THE ULTIMATE EVIL
An Investigation into a
Dangerous Satanic Cult
XVII
An Investigation into a
Dangerous Satanic Cult
XVII
"Sam" Speaks
In mid-November, with Justice Ernst Rosenberger presiding,
Jim Mitteager's trial opened at State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. The jury would be asked to determine his guilt on two
charges: bribery and rewarding official misconduct. Conviction
could result in a seven-year prison term for the despairing
reporter, whose bylines continued to appear on the numerous
.44 articles being published in Westchester.
On November 14, as the legal proceedings unfolded, Berkowitz wrote a letter to AP reporter Rick Pienciak. Pienciak had
thus far been frustrated by the reopened case, finding himself
mainly restricted to sending out dispatches based on our work
or on what little he could glean from Santucci's office.
Since his original statement, in which he credited the newspaper reports for having spurred his entry into the case, Santucci had been publicly silent. This irritated some journalists,
who were reliant on the DA's office because they had nowhere
else to turn for material. Pienciak also wanted something to
publish, and when he received Berkowitz's letter, his sky
brightened. In it, Berkowitz confirmed the cult's existence and
said: "Two years have elapsed and only recently have they
(whoever they are) begun to find hidden meanings in those
original letters. I have to give these people credit."
Berkowitz told Pienciak about the Arlis Perry murder and
emphasized that neither he nor John Carr was responsible,
which deepened the mystery. We knew Berkowitz wasn't even
in the cult at that time, but Carr had been an early suspect.
Berkowitz, in fact, told Pienciak the Perry case was "very
deep" and suggested that Lee Chase could help him out with it
and the .44 probe.
He also said that although he was indirectly aiding the Son
of Sam investigation, he wouldn't give up names of accomplices to Pienciak or anyone else. "It isn't for my sake, but for my families [sic]. My father comes first. Then again, he has
been encouraging me to talk. However, he has no idea of the
dangers involved—the dangers to him."
Next, Berkowitz wrote Chase and recommended that she
cooperate with Pienciak. Digressing from the business at hand, Berkowitz offered another observation: "Many housewives
need new vibrators. These little buzzing contraptions would
certainly keep them occupied with other things than parading
outside Kings County Hospital and demanding the execution
of SOS. This happened, by the way. A hundred or so marchers
(99% housewives) all screaming for my head and being led by
that dreadful Mrs. Moskowitz. Boy, speaking of self-righteous
sexual frustration. I know that [court-appointed psychiatrist]
Abrahamsen and Sigmund Freud would have had a ball
analyzing them all."
Two days later, on the twenty-first, Berkowitz's cynical humor gave way to panic. "Well, now you did it!" he wrote
Chase. "Oh, man, you will never guess who dropped in for a
surprise visit today. Hint: they came from the west coast. Hint:
they got a funny letter from Louisiana. Hint: they are from
California. Well, who could they be? UFOs? No. Damn it. You
know who. That's right. I kid you not.
"If you can recall, I asked you to send nothing. Nothing!
But you mailed your little Sacramento "Bee" clipping about
Arlis anyhow. Naturally, along with that letter to Badlands North Dakota, they assumed the letter was from me. Damn, I got blamed for it. This is the honest to God truth. And now
my ribbon is acting up again—my typewriter ribbon. [The
words began to fade on the paper. Berkowitz was in a quandary.]
"The Santa Clara boys screamed they wasted the taxpayer's
money. I guess they are on their budget thing out west, too. Like in New York they've taken away the cop cars and given
them bicycles. Saving on gas! Oh, great. Now these guys are so
pissed that they will never bother to pay attention again. I just
knew something like this was going to happen. I just knew it!
All these inquiries about Miss P., all these little tips, the
strange phone call [an anonymous call from Chase to Gardner], crazy letters, curious Mr. Gilroy. Of course, it was only a
matter of time before their curiosity was aroused. What did
you expect? They don't fool around with murder. This is serious business and someone could get hurt.
"Look, I'm not mad. But I would like to pinch your butt. Oh, but it would be a nice pinch. You'll like it. Anyhow, now
what do I do? Of course, I refused to talk with them."
Berkowitz was mistaken. The Santa Clara sheriff's detectives, Ken Kahn and Tom Beck, hadn't shown up at Attica— yet. But they did phone there and ask to speak to Berkowitz. When the message was delivered to him, he thought they were
in the visitors' center and refused to come out. The crisis was
momentarily averted.
On the night before Thanksgiving, the Brooklyn jury acquitted Jim Mitteager of all charges. Bursting with jubilation, he
called me from a phone in the hallway outside the courtroom. "This is the best Thanksgiving I'm ever going to have!" he
exclaimed.
"Thank God for you that it's over," I said. "I was in touch
with Marian Roach at the Times today. She said Joe Fried was
out there covering it for them and was phoning in reports. I
know she wishes you well, too. She was nervous about it all
day. Remember, she was there the first time we spoke to
Cacilia Davis in Brooklyn."
"Yeah," Jim said. "And Joe is here. He's writing the story
for tomorrow's Times."
"Go home and take Carol out for a few drinks," I suggested. "You've both been through hell."
"I'm on my way," Jim shouted. "Happy Thanksgiving! I
feel like I've been born again."
In the next day's New York Times, reporter Joe Fried wrote
an account of the acquittal in the Part-Mitteager-bribery trial. In compiling the article, he solicited comments from members
of the jury. One, speaking for the panel, told him in a statement the Times published: "The wrong defendant was on trial. The feeling was that the Post should have been on trial."
Berkowitz, who felt ambivalent toward Mitteager, had no
reaction to the exoneration. He had bigger troubles to deal
with.
In late November, Rick Pienciak flew out West to meet with
Lee Chase and returned by way of Minot, where he spoke to
Gardner. While with Chase, Pienciak obtained copies of some
of Berkowitz's letters. Through Chase, word got back to Berkowitz that Pienciak was pursuing a theory that Berkowitz and others in the group were homosexuals. Berkowitz had seen
the "latent homosexuality" reference in our article about the cult, but he hadn't reacted badly because the comment wasn't
specific. However, he believed Pienciak was about to be very
specific.
"I only want to assure you that in this matter he [Pienciak]
is incorrect," Berkowitz wrote to Chase. "However, I have
met some of these 'strange' persons in the various circles [the
cult] that I circulated. But I never 'did it' with them. No way!
