00:00:00
[Music]
00:00:05
up next a serial killer was on the loose
00:00:08
in new york city these people were
00:00:10
chopped up it's just a savage way to die
00:00:13
we felt that he really pissed somebody
00:00:14
off the media labels him the last call
00:00:18
killer the last call for drinks that's
00:00:21
the last that was seen of them
00:00:23
nearly a decade passes and police still
00:00:25
have no suspects
00:00:28
until advances in forensic science
00:00:30
finally help pinpoint the killer it's
00:00:33
the most bizarre case i've ever been
00:00:35
involved with
00:00:38
[Music]
00:00:45
for sanitation workers collecting trash
00:00:47
along the new jersey turnpike in 1991
00:00:50
it was a day like any other
00:00:53
until they found a plastic bag so heavy
00:00:57
the men decided to look inside
00:01:00
the worker felt like it was a pumpkin or
00:01:03
something
00:01:04
but it was something else
00:01:09
it was a head a human head human skull
00:01:13
[Music]
00:01:15
when police arrived at the scene they
00:01:18
found even more bags
00:01:20
with more body parts
00:01:22
the body was severed into seven pieces
00:01:25
two legs
00:01:27
two arms upper and lower torso and the
00:01:30
head
00:01:31
there were ligature marks on his wrist
00:01:33
which suggested he was tied up or bound
00:01:35
at some point
00:01:36
one bag contained latex gloves a bed
00:01:39
sheet shower curtain and a blood stained
00:01:42
saw
00:01:44
it tells law enforcement that this
00:01:46
happened in some home or a rented place
00:01:49
a hotel room it could be any of those
00:01:51
things
00:01:52
the victim's wallet was found in one of
00:01:54
the bags
00:01:55
there was clearly no attempt to hide the
00:01:57
identity of the victim
00:02:00
the victim was 56 year old thomas
00:02:02
mulcahy an executive for an information
00:02:05
company in massachusetts who'd been in
00:02:08
new york city on a business trip
00:02:11
he was married for approximately 33
00:02:13
years
00:02:14
he had four children with the youngest
00:02:16
being i believe 18 years of age and the
00:02:19
others were young adults
00:02:21
mulcahy had been stabbed to death then
00:02:24
dismembered
00:02:26
the body parts as well as the bags
00:02:29
themselves were washed
00:02:31
before they were dumped
00:02:33
[Music]
00:02:35
well the washing tells us that the
00:02:37
killer wants to remove evidence and two
00:02:39
that there is an an intimate aspect to
00:02:41
it of of keeping the body close it's
00:02:44
erotic
00:02:45
you're taking care of the victim
00:02:49
thomas mulcahy's wife told police some
00:02:51
personal information she felt
00:02:54
might be pertinent
00:02:56
she said at some point
00:02:58
in his life he started experimenting
00:03:00
with homosexual sex
00:03:02
i don't know that she approved of it
00:03:05
by tracing his credit card activity
00:03:08
detectives learned that mulcahy's last
00:03:10
transaction was at an atm at 11 15 pm
00:03:15
two nights before his body was found
00:03:18
tom mckay draws two hundred dollars from
00:03:20
an atm machine
00:03:22
at 49th and avenue of america's with our
00:03:25
luck the camera system was down so we
00:03:27
had no pictures
00:03:29
there was no evidence mulcahy had ever
00:03:32
returned to his hotel room that night
00:03:35
which was only a block away
00:03:38
but there was evidence he had stopped in
00:03:39
a nearby bar
00:03:43
well k he was seen at the townhouse bar
00:03:45
which is an upscale gay bar in manhattan
00:03:47
he was intoxicated
00:03:49
this was consistent with the medical
00:03:51
examiner's report
00:03:53
the medical examiner determined that
00:03:56
thomas mulcahy's blood alcohol level was
00:03:59
above the legal limit
00:04:01
witnesses said that mulcahy was talking
00:04:04
with a white male
00:04:06
with brown hair
00:04:07
but no one could say for sure
00:04:10
whether they left the bar together
00:04:14
using the witness's descriptions
00:04:17
police created a composite sketch
00:04:21
which was distributed to the media
00:04:23
we were unsuccessful everything we did
00:04:26
