Albert Fish was first known as Frank Howard. He responded to an ad looking for work placed in the newspaper by Edward Budd. Edward Budd was an 18 year-old boy determined to make something of himself. Frank Howard arrived at Budd’s doorstep with a job offer. He stated that he would like to have Budd come work with him at his farm, telling the story of his six children and how his wife had left them. Edward was looking forward to having a job and providing for his family, and Howard even offered a job to Budd’s friend, Willie. Howard planned to come pick them up a few days later to take them back to his farm to begin work. When Howard didn’t show, he provided a hand-written note explaining that he would be in touch in a few days. He came over for a visit the following morning and the family invited him to stay for lunch. During his visit, Howard spotted Budd’s younger sister, Gracie. Explaining that he had to attend a birthday party before he could take the boys to the farm, he asked if Gracie would like to join him. With his gracious attitude and friendly nature, the Budds gave Gracie permission to attend the party. That evening, Howard did not return and Gracie vanished. The family reported her disappearance to the local police and an investigation began.
No leads were discovered, partially because Frank Howard didn’t exist. The Budd family received a letter with a description of the mutilation and murder of little Gracie. The note matched the handwriting from the original note sent to them earlier. During the time of the investigation and before the letter was received, another child vanished. Billy Gaffney, a four year-old boy playing with his neighbor, who was also named Billy, disappeared and the three year-old Billy stated that “the boogey man” took Billy Gaffney. The police didn’t take the statement to heart, and instead ignored it. Shortly after the disappearance of Billy Gaffney, another little boy also disappeared. Eight year-old Francis McDonnell was playing on the porch with his mother when a grey-haired, frail, old man walked down the street muttering to himself. The mother noticed his awkward demeanor but did not report anything. Later that day, while Francis was playing at the park, his friends noticed that he walked into the woods with an elderly grey-haired man. When his family noticed that he was missing, they organized a search. Francis was found under some branches in the woods, badly beaten and strangled with his suspenders.
The manhunt for the “grey man” began but despite many efforts, he vanished. The letter that was received by the Budd family was investigated and was found to contain an emblem of the New York Private Chauffeur’s Benevolent Association (NYPCBA). All of the members were required to obtain a handwriting test for comparison to the letters from Howard. A janitor came forward to admit that he had taken some sheets of paper and left them in his old rooming house. The landlady was able to confirm that an old man matching the description had lived there for two months and had only checked out a few days earlier. The former tenant was identified as Albert H. Fish. The landlady also mentioned that he wanted her to hold a letter that would be arriving from his son. Detectives intercepted the letter at the post office and were contacted by the landlady that he would be coming to get his letter. The lead detective was able to capture Mr. Fish. Many confessions and testimonies were heard by law enforcement and psychiatrists. Mr. Fish described how he wanted to lure Edward Budd and his friend Willie to his farm to kill them. However, once he laid eyes on Gracie, he changed his mind and desperately wanted to kill her. He took Gracie to the train station and purchased her a one-way ticket. After the ride to the country side, he took her to a house. While at the house he told Gracie to wait outside and she picked flowers. He went to the second floor of the house and removed all of his clothes. When he called for Gracie to come upstairs she was frightened by him and called out for her mother. Mr. Fish choked her to death. Following her death, he decapitated her and cut up her body. He took parts with him when he left, wrapped in newspaper. Police were able to locate the remains of Gracie based on his confession.
Albert Fish had many run-ins with police in his lifetime. However, each time charges were dismissed. He discussed the details of the murder of Billy Gaffney, describing how he tied him up and beat him. He even admitted to drinking his blood and making a stew out of his body parts. His attitude was not like those of people with psychosis. He was calm and reserved, which was out of the ordinary. He confessed that he wanted to inflict pain and have pain inflicted on him. He taunted and preyed on children, mostly boys. He also had a compulsion to write and send obscene letters. An x-ray determined that he placed needles into the region between his anus and scrotum, and at least 29 needles were discovered. In trial, the defense argued that he was legally insane. They used many descriptions and testimonies to prove to the jury that he was mentally ill. However, the jury didn’t believe this. He was considered to be a “psychopathic personality without a psychosis” and he was found guilty after 10 days of trial.