This isn't for me. Matter of fact, plenty of straight women
were present, too. [This was a major revelation.] Probably
more women than men. Muff—nuff said?
"Now of course, you must correct Uncle Rick in this matter. If you don't, then I'm dead. The reason, I'm in prison, he
isn't. Neither you nor he have no knowledge whatsoever of
how the prison gossip system works. It doesn't matter if a
certain rumor isn't true—here there is no justice. Should the
inmates believe this (they will believe it because they want to)
then I will be dead within a week. .. . In prison a man survives by his masculinity. So please straighten him out once and
for all—him and Maury Terry."
Berkowitz then talked about his inability to turn state's evidence. "I can't do it. I can but I don't want to. I'm in a
predicament here where I cannot talk with the press or police. Let a rumor begin that I am a stool pigeon and I'm just as
dead as if I was one of those 'strange ones.' Comprende? I sure
hope you do because I'm in a dangerous situation. Nobody
here hates a 'strange one,' stool pigeon or sex freak more than
anything imaginable. I think I just said this wrong. What I
mean to say is that those three I just mentioned are hated so
very much that they are in constant danger.
"Again, I'm not any of these. But I can't let others think I
am."
Berkowitz then switched subjects. "Please read the attached
letters and give me an opinion. These letters from Gardner and
Terry are questionable—what should I do? I will await your
advice. Also, please don't return the letters. . . . Terry is the
guy who wrote those stories which you have in your possession
now." The articles, sent to Berkowitz by Denise, were read by
him and then forwarded to Chase.
I finally had established contact with Berkowitz. Gardner, who was now on his mailing list, sent me his own letter to
Berkowitz, and I enclosed mine in the envelope. It got
through. In it, I simply told Berkowitz that I'd been at Marcy, composed the conspiracy questions he was asked that day and
396 Web of Conspiracy
was working the case since the day of his arrest. Chase later
wrote him to encourage his correspondence with me. And he
needed it: his anger at Rick Pienciak was suddenly boiling
over.
"Shit!" he wrote Chase on November 26. "You see now how
I am trying to indirectly help others learn the truth about all of
this. Yet, I am now a victim again. This time a victim of stupid
investigators who know nothing of the occult or whatever they
decided to call these weirdos. Here I am trying to help others
and Satan has pulled out his weapon—his secret weapon— should I decide to help Rick or others like him. And now this
crazy Rick is going with his 'strange desires' theory. Should I
talk with anyone (Rick, Terry, Mitteager, Gardner, Santucci)
about this Occult involvement, then out comes this 'strange'
theory—which wouldn't sound like a 'theory' in print. Then, after this nonsense circulates, I'd be dead in no time. If not
dead, then I'd be a man most miserable. I'll be joked at and
laughed at by all the other inmates.
"What god-damn mother fuckin fools these 'investigators'
are! What stupid fucks! Meaning well, they will destroy the
very one that is helping them in the first place. It is I who is
leaving many of the clues. . . . They want clues, yet, they are
killing me at the same time. What idiots!"
Berkowitz then said he was thinking of writing to the media
to say: "These investigators are foolish and crazy. The investigation will eventually stop because of the lack of further materials and that will be that. No more investigation—no more
stupid rumors or stupid fools to spread them. Like the usual, Satan will again be the victor."
To suggest Berkowitz was somewhat distressed with
Pienciak would be akin to labeling World War II a water pistol
fight. And he wasn't finished. The next day, November 27, he
was assailing the AP reporter again:
"The blind fool is working on this 'strange desires' theory
without the slightest bit of evidence. All guess work. The blind
fool is trying logically to figure out why all this [the conspiracy] came about. The pervert! It's his mind that's dirty.
"Lee, I know just what's going to happen. It's the same old
story with the N.Y. Post and Daily News. These two have
screwed up every story they ever got on my case. They are the
most sensational and ugly (also inaccurate) newspapers in the
world. I know just what they will do. I can see the sensational
headlines. . . . Even though it isn't true it would certainly made a good and spicy story—which is all the eight million
perverts in New York City want to hear. None of these tabloids are the least bit concerned with accuracy. . . . Disgusting bastards.
"I had sensed something was wrong when my father wrote
me this huge letter and pleaded with me to ice up. It was so
weird because the week before he had asked me to cooperate
so that I could perhaps get a reduction in sentence. This, of
course, wasn't my purpose. I was going to leave this investigation up to others. To get what my father wanted, I would have
to go over to the finest detail every single event, every single
detail about the victims, the crimes, my part, etc. No way! I'm
not going back down to New York shackled in chains and
paraded from courthouse to courthouse and county to county. I'm not going to be paraded around in front of dozens of re- porters and the victims' families.
"Yes, I see what weapon Satan has in store for me should
this thing really get moving. I can see what horrors await me
as I try to explain to my friends here about this 'Homo' head- line. I'm not going to be giggled at and cat-called at as if I were
a girl. This is what will happen. Yet, it would all be over some
stupid [homosexual] theory."
Berkowitz did confirm that some of the group members were homosexuals. His gripe was that he would be lumped in with them. The confirmation was a valuable one, giving us more to work with on Howard Weiss, Michael Carr and others. Now, too, women emerged as suspects.
On December 4, Rick Pienciak and I met in Yonkers, where we discussed the case at length. He had agreed to join forces and cooperate—but the next day he would tell Chase not to deal with anyone but him.
During our meeting, Pienciak offered a reason for his willingness to work with me.
"You've been in this from the beginning. Everyone says you must have had hot information to get in so early and stay there. Nobody but us has a chance at this. If the Times can't get the story all by themselves, they'll stay out of it. The News is embarrassed because they gave a reward to the Carrs and because Breslin wrote that ridiculous fiction about the case. And the Post is covering it, but they have no information and don't know which way to turn. That leaves you and me," he said.
Berkowitz did confirm that some of the group members were homosexuals. His gripe was that he would be lumped in with them. The confirmation was a valuable one, giving us more to work with on Howard Weiss, Michael Carr and others. Now, too, women emerged as suspects.
On December 4, Rick Pienciak and I met in Yonkers, where we discussed the case at length. He had agreed to join forces and cooperate—but the next day he would tell Chase not to deal with anyone but him.
During our meeting, Pienciak offered a reason for his willingness to work with me.
