Latest news with #SonOfSam
Daily Mail
20-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Woman shot by Son of Sam receives chilling message from notorious serial killer during trip to library
A woman who was shot by the infamous 'Son of Sam' killer David Berkowitz was confronted by a friend of the killer earlier this week who delivered an eerie message. Wendy Savino had been inside the Valley Cottage Library in Long Island, on Wednesday when she was approached by Frank DeGennaro. The 88-year-old told The New York Post that DeGennaro approached her outside the building, claiming he told her 'David wants to talk to you'. She said: 'So I try to walk around him and he says, "you're Wendy Savino, aren't you?".' The man added: 'Well, I just want you to know David is very upset about what happened to you. David wants to talk to you. David wants you to know he didn't do it'. Following the strange comment, she asked DeGennaro to write down his name, her and her son Jason then took it to Clarkstown Police Department to file a report. She added: 'He had me backed into a corner. He's just talking and talking about the same thing, "David's a really good person".' DeGennaro told the outlet that he was called by the police but not charged, adding that he never intended to scare Savino. He said: 'I didn't corner her. I didn't stand in her way', adding that he became friends with Berkowitz after exchanging letters with the killer who remains behind bars. 'I realize now that it was probably the wrong thing to do, to even talk to her. This is getting blown out of proportion', he added. Savino was shot several times by Berkowitz - who admitted to killing six people - in her car on April 9, 1976. It was later determined that Savino was the first victim of Berkowitz in a series of violent murders that crippled the New York City. For 13 months from July 1976 to July 1977, the 'Son of Sam' carried out a killing rampage that claimed the lives of six and left seven other victims wounded. Armed with a Bulldog revolver, he hunted in the shadows, targeting mostly young couples in cars and on lovers' lanes across Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. When he earned the nickname the .44 caliber killer in the press, the notorious murderer coined his own chilling moniker - the Son of Sam - in a letter taunting the police captain on his tail. The killer claimed that he was driven to kill by a 6,000-year-old demon named Sam which spoke to him through his neighbor's dog. The Son of Sam shootings took over the city's consciousness and filled pages and pages of the daily papers. Young women - noting a pattern of brown-haired victims - began dying theirs blonde or wearing wigs. Other New Yorkers avoided going out altogether. Then finally, on August 10, 1977, the Son of Sam - a 24-year-old postal worker from Yonkers by the name of David Berkowitz - was captured. Berkowitz was sentenced in 1978 to the maximum prison term of 25 years to life for each of the six slayings. He first became eligible for parole in 2002. He has since expressed remorse and said he is a born-again Christian. He is being held at Shawangunk Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in New York. Speaking with the Daily Mail last month, Berkowitz said t hat he was 'thankful to be alive, and by the grace of God do good things today with my life today.' 'The past could never be undone. I wish it could, but it's not possible. So I just have to keep moving forward,' he said. 'I am also grateful for the friends I have in my life today. These are good law abiding individuals who love me for who I am today, not for who I was in the past when a [sic] let the devil rule my mind.' But, despite the apparent regret for his crimes, the Berkowitz suggested that he was simply a passive pawn being 'used' to do the devil's bidding.
The Independent
19-07-2025
- The Independent
Son of Sam victim says serial killer's friend told her ‘David didn't do this'
A woman who was shot by the "Son of Sam" killer almost 60 years ago had to revisit her terrifying experience this week when she was confronted by one of David Berkowitz's friends. On Wednesday, Wendy Savino was at the Valley Cottage Library in Rockland County, New York, when she was confronted by Frank DeGennaro, a friend of Berkowitz's who insisted the Son of Sam killer did not shoot her. Savino, 88, told the New York Post that when she left the library, she saw a man standing outside staring at her. 'So I try to walk around him and he says, 'You're Wendy Savino, aren't you? Well, I just want you to know David is very upset about what happened to you. David wants to talk to you," she said, quoting DeGennaro. "'David wants you to know he didn't do it.'" Savino was injured in 1976 when Berkowitz, now 72, shot her while she was sitting in her car in the Bronx. She said she tried to play dead after she realized the gunman was still outside her car, but Berkowitz fired twice more into her back. She managed to crawl down a street to a restaurant where the staff called for help. Last year, NYPD investigators announced that her shooting was the first victim of the Son of Sam, who went on to kill six victims and wound two others between 1976 and 1977. Berkowitz never faced charges for the shooting because the statute of limitations had expired. After DeGennaro told Savino that he was friends with Berkowitz, she asked him to write down his name. She then gave the name to her son, Jason, and they called the Clarkstown Police Department to report the encounter. 'He had me backed into a corner,' she said. 'He's just talking and talking about the same thing. 'David's a really good person.'' DeGennaro told the New York Post that he received a call from the police, but wasn't charged as he had committed no crime. He insisted he wasn't trying to scare Savino. He told the paper that he became friends with Berkowitz 30 years ago after writing him a letter from prison. He said the two men bonded over their shared Christian faith. DeGennaro said that he also happens to live in Clarkstown and visits the same library as Savino. He said he was surprised to run into her and added that he had not told her Berkowitz wanted to talk. 'I realize now that it was probably the wrong thing to do, to even talk to her,' he told the paper. 'This is getting blown out of proportion.' While the encounter was likely terrifying for Savino and perhaps sobering for DeGennaro, it's a great bit of unintentional marketing for Netflix, which is releasing a documentary about Berkowitz on July 30 titled "Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes." The documentary focuses on recently discovered recorded interviews with Berkowitz. The Son of Sam killer confessed to his crimes in 1978, pleading guilty to six counts of second-degree murder and seven counts of attempted second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each murder, and has been denied parole 12 times. Savino said the encounter left her "very nervous." 'I was always afraid someone would come to me and say 'I'll finish you off for David.''
