DAVID BERKOWITZ – THE 44 CALIBER KILLER

Article BY Chris Bartholomew - Art by JEFFERY COX

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June 1, 1953 -

Richard David Falco Berkowitz, Son of Sam, and .44 Caliber Killer 

David Berkowitz killed six people and wounded seven others in New York City in 1976 and 1977, and came to be known as "Son of Sam". 

Berkowitz was born David Falco, the son of Betty Broder. She had married Tony Falco, and had a daughter, Roslyn. The Falcos ran a fish market together, until he left her for another woman. Broder later had an affair with a married real estate agent, Joseph Kleinman. When she became pregnant he threatened to abandon her if she kept the baby, so when David Falco was born, she gave him up for adoption. 

Before he was a week old, the baby was adopted by hardware store owners Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz, who reversed the order of his first and middle names in addition to giving him their own surname.  

July 29, 1976 - Jody Valenti and Donna Lauria were shot as they sat talking in a parked car outside Donna's apartment at 1 AM. Lauria died instantly from a gunshot wound to her neck. Valenti survived the attack.  

A few minutes after they had finished talking, Donna said goodnight to Jody and was just about to open the door when a man approached the car.  He was holding a brown paper bag which he reached into and pulled out a gun.  He fired 5 shots.  Donna was shot in the neck and arm, she fell out of the car and hit the pavement.  Jody screamed as a bullet struck her thigh.  She fell forward hitting the car horn. 

Donna's father, Mike Lauria, was already on his way downstairs, taking Donna's dog for a walk, when he heard the shots.  He found Jody leaning on the car horn screaming. 

Mike Lauria accompanied his daughter on the way to the hospital, but she was already dead.  Jody was taken to the hospital suffering from hysteria.  Jody was able to give a description of the killer: a white male with curly hair, about 30 years old.  She had never seen the man before. 

The neighbors reported that they saw a yellow car parked behind Jody's car, but it had gone by the time the police were on the scene. 

The police knew the weapon was a .44 Bulldog. 

October 23, 1976 - Carl Denaro and Rosemary Keenan were shot while sitting in Denaro's parked car. Both survived, but Carl was struck in the head by one of the bullets.

18-year-old Rosemary and 20 year-old Carl Denaro had just left a bar and drove to a quiet spot where they could be alone in the district of Queens.   

Carl Denaro had shoulder length hair and was mistaken for a girl by Berkowitz as he pulled out his .44 and fired it five times into the red Volkswagen.  His aim was inaccurate, only one of the fired bullets hit Carl Denaro in the back of his skull.  Carl Denaro survived the attack but required a metal plate to replace the portion of his skull that was missing. 

27 November 1976 Around midnight, Berkowitz struck again in the area of Queens by attacking 18-year-old Joanne Lomino and her 16-year-old friend, Donna DeMasi. 

The two girls were sitting on the front steps of Joanne's home on 262nd Street when a man crossed the road and approached them.  It appeared the man was seeking directions.  'Say can you tell me how to get to...', then the man pulled out a gun from his waistband and began firing at the girls.  The girls both turned towards the door when Joanne was shot in the lower spine and Donna was shot through the base of the neck.  The other three shots missed.  A local saw a man running down the street still holding the gun. 

The girls were rushed to hospital.  Donna was not badly injured but Joanne's spine was shattered and she would have to spend the rest of her life in a wheel chair. 

The police considered that the attacker could be the man who murdered Donna Lauria and attacked Jody Valente, but due to different eyewitness descriptions of the attacker it seemed unlikely. 

January 30, 1977 - 30-year-old John Diel and 26-year-old Christine Freund had left a bar just after midnight and got in their Pontiac Firebird.  Suddenly the windows were shattered by gunfire.  After the attack the unharmed John Diel found his girlfriend slumped forward with a bullet wound to the head.  She died later in St Johns hospital. 

It was discovered that the weapon was a .44 Bulldog and the police connected all the attacks, but dismissed it because of the different descriptions of the assailant in each case. 

March 8, 1977 - Virginia Voskerichian, a Barnard College honor student was shot and killed while walking home from class. Virginia Voskerichian was returning home in Exeter Street, Queens at around 7.30 pm when she side-stepped a man to let him pass.  Just as she did he raised a gun to her head and fired, killing her instantly. 

