Shadows of the Son of Sam

Hey everyone, welcome back to *Brooklyn Echoes*, the podcast that keeps the borough’s legends and memories alive. I’m your host, Robert Henriksen.

### Shadows of the Son of Sam: Reflecting on the Brooklyn Nightmare That Ended a Reign of Terror

In the sweltering summer of 1977, New York City was a powder keg of fear, blackouts, and a elusive killer who stalked lovers’ lanes with a .44-caliber revolver. David Berkowitz, better known as the “Son of Sam,” brought his year-long spree of terror to a chilling climax in Brooklyn’s Bath Beach neighborhood, marking the final act in a saga that claimed six lives and wounded seven others across the city’s boroughs. Nearly five decades later, as the city thrives amid modern challenges, the memory of Berkowitz’s crimes serves as a stark reminder of vulnerability in the urban jungle. 

Berkowitz, born Richard David Falco on June 1, 1953, in Brooklyn, was adopted shortly after birth and raised in the Bronx. A former U.S. Army soldier and postal worker, he began his violent path not with gunfire, but with a knife. On December 24, 1975, in the Bronx’s Co-op City, he stabbed 15-year-old Michelle Forman six times; she survived, but the attack foreshadowed the horrors to come. 

The shootings started on July 29, 1976, in Pelham Bay, Bronx, where Berkowitz killed 18-year-old Donna Lauria and wounded her friend Jody Valenti as they sat in a parked car. Over the next year, he targeted young women with long dark hair—often couples in secluded spots—striking in Queens and the Bronx. Victims included Carl Denaro and Rosemary Keenan (October 23, 1976, Flushing, Queens), Donna DeMasi and Joanne Lomino (November 27, 1976, Floral Park, Queens), Christine Freund and John Diel (January 30, 1977, Forest Hills, Queens), and Virginia Voskerichian (March 8, 1977, Forest Hills, Queens). 

On April 17, 1977, in the Bronx, he fatally shot Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau, leaving a taunting letter for police Captain Joseph Borrelli. In it, Berkowitz dubbed himself the “Son of Sam,” claiming to be a monster commanded by a demon named Sam—supposedly his neighbor’s dog—to kill. The letter, written in block capitals, read in part: “I am deeply hurt by your calling me a wemon [sic] hater. I am not. But I am a monster. I am the ‘Son of Sam.'” This missive, along with another sent to Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin on May 30, 1977, ignited a media frenzy. Tabloids like the New York Post and Daily News saw skyrocketing sales, while women across the city dyed their hair or cut it short to avoid resembling his preferred victims. 

The terror escalated with non-fatal shootings of Salvatore Lupo and Judy Placido on June 26, 1977, in Bayside, Queens. But it was Brooklyn—Berkowitz’s birthplace—that became the site of his final atrocity. On July 31, 1977, in Bath Beach, under a streetlight near Shore Parkway, he targeted 20-year-old Stacy Moskowitz and her date, Robert Violante, as they sat in Violante’s car after a movie. Moskowitz, the only blonde victim, was shot in the head and died hours later at Coney Island Hospital. Violante survived but lost sight in one eye and partial vision in the other. This attack, during a heatwave and just days after a citywide blackout, intensified the panic gripping New York. 

The breakthrough came serendipitously. A parking ticket issued near the Brooklyn crime scene led investigators to Berkowitz’s yellow 1970 Ford Galaxie in Yonkers. On August 10, 1977, police arrested the 24-year-old outside his apartment at 35 Pine Street. Inside his car, they found the .44 Bulldog revolver, ammunition, crime scene maps, and a threatening letter. Berkowitz calmly confessed, saying, “Well, you got me,” and later detailed his crimes, initially blaming demonic voices. His apartment revealed Satanic graffiti and diaries chronicling over 1,400 arsons in the city. 

Pleading guilty to six murders and seven attempted murders, Berkowitz was sentenced on June 12, 1978, to 25 years to life for each count, ensuring he would never walk free. He later recanted the demon story, admitting it was a hoax, and in the 1990s claimed involvement in a Satanic cult with accomplices—a theory investigated but largely dismissed by authorities. 

Today, at 72, Berkowitz remains incarcerated at Shawangunk Correctional Facility, having converted to evangelical Christianity in 1987 and renaming himself the “Son of Hope.” He has expressed remorse, counseled fellow inmates, and been denied parole repeatedly, with his next hearing in 2026. The case inspired “Son of Sam” laws to prevent criminals from profiting off their notoriety and left an indelible scar on New York, particularly in Brooklyn, where the final shots echoed the end of an era of unchecked fear. 

As one survivor, Robert Violante, reflected in interviews years later, “It was a time when the city felt like it was falling apart, and this guy was the embodiment of that chaos.” While New York has rebuilt and evolved, the Son of Sam’s shadow lingers as a cautionary tale of isolation, mental illness, and the fragility of safety in the big city.

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