The Sun
16-07-2025
- The Sun
Who is David Berkowitz, where is the Son of Sam serial killer now and what do we know about his victims?
A NEW Netflix documentary claims to offer new insights into the investigation and the enduring impact of David Berkowitz's infamous murder spree in bustling 1970s New York. One of America's most infamous serial killers, Berkowitz was known as the 'Son of Sam' before he was identified and arrested in 1977. 2 Who is David Berkowitz and why was he called the Son of Sam? Gunman David Berkowitz carried out a killing spree that terrorised New Yorkers for 12 months, killing six and wounding seven, sparking the biggest manhunt in the city's history before he was finally arrested in 1977. Before being identified, the '.44 Caliber Killer' was also known as the 'Son of Sam' for the signature he left on letters at crime scenes and sent to media outlets. After a year-long reign of terror which left six dead and seven more wounded, cops were relieved to have brought down the gunman. After David Berkowitz was apprehended and put on trial, he claimed that his neighbour's dog, named Sam, was possessed by a demon and commanded him to kill. With Berkowitz behind bars, the Son of Sam case was closed — until a bizarre theory about a Satanic cult threw new light on the killings. Not everyone is convinced Berkowitz had acted alone, while some fear that others involved in the spree could still be out there. In 1993, Berkowitz gave a series of shocking TV interviews to Inside Edition in which he claimed that he had not acted alone during his 1970s bloodbath. Who were David Berkowitz's victims? Donna Lauria and Jody Valenti shooting (July 1976) The first shooting attributed to the Son of Sam occurred in the Pelham Bay area of the Bronx. At about 1.10am on July 29, 1976, Donna Lauria, an emergency medical technician, 18, and her friend Jody Valenti, a nurse, 19, were sitting in Valenti's double-parked Oldsmobile, discussing their evening at Peachtree's, a New Rochelle disco. Lauria opened the car door to leave and noticed a man quickly approaching the car, he produced a pistol from the paper bag and aimed his weapon with both hands, and fired. Lauria was struck by one bullet that killed her instantly. Valenti was shot in her thigh and survived her injury. 2 Carl Denaro and Rosemary Keenan shooting (October 1976) Most of Berkowitz's activity was in Queens, though he lived farther north in Yonkers. On October 23, 1976, a similar shooting occurred in a secluded residential area of Flushing, Queens, next to Bowne Park. Carl Denaro, a Citibank security guard, 20, and Rosemary Keenan, a Queens College student, 18, were sitting in Keenan's parked car when the windows suddenly shattered. Keenan quickly started the car and sped away for help. The panicked couple did not realise that someone had been shooting at them, even though Denaro was bleeding from a bullet wound to his head. Keenan had only superficial injuries from the broken glass, but Denaro eventually needed a metal plate to replace a portion of his skull. Donna DeMasi and Joanne Lomino shooting (November 1976) High school student Donna DeMasi, 16, and Joanne Lomino, a student at Martin Van Buren High School, 18, walked home from a movie soon after midnight on November 27, 1976. They were chatting on the porch of Joanne's home in Floral Park, when a man dressed in military fatigues who seemed to be in his early 20s approached them and began to ask directions. He quickly produced a revolver and he shot each of the victims once and, as they fell to the ground injured, he fired several more times. DeMasi had been shot in the neck, but the wound was not life-threatening. Lomino was hit in the back and hospitalized in a serious condition. She was ultimately rendered paraplegic. Christine Freund and John Diel shooting (January 1977) At about 12.40am on January 30, 1977, Christine Freund, a secretary, 26, and her fiancé John Diel, a bartender, 30, were sitting in Diel's car near the Forest Hills LIRR station in Queens, preparing to drive to a dance hall after having seen the movie Rocky. Three gunshots penetrated the car and in a panic, Diel drove away for help. He suffered minor superficial injuries, but Freund was shot twice and died several hours later at the hospital. Virginia Voskerichian shooting (March 1977) At about 7.30pm on March 8, 1977, Columbia University student Virginia Voskerichian, 19, was walking home from school when she was confronted by an armed man. She lived about a block from where Christine Freund had been shot. In a desperate move to defend herself, Voskerichian lifted her textbooks between herself and her killer, but the makeshift shield was penetrated, the bullet striking her head and killing her. Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani shooting (April 1977) At about 3am on April 17, 1977, Alexander Esau, a tow truck operator, 20, and Valentina Suriani, an aspiring actress and model, 18, were sitting in Suriani's car near her home in the Bronx, only a few blocks from the scene of the Lauria–Valenti shooting, when each was shot twice. Suriani died at the scene, and Esau died in the hospital several hours later without being able to describe his attacker. Sal Lupo and Judy Placido shooting (June 1977) On June 26, 1977, there was another shooting. Sal Lupo, a mechanic's helper, 20, and Judy Placido, a recent high school graduate, 17, had left the Elephas disco in Bayside, Queens, and were sitting in Sal's parked car at about 3am, when three gunshots blasted through the vehicle. Sal was wounded in the right forearm, while Judy was shot in the right temple, shoulder, and back of the neck, but both victims survived their injuries. Sal told police that the young couple had been discussing the Son of Sam case only moments before the shooting. Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante shooting (July 1977) Berkowitz's final killing happened in Brooklyn. Early on July 31, 1977, Stacy Moskowitz, a secretary, and Robert Violante, a clothing store salesman, both 20, were in Robert's car, which was parked under a streetlight near a city park in the neighbourhood of Bath Beach, on their first date. They were kissing when a man approached within three feet of the passenger side of Robert's car and fired four rounds into the car, striking both victims in the head before he escaped into the park. Robert lost his left eye but Stacy died from her injuries. Where is David Berkowitz now? In 1978, Berkowitz was convicted of the murders of two men and four women, ranging in age from 18 to 25, and sentenced to six consecutive life sentences in prison, which he is still serving. How was David Berkowitz caught? Berkowitz grew up as a difficult child with occasional bouts of violence but his real troubles began after the death of his adoptive mother in 1967. His adoptive father remarried in 1971 and moved to Florida without him, forcing him to join the army. Claiming to be pushed to kill by demons, Berkowitz attempted to murder a woman in December 1975, but she survived with several stab wounds, beginning his year-long killing spree. He named himself Son of Sam, a reference to a demon he believed lived inside the black labrador owned by his neighbour, Sam Carr. David Berkowitz was caught when a young woman named Cacilia Davis unwittingly walked past his crime scene, and past Berkowitz himself in his car. Davis tipped off the police and the officer who had been ticketing cars in the area that night, including Berkowitz's. He was arrested on August 10, and in his car they found a rifle, a bag of ammunition, maps of the crime scene and further threatening letters. Then, the police uncovered the .44 gun. What did David Berkowitz say after being caught? During his arrest, Berkowitz said with a smile on his face: 'Well, you got me.' He confessed to all his crimes while in police custody, changing his story several times, claiming to be part of a cult and falsely confessing to the murder of a young woman in New York. In the new series, viewers are given an insight into his state of mind at the time. Ahead of one court appearance, Berkowitz told prison guards: 'I guess the press is waiting with their cameras … can you comb my hair?' About Netflix's The Son of Sam Tapes The three-part series delves into the mind and troubled past of Berkowitz, featuring newly unearthed audio interviews recorded with him by reporter Jack Jones in 1980 at Attica Correctional Facility in Wyoming County, New York. Alongside interviews with detectives, journalists, and survivors of Berkowitz's attacks, it claims to offer new insights into the investigation and the enduring impact of Berkowitz's crimes on the local community. The series is directed and produced by Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated director Joe Berlinger (Cold Case: Jon Benet Ramsey, Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, and Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial). Berlinger told Netflix: 'With The Son of Sam Tapes, we delve into the world of David Berkowitz and his chilling influence on 1970s New York City. 'These rare tapes reveal unnerving insights into his psyche, shedding light on the intricate details of the case and the pervasive fear that gripped the city. 'Through these tapes, we hope to not only revisit history, but to bring clarity and depth to a narrative that has long intrigued and unsettled the public.' The Son of Sam Tapes airs on Netflix on July 30.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Yahoo
Joseph Borrelli, veteran NYPD detective and ‘Son of Sam' sleuth, dead at 93
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.