After ballistics tests on the bullet that killed Virginia Voskerichian proved to be the same that killed Christine Freund, and that both murders were close in location it was thought that it was the same .44 killer who had done the previous four attacks.  Even with the different descriptions of the attacker the police decided to start a task force - Operation Omega, to catch the .44 killer.  It was announced on the 14 April 1977 and was under the command of Deputy Inspector Timothy J. Dowd. 

April 17, 1977 - 18-year-old Valentina Suriani and her 20-year-old boyfriend Alexander Esau, were both shot twice. Both died as a result of gunshot wounds. Berkowitz left a letter at the scene, signed “Son of Sam.” 

The first policeman to arrive at the murder scene found a white envelope addressed to Captain Joe Borelli.  Eight police officers handled the letter, but even when their fingerprints had been eliminated, it appeared the killer had only used the tips of his fingers making the prints unable for a match.   

On the 30th of April a letter had been sent to the New York Daily Newsjournalist Jimmy Breslin. 

June 26, 1977 - Judy Placido and Sal Lupu were shot while leaving a disco. They were sitting in their car chatting about Son of Sam, when they were suddenly attacked.  The shots went through a window and Salvatore was shot in the wrist which passed on to hit the flesh of Judy's neck.  The next shot got Jody in the head but did not penetrate her skull.  The next shot hit her shoulder.  Salvatore jumped out of the car and ran to the disco.  Jody, shocked, had just realized that she had been shot and headed for the disco, collapsing after a few steps. 

They both recovered in the hospital, Salvatore had a shattered wrist and Jody escaped without serious injury.  A witness saw a white stocky man running from the crime scene a few blocks away. 

July 31, 1977 - Bobby Violante and Stacy Moskowitz were shot in the car while parked at a lover's lane. Stacy died from a gunshot wound to her head and Bobby lost vision in one eye and partial vision in the other. They had just seen a movie and at about 1.45 am parked opposite a playground and softball park under a streetlamp.  They decided to have a stroll around the park.  When they were walking around the park they noticed a man, a 'hippie type' leaning against the wall of a public toilet. 

Tommy Zaino and Debbie Crescendo were sitting in their car and noticed the 'hippie type' man as well.  Under the streetlamp where Bobby Violante had parked was the place that Tommy Zaino had just moved from as Tommy thought the streetlamp too conspicuous - an action that probably saved both of their lives. 

Bobby and Stacy headed back to the car, by now the 'hippie type' man had gone.  They were sitting in their car, talking and kissing for a while when suddenly someone fired three shots through their car window.  Bobby's eardrums exploded instantly, he felt Stacy collapse in his arms but was unable to see her as the bullets had also blinded him. 

Tommy Zaino saw all of the happenings in his rear view mirror.  "What was that?" asked Debbie as she heard the gunshots.  "Get down.  I think its Son of Sam," replied Tommy who immediately guessed it was the .44 Killer.   Tommy Zaino had only got a quick look at the murderer.   

Stacy died 38 hours later in the hospital and Bobby was left permanently blind. 

The capture of David Berkowitz was not made by the eyewitness report of Tommy Zaino, but by Cacilia Davis, who did not even see the murder. 

Forty Nine year old Cacilia Davis (before the murder happened) was dropped off by a friend in his car not far from the park just after 2.00 a.m.  As the car stopped and because it was a one-way street, Mrs Davis was looking out for other cars; as she did so, she saw a yellow Ford Galaxy parked next to a fire hydrant.  As she watched she saw a man approach the car and remove a parking ticket from the windshield.  She had continued talking to her friend and at about 2.15 a.m. her friend decided to leave.  As her friend was leaving, the Ford braked behind him and blared the car horn.  She noticed that the driver was young and had dark hair.  Her friend drove on with the Ford behind and then the Ford overtook him and sped on. 

A few minutes later Mrs. Davis took her dog for a walk in the nearby park.  As she did so she saw three parked cars which were Tommy Zaino's car, Bobby Violante's car, and a VW van.  As she was returning home she noticed a dark haired man in a blue denim jacket, he was walking as if he was carrying something up his sleeve; the man glared at her, making her nervous so she returned home quickly.  The man she saw looked like the man who had been driving the Ford earlier. 

