All About ‘Son of Sam’ David Berkowitz’s Victims

In the nearly five decades since David Berkowitz, the self-proclaimed “Son of Sam,” became one of America’s most notorious killers, he has continued to make sensational headlines—all while the stories of the innocent victims are overshadowed by the mythology surrounding him.

Beginning in July 1976, Berkowitz began what would become a terrifying 13-month shooting spree across New York City. Armed with a .44-caliber revolver, Berkowitz randomly targeted young women and couples sitting in parked cars, and changed the history of New York City forever.

While holding the city in a grip of fear, Berkowitz taunted the investigators with cryptic handwritten letters—some left behind at the scene of his murders, others mailed to the NYPD or sent directly to reporters covering the case. He called himself the “Son of Sam,” a nickname with ties to his obsession with the occult and his belief that his actions were controlled by a demonic deity.

Berkowitz’s final deadly act of violence came in August 1977 when he shot Stacy Moskowitz and her date, Robert Violante. But it was an offense completely unrelated to his killing spree that led to his arrest. The night of the murder, local police had issued Berkowitz a parking ticket near the scene of the crime and contacted him believing he may have been a witness. Local authorities already had their suspicions about him. He was ambushed and arrested outside his Yonkers apartment building.

By the time he was captured, Berkowitz had killed six people and wounded even more. He subsequently pleaded guilty to six murders and received six consecutive prison sentences of 25 years to life, which he is currently serving at Shawangunk Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison. By New York state law, he has been eligible for parole on numerous occasions but has been denied every time. 

As Berkowitz continues to make headlines, his victims and their families have been left to live with the consequences of his actions, long after the media stopped mentioning their names. Survivors like Violante have continued to share their experiences in the hope that the world will remember the people whose lives Berkowitz forever changed.

“Unfortunately, the victims do get forgotten and the criminals just keep getting sensationalized,” Violante said in the 2025 docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes. “I just want the victims to know that I’m here to speak out so we aren’t forgotten."

Date of attack: April 9, 1976

While Wendy Savino was brutally attacked by Berkowitz in 1976, it wasn’t until 2024 that she was officially recognized by the NYPD as one of his victims and the first to be targeted during his year-long reign of terror. Savino was shot five times by an attacker whom the NYPD later identified as Berkowitz while sitting in her car outside of a restaurant in the Bronx. 

Savino had just had dinner with her husband, who had arrived separately, and was getting ready to drive home by herself. Looking back on that night, she told the New York Post that she noticed Berkowitz walking by her car and believed he was going to approach her to ask for directions. Moments later, her chest “exploded” and she realized she had been shot. She was hit several more times during which bullets traveled through her arm, shoulder, neck, spine and right eye—all while Berkowitz laughed. 

She pretended to be dead until Berkowitz left and then crawled across the parking lot back to the restaurant’s dining room. Savino was rushed to the hospital but ultimately lost her eye in the attack. For her safety, she moved to England to live with family while her children relocated to Florida. Savino says she lived in fear for many years. 

“I was absolutely terrified. I wouldn’t go out in the dark,” Savino admitted. “I wouldn’t answer the phone. I wouldn’t answer the front door. When I went shopping, if I got afraid, I’d leave my shopping basket in the parking lot after paying for it. I’d go through a red light if I hit one. I was terrified.”

When Berkowitz was caught, Savino immediately recognized him, but she claims no one believed her. She carried the police sketch she had helped craft while in the hospital in 1976 for years until she was finally recognized as a victim in 2024. 

Date of attack: July 29, 1976

Donna Lauria and Jody Valenti had just spent the night dancing at a disco in New Rochelle, N.Y., when they were randomly targeted and gunned down by Berkowitz. Close friends who lived just blocks from one another, the duo had bonded over their shared interest in the medical field. At the time, Valenti was in nursing school while Lauria was studying to be an EMT.

