David Berkowitz, the deranged serial killer who stalked the streets of New York between 1976 and 1977, was finally captured 48 years ago — ending a murder spree that claimed six lives and left seven others wounded.
“Caught!” blared the front page of the New York Post on Aug. 11, 1977, announcing the end of the reign of terror of the cold-blooded killer known as “Son of Sam.”
Berkowitz was found guilty of eight shootings in June 1978 and slapped with six consecutive life sentences. Since he first became eligible for parole in 2002, Berkowitz has vied to be released every two years like clockwork.
Last May, he was denied for the 12th time at the maximum-security Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill, where he’s been incarcerated since age 24.
Over a 13-month period, starting in April 1976, Brooklyn-born Berkowitz, a postal employee and former US Army soldier, terrorized the Big Apple — particularly young women and couples — armed with a .44-caliber Bulldog revolver, shooting many of his victims through car windows.
Following his crimes, Berkowitz would frequently leave notes at the scene, or boast about what he did in letters to police or journalists. He earned his nickname from one of the missives, an apparent reference to his neighbor’s dog, Sam.
“I am a monster. I am the Son of Sam,” bragged Berkowitz in a note left near the bodies of victims Alexander Esau, 20, and Valentina Suriani, 18, on April 17, 1977.
The NYPD formed a 200-person task force to crack the case, with many undercover officers working in the streets overnight on the hopes of catching the shooter in the act.
The shootings spanned Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, “Sam” claiming his last victim, Stacy Moskowitz, 20, on July 31, 1977 — less than two weeks before cops busted Berkowitz at his Yonkers home.
Authorities had traced the killer by linking traffic tickets issued in the area of the final killing to his car.
“I am Sam. David Berkowitz,” he told cops swarming his building on Aug. 10, 1977.
“What took you so long?” he asked chillingly.
Now 72, Berkowitz claims to have found God behind bars.
In an exclusive interview with The Post last year, Berkowitz said “Jesus has allowed me to survive and thrive,” and said he sees himself as a “father figure” to his fellow inmates.
The convicted murderer also likened himself and his ability to “change lives” with his writing to that of Anne Frank, the Jewish teen author whose diaries chronicling her life hiding from Nazis with her family were published around the globe following her death during the Holocaust.
“She impacted the lives of millions,” Berkowitz said. “Little Anne changed the world with a pen. So I ask myself, what can I do with my trusty typewriter? Maybe I can change lives, too, with my message of hope in God?” he said.
Even 48 years later, the “Son of Sam” case continues to draw interest. Berkowitz’s infamous crimes are now the subject of a Netflix docuseries, “Conversations With a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes.”
The series includes conversations with victims’ surviving family members, as well as newly unearthed recordings of a 1980 jailhouse interview with former Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reporter Jack Jones.
