Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “Son of Sam” Pt. 2 - David Berkowitz

Episode Date: August 14, 2018

From summer of 1976 through summer of 1977, David Berkowitz went on a year long killing spree that terrorized the New York City boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Young women with dark hair were being targeted and anybody near them was in harms way. Find out how David Berkowitz got his nickname “Son of Sam” and how he was ultimately caught by police.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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A quick note. In this week's episode, all quotes will be performed by actors. However, these lines are quoted from primary research sources and presented exactly as those people stated them. We all have urges. Whether they be moments of escape, romance or even revenge. They can be as innocent or as dark as we please.

Of course we rarely act upon these desires, especially our more sinister ones. But what if we did? What if we took that next great step and made our darker urges a reality? For David Berkowitz, a 24-year-old living in New York City, this was his reality. From a young age, David struggled with schizophrenia, anti-social behavior, and depression.

As David grew older, it became harder and harder for him to resist these urges. Voices in his head pressured him to act upon his darker desires to hunt and kill. Finally, in 1975, David gave in. Fueled by a sense of entitlement and rage towards women, David launched a one-year killing, from 1976 to 1977. With the 44 magnum, David hunted young, dark-haired women across the New York boroughs of the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. Lurking in the shadows, he crept up on his victim's cars on remote roads, parks, and lover's lanes. He turned their cars into coffins, firing into their vehicles repeatedly until everyone was dead.

After each attack, David slipped back into the shadows, leaving cryptic messages, daring police to catch him. David told the police he was motivated by demonic voices in his head. This soon had New York in a vice grip of terror. For once in David's life, he felt in control of the world around him. Here, he could rule the people of New York through fear. In this dark urge turned reality. he was son of Sam, the 44-caliber killer. Hi, I'm Greg Bolson, and this is serial killers.

Today, we'll continue to look into the 44-caliber serial killer of New York, David Berkowitz, a.k-k-a. Son of Sam. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Vanessa's not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she's done a lot of research for this show. Hi, everyone. we'd like to ask a quick favor. Would you leave a five-star review of serial killers on your favorite podcast directory? It seems so simple, but it really helps us out. And don't forget to subscribe while you're there, because a new episode comes out every Monday.

You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram, at Parcast, and on Twitter, at Parcast Network. David Berkowitz. Let's do a quick recap for our listeners in case they missed out on our first episode. David Berkowitz wasn't always a killer, but he was a man who suffered several mental illnesses and had a turbulent childhood. Born to an impoverished family, David was put up for adoption and raised by adopted parents, Nat and Pearl Berkowitz, a wild child. David displayed early signs of antisocial behavior, including self-isolation, bullying, arson, and torturing animals. Around age seven, David was told he was adopted and falsely that his mother died in childbirth. This weighed heavy on him and drove him to self-loathing and rage.

Despite seeing a child psychologist, his mental illnesses never got better, and soon his symptoms of antisocial behavior got worse. To top it all off, he started to develop schizophrenia, a mental illness that affects how a person thinks and feels, and in extreme cases, can cause oral or visual hallucinations. By age 13, David began to hear voices, a symptom of his schizophrenia. These voices seemed to act as an extension of his darker desires, telling him to set fires and hurt people in order to feel better. While he ignored them at first, by age 14, David began to listen to what the voices said, whether it was to set small fire, and to set small,

across New York or torture small animals, David used these voices as an outlet to vent his frustrations regarding his family, his inability to connect with people, and his failures with women. For the next 10 years, these voices egged David on, slowly allowing him to escalate his violence. Then, starting around Christmas,

1975, things came to a head. David said, David stabbed two young girls on Christmas Eve of 1975. Both lived. After the stabbings, David began to stalk dark-haired women at night. These dark jaunts became what he lived for. For each girl he stalked, he fantasized new and elaborate ways to kill them. These actions weren't fueled by his schizophrenic hallucinations,

but by his twisted desires for revenge and control over the women who had redacted. rejected him earlier in life. Their lives were his to take or spare at a whim. Yet despite these fantasies and urges, David didn't attack anyone immediately after Christmas of 1975. It was now January of 1976, and things were about to get worse for New York. Winter settled over New York City. David was cold and alone. Despite having found his biological mother and sister, David felt abandoned. He had nowhere and no one to turn to. In complete isolation, David's desire to stalk and kill women grew stronger and stronger. To make matters worse, his own perception of reality began to bend. David grew increasingly paranoid. Pretty soon, he felt as though everyone was out to get him.

