The Large Apple’s most infamous serial killer is getting a brand new close-up.
Within the Netflix docuseries, “Conversations With a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes” (now streaming), director/ producer Joe Berlinger explores David Berkowitz and his reign of terror on Nineteen Seventies New York Metropolis – and even consists of the killer’s declare that he wasn’t the wrongdoer who shot one in all his surviving victims, Wendy Savino.
“The story gripped town like no different. In my thoughts, it form of gave beginning to our trendy fascination with true crime,” Berlinger solely instructed The Put up.
“It’s the primary trendy instance of a serial killer taunting and baiting the press. Folks couldn’t look forward to the subsequent New York Put up….to return out, to get extra data, and the letters that had been all printed,” he elaborated. “[It was the] first time that you simply noticed media, public fascination and violence all coming collectively.”
Berkowitz, 72, whose reign of terror left six lifeless, and 7 wounded — has been incarcerated at Shawagunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill, New York, since his arrest on Aug. 10, 1977. He was 24 on the time.
He’s at present serving 25 years to life in jail, and has been denied parole 12 instances.
Between 1976 and 1977, the Brooklyn born serial killer and former soldier went on a 13-month killing spree, capturing lots of his victims by way of automobile home windows, utilizing a .44-caliber revolver.
The serial killer typically despatched chilling and boastful letters to cops and journalists, signed “Son of Sam.”
“He’s extra akin to at present’s faculty shooter than the basic serial killer,” Berlinger instructed The Put up.
Berlinger has additionally lined the circumstances of Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy in earlier seasons of “Conversations With a Killer.”
“All three of them wished to be up shut and intimate with their victims. Berkowitz…doesn’t take pleasure in seeing the ache the way in which these different serial killers do,” he defined.
“Clearly there’s no excuse for what he did and it was horrible – and so they all clearly undergo from psychological sickness, you possibly can argue – However I liken him extra to the alienated youth expressing rage.”
“Conversations With a Killer” dives into Berkowitz’s troubled childhood, his impression on his victims – together with interviews with surviving relations – and recordings of a chilling interview with Berkowitz himself, performed shortly after his imprisonment in 1980 by Jack Jones, a former reporter on the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
It additionally features a snippet of a more moderen interview that Berlinger did with Berkowitz in August 2024.
“I debated whether or not or not I wished to place my interview with Berkowitz within the present, as a result of it’s very controversial. Folks do have this knee-jerk response like, ‘you possibly can’t give a platform to a serial killer.’ So I used to be delicate to that subject,” he defined to The Put up.
In previous seasons, serial killers similar to Bundy and Dahmer had been lengthy lifeless and couldn’t take part within the documentary. Berkowitz is without doubt one of the solely well-known serial killers from that period nonetheless alive.
“I debated whether or not or not I wished to really communicate to him, and we did it on the very finish of the manufacturing, simply to see what we’d get,” Berlinger defined.
He stated that in his interview with Berkowitz, the serial killer was “adamant” that he wasn’t the wrongdoer who shot his first sufferer, Savino, 88, who survived the 1976 assault however was completely maimed, shedding a watch.
The NYPD solely formally validated Savino’s declare that her attacker was Berkowitz in June 2024. However, Berkowitz, who confessed to his different crimes, alleges that it wasn’t him.
Earlier this month, Savino instructed The Put up: “I’m very nervous. I used to be at all times afraid somebody would come to me and say ‘I’ll end you off for David.’”
Onscreen within the doc, she maintains that Berkowitz shot her.
“We felt obligated to see what he says about it, despite the fact that I imagine Wendy Savino was a sufferer of David Berkowitz,” stated Berlinger.
In a 2024 interview with The Put up, Berkowitz claimed that he’s reformed behind bars and has devoted his life to Jesus.
About whether or not he thinks that has benefit, Berlinger stated, “I didn’t meet [Berkowitz] in individual. It was a protracted telephone dialog.”
However the filmmaker added that he “respects” Berkowitz’s religious advisor, Mike Caparrelli, who can also be included within the doc.
“[Caparrelli] believes that David has seen the error of his methods, that his discovering of faith is authentic,” he stated. “I can’t say – I haven’t spent sufficient time with the man.”
“Lots of people dismiss this as his ongoing want for consideration,” Berlinger stated about Berkowitz. “And, there have been a long time the place he was seemingly searching for extra consideration. However how he’s now, I don’t know. It was tremendous necessary to him to inform me that he was not answerable for Wendy Savino.”
“I don’t know what to make of it. I’m not inside his head, nevertheless it was so necessary to him to say that. And the police have closed that case as a Berkowitz capturing.”