Following their night out, Lauria, 18, and Valenti, 19, arrived back at the apartment building where Lauria lived with her family in the early hours of the morning. Still sitting in Valenti’s Oldsmobile Cutlass, they encountered Lauria’s parents, who were also just returning from an evening out on the town. They urged Lauria to come inside, but she stayed in the car to continue chatting with Valenti.

Just minutes after Lauria’s parents stepped inside their apartment, the two teenagers noticed a man in a striped shirt approaching their vehicle. He didn’t say a word, and before they could determine who he was, gunfire erupted. Lauria was shot in the back and killed instantly. Meanwhile, Valenti was shot in the left thigh and survived her injuries. 

Valenti, who maintained an extremely private life following the tragedy, has said that she struggled in the aftermath of the shooting and refused to travel by car at night for many years.

“It took probably about six years of my life to be able to get in a car at night,” she told the New York Post. “It took a long time to be able to deal with the sounds of popping fireworks and stuff like that. But I faced my fears. Just recently I took a gun class. I went and learned how to shoot a gun...I did it to face my fear of a gun, my fear of holding a gun.”

While she has not frequently spoken out about Berkowitz in public, she noted that she is appalled that he is still in the media over 40 years later.

“What are we celebrating? The lunatic that’s in prison for life who’s getting benefits. He’s getting three square meals. He’s getting an education. He’s getting everything he needs, and I find it very disturbing,” she told the outlet. 

Meanwhile, Lauria’s parents have continued to grieve for their lost daughter decades later. 

“Forty years. It feels like it happened yesterday,” Lauria’s mother, Rose, told PIX11 in 2016. “I have a Mass said for my daughter every anniversary since the day she was killed, every birthday since the day she was killed…I’m a changed person. There’s not a day that goes by she’s not on my mind.”

Date of attack: October 23, 1976

Carl Denaro, 20, and Rosemary Keenan, 18, had just met at a bar in Flushing, Queens, when they were attacked by Berkowitz. The pair, who had taken a short drive to a nearby park, were kissing in Denaro’s Volkswagen Beetle when the windows suddenly shattered. He immediately started the car and drove off, unaware that he had been shot.

When the pair arrived back at the bar, Denaro realized his head was bleeding. He had been shot five times, shattering a portion of his skull. After being rushed to the hospital, doctors had to use a metal plate to replace part of his skull. His injuries forced him to take a step back from his military career, but he was mostly able to return to his everyday life. 

“I have some limited vision but no other negative effects from being shot that night,” Denaro told People in 2017. “I’m one of the luckiest guys in the world. I didn’t realize how lucky I was until my 30s. When you’re 20, you’re invincible. It took 10 years before I understood the severity of what had happened.”

Denaro went on to work for Merrill Lynch and in telecommunications financing before retiring. At one point in his life, he reached out to Berkowitz, writing him letters in prison. The two men even arranged to meet, but Berkowitz backed out at the last minute. Denaro says he has no plans to try to meet up again. 

“I don’t have a need to talk to him, and I don’t see any upside to meeting with him,” he explained to People. “An apology from him would be a hollow apology, anyway.”

Meanwhile, Keenan, who only suffered minor cuts from the shattered window, has largely remained out of the public eye and has not spoken out about the attack. 

Date of attack: November 27, 1976

Joanne Lomino, 18, and her close friend Donna DeMasi, 16, had just returned from a late night movie in Queens and were sitting on the front porch of Lomino’s family home when they were approached by Berkowitz. As he began asking for directions, he suddenly pulled out a gun and fired five shots. Lomino was hit in the back, and DeMasi was shot in the neck.

Both women were rushed to a local hospital. DeMasi’s injuries were not life-threatening, but Lomino was left paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Although Lomino remained private following the attack, she did speak out when Berkowitz was caught.   

“After all the things he did to me, to all of us, he should be punished—he should be punished in a way that he would suffer a lot and then he should die,” Lomino told The New York Times in 1977. “I’m very bitter toward him. Jail is too good for him.”

