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[Music] We ready? >> That's a question New Yorkers have been asking themselves a lot lately.
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Are we ready for another blackout? For a bus hijacking or a bombing, for another murder by the 44 caliber killer?
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I know that I'm not usually known for any public exhibitions of Tampa, but I want you to
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know I'm damned angry. >> The city is preoccupied with the killer who in one note signed himself the son
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of Sam. >> He is compelled to kill. I think people are really shook up. >> People wouldn't come out at night.
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They're really scared. >> The whole city was kind of like in lockdown. No one stayed out past 10:00.
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>> People were terrified. >> And the girl was covered with blood. >> Oh my god. Oh my god, we've been shot.
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We've been shot. I should have been dead. >> I guess on one hand, I was happy to be
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alive. A lot of people died from the same gun. >> He struck again over the weekend,
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shooting a young couple in a Brooklyn lover's lane. And today, the girl died, the killer's sixth victim. He's wounded
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seven others. >> It's just scary. It's frightening. >> When you're walking, people just look
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over their shoulder. >> That's all they do is talk about the killer. walks up to strangers, usually
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couples in parked cars, and shoots them with a large bore revolver. >> Police say they are nowhere near solving
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the case. >> If you're asking whether we have any indication of who he is or where he
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might be, the answer is no. >> To do this to a young girl and a young boy, he's not human.
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>> He was writing about a dog that talked to him, gave him orders to kill. >> I mean, he just was going out 30 nights
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a month looking for someone to kill. >> He terrified the city. I mean, I've never seen people like that.
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[Music] >> Yeah. I see that people never understand where I came from. No matter how much I
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I try to explain it, they they wouldn't understand what it what it what it it was to to walk in darkness.
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I remember we were an hour away from the city and everybody was afraid. After all
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that, to find out that this was a sort of a, you know, where people describe him as this chubby, shy, lonely guy who
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had the whole city buckling at its knees, afraid. It's a strange sensation. Serial killer about to walk in here and
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talk with us. I think there he goes right there. [Applause] That look like him, right?
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>> Hello. Hey, God bless you. >> Maurice Dwa. >> It's an honor to meet you, sir. Glad to
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meet you. >> Thank you for talking with us. >> Sure. Okay. It's a It's a big step. You
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know, I have my mis Yeah. mis misgivings and nervousness and all these other things, but
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>> understood. Is this a special place for you? >> Yeah, it is. Yeah. It's a place of
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refuge, you know. refuge from the storms of life. And you know, if you know anything about prison, there's a lot of
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storms. You know, it's not exactly a happy place. In prison, men are walking around carrying a lot of pain. I know I
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have a lot of pain inside me over, you know, things that happened. And uh this is a place where you can come and pour
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your heart out to to God. My name is David Burkowitz and I've been locked up since the time of my arrest of just
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under 40 years. >> You just turned 64. Yeah, I just turned 64. Yeah. >> How do the guys look at you? How do they
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see you? How do they perceive you? >> Um, some guys um really again because of the passing of time, they're not even
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familiar with the the case or anything. They may have heard about it, but it doesn't just another face in the crowd,
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you know, no special attention, no special anything. That's the way I want it to be.
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>> In the summer of 1977, New York lost its mind. Well, this was a a city that looked like
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Berlin after the war. >> Uh, it was devastated. There were abandoned buildings. There were waves of
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arson in which uh people were afraid to go to bed at night. We had a blackout in
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which 3,000 people were arrested. >> It make you really want to throw up when you look at what's happened. And we got
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to live here. There's no place for us to go. >> We had the FALN, the Puerto Rican
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terrorist group, planting bombs in department stores. We had a record heat wave. George Willig, a mountain climber
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from Queens, climbing up the outside of the World Trade Center. You know, it was
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a very, very different time and people were afraid to walk around. [Music] You know, 1977, among other things, was
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the year that Studio 54 opened. Uh, it was a time of sexual liberation. Perhaps the last gasps of the Anything Goes
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sexual revolution. >> I like to disco. [Music] I feel safe here. >> This was uh the era of Saturday Night
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Fever. And it was that throbbing music that became the backdrop for all the wacky behavior that was going on in the
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city at the time, including a murder spree by a serial killer. In New York early this morning, a
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mystery deepened and a manhunt intensified. A young couple was shot and wounded while sitting in a parked car.
