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Son Of Sam
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"I DIDN'T WANT TO HURT THEM, I ONLY WANTED TO KILL THEM."
Son Of Sam Letter to Daily News Son of Sam Letter to Capt Joe Borelli, NYPD
David Berkowitz, AKA The Son of Sam or The .44 Caliber Killer, terrorized the City of New York for 13 months during 1976-1977. 1976 was a time when New York City was launching a nation wide phenomena called "disco" that would forever change dance clubs. Most young couples were preoccupied with the weekend's dress attire and dance steps, oblivious to a serial killer that stalked them. This killer would strike terror into the souls of all New Yorkers. From Brooklyn to the Bronx, no lover's lane was safe, no couple was safe and blonds became brunettes over night. The terror peaked during the sweltering summer of 1977 when a task force consisting of several hundred police officers and detectives arrested "Mr. Monster". With a simple clue he left behind, the Son of Sam was arrested after being tracked down with a..... parking ticket he discarded near a crime scene.
The murder of Donna Lauria on July 29 1976 was one of around 20,000 murders in the US that year and did not merit a great deal of attention in New York, especially as it happened in an area of the Bronx in which the Mafia held power. The city's cynical journalists paid little heed to the killing, assuming perhaps that she had seen something or said something which had annoyed La Cosa Nostra. Two more murders were committed, and several other people seriously injured, before a press conference at the NYPD's headquarters at One Police Plaza on March 10 informed the nation that the same .44 caliber revolver had been responsible for the murders of Miss Lauria, and Virginia Voskerichian, a 19-year-old Armenian-American, who had been killed two days before. Police Commissioner Mike Codd said the gun had also been responsible for the murder of Christine Freund and two other shootings in the Bronx and neighboring Queens. The New York tabloid press seized on the story and within days everyone in the city was aware of the existence of the man known at the time as The .44 Caliber Killer. In the early hours of April 17 1977, David Berkowitz blasted to death young lovers Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani and left a handwritten letter in the middle of the street nearby, addressed to Captain Joe Borelli, the deputy chief of the task force, which had been set up to hunt down The .44 Caliber Killer. The sender of the letter claimed he had been ordered to kill by his father, Sam, who he said was a vampire. The letter was not released to the public and only a handful of journalists were told of its contents. One of them was New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin, who dropped several hints about it in his articles. On 30 May 1977 Berkowitz sent Breslin a letter and the Daily News published it and dubbed the killer The Son of Sam. The summer of 1977 was sweltering and the heat only helped to raise the tension on the streets. In the early hours of June 26 a young Italian-American, Sal Lupo, left the Elephas disco in Queens with 17-year-old Judy Placido. They sat in Sal's car nearby and Judy said "This Son of Sam is really scary. The way that guy comes out of nowhere. You never know where he'll hit next". Suddenly the car's window exploded and the couple were hit by three bullets from a .44 revolver. Sal staggered out of the car and ran to the disco for help as the killer fled. Miraculously neither Sal nor Judy were badly injured, and four weeks passed with no further incidents - but the detectives were no nearer finding out the identity of the killer. On July 31 1977, Stacy Moskowitz went out on a first date with handsome Bobby Violante. Son of Sam's hunting grounds were known to be the Bronx and Queens so the young couple (who had been to the movies to see New York, New York) thought they were safe when they pulled up under a streetlight in a lovers' lane in south Brooklyn just before 2:00am. Stacy and Bobby were kissing in the front seat when the windows shattered and she jerked forward. The gunfire had burst Bobby's eardrums. He also lost his left eye and much of the vision in his right eye, but he survived. Stacy was taken to hospital and surgeons fought for 38 hours to save her life, but their efforts were in vain and Stacy became Son of Sam's sixth victim. But Berkowitz made a mistake which was to prove his undoing . . . He parked his white Ford Galaxy next to a fire hydrant and was given a parking ticket by an eagle-eyed police officer. When he returned to his car around 2:20am he was spotted by a local woman, Cacilia Davis, as he tore the ticket off his windscreen and threw it in the gutter. When Ms Davis came forward her statement was initially ignored by police, who had been told by other witnesses that the killer was fair-haired and driving a yellow Volkswagen. She was also told no parking tickets had been issued that night. But Ms Davis persevered and 10 days after the shooting police finally unearthed a ticket which had been issued to a Ford Galaxy, registration number 561 XLB. The registered owner was David Berkowitz, who lived at 35 Pine Street in the northern suburb of New York. When armed police swooped on Berkowitz as he got into his car, they demanded to know who he was. He smiled manically and said "I'm Sam". He was taken into custody and confessed to all six murders and several other shootings during a 30-minute interview. Detectives quizzed him about references he had made in his letters to Sam.
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