The serial killer we want to know today, most of the victims selected are couples who are dating, usually he will hide in the shadows, take advantage of the couples in the car to make love, close to the car window to shoot at the woman, he is the famous serial killer in American history "Son of Sam".
David Berkowitz "Son of Sam"
At about 1:10 a.m. on July 29, 1976, there was a shooting incident in the Bronx district of New York, 19-year-old Jody Valenti drove 18-year-old Donna Lauria home, after parking the two were still talking about what they were playing in the first discotheque that night, suddenly a strange man came and fired 5 shots at them with a .44 caliber revolver, Donna died on the spot, and Jody was lucky to survive.
Jody described to the police that the killer was a strange 30-year-old strong white male, about 1 meter 75 tall, weighing about 73 kilograms, short black and thick curly hair, the neighbor nearby claimed: "Before the crime, a similar person drove a yellow car and had been wandering around here", and then the police checked the social relations between the two, but could not find any motives and clues about the murderer, they once thought that the murderer was a complete madman.
A similar attack was taken on a young couple in the early hours of October 23, when Carl Denaro and Rosemary Kennan were making out in the car, the window suddenly cracked, they immediately drove away from the scene Kenan only scratched the skin, and Karl was smashed into a skull, but both saved their lives. Because the case took place in Queens and was investigated by the local police department, even though police later found residual point 44-caliber bullets in the car, they still did not link the case that occurred on July 29.
The murderer's pistol
In the early hours of November 27, two teenage girls in Queens were shot on their way home from watching a movie, one with minor bruises and the other with a broken spine, leaving them paralyzed for life. At this point, the police were still unable to combine the three cases, and they even suspected that the local gangs had committed them until the reappearance of 44 caliber bullets at midnight on January 30, 1977. John Deere and his fiancée Christina Frend were in the car discussing their next date when three gunshots suddenly rang out that John had suffered some skin trauma, and Christina was hit by two bullets and died shortly after being taken to the hospital.
After Christina's death, the police suddenly realized that these cases occurred in the middle of the night, the location of the crime was in the parking area of young people, the victims were mostly couples or girlfriends, and the more serious injuries were women with long dark hair. Coupled with the most critical point of 44-caliber bullets, police believe a serial killer may be wandering through New York.
At about 7:30 p.m. on March 8, a female college student was shot on her way home and shot in the head and died instantly
After the killer was later arrested, he claimed that the case was a deliberate change in the common pattern, mainly to confuse the police.
On April 17, at midnight at 3 a.m., the killer struck again, and the Bronx district shot again, this time the victim was still a couple who were intimate in the car, the girl died on the spot, and soon the boy died in the hospital due to ineffective rescue, unlike the previous cases, it may be that the New York police are too inefficient to make him famous, or it may be that he simply wants to mock the police murderer, leaving a handwritten letter near the victim's body, he calls himself Sam's son. The letters stated that his father, Sam, would often abuse him and torture him, and that he was instructed by his father to collect blood, because old Sam needed blood to maintain his youth forever.
The police consulted several psychiatrists and concluded that the killer was neurotic, probably suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and believing he was possessed by a demon.
On May 30, Jamie Breslin, a columnist for the New York Daily News, received a second handwritten letter from Sam's son, in which he thanked Jamie for his interest in the point 44 killings, claiming that he would read Jamie's column every day and would not stop killing until Sam had collected enough blood, asking Jamie in the letter, "What are you going to do on July 29?" The issue was seen as an ominous threat by the police, as July 29 was the anniversary of the first killing of this Son of Sam.
You may not believe it when you say it, and the police's counterattack is no different from that of others who make a big online movie, they communicate with the daily news report while investigating, and then publish part of the letter and call on the murderer to surrender himself.
A police-issued wanted warrant
The murderer, of course, did not jump out of the surrender, and may still be at home to enjoy the published letter, for their own police to turn the police into a circle and complacent, this letter put the whole of New York into a panic, young couples dare not go out at midnight, the girls cut their hair short, and dyed light color, the police pulled out hundreds of police forces to set up a task force, closely guarded near the scene of the first case, while the 56 legal holders of the Point 44 pistol, all mentally ill, More than 900 suspected cars were investigated, and even special people were sent to play fake couples in the crime area in the hope of hooking the murderer. Unfortunately, although the 29th was spent safely, the tragedy still occurred on the 31st.
It's not that the police are poorly controlled. The main reason is that the murderer changed places this time, this shooting occurred in Brooklyn, when a couple was kissing in the car, the murderer suddenly appeared and fired several shots into the car, and then immediately fled, the woman often died, and the man also lost most of the vision of the entire left eye and the right eye due to serious injuries.
Although they also knew of the existence of Sam's son, they thought it would be all right, because the girl was a blonde.
This shooting was the last case committed by the murderer, after the incident, a witness went to the police station to report the crime, on the day of the crime, he walked his dog and found that the traffic police were putting tickets on the illegal vehicles, and a young man with a dark object in his hand returned, angrily privately ticketed. Police immediately investigated all the vehicles that had been ticketed in the area that day, and a four-door yellow Ford attracted their attention, and the owner of the car, named David Berkowitz, lived in the Yankers district. Members of the task force immediately contacted the Yankers police, only to be unexpectedly called to the police by a man named Sam Carr, claiming that his neighbor, David, was a lunatic and had killed his dog.
On August 10, the police successfully arrested David in the car, when he had a 44-caliber Bulldog revolver in his pocket, a rifle in the back seat, a duffel bag full of ammunition, a map of the crime scene, and a handwritten letter that had not yet been sent. David replied, "I am son of Sam."
David's handwriting
David confessed to the shooting, but noted that the first letter mentioned that Sam was his neighbor Sam Carr, whose dog was possessed by an ancient demon who demanded that he must kill the young girl to get blood, and that he was controlled by him.
The police called in psychiatrists to conduct a psychiatric assessment of David, who they believed was indeed mentally ill but fully qualified to stand trial.
On June 12, 1978, David was sentenced to 6 life sentences for murder, 365 years in prison, after which David wrote to a psychiatric expert, admitting that the previous demonic claim was a hoax, because people wanted to spend money from him to buy criminal details and write books to make money, and the government urgently introduced the Son of Sam Act to prevent criminals from profiting from the propaganda generated by his crime.
David was lucky to survive a murder in prison in 1979, but declined to identify the attacker, saying it was my punishment.
In prison in 1987, David said he had completely changed from being sam's son but a son of hope, and had refused parole and was still serving his sentence in prison. A demon with a lot of lies suddenly rehabilitated? Is it not true that the sentence is only infinitely close to death to understand the true meaning of life?
The truth of the matter is probably known only to David himself. Well, this episode ends here, and we'll see you next time.