Last Call
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"This true-crime gem—Green's first full-length work, sensitively and incisively narrated by Pittu—is an illuminating and deeply humanizing testament to victims overlooked by the media and forgotten in cultural memory...An insightful and essential conversation among author, narrator, and producer concludes this highly recommended recording." -- Booklist, starred review
*This program includes a bonus conversation with the author*
The gripping true story, told here for the first time, of the Last Call Killer and the gay community of New York City that he preyed upon.
The Townhouse Bar, midtown, July 1992: The piano player seems to know every song ever written, the crowd belts out the lyrics to their favorites, and a man standing nearby is drinking a Scotch and water. The man strikes the piano player as forgettable.
He looks bland and inconspicuous. Not at all what you think a serial killer looks like. But that’s what he is, and tonight, he has his sights set on a gray haired man. He will not be his first victim.
Nor will he be his last.
The Last Call Killer preyed upon gay men in New York in the ‘80s and ‘90s and had all the hallmarks of the most notorious serial killers. Yet because of the sexuality of his victims, the skyhigh murder rates, and the AIDS epidemic, his murders have been almost entirely forgotten.
This gripping true-crime narrative tells the story of the Last Call Killer and the decades-long chase to find him. And at the same time, it paints a portrait of his victims and a vibrant community navigating threat and resilience.
A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books
"Green’s sensitive portraits of the victims, and his deeply researched re-creation of an epoch of gay history, provide its soul. Inherently shocking material needs no dramatization, and David Pittu’s understated narration highlights the tragedy and horror of these crimes. “Last Call” is the kind of book that keeps you wide awake all night turning the pages. As an audiobook, it will keep you wide awake all day as you drive, hoping you don’t get wherever you’re going before it ends." -- New York Times
"In this astonishing and powerful work of nonfiction, Green meticulously reports on a series of baffling and brutal crimes targeting gay men. It is an investigation filled with twists and turns, but this is much more than a compelling true crime story. Green has shed light on those whose lives for too long have been forgotten, and rescued an important part of American history." -- David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In the early ’90s, the LGBTQ+ community was already grappling with the AIDS crisis when—as this gripping true-crime thriller describes—a serial killer picked his moment to strike. Starting in 1992, a murderer dubbed the Last Call Killer began picking up gay men in New York City piano bars before brutally slaying them. While a man named Richard Rogers Jr. was eventually prosecuted for the crimes, author Elon Green was shocked at how little media attention the trial received and decided to write about the grisly case. Drawing on exhaustive research, Green explores the flourishing queer culture of the era and contrasts that reality with the prejudice and ignorance that was simultaneously building up in society at large. Narrator David Pittu delivers the hard info while underscoring the human toll at the heart of this brutal, tragic chapter in NYC history. Last Call is a scary and important story for fans of true crime.