When the murder happened a nurse heard the gunshots and looked out of her window and saw a speeding VW van.  The VW was going so fast that it nearly hit another car, the man in the car that nearly got hit describing the driver of the VW as having brown stringy hair resembling a 'hippie type'. 

After news of the murder, Mrs. Davis knew she had some key evidence that might help catch Son of Sam.  It took her two days to come forward to the police to tell her story as she thought that Son of Sam might try and eliminate her as a witness.  The police interviewed her and got her complete story.  There was one thing in the story that didn't add up; she had seen a man in a Ford Galaxy driving away from the park, when she also said that she had seen the same man in the park after he drove off.  The police didn't rush on the story as there had been reports of a speeding VW seen leaving the scene.  The police also tried to look for the parking ticket that the Ford had been given on the night of the shootings as described in Mrs. Cacilia's story.  It took ten days after the last attack to find the ticket.  It belonged to a David Berkowitz, registered as 561-XLB, who lived at 25 Pine Street, Yonkers. 

David Berkowitz confessed to all the murders.  He explained that he had been ordered to commit the murders by his neighbor, Sam Carr, and that these orders were transmitted to Berkowitz by Carr's Demon Dog, Harvey.  The demon voices traveled with him as he was out hunting for new victims. 

Within a few weeks of his arrest, Berkowitz was hinting that others were involved in the .44 murders. In a letter to the New York Post dated September 19, 1977, Berkowitz repeated the possessed dog story, but closed out his missive with the warning, "There are other Sons out there, God help the world."

In later years, he has discussed the cult claims in greater detail, but alleges that he cannot divulge all he knows without putting his family at risk. The cult had roughly two dozen core members in New York, the "twenty-two disciples of hell" mentioned in the Breslin letter. The cult had ties across the U.S., claimed Berkowitz, and was deeply involved in drug smuggling and other illegal activities. Berkowitz reportedly invited the former priest and exorcist Malachi Martin to visit him to discuss his past satanic cult involvement.

Many officials doubted the single-shooter theory, writing, "[w]hat most don't know about the Son of Sam case is that from the beginning, not everyone bought the idea that Berkowitz acted alone. The list of skeptics includes both the police who worked the case and the prosecutor from Queens where five of the shootings took place."  

The murder investigation was the largest single operation ever mounted by the NYPD, costing about 90,000 dollars a day and involving 300 detectives, dealing with 215 calls a day on the police hot-line.  Over 3,000 suspects were questioned, and an attempt made to check out each of the 28,000 .44 caliber Bulldog revolvers manufactured up to that time. 

Berkowitz pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to 365 years in prison in the Attica Correctional Facility.  David Berkowitz showed many signs of paranoid schizophrenia, which was said to power the murders. 

In 1979, Berkowitz was interviewed by FBI veteran, Robert Ressler. Berkowitz admitted that he invented the “Son of Sam” stories so that if caught he could convince the court that he was insane. He said the real reason he killed was because he felt resentment toward his mother and his failures with women. He found killing the women to be sexually arousing. 

David Berkowitz has a website where his writings are published.  I know, it's hard to believe, but all one needs is a willing webmaster to do the work and communicate through the mail and there you are.  Before you check it out, I have to tell you that since the 'webmaster' uses 'center'; it's hard to read the work. I spent an hour there to get a feel of the man, as he is now.  If the webmaster ever reads this, or David even, please use margins and align left, it'll be so much easier... and while you are at it, put the whole of the script in a graph, that way, people like me who have huge monitors won't have to have the writing the entire width of the monitor - think of the people who use their television as monitors and you'll see what I am talking about. 

I see nothing wrong with his writing, he is plain and honest it seems.  His messages of Christianity in his life and in trying to help other people are simple.  A simple search with ariseandshine will get you there. 

Letter found at the scene of the killings of Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau unedited:  

Dear Captain Joseph Borrelli, 

I am deeply hurt by your calling me a wemon hater. I am not. But I am a monster. I am the 'Son of Sam.' I am a little brat. 

