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The Manhattan Knockout Killers

The Manhattan Knockout Killers

Written by: Stacey S.
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It’s late 2021. New York City’s shaking off it's lockdown funk. The bars and nightclubs are packed, the music is loud and drinks are flowing, but in the shadows, predators are watching. Tech-savvy and cold-blooded, they’re armed with lethal drug cocktails that they use to knock out victims and drain their accounts, leaving them for dead. This is the story of a crime spree that claimed seven lives, slipping under the NYPD’s radar for months, disguised as a wave of overdose deaths among gay club-goers in Manhattan.

Follow the story on Substack: https://substack.com/@staceysze?utm_source=profile-page

Stacey Szewczyk 2025 Social Sciences True Crime
Episodes
  • The Manhattan Knockout Killers: EP 1 - What Happened to Katie Gallagher?

    The Manhattan Knockout Killers: EP 1 - What Happened to Katie Gallagher?
    Feb 25 2025

    In a crime spree that went on largely under the NYPD’s radar, at least 43 knockout drug robberies took place across New York City between September 2021 and July 2022. New Yorkers out for a night on the town were drugged, robbed and left for dead. Responding police saw them as part of a citywide rash of overdose deaths among gay club-goers in Manhattan. Then up-and-coming fashion designer Katie Gallagher, who dressed Lady Gaga and other celebrities, was found dead in her Lower East Side apartment. When her death was declared a homicide by a lethal cocktail of the same drugs that killed John Umberger, 33, and Julio Ramirez, 25, two patrons of gay bars, the bones of a criminal enterprise with a wide reach began to emerge. This is the first episode of a multi-part podcast and video series covering the wave of NYC knock-out drug robberies that resulted in multiple deaths.

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    8 mins
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