up until that point was unsuccessful but
00:04:29
there was one item found with mulcahy's
00:04:32
body that provided an important clue
00:04:35
in one of the trash bags was the wrapper
00:04:38
for the latex gloves
00:04:40
the price sticker showed they were
00:04:42
purchased from a cvs drug store in
00:04:45
staten island new york
00:04:48
but investigators still faced a daunting
00:04:50
task there were almost half a million
00:04:52
people living in staten island we had
00:04:56
nothing
00:04:57
you know we were grasping at straws
00:05:02
one year after finding thomas mulcahy's
00:05:05
dismembered body
00:05:07
new jersey police had another case that
00:05:09
was eerily similar this time in
00:05:12
manchester township new jersey
00:05:17
the body parts were bagged in a similar
00:05:19
fashion they're double bagged
00:05:21
double knotted the most striking thing
00:05:23
at least to me
00:05:25
was
00:05:25
the way the bodies were dismembered into
00:05:27
the same seven parts
00:05:29
prints were taken and put into this
00:05:31
system and it turned out that this
00:05:33
particular individual had a minor
00:05:35
criminal record he was identified as
00:05:37
anthony marrero
00:05:38
marrero's record showed
00:05:40
he was a gay prostitute
00:05:44
like the mulcahy case
00:05:46
marrero's body parts and the bags had
00:05:49
both been washed before they were dumped
00:05:52
along the side of the road
00:05:55
we had really no prints no dna anything
00:05:57
could tie us to a viable suspect
00:06:00
also like mulcahy
00:06:02
the victim had ligature marks on his
00:06:05
wrists and ankles there's something
00:06:07
called a signature killer that is a
00:06:09
killer who tends to repeat their process
00:06:12
with several victims the cuts that were
00:06:14
performed on his body were described as
00:06:18
as being disarticulated
00:06:20
in that you actually don't just cut
00:06:22
right through the bone you actually pull
00:06:24
the joints apart and cut through
00:06:26
cartilage as opposed to bone
00:06:28
this
00:06:29
disarticulation
00:06:31
was a vital clue
00:06:33
we know it was post-mortem the precision
00:06:35
of the cuts led us to believe
00:06:37
that
00:06:38
this was done by somebody who had some
00:06:40
knowledge
00:06:41
somebody in the medical profession
00:06:42
possibly somebody along those lines
00:06:45
one of the bags found with marrero's
00:06:47
body had the words
00:06:49
president's choice on it
00:06:51
this shopping bag was sold at only nine
00:06:55
locations and one of the locations
00:06:57
happened to be staten island
00:06:59
the store in staten island which sold
00:07:01
those bags was close to the cvs
00:07:03
drugstore that sold the latex gloves
00:07:07
found with thomas mulcahy's body
00:07:10
the reasonable assumption is that the
00:07:12
killer either lives or works in that
00:07:15
neighborhood because that would be
00:07:17
within what's called their zone of
00:07:18
familiarity their comfort zone
00:07:21
using a process called super glue fuming
00:07:24
investigators were able to lift two
00:07:26
partial fingerprints and a partial palm
00:07:30
print from the bags
00:07:33
these prints were entered into the
00:07:35
nationwide fingerprint database of known
00:07:38
criminal offenders
00:07:40
the results of that entry and the search
00:07:43
were negative there was no no match we
00:07:45
had ran out of leads and uh
00:07:48
it wasn't looking too promising
00:07:51
two months later
00:07:52
investigators worst fears were realized
00:07:56
when
00:07:56
another dismembered body was found in a
00:07:59
garbage can 12 miles outside of new york
00:08:03
city
00:08:05
i looked down in a garbage can there was
00:08:07
a couple arms you know folded up neatly
00:08:10
the reaction of every person who found
00:08:12
body parts and i quote them was holy
00:08:15
there was no doubt this was the work of
00:08:18
the same killer
00:08:20
the body was placed in similar type
00:08:23
garbage bags double knotted double
00:08:25
bagged
00:08:26
there were seven pieces also
00:08:30
and again
00:08:31
the body and the bags
