44 years after the 'Son of Sam,' Netflix documentary raises new questions
This weekend marks 44 years since David Berkowitz shot and killed his final victim. The so-called "Son of Sam" terrorized the city in the late 1970s, but now there are new questions about whether or not he acted alone.
We opened up the Fox5 archive and located an interview with Neysa Moskowitz. Her daughter, Stacy Moskowitz, was the last person shot and killed by Berkowitz on July 31st, 1977.
In the interview with the late FOX 5 NY reporter Gabe Pressman, she's called on lawmakers to bring back the death penalty and execute the self-proclaimed Son of Sam.
"You'd like to see David Berkowitz go to the electric chair?" Pressman asked.
"Yes. Yes, I'd give 10 years of my life. He's just an animal as far as I'm concerned," Moskowitz answered.
Berkowitz admitted to killing 6 people and injuring seven others in a killing spree that lasted from 1976 to August of 1977 when he was arrested by the NYPD. Over the decades there have always been whispers about whether Berkowitz truly acted alone. Now those rumors are being explored in a new Netflix documentary called "The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness."
The Tape Room interviewed director Josh Zeman.
"New York City was on its knees," Zeman said of the turbulent era of the late 1970s when the city was in the midst of an economic crisis and surging crime. "The last thing they were going to do is say 'maybe we didn't get all of them.'"
The series also focuses on the life of Maury Terry, a journalist, who spent his life trying to unravel the Berkowitz case. He claimed to discover evidence pointing to the involvement of a satanic cult of killers.
"There's a point in the series where Berkowitz writes Maury Terry a letter and says 'Maury no matter how much evidence you have. The public will never believe you', Zeman said. "He was right,"
Maury Terry died in 2015.
Berkowitz is currently serving 6 life sentences in prison.
You can hear more from director Josh Zeman on The Tape Room podcast, available on iTunes.
The Sons of Sam series is now streaming on Netflix.
Neysa Moskowitz died in 2006. Over the years she embraced a role as the unofficial spokesperson for the victims, and over time her feelings toward Berkowitz changed.
While she once called for his execution, in the end, according to the New York Post, she told her friend, "This kind of anger can make you sick. Don’t let anger eat you up."
"She needed to relieve herself of anger to be able to move forward with her life," the friend said.
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