottle of Versid, which is a benzoazipene commonly used in minor
surgical procedures. Holy [ __ ] But also known as a day rape drug. Damn. uh while s this this just sent me. While
searching through one of the drawers in his bedroom, they also found a series of
Polaroid photographs that looked like they were taken from his bedroom window. And they were photos of shirtless
construction workers who were like working on the road outside his apartment. And on each of the photos, he
had drawn on what seemed to detectives to be stab wounds on the torsos of the men in the picture.
What the [ __ ] Yeah. Yeah, what a sick [ __ ] puppy this man is. But the craziest thing was the news of
his arrest came as an absolute shock to his friends and neighbors. They all flatly rejected the idea that he could
ever be responsible for killing anyone. One neighbor told a reporter from the New York Times, "He's a lovely fellow
who likes antiques and everything that has to do with money." And another said, "Richie would never kill anyone. God,
no." Do we know anyone ever? No. Do we ever know anyone? No. No. No. No. No. No.
Think about this man who you think is lovely. Your great awesome neighbor. Your great awesome neighbor who you talk
to about antiques. Taking pictures of construction workers and drawing stab wounds on them
and also kidnapping men. Like possibly drugging them. Even that though it's like something is
a not like you don't even know that. Yeah. You just don't even know that about him
like that. That's Yeah. Like you don't know people. Think about the amount of conversations
that neighbor probably had with him. Just friendly hanging out. Normal, cordial conversations.
I'm so upset by that. And also like he could have dismembered somebody next door.
Yeah. What? Absolutely. And you had no idea. You had no idea. Yeah. They also all described him as a kind,
generous person who went out of his way to help others. Wow. One person even said he was really
the kind of guy you could trust with your ATM card. I I'm telling you, you can't.
You You definitely can't. But the fact that like people felt that way before they knew what had happened,
but the more news that came out in the days that followed, it became harder to insist that the police had made some
kind of mistake. Wow. It ended up taking several years just with different delays and everything
before he went to trial for the murders of Thomas Mkehey and an Anthony Morero. And in that time, they did offer him a
deal. The deal was that he would plead guilty to two counts of manslaughter. This guy is [ __ ] lucky. A lucky duck.
A lucky duck. Two counts of mans manslaughter. And in exchange, he would receive two 30-year sentences with the
possibility of parole after 15 years. I'm just like confused how we're just like not being like he's he murdered
people, so let's charge him with murder. I'm also like you have a [ __ ] ton of evidence. You have the evidence here.
We're not claiming that these are all self-defense. Like, let's be so for real. I don't know if it was just because at
that point DNA evidence was so new that they maybe thought the jury would have a
hard time understanding it or or what. Very big possibility. But they gave him a solid deal, offered
him a solid deal. And considering the fact that he was facing at least two life sentences and that the case against
him, like I just said, was pretty strong, the deal was a good one. But it wasn't good enough for him. He declined
the offer. What a [ __ ] idiot. Yeah, but remember that's not the first time he's done that.
Damn. On October 26th, 2005, which is crazy. 2005, he went on trial. Wild. Yeah.
He went on trial at the Ocean County Municipal Court in Tom's River, New Jersey. In his opening statement,
prosecuting attorney William Heisler laid out the case for the jury. In the case of the Mahhee murder, they had 16
fingerprints from nine different fingers. And in the Morero case, they had two fingerprints and a palm print on
the bag where Morero's head had been discovered. They also had a mountain of physical evidence like the carpet fibers
and testimony from various witnesses like the bartenders at the Five Oaks and the Townhouse Bar who had seen Rogers
with the victims on the nights they were murdered. Unlike the last time he had been in
court facing a murder charge, he didn't testify on his own behalf this time. In fact, he really didn't react at all as
the prosecution methodically walked the jury through all the evidence against him. This time, there wasn't much the
defense could do but try to inspire some amount of doubt in the jury's minds. They argued that investigators didn't
have any crime scene for any of the murders and that there wasn't any murder weapon.
Oh, then it didn't happen. I'm like, "Okay, but his fingerprints are on the bags."
Yeah. And they said, "Well, it's possible his fingerprints got on the bag in some other way, and simply touching a
bag doesn't make you guilty of murder." I mean, touching a bag that has a dead body in it makes you a suspect at the
very least. And touching two bags that have two separate dead body makes you even more of a suspect.
Yeah. Makes you cuz like what the odds what a bad what you you had some bad luck if you're
touching multiple bags that happen to end up having multiple murder victims inside them. Like, babe, that's not
reasonable doubt. That's really crazy. Let's Let's go ahead and sit down, everybody, and let's calculate together
the odds of that. Yeah. Yeah. I was never great at probability, but I feel like I did.
That one I feel like we could really knock out of the park. Yeah. Well, in the end, the defense put
forth by Roger's lawyers was uh unconvincing at best. Yeah. After two weeks of very graphic,
very heartbreaking testimony, the jury only deliberated for a few hours and returned to the courtroom to find
Richard Rogers guilty on every single charge. [ __ ] that guy. When the verdict was read aloud in the court, he did not
show any emotion and did not say anything because he's a piece of [ __ ] Truly. In late January of 2006, Richard
Rogers was back in the packed Toms River courtroom where he stood before the judge silently as family uh family
members and friends read their victim impact statements for the court. Tracy Mkei, Thomas's daughter, said, "He did
it because he could and because he wanted to. He destroyed the anchor of our family and many of the dreams that
we had for the future." Which is awful. Yeah. My heart goes out to them. Once all the victim impact statements were
read, the judge sentenced Rogers to two full life terms to be served consecutively. Good.
He told Rogers, "To do less would diminish the horror of offenses you've committed, sir."
Yes. It's the purpose of this sentence to do everything within my power to assure
society you never walk free again and that you die in some hole in some prison without ever having freedom again. And
hopefully society will find some of justice in that because there's nothing else that I can do.
What a [ __ ] banger of a judge statement. And then he dropped his gavvel because
that's the fact that he said and that you die in some hole in some prison. He said, "I don't even give a [ __ ]
where." He said, "I don't give a [ __ ] I just want you to rot." Yeah. And it's like the the only thing I want
is that society never has to [ __ ] deal with you again. It's like that there are some people and he is one of
them. Yep. That should never see the light of day again. Absolutely not. Like he's proven his
entire life that he would do this forever. Oh, and he's a brutal if he gets out killer. I mean that the fact that he got
off in that first one, you would think he would shut the [ __ ] up and just live his life and be like,
"Wow, I really I really got out of that. But he's a [ __ ] animal." But he kept going.
Yeah. He's deranged. Yeah. So, he was removed from the courtroom after that and transported to
New Jersey State Prison to begin serving his life sentence, which I think is hilarious because he never wanted to be
extradited there in the first place. And now he has so much fun in New Jersey. In 2008, he appealed his conviction to
the Superior Court of New Jersey who essentially said, "Fuck you." Good. Um, they upheld the lower court's
decision. They were like, "Fuck y'all." He appealed again in 2014, but was again
denied by the court and still to this day rots in some hole in some prison. Amazing. Hopefully we'll die there soon.
Not too soon though. Wanted to rot for a long time. Holy [ __ ] Yeah, it's a really really devastating
case. And you just think like all these men were trying to figure out their sexuality, trying to figure out their
lives, family. Yeah, that's the thing. Like some of them were married, some had kids, some
were living comfortably and finally had, you know, like gotten cool with who they were
and he just took them away from everybody that loved them and took some of them in their darkest
hours. Yeah. Which is awful. Holy [ __ ] He's a true monster. And the fact that I didn't ever know about this
guy is so upsetting. It's crazy. And the fact that like I know he said it before, but it's just
like you can't you can't get it together in your mind that he assaulted somebody
so brutally, killed somebody years before like 10 years before that and got away with it and possibly killed even
more people, but unfortunately there just wasn't enough evidence there. But I'm certain he most likely killed
those people. I wouldn't be shocked at all, you know. Yeah. And it's like how many more people that
did he kill that just didn't they just didn't connect connect, right? Wow. Yeah. I really hope he's rotting in
some prison. What a [ __ ] brutal brutal case and so sad. It was really sad. But I'm so glad he was caught. Me, too.
Holy [ __ ] So, I think we'll do something like maybe spooky after this. Yeah, just give just for a moment.
Yeah, maybe like a guest app. A cool guest app or a spooky. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. And in the meantime, we hope
that you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird, but not so weird that you think you can
just go around doing whatever the [ __ ] you want to do and ending lives. Yeah. Don't be a hateful [ __ ] No. Said it
again. Don't do it. [Music] [Music] [Music]