"You've been in this from the beginning. Everyone says you must have had hot information to get in so early and stay there. Nobody but us has a chance at this. If the Times can't get the story all by themselves, they'll stay out of it. The News is embarrassed because they gave a reward to the Carrs and because Breslin wrote that ridiculous fiction about the case. And the Post is covering it, but they have no information and don't know which way to turn. That leaves you and me," he said.
No, it didn't. It left me. Unknown to both of us that night, the Berkowitz-Chase alliance was about to sever Pienciak from
the investigation.
The next morning, Pienciak told Chase not to provide any information to Gardner, me or Santucci. Chase promptly mailed a note to Gardner in Minot, who was considering a trip to her home.
"Right after I talked to you about coming out here this weekend," she wrote, "I called Rick Pienciak with A.P. and he was very critical of me—almost called me a fool and made it clear that I was at least a 'traitor' to David. He had me bitterly crying when I slammed the phone down on the hook and called the phone company for a disconnect immediately."
Chase reported this incident to Berkowitz, and then wrote to Pienciak telling him her phone and postal box numbers were changed and she was out of the case. She wasn't, of course. But in the short span of three weeks, Pienciak had managed to completely alienate both her and Berkowitz.
Berkowitz wrote Chase the next week saying he'd heard from Pienciak again and the "letter indicates he is a phony." Pienciak was not happy with this turn of events. He became bitter toward Berkowitz and Chase and began to downplay the thrust of the entire investigation. However, he would be heard from again. In 1982, he would be involved in an article which nearly had a disastrous effect on the probe.
Pienciak's participation soured Berkowitz to a considerable degree, and Berkowitz was even more angered by the fact that he himself had originally judged the reporter to be trustworthy. But there was yet another dark cloud on the horizon, as the Queens district attorney's office ventured into a different piece of uncharted, risky ground.
Berkowitz's stepsister, Ann,* the daughter of his adoptive father's second wife, had experienced some personal difficulties of her own in life. The DA's investigators heard about Ann from several of Berkowitz's friends who told them, among other things, that Berkowitz at one time had a close association with her. For that and other considerations Herb Leifer and company decided to find Ann, who was said to be living in a California commune.
The investigators had legitimate reasons, at the time, to be interested in Ann. But apparently no one in Queens considered just how such an inquiry would be received by Nat Berkowitz and his wife, Julia, Ann's mother. The elder Berkowitz had been urging David to cooperate with Santucci, but after he heard that Julia's daughter was being sought for questioning, he changed his mind. Or Julia did.
Nat then wrote to David and asked him to cool his heels. His father's pressure on him was strong. Along with the Pienciak fiasco, Berkowitz's desire to help the investigation was suddenly being severely tested. There was, it would turn out, no evidence linking Ann to the case, but again, damage had been done.
Regarding his father's change of heart, Berkowitz wrote: "My father is dying to see this stuff [the Gannett articles]. . . . He is curious to see what this is all about. First he says, 'Cooperate, cooperate, cooperate.' Now he is saying, 'Silence, silence, silence.' I'm just confused by everything. You ought to see the letter he sent me. Eight full pages—using every inch of paper to write on. There's hardly any white visible—only blue ink. So I've got to give him some answers soon."
Berkowitz was just a few days away from learning that Ann was being sought for questioning. The letter he referred to here didn't mention Ann as a prime reason for his father's about face. But before that could happen, the roof collapsed from another weight.
Since I first became aware of the intrigue of Attica, I had but two goals in mind. First, to establish my own communication with Berkowitz. And second, to do whatever I could to ensure that the precarious situation wasn't sabotaged—intentionally or innocently—by other parties. Along those lines, I recommended that Queens not approach Berkowitz's friend Denise, who I knew was high-strung and likely to panic. And, knowing how close Berkowitz was to Lee Chase, I also convinced the DA's office to let her be. I didn't know Pienciak had visited her until he returned—not that he would have listened to my suggestion anyway. Queens knew of the potential relevance of Berkowitz's stepsister, Ann, before I did; so there was nothing I could have done to avert that situation. But had I known, I would have recommended that Ann be left out of the picture, temporarily at least.
I myself had made a mistake in November when I encouraged Gardner to publicize the packet of clues he received from Berkowitz. Fortunately, Berkowitz was more annoyed with the Post's treatment of the story than he was that it became public. But I wasn't going to recommend any further publicity about 400 Web of Conspiracy the Attica situation for quite some time. We had enough material to publish as it was. It was far better to allow Berkowitz to play his cards unencumbered. If push eventually came to shove, fine. But as I saw the situation, that day was a long way off, before the Ann and Pienciak incidents occurred.
And then there was the matter of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department. Both Gardner and I advised those detectives to let us negotiate the Arlis Perry matter through with Berkowitz, as he knew who we were and had expressly stated he was against Lee Chase's sending any material to California. "Arlis has been dead five years," Gardner said. "It hasn't been solved in all that time. Another few months won't hurt."
But nobody listened. First, after delaying a few weeks, the California detectives phoned Attica—and Berkowitz refused to speak with them. Even at that, they didn't decide that perhaps Gardner and I knew what we were talking about. Santucci's investigators also joined with us and strongly opposed any Santa Clara contact with Berkowitz. But it was to be of no avail.
On December 3, the night before I met with Rick Pienciak, I received a call at 9 P.M. It was Detective Sergeant Ken Kahn of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department.
"What are your plans for tomorrow?" he asked.
"Work during the day, and I'm supposed to meet somebody at six tomorrow night. Why? What's up?"
"We're in New York and we'd like to get together with you if we could."
It took a minute for that to sink in. Kahn and his partner, Tom Beck, were calling from a Holiday Inn near Kennedy Airport in Queens.
"Does Santucci know you're in town?"
"No. We just flew down from Buffalo—Attica."
"What? You didn't—"
"I'm afraid we did," Kahn said slowly.
Kahn explained that Berkowitz initially refused to talk with them, but then felt sorry they'd come such a distance and agreed to acknowledge their presence. He told them that he feared for his father's life; that he had to exist in prison and couldn't be considered an informer; and that inmates would kill him if he was seen talking to cops. He also said he knew Lee Chase sent news clips to Santa Clara without his permission.
