Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
Dark Down East is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. The unexpected can happen at any moment, and Amica knows how important it is to be prepared. Whether it's auto, home, or life insurance, Amica has you covered. Their dedicated and knowledgeable representatives will work with you to make sure you have the right coverage in place to protect what matters most. You can feel confident that Amica is there for you. Visit amica.com to get started.
Have a question or need how-to advice? Just ask Meta AI. Whether you need to summarize your class notes or want to create a recipe with the ingredients you already have in your fridge, Meta AI has the answers. You can also research topics, explore interests, and so much more. It's the most advanced AI at your fingertips. Expand your world with Meta AI. Now on Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger.
For the majority of the 8 million residents of New York City, May 28, 2001 was a day like any other. Rain covered the island of Manhattan as the Twin Towers, the highest structures on the horizon, looked out over the city. At Mount Sinai Medical Center on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, just steps away from the historic Central Park and Madison Avenue, New York police officers approached one of the longtime nurses in the middle of his shift.
At that moment, Richard Westall Rogers Jr. was unaware that a task force from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had been tracking him for three weeks. And Richard did not know that eight years of investigation and advancements in forensic technology had finally identified his fingerprints on green garbage bags found on the side of the road in all three of those states. Garbage bags containing the remains of four different men.
Perhaps Richard Rogers believed that enough time had passed. Perhaps his experience with the law thus far had made him believe he would and could get away with anything. After all, Richard Rogers had been on trial before, for murder even, and he got off scot-free.
But his arrest for that confessed killing would eventually play a big role in finally tracking him down 28 years later. I'm Kylie Lowe, and these are the stories of Peter Stickney Anderson, Thomas Mulcahy, Anthony Edward Marrero, and Michael Sequeira on Dark Down East. Richard Westall Rogers knew that Orono, Maine was a small town in the middle of a close-knit state.
After he confessed, but then was acquitted for the murder of his roommate Frederick Alan Spencer, Richard disappeared from Maine to create a new life. Though Rogers had pursued the study of French in both his undergraduate and graduate education, something seemed to change for him.
Rather than returning to the occupation or locations that he had previously known, like his childhood home in Massachusetts, his parents or college in Florida, or his graduate university in Maine, Richard Rogers moved to New York City. While there, he pursued another, different graduate degree. This time, he enrolled in nursing school at Pace University and graduated in 1978.
By January of 1979, soon after his graduation, Richard was hired at Mount Sinai Medical Center and began to establish himself in New York. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Richard Rogers seemed to have found his place. According to Elon Green's book Last Call, Rogers worked the late shifts at Mount Sinai every other day, meticulously saving his paid time off in order to travel each year.
Though he was previously labeled "quiet" through high school and college and not very well known by his classmates, in New York, Rogers seemed to find himself. While he didn't freely discuss his personal life at work, Richard Rogers was openly gay and spent a great deal of his free time frequenting the most well-known gay bars in Manhattan.
Richard Rodgers was a regular some places, but more than anywhere else, he was known at the Townhouse Bar. The Townhouse was and is a piano bar in midtown Manhattan that catered to an older population of queer men in New York, often attracting businessmen and those visiting town. It's still open today after more than 30 years, and the Townhouse's website says the establishment offers upscale elegance and encourages its patrons to dress to impress.
In the early 1990s, the townhouse offered a safe haven for the community and a place for gay men to meet one another. The atmosphere in New York City in the early 1990s for LGBTQ+ individuals, especially gay men, was full of violence, discrimination, and stereotyping.
The New York City Anti-Violence Project, AVP, often cited in Green's last call, was formed in the 1980s due to an increase in violence against gay men in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. From the beginning, the AVP noted that the violence against the queer community was less likely to be investigated by police officers and even less likely to be publicized.
The organization fought and continues to fight for the safety and freedom of "all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected people."
