Oxygen Book Club's June Book Is Here! Learn About 'The Last Call Killer' Who Stalked NYC's Queer Scene

Calling all true crime fans!

Oxygen Book Club is back this June, with a book that puts the spotlight on a serial killer's victims rather than the killer himself. "Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York" by Elon Green is ostensibly about the Last Call Killer, aka Richard Rogers, a Staten Island nurse who targeted and murdered gay men he met through New York City's nightlife scene. But unlike most true crime media, the book doesn't linger on Rogers -- instead it focuses on the four men who were killed between 1991 and 1993 in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsvylania: Peter Anderson, 54, Thomas Mulcahy, 57, Anthony Marrero, 44, and Michael Sakara, 55.

This makes the book refreshing and something of a rarity in the genre, as it dives deep into the lives of the four victims and creates a vivid portrait of them rather than their murderer. "Last Call" also provides a look at the queer scene in New York City at the time and interrogates why this string of killings in New York City has largely faded from memory -- you won't even find a Wikipedia page on Rogers, who met his victims at gay bars before stabbing and dismembering them, then tossing away their bodies in trash bags, The New York Times reported in 2006. Rogers was sentenced to life in prison that year for the murders of Marrero and Mulcahy.

Author Elon Green and his book 'Last Call'. Photo: Natalie Sparaccio; Celadon Books

So, if you want to learn more about the Last Call Killer and his victims, read this book along with Oxygen this June and keep an eye out for discussion questions, coming soon. And check back each month for Oxygen Book Club's picks, which highlight the best true crime stories the literary world has to offer.

Still want to learn more about the Last Call Killer? His disturbing crimes are featured in "Mark of a Serial Killer," which you can stream here.