'Son of Sam' Denied Parole Again

(May 11) -- "Son of Sam" serial killer David Berkowitz was denied parole at a New York state parole hearing last week. It was the fifth time Berkowitz has been up for parole. He is serving six life terms in a maximum security prison in upstate New York and will be eligible for parole again in two years.

In its decision, the parole board wrote:

"Your actions exhibited a total disregard for not only the law but the lives of innocent members of society. Not only did you harm the victims and their families but the N.Y.C. community as a whole. During the interview you offered very little insight into your criminal behavior and declined to elaborate when asked. Consideration has been given to your positive behavior. ... However, to release you would so deprecate the serious nature of the I.O. [instant offense] as to undermine respect for the law. Additionally your release is not in the interest of the public safety and welfare. Parole is therefore inappropriate."

Berkowitz was convicted of murdering six people and injuring several others in a series of mysterious shootings that held New York City in a terror-filled grip from July 1976 to July 1977. The first four shootings appeared to target couples, resulting in the deaths of two and injury to six other victims.

The fifth attack, in March 1977, diverted from the norm. A lone college student was walking home when she was shot in the face, killing her instantly. The next month, the murderer struck again. He was back to his original pattern, shooting a couple dead in the Bronx. But this time the killer left a letter identifying himself as "the Son of Sam," saying "father Sam" commanded him to "go out and kill."

A month later, New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin, who had been writing about the murders, received a letter from Son of Sam. In the letter, the writer referred to July 29, 1977, which was the one-year anniversary of the first attack, indicating another shooting was planned.

"What will you have for July 29?" the letter asked.

The attack was carried out on July 31, 1977, targeting a couple that sat in a parked car next to a park in Brooklyn. Robert Violante and Stacey Moskowitz were shot, and Moskowitz died a day later.

But this time there were witnesses. Soon afterward, the police arrested Berkowitz, a mailman at the time, who confessed to the killings, saying he was ordered by his neighbor's dog to murder. He was sentenced to six consecutive terms of 25 years to life.

Since then, Berkowitz has become a born-again Christian and has repeatedly apologized for the killings, even receiving forgiveness from his last victim's mother. Though the case appeared to be closed with his arrest, in 1997 he told a journalist that he had not acted alone. He said that he was part of a satanic cult and that he had been involved in only two of the eight attacks, killing only three of the six victims himself.

Among the chilling details Berkowitz disclosed was that he had met the members of the occult group in a park in Yonkers, just north of New York City, where they engaged in animal sacrifice. Years before the Son of Sam killings began, a vice unit of the New York Police Department had gotten a tip that something was going on in the same park. When they investigated, they discovered the dead bodies of several German shepherds.

Berkowitz's claim that he didn't act alone has skeptics and believers, which have included some of the victims' families, the Queens district attorney who prosecuted the case and the Yonkers Police Department, according to a Dateline report. But Berkowitz has refused to testify and won't name accomplices, except two brothers who are already dead.