New York City crime, in general, experienced an uptick during this era. The latter half of the 1900s had not been so kind to the city, and it was often thought of as a dangerous destination. According to a New York Times article by George James from April 23, 1991, a new record was set by the number of killings in the city during 1990. The increase in crime during the early 1990s wasn't unique to New York, though.
Neighboring states saw violence creep up in tandem. An August 9, 1991 edition of the Philadelphia Daily News quoted, "Crime in Pennsylvania increased 4.1% last year over 1989." And of the state's 802 murders, 503 occurred in Philadelphia.
Just below this clipping about the increase in crime in Philadelphia appeared an advertisement for a reward. It read, Peter Stickney Anderson was born on March 14, 1937.
Though he was originally from Wisconsin, Peter had lived around the Northeast, including Dedham, Massachusetts and New York City, throughout his adult life. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter was, quote, a jovial and proper gentleman, a blueblood, a Trinity College graduate, a bowtied son of the Revolution who traced his lineage to Asa Stickney, a Massachusetts private in the Continental Army, end quote.
Peter was an accomplished individual with a loving family and a strong and supportive group of friends. While living in Philly, he spent most of his time at his home at the Wanamaker House, a fashionable apartment building with an excellent location in the city.
He was very involved as a member of the First Troop of the National Guard, and he was super involved in social and political fundraisers and events. Prior to his move to Philadelphia, Peter had worked as a banker and portfolio manager for several brokerages and financial institutions. He made a good living with his education and his work, though his wife commented in the Philadelphia Inquirer that he had come from old family money in New England.
Peter's second wife agreed to speak with the Philadelphia Inquirer about him on the condition that her information remain private, as she and Peter had been separated for a few years. However, they remained in contact and they were on good terms. Peter was involved in his children's lives and was a strong father figure.
Peter's wife described him as a gentleman, and the inquirer noted that other friends described him as, quote, a British-mannered history buff, active in social organizations, philanthropy, and local politics, and as someone who had a reputation for compassion, generosity, and good humor, end quote. But the Philadelphia Inquirer also shared that friends and family worried about Peter.
In the final months of his life, Peter had begun to drink more frequently, and many friends noted that he seemed to be experiencing some health problems. But he was still social and loved going out in Philadelphia and New York City, where he was known to frequent bars that catered to the gay community. On the evening of May 3, 1991, Peter attended a political fundraiser in New York City.
According to Last Call, Peter met a former roommate at the fundraiser that night, and after the event, the pair continued the party at some of the most popular gay bars in Manhattan, including the Townhouse. After several drinks, Peter and his former roommate decided to call it a night.
Peter's friend brought him back to a hotel and encouraged him to check in, but hotel staff indicated that when they last saw Peter Stickney Anderson, he was leaving, presumably to continue his night. When on the next night, May 4th, Peter didn't appear at his usual haunts, his friends began to worry.
On May 5, 1991, maintenance workers cleaning alongside the Pennsylvania Turnpike discovered a 55-gallon trash barrel by a pull-off from the highway in Lancaster County. When one worker tried to remove the trash bags from the barrel, he found that one of the bags was particularly difficult to remove. He opened it to find the mutilated remains of a man.
Though police weren't immediately sure who the man in the bag was, a match to National Guard registration records later identified the body as Peter Anderson. His death was labeled a homicide. Peter was laid to rest in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, close to his roots and not far from his beloved Trinity College.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that at his memorial service, Reverend Tim Dobbins said to the mourners, "How could such a brilliant and talented man die such an ignominious death? In days such as these, the silence seems to scream." When she learned what happened to her husband, Peter's wife told the Inquirer that it was impossible to imagine why anyone would want to kill him.
Peter's friends found the situation challenging to believe too. For his entire community, the death of Peter was devastating. Further devastating was the fact that all those who knew and loved him would not have answers about the last hours of Peter's life for more than 10 years. And during that decade, another similar murder would devastate the neighboring state of New Jersey.
