Episode 007: David Berkowitz – The Son of Sam Part 1

on December 10, 2010 in Podcast Episodes, Serial Killers by Brian Combs

Tags: David Berkowitz, Power-Control

It was the winter of 1976. New York City nightlife was alive with the carefree disco era.

Late in the evening of November 26, 16-year-old Donna DeMasi and 18-year-old Joanne Lomino of Queens were walking home from a movie. DeMasi noticed someone standing behind a lamppost and suggested they walk faster.

As they did, the man behind the lamppost began following them. The girls saw this, and started walking faster still. The man crossed the street to their side as they got to Lomino’s home.

The man approached the girls, and in a high-pitched voice said, “Can you tell me how to get…”

Then he pulled out a revolver and began firing. Each of the girls was hit once and fell to the ground. The man fired several more shots which hit the apartment building, and then ran away.

Both girls were hospitalized with serious injuries, but survived. Lomino’s spine had been shattered by a bullet however, and she was now a paraplegic. The gun was determined to be a .44 caliber, the third such shooting in a couple of months.

The police began to connect the dots and realized they had a serial shooter on their hands.

They had no idea how much worse it was going to get.

You can also download the episode directly.

And feel free to use the comments below for episode discussion.

Sources:
The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, Second Edition by Michael Newton
The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas
The Serial Killer Files by Harold Schechter
Hunting Humans: The Rise of the Modern Multiple Murderer by Elliott Leyton
Serial Murder, 3rd Edition by Ronald M. Holmes and Stephen T. Holmes.
Son of Sam by Marilyn Bardsley on TruTV.com