"He told us he wasn't lying about the Arlis murder, that he knew who did it and why, but wouldn't give up any names," Kahn said. "He told us that some state college in Bismarck would provide a key to the solution." Here, Kahn was mistaken. The police assumed Berkowitz meant Bismarck Junior College, which Arlis attended. Only later, when replaying the tape, did they realize he mentioned another school—Mary College.
"We're convinced he knows about the killing," Kahn added. "You were right. He was very sincere. He said he met the killer —or one of them—at a cult meeting in New York. But that's all he'd give us."
Berkowitz had already written to Chase about where he met one of the killers, so this wasn't news. The information about the college was new, however, although Berkowitz had hinted about a school in his letters. The most important outcome of this meeting was that the Santa Clara detectives saw for themselves that Berkowitz was leveling with those involved in the case. But there was to be a big price to pay for this firsthand assessment of the Son of Sam.
"He's going to write to you and Felix Gilroy and say he's through with all of this," Kahn said.
"I warned you guys, and so did Gardner," I insisted. "Berkowitz told you everything about his fears—the same things we told you."
"Yes," Kahn acknowledged. "He wasn't at all what we thought he'd be like. He was friendly, but elusive. He said goodbye with a firm handshake and said he couldn't help anymore."
I told Kahn that I'd rearrange my schedule and meet him and Beck the next day. I then called Tom McCarthy at home and filled him in on what had happened. McCarthy was dismayed.
I next reached Gardner in Minot and asked him to send a letter to Berkowitz saying that we had nothing to do with the surprise visit and had recommended against it.
The next morning, Queens assistant district attorney Mike Armienti called to tell me Kahn and Beck were at the DA's office at that moment. "I walked out on them," he said. "George Byrd is also furious, and so was the boss [Santucci]."
"I'm sick and tired of people not listening when we tell them we know how Berkowitz is going to react," I said. "And goddamned Berkowitz tells them he blames me and Gilroy for this. We had nothing to do with it—I was trying to keep them the hell away from there."
"They couldn't resist coming to meet the infamous Son of Sam face to face," Armienti fumed. "This is all screwed up now. He'll not only back away on Arlis, he'll back away on everything."
Apparently finding the Queens climate somewhat frosty, Kahn and Beck flew back to California without calling me. And I met Pienciak as scheduled, but didn't tell him what happened. It would be a month before I'd talk to Kahn again. In time, as the waters calmed, Kahn would become an ally in the investigation. He and Beck are good detectives, but that day, undoubtedly at the urgings of their own superiors, they were party to a considerable gaffe. As mentioned earlier, there were enough miscalculations to go around in this case. The Santa Clara Sheriff's Department couldn't claim sole possession of that tarnished crown.
Berkowitz was nearly done. He wrote to tell Chase that he was unable to trust anyone but his father, and would follow Nat Berkowitz's advice and remain silent. He said he also heard that Santucci's office wanted to reach his stepsister, and came down hard on Chase for sending the clippings to Santa Clara.
But Lee Chase, to her credit, didn't give up. She pleaded with Berkowitz to contact me, telling him it was I who had developed the information in the first place and that I had nothing to do with the Pienciak, Ann and Santa Clara situations. And Berkowitz, despite the immense pressures on him, listened to Chase. He would give it one final try. The letter was dated January 12, 1980.
Dear Maury,
Yesterday I mailed you a correspondence form. All you have to do is sign it and send it back. . . .
Well, I guess it would be okay for us to communicate further. I am agreeing to do this, but within reason. Also, I do not wish a visit at this time. I cannot go into details on this.
The next morning, Pienciak told Chase not to provide any information to Gardner, me or Santucci. Chase promptly mailed a note to Gardner in Minot, who was considering a trip to her home.
"Right after I talked to you about coming out here this weekend," she wrote, "I called Rick Pienciak with A.P. and he was very critical of me—almost called me a fool and made it clear that I was at least a 'traitor' to David. He had me bitterly crying when I slammed the phone down on the hook and called the phone company for a disconnect immediately."
Chase reported this incident to Berkowitz, and then wrote to Pienciak telling him her phone and postal box numbers were changed and she was out of the case. She wasn't, of course. But in the short span of three weeks, Pienciak had managed to completely alienate both her and Berkowitz.
Berkowitz wrote Chase the next week saying he'd heard from Pienciak again and the "letter indicates he is a phony." Pienciak was not happy with this turn of events. He became bitter toward Berkowitz and Chase and began to downplay the thrust of the entire investigation. However, he would be heard from again. In 1982, he would be involved in an article which nearly had a disastrous effect on the probe.
Pienciak's participation soured Berkowitz to a considerable degree, and Berkowitz was even more angered by the fact that he himself had originally judged the reporter to be trustworthy. But there was yet another dark cloud on the horizon, as the Queens district attorney's office ventured into a different piece of uncharted, risky ground.
Berkowitz's stepsister, Ann,* the daughter of his adoptive father's second wife, had experienced some personal difficulties of her own in life. The DA's investigators heard about Ann from several of Berkowitz's friends who told them, among other things, that Berkowitz at one time had a close association with her. For that and other considerations Herb Leifer and company decided to find Ann, who was said to be living in a California commune.
The investigators had legitimate reasons, at the time, to be interested in Ann. But apparently no one in Queens considered just how such an inquiry would be received by Nat Berkowitz and his wife, Julia, Ann's mother. The elder Berkowitz had been urging David to cooperate with Santucci, but after he heard that Julia's daughter was being sought for questioning, he changed his mind. Or Julia did.
Nat then wrote to David and asked him to cool his heels. His father's pressure on him was strong. Along with the Pienciak fiasco, Berkowitz's desire to help the investigation was suddenly being severely tested. There was, it would turn out, no evidence linking Ann to the case, but again, damage had been done.
Regarding his father's change of heart, Berkowitz wrote: "My father is dying to see this stuff [the Gannett articles]. . . . He is curious to see what this is all about. First he says, 'Cooperate, cooperate, cooperate.' Now he is saying, 'Silence, silence, silence.' I'm just confused by everything. You ought to see the letter he sent me. Eight full pages—using every inch of paper to write on. There's hardly any white visible—only blue ink. So I've got to give him some answers soon."
Berkowitz was just a few days away from learning that Ann was being sought for questioning. The letter he referred to here didn't mention Ann as a prime reason for his father's about face. But before that could happen, the roof collapsed from another weight.