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Most of the victims have been young women with shoulderlength dark brown hair who were gunned down as they set in
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part cars or walk the sidewalks of the Bronx and Queens. And you know, you're dealing with a crazy guy. You know, uh,
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you know, you go up to two innocent girls sitting in a car and shoot them or a guy and a girl in a car and you shoot
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them for no reason. I wanted to know why he did what he did. That's the one thing about all of these
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girls in these cases and guys, they did nothing to contribute to their own demise. and they were sitting talking to
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each other and this guy killed them. >> I mean I I grew up in the Bronx. Uh I had good good day good times and bad
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times. I had some struggles over certain issues that happened and but I also had
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times of adventure but I ran played ball with my friends. Really was a in many ways a normal childhood but that also
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wrestled with self-destructive behavior. >> Why? Well, when I was about four or five, I I
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learned that I was adopted. And when I asked about, you know, who my parents were at at birth, you know, my dad and
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mom, you know, well-meaning, told me that my mother died while while giving birth to me. Later on, I found out that
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of course, she was alive and well. We had a wonderful reunion. >> It didn't even it wasn't even true what
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they told You know, they meant well because they were told by the experts that's what you tell an adopted child
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when they because they're going to naturally ask questions. I look at you retrospect that
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characterized much of my life. I struggled with a lot of depression as a child and obsessions with death cuz I
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thought I deserved to die. >> So take me to when you're 14, your mom dies. >> Yeah, that was a difficult time. Yeah.
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Yeah. Well, just when you lose someone that you love is there's a sense of mourning. You know, I try to put it out
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of my mind. I was carrying around a lot of guilt. I was carrying around a lot of
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shame that I deserve to be punished. I I can't explain those things. You >> for your mom's death.
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>> Yeah. I maybe I was angry at God and and then well my birth mother and then of
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course my uh adoptive mother too. You know, I found it, you know, very difficult.
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>> The victim that's selected usually satisfies something on a fantasy level. A punishing mother. uh could be a wife.
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And so every time he uh commits a crime against a person that has this thing, he's satisfying this basic need of
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getting back at the original uh individual that he had difficulty with. >> You know, it was it was just a
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challenge. It was a challenge, but I mean, I ended up doing okay. It was my dad really kept on me to finish school.
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I graduated from Christopher Columbus High School and uh in 1971 and I joined the army.
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>> He went into the service and a drastic change took place and a different man came out that went in.
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>> What do you mean a different man went out? How did he change? >> I went to Korea and I'll never forget
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that. You know, you see the advertisements on TV of the guys jumping out of planes and all these exciting
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things and you know and you find out army life is kind of mundane and routine. You just turned 18. I'm trying
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to find my way in life. I wanted to see the world. >> A man that went in relatively mellow,
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relatively peaceful, turned around and became a man that was more interested in the fantasy in the
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world than the reality. >> Uh after I got out of the surface, I uh went to look up a lot of old friends,
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guys I used to hang out with and things and found everybody pretty much moved on
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in the three years of my absence. So I came back finally I was on my own kind of you know and wanted to eventually get
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my own apartment you know wanted to find a a girl maybe get married and raise a family and I had all kinds of normal
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perfectly normal hopes and dreams. >> What would you tell 23-year-old David Burkowitz today?
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>> Uh turn around before it's too late because destruction is coming. You know, Burkowitz lived in Yoners, north of New
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York. Police described him as a loner. His neighbors discussed their impressions with CBS News correspondent
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Bill McLaclin. He seemed strange to you. >> Not strange when he came in, you know,
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he spoke what's happening and everything, but uh >> he was friendly then. >> Yeah, he didn't seem strange. I never
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suspect him in this building out of every building in Yoners. He's in 35 Pine Street. You know, that shocks me.
