Sons of sam narrator series#

He claimed instead that he felt like “a soldier on a mission.” He said he believed Satan would release him from his emotional pain and loneliness if he killed. He said he was not ordered to kill by his neighbor’s dog, nor was he part of a demonic cult. In an interview with CBS in 2013, Berkowitz attempted to correct misperceptions about him. He later moved to Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, New York. In 1979, directly after his incarceration at Attica Correctional Facility, Berkowitz was attacked by an inmate and slashed across the neck. Donaldson Collection // Getty Images Where is David Berkowitz now in 2021? At the time, Berkowitz claimed the motive for the killings was Sam, a demonic spirit that inhabited his neighbor’s black Labrador.īerkowitz in 2003. On May 8, 1978, he plead guilty to six counts of murder and received six life sentences. Later, he left a letter at one of the crime scenes signed “Son of Sam.” On August 10, 1977, Berkowitz was arrested in Yonkers, sitting in a car outside his home. Others were blinded and paralyzed.īerkowitz was initially dubbed the “.44 Caliber Killer” by New York Newspapers, named after his murder weapon of choice.

Lauria, Freund, Voskerichian, Suriani, Esau, and Moskowitz all died from their injuries. The events to which Berkowitz is connected include almost a dozen shootings: Jody Valenti and Donna Lauria in the Bronx (1976) Carl Denaro and Rosemary Keenan in Queens (1976) Donna DeMasi and Joanne Lomino in Queens (1976) Christine Freund and John Diel in Queens (1977) Virginia Voskerichian in Manhattan (1977) Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau in the Bronx (1977) Judy Placido and Sal Lupo in Queens (1977) and Robert Violante and Stacy Moskowitz in Brooklyn (1977). At the time of the first murders, Berkowitz was 23. He was later honorably discharged, moving back to New York where he started working in the Bronx Post Office in 1976. Born in 1953, Berkowitz was given up for adoption and raised by foster parents in the Bronx. The story of David Berkowitz, however, even before the killings, wasn’t entirely straightforward. “But when you go making up stories, like a cult, I don’t buy it at all.”īerkowitz’s mug shot in 1977. “When you’re coming and you’re criticizing me and that criticism is justified, fine, I’ll take that,” Joseph Borrelli, a retired NYPD lead detective on the Berkowitz case, told Netflix in an interview for the series. Terry was ultimately unable to convince police investigators to reopen the case, and though he managed to gain access to Berkowitz for a televised interview-an interview in which Berkowitz appeared to concede he was not the sole triggerman for the murders-many discredited Terry’s investigations, his interview techniques, and the foundations for many of his claims. His investigations and his book, The Ultimate Evil, attempted to connect Berkowitz’s crimes to other occult-linked killings in the United States, while also proving the Berkowitz murders required accomplices-namely Berkowitz’s neighbors John and Michael Carr, the actual sons of Sam (Sam Carr).

Sons of sam narrator series#

The series chronicles the white-whale search of investigative reporter Maury Terry, who maintained Berkowitz was not the sole perpetrator of the New York City killing spree. Though Berkowitz is the titular focus, the four-part series organizes events around a different Yonkers resident. The story of the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, who was found guilty of six murders committed in New York City in the late 1970s, once again returns to prime time in Netflix’s new documentary The Sons of Sam.