The notorious and very bizarre serial killer who called himself The Zodiac remains one of the world's great unsolved cases. In Oct., 1966, a girl was viciously murdered in Riverside, California when she permitted a man to help start the car that he had intentionally disabled when she was in her school library. This homicide began a ghoulish series of murders that panicked the people of the San Francisco area. For years the Zodiac taunted the police with weird ciphers, phone calls, insulting and cryptic messages.Even though police investigated over 2,500 potential suspects, the case was never solved. There were a few suspects that stood out, but the forensic technology of the times was not advanced enough to nail any one of them conclusively.
From June 1962 through January 1964, 13 single women between the ages of 19 and 85 were murdered throughout the Boston area. Many people believed that at least of 11 of these murders were committed by the same individual due the similar manner in which each murder was committed. It was believed that the women, who all lived alone, knew the attacker and let him in, or that he disguised himself as a repairman, or a delivery man to get the women to voluntarily let him into their apartments. “In every case, the victims had been raped – sometimes with foreign objects – and their bodies laid out nude, as if on display for a pornographic snapshot. Death was always due to strangulation, though the killer sometimes also used a knife. The ligature – a stocking, pillowcase, whatever – was inevitably left around the victim’s neck, tied with an exaggerated, ornamental bow.” This series of crimes was often referred to as “The Silk Stocking Murders” and the sought after attacker became known as the “Boston Strangler.”
A couple of years before “The Silk Stocking Murders” began, a series of sex offenses began in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area. A smooth-talking man, in his late twenties, went door-to-door looking for young women. If a young woman answered the door, he would introduce himself as a talent scout from a modeling agency looking for new models. If she was interested he would tell her that he needed to get her measurements. Many women expressed interest and allowed him to measure them with his measuring tape. He would then fondle the women as he took their measurements. Several women contacted the police and this man was referred to as the “Measuring Man.” In March of 1960, police caught a man breaking into a house. He confessed to the burglary, and without any prompting, he also confessed to being the “Measuring Man.” The man’s name was Albert DeSalvo.
The judge sentenced DeSalvo to 18 months in jail, but he was released after 11 months for good behavior. Following his release, he began a new crime spree throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. During this spree, DeSalvo, while dressed in green, broke into over 400 homes and sexually assaulted over 300 women. While police throughout New England were in search of the “Green Man”, Boston homicide detectives continued their search for the “Boston Strangler.”
In October of 1964, a young woman who was one of the “Green Man’s” victims came forward to police saying that a man posing as a detective entered her home and sexually assaulted her. From her description of the man, the police were able to identify the man as Albert DeSalvo. A photo of DeSalvo was published in newspapers and several women came forward to identify him as their attacker. He was arrested on a rape charge and was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for psychiatric observation, where he befriended convicted murderer George Nassar. It is speculated that the two worked out a deal to split reward money if one of them confessed to being the Boston Strangler. DeSalvo confessed to his attorney, F. Lee Bailey, that he was the Boston Strangler. Through DeSalvo’s ability to describe the murders in accurate detail, Bailey believed that DeSalvo was in fact the Strangler. After hours of questioning, where DeSalvo described murder by murder, the details of his victim’s apartments and what they wore, the police were convinced that they had the killer. Despite his confession, there was no physical evidence to link Albert DeSalvo to the “Silk Stocking Murders.” Doubt remained, and police brought the Strangler’s one surviving victim, Gertrude Gruen, to the prison to identify the man she fought off as he attempted to strangle her. To observe her reaction, the police brought two men through the prison lobby, the first was Nassar and the second was DeSalvo. Gruen said that the second man, DeSalvo, was not the man; however, when she saw the first man, Nassar, she felt there was “something upsetting, something frighteningly familiar about that man.” Through it all, DeSalvo’s wife, family and friends never believed he was capable of being the Strangler.
Because there was no physical evidence and he did not match witness descriptions, he was never tried in any of the “Boston Strangler” murders. He was however sent to prison for life for the rapes and sexual assaults from the “Green Man” case. He was sent to Walpole maximum security state prison in 1967 to serve his sentence; but six years later he was stabbed to death in his cell. After nearly 50 years, no one has ever been charged as the Boston Strangler. In July 2013, the Boston Police Department believed that they had discovered DNA evidence linking Albert DeSalvo to Mary Sullivan, who had been raped and strangled in 1964 – the final victim of the Boston Strangler. After taking DNA from DeSalvo’s nephew, the Boston Police said it was a “near certain match” to DNA evidence found on Mary Sullivan’s body and on a blanket taken from her apartment. Upon this discovery, the court ordered the exhumation of DeSalvo’s body. After extracting DNA from DeSalvo’s femur and some of his teeth, it was determined that DeSalvo was the man who killed and raped Mary Sullivan. While the case of Mary Sullivan’s murder has been closed, the mystery of the Boston Strangler still remains open to speculation.