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>> So, you're living in Yoners. You move up to Yoners. >> You have an apartment up on the 7th
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floor. >> Yeah. >> 7E. It's a nice spot. You're looking out over the Hudson River.
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>> Yeah. The building was not anyway. >> Not that way. What was it like? It was just chaotic. It was just a strange
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place. There was a strange spirit there. He lived right here in this building. 2 3 4 used to be number 35. Change the
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number in hopes of maybe made people feel a little better. >> If they don't recognize where the
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building is, then I say, "Do you remember Sonos Sam?" "Oh, I know where the building is."
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>> Really? >> So they know. >> People are familiar with it. Yeah, a lot of people know what happened.
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>> It's still hard to believe that even something like that exists in this world. I mean, who
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goes around killing people? I don't know anybody like that. >> No, you try not to think of things like
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that. There's people in the neighborhood that knew him. Say, you know, he was very, you know, cool with the kids. You
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to give them ice cream, things like that. And like he was a functional man. Just another guy. Yeah.
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>> What about the idea that he shot Sam Carr's dog right behind here? This dog, his master is a 6,000y old being talking
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to him through this dog and he's begging for blood. [Music] The dog got on Burkowitz's nerves.
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Apparently, the dog barked too much. Burkowitz could hear him from his window. He tried to kill the dog. The
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dog didn't die. And then he said in his own twisted way that the dog told him to
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kill. So Burkowitz lived on the top floor. He had a clear view right into the backyard here where the dog lived.
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Owned by a guy named Sam Carr, hence the name Son of Sam. >> I wasn't comfortable there. I felt very
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isolated. You I didn't really have much of a social life. I started to get into a lot of satanic stuff. So, I really was
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opening myself up to some very dark forces. It's not like he had a friend or anything. There was nobody. He had a
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hole in the wall in his apartment. It said that Mrs. something or other and her kids live in the wall. You know,
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he's he's bon certifiably nuts. >> Well, there was just a battle going on a side be
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>> in your head. Uh well, wherever, you know, there's a battle going on. Yeah. >> Right.
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>> Yeah. >> I guess here's the thing. >> Here's a Christian man, man who knows right from wrong,
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>> who's had loving parents, right? Who's >> very thoughtful. Um yet at some point
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there, you killed two people to start this whole thing. She was 18-year-old Donna Lauria who was
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sitting in a parked car with a friend late at night when her parents heard the shots. I ran down. By the time I got
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down, she was done in the street. >> My daughter was 18 years old and that's what he took out of my heart. 18 years.
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It >> was very troubled time, you know, right? But then he did it again. >> It started out as a typical Friday
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night. Drove to 159th Street and 32nd Avenue. Basically, we started making out and like two minutes later.
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Yeah. It was shot in the back of the head, but you know, on the top, the windows just shattered. So, I had pieces
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of glass all over my arms. I didn't know I was shot, but I knew something terrible had happened. The skull was
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blown away. The only thing protecting my brain from the outside world was a flap
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of skin. >> Well, things happened. Yeah. But that's that's that's it, you know. And then
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again, then we get to November. We have Dam Massie and Lemino. They're shot. >> Yeah. They're standing on a stoop and he
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walks up and he fires at them. >> So, at this point, you have nothing. What are you thinking?
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>> We're thinking we got a tough case here. >> Police have been engaged in intensive
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hunt for a man known as the 44 caliber killer. There's widespread apprehension that his crime spree is not over.
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>> I mean, it just it just kept going for more than a year. The hardest cases in the world for
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homicide detectives are strangers. Stranger on stranger. You have very little to go with because you don't have
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a motive. You may not have any witnesses, right? So you you're at a dead standill.
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>> Was there any common thread with all of these families victims of Son of Sam?
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Well, the common thread was these were their, you know, 20 year olds, their young, you know, their children.
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>> We've got Christine front again, this shooting, >> right? >> Is there any suspicion?
