162. Waldo Grant aka "New York City's Forgotten Gay Serial Killer"

A shadow lurked in Manhattan’s gay nightlife. A quiet loner by day, a ruthless predator by night. The city’s forgotten serial killer struck from the closet, leaving tragedy and terror in his wake.

In the mid-1970s, Waldo Grant moved to the Upper West Side of New York City, blending into the gay community as a soft-spoken, unassuming loner. But behind closed doors, he harbored a horrifying compulsion. Between 1973 and 1976, he killed at least four young men. Each encounter ending in brutal violence: beatings, stabbing, even dismemberment, sometimes dumping bodies in trash bins or tossing them from rooftops. Decades later, his name remains little-known, a grim footnote in queer history, buried under the weight of stigma and silence. This is an episode about queer identity, violence, and how society’s marginalization helped a monster stay free.

This episode of Beers With Queers is a raw deep dive into LGBTQ+ true crime as we trace the story of a serial killer hunting gay men in 1970s New York. We reconstruct Waldo Grant’s chilling crimes: the first victim bludgeoned and thrown from a rooftop, another discovered in a trash can, a third beaten to death in an East Harlem apartment, and a 16-year-old boy dismembered and abandoned in Central Park. Through these crimes and Grant’s eventual confession, we examine a dark chapter of queer history: a time when fear, shame, and police neglect made LGBTQ+ communities uniquely vulnerable.

Hosted by Jordi and Brad, Beers With Queers brings chilling crimes, queer stories, and twisted justice to light — all with a cold one in hand. Press play, grab a drink, and join us as we uncover the darkest corners of LGBTQ+ history.