Thomas Richard Mulcahy was born on July 24, 1934 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Thomas's mother Mary had immigrated from Ireland and like many Irish Catholic families during this time period, Mary believed strongly in the importance of education. Thomas attended Boston College High School during his teen years and then pursued his bachelor's degree in psychology at Boston College, followed by graduate school at Fordham University in New York City. During his time at Boston College, Thomas met a woman named Margaret Mary Casey.
They began dating soon after they met and eventually got married in 1958. Thomas and Margaret shared four children and remained happily married for more than three decades. They settled together to build their lives in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Thomas was constantly traveling for work as the director of international account sales for a computer company called Bull HN Information Systems Inc.
According to Elon Green's last call, Thomas' wife Margaret discovered more than a year prior to his death that Thomas liked to spend time in gay bars when he was traveling for work. They talked about this during therapy and it did put a strain on their relationship, but it didn't seem to impact how Thomas showed up for his family. He was always a supportive husband and an excellent father.
In July of 1992, Thomas was in New York for a professional presentation on July 8th. After the success of that meeting, Thomas decided to go out in the city with one of his coworkers to celebrate. Eventually, though, he parted ways with his coworker and decided to pop into a few of the city's gay bars on his own. The last place that Thomas was seen alive was at the Townhouse Bar.
By the evening of July 9, 1992, Margaret Mulcahy had begun to worry that her husband had not yet returned home. By the morning of July 10, she learned why. On July 10, 1992, maintenance workers in Woodland Township, New Jersey drove along Route 72, pulling over to the side of the road to collect trash wherever they spotted trash cans.
Though a couple of the bags seemed unusual, the workers continued along their typical route until finally opening one of the strange bags. Inside, the workers found human remains. Four other bags were also found to contain remains and personal items, including a briefcase and wallet. They belonged to Thomas Richard Mulcahy. His death was ruled a homicide.
At his funeral a week later at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Sudbury, Massachusetts, Thomas' daughter, Tracy, said, "It is ironic that someone filled with so much love was taken from us in a crime by someone filled with so much hate." It was hard for Thomas' family to wrap their minds around what had happened to their loving father, brother, and husband.
The Boston Globe reported that Thomas was thought of as a man whose compassion for humanity caused him at times to cry while watching the daily offerings of world violence on television news. While his family grappled with the unimaginable loss, investigators in New Jersey mulled over the evidence. The discovery of Thomas's remains seemed familiar. They reached out to Pennsylvania police, citing the similarities in this case to that of Peter Stickney Anderson from just over a year prior.
Both Peter and Thomas frequented gay bars but did not publicly identify as gay. They had wives and families, and they were in their 50s, and both of the men were professionally successful. Both had been last seen out in Manhattan, and both were found two days later in garbage bags by the side of the road. Yet despite the beginnings of a seemingly traceable pattern, both offices had yet to identify a motive.
One year later, a third homicide with similarities to the cases of Thomas Mulcahy and Peter Anderson confounded investigators. Were police dealing with a serial killer? Have a question or need how-to advice? Just ask Meta AI.
Whether you need to summarize your class notes or want to create a recipe with the ingredients you already have in your fridge, Meta AI has the answers. You can also research topics, explore interests, and so much more. It's the most advanced AI at your fingertips. Expand your world with Meta AI. Now on Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger.
Anthony Edward Marrero, sometimes known as Eddie Ramos, was originally from Puerto Rico but had lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in New York City during the later years of his life. According to Anthony's brother Louis, who spoke to the New York Times in 1993, one of Anthony's biggest passions was his love for baseball. His larger-than-life dream involved playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, and he was even invited to try out for the team, though that dream never materialized.
Lewis also shared that Anthony's life was punctuated by substance use, marital struggles, and other upheaval. Anthony's tendency towards travel and impermanence meant that his family wasn't always to keep in touch with him, and they only received sporadic updates. However, we do know that Anthony was married during his late 20s and early 30s, though his marriage ended in 1980.
