In January 1973, a series of brutal, stabbings cast a pall over New York City's free-wheeling homosexual community, sparking angry demands for police protection in quarters where officers are normally viewed as the enemy. Targeting denizens of the gay "leather" scene, a faceless butcher mutilated seven victims in a little over three weeks' time, ending the murder spree as suddenly and mysteriously as it began. The first slaying was recorded on January 4, when neighbors found 29-year-old Ronald Cabo knifed to death in his apartment, laid out on a burning sofa. Four days later, on the Lower East Side, 40-year-old Donald MacNiven and his next-door neighbor, 53-year-old Jobln Beardsley, were slaughtered in MacNiven's apartment, discovered by firemen called out to extinguish an arson fire at the scene. Police confirmed that all three victims were "leather boys," well-known in sado-masochistic circles, but rumors of other mutilation deaths were dismissed as "grossly exaggerated." On January 18, victim Robben Borrero, 23, was pulled from the Hudson River off Greenwich Village, along with the body of a young "John Doe." Nine days later, the killer scored his last double-header in Brooklyn Heights invading the apartment that schoolteacher Nelson Roberts shared with his male lover. Neighbors used a pass key to investigate a blaring radio and stumbled on a scene of carnage. In the living room, hands bound behind his back, Roberts lay covered with a blanket, killed by multiple stab wounds in the back. His roommate was discovered in the bedroom, hog-tied, with a broken neck. The couple's pet, a miniature poodle, had been drowned in the sink. The slayer's premature "retirement" after seven murders left police without a single piece of valid evidence . An undercover officer was fitted out with leather gear to infiltrate the seamy world of S&M, and while his exploits helped inspire the movie Cruising , they did not result in apprehension of the killer.