When father Sam gets drunk he gets mean. He beats his family. Sometimes he ties me up to the back of the house. Other times he locks me in the garage. Sam loves to drink blood.

'Go out and kill,' commands father Sam. 

'Behind our house some rest. Mostly young -- raped and slaughtered -- their blood drained -- just bones now. 

Papa Sam keeps me locked in the attic too. I can't get out but I look out the attic window and watch the world go by. 

I feel like an outsider. I am on a different wavelength then everybody else -- programmed too kill. 

However, to stop me you must kill me. Attention all police: Shoot me first -- shoot to kill or else keep out of my way or you will die! 

Papa Sam is old now. He needs some blood to preserve his youth. He has had too many heart attacks. 'Ugh, me hoot, it hurts, sonny boy.'

I miss my pretty princess most of all. She's resting in our ladies house. But I'll see her soon. 

I am the 'Monster' -- 'Beelzebub' -- the chubby behemouth. 

I love to hunt. Prowling the streets looking for fair game -- tasty meat. The wemon of Queens are prettyist of all. It must be the water they drink. I live for the hunt -- my life. Blood for papa. 

Mr. Borrelli, sir, I don't want to kill anymore. No sur, no more but I must, 'honour thy father.' 

I want to make love to the world. I love people. I don't belong on earth. Return me to yahoos. 

To the people of Queens, I love you. And I want to wish all of you a happy Easter. May

God bless you in this life and in the next. 

The second page of the letter: 

I say goodbye and goodnight.

Police: Let me haunt you with these words:

I'll be back!

I'll be back!

To be interrpreted as - Bang Bang, Bank, Bang - ugh!!

Yours in Murder

Mr. Monster 

The Breslin letter unedited:  

On May 30, 1977, columnist Jimmy Breslin of the New York Daily News received a hand-written letter from someone who claimed to be the .44 shooter. A week later, after consulting with police and agreeing to withhold portions of the letter, the Daily News published the letter. Reportedly, over 1.1 million copies of that day's paper would be sold.  

Hello from the gutters of N.Y.C., which are filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood. Hello from the sewers of N.Y.C. which swallow up the delicacies when they are washed away by the sweeper trucks. Hello from the cracks in the sidewalks of N.Y.C. and from the ants that dwell in these cracks and feed on the dried blood of the dead that has seeped into these cracks.  

J.B., I'm just dropping you a line to let you know that I appreciate your interest in those recent and horrendous .44 killings. I also want to tell you that I read your column daily and I find it quite informative.  

Tell me Jim, what will you have for July twenty-ninth? You can forget about me if you like because I don't care for publicity. However you must not foget Donna Lauria and you cannot let the people forget her either. She was a very, very sweet girl but Sam's a thirsty lad and he won't let me stop killing until he gets his fill of blood.  

Mr. Breslin, sir, don't think that because you haven't heard from me for a while that I went to sleep. No, rather, I am still here. Like a spirit roaming the night. Thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest; anxious to please Sam. I love my work. Now, the void has been filled.  

Perhaps we shall meet face to face someday or perhaps I will blown away by cops with smoking .38's. Whatever, if I shall be fortunate enough to meet you,I will tell you all about Sam if you like and I will introduce you to him. His name is "Sam the Terrible".  

Not knowing what the future holds I shall say farewell and I will see you at the next job. Or should I say you will see my handiwork at the next job? Remember Ms. Lauria. Thank you.. In their blood and from the gutter "Sam's Creation" .44  

Here are some names to help you along. Forward them to the inspector for use by N.C.I.C: "The Duke of Death" "The Wicked King Wicker" "The Twenty Two Disciples of Hell" "John 'Wheaties'- Rapist and Suffocator of Young Girls"  

PS: J.B. Please inform all the detectives working on the slaying to remain.  

P.S: J.B., please inform all the detectives working the case that I wish them the best of luck. "Keep 'em digging, drive on, think positive, get off your butts, knock on coffins, etc."  

Upon my capture I promise to buy all the guys working on the case a new pair of shoes if I can get up the money.  

(Written on envelope) Blood and Family Darkness and Death Absolute Depravity .44