In one of his last phone calls to his sister, David said, quote, I'm not okay. They're out there, people. They're going to try and kill me. I don't know them, but they're out there. I'm going to be all right, though. I'm going to be fine. They won't get me because I know." End quote.

Here we can see one of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Unfortunately, those who suffer from schizophrenia can also suffer from paranoia. This is caused by the detachment of reality and the auditory and visual hallucinations. In the latter part of January 1976, David moved out of his tiny apartment and rented a room in a tiny two-family home with John and Nan Cassara. The Casaras seemed nice enough. They saw to it that David got everything he needed and that his stay was comfortable. Yet over the next three months, David's attitude changed. He became more and more agitated. He seemed to fear them and drove himself into seclusion. By April of 1976, David moved out of the Kassar's home. He was in such a rush that he left behind his $200 security deposit.

The Kassaras didn't know what to think. David later claimed that one of the reasons for his departure was because of the neighborhood German Shepherd. The dog apparently barked late at night and never stopped. And once it got started, so did other dogs in the neighborhood. I'd come home and the barking would start. it would never stop. I'd lie awake at night screaming, begging for the noise to stop. It never did. The demons never stopped. I couldn't sleep. I had no strength to fight. I could barely drive. Coming home from work one night, I almost died from falling asleep at the wheel.

Later on, David claimed that his reasons for departing the Casaras were that they were demons sent to torment him. When I moved in, the Khasaras seemed very nice and quiet. But they tricked me. They lied. I thought they were members of the human race. They weren't. Suddenly the Khasars began to show up with the demons. They began to howl and cry out, blood and death.

They called out the names of their masters, the blood monster John Wheaties and General Jack Cosmo. At the time, David was still. battling his feelings of paranoia brought on by his schizophrenia. He needed a way to rationalize these feelings. So David created a coping fantasy about the Casarra's being demons. In his head, this made dealing with his confusion and schizophrenia easier. David had always loved occult imagery and demons, and now they could help him deal with his confusion. So in this coping fantasy, John Casara got a new name, General Jack.

Jack Cosmo. Jack Cosmo was the commander and chief of a pack of devil dogs roaming the streets of New York, the ones that constantly barked and plagued David day in and day out. Why dogs, though? The barking was an external torment that David had to constantly deal with. To us, the barking might just seem a minor nuisance, but for schizophrenic David, it might as well have been constant nails on a chalkboard. He had no idea how to deal with it. So, over time, the dog's barking became part of his demon fantasy. This way, he could better deal with the constant nuisance by assigning it a role.

The problem was that this demon fantasy also fed into his psychotic desires. The barking became linked to the voices in his head, the same voices that urged him to kill. Now, whenever dogs barked, it gave him a reason to indulge his murderous desire. But even this demon fantasy was just another excuse used to cover up the truth of why David really killed his rage toward women. Man, how bizarre. And at the same time, tragic. To see how bad his mental illness affected him so. Mm-hmm. That's why it's so important for those suffering from mental illnesses to get professional help as early as possible. But let's not forget that his schizophrenia wasn't what made him a kid. killer. Schizophrenia, while it can create a disassociation with reality, doesn't cause

antisocial or psychotic behavior. David's urges to kill were something else entirely. David moved into a new apartment on 35 Pine Street in Yonkers, New York. But in David's head, it seemed that the torments of Mr. Casara, or General Jack Cosmo, weren't over yet. David believed his neighbor, 63-year-old Sam Carr and his family were also part of this demonic allegiance with Jack Cosmo determined to take David's soul. Sam also had a Labrador dog named Harvey that barked relentlessly at David. In David's mind, Sam and his dog Harvey were the strongest demons under General Jack Cosmo. On one occasion, David even attempted to kill Harvey the dog using a Molotov cocktail while Sam wasn't home. Thankfully, the cocktail not only missed but failed to ignite.

Sam's dog was safe. David fled back to his apartment. The voices in David's head proved relentless. He needed some air from the hustle and bustle of New York City. So David decided to pay a visit to his friend Billy Parker. in Houston, Texas. While there, Billy offered David a chance to purchase his old 44 charter arms pistol.

David looked at the pistol with dark lust. The voices in his head commanded he buy it. Terrible things were in store. Terrible things. David returned to New York and continued to stalk women. This time, armed with a gun. On July 29, 1976, Donna Loria and Jody Vaughley Valenti were returning late to Donna's home in the Bronx.