Years later, her brother Charles reflected on Lomino’s life in an interview for Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes. He admitted that she was “very depressed” at times as she couldn’t do “any of the things she loved to do,” like dance. She had lasting health issues as a result of her injuries, and as she got older, the severity of those issues increased, ultimately leading to her death. 

DeMasi also maintained a private life following the shooting and has not spoken out about the attack.

Date of attack: January 30, 1977

Christine Freund, a 26-year-old secretary, and her boyfriend of seven years, John Diel, a 30-year-old bartender, had just finished dinner and a movie when they were approached by Berkowitz. Sitting in Diel’s car, which had been parked near a Long Island Rail Road station, the couple were about to head to a dance hall to continue their evening. Just as they were sharing a kiss, Berkowitz suddenly fired three shots into the passenger side window. 

“We were in the car, at most, two minutes, and we were just ready to take off when all of a sudden I heard a crash,” Diel told the New York Daily News. “The window came in. It didn’t sound like a firecracker; it was a bang. Chris slumped over onto my shoulder.”

Freund was struck in the head above her ear and in her right shoulder, but Diel only suffered minor injuries. He ran out of the car to get help, and Freund was taken to the hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries just hours later. 

Prior to Berkowitz’s capture, Diel told People that he often returned to the scene of the crime in the hopes of catching the man who killed “the first girl [he] really loved.”

“I don’t think this guy deserves to live. I keep hoping he’ll see my car again and stop to look at it,” he shared. “I say to myself all the time, ‘Why did you go out there? Why didn’t you go someplace else?’ But it’s too late. I go to the cemetery twice, three times a week, and I try to bring Chris red roses every week. I stand by the grave, and I say to myself, ‘Could this be possible?’ Then I walk away, and I know that it’s over.” 

Diel joined Freund’s family in keeping her memory alive for years to come, even protesting outside of the psychiatric facility where Berkowitz was being held in September 1977, campaigning that he be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Following Berkowitz’s sentencing, Diel has mostly lived a private life. 

Date of attack: March 8, 1977

Virginia Voskerichian, 20, was on her way from a day of classes at Barnard College when she became another one of Berkowitz’s victims. Around 7:30 p.m., Voskerichian got off the train at Queens Boulevard, just steps from where Freund had been murdered, and started walking toward her family’s home. 

“I was prowling that neighborhood. I was there for about an hour just walking around, and then I saw her and I just did it,” Berkowitz recalled in recordings released as part of Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes.

With no one else around, Berkowitz made his move and jumped in front of Voskerichian. She covered her face with her textbook, but Berkowitz managed to shoot right through the books, killing her instantly with a shot to her head. She was just blocks away from her home. 

Voskerichian’s body was identified by her older brother, Deek, who later remembered her as pretty and popular, as well as a hard worker and a serious student. She spoke five languages, including Bulgarian, as the family had immigrated to the United States just a decade prior. 

“She loved music and reading, art and fashion,” Deek told the Queens Chronicle in 2012. “She was easy to get along with and had a great personality.”

Voskerichian is still remembered by friends and family, who say it took “a long time to return to normal” following her death. Deek still drives by the scene of the crime every day on the way to work and Voskerichian’s mother visits her gravesite often. For Deek, he still wishes Berkowitz had received a harsher punishment.  

“I don’t want to forget about it,” he told the outlet. “I blame it on a sick person who should not be alive spending my tax dollars. That really pisses me off. He shouldn’t be around.”

Date of attack: April 17, 1977

In the early hours of the morning, Valentina Suriani, 18, and her boyfriend Alexander Esau, 20, were sitting in a parked car only a block away from her family’s apartment in the Bronx. They had just returned from a late night movie showing, and Suriani was due home soon. But just after 3 a.m., Berkowitz leapt in front of the driver’s side of the vehicle and shot at the couple three times. Suriani was killed instantly, and Esau later died at a local hospital. 