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 bottom 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 Ben-Ali, Russell, and William Rashbaum. 1993. "Grisly slayings linked?" Newsday, August 3: 4.

—. 1993. "Hunt is on." Newsday, August 5: 6.

Curran, John. 2006. "Ex-UM student given life sentences in slayings." Bangor Daily News, January 28: 25.

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.

New York Times. 1993. "Thomas Mulcahy: Sales executive, devoted husband." New York Times, August 8: 40.

Peet, Judy. 2000. "Technology revives search for gays' serial killer." Staten Island Advance, April 24: 15.

Rashbaum, William. 1993. "Gay stalker?" Newsday, August 4: 5.

Rosenblatt, Lionel. 1973. "Jury finds student not guilty." Bangor Daily News, November 4: 1.

State of New Jersey v. Richard W. Rogers. 2008. 03-01-00050 (Superior Court of New Jersey, April 16).

Walsh, James. 1993. "Tracking a killer." Journal News (White Plains, NY), October 24:

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Brief Summary

Richard Rogers, the Last Call Killer, murdered gay men in the 1990s, evading justice until forensic evidence linked him to the crimes.

Key points

The Last Call Killer. Investigators suspect a serial killer targeting gay men in the tri-state area.
Community Response. Local LGBTQ+ groups mobilize to educate and protect their community amid rising violence.
Richard Rogers Identified. A decade-long hunt leads to the identification of the last call killer, Richard Rogers.
Murder of Frederick Spencer. The shocking murder of a graduate student reveals a dark connection to Richard Rogers.
Richard Rogers' Confession. Richard Rogers confessed to the murder during an interrogation, claiming self-defense.
Trial Begins. The trial of Richard Rogers began on October 29, 1973, with character witnesses testifying.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Sure, it's a cold case, but we have a lot of new angles to play.

Detective Matthew on the renewed investigation efforts.

8:35WatchJul 10, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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