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>> Yes. >> At least two witnesses say the gunman walked up to the car, crouched, then
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fired four shots. >> One of the detectives come over to me and he says, "You know, that's a big
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bullet." He says, "And we had a shooting in the 105 with a big bullet. And then they also had one in Queens." So that
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stirred me up a little bit. >> The 44 bullet is big, nearly twice as big as the conventional 38 caliber
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police handgun ammunition. The 44 is designed, they say, to kill. >> Then we get to March. Virginia, the
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student, >> shoots her right in the face. starts to get a little curious now because that shooting is only a block
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away from where Christine Forn was murdered. We don't really get into the serial killer until the incident in the
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Bronx, >> April 17th, 1977. >> That will go down in infamy. >> Until then, you just had a series of of
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shootings without any >> again. We were having, you know, at that time probably uh I don't know, 1500
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homicides a year. The big thing about this one was the 44 caliber bullets. Now it's not just a bullet. He left a letter
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to me. >> I was home in bed and I got a call. Looks like a boy. Why? Big bullet. Big
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bullet. So now I got dressed and I went to the Bronx. >> You get to the scene, you get this
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letter, you read the letter. What do you think? >> To me it looked like uh some kind of a
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psychopath wrote this letter. Mr. Belli, sir, I don't want to kill anymore. No, sir. No more. But I must honor thy
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father. I am deeply hurt by your calling me a woman hater. I am not. But I am a monster. I am the son of Sam.
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>> As far as I'm concerned, that that was not me. That was not me. This even the
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that name I I hate that name. I despise that name. That >> which name? >> That moniker son of Sam. That's that
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that that was not that was a demon. That that was that was the a demonic entity that I was serving in in my ignorance,
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my shame. >> This is no longer a city case. This is now going to get nationwide attention.
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>> No one in the city of 8 million knows who is next. >> In New York early this morning, the 44
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caliber killer tried to kill again. >> That was just a a break from reality and thought I was doing something to uh
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appease the devil. I'm sorry for it, but I I really don't want to talk about it anymore because
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>> No, I was uh at this time I had uh was serving him. You know, I was serving him. I feel that he had taken over my
00:19:05
mind and body and I I just surrendered to those very dark forces. I regret that with all my heart, but you know, that
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was like 40 years ago. >> Effectively, it was him winning over us each time he got away with it.
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The only substantial clues so far have been two letters, including one mailed to the New York Daily News.
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>> The killer chose Jimmy Brereslin as his conduit to a larger public. >> Jimmy Brereslin was a great columnist
00:19:30
for the New York Daily News. He was uh sort of the voice of the people, related to people on a very visceral level. Uh
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and it was no accident that uh the son of Sam Killer started writing to him. Hello from the gutters of NYC, which are
00:19:49
filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine, and blood. Hello from the sewers of NYC, which swallow up these
00:19:57
delicacies when they are washed away by the sweeper trucks. JB, I'm just dropping you a line to let
00:20:05
you know that I appreciate your interest in those recent and horrendous 44 caliber killings. In 77 is when the
00:20:13
newspapers, you know, started to cover this >> 44 caliber killer, >> whatever, >> the son of Sam. You would see this
00:20:20
stuff. It was on a newspaper, on the TV, on the radio. It was everywhere. >> I I I don't want to discuss that, you
00:20:26
know. Yeah. >> Well, when we realized that this was an authentic letter that he had sent to the
00:20:32
Daily News, on one level, we were thrilled because it gave us access to the killer. what I thought was one of
00:20:39
the most disgusting episodes I've seen in journalism. >> You're suggesting that murder isn't a
00:20:43
big story. >> I think murder as the story became in the papers, it was blown ludicrously out
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of proportion and with very unhealthy social results. >> Jimmy Brereslin wrote one uh to him,
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figuring that would trigger Burkowitz to respond again. And I didn't mind that because I said the more he responds, the
00:21:01
more the opportunity for us to solve the case. Jimmy was engaging in this written
00:21:06
dialogue with the killer for any number of reasons. One, because there might be more clues as to his identity, and two,
00:21:13
because it was an ongoing tabloid story that obviously would uh sell newspapers.