Kenneth McDuff was an American serial killer suspected of at least 14 murders, and served time on death row from 1968 to 1972 and again in the 1990’s. Born on March 21, 1946, he was from central Texas and had three siblings. McDuff’s mother, Addie McDuff, was well known around her town as “the pistol packin’ momma” because of her habit of carrying a firearm and her violent tendencies. McDuff was known to shoot his .22 rifle at living creatures and was often getting into fights with boys older than he was. With these tendencies, he was well known by the sheriff of his hometown. Before his murder convictions, he was convicted of 12 counts of burglary and an attempted burglary. He was then sentenced to 12 four-year prison terms, served concurrently; however he was paroled in December of 1965.
On the night of the murder, McDuff and his newfound friend, Roy Dale Green, were driving around central Texas when they came across a car parked near a baseball diamond. Inside the parked car were two men and a woman; Robert Brand, his girlfriend Edna Louise, and his cousin Marcus Dunnam. The two men approached the vehicle and ordered the three people into the trunk of both cars. McDuff and Green drove both of the cars to a remote area where both men were shot in the head. The woman was raped by both men and then strangled by McDuff with a broomstick. The following day when the murder was announced on the radio, Green felt guilty and turned himself in to the police. In exchange for his testimony against McDuff, he was given a lesser sentence. McDuff went to trial and was sentenced to death for the murder of Robert Brand. With the death sentence being overturned in 1972 and the overcrowding in Texas prisons, many prisoners were not serving out their full sentences. As a result, McDuff was given parole in October of 1989. Although never officially connected, another proposed McDuff victim was Sarafia Parker, whose body was found just three days after McDuff’s release from prison. Although released on parole, McDuff made no attempt to show he had reformed. He was convicted of making threats and trying to pick fights with others, and even for public drunkenness and a DUI. He began drinking heavily and became addicted to crack cocaine.
During a roadblock in October of 1991 a woman with her hands behind her back was seen attempting to kick out the windshield of a car and was never seen alive again. She was later identified as a prostitute named Brenda Thompson. Only a few days later, another prostitute, Regina “Gina” Moore, also vanished. In December of 1991, McDuff and a close friend, Alva Hank Worley, were driving around looking for drugs. Worely later testified, that McDuff would point out specific women along the street that he would like to “take.” That night, they saw Colleen Reed, an accountant, who was washing her car at a car wash. McDuff grabbed her and forced her into the car. Both men raped the woman and although witnesses called the police, they were too late. McDuff dropped Worley off and later disposed of the body. A brief job at Quik-Pak market led McDuff to a fascination with his senior manager’s wife, Melissa Northrup. On many occasions, he mentioned wanting to rob the store and “take” Melissa. Her husband grew worried when she didn’t return home one night following her shift and an investigation was launched. Eyewitnesses were able to identify McDuff in the area of the abduction, as well as at the site where Colleen Reed was kidnapped. A month later, the body of Melissa Northrup was discovered. Around the same time, another body was found in the woods. Her name was Valencia Kay Joshua, a prostitute, who was last seen searching for McDuff’s dorm room.
At this point, McDuff had fled Texas, obtained a new car and a fake ID. He became a garbage collector. Soon after Melissa Northrup’s body was found, he was profiled on America’s Most Wanted. Only a day later, a coworker contacted the police to tell them where to find him. He was pulled over during a garbage stop and became America’s Most Wanted’s 208th successful capture. During the first trial, involving the death of Northrup, he was rude and disruptive. He even tried to represent himself but could never provide truthful accounts of the night the woman was killed. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Melissa Northrup. Following that trial, he was then tried for the murder of Colleen Reed and was more disruptive this time around. Although her body was never found, he was convicted of killing her based on strong circumstantial evidence and eyewitness accounts. He was again sentenced to death.
