Mar
16
12:00am
Elon Green in conversation with Bill James & Rachel McCarthy James
By Raven Book Store
Elon Green discusses his powerful new book Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York with Edgar Award-nominated Lawrence true crime duo Bill James & Rachel McCarthy James, authors of the hit 2017 book The Man from the Train!
ABOUT THE BOOK
"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
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.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Elon Green has written for the New York Times Magazine, The Awl, and New York. He is anthologized in Sarah Weinman’s Unspeakable Acts. He may also be found at Longform, where he’s been an editor since 2011.
Bill James is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics. His approach, which he termed sabermetrics in reference to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), scientifically analyzes and studies baseball, often through the use of statistical data, in an attempt to determine why teams win and lose. In 2006, Time named him in the Time 100 as one of the most influential people in the world. In 2003, James was hired as senior advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox.
Rachel McCarthy James is the author of the 2017 true crime book The Man from the Train, in collaboration with her dad Bill James. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Hazlitt, Bitch, McSweeney’s, The Week, and Robot Butt. She is represented by Laura Usselman of the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency.
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