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>> I mean, he just was going out 30 nights a month looking for someone to kill. >> Did you ever have a moment saying,
00:21:26
"Geez, did I cause this? Did this column trigger this nut?" >> No. >> Yeah. I mean, there's no question that
00:21:32
the police department was put under a lot of pressure by the press. >> A slow Sam news day would be seven or
00:21:37
eight pages. >> Detectives would walk out and they'd have a TV crew followed him.
00:21:41
>> The New York mafia is trying to track the killer down. >> The press stoows, but it also incited 20
00:21:47
million people. >> We used to stay in front of my house and talk and yell and kiss good night, but
00:21:51
we can't do that no more. >> An element of fear pervades neighborhoods which have not known fear
00:21:56
before. >> People wouldn't come out at night. They're really scared. And I mean, when
00:22:00
they scared, that's all they do is talk about the the killer. >> Civilian patrolling has been stepped up
00:22:07
in the neighborhood. Some women in the area are terrified, particularly ones with shoulderlength dark brown hair.
00:22:14
>> People going out cutting their hair and dying it. >> They were bleaching their hair, becoming
00:22:19
blondes. >> Literally at night, there sometimes a thousand, 2,000 guys who were just out
00:22:25
there patrolling, looking for this guy. Those phones rang 24 hours. >> Well, you guys were everywhere. You shut
00:22:34
down Lover's Lanes. >> I think all the motel owners in the city loved us. We forced everything indoors.
00:22:45
>> I'm leaving my house and I'm walking down the steps and my mom turns to me and she says, "Robert, be careful." And
00:22:54
I turned around and the next thing I said was, I'll never forget this. Ma, don't worry. I'm
00:23:02
going out with a blonde tonight. Good evening. In New York early this morning, the 44 caliber killer tried to
00:23:22
kill again. >> Robert Violante, 20 years old, Stacy Mossitz, also aged 20, blonde, both shot
00:23:33
twice in the head as they sat in their car near the ocean in the Brooklyn section of New York. It was their first
00:23:38
date. >> She was just a very bubbly, alive, full of life young lady. Now, it's Saturday night,
00:23:48
the 31st of July, 1977. Correct. And uh we went to see a very popular movie back then, New York, New York with
00:24:00
Elijah Minnelli. And it was a great movie and it was a just a great night. Well, what happens after the movies? So,
00:24:08
now we decide to drive to one of the uh as they call it a lover's lane. Now, we're sitting there a couple of minutes
00:24:16
and we're just talking, you know, kissing you a little bit and talking and uh Stacy turns to me and said, "Robert,
00:24:23
you know what? I'm getting a little nervous." She said, "Robert, let's go." And I said, "5 more minutes."
00:24:32
And in that 5 minutes is when we got shot. And I'm screaming now, blowing the horn.
00:24:43
Help us. Help us. We've been shot. We've been shot. The horn died. What do you remember from the shooting itself?
00:24:53
The bullet totally destroyed the left eye and most of my right eye. And uh you know, full of blood. I couldn't see
00:25:01
anything. I couldn't see Stacy sitting right next to me. I heard some moaning coming from Stacy.
00:25:08
[Applause] [Music] This evening, hospital officials said Miss Moscowitz remains in critical
00:25:16
condition after eight hours of surgery. She is given a 50/50 chance of living. Violante's condition is guarded. He has
00:25:23
lost the use of his left eye and probably will retain only 10% of the vision in his right eye.
00:25:34
>> What can you tell me about your son? >> We brought him up the right way. Good boy. Never any trouble. ever
00:25:42
involved in any dope? Ever involved in any arrests? What can I say? >> You told him to stay out of Queens.
00:25:50
>> I told him to stay out of Queens. He said, "Dad, I'm going to stay out of Queens cuz he usually used to go to
00:25:56
Queens." He said, "I'll do it for you and mom. I'll hang around in Brooklyn." And that's where they found him.
