Curious to get an inside look at the infamous Son of Sam case? Serial killer David Berkowitz and the theory that he didn’t act alone are being brought to light once again with a new Netflix documentary series titled The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness. The show explores not only the series of New York City murders between 1976 and 1977, but also journalist Maury Terry’s years-long investigation into what really happened.
Berkowitz was arrested back in 1977 for eight shootings and received multiple life sentences for the crimes. While the New York City Police Department was satisfied with this, others were very suspicious. One of these people was Maury Terry, a journalist who would go on to dedicate the rest of his life to uncovering the truth. Because of inconsistencies in the case such as the facial composites from the shootings suggesting multiple people were involved, along with Berkowitz’s letters to the police and journalist Jimmy Breslin referencing a “father Sam,” there was cause to find more evidence.
And that’s exactly what Terry did. The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness follows his entire investigation, and though the NYPD never believed what he found, he was able to uncover very grim stuff. On multiple occasions, Terry identified others who he believed were involved in the crimes, and they soon ended up dead. And after interviewing Berkowitz twice–once in 1993 for an Inside Edition special and again in 1997 for a series backed by reporter Sarah Wallace–Terry had all the evidence he thought he needed to prove Berkowitz didn’t act alone.
Did David Berkowitz act alone?
Although nothing was ever proven in court to say that Berkowitz didn’t act alone, this documentary series all but confirms it. After his initial digging, Terry discovered that Berkowitz was involved in a satanic cult called “The Children.” This group allegedly had ties to The Process Church of the Final Judgment, an organization that originated in England and opened up a spot in New York. It was speculated that these people were even connected to Charles Manson and the “Manson Family,” something Berkowitz himself acknowledged.
Terry’s hard work did not go unnoticed, but because the police wouldn’t give him the time of day, he decided to recruit friends and people involved in the case to help him figure out what happened. One of these people was Carl Denaro, a victim of Berkowitz’s who was fortunate enough to survive. As a group of unofficial investigators, Terry’s group called themselves the “Pine Street Irregulars,” referencing the street Berkowitz lived on in Yonkers, New York, and a nod to Sherlock Holmes.
How does the Sons of Sam documentary end?
In the end, Terry was unfortunately looked at as a conspiracy theorist by the majority of the public, the media, and of course, the NYPD. He had Berkowitz on camera stating that he did not act alone, admitting that he was at every shooting but did not physically pull the trigger for all of them, but the police did not want to revisit the case. They had someone to blame for the crimes, and didn’t want to look back.
The final episode of The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness shows Terry’s final attempts at getting the NYPD to look at the evidence he’d come up with in the past several years, which were not successful. He started getting sick and sadly passed away due to heart failure in 2015 at the age of 69. Even on his death bed, he was still on the case, and according to the documentary, the Pine Street Irregulars are following Terry’s work to this day.
In the end, the documentary series really highlights how obsessed Terry was with the case and his dedication to exposing the truth. This obsession ultimately ended up hurting him, however, as he was no longer seen as credible, and even his friends admitted that he started sounding unreasonable. He was trying to make connections that might not have been really there, and though he had the evidence that Berkowitz did not work alone, he was just not universally believed.
David Berkowitz is still alive today at 67 years old, imprisoned at Shawangunk Correctional Facility in New York.