The women were 18 and 19 years old. It was around one in the morning. The young women loitered outside to talk in the car, laughing about their misadventures that evening. Just then, a man came out of the darkness. David Berkowitz. David slowly approached the unsuspecting car with a paper bag. Inside the bag was his 44 charter arms pistol.

The women didn't see him coming. Once he was close, he opened fire. Bullets cut through the car, striking the girls. Donna was hit in the neck. David kept firing even after he ran out of bullets. Afterwards, he quickly ran away down a dark alley, escaping in his car. Jody began laying down the horn and screaming.

The noise woke up the neighborhood, including Donna's father, who ran downstairs to the, scene. He was horrified. He quickly took the teens to the hospital, hoping he could save them. Sadly, it was too late. His daughter, Donna Loria, bled out and died. Luckily, Jody survived. Police arrived at the hospital where the women were taken. Jody tried to give a description of her attacker, but she was still in too much shock. She couldn't really remember him. At the scene of the Crime, police found casings of the 44 Charter Arms pistol, a strange murder weapon for such a

random shooting. It was a popular gun at the time among mobsters and gangster types, not usually used in random killings. Police found no further evidence and simply ruled it as a case of mistaken identity or a failed mob execution. Meanwhile, David Berkowitz walked home, happy as a clam. I was literally singing to myself on my way home after the killing. The tension, the desire to kill a woman had built up in such explosive proportions that when I finally pulled the trigger, all the pressures, all the tensions, all the hatred. It all just vanished, dissipated, but only for a short time. Aha, an admission of rage.

Here we can see David tip his hand into his true motivation. How can you tell? The desire to kill women, all the hatred, how the pressure inside him went away after killing them. All of this points back towards his desire to control and punish women. He wanted to kill women because of their constant rejection of him in his youth, and the guilt from being abandoned by his biological mother. I suspect that his femicidal rage was ultimately what powered his murderous drive. Well, despite admitting to killing the women out of hatred, David continued his studies of occult imagery and demonology. He expressed a particular interest in an alleged Celtic deity, Sowan.

Sowan became the center of David's demonic fantasy. He read as much as he could about the demon in order to feed into his demon fantasy story. He bought books on black magic, occultism, and even Satanism. For him, these books and images provided a further outlet for sinister urges. Soon, Sowan became a symbol of his darker, more sinister impulses and hatred towards women. Through Sowan, he prayed for more opportunities to hurt women. So what is this Sowen? Is he some kind of satanic deity? Well, that's the interesting thing.

While some people may argue that Sowin is an ancient Celtic deity, most historians observe Saoan as an ancient holiday, the precursor to All Saints Day, the Day of the Dead, and even Halloween. Wait, what? Sahuin is actually a holiday or festival, representing the end of the harvest season and the start of winter usually celebrated around October 31st. In ancient times, people would dress up, like bonfires,

and celebrate the end of the harvest with a big festival. In some cases, people even carved faces in gourds and dressed up as spirits, going door to door to get food. Interesting. So how did he get a demon from a holiday? Most likely during his obsession with the occult, he found a book that referenced Sawin as the Celtic god of death, which is now recognized as a misconception of the holiday and its meaning. That's fascinating. Well, wrong or not, David began to pray and even make office. to Sahuas to further feed into his control fantasy. Like in his previous apartment, he began to scribble and write strange and disturbing phrases all over his apartment walls.

He even started to write poetry with one of his favorite pieces being the Mother of Satan. David was building a new persona around his fascination with the occult and this fictional Sahuyn character, a persona that had control of others. And pretty soon, David was going to pull all of New York into his control fantasy. We'll return to our story in just a moment from the Parkast Network. Now, our story continues. Despite having killed back in July, David Berkowitz didn't strike again until October 23rd, 1976. That night, Carl De Niro and his girlfriend, Rosemary Keenan, left a college party around

2.30 in the morning. Carl offered to drive Rosemary to her home in Queens. When they arrived, the two parked outside and talked for a while. Once again, David approached the car. However, unlike last time, David specifically went towards the passenger window targeting Rosemary's side. David fired five shots into the car before fleeing on foot. Miraculously, Rosemary was unharmed, but Carl was hit in the head. Panicked. Rosemary drove him to the hospital, where Carl received emergency surgery. Luckily, Carl survived the encounter and was fitted with a metal plate. Again, we see David specifically targeting women.