Since I first became aware of the intrigue of Attica, I had but two goals in mind. First, to establish my own communication with Berkowitz. And second, to do whatever I could to ensure that the precarious situation wasn't sabotaged—intentionally or innocently—by other parties. Along those lines, I recommended that Queens not approach Berkowitz's friend Denise, who I knew was high-strung and likely to panic. And, knowing how close Berkowitz was to Lee Chase, I also convinced the DA's office to let her be. I didn't know Pienciak had visited her until he returned—not that he would have listened to my suggestion anyway. Queens knew of the potential relevance of Berkowitz's stepsister, Ann, before I did; so there was nothing I could have done to avert that situation. But had I known, I would have recommended that Ann be left out of the picture, temporarily at least.
I myself had made a mistake in November when I encouraged Gardner to publicize the packet of clues he received from Berkowitz. Fortunately, Berkowitz was more annoyed with the Post's treatment of the story than he was that it became public. But I wasn't going to recommend any further publicity about 400 Web of Conspiracy the Attica situation for quite some time. We had enough material to publish as it was. It was far better to allow Berkowitz to play his cards unencumbered. If push eventually came to shove, fine. But as I saw the situation, that day was a long way off, before the Ann and Pienciak incidents occurred.
And then there was the matter of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department. Both Gardner and I advised those detectives to let us negotiate the Arlis Perry matter through with Berkowitz, as he knew who we were and had expressly stated he was against Lee Chase's sending any material to California. "Arlis has been dead five years," Gardner said. "It hasn't been solved in all that time. Another few months won't hurt."
But nobody listened. First, after delaying a few weeks, the California detectives phoned Attica—and Berkowitz refused to speak with them. Even at that, they didn't decide that perhaps Gardner and I knew what we were talking about. Santucci's investigators also joined with us and strongly opposed any Santa Clara contact with Berkowitz. But it was to be of no avail.
On December 3, the night before I met with Rick Pienciak, I received a call at 9 P.M. It was Detective Sergeant Ken Kahn of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department.
"What are your plans for tomorrow?" he asked.
"Work during the day, and I'm supposed to meet somebody at six tomorrow night. Why? What's up?"
"We're in New York and we'd like to get together with you if we could."
It took a minute for that to sink in. Kahn and his partner, Tom Beck, were calling from a Holiday Inn near Kennedy Airport in Queens.
"Does Santucci know you're in town?"
"No. We just flew down from Buffalo—Attica."
"What? You didn't—"
"I'm afraid we did," Kahn said slowly.
Kahn explained that Berkowitz initially refused to talk with them, but then felt sorry they'd come such a distance and agreed to acknowledge their presence. He told them that he feared for his father's life; that he had to exist in prison and couldn't be considered an informer; and that inmates would kill him if he was seen talking to cops. He also said he knew Lee Chase sent news clips to Santa Clara without his permission.
"He told us he wasn't lying about the Arlis murder, that he knew who did it and why, but wouldn't give up any names," Kahn said. "He told us that some state college in Bismarck would provide a key to the solution." Here, Kahn was mistaken. The police assumed Berkowitz meant Bismarck Junior College, which Arlis attended. Only later, when replaying the tape, did they realize he mentioned another school—Mary College.
"We're convinced he knows about the killing," Kahn added. "You were right. He was very sincere. He said he met the killer —or one of them—at a cult meeting in New York. But that's all he'd give us."
Berkowitz had already written to Chase about where he met one of the killers, so this wasn't news. The information about the college was new, however, although Berkowitz had hinted about a school in his letters. The most important outcome of this meeting was that the Santa Clara detectives saw for themselves that Berkowitz was leveling with those involved in the case. But there was to be a big price to pay for this firsthand assessment of the Son of Sam.
"He's going to write to you and Felix Gilroy and say he's through with all of this," Kahn said.
"I warned you guys, and so did Gardner," I insisted. "Berkowitz told you everything about his fears—the same things we told you."
"Yes," Kahn acknowledged. "He wasn't at all what we thought he'd be like. He was friendly, but elusive. He said goodbye with a firm handshake and said he couldn't help anymore."
I told Kahn that I'd rearrange my schedule and meet him and Beck the next day. I then called Tom McCarthy at home and filled him in on what had happened. McCarthy was dismayed.
I next reached Gardner in Minot and asked him to send a letter to Berkowitz saying that we had nothing to do with the surprise visit and had recommended against it.
The next morning, Queens assistant district attorney Mike Armienti called to tell me Kahn and Beck were at the DA's office at that moment. "I walked out on them," he said. "George Byrd is also furious, and so was the boss [Santucci]."
"I'm sick and tired of people not listening when we tell them we know how Berkowitz is going to react," I said. "And goddamned Berkowitz tells them he blames me and Gilroy for this. We had nothing to do with it—I was trying to keep them the hell away from there."
"They couldn't resist coming to meet the infamous Son of Sam face to face," Armienti fumed. "This is all screwed up now. He'll not only back away on Arlis, he'll back away on everything."
Apparently finding the Queens climate somewhat frosty, Kahn and Beck flew back to California without calling me. And I met Pienciak as scheduled, but didn't tell him what happened. It would be a month before I'd talk to Kahn again. In time, as the waters calmed, Kahn would become an ally in the investigation. He and Beck are good detectives, but that day, undoubtedly at the urgings of their own superiors, they were party to a considerable gaffe. As mentioned earlier, there were enough miscalculations to go around in this case. The Santa Clara Sheriff's Department couldn't claim sole possession of that tarnished crown.
Berkowitz was nearly done. He wrote to tell Chase that he was unable to trust anyone but his father, and would follow Nat Berkowitz's advice and remain silent. He said he also heard that Santucci's office wanted to reach his stepsister, and came down hard on Chase for sending the clippings to Santa Clara.
But Lee Chase, to her credit, didn't give up. She pleaded with Berkowitz to contact me, telling him it was I who had developed the information in the first place and that I had nothing to do with the Pienciak, Ann and Santa Clara situations. And Berkowitz, despite the immense pressures on him, listened to Chase. He would give it one final try. The letter was dated January 12, 1980.
Dear Maury,
Yesterday I mailed you a correspondence form. All you have to do is sign it and send it back. . . .
Well, I guess it would be okay for us to communicate further. I am agreeing to do this, but within reason. Also, I do not wish a visit at this time. I cannot go into details on this.
