“Queer people don’t grow up as ourselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimise humiliation & prejudice. The massive task of our adult lives is to unpick which parts of ourselves are truly us & which parts we’ve created to protect us.”

Release Date: March 9th, 2021

Genre(s): Non-fiction, True Crime, LGBT

Publisher: Tor Books

Pages: 272

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis

Last Call tells the true story of The Last Call killer, a serial killer in New York City in the 80’s and 90’s whose victims were gay men. He had all of the traits resembling even the most notorious serial killers, but because of the sexual orientation of his victims and the high murder rates at the time, the crimes he committed were nearly forgotten. Last Call details both the decades-long search for the killer, and tells the story of the victims and the community that surrounded them.

Review

I do like to read true crime books from time to time – there’s so much that we learn from them. Previously, I had heard of similar atrocities that the Last Call Killer committed in the city, only for those victims and their families to never see justice. So when I came across this book, I knew I wanted to read it and understand exactly what was happening at this time. And while this book was incredibly difficult, I consider it a must-read, as the stories here previously saw little attention.

Last Call combines the story of the killer, the victims, the response from the LGBT community, and the lack of response to the crimes for various reasons. There’s so much packed into this small book regarding the stories and lives of the victims and the community response. But what was the most shocking (although I can’t say I’m surprised) was the rationale behind the lack of response on law enforcement and other government agencies’ parts. In addition to the misinformation spreading regarding HIV/AIDS, there were several legal justifications behind the harm of the LGBT community (one of which referred to as “gay panic”) that left hate crimes dismissed. Additionally, as we also see for many groups today, media coverage of the killings and abuse was lackluster because of the victims’ identities. And as the author mentions in his notes, the string of killings has so little attention that it “didn’t merit so much as a Wikipedia entry.” The response to this alone is what puts Last Call into a must-read category for me; I think many do not realize what was put in place as recently as the ’90s, and what victims of hate crimes and their families and communities face to this day.

Last Call is, however, an incredibly heavy and descriptive read, especially when discussing the conditions the victims’ bodies were found in. The victims’ bodies were heavily tortured and there are descriptions of both investigative and medical procedures on identifying more about the bodies. There are several content warnings for this book that you may want to consider before reading. 

All in all, Last Call is a book that, while it’s a really hard read, is one that I highly recommend. And while I do wish there were more detail in some places than others, this relatively small book is well-researched and looks at the series of crimes from every angle. I appreciate that this book is just as much about the New York gay community from the 80’s and 90’s and that their stories could be told.

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