Even when a man is present, he deliberately went towards the passenger window and aimed for Rosemary. One month later, David struck again. Two teenagers, Donna Damasi, 16, and Joanne Lomino, 18, were walking. home in Queens after a late movie. They were near a bus stop when they noticed a man staring at them from across the street. Creeped out, the girls picked up their pace. The man followed them. The man, of course, was David. David finally caught up to the girls. He apologized for startling them and told them that he was lost and needed directions. As the girls gave directions, David drew his pistol from his jacket and shot both the girls. Excited at a

that making two direct hits, he emptied his pistol into a nearby house and ran off. A sort of victory dance, if you will. Was emptying his pistol like that a symptom of his schizophrenia? I think it had more to do with his own demented glee at killing two more girls. Remember, he hated women and desired nothing more than to kill them. Plus, on some level, I'm sure, he wanted the attention for what he had just done. Lucky for the girls, Joanne's family lived near. by and heard the gunshots. When they investigated the disturbance, they found the girls and took

them to a hospital. Both girls survived, but Joanne was paralyzed from the waist down. Police investigated the scene. Once again, 44 caliber casings were found, but no connections were made to the previous killings. It was assumed that it was another failed mugging. Neither girl gave a good description of David either. In fact, it wouldn't be a until January 30th, 1977, that police began to connect the dots. In the early morning of January 30, 1977, Detective Sergeant Joe Coffee and Captain Joe Borelli received another call about a man and his fiancé being shot. The man was John Deal and the woman, Christine Freund.

The couple was shot in Flushing, New York, after returning from a wine gallery, around midnight. as they entered their car, bullets ripped through the windshield, hitting Christine twice. John tried to wave down cars to get help, but no one stopped. Local residents finally called an ambulance, but Christine died hours later from her injuries. As Detective Coffey and Captain Borrelli investigated the crime scene, they found more casings. Coffey remembered the previous shootings from months earlier and began to suspect they were dealing with a site. who not only killed with a 44 magnum, but also targeted young women. Captain Borrelli had the casing sent for a ballistics report.

They came back confirming that the bullets came from the same gun as the previous shootings, a charter arms 44 magnum. This confirmed coffee suspicions. The problem was that neither coffee nor Borrelli could link the previous victims together other than them being young women with dark hair. This made them fear the worst, that they were dealing with a killer who struck at random. The police quietly began an investigation into what they called the 44 killer. Their only lead, however, was that the killer was a man and he used a 44 charter pistol.

They quickly began looking into all registered 44 pistol owners in New York. No one matched the description of the attacker, nor did they have any connection to the victims or areas. they were killed at. Things were not looking good for the police. On March 8, 1977, Virginia Voscaritian walked home from a late-night class. She was a block away from where Christine Freund was murdered. David shot Virginia in the face at point-blank range. She brought a book up to her face to protect herself, but the bullet went clean through. She was killed instantly.

This time, though, David was spotted by several people. fleeing the scene in a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. A police car also spotted David fleeing, but opted to stay and try and revive the injured girl, but to no avail. Joe Borrelli later talked about the grisly affair, saying, quote, if you watch detectives at any homicide,

you'll notice they go about their jobs unemotionally. They didn't want to look at her. They knew it was senseless. She was someone beautiful, and she was laying on. under the sheet. A bullet in her face had destroyed her. It began to grab them, in the guts, and they just turned away. These were veterans, and they couldn't take it. End quote. Eleven days later, on March 19th, police held a press conference. The police announced that they

were tracking a serial killer targeting women using a 44 magnum and driving a yellow Volkswagen. Newspapers ran wild with the story. The streets were no longer safe. Women were in jeopardy. It was sensational, and no one loved it more than David. David began to save clippings from the news about the killings. He was getting attention for his crimes. I can only assume how much this fed into his ego.

He wanted to keep the news going, but wasn't sure how to keep the attention on himself. At the same time, David continued to be plagued to be plagued by the sound of dogs barking. He wrote an anonymous letter to his neighbor Sam Carr, asking him to better control his Labrador Harvey. The letter was strange and chock full of misspellings. Sam didn't think much of it and tossed the letter aside.

