The Untold Truth Of Son Of Sam

The 1970s are further in the past than they sometimes seem — it's been more than 40 years since Son of Sam terrorized New York City. The reason his name still inspires fear and unease is because of the atmosphere in New York at the time and the way he approached the business of serial murder.

As noted by the New York Daily News, New York City in 1976 was in grim shape. It had seen 1,800 murders in 1975 alone, and economically, it was in shambles — the Daily News' infamous "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD" headline came in October of that year after the president stated he would veto any federal aid for the struggling city. And just a year later, the devastating blackout of 1977 would bring chaos to New York.

David Berkowitz, a lonely, mentally unstable young man, lived alone in Yonkers. Delusional and violent, he was tormented by the urge to hurt people, especially women. Beginning in 1976, he began giving in to those urges and killed five women and one man (Donna Lauria, Christine Freund, Virginia Voskerichian, Valentina Suriani, Alexander Esau, and Stacy Moskowitz) over the course of 12 months. As Oxygen notes, the casually random attacks combined with the terrifying name "Son of Sam" sent the city into a panic. There was a sense that anyone could be shot to death, anywhere, at any time.