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After many years of wandering in the wilderness with no home to speak of, Unsolved Mysteries recently landed on Amazon Prime. I was watching an episode from way back in Season 1 recently about David Berkowitz, a.k.a. the Son of Sam, and they were talking about how some evidence leads toward to the conclusion that there were multiple killers involved rather than a single gunman. (@DaleBoca, maybe you remember this ep?)
For anyone who needs a refresher on the Son of Sam case, here you go:
David Berkowitz:
However, even early in the investigation questions were raised about whether or not he was the only person involved.
Here's the article on Unsolved Mysteries' official website about the case. It has a lot of interesting info.
https://unsolved.com/gallery/son-of-sam/
For one, police sketches based upon survivors' descriptions varied wildly:
For another, Berkowitz taunted the police with notes that seemed to indicate he may not be acting alone but was instead in league with a group of some kind:
But perhaps most importantly, Berkowitz himself says that he had been a member of a Satanic cult and later said that he only committed some of the murders, not all of them.
However, even putting aside the Satanic cult theory, according to journalist John Hockenberry, from the beginning there were suspicions that Berkowitz did not act alone.
So what do you guys think? Was David Berkowitz THE Son of Sam murderer? Or was he just the fall guy who took all the blame?
For anyone who needs a refresher on the Son of Sam case, here you go:
David Richard Berkowitz (born Richard David Falco; June 1, 1953), known also as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer who pleaded guilty to eight separate shooting attacks that began in New York City during the summer of 1976. The crimes were perpetrated with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver. He killed six people and wounded seven others by July 1977. As the number of victims increased, Berkowitz eluded the biggest police manhunt in the history of New York City while leaving letters that mocked the police and promised further crimes, which were highly publicized by the press. The killing spree terrorized New Yorkers and achieved worldwide notoriety.
On the night of August 10, 1977, Berkowitz was taken into custody by New York City police homicide detectives in front of his Yonkers apartment building, and he was subsequently indicted for eight shooting incidents. He confessed to all of them, and initially claimed to have been obeying the orders of a demon, manifested in the form of a dog, "Harvey", who belonged to his neighbor "Sam." Despite his explanation, Berkowitz was found mentally competent to stand trial. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was incarcerated in state prison. He subsequently admitted the dog-and-devil story was a hoax. In the course of further police investigations, Berkowitz was also implicated in many unsolved arsons in the city.
David Berkowitz:
However, even early in the investigation questions were raised about whether or not he was the only person involved.
Here's the article on Unsolved Mysteries' official website about the case. It has a lot of interesting info.
https://unsolved.com/gallery/son-of-sam/
For one, police sketches based upon survivors' descriptions varied wildly:
For another, Berkowitz taunted the police with notes that seemed to indicate he may not be acting alone but was instead in league with a group of some kind:
But perhaps most importantly, Berkowitz himself says that he had been a member of a Satanic cult and later said that he only committed some of the murders, not all of them.
Berkowitz began to claim that he had joined a Satanic cult in the spring of 1975. In 1993, Berkowitz made these claims known when he announced to the press that he had only killed three of the Son of Sam victims: Donna Lauria, Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani. In his revised version of the events, Berkowitz said that other shooters were involved and that he fired the gun only in the first attack (Lauria and Valenti) and the sixth (Esau and Suriani). He said that he and several other cult members were involved in every incident by planning the events, providing early surveillance of the victims, and acting as lookouts and drivers at the crime scenes. Berkowitz stated that he could not divulge the names of most of his accomplices without putting his family directly at risk.
Among Berkowitz's alleged unnamed associates was a female cult member whom he claims fired the gun at Denaro and Keenan, both of whom survived, Berkowitz said, because the alleged accomplice was unfamiliar with the powerful recoil of a .44 Bulldog. Berkowitz declared that "at least five" cult members were at the scene of the Freund–Diel shooting, but the actual shooter was a prominent cult associate who had been brought in from outside New York with an unspecified motive—a cult member whom he identified only by his nickname, "Manson II". Another unnamed person was the gunman in the Moskowitz–Violante case, a male cult member who had arrived from North Dakota for the occasion, also without explanation.
Berkowitz did name two of the cult members: John and Michael Carr. The two men were sons of the dog-owner Sam Carr and they lived on nearby Warburton Avenue. Both of these other "sons of Sam" were long dead: John Carr had been killed by a shooting judged a suicide in North Dakota during 1978, and Michael Carr had been in a fatal car accident in 1979. Berkowitz claimed that the actual perpetrator of the DeMasi–Lomino shooting was John Carr, and he added that a Yonkers police officer, also a cult member, was involved in this crime. He claimed that Michael Carr fired the shots at Lupo and Placido.
However, even putting aside the Satanic cult theory, according to journalist John Hockenberry, from the beginning there were suspicions that Berkowitz did not act alone.
Journalist John Hockenberry asserts that, even aside from the Satanic cult claims, many officials doubted the single-shooter theory, writing, "what most don't know about the Son of Sam case is that from the beginning, not everyone bought the idea that Berkowitz acted alone." John Santucci, Queens District Attorney at the time of the killings, and police investigator Mike Novotny both expressed their convictions that Berkowitz had accomplices. NYPD officer Richard Johnson, involved in the original investigations, has opined that unresolved discrepancies in statements from witnesses and surviving victims indicate Berkowitz did not act alone: "Why are there three [suspect] cars, five different [suspect] descriptions, different heights, different shapes, different sizes of the perpetrator? Somebody else was there."
Other contemporaries have voiced their belief in the Satanic cult theory including Donna Lauria's father, and Carl Denaro who stated his opinion that "more than one person was involved" but admitted he could not prove the cult theory. Denaro's conclusion rests on his criticism of Berkowitz's statement to police as "totally false." John Diel’s recollection is that he physically bumped into Berkowitz outside the Wine Gallery restaurant as he and Christine Freund departed and walked to his car where the shooting occurred; Berkowitz, in contrast, told police that he passed within a few feet of Diel and Freund shortly before they entered the car. Diel contends he and Freund passed no one on their way to the car and further that the placement of the car parked at the curb would have made it impossible for Berkowitz to have sneaked up on them in the few minutes between their encounter outside the restaurant and the shooting at the car. Diel thus reasons he was shot by someone other than Berkowitz.
Hockenberry's own report was broadcast by network news and given much exposure by Dateline NBC (2004). In it, he discusses another journalist, Maury Terry, who had begun investigating the Son of Sam shootings before Berkowitz was arrested. Terry published a series of investigative articles in the Gannett newspapers in 1979 which challenged the official explanation of a lone gunman.
Vigorously denied by police at the time, Terry's articles were widely read and discussed; they were later assembled in book form as The Ultimate Evil (1987; expanded second edition 1999). Largely impelled by these reports of accomplices and Satanic cult activity, the Son of Sam case was reopened by Yonkers police during 1996, but no new charges were filed. Due to a lack of findings, the investigation was eventually suspended but remains unclosed.
So what do you guys think? Was David Berkowitz THE Son of Sam murderer? Or was he just the fall guy who took all the blame?
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