Writing that letter inspired David. He decided for his next crime he would escalate things with a letter to the police. At 3 a.m. on April 17, 1977, young lovers Valentina Siriana and Alexander Esau were parked off the side of Hutchington River Parkway when a yellow Volkswagen drove up alongside them. David fired twice, hitting both Valentina and Alexander. Police quickly arrived at the scene.

Sadly, Valentina died instantly, and Alexander later died at the hospital. What was more disturbing was that David, left a letter behind, specifically addressing the police. In his letter, David said, I am deeply hurt by you calling me a woman hater. I am not, but I am a monster. I am son of Sam. His letters seemed manic, crazed even. It often contradicted itself with things like, I don't want to kill. I love to hunt. Prouling the streets looking for fair game, tasty meet, I live for the hunt, my life.

The letter goes on mentioning several demons of note, such as Bialzab. It also warned that David would kill again. I'll be back to interpret as bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Yours and murder, son of Sam. This was the first time David referred to himself as son of Sam, though many assume was a reference to Sam Carr, it was actually to his druidic deity, Sahuyn. Yet, oddly enough, there's no mention of Sawin or the dogs in the letter. Another interesting note is his mention of loving and hating women through this letter. He constantly references how pretty they are,

yet he must drink their blood and wants them to drink his. He also mentions how he'll be reunited with his princess. I miss my princess, but I'll see her soon. She's resting in our lady's house, but I'll see her soon. I am the monster. This princess he was referring to was Donna Lauria, one of David's first victims. David later told police that in his mind, the Celtic deity Sawin told him that if he killed more people, he would be reunited with his queen Donna in the next life.

It's disturbing. What do you think it means? All of this feeds back into that control fantasy over women. In his mind, if he killed enough, he would be rewarded with Donna. Of course, the only way to get her was to murder more women. Either way, it meant that David could decide the fate of the women around him, and that even in death, they were his to keep forever. The mayor of New York City, Abraham Beam, called a press conference hoping to alleviate citizens' fears.

but it was too late. The news had latched onto the letter and ran with it. Soon, the whole city was ruled by fear of Son of Sam. Women refused to go out as much. Whig and hair dye sales went up as girls tried to dye their hair blonde to avoid being the next victim. Parents kept their children in. People began to call in on any and everyone they suspected of being the killer.

The nightlife of the Bronx, Queens, Anne Brooklyn shut down. No one was going out. New York had become a powder keg. To catch David, the police created a task force, dubbed Omega Task Force, Omega meaning the end, as they hoped to bring an end to the killings. Over 300 officers joined, and veteran deputy Timothy J. Dowd was put in charge. Dowd suspected David, or son of Sam, had a vendetta against women.

Forensic psychiatrists looked at the letter to determine what they were dealing with. They, too, drew the same conclusion and also noted that their killer might suffer from schizophrenia. Police began to look into recent patients released from asylums. Meanwhile, two days after the killings, Sam Carr received another anonymous letter in his mail. This letter again complained about Harvey. I have asked you kindly to stop that dog from howling. all day long, yet he continues to do so. I pleaded with you. I told you how this is destroying my family. We have no peace, no rest. Now I know what kind of person you are and what kind of family you are.

You have no love for any other human beings. You're selfish, Mr. Carr. My life is destroyed now. I have nothing to lose anymore. I can see that there shall be no peace in my life. Sounds like David is accepting his fate as a killer and is more or less just using this letter to justify his own insanity. Needless to say, Carr was horrified. He notified the rest of his family who also became concerned. They turned the letter into the police. The police thought nothing of it and told Sam Carr to write it off as a crazy person's attempt to scare him. Ten days later, on April 29, 1977, Car heard a guy.

gunshot from his backyard. As he went to investigate, he saw that his black lab Harvey had been shot. He rushed Harvey to the hospital, where his dog was saved. Once again, Carr called the police and complained. The police took a report, but didn't follow up. You'd think they'd pursue all avenues. Well, you'd have to also understand that at the time, the police were constantly flooded with calls about Sam's identity. Anyone and everyone thought that, that their strange neighbor, their teacher, even their postmen was the killer. Police were working around the clock trying to catch Son of Sam, yet no one had any decent leads. Everyone was strained. Everyone, but David, that is.