Thank you for the article . . . enclosed in the letter. [It was the October 26 story saying Berkowitz
refused to cooperate with Santucci.] It was only recently that I had an opportunity to read the articles you wrote. Because no one from the Westchester area
is watching out for me, I didn't learn of these articles
immediately. But now, I've accumulated several clip- pings, thanks to my friend Denise.
As for my letter to Mr. Gardner which found its way into the newspapers, it wasn't so much that the letter became public. This really didn't bother me. . . . The thing that upset me was the nonsensical way that it was presented. I threw out the N.Y. Post article long ago but I remember those sensational headlines quite well. So this brings me to another important matter.
Maury, I can see by these clippings that you have quoted me often. But why do you keep quoting me? I mean, I'm supposed to be "deranged, crazy insane and a madman." Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Honestly, how do you expect people to believe you when you mention something I was sup- posed to have said.
Look, you cannot build a building without laying the foundation first. So if you are trying to use me as a source of facts and information, then you'll only be wasting everyone's time. Nobody will believe me or you because I have no credibility.
What does the public think when they see my name mentioned somewhere? What does the public (the ones you seem to be trying to convince) see when they view my picture or something. I'll tell you what they think. They think I'm just a crazy madman. What do they see? I'll tell you what they see. They see those odd scrawls on the wall of my apartment. They think and see in their own minds a sick madman who hears voices of destruction and hears barking dogs which tell him to kill.
Maury, the public will never, ever truly believe you no matter how well your evidence is presented. They will never believe you unless you could first convince the public that I was sane all along.
This is really the foundation of your arguments . The first question people want to know is one of insanity. If they think me insane, then what good will your articles be? Obviously, this question must be answered first before you begin any investigation in which you are trying to use my words as a reliable source.
Maury, I will tell you now and quite personally that all the things which people saw—the strange writing on the wall, the topsy-turvy apartment with the letters and books scattered about—the broken wall, etc. This, you see, was all by deliberate design. It was a deliberate act. It was set up this way as a means of feigning insanity.
But this is only part of the story. Yet, I will take the responsibility here and admit that I am in no way insane nor was I ever insane.
The broken wall of my apartment was only knocked in several days before I got arrested. I'm quite certain that any police detective will confirm to you that there were still numerous pieces of plaster chips on my rug below the hole.
As for the scrawls on the walls [bizarre ravings about Sam Carr and Craig Glassman], if I recall correctly they were done in red magic marker. But if you notice, all those markings were very much alike. Why? Because they were only written on the wall [at the same time] several days before my arrest.
The apartment was the same way in general. The books, magazines, pornographic literature, etc. was left scattered topsy-turvy about my floor only days before my arrest.
I never had very much furniture. But within a week before I was arrested I threw out the several good pieces I had. The furniture was loaded into a small van and deposited in front of the Salvation Army warehouse on Columbus Avenue (Route 22) in Mt. Vernon. Early one morning and a few hours be- fore the building opened, the furniture was placed near the front of the building.
All of this may seem unimportant to many and maybe unimportant to you. However, this clearly points to advance planning and, of course, sanity. Let me also add that no one from the public, police or prosecutor's office knows this. Even if the police found out, all they could do is shake their fists at me and laugh at my being clever. But, it wasn't all my idea and I'm certain you know this.
So, unless you could first convince the general public that I am a sane and rational person, then those articles you continue to write would amount to nothing. Everytime you quote me, everytime you say, "Berkowitz said this," "Berkowitz said that . . ." it would mean very little and have no credibility.
My recommendation would be to prove to the general public that I was always sane. How to do this, I don't really know. But surely this would be helpful to you. Furthermore, I would kindly ask you not to inform anybody (except your close associates) that we are corresponding. If you mention anything from the above, say it came from another source and not from me. This would be beneficial to both of us.
It was a remarkable letter, and it was specific. There were numerous statements which could be confirmed from the details Berkowitz provided—and he knew it. But first, I wanted more information. Writing back in a word substitution code to elude the notice of the prison censors who opened his incoming mail, I asked Berkowitz some questions about the van rental and other matters. I also told him that we had accumulated a considerable amount of information we hadn't published. I let him know that I was aware of some of the difficulties he was enduring and that it had all finally narrowed down to him and me. He addressed that subject, too, in his reply:
Dear Maury,
I have your letter of January 19th in front of me now and I also have a receipt from the Correspondence Department, informing me that you are now on my mailing list.
But before we go any further, please let me explain a few things to you. I want to do this so that I don't get you too misled and so you don't get your hopes up.
Since I have been at Attica I have progressed quite well, both emotionally and physically. Things are much different now then [s/c] they were two years ago. Now I have a good job, friends, and I'm kept busy with plenty of projects. I type a great deal of the Web of Conspiracy inmates legal work briefs, appeals, etc. This is a twenty-four hour job. I also write other letters for my fellow prisoners since many of them cannot speak well on paper. Many haven't had the opportunities of a good education like those on the outside. So again, this keeps me busy.
Next, I am kept busy writing to the Governor and others in Albany with demands for the expansion of the Crime Victims Compensation Board and victims of violent crime in general. Perhaps I will let you read a copy of a lengthy letter I am sending to Hugh L. Carey [the governor of New York]. Just let me know if you want it.
For my views of this new investigation, I have mixed feelings. I can also say that I am guilty of these crimes. You see Maury, even if I could show you that I didn't do it all, I'd still be guilty of conspiracy in some of the cases. I'd even be guilty of second degree murder in others. So, regardless, I would still have a long prison term, but this doesn't bother me.
Next, I could safely tell you that one [cult] member, John Carr, is deceased. So this would leave me with only myself to share the guilt or proof of it. [Berkowitz didn't know we'd already zeroed in on Michael Carr and several other suspects. But by it- self, this statement said, for the first time, that John Carr was indeed an active, direct accomplice in the Son of Sam killings.] Besides, many others have vanished—scattered about all over the U.S.A. for all I know. So this leaves both you and me alone, once the dust clears.
Furthermore, I am not a stool pigeon and I cannot, no matter how heinous the crime, testify against another individual. Even if a given individual has wronged me, still, I must keep silent because this is the code—this is our code—the inmates of Attica.
I know this seems like something out of a gangster movie, but this place is my home now and I will live by the rules and by the oath. I've made many friends here (believe it or not) and I have no wish for them to lose faith in me.