In the wake of the death of Suriani, who was studying acting at Lehman College, those close to her told the New York Daily News that she was a “friendly, vivacious” and a ”good person.” She had been dating Esau for three years and had plans to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Meanwhile, Esau, who had studied architecture at Brooklyn Technical High School, worked as a tow truck operator.

“When Val and Alex met, they were destined to be together,” Suriani’s friend, Gloria Zonghetti, shared in Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes. 

Date of attack: June 26, 1977 Judy Placido, 17, met Salvatore Lupo, 20, while they were both at Eléphas nightclub in the Bayside neighborhood of Queens. Placido was celebrating her high school graduation. In the early hours of the morning, they stepped outside to get some air after dancing together. The pair ended up smoking inside a car belonging to the club’s bouncer, and the conversation soon shifted to the then-unknown killer causing havoc in the city.

“We were mentioning about the fact, you know, the Son of Sam being around. So anyway, just as I put my arm around her, I see a face pass by the passenger side window. There was a first shot, went through the window, hit my wrist, hit her. I slid down, and then two more followed after that,” Lupo recalled in an interview obtained for Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes.

Lupo, who was shot in the right forearm, quickly left to get help. Meanwhile, Placido had been shot in the right temple, shoulder and back of the neck. She miraculously survived her injuries, although to this day, bullet fragments remain in her neck. Placido also dealt with fear and anxiety for years, including a life-changing panic attack over two decades after the attack.

Placido was in her Manhattan office where she worked as a legal assistant when she began “reliving that night over and over and over.” The emotional breakdown landed her in the hospital for two weeks, and she was unable to work or care for her family for months afterwards. During her recovery, and the release of Spike Lee’s film Summer of Sam, Placido chose to speak out for the first time, sharing that she begged Lee not to release the movie. 

“I want the people responsible for taking me down to know what they’ve done. How they disrupted my life this past year. The public needs to know,” she told the New York Post in 1999. “They’ve heard from the victims’ families. Now it’s time to hear from the victims. We are still suffering from the pain of 22 years ago.”

She continued, “I was in denial about this for 22 years. I never worked through it. Emotionally, I stayed the 17-year-old I was then. Now, I’m beginning to accept the fact.”

Through it all, Placido said she still doesn’t hate Berkowitz, admitting that it’s hard to harbor ill will against someone who “was deranged.”

Date of attack: July 31, 1977

Robert Violante and Stacy Moskowitz, both 20, had recently met while attending an event at Beefsteak Charlie’s and were on their first date when they became Berkowitz’s final victims. Violante, an aspiring model, had been warned by his mother about the killer on the loose, but because Berkowitz had never targeted blond women like Moskowitz, he admittedly wasn’t worried. 

On July 31, 1977, the couple headed to Kingsway Theater in Brooklyn, an area where Berkowitz had never prowled, and watched a screening of New York, New York. After the movie, they parked their car around the Bath Beach neighborhood and walked to a nearby park. They spent time on the swings, all while an unknown man circled the park. 

“We saw some guy, young guy with a dungaree jacket on, walking around. But I didn’t pay no mind to him, figured it was just some guy hanging out in the park,” Violante recalled in Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes.

He continued, “Few minutes later, she said to me, ‘Rob, I’m getting a little nervous, why don’t we leave here?’ Everybody knew of the Son of Sam shootings, and it was late at night so I said, ‘OK, no problem.’”

The couple returned to the car and moments later, Berkowitz attacked. He fired four rounds into the passenger side of the car, hitting both Violante and Moskowitz in the head. After being taken to the hospital, Moskowitz succumbed to her injuries. Violante survived but lost his left eye as well as most of his vision in his right eye. 

Through rehabilitation, Violante was able to gain enough vision in his right eye to get a job with the U.S. Postal Service, where he worked for 35 years until his retirement. He remained close with Moskowitz’s family for many years. Violante never married, explaining to the New York Post in 2006 that he struggled with “psychological episodes with dating” because of the attack and for a long time, he was too afraid to put himself out there.  

Violante still speaks out about his experience and campaigns for Berkowitz’s continued imprisonment.