David got bolder. He loved the attention he got from writing letters to the police. He decided to write another. This time, he sent it to New York Daily Post columnist Jimmy Breslin. Breslin was one of David's favorite columnists, and David thanked him personally in the letter for his work. J.B., I want to tell you that I read your column and find it quite informative. What will you do for July 29th? July 29th was the anniversary of David's first kill. He again mentioned Donna Loria, citing her as his princess,

and admitting that he was the one who shot her. He also goaded the police, wishing them luck. in catching him. Please inform all the detectives working the case that I wish him the best of luck. Keep him digging, drive on, think positive, get off your butts, knock on coffins, etc. Upon my capture, I promised to buy all the guys working on the case a new pair of shoes if I can get up the money. Son of Sam.

Breslin sent the letter to the police who were able to extract some fingerprints from it. Sadly, they couldn't identify whose prints they were. On June 6, 1977, the New York Daily published David's letter with some minor redactions of satanic names and gory descriptions of strangling women. Breslin urged the killer to turn himself in and to end the violence. David did no such thing. Of course he wouldn't. David loved the spotlight. It was the most attention he had ever gotten, not to mention the control he had over all of New York.

The fear he was able to instill in everyone, it was the ultimate control fantasy come to life. Pretty soon, David began to send more anonymous letters as Son of Sam. He sent them to the Casaras, Sam Carr, and his downstairs neighbor, Craig Glassman. In his anonymous letter to Glassman, David told him he killed in order to appease Glassman. In the mysterious letter, Glassman was told he was a slave, under the cuff. command of Son of Sam. And if he tried to report this letter to the police, he'd be killed. Horrified, Glassman kept the letters to himself. Meanwhile, Jack Casara and his family got a letter from David signed as Sam Carr. This letter asked if Jack was doing okay after he fell from his

roof. Jack hadn't fallen from his roof. Needless to say, he was confused. He decided to write Sam Carr. Sam Carr said he didn't write the letter and he compared notes about his own strange letters with the Casaras. The Casaras and Carr discovered that their mysterious letters were similar and that both families had had strange dealings with David Berkowitz. Thus, the cars and the Casaras decided to report their situations to the Yonkers Police Department together. Officers Intervalho and Chamberlain went to investigate the Casaras. The They took down notes and returned to the police station. As Chamberlain dug into Berkowitz's background,

he was told by Intervalo that a volunteer police sheriff named Craig Glassman had received several strange letters, insisting that Glassman, the cars, and the Casaras were all part of a satanic cult. The plot was getting thicker. Chamberlain and Intervalo decided to look into David Berkowitz and noticed he had the same yellow Volkswagen. that was seen at the crime scene in several of the son of Sam killings.

Meanwhile, at 3 o'clock a.m. on June 26, 1977, Sal Lupo and Judy Placido were sitting in their car outside the Aleas disco theater in Queens when David shot them. Both were struck three times, yet neither was seriously injured. Neither saw David. June rolled into July. Everyone feared another killing on July 29th, the anniversary of the first known son of Sam killing. Newspapers ran stories predicting more deaths.

The city was on edge. Police were desperate. No one had a lead. They even considered dressing mannequins up in cars to lure out the killer. Yet when July 29th rolled around, nothing happened. The city was relieved, but all too soon. July 31st, 1977, David struck again. This time shooting Stacey Moskowitz and Bobby Villante.

It was their first date. The two were hanging out in a park in Brooklyn. They had heard the rumors of Son of Sam, but didn't think it would happen to them. Sam approached the couple from behind a tree and opened fire, shooting Bobby in the face twice, and Stacy once in the head. Local residents once again called the cops who arrived on the scene. Bobby survived, but he lost one eye and only retained 20% of his vision in the other. Stacey died, 38 hours later at King County Hospital.

Little did everyone know that this was the final attack by Son of Sam. Our story will continue in a moment right after the break. And now back to the story. Following the most recent attack on July 31st, the public demanded action. Fear had gripped the city for too long. The police pushed even harder. They narrowed down the location of the killings to Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Soon a massive dragnet or search pattern began in those areas.

A sketch was also released of the killer on August 3, 1977. That same day, Chamberlain and Intervalho continued to look into David Berkowitz. They knew he matched the height and weight of the suspect and even had the same car. Chamberlain and Intervalo went and interviewed David's landlord. The landlord said David had paid his bills on time and used to work at IBI security before quitting. The cops called IBI security and began looking into his work history. They found that he started working as a cabby, driving a yellow Volkswagen in July 1976, the same time as the first murders.