00:08:33
had been
00:08:35
washed down
00:08:36
there was no physical evidence recovered
00:08:38
no fingerprints no dna that was foreign
00:08:40
to him
00:08:41
the victim was identified
00:08:43
as 56 year old mike sakara
00:08:47
he was a fixture in the five oaks bar in
00:08:49
greenwich village the five oaks was a
00:08:52
piano bar
00:08:53
and it did cater to the gay clientele
00:08:58
lisa hall was a bartender at the five
00:09:00
oaks on the night mike sakara was
00:09:02
murdered
00:09:04
lisa said a white male came into the bar
00:09:07
and sat next to mike
00:09:09
hey how you doing
00:09:13
she had never seen the man before
00:09:17
yes
00:09:19
i assumed he knew michael because why
00:09:21
would he when there's empty seats go sit
00:09:23
right next to him
00:09:25
and i made the man of scotch in water
00:09:27
and michael said lisa this is so and so
00:09:31
he's a nurse at st vincent
00:09:34
[Music]
00:09:36
when she left the bar michael and this
00:09:38
man were still there
00:09:40
michael was not the type to go home with
00:09:43
anyone and it seemed like he knew him
00:09:46
you know i didn't think anything of it
00:09:49
no one saw the two men leave the bar
00:09:51
together
00:09:52
the detectives asked me for a name i
00:09:54
said it was like john or mark a very
00:09:56
common name
00:09:58
but it was just a first name and i
00:10:01
didn't really remember a name
00:10:03
i remembered a face
00:10:05
so investigators created a composite
00:10:08
sketch based on lisa's description
00:10:12
but even lisa knew
00:10:14
finding him wouldn't be easy well new
00:10:18
york city
00:10:19
it would seem almost impossible to try
00:10:21
to find a suspect unless they could find
00:10:24
some connection somehow
00:10:26
[Music]
00:10:29
detectives across new york and new
00:10:31
jersey were desperately trying to find a
00:10:34
serial killer who was targeting gay men
00:10:37
the media dubbed him
00:10:39
the last call killer
00:10:42
the most recent victim mike sakara was
00:10:45
last seen in a bar with a white male
00:10:48
whom he introduced to the bartender as a
00:10:51
nurse working at saint vincent's
00:10:53
hospital in new york
00:10:55
when police followed up with the local
00:10:57
hospitals they identified a male nurse
00:11:00
at saint vincent's 38-year-old mark
00:11:03
slayton
00:11:05
who not only resembled the composite
00:11:07
drawing he also lived in staten island
00:11:11
near the stores where the killer
00:11:12
purchased the latex gloves and garbage
00:11:15
bags used in the murders
00:11:18
unfortunately
00:11:19
slayton's prints didn't match the prints
00:11:21
found on the plastic bags
00:11:24
it's heartbreaking you're out there
00:11:25
pounding the payments you know doing
00:11:27
everything you can and you don't have an
00:11:29
answer for them so it was very
00:11:31
frustrating
00:11:32
thinking that the killer may have misled
00:11:35
his victims about where he worked
00:11:38
detective kuhn enlisted his own children
00:11:41
in the investigation to distribute the
00:11:44
composite sketch of the killer to all
00:11:47
the local hospitals
00:11:49
it was a family project i had my kids
00:11:51
sitting at the table what we wanted to
00:11:52
do was send a mass flyer out to all the
00:11:54
hospitals on staten island
00:11:58
unfortunately the flyers didn't generate
00:12:00
any significant leads there were no
00:12:03
motives nobody had anybody mad at them
00:12:06
nobody was going to profit by anybody's
00:12:08
death there were no jealous lovers
00:12:11
and soon
00:12:12
the case turned cold
00:12:14
many many man hours hundreds if not
00:12:16
thousands of man hours devoted to these
00:12:18
investigations
00:12:20
and essentially the trails just went
00:12:22
cold
00:12:24
the murder stopped too
00:12:26
leaving police to suspect the killer may
00:12:28
have changed his mo
00:12:31
so our thoughts were either he's locked
00:12:33
up he's dead or any or he's still out
00:12:35
there and he's getting a lot better at
00:12:36
it then
00:12:39
eight years later the case went in a new
00:12:41