We also know that he wanted to live in New York City, and he ultimately moved there in 1985. Records indicate that Anthony worked as a custodian at one point and was building a life for himself. Eventually, he also engaged in sex work at Port Authority, the major bus terminal in Manhattan. Little is known about the final moments of Anthony Edward Marrero's life, but it's believed that he met his killer while looking for work at Port Authority.
On May 10, 1993, a local man driving around the back roads of Manchester Township, New Jersey, less than a mile from his home, discovered human remains by the turnout on one of the dirt roads. New Jersey police were called to the scene immediately, and it didn't take long before they were able to identify Anthony Edward Marrero. Anthony had distinctive tattoos, and his fingerprints were registered in their identification system in both Philadelphia and New York.
Anthony's record told the story of a challenging life. A third body, a third man, found dead and discarded off the side of the road in just over a two-year period. Investigators considered the possibility that Anthony's murder was connected to the two previously unsolved cases. There were similarities—location, how the bodies were discovered—but the differences were just as obvious.
Anthony's story wasn't anything like Thomas or Peter's, and it complicated the profile of the killer that investigators were trying to build. Whereas Peter and Richard were both older office workers with strong involvement in their families' lives, Anthony was less frequently connected to his family and made most of his living through sex work at Port Authority. Peter and Thomas were both visiting the city, whereas Anthony lived there.
But police did recognize a developing pattern. They noted that each killing had occurred approximately a year after the previous one. What they didn't account for, however, was that these types of killers often escalate as they continue their crimes. By August of that same year, the seemingly connected crimes continued.
Michael J. Sequeira was born on September 19, 1937 in Youngstown, Ohio. Throughout his youth, Michael struggled with his relationship with his family. Home life was often tense, and one of the ways he coped was through his friendship with his younger sister, Marilyn. Marilyn recalls that their parents' relationship wasn't healthy, and the two children leaned on each other for stability.
Elon Green describes in Last Call that Michael was studious and smart. He was interested in nature, art, reading, but was especially passionate about music and theater. Green notes that Michael was in an a cappella group, he was involved in theater, and he landed roles at the local playhouse. Though his parents strongly encouraged him to pursue further education after high school, Michael was on his own path.
After finishing school in 1954, he joined the Army as a medic, leaving Ohio behind. Prior to 1993, when President Bill Clinton signed the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy into law, it wasn't legal for members of the LGBTQ+ community to serve in the armed forces. It was illegal to be homosexual while a member of the military, or at least illegal to pursue any same-sex relationships.
While Don't Ask, Don't Tell was eventually ruled unconstitutional, this was the organization that Michael J. Sequeira entered in 1954. By 1958, Michael had received an undesirable discharge. Although more details aren't available, Michael's discharge is assumed to be attributed to his sexuality. This both ended the life that Michael knew as an adult and as Elon Green reports, it was an outing.
Around the end of his time with the army, Michael told his family that he was gay. With his time in the army over, he didn't return to Ohio, his home state. Instead, he briefly moved to Arizona and then ended up in New York City by 1961. In New York, Michael Sacara found his community. He found his identity and himself. He built a life that he was proud of, and he was a significant figure in the LGBTQ+ scene in the city.
He initially pursued some pre-medical education, but eventually found long-term work as a typesetter for the New York Law Journal. He was larger than life, both physically and personality-wise, and he made a major impact on the people whose lives he touched. After his death, Jose Lambiet of the New York Daily News reported that Michael Sacara "knew every regular at the Five Oaks on Grove Street," and he struck up loud conversations with patrons.
Michael was also known for staying at the Five Oaks until closing time at 4 in the morning and for performing the song "I'll Be Seeing You" after last call each night. It was at the Five Oaks, another high-end gay bar in Manhattan like the townhouse, that Michael Sacara was last seen alive on Friday, July 30th, 1993. The next morning in Haverstraw, New York, north of Manhattan along the Hudson River, Michael's body was discovered.