Neither do I want to go back to court and go through this circus routine again. This was disgusting and stupid so I just refuse to even consider this.
As for your questions, I can tell you that the rent a van place is located in the Bronx. It is on the corner of [here Berkowitz gave the exact location]. A small van was rented and the price was almost one hundred dollars—fifty as a safety payment and thirty-eight dollars or thereabouts as the initial cost. Once the van was returned, the guy gave back the extra money. But I can't remember the exact prices. The van was rented for one day and then returned that [following] afternoon. Also, the owner, an average sized Italian fellow, but heavy set in the middle, said that we had to fill up the gas tank, too. It cost about six bucks to fill the tank back up. The station also carried large trucks, smaller size vans like the one rented and also, hitching trailers.
I'm sorry, but I don't know who was supposed to pull me through for that dog shelter job which I applied for. I was just supposed to fill out the application and turn it in. By the way, did all of the things I said check out—all the details?
Look, Maury, please don't knock yourself out over all this as it isn't worth it. What's done is done and it cannot be undone. So if you can't seem to go further, then I'll understand. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to matter anyhow.
Attached to the letter was a map which provided step-by step directions to the Bronx gas station. I sent another letter off to Berkowitz and arranged a meeting with the Queens investigators. Just as Berkowitz's "animal shelter" letter was confirmed, so were pertinent details in these.
All the information provided by Berkowitz about the Bronx gas station—the types of vans rented, their prices, the deposit amount required, the tank-refill requirement and the description of the owner—was correct. There wasn't a single mistake or false claim.
As for the apartment itself and the furniture disposal, the following was learned by me and Santucci's probers:
• Berkowitz said all the wall writing was done in red. It was, and color photo enlargements showed the writing to be fresh, or not faded, and all of it appeared—from the style and other factors—to have been written at the same time. Moreover, a fair amount of the writing concerned Berkowitz's downstairs neighbor, Glassman, who hadn't even moved into the building until five months before the arrest. So it obviously wasn't written before then. Supporting that conclusion, and the entire scenario, was the fact that Queens investigators earlier interviewed a friend of Berkowitz's who told them he'd been invited to visit David "two or three weeks before the arrest." The friend had to postpone the visit—but no one believed Berkowitz would have invited him to the apartment if the walls were then in that condition and all the furni- ture was gone.
• Berkowitz said the hole in the apartment wall was made shortly before his arrest. The plaster chips were indeed still on the floor, as he said. And a neighbor, Edna Williams, whose apartment shared that common wall, said she heard the noise and noticed a resulting crack on her side of the wall "within a short time of the arrest, at about 5 A.M."
• Berkowitz said books, letters, etc., were left scattered about in a deliberate attempt to portray him as a lone, insane killer. Among the items were some bizarre notes claiming sole responsibility for the crimes. One note had been altered to backdate it six months. Berkowitz's personal address book also contained irrational listings such as "Sam's Secret Satanic Service," "FALN Secret Meeting Place" and "The Master." Those entries were haphazardly written in the first nine pages of an otherwise neat, correctly alphabetized address book, and were interspersed with previously written, orderly, routine entries. And the bizarre listings— and only those—were written with the same green felt marking pen. "They were all done at the same time," Herb Leifer stated. Additionally, the FALN, the Puerto Rican terrorist group, had not been in the headlines between February and August 1977. However, in the first week of August— at the same time Berkowitz said the setup occurred—the FALN was in the news after a major bombing incident. In other words, the FALN could well have been on the mind of someone writing that entry during the first week of August.
• Berkowitz said that he never had very much good furniture, and what little he had was removed and dumped in front of the Salvation Army building on Columbus Avenue (Route 22) in Mount Vernon in the pre-dawn hours. From Berkowitz's own father, and others, Santucci's probers learned that David indeed had furniture at 35 Pine Street, including a couch, a large bureau, a dinette set, chairs and a large stereo speaker and tape recorder he purchased in Korea. All of these were gone from the apartment when police walked in on August 10, 1977.
• As for the claimed disposal site of the furniture, the Salvation Army warehouse was located in an isolated section of Mount Vernon, and on Columbus Avenue, as Berkowitz said. And that section of Columbus Avenue was also known as Route 22, just as Berkowitz stated. However, telephone directories listed only the Columbus Avenue address; that is, one had to have been there in order to know the details Berkowitz did. Moreover, Salvation Army officials confirmed that furniture was indeed occasionally left in front of the building overnight, as Berkowitz said his was. It didn't happen often—but it did happen.
• What was obvious about the scenario was that the loading and unloading of heavy furniture from a seventh-floor apartment was not a one-man job. Not that Berkowitz said it was: "It wasn't all my idea and I'm certain you know this," he wrote.
Santucci, Leifer, George Byrd, other Queens investigators and I all agreed Berkowitz was telling the truth about the Great Con-the-Cops Apartment Caper. All the details he provided were either confirmed outright or buttressed significantly by the investigation.
Tom McCarthy said: "Someone could try to nitpick individual items here and there on the Son of Sam case. But the total picture, all the evidence put together, is overwhelming. From the crime scenes, to North Dakota, to the confessions, to Untermyer Park and the Son of Sam letters—and now Berkowitz's own admissions, which are backed up all over the place."
"That's almost exactly the way Berkowitz put it four months ago," I said.
The evidence may have been mounting, but the list of suspects was reduced by one in late December, at the same time the Arlis Perry matter was opening up in North Dakota.
The newly deceased was Jerry Berg, a cult-connected friend of John Carr's whose name surfaced early in the Minot investigation of Carr's satanic associates. Berg, Carr, the now deceased Donny Boone, Phil Falcon, a person known as "the Wiz" and a young man named Larry Milenko* comprised the inner circle in Minot.
Jerry Berg, a short, stocky young man with curly blondish hair, was a native of Bismarck who moved to the Minot area in the mid-1970s to take some courses at Minot State College— where Carr, Falcon and some of the others also studied part- time. An accomplished outdoorsman, Berg had been on the wrestling team while at Bismarck Junior College, from which he graduated in 1972. He was three years older than Arlis Perry, who entered BJC in the fall of 1973.
