Yahoo Finance David Berkowitz now – what happened to Son of Sam killer
There are two central figures in The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness: journalist Maury Terry, the author of The Ultimate Evil: An Investigation into America's Most Dangerous Satanic Cult, and David Berkowitz, referred to by some as the .44 Caliber Killer, and more widely known as the Son of Sam, a name he gave himself.
Berkowitz was an unassuming man, by all accounts. He had served time in the US army, after which he turned his hand to a number of jobs, including a security guard, taxi driver and a letter sorter for the postal service. In archive footage used in the Netflix docuseries, he's described by a former colleague and those in the local community as quiet and pleasant, if perhaps a little strange.
But it was Berkowitz who had the city of New York held to ransom, its people living under a blanket of fear following a spate of shootings between July 1976 and July 1977 that left six people dead.
He shot several others but they miraculously survived, although some were left with life-altering injuries.
New York had already been nicknamed "Fear City" prior to the shootings on account of the exponential amount of violent crime that was devastating its streets and overrunning its police force. But Son of Sam's reign of terror made what the city was already contending with look like child's play, as one of the talking heads noted.
In an unexpected and mundane turn of events, it was a parking ticket that led to Berkowitz's arrest, rather than a meticulously-choreographed police stakeout followed by a helter-skelter car chase.
A woman who was walking her dog on the night Stacy Moskowitz was killed was approached by a young man, who appeared to be carrying an object. He looked into her face, before walking away. A few minutes later, she heard gunshots and a car horn. When the woman was later questioned by detectives, she informed them that the police had issued a ticket to a car parked near the site where Moskowitz had lost her life.
In June 1978, Berkowitz was sentenced to 365 years in jail after pleading guilty to the murders of Donna Lauria, Christine Freund, Virginia Voskerichian, Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau, and Moskowitz, plus seven counts of attempted murder.
At the time, he claimed that he had been compelled by a demonic force which communicated its deathly demands through a black Labrador named Harvey, which belonged to his neighbour Sam Carr. But he later admitted that there was no truth in that.
He also claimed to have been responsible for around 1,500 fires in New York City and its surrounding areas.
It was Terry who launched the theory that Berkowitz did not act alone, but had multiple accomplices who were all part of a Satanic cult. Carr's sons, John and Michael, who died in 1978 and 1979 respectively, were reportedly also part of that group.
According to reports, Berkowitz, now 67 years old, is currently housed in Shawangunk Correctional Facility in upstate New York, following time in a psychiatric hospital and other prisons, including Attica.
One encounter behind bars nearly saw him lose his own life when his throat was cut.
He converted to Christianity and went on to write a book called Son of Hope: The Prison Journals of David Berkowitz. He also has his own website, where he refers to himself as "former Son of Sam". As well as telling his life story in his own words, he has written various blogs and letters where he states remorse for what he did, distances himself from Satanism, and shares his Christian beliefs and notions on an assortment of topics.
After serving 25 years of his sentence, Berkowitz became eligible for parole, which he has consistently been denied. Berkowitz himself has said that he would not seek parole.
A number of detectives who were involved in the Son of Sam case, including Joseph Coffey, who verbally sparred with Terry in the docuseries, have since died. Terry himself, who spearheaded the campaign to reopen the investigation following his assertions about cults and Berkowitz's assumed accomplices, died in 2015 following a brief illness. In the documentary, those who knew him discussed the immense toll that his obsession with the case had taken on him.
Series director Joshua Zeman told The Guardian that Terry is a "cautionary tale for today, for all these people who go down these rabbit holes and they can't pull themselves back out".
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