His belongings were found a few miles away in a separate trash bag. Reports say that leading up to his death, Michael was experiencing some sort of a midlife crisis. He'd been staying out at the Five Oaks more often and had recently broken up with his boyfriend of nine years. Immediately, but for just a short time, Michael's former boyfriend was a suspect in his death. The boyfriend cooperated with detectives though, sharing as much information as possible, and he wasn't pursued further as a suspect.
For investigators, the more likely offender was the man who had been seen leaving the Five Oaks with Michael on July 30th. Police took statements from several witnesses, noting that Michael had been seen talking to a man who said he was a nurse, and whose name was either Mark or John.
Both the bartender, who was friends with Michael, and witnesses outside the bar provided similar physical descriptions. The man was of average height, average build, early 30s, and had wavy hair. Though Michael Sequeira's victim profile varied slightly from Peter and Thomas, and from Anthony, all four men had been stabbed, often in addition to evidence of blunt force trauma, and their bodies had been dismembered.
The remains of all four men were found in garbage bags outside of New York City. Michael's death was quickly connected to these other three unsolved homicides. Despite all the evidence and witness descriptions of the man that Michael Sequeira was last seen alive with, the case went cold.
But with a clear pattern and a fear that the killer would commit again, detectives from all three jurisdictions where the bodies were discovered, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, joined together to create a task force. Their mission was to find the man they were now categorizing as a serial killer.
In August of 1993, Mike Michelary published an article in the Daily News entitled, He's the Last Call Killer, a chilling profile of new serial slayer. This was the first time that the man authorities believed was responsible for the murders of four men had been dubbed the Last Call Killer, and the name stuck.
Mike Micheleri wrote in the Daily News, quote, You are the last call killer, and you know all the answers. All the cops have is a theory. I don't want to scare the citizenry unnecessarily, but here is what the cops are thinking now. You aren't gay. You hate gays. You are a homophobe who has taken the brutal sport of gay bashing to a whole new, ghoulish level. End quote.
At the same time, Mayor David Dinkins told the city that, quote, while this is not a time for panic, it is a time for mutual concern, end quote. During a time where gay men were not often accepted and rather maligned and stereotyped, the level of empathetic coverage in the newspaper and this acknowledgement by the mayor was important and impactful.
Updates to the story appeared in articles across New York. Towards the end of August that year, an article by William Rashbaum in Newsday provided further details of the profile of this killer. Rashbaum shared details from the investigation that was taking place after the murder of Michael and described the killer as intelligent and sophisticated.
The description goes on to say that the killer is someone, quote, who can blend in, either in the tiny midtown gay bar where one victim was last seen, or in the Port Authority bus terminal where another hustled to earn his living, end quote. The killer could be anyone, at any time. With that fear in the air, the queer community publicly warned their peers to be safe and provided guidelines of how to date and survive safely in the new environment.
Meanwhile, the investigative task force was dedicated to solving the case. Though they didn't find any matches to the fingerprints found at the scene during this time, they pursued any and all leads, hoping they'd catch up to the killer before he had an opportunity to strike again. One key lead for investigators was how Michael J. Sequeira introduced his companion to the Five Oaks bartender that night. Michael said the guy was a nurse.
With this description, the task force sought personnel files from hospitals for nurses by the name of Marker John, searching for matches to the description that they had. While the detail that their killer was a nurse was correct, the name was not. Investigators didn't know at the time that the killer had given a fake name. They also didn't know that the man they were looking for had previously been tried but acquitted of murdering his roommate.
They did not know that he would also be suspected of the 1982 murder of Matthew John Piero, a 21-year-old man in Lake Mary, Florida. Investigators also did not know that their future suspect had been tried for the June 1986 assault of Sandy Harrow, who had gone to a man's apartment after meeting at a bar. After the man gave Sandy a drink, Sandy lost consciousness.
When Sandy woke up, he was no longer clothed and he was tied up using hospital bracelets. He testified that the man who assaulted him had also injected him with something from a needle, causing him to again lose consciousness. Though the suspect was arrested for this assault, he testified in his own defense and was ultimately acquitted.