direction
00:12:43
it happened when investigators heard
00:12:45
about a new fingerprint technique that
00:12:48
was being used in toronto called
00:12:50
vacuum metal deposition
00:12:53
or vmd
00:12:55
the vacuum metal deposition machine
00:12:57
is the ultimate machine to find
00:13:00
fingerprints on non-porous materials you
00:13:03
can have material that was stored for 50
00:13:06
years
00:13:07
investigators immediately sent a dozen
00:13:10
bags from the last call killer case to
00:13:13
toronto
00:13:14
they'd been in storage for years
00:13:17
in the canadian lab
00:13:19
the bags were exposed to 10 milligrams
00:13:22
about 20 cents worth of gold
00:13:25
which was heated to 2000 degrees
00:13:27
fahrenheit
00:13:29
enough to turn it into a gas
00:13:32
this gold vapor creates a film over the
00:13:36
surface being tested but it is invisible
00:13:39
to the naked eye
00:13:41
then
00:13:42
vaporized zinc
00:13:45
is introduced into the chamber it
00:13:48
adheres to gold
00:13:50
which locks any prints in place
00:13:53
so they can be photographed
00:13:55
the end product is a negative of the
00:13:59
fingerprint on the surface the
00:14:01
non-porous material
00:14:03
and
00:14:04
that's what we end up seeing
00:14:07
the vmd process yielded
00:14:09
16 partial prints on the bags from the
00:14:13
mulcahy murder and three from the
00:14:16
marrero case
00:14:18
these prints were of much better quality
00:14:21
than the original ones
00:14:23
i was ecstatic we have latents walls on
00:14:25
our court
00:14:27
the new prints were entered into the
00:14:29
national fingerprint database of known
00:14:31
criminal offenders
00:14:33
again
00:14:35
there were no matches
00:14:37
but detective kuhn also sent hard copies
00:14:40
of the prince to each state
00:14:42
since not all states had put their
00:14:44
prints into the nationwide database
00:14:48
this was our last shot
00:14:50
and we felt that if we could reach out
00:14:52
that maybe they'd put that little extra
00:14:55
effort into the submission
00:14:59
[Music]
00:15:01
when the fingerprints of the last call
00:15:03
killer made it through the mail to
00:15:05
layton print examiner kim stevens in
00:15:08
maine state police crime lab
00:15:10
she was happy to help out
00:15:12
the state of maine hadn't yet put all of
00:15:15
their prints onto the national
00:15:17
fingerprint database i received the
00:15:19
prints in the mail with a cover letter
00:15:20
and i read the letter and the synopsis
00:15:22
of the case
00:15:24
kim stevens entered the last call
00:15:26
killer's prince into maine's state
00:15:29
database
00:15:30
i thought there's no way i would get a
00:15:32
match
00:15:33
i had done a lot of searches for outside
00:15:35
agencies and
00:15:36
the chances i thought would be very slim
00:15:39
but the database of known criminal
00:15:41
offenders in maine
00:15:43
turned up 30 possible matches
00:15:47
so 30 prints came up in the list for me
00:15:50
to look at one by one side by side to
00:15:52
see if they could be the print
00:15:54
for the side by side comparison
00:15:56
stevens used the original hard copies
00:16:00
made by the 30 criminals when they were
00:16:02
arrested and inked by police
00:16:05
it's time consuming and exhausting
00:16:09
you want to do when your eye is fresh
00:16:10
and you're ready to make comparisons
00:16:13
then
00:16:14
stevens found one that she thought
00:16:17
matched
00:16:19
every time i went to the next ridge and
00:16:20
found detail that agreed
00:16:22
obviously it was surprised
00:16:24
i was jumping up being down for joy and
00:16:27
couldn't believe it the final step is to
00:16:29
have the match verified by another
00:16:32
examiner
00:16:33
and that person agreed
00:16:36
the prince belonged to richard rogers a
00:16:40
former graduate student in languages at
00:16:42
the university of maine
00:16:45
in 1973
00:16:47
rogers was charged with using a hammer
00:16:49
to kill his college roommate
00:16:52
he wrapped the body in a plastic tent
00:16:54
and left it on the side of the road
00:16:57
richard rogers apparently said