With this evidence in mind, they turned the info over to the Omega Task Force. Meanwhile, a witness stepped forward the night of Stacey and Bobby's attack on July 31st. Her name was Cecilia Davis. She was walking her dog when she noticed a man skulking around behind the trees of the park. He picked up a parking ticket off his yellow car. and threw it away. This was their big break. Omega Task Force immediately began looking into parking tickets.

At the same time, Chamberlain and Intervalo received a 911 call from Craig Glassman on August 6, 1977. Craig said someone lit a small fire outside of his apartment and dumped a handful of 22-caliber bullets in the fire, hoping they'd go off. Thankfully, the fire was already snuffed out by the time Glassman got to his door. Glassman also showed Chamberlain and Intervalho the letters he'd received.

The letters seemed eerily similar to the ones the cars had turned in earlier a month back to Omega Task Force. Intervalo and Chamberlain told their superior Detective Salveson about what they found. Salveson sent the info to the Omega Task Force. The task force, however, didn't pay the info any mind, as they tracked down the parking ticket Cecilia Davis talked about. The ticket was for David Berkowitz. Detective Jimmy Judas looked into David Berkowitz

and found out the cars had reported him as a suspect for Son of Sam. Judas did two separate follow-up interviews with the cars and Casaras. Both reconfirmed their stories regarding the letters and David's strange behavior. Judas realized David really might be their killer. Judas got in concold. contact with his superiors, who tracked David to his home in Yonkers, New York. Judas contacted Yonkers police where a mega task force was finally put in contact with

Chamberlain and Intervalho. The two police forces compared notes and determined that David Berkowitz was their prime suspect. All they needed to do was take him into custody. On August 10, 1977, police set up surveillance outside of Berkowitz's apartment. Every cop in New York wanted to be there for the arrest. Omega Task Force and Yonkers PD arrived at the scene. They spotted David's car and moved into position to search it. They noticed a rifle in the back of David's car, along with the note addressed to Sergeant Dowd.

It was clear that this was their man. Police waited for hours until Berkowitz emerged from his apartment. In his hand, he carried a brown paper bag. As David got into his car, police surrounded him. They demanded he get out of the car slowly. David obeyed their commands and got out with his hands up. He lay on the ground. When police questioned who he was, he said,

I'm Sam. David Berkowitz. And with that, David Berkowitz was arrested at age 24 for the murder of six people and the injury of eight others. David was taken to the county jail to await interrogation. Two days later, he was interrogated by Detective Coffey. David immediately confessed to his murders and claimed he was motivated by demons who spoke to him through dogs. Detective Coffey couldn't believe it.

This man was completely insane. So tell me, Vanessa, why do you think David told them he was commanded to kill by demons? Well, as we've discussed throughout, David sought control both of women and the world around him. By telling the police he was controlled by demons, he was controlling the truth. Making his killings seem more fantastical than they really were. He wanted the attention, the spotlight. By saying those things, he could keep the media on him and help steer how they viewed him. Of course, he wasn't actually controlled by demons, nor had he been controlled.

communicating with them, David simply created an elaborate fantasy narrative for himself, one where the schizophrenic voices in his head became demonic characters, and that his urges to kill were okay, provided he killed for some sinister deity. To make a long story short, he made up the whole thing to deal with his lack of control. He had struggled his entire life battling schizophrenia and his own psychotic urges. But with this deal, he was a lot of demon story, he could have control of those urges, control of women, and control of the attention he got. As David was interrogated, police searched his home. They found his diary confessing to nearly 1,500 fires, along with his deranged scribbles on the wall. My name is Mr. Williams, and I live in

this hole. I have several children, and I'm turning them into killers. Wait till I grow up. My neighbors, I have no respect for and I treat like shit. Sincerely, Williams. Much of this confirmed early criminal psychologist predictions of David's suffering from schizophrenia and antisocial behavior. David underwent further psychological evaluations on August 24, 1977. He was diagnosed as insane yet competent, meaning while he suffered from mental illness, he was still competent enough to stand trial. So on May 10, 1978, David stood trial for six murders and 1,500 fires.

During the trial, David continually chanted, Stacey is a whore, defaming one of his victims, Stacey Moskowitz. This caused an uproar in the court and a minor recess to be called. Again, he's trying to cause a ruckus. He wants people on edge. To him, this is no different than starting a fire. It's that desire to control and cause chaos. Well, David's chaos soon came to an end.