Following his arrests, Texas began an overhaul to ensure that no other criminals like him were able to get out on parole. They changed the rules and improved the monitoring upon release; collectively these new rules in Texas became known as McDuff laws. The location of Regina Moore and Brenda Thompson’s bodies were provided as his execution date neared. He was even taken out, under tight security, to provide the location of the remains of Colleen Reed. On November 18, 1998, McDuff was put to death by lethal injection in the Huntsville prison.
On July 10, 1942 the first of five brutal murders and rapes began with the 20 year old red-haired wife of a man named William Brown. Charles Floyd entered the Brown’s home and strangled his wife to death before brutalizing her body. She was pregnant at the time so police ruled the murder as a double homicide. Six months later Georgina Green and her happily married daughter were alone in their home when Floyd broke in. He bludgeoned both of them to death. They were both redheads, which helped police understand that the killer had an affinity for red-haired women. On May 15, 1945 the killer struck again. This time his victim was Panta Lou Niles, another red-haired woman.
A local drifter named Henry Owens was arrested for the murders of these four women. Due to his simple mindedness, he was an easy suspect to pin the murders on. He remained in prison until Charles Floyd struck for the fifth and final time on July 1, 1948. Floyd broke into a home with a mother who was watching her two daughters. He began to force them into sexual acts until a concerned neighbor came to the aid of the women and Floyd ran off. Charles Floyd then broke into Ruth Norton’s home two blocks away and murdered her. Now that there were survivors of an attack, the police had a description that quickly led them to the arrest of Floyd on November 22, 1949. Floyd was convicted after confessing to the rape and murder of these five red-headed women and the murder of the unborn child. After testing his IQ the judge felt as though Floyd should not be sentenced to death by way of the electric chair, so Floyd was sentenced to life in a mental institution. Floyd would eventually die there due to natural causes.
Charles Manson is an American cult leader whose followers carried out several notorious murders in the late 1960s and inspired the book Helter Skelter. Born in Ohio in 1934, Charles Manson is notoriously connected to the brutal slayings of actress Sharon Tate and other Hollywood residents, but he was never actually found guilty of committing the murders himself. However, the famous 'Tate-La Bianca' killings have immortalized him as a living embodiment of evil. Images of his staring 'mad eyes' are still used today to illustrate countless serial-murder news stories. The Manson Family—including Charles Manson and his young, loyal dropout disciples of murder—is thought to have carried out some 35 killings. Most were never tried, either for lack of evidence or because the perpetrators were already sentenced to life for the Tate/La Bianca killings. In 2012, Manson was denied parole for the 12th time.
Charles Manson was born Charles Milles Maddox on November 12, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Kathleen Maddox, a 16-year-old girl who was both an alcoholic and prostitute. Kathleen later married William Manson, but the marriage ended quickly and Charles was placed in a boys school. Although the boy ran back to his mother, she didn't want anything to do with him. Charles was soon living on the streets and getting by through petty crime. By 1951, Manson began spending time in prison, and early on, before he discovered the benefits of being a "model prisoner," he was considered dangerous. He would eventually spend half of the first 32 years of his life behind bars.
A new chapter in his life began in 1955 when he married a 17-year-old girl and moved with her to California. She became pregnant, but Manson resumed a life of crime again, once again stealing cars. It wasn't long before he was back behind bars, and by 1956 his estranged wife had left with their child and her new lover. Manson later had another child with a different woman while out on probation.
Craigslist is a popular website typically used to buy items or services; however, for Philip Markoff it was a tool that allowed him to commit crimes while living a double life. He grew up in a small town in New York, where he excelled academically and participated in a variety of student groups and activities, including the National Honor Society. After graduating from high school, he became a pre-med student at The State University of New York’s Albany campus. Markoff spent a lot of time focusing on his studies and volunteering in the emergency room of the Albany Medical Center Hospital. In his free time, he enjoyed staying up all night playing poker with friends, and had a reputation for being a serious player who did not take losing lightly.
In 2005, Markoff met Megan McAllister while they were volunteering at the hospital. Both were students at SUNY and soon became college sweethearts. Markoff graduated in just three years with a bachelor’s degree in biology and was accepted in to Boston University’s School of Medicine. McAllister had also planned on attending medical school, but because she was not accepted by the schools she wanted to attend, the couple moved to Boston and Megan put her plans on hold. In 2008, Markoff and McAllister were engaged, and set their wedding date for August 14, 2009. McAllister kept herself busy with wedding planning, while Markoff attended medical school and frequented casinos – racking up over $130,000 in debt.
In April of 2009, Boston police were investigating two separate attacks on women who had advertised erotic services online and had planned to meet their “client” at a luxury hotel. On April 10th 2009, 29-year-old Trisha Leffler, an escort, was gagged, bound, and robbed at gunpoint at a Westin hotel by a man who had responded to an ad she placed on Craigslist. Four days later, Julissa Brisman was found murdered in the doorway of her Marriott hotel room. It appeared that she had been trying to fight off her attacker, when she was shot multiple times. She had placed an ad on Craigslist offering erotic massage services and had scheduled an appointment to meet a man named “Andy” at her hotel room. Police believed the same attacker was linked to the attempted robbery of Cynthia Melton, an exotic dancer offering lap dance services. Markoff had scheduled an appointment to meet her at a Holiday Inn hotel in Rhode Island through the usage of a disposable TracFone cell phone. The three incidents were similar in that the motive appeared to be robbery, the attacks were on women offering sexual services, the dates were close together, and two of the women had been bound with plastic cords. Through all of this, Markoff’s fiancée remained in the dark – believing that he was “beautiful inside and out.”
Through security camera footage and electronic evidence, police determined that the person of interest in the three incidents was a young, blonde, clean-cut man, about 6 feet tall. Police traced an email that had been sent to Julissa in response to her Craigslist ad and the electronic trail led them to Philip Markoff’s Boston apartment. Police followed Markoff for several days, and finally pulled him over while he was driving to a local casino with his fiancée, Megan. He was accused of murder, armed robbery, and kidnapping. During the investigation of Markoff’s apartment, police located a gun, bullets matching those found in the Brisman case, plastic zip-ties, duct tape, a laptop with communication to Brisman, several TracFone cell phones, and several pairs of stolen women’s underwear – 2 of which belonged to Leffler. Upon discovery of the evidence, Markoff was arraigned on murder and gun charges for the slaying of Brisman; Markoff pled not guilty. Markoff’s trial was delayed until March 2011.
Initially, Megan McAlister stood by Markoff and believed he was innocent; but, in June 2009, she visited him in jail to end their relationship. While in jail, Markoff made several, unsuccessful suicide attempts; however, on August 15th 2010, Markoff was found dead in his jail cell -one year and one day after the date his wedding was to have taken place. It was determined that he had committed suicide through self-inflicted wounds and suffocation. ABC News reported that Markoff had “evidently used an object shaved into a razor to slash major arteries in his ankles, legs and neck… covered his head with a plastic bag and stuffed toilet paper down his throat so jail authorities could not resuscitate him, then covered himself head-to-toe with a blanket.” Before he died, he wrote the name “Megan” on his cell wall in blood and placed photos of Megan throughout his cell.
David Berkowitz, also known as Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer who terrorized the New York City area from July 1976 to July 1977. Berkowitz killed six people and wounded seven, most using a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver gun. Berkowitz was born Richard David Falco on June 1, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. His unmarried parents separated shortly before he was born, and he was placed on adoption. His adoptive parents switched his first and middle names, and gave him their surname. From a young age, Berkowitz had began to show early signs of his future violent behavior patterns. While he was of above-average intelligence, he lost interest in school and instead focused on more rebellious habits. Berkowitz got involved in petty larceny and pyromania. However, his misbehavior never led to legal troubles or impacted his school records. When he was 14, Berkowitz’s adoptive mother died of breast cancer and his relationship with his adoptive father and new stepmother grew strained.
When he was 18, in 1971, Berkowitz entered the U.S. Army and served both in the U.S. as well as South Korea. He was honorably discharged three years later. Berkowitz then tracked down his birth mother, Betty Falco. His mother told him about his illegitimate birth and the recent death of his birth father, which greatly upset Berkowitz. He eventually lost contact with his birth mother and began working a number of blue-collar jobs. According to his own accounts, Berkowitz’s killing career began on December 24, 1975, when he stabbed two women using a hunting knife. One of the women was Michelle Forman, and the other has never been identified.
In the early morning hours of July 29, 1976, 18-year old Donna Lauria and 19-year old Jody Valenti were sitting in Valenti’s car when Berkowitz walked up to the car and shot at them. He fired three shots, and walked away. Lauria was killed instantly and Valenti survived. When Valenti was questioned by police, she stated that she did not recognize him, and gave a description, which fit with a statement by Lauria’s father, who said that he saw the same man sitting in a yellow car. Testimony by other individuals in the neighborhood stated that the yellow car had been seen driving around the neighborhood that night. Police determined that the gun used was a .44 caliber Bulldog.
On October 23, 1976, Berkowitz struck again, this time in Flushing, a community in the borough of Queens. Carl Denaro and Rosemary Keenan were sitting in their car, parked, when the windows shattered. Keenan immediately started the car and drove off. It was not until they got help that they realized they had been shot at, even though Denaro had a bullet wound in his head. Both Denaro and Keenan survived the attack, and neither saw the shooter. Police determined that the bullets were .44 caliber, but could not determine what gun they came from. Investigators did not initially draw a connection between this shooting and the previous one, because they occurred in two separate New York boroughs.
Shortly after midnight on November 27, 1976, 16-year old Donna DeMasi and 18-year old Joanne Lomino were sitting on Lomino’s porch in Bellerose, Queens. As they talked, a man approached them, dressed in military fatigues. He began to ask them for directions in a high-pitched voice before taking out a revolver and shooting at them. They both fell, injured, and the shooter ran away. Both girls survived with wounds, and Lomino was paralyzed. Police were able to determine that the bullets were from an unknown .44 caliber gun. They were also able to make composite sketches based on testimony from the girls and neighborhood witnesses.
On January 30, 1977, Christine Freund and John Diel were sitting in Diel’s car in Queens when the car was shot at. Diel suffered minor injuries and Freund died of injuries at the hospital. Neither victim ever saw the shooter. After this shooting, police publicly connected this case with the previous shootings. They observed that all shootings involved a .44 caliber gun, and the shooter seemed to target young women with long, dark hair. When the composite sketches from the various attacks were released, NYPD officials noted that they were likely searching for multiple shooters.
On March 8, 1977, Columbia University student Virginia Voskerichian was shot walking home from class. She lived just one block away from fellow victim Christine Freund. She was shot several times, and eventually died of a gunshot wound to the head. In the minutes following the shooting, a neighbor who heard the shooting went outside and saw what he described as a short, husky, teenage boy sprinting from the crime scene. Other neighbors reported seeing the teenager as well as a man matching Berkowitz’s description in the area of the shooting. The earliest media coverage implied that the teenager was the perpetrator. Eventually, police officials determined that the teenager was a witness and not a suspect.
On April 17, 1977, Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani were in the Bronx, several blocks away from the scene of the Valenti-Lauria shooting. The pair were each shot twice while sitting in a car, and both died before they could talk to police. Investigators determined that they were killed by the same suspect in the other shootings, with the same .44 caliber firearm. At the crime scene, police discovered a handwritten letter addressed to the captain of the NYPD. In this letter, Berkowitz referred to himself as the Son of Sam, and expressed his desire to continue his shooting sprees. With the information from the first letter and the connections between the previous shootings, investigators began to create a psychological profile for the suspect. The suspect was described as neurotic, potentially suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and believed that he was possessed by demons. Police also tracked down every legal owner of a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver in New York City and questioned them, in addition to forensically testing the guns. They were unable to determine which was the murder weapon. Police also set up traps of undercover police officers posing as couples in parked cars in the hopes that the suspect would reveal himself.
On May 30, 1977, Jimmy Breslin, a columnist for the Daily News received the second Son of Sam letter. It was postmarked for that same day from Englewood, New JErsey. The envelope had the words “Blood and Family – Darkness and Death – Absolute Depravity – .44” written on the reverse side. In the letter, the Son of Sam stated that he was a reader of Breslin’s column, and referenced several of the past victims. He also continued to mock the New York City Police Department over its inability to solve the case. In the letter, he also asks “what will you have for July 29?”. Investigators believed that this was a warning, as July 29th would be the anniversary of the first shooting. One notable observation was that this letter seemed to be written in a more sophisticated manner than the first one. This led investigators to believe that the letter could have been written by a copycat. The letter was published about a week later, and sent much of new York City into a panic. Many women opted to change their hairstyle, due to Berkowitz’s pattern of attacking women with long, dark hair.
On June 26, 1977, the Son of Sam made another appearance, in Bayside, Queens. Sal Lupo and Judy Placido were sitting in their car in the early morning hours when they were shot with three gunshots. They both suffered minor injuries, and survived, though neither saw their attacker. However, witnesses reported seeing a tall, stocky man with dark hair fleeing the crime scene, as well as a blond man with a moustache driving in the area. Police believed that the dark man was their suspect, and the blond man was a witness.
On July 31, 1977, just two days after the anniversary of the first shooting, Berkowitz shot again, this time in Brooklyn. Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante were in Violante’s car, parked near a park when a man walked up to the passenger side and began shooting. Moskowitz died at the hospital, and Violante suffered non-life threatening injuries. Unlike most of the other female victims, Moskowitz did not have long or dark hair. There were several witnesses to this shooting who were able to provide descriptions of the shooter to police. One of the witnesses described that the man looked like he was wearing a wig, which could account for the varying descriptions of suspects with blond and dark hair. Several witnesses saw a man matching Berkowitz’s description -wearing a wig- driving a yellow car, without any headlights and speeding away from the crime scene. Police decided to investigate the owners any yellow cars matching the description. David Berkowitz’s car was one of those cars, but investigators initially pegged him as a witness rather than a suspect.
On August 10, 1977, police searched Berkowitz’s car. Inside they found a rifle, a duffle bag filled with ammunition, maps of the crime scenes, and an unsent Son of Sam letter- addressed to Sergeant Dowd of the Omega task force. Police decided to wait for Berkowitz to leave his apartment, hopefully with enough time to obtain a warrant, as they had searched his car without one. The warrant never arrived, but police surrounded Berkowitz when he left his apartment, holding a .44 Bulldog in a paper bag. When Berkowitz was arrested, he allegedly told police “Well, you got me. How come it took you such a long time?”.
When police searched Berkowitz’s apartment, they found Satanic graffiti drawn on the walls, and diaries detailing his alleged 1,400 arsons in the New York area. When Berkowitz was taken in for questioning, he quickly confessed to the shootings and stated that he would plead guilty. When police asked what his motivation for the killing spree was, he said that his former neighbor, Sam Carr, had a dog that was possessed by a demon, which told Berkowitz to kill. Sam Carr is the same Sam that inspired his nickname, the Son of Sam.
Berkowitz was sentenced to 25 years in prison for each murder, served in New York’s supermax prison, Attica Correctional Facility. In February 1979, Berkowitz held a press conference and stated that his claims about demonic possession were a hoax. Berkowitz stated to a court-appointed psychiatrist that he was lashing out in anger against a world that he felt had rejected him. He felt that he had been particularly rejected by women, which could be one of the reasons that he specifically targeted attractive young women. In 1990, Berkowitz was moved to Sullivan Correctional Facility, where he remains today.
Dennis Lynn Rader, born on March 9th, 1945, was the BTK Killer. The letters “BTK” stood for “bind, torture, and kill.” Rader was an active serial killer in Wichita, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991.
During his youth, Rader hanged cats, reportedly. However, other than that, he led a normal life, joining the Air Force and marrying a woman named Paula. He even had children. In 1974, he would begin work for ADT Security Services. This year also marked the first of Rader’s murders. He killed the Oteros, taking a watch and a radio. In April of the same year, he killed Kathryn Bright and attempted to kill her brother, who survived the attack. Despite this eyewitness account, Rader was not caught at the time. Rader took credit for his victims by leaving a note in a book in a public library, where he also requested that he be called BTK. Next, he killed Shirley Vian and Nancy Fox. At this point, it seemed that he was doing it for the attention, sending poems to the newspaper about his victims. He even called the police, just to rub it in their faces.
Rader killed Marine Hedge and Vicki Wegerle, along with Dolores Davis. Then, suddenly, he stopped. In 1991, for no explicable reasons, the murders simply stopped. In 2004, he emerged from the shadows once more, sending clues and pictures and letters to police and media. He even left them a computer disk. This disk, which led them to his church and his van and even his daughter, would lead to the eventual arrest of Rader on February 25th, 2005. He was charged with ten counts of murder. Rader pled guilty, and was handed ten life sentences, which he is currently serving in Kansas.
