‘I want people to understand what really happened’: did the Son of Sam serial killer act alone? - The Guardian

Netflix’s The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness re-examines the infamous New York serial killer through the eyes of one man’s obsession with the case.

The arrest of David Berkowitz on 10 August 1977 brought to an end the largest manhunt yet in the New York City police department’s (NYPD) history and the city’s notorious “summer of fear”.

“For anybody who grew up in New York City, this is the case,” the series’ director, Joshua Zeman, told the Guardian.

And as far as New York City police were concerned, the case was closed: Berkowitz was the Son of Sam, a man who claimed to receive orders from a 6,000-year-old demon within his neighbor’s dog, an infamous and highly publicized serial killer who further inflamed the Satanic Panic of the early 1970s, and who acted alone.

Over four meticulous hours, Sons of Sam descends into the maze of explanations, conspiracy theories, and mostly circumstantial evidence amassed by “this original armchair detective who tried to change the narrative of one of the greatest crimes in New York City history”, said Zeman.

As he launched his own private investigation, Terry found more tantalizing clues: Berkowitz associated with John and Michael Carr – the two actual sons of Sam Carr, owner of the allegedly possessed dog – the former of which had a nickname, “Wheaties” echoed (“John Wheaties”), in one of the killers’ letters to police.

While police vigorously denied any accomplices, Terry burrowed further down the path of satanic conspiracy, eventually compiling his research and theorizing into a book, The Ultimate Evil, published in 1988.

“I want people to understand what really happened in the Son of Sam case, and I wanted to give Maury Terry his due,” Zeman said, “but I also wanted to say to people, look be careful of going down that rabbit hole.

He makes this kind of deal with the devil, and it ruins his credibility.” Terry went on to publish numerous highly read dispatches on the case’s holes in Gannett newspapers, and in later years, peddled increasingly complex and unhinged satanic conspiracy theories on tabloid programs such as Inside Edition and Geraldo Rivera’s talkshow.