00:26:11
Vante, I remember his father was just distraught, totally distraught because he had seen the results of what had
00:26:17
happened to his son. >> He was my best friend in the world. He was there for me every minute of the day
00:26:28
when I was in the hospital. I think it was my dad that told me about Stacy. At 5:22 p.m. Monday, Stacy Moscowitz
00:26:40
stopped living. The doctors said they had not turned off the life support. It was just that the horrible damage done
00:26:46
by a 44 caliber bullet in the brain was too much. She wasn't worried, you know, cuz she
00:26:56
says, you know, I got blonde hair and, you know, I told her, I don't know how many times
00:27:06
to be careful. >> My daughter is dead, but I would die right here and now to see this man
00:27:10
punished. To do this to a young girl and a young boy. I lost a child. That woman
00:27:16
has a son that's blind. To do this to young people, he can't be normal. He's not normal.
00:27:25
>> And that's the saddest part that I never got to really know Stacy. >> You still think about it to this day?
00:27:35
>> Yeah, that was really really the sad part. But when Stacy Moscowitz was killed,
00:27:50
Burkowitz got a ticket for parking his car in front of a fire hydrant. >> Yeah. It was a woman there who said, you
00:27:56
know, I did see somebody get a summon on a fire hydrant in front of my house. >> We immediately started looking at the
00:28:02
summones. All right. They run the plate and the plate number comes back to David
00:28:06
Burkowitz. His address in Yandis comes out to David Burkowitz, 35 Pine Street. They now decide, again, thinking it's a
00:28:14
witness, to call him. So, they call the Yoners Police Department. The girl on the switchboard, she says, "Who too?"
00:28:20
"Uh, David Burkwood's 35 lb." She says, "That guy is crazy. He shot my father's dog. I know that guy." What's your
00:28:28
father's name? Sam Carr. Ree Carr who Sam Carr's daughter lives next door to David Burkowitz owns the
00:28:46
dog that Burkowitz shot. So you know that was like you know all of these things fell in in one phone call.
00:28:56
>> Everybody's antenna goes up. When they get up there they swing by his house and
00:29:00
they see his car. They look in the car and they see a letter to the Suffach Police Department and they see a duffel
00:29:07
bag that had a gun in a big rifle and here comes Birkwoods with a little brown paper bag with his 44 gun in it. Goes to
00:29:14
the car. They jump him. And he says, "You got me." He said, "I'm the son of Sam."
00:29:24
At about 1 this morning, 24year-old David Burkowitz, who detectives believe is the son of Sam, was brought to police
00:29:30
headquarters in Manhattan. He was wearing frayed jeans and an open sport shirt, and he was smiling slightly.
00:29:38
They caught him. They caught him. They caught the piece of garbage. I'll never forget that. My friend Nikki, what'd you
00:29:46
say? I was so elated, so happy. I said, "Thank God he's off the streets. He's not gonna ever be able to hurt anybody
00:29:57
else again." >> I I really can't describe how I felt. It was, I guess, a little bit of
00:30:02
everything. A little bit of excitement, a little bit of relief, a little bit of closure. When I saw the front page, I
00:30:08
was like, "Wow, I didn't expect them to look like that." >> Police ran ballistics tests this morning
00:30:13
on the 44 caliber gun they say Burkowitz bought from someone else who got it in Texas. It's an infamous gun. I I could
00:30:21
picture the damage that this thing did, you know, when you're looking at the at the scene of the crime.
00:30:28
[Music] The uh ballistics section has just called and told us that the uh 44 caliber gun recovered tonight has been
00:30:42
tested and the bullets match the bullets recovered from Stacy Moscowitz. >> What does this mean?
00:30:50
>> It means we have the gun that killed Stacy Moscowitz. [Music] >> I mean these were beautiful young
00:30:59
people. I understand that. But again, there's there's no, you know, it's just the way it things turned out. It's
00:31:05
regrettable, but that's it. You know, >> did you do all these crimes alone? >> Well,
00:31:29
Now, years later, he tells everyone that he was part of a cult and he was merely
00:31:35
one of the shooters. >> You know, he's he's wacky, you know. I mean, he's So, for him to say that he's
00:31:43
part of a cult, you know, it was just something he came up with like everything else, you know.
