Joseph Borrelli, veteran NYPD detective and ‘Son of Sam' sleuth, dead at 93

Yahoo

10-05-2025

Veteran NYPD Det. Joseph Borrelli — the 'Son of Sam' sleuth who put the Big Apple serial killer behind bars — died this week, The Post has learned. He was 93.
The Brooklyn-born former NYPD Chief of Detectives suffered a brief illness before he died Wednesday, surrounded by his family.
Affectionately known by his loved ones as 'JoBo,' Borrelli had an illustrious career with the NYPD that spanned nearly 40 years — and saw some of the biggest cases the city's police force ever grappled with.
Borrelli was at the forefront of the investigations into the 1988 assassination of police officer Edward Byrne, the 1993 kidnapping and recovery of tuxedo king Harvey Weinstein and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
He was also part of the probe into the 1986 Howard Beach racial attack, in which Michael Griffith a 23-year-old black man, was set upon by a group of white youths outside a pizza parlor and was fatally hit by a car while trying to escape.
Perhaps the most memorable, however, was the Son of Sam case, which saw maniac David Berkowitz murder six people and wound seven others in a horrifying streak that spanned two summers between 1976 and 1977 — leaving the city in a constant state of fear.
The first time Berkowitz revealed himself as the elusive killer was in a letter addressed to Borrelli — who was a captain at the time — that was left alongside the bodies of victims Alexander Esau, 20, and Valentina Suriani, 18, after they were killed in the Bronx on April 16, 1977.
'Mr. Borrelli, sir, I dont want to kill anymore no sir, no more but I must, 'honour thy father,'' Berkowitz's letter read.
'Police—Let me haunt you with these words; I'll be back! I'll be back! To be interrpreted as—bang, bang, bang, bank, bang—ugh!!'
Berkowitz was arrested four months later — and the NYPD threw a boozy bash at police headquarters that night as their suspect sat handcuffed down the hall.
Mayor Abe Beame lifted the no-liquor policy at One Police Plaza to celebrate the occasion.
'He smiled. And he handed me two $100 bills and said, 'We will waive that tonight. Buy the boys a drink,' ' Borrelli recalled to The Post on the 40-year anniversary of the arrest.
'I waited a few hours — until I got a fingerprint match and a ballistic match on the gun — before I had a scotch.'
Borrelli, who joined the department in 1959, was promoted to the Chief of Detectives in 1989 and served in that role until his retirement in 1995.
Before joining the force, he spent two years in the army and several in the New York Giants baseball farm system as a first baseman — where he spent spring trainings with Willie Mays and other team stars, his family said.
'When he wasn't solving crimes, he was a scratch golfer, avid fisherman, and loved taking his family for rides on his boat,' they wrote in his obituary.
Borrelli was predeceased by his wife, Frances. He is survived by his four daughters and their spouses, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A wake will be held Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Mathie Funeral Home in Greenport, Long Island. His funeral Mass will take place Wednesday at 11 a.m. at St. Agnes Church, also in Greenport.