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David Berkowitz

Also known as: Son of Sam, .44 Caliber Killer

Active
1976–1977
Region
New York City, New York, USA
State
NY
Kind
Serial
Status
Pleaded guilty
Victims
6

David Berkowitz shot young people sitting in parked cars and walking at night in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn between July 1976 and July 1977, killing six and wounding several others, and sent taunting letters signed "Son of Sam". A parking ticket issued near the final shooting in Bath Beach led detectives to his car in Yonkers, where he was arrested on August 10, 1977. He pleaded guilty to all six murders in May 1978 and was sentenced to 25 years to life for each.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Timeline of locations

  1. July 29, 1976
    Pelham Bay, the Bronx (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Donna Lauria was shot and killed as she sat in a parked car with a friend, who was wounded, in the Pelham Bay neighborhood.

  2. January 30, 1977
    Forest Hills, Queens (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Christine Freund was shot and killed in a parked car with her fiancé, John Diel, who was slightly injured.

  3. March 8, 1977
    Forest Hills, Queens (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Virginia Voskerichian was shot and killed while walking home, about a block from where Christine Freund had been killed five weeks earlier.

  4. April 17, 1977
    Hutchinson River Parkway service road, the Bronx (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani were shot and killed in a parked car. A handwritten letter signed "Son of Sam" was left at the scene.

  5. July 31, 1977
    Bath Beach, Brooklyn (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Stacy Moskowitz was shot and killed in a parked car with Robert Violante, who survived but was partially blinded. A parking ticket written nearby that night led police to Berkowitz.

  6. August 10, 1977
    Arrest outside his apartment building, Yonkers (Arrest, approximate area)

    Detectives found his car outside his Yonkers apartment building with guns inside and arrested him as he came out carrying a .44-caliber revolver. He lived in Yonkers at the time of the shootings.

  7. May 8, 1978
    State Supreme Court, Brooklyn (Court / trial, approximate area)

    In a Brooklyn courtroom, Berkowitz pleaded guilty before judges from Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens to all six murders and to the attempted murders. On June 12, 1978, he received the maximum of 25 years to life for each murder.

  8. April 2016
    Shawangunk Correctional Facility (Prison)

    Berkowitz has been held at the maximum-security prison near Wallkill since April 2016. He has been denied parole several times.

Watch, listen, read

Watch

  • The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness (series, 2021, Netflix (dir. Joshua Zeman))

Read

  • Son of Sam (1981, Lawrence D. Klausner)
  • Confessions of Son of Sam (1985, David Abrahamsen)

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.