40 Years Later Son Of Sam

In the summer of ’77, David Berkowitz terrorized New York City with a .44 handgun and a demonic calling.

- Jeff Truesdell And Chris Harris

The summer of 1977 was one of the darkest in New York City’s history. Residents were beset by a sweltering heat wave, economic woes and a rising tide of violent crime, but nothing struck more terror into New Yorkers than the serial killer who christened himself “Son of Sam” and left strange, rambling letters at his crime scenes promising to strike again. Police scrambled to keep pace as the murders spread from two to three city boroughs, and public fear—and fixation—mounted. “If you lived outside Queens and the Bronx, you thought you were safe,” says retired police sergeant William Gardella, 74. “But when he struck in Brooklyn, that’s when the real panic came in. They were selling T-shirts in Central Park: ‘Get the Son of Sam before he gets you.’”