On June 12, 1978, David received six consecutive 25 to life sentences. Upon hearing the verdict, David tried to jump out of the seventh floor courtroom window and had to be restrained. David was taken to Assoning correctional facility, better known as Sing Sing Prison, before being sent to Clinton Correctional Facility near Danamoire, New York, then to Attica Prison in 1978. David also continued to stir up trouble while in prison. He mailed a book on witchcraft to the North Dakota police, hinting that he knew about the death of Arles Perry, a 19-year-old girl murdered under mysterious circumstances at Stanford University in 1974. Police interviewed him, but determined he knew nothing.

David also insisted that he wasn't the only son of Sam Killer, and that he was part of a secret cult, once again citing the cars, Casaras, and Glassman as his accomplices. None of this held up, of course, due to its fantastic nature and clear lack of evidence. As David adjusted to prison life, he soon found himself teased and prodded by the inmates and guards alike. They would howl at him and joke about his talking to dogs and demons.

By 1979, David grew sick of being son of Sam. So in a shocking turn of events, in February of 1979, David Berkowitz recanted his demonic possession story during an interview with FBI veteran Robert Ressler. David finally confessed that he was motivated by his own hatred toward women and his own self-loathing and guilt that had stuck with him all his life. That much of the demon story was a control fantasy he'd cooked up himself. Surprising. But why confess? On the one hand, David loved the attention and craved any chance to talk about himself.

Yet, wrestler refused to talk to David unless he was absolutely honest with him. Coupled with that, I think David was also tired of being teased in prison about being son of Sam. Funny enough, I think the very bullying that used to bother him as a kid broke him as an adult. How ironic that the very attention he wanted would be the very thing that would reveal his true motives. He admitted to Ressler that he stalked women countless times and derived sexual pleasure from it. He'd even go back to the scenes of crimes to fantasize about the murders he committed. It was an erotic experience for me to see the remains of blood stains on the ground, a police chalk mark or two.

Seated in my car, I'd contemplate these grisly mementos and masturbate. How disturbing. But it looks like you were right. It was all about control and hatred of himself and women. Just another sick, sad individual. Yet as the years went on and David could no longer act out, he began to slip back into his depression. In 1987, 10 years into his life sentence,

David suffered a bottoming out. He once again contemplated suicide. Yet David allegedly found peace through evangelical Christianity. I was so low, and one day I just started praying. And lo and behold, I felt this weight lift off of me. I began to cry. I couldn't believe it. I just let it all out.

David began to visit the prison chapel and chaplain regularly. He even started praying. prayer groups, he soon began going as Son of Hope rather than Son of Sam, a name he prefers now. As far as I'm concerned, that was not me. Even the name, I hate that name. I despise the name. That moniker, son of Sam, that was a demon. David has since apologized profusely for his crimes and even opted out of parole, viewing that he hasn't paid for his crimes. He even started correspondences with some of his victim's families, like Nisa Moskowitz, the mother of Stacey Moskowitz, his final victim. While some have forgiven

him, others still view him as the monster who took their loved ones' lives. In 2006, David released a book called Son of Hope, the Prison Journals of David Berkowitz, that talked about his evangelical transformation. He also has a website, www.orgize and shine.com, where he tells his story and quest for spiritual redemption. David is still alive to this day at Shauman Gunk Correctional Facility and Walkill, New York. So what do you think, Vanessa? Think he's changed? I believe it's possible to change, but we also shouldn't forget the mind we're dealing with. He could very well be feigning redemption to get more attention. This could also be just another fantasy he's cooked up in his head. After all, he's been denied parole constantly over the years. But who really knows

what's going on in that twisted head of his? Whether he likes it or not, David Berkowitz will always be son of Sam, the 44 caliber killer. Thanks again for joining us. Join us next time as we investigate yet another notorious serial killer. Don't forget to subscribe to serial killers on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or any other podcast directory, or through our website, parcast.com. That's p-r-c-a-s-s-t-t-com. A new episode of serial killers comes out every Monday. Please let us know what you think and join the conversation on our Parcast Facebook page. You can tweet us at Parcast Network. That's P-A-R-C-A-S-T-Network. As always, we thank you for listening.

Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler Media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Kenny Hobbs with production assistance by Paul Mahler. Additional production assistance

by Carly Madden and Maggie Admeyer. Serial Killers is written by Michael Pindis and stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Our amazing voice actor is Harris Markson. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm global news crime reporter Nancy Hicks.

You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. I've seen something in there.

A sleeping bed that there was a full of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the IHot Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. podcasts.