Had the task force investigating these murders known the additional clues that they should be looking for, perhaps they would have found their killer much sooner. As it was, he would not be identified for nearly 10 years. Several years after the formation of the task force, one detective of the New Jersey State Police learned about a new development in fingerprinting technology known as vacuum metal deposition, or VMD.
This used a machine to create metallic vapors, which enabled police to see fingerprints where previously invisible, especially those found on plastic surfaces. The prospect of identifying more detailed fingerprints in this case was exciting. So the detective brought this new development back to the task force, and they decided to submit the garbage bags that had contained the remains of the victims for further testing.
On May 31st, 2001, Sean Gardner of the Newsday of New York wrote that the task force had enlisted the help of Canadian authorities who had access to a VMD machine and they were able to identify a full set of fingerprints from the garbage bags. For the task force that had been working to identify the man known as the Last Call Killer for nearly a decade, the breakthrough of identifiable and clear fingerprints was incredibly significant.
The task force immediately sent these prints to the crime labs of all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico. Kimberly Stevens worked in the state crime lab in Maine, nearly 400 miles away from the site of the four murders of four men in New York. When she received the set of fingerprints from New York, Elon Green reported that Kim was skeptical.
She was early on in her career at that point and she doubted that the serial killer who had been responsible for these deaths so far away would have any information on file in Maine. Nevertheless, she ran the fingerprints and Kimberly found a match. The fingerprints found on the garbage bags containing the dismembered remains of four different men matched the fingerprints that had been collected in Orono, Maine in 1973.
Those prints had been catalogued when a young man, a graduate student at the University of Maine, was arrested for the killing of his roommate. Despite the evidence, that young man had been acquitted at the time. That man was Richard Westall Rogers Jr. Richard Rogers was arrested at work at Mount Sinai Medical Center on May 28, 2001, but he was brought to the station without charges.
According to Elon Green's last call, police apparently expedited the arrest because the mother of Rudy Giuliani, who was the mayor of New York City at the time, was receiving care at Mount Sinai. Knowing that they were tracking a nurse at the same hospital, quote, the upper echelon of the NYPD were worried on his behalf, end quote.
The arrest was sort of a premature move, and the task force worried that it would throw off their plans. At the time, they weren't sure they had enough concrete evidence against this suspect. At the station, police interviewed Richard Rogers and asked about his life leading up to that point. His years since 1973 had some version of stability, and that's what Richard tried to emphasize as he spoke with police. The other, darker parts of his life, Richard conveniently left out.
Richard did not mention his time working towards a graduate degree in French at the University of Maine in Orono between 1972 and 1973. Rather, he focused his time on nursing school at Pace University and his employment at Mount Sinai over the previous 20 years. He tried to portray himself as a nurse with good intentions and as a strong member of his communities with a positive impact on those surrounding him.
Investigators asked whether Richard knew any of the victims attributed to the so-called Last Call killer. He denied being acquainted with any of them, but it didn't matter. He could deny all he wanted. But the investigators told Richard they knew he had committed the murders. According to Richard Ware, Michelle McPhee, and David Goldiner of the Daily News, his response was, quote, "'This sounds rather serious. I think I need a lawyer.'" End quote.
Richard Rogers was placed under arrest and held without bail on Rikers Island. The transcript of his 2005 trial shares that upon his arrest and the police sharing their evidence of his guilt, he began to behave very nervously and seemed to panic. The same day, a warrant was signed in the middle of the night for a search of Richard's personal belongings. According to the Daily News, investigators searched his home on Staten Island in search of blood, hair, or other evidence.
As part of this search, they collected 15 boxes, 14 paper bags, a footlocker, and numerous plastic bags of evidence. It was enough to secure charges and put Richard Rogers on trial for two of the four murders.