00:31:48
>> Well, I felt that there were demons with me, but that was I'll have to save that
00:31:53
for another time when I >> But you're the sole person who pulled the trigger, correct? Uh well, a lot of
00:31:58
things would happen in that in that case, but I take responsibility, you know, and and that's it. Yeah.
00:32:04
>> You take responsibility for all the Sonic murders, right? >> There was nobody else involved.
00:32:10
>> Uh let's just put it this way. They were demons and that was it. >> You leave the door open or is that
00:32:15
>> Well, one day maybe I have a chance to share more, but that's that's we'll leave that at that. You know, we shot
00:32:21
all that down, you know, and I think I told you the biggest claim to frame when they used to say that the cult I said,
00:32:28
"Did we have an incident after we locked up Burkowitz?" >> The killing stopped. >> Did the killing stop? Yeah. For him to
00:32:34
say years later he was part of a cult. You know, it was just more attention. That's all it's about with him.
00:32:39
>> But there are people who believe it. >> I'm just telling you the people that say
00:32:42
they believe in it never interviewed David Burkus. They never sat the way I did >> in this room.
00:32:46
>> In this room, in this corner. Just step back for a second. You walk in. >> I walk in.
00:32:51
>> You lay eyes on him. What are you thinking? What do you see? What does he look like?
00:32:54
>> Well, I'm first I'm looking at him to see what he looks like. >> I said, "So, what happened here? You
00:32:58
know, how did this start?" >> 30 minutes. He goes from beginning to end, tells me the whole story. He was
00:33:04
relaxed. What kind of demeanor? He's saying this. >> Oh, he was talking about it the way you
00:33:08
were talking about making a pastrami sandwich. Uh to to just talk about it like that was scary. I I thought he
00:33:15
absolutely felt he was certifiably wacky. and I thought they would just put him in
00:33:20
an institution. >> The accused killer is now undergoing a court-ordered psychological examination
00:33:26
at the Kings County Medical Center in Brooklyn, where he will be held in maximum security for up to 30 days.
00:33:32
>> He will engage in uh a normal psychiatric examination. >> Dr. Schwarz. He was a courtappointed
00:33:40
psychiatrist to analyze him to see if he was fit to stand trial and he determined
00:33:47
he was fit for trial. So this insane business that goes out the window. >> There was no outward sign of emotion, no
00:33:54
expressed remorse today as David Burkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn, New York court to six random Son of Sam
00:34:01
murders. Slaves which terrorized New York for more than a year. So you you show up in court when
00:34:07
Burkowitz was going to be sentenced for the first time. >> Yeah. He said some foul things about
00:34:14
Stacy. >> Oh yeah. >> To a weird nursery rhyme like tune, Burkowitz, who had never known Stacy
00:34:20
Moscowitz sang Stacy was a [ __ ] Mrs. Moscowitz bolted out of her seat and screamed back, "You animal." And then
00:34:27
Robert Vilante, Stacy's date the night she died, rose and shouted, "You creep." I reacted, go yourself, you piece of you
00:34:37
should die. You should rot in hell. I was Oh, I just went off on him. >> Robert Vante explained his courtroom
00:34:45
outburst. >> Total anger. Total anger. Uh, that's it. Just total outrage and I really couldn't
00:34:52
control myself. Three weeks after his wild courtroom outburst, which led to a delay for
00:34:58
further psychiatric evaluation, David Burkowitz, again, judge competent to face sentencing, arrived to learn his
00:35:03
fate. Burkowitz, who just turned 25, was given a total of six sentences for murder of
00:35:10
25 years to life. >> What do you say to the victim's families, to the victims who are still
00:35:16
living today? Well, I' I've I've apologized many times and I just always let them know that uh I'm very sorry for
00:35:23
what happened that uh I wish I could go back and change things and that I I hope
00:35:29
these people are getting along in life as best as possible. I never forget, you know, where I came from and what my
00:35:36
situation was like some four decades ago. people that were hurt, people that are still in pain, suffering loss
00:35:44
because of my criminal actions. And I I never forget that. That sometimes weighs
00:35:49
very heavy on me. Yeah. Yeah. >> It kind of took over my personality. And wherever I went, everything would
00:35:57
just stop and everyone you and you just hear whispering. That's the guy that was
00:36:00
shot by Son of Sam. And it got to the point where it was it became disturbing for me and um and I really felt like I
00:36:08
was losing my identity. didn't have any children. They never got married, never had children. Unfortunately, he ruined
00:36:16
not just my life, 12 other lives, plus the families. So, how do you forgive something like
00:36:24
that, somebody like that? You don't. When you think about the irony, I mean, here's a kid who lost his mom at 14 and
00:36:32
you think about the depth of the pain that you felt and then years later because of you.
00:36:39
>> Yeah, sure. Right. >> Six people have that same kind of pain. >> Oh, right. >> Seven others injured for life.
00:36:45
>> Mhm. >> How's that strike you? It >> It's very painful. It's very painful. I carry around a pain, too. not not not
00:36:54
the same kind, but one that I'm aware of what happened, you know. Yeah. I I draw
00:37:01
comfort uh if you can call it that from from reading about in in the scriptures about some of the uh
00:37:10
well-known Bible characters that uh did very bad things and how God forgave them
00:37:17
and God was able to use them in in very special ways, very unique ways and they became what what we'd call champions of
00:37:24
the faith. The Lord did a lot of work in my life. You know, that's why I try so hard in my
00:37:35
messages to give a cautionary tale to young people about not getting involved in in Satanism or the occult or, you
00:37:43
know, those kind of things because I feel that they they too could maybe take a bad path.
00:37:48
>> Does it give you satisfaction to reach young people? >> Yeah, sure. I I get letters all the
00:37:53
time. I have a a a calling to just write to encourage people from all walks of life. It's something I do on my own on
00:38:00
my spare time and uh I get a lot of satisfaction from it. But most of all, I believe that that's what God has called
00:38:06
me to do. Burkowitz is a born again Christian. He's a minister in prison. He takes a lot of pride in helping
00:38:18
people. That's his thing. What do you think of that? I think that's a lot better road to go down than serial
00:38:24
killer. >> You're in jail. What what else you got to look forward to? You might as well
00:38:27
Yeah, I found God. Why not? But um I really think he did. You know that that doesn't mean he's exonerated. If he's
00:38:35
trying to do better with other prisoners, so be it. That's God's way of probably
00:38:45
making him understand how wrong and bad of a person he was. And now God's giving him a second chance
00:38:56
to do right by other people. But it still doesn't change the fact of how I feel.
00:39:03
>> I I'll never forget. >> Why not? >> Why not? because he snuffed out six people's lives, ruined another seven,
00:39:11
plus all the families involved for people that didn't do anything to him, you know, didn't bump into him, didn't
00:39:20
say nothing to him. So, I I just can't forgive him. [Music] >> Yeah. >> But when you look at the front picture
00:39:29
right there, >> there's a two U's, >> right? >> Two pictures of you. >> That's right.
00:39:34
>> Mhm. Well, what do you see? >> I see I see the old man and I see the new man in Christ. Yeah. I see the one
00:39:42
man that was tormented by demons and I see the man that that has the peace of God radiating from him. Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:52
That's that's where I'm at now. That's that that's the way I was always supposed to be. A mayor of hope, you
00:40:01
know. Yeah. [Music] What is a life worth? I don't know. Mr. and Mrs. Lauria might feel totally
00:40:20
different. You know, they lost their daughter 40 years ago. >> Does parole is that attractive to you at
00:40:26
this point? >> As a realistic hope, I don't see any hope for parole, though. >> Yeah. Personally, I feel there has to be
00:40:34
justice for the death of those people. And that's the justice life in prison. [Music]
00:40:47
>> I can only describe it as evil, something horrible. >> From 48 hours, this is trained to kill,
00:40:53
the dog trainer, the ays, and the bodyguard. >> He couldn't control his obsession. Who
00:40:59
was the hunter and who was the hunted? Follow and listen on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast.
00:41:07
[Music]