Crimes of the Century - No. 12 - The Son of Sam

THE SON OF SAM, 1977

New York seemed to be going to hell in the summer of 1977. Already in perpetual fiscal crisis the city was plunged into a 25-hour blackout on July 13 that saw massive looting and arson. And the Son of Sam killer was still out there after more than a year, waiting to kill again, sending his perverse missives to the police and to New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin. The killer had called himself the Son of Sam in his letters, which spoke of Papa Sam as a drinker of blood and master of Satanic mayhem. And on July 31, the Son of Sam struck again, shooting a young woman, who was killed, and her male companion, who would be blinded. But it would be the last attack. 

A witness on the night of that shooting saw a man in the neighborhood remove a parking ticket from a Ford Galaxie. The police tracked their records and found 24-year-old David Berkowitz, a dweeby, pudgy employee of the U.S. Postal Service. Trained as a sharpshooter with the M16 rifle in the U.S. Army, he had used a .44 pistol in all the shootings, killing six and wounding seven. Who was Sam? Sam, said Berkowitz, was a cantankerous former neighbor. But Berkowitz said he was the devil and that he transmitted his orders through the infernal and incessant barkings of his dog, Harvey.

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You can learn more about this notorious killer here, and yes the maniac is still alive.  He is currently serving time at a correctional facility in Fallsburg, New York with his next parole hearing due in May of this year.  He has been denied the previous 5 times so it is unlikely he will be granted one.

TIME Magazine posted this article online several years ago, along with a list of 24 additional notorious crimes that I have been posting and will continue to post every Saturday on my blog.  Hope you enjoy.

Go back and read the previous 11 crimes here.

What a Hot F**king Mess: HIV Positive Man Purposely Infects 3,000 Men and Women

I'm sorry, but I couldn't just title this "What a Hot Mess".  This kind of thing just irks the hell out of me.  Why would someone do such a horrible and inhumane kind of thing to another human being?  I can't fathom ever finding out that I slept with someone who was dishonest with me, much less have unprotected sex with them.

David Dean Smith casually walked into a Michigan police station 3 weeks ago, and admitted sleeping with 3,000 men and women over several years.  He doesn't remember when he was diagnosed with the disease, but that he says, he "intentionally attempted to spread the disease to kill people."

So far only two people have come forward, and one of them went so far as to say that she immediately knew it was Smith who infected her.  After speaking with MSNBC, she called him a "sociopath" and a "predator".  

What else would you call him? He's a fucking monster!

Post Secret Fridays - Issue 079

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

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Killers on the Road

Came across a small article in Newsweek regarding the following chart.  It was created by the FBI after they followed-up on a murder investigation that occurred off Interstate 40 in Oklahoma.  You can read the article here, and click on the picture to enlarge.  Even though a majority of serial killers are Truckers, and most deaths prostitutes, it's still chilling to know these people are out there - killing every day.

click to enlarge

The red dots denote locations where bodies or remains have been found in more than 500 cases in the FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative database from 1979 - 2009. According to its study, suspects involved in these killings are primarily truck drivers, and most victims are women "who are living high-risk, transient lifestyles, often involving substance abuse and prostitution."