The Nation: Sam Told Me To Do It... Sam Is the Devil

• Share

(6 of 6)

He often cruised various neighborhoods in his car after such a "calling," looking for some "sign" that the timing was right. Even such a chance event as the appearance of a convenient parking space was such a sign to Berkowitz. He did choose victims whom he considered "pretty," claiming he favored the Queens borough for a time because "Queens girls are prettier." He did not walk casually away from the murder sites and slip into the dark. "I ran like hell." He revisited at least two of the scenes of his crimes and tried to find the grave of his first victim, Donna Lauria, 18, whom he had not known but for whom he seemed to develop a posthumous affection.

As the details of his crimes spilled out in Berkowitz's own words, police officials ordered cops to stop talking to reporters about their overwhelming evidence against him. Incredibly, one of his own defense lawyers, Philip Peltz, was accused of trying to sell taped interviews with Berkowitz and book rights to the New York Daily News and the New York Post for up to $100,000. Both newspapers promptly rejected the offer.

Clearly, this was one crime in which there could be no doubt that the right man had been caught. Police had not released Berkowitz's first note to them precisely so they could confront any suspect with something only he could answer. How had he signed that note? "The monster," he correctly replied. Partial fingerprints taken from the killer's notes to the police and Breslin matched those of Berkowitz. Ballistics tests showed that the .44-cal. revolver seized from Berkowitz had fired the shots that killed Stacy Moskowitz. The only legal defense against a murder conviction seemed to be a plea of insanity.

The manhunt over, police felt pride tinged with a few regrets, at this handling of one of their toughest challenges. Once again they had discovered that terrified witnesses rarely provide reliable descriptions. The series of sketches drawn by police artists from such fragmentary impressions turned out to be off the mark —actually hindering police work by inviting people to name suspects bearing likenesses to the errant drawings, but not to the murderer.

The work of criminal psychologists in providing police with personality profiles of the likely killer was more accurate and perhaps did help narrow the search. Such a profile issued by police last May described the killer as "neurotic, schizophrenic and paranoid, with religious aspects to his thinking process, as well as hints of demonic possession and compulsion. He is probably shy and odd, a loner inept at establishing personal relationships, especially with women." Psychologists say Berkowitz is a psychopath, and all evidence points to his lonely nature and inability to relate normally to women.

It is quite likely that police grabbed Son of Sam just before he could claim even more victims in even more spectacular crimes. David Berkowitz told them why he had placed that semiautomatic rifle in his car on the night he was captured. He said he planned to drive out to the fashionable Hampton resort communities on Long Island and blast away at the crowd in a discotheque or nightclub. He was ready, he said with a smile, "to go down in a blaze of glory." -