00:16:59
that the other man had approached him
00:17:01
for sex and the other man attacked him
00:17:03
so in self-defense he attacked back and
00:17:05
ended up killing him mr rogers claimed
00:17:08
self-defense and was acquitted
00:17:10
amazing
00:17:12
after he was acquitted
00:17:14
rogers got a nursing degree and
00:17:16
eventually moved to new york
00:17:19
at the time of the last call murders
00:17:22
rogers had been working as a surgical
00:17:24
assistant at mount sinai hospital in new
00:17:27
york
00:17:28
that's where police arrested him they
00:17:31
put handcuffs on while he was in our
00:17:34
intensive care unit that does uh shock
00:17:36
us to say the least he was gay didn't
00:17:39
really seem to have any long-term
00:17:40
relationships
00:17:42
in your wildest dreams you would not
00:17:43
look at richard rogers and say this guy
00:17:45
is a serial killer we learned that
00:17:47
during the times of these
00:17:50
murders richard rodgers had been off
00:17:53
duty
00:17:54
lisa hall chose roger's picture from a
00:17:57
photo lineup as the man she saw with
00:17:59
mike sakara at the bar on the night
00:18:02
sakara was murdered
00:18:04
it was just a horrible horrible thing
00:18:06
and i'm just so glad they got him
00:18:09
before he could murder any other people
00:18:12
rogers lived in staten island
00:18:15
just blocks from the stores where the
00:18:17
garbage bags and latex gloves were
00:18:20
purchased
00:18:22
detectives searched richard rogers
00:18:24
apartment and they found an array of
00:18:27
videotapes hush sweet charlotte texas
00:18:30
chainsaw massacre
00:18:32
he had a bible in which there were
00:18:34
earmarked passages referring to
00:18:36
beheadings and dismemberments
00:18:39
also in roger's apartment they found a
00:18:42
vial of a prescription drug used as a
00:18:44
sedative
00:18:45
it's one that's not screened for in a
00:18:48
routine autopsy
00:18:50
you can use it as a date rape drug you
00:18:52
can use it to knock people out
00:18:55
prosecutors believe rogers would pick up
00:18:58
his victims in gay bars
00:19:02
[Music]
00:19:04
he targeted men who were drinking
00:19:08
heavily thanks very much thank you
00:19:11
enjoy i shall do it
00:19:13
rogers may have used a date rape drug
00:19:16
and taken his victims back to his
00:19:18
apartment
00:19:20
or
00:19:21
they may have gone willingly
00:19:24
nice collection too
00:19:26
once there
00:19:28
the evidence shows he stabbed them
00:19:31
then
00:19:32
dismembered the bodies
00:19:35
he most likely moved the bodies to new
00:19:37
jersey at night
00:19:39
to avoid detection
00:19:41
but even the most careful criminals make
00:19:44
mistakes
00:19:46
and rogers left evidence behind
00:19:49
the elaborate washing of the victims and
00:19:52
the bags
00:19:53
didn't remove everything
00:19:57
as for motive
00:19:59
rogers wouldn't talk
00:20:01
all experts can say is that the murders
00:20:04
had a clear sexual motivation
00:20:07
it's the most bizarre case i've ever
00:20:09
been involved with
00:20:11
and for for all of these men there was
00:20:13
just no dignity and death
00:20:15
in november of 2000
00:20:18
rogers was tried and convicted of two of
00:20:21
the murders
00:20:22
the cases where they had the most
00:20:24
forensic evidence
00:20:26
he was sentenced to two life terms plus
00:20:30
65 years in prison when you look back on
00:20:35
it is
00:20:35
you never gave up
00:20:37
you keep plugging along
00:20:39
it never ceases to amaze me what we get
00:20:41
in terms of forensics whether it's
00:20:43
fingerprints
00:20:44
uh dna
00:20:46
any number of things
00:20:49
it's the most powerful tool you can have
00:20:51
in a courtroom as a prosecutor it was
00:20:53
pretty horrible to sit there and look at
00:20:54
this man that actually murdered
00:20:57
michael sakara and to think about all
00:20:59
the other people that lost their lives
00:21:01
and all their families and and friends
00:21:03
that lost people because of this monster
00:21:05
was sitting there but
00:21:07
at least he was finally
00:21:09
put away
00:21:11
[Music]