Prosecutors cited the nearly identical MO in the cases of Peter Stickney Anderson, Thomas Mulcahy, Anthony Edward Marrero, and Michael Sequeira. They noted the newspapers and shopping bags linked to Staten Island where Richard resided that had been found at multiple crime scenes. They argued that they had indisputable physical evidence as well as circumstantial evidence that he was responsible for all four of the deaths.
Ultimately, though, the evidence found during that search and over the course of the investigation was ruled only sufficient to bring charges for the murders of Thomas Mulcahy and Anthony Marrero. This would be Richard Rogers' third time in court, his second on murder charges. Some reports suggested that Richard Rogers believed he would be acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Unlike in previous trials, though, Rogers did not testify on his own behalf. But his defense largely hinged on the fact that the only physical evidence linking Rogers to the murders was the positive identification of his fingerprints on the garbage bags. His defense team argued that these fingerprints could have been misidentified and they weren't enough to peg their client for homicide. But after all the years of evading consequences, the fingerprints were enough.
The 2005 trial of Richard Rogers quickly resulted in a verdict of guilty. In 2006, more than 13 years after his last murder, and 33 years after his first, Richard Westall Rogers Jr. was finally sentenced to life in prison.
The arrest, conviction, and sentencing of Richard Rogers led to widespread public discussion as his history was reviewed and publicized across the Northeast and beyond. Some tried to solve other somewhat similar killings by comparing them to Rogers' MO. The Hartford Courant published a Pattern in a Trail of Death analysis of killings across Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania that they believed could be connected to his crimes.
Speculation and discussion of Richard Rogers and his potential connection to other crimes continues to this day. But as it stands, Rogers was only officially convicted of the murders of Thomas Richard Mulcahy and Anthony Edward Marrero. The families of Peter Stickney Anderson and Michael J. Sequeira suspect, or even know the truth, but they may never see closure in a courtroom.
These cases and the crimes attributed to Richard Westall Rogers Jr. really makes you think about the justice system. The trial of Richard Rogers for the murder of Frederick Allen Spencer technically followed all procedures, and he was granted his right to a fair trial.
Rogers was tried in front of a jury of his peers. And while many accused killers opt to testify on behalf of or even to represent themselves, this decision doesn't always pay off. For Richard Rogers, it seemed to. In that Penobscot County courtroom in 1973, the panel deliberated and found him not guilty, a decision which eventually led to the loss of more lives
at the hand of the same person declared legally innocent. For Frederick's family, the arrest and sentencing of Richard Rogers brought up old memories and reopened wounds that never totally healed. The additional context of Rogers' future assaults and murders makes his self-defense rationale seem more and more unlikely.
Frederick's mother, Louise Spencer, spoke with the Bangor Daily News after Richard's conviction. She told the paper, Frederick Alan Spencer is remembered as a loving, sensitive, and intelligent young man whose love of his family could only compare to his passion for the outdoors and for his research.
Peter Stickney Anderson made a significant impact on the lives of his loved ones, his children, and the social and political causes to which he devoted his life. Thomas Richard Mulcahy left behind a legacy of love for his wife and children, and his daughter continues to speak out and to share positive memories of her father to this day. Anthony Edward Marrero led a challenging life but embodied perseverance, and he lit up at any mention of baseball.
Michael J. Sequeira overcame adversity in Ohio and laid a positive example for his sister and his community in New York. I'll leave you with the words of Billie Holiday, the same song that Michael Sequeira was known to sing at the Five Oaks each night. I'll be seeing you in every lovely summer's day. In everything that's light and gay, I'll always think of you that way.
Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. This episode was researched and written by Dark Down East contributing writer Natalie Jones, with additional research, writing, and editing by me, Kylie Lowe. Sources cited and referenced for this episode are listed at darkdowneast.com, including links to Elon Green's book, Last Call.
Please follow the show wherever you like to listen, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever app you're on right now. And the best way to support this show is to leave a review and share this episode or any episode with your friends. Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and homicide cases.
I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.