On December 27, 1979, Berg and Milenko were chopping trees in a wooded area outside Minot. According to Milenko, the pair had separated and were about "an eighth mile" apart. Milenko said the sound of Berg's saw stopped and he then walked over to where Berg was working—and found him crushed to death beneath a large tree. Milenko, ever respectful, then put the body in his truck, drove it to a hospital, dropped it off—and left. He immediately hired a lawyer.
"Berg was an experienced woodsman; he'd been in that business," Gardner said. "It just seemed very strange to have something like this happen to him at all—let alone at the same time we're poking around about John Carr and Arlis Perry."
In searching through Berg's possessions, police found further evidence of his satanic interests. In a letter Berg hadn't yet mailed to two friends in North Carolina, he said he was having difficulties with his brother and was thinking of "putting a black magic curse on him." He also talked of looking up his black magic teacher, "Aquarius Hador," who was "now in Minneapolis. I'm sure he's as evil as he's ever been," Berg wrote. Ironically, he closed the letter by cautioning his friends to "be careful in the woods."
Larry Milenko would be heard from again. In late 1987, police would raid his home and arrest him on drug charges. Interestingly, this North Dakota woodsman would then retain the services of a high-priced Miami law firm to represent him in the case. It is also worth noting that the arresting officers in North Dakota observed that Milenko possessed a collection of occult books as well as hoods and capes, according to Minot Detective Mike Knoop.
Police were never able to prove that Berg's death was a murder. But the toll of violently dead now included four who were directly linked to Berkowitz or the Son of Sam case: Jerry Berg, John Carr, Michael Carr and Howard Weiss.
Additionally, the Yonkers mailman who committed suicide a month after Berkowitz's capture, Andrew Dupay, was strongly suspected of having been threatened by the group. And then there were the near-misses: sniper attacks on Gardner and on the police officer substituting for Wheat Carr's husband, John McCabe; and the incident in which Darlene Christiansen and Tom Taylor reported they were run off the road near Minot. There was no absolute proof that the latter incidents were related to the Son of Sam investigation, but strong indications were certainly present.
Another incident, which occurred less than two weeks before Berg's death, was also highly suspicious. This one happened in New York.
A letter I later received said: "Dear Maury Terry. Please look into this double killing. Carol was asking people about the O.T.O. a year prior to the murders. .. . I can't accept that the people responsible for this are still walking around free. I am afraid that the problem will not go away and that minds this unbalanced may perpetrate additional horrors. Forgive me for not signing my name. I haven't gotten over the fear."
The writer was apparently a woman friend of one Carol Marron, thirty-three, a Brooklyn resident. Marron was a secretary at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and designed clothing to supplement her income. For seven years, she lived with Howard Green, fifty-three, an abstract painter who drove a cab for his steady paycheck.
As the letter writer said, for more than a year Marron and Green had been delving into the occult. Their small basement apartment at 270 De Kalb Avenue was spiced with various items of satanic significance. Chances are excellent that this paraphernalia was purchased at a certain occult store located not far from their residence; a store that served more purposes than one for certain occult adepts.
In the early evening hours of Saturday, December 15, Marron and Green were spotted by an acquaintance on a subway train in Manhattan. The friend left the train at 59th Street, but Marron and Green kept going. The subway they were riding would carry them past Columbia University before continuing to the end of the line at the Bronx-Yonkers border.
Sometime later that night, Green and Marron returned to their Brooklyn apartment. The next time they were sighted was at 7 P.M. the following evening. They were lying next to each other off Route 80 in West Paterson, New Jersey, not far from New York City. Both were bludgeoned on their left sides, both had right eye wounds and both clutched clumps of hair in their fists—a satanic symbol. And there was one other similarity. Every drop of blood had been drained from the bodies of Carol Marron and Howard Green with a veterinarian's syringe.
"It was definitely a satanic murder," said NYPD Detective Jim Devereaux, who was assisting New Jersey police with the investigation. "And it wasn't a one-man job. In all my years in this business, I've never seen anything like this."
That was precisely the point.
"The only murderous satanic cult I know of in the New York area is the Son of Sam group," I told Devereaux. "But the NYPD won't admit it exists, so we're stymied. A vet's syringe is not a foreign object to people who deal with dogs, you know. If I get any more information that may help tie this in, I'll let you know."
It would be more than two years before that information came my way.
The Son of Sam probe was entering a new phase in the spring of 1980. A large store of information was accumulated during the preceding five months and before, including data provided by Berkowitz. It was time to sort it all through. Berkowitz himself had quieted down. He wrote me several routine letters in the spring of 1980, avoiding additional specifics. Each time, I responded by asking for relevant information. But it was apparent the earlier incidents had taken their toll, and he finally fell silent. Later, he wrote to say why:
I received two interesting letters today. One from you and another from Lee. Well, I suppose I owe both of you an apology. Really, this business with Pienciak and the investigation has been causing me all sorts of troubles.
The Queens District Attorney was, at one time, bugging my father. My dad was really scared because he sensed the intensity of the investigation and was also fearful for further embarrassment for his wife and himself. Don't forget what occurred after my arrest. Dozens of reporters flocked around him, tailed him to the local store, and camped out on his doorstep. Too, he was the subject of ridicule, hate mail, nasty phone calls, and terrible threats. So he is fearful of further publicity. Therefore, when the investigation turned to him .. . I just clammed up.
Next, the authorities were attempting to locate my step-sister, Ann, who lives out in California. She has had an awful life until recently. Somehow she has managed to . . . pull her life together. Of course she was fearful of the investigation because my father told her that the investigators inquired about her. So my dad again asked me to clam up, and there you have it.
Well, I'm glad that you paid Lee back [photocopying costs] and will soon be sending her her materials [occult literature]. Anyhow, both she and I are trying to pull ourselves together.
I had this big hassle with this guy Pienciak from the Associated Press. . . . [Berkowitz then described Pienciak's dealings with Lee Chase, etc., and mentioned that McGraw-Hill was planning to publish Lawrence Klausner's so-called official book on the case.]
The result of McGraw-Hill's success could mean further harm to my father, and more publicity as to my being a deranged madman.
Oh yes, this is important. If either you or anyone else receives a phone call from one Ira Jultak, please do not give him any information. He is my former defense attorney whom I fired quite awhile ago. I have heard that he has been seeking out information. Too, he is working with the author of the McGraw Hill book and is going to share in the profits. So he is out to silence me. He [also] attempted to do this a long time ago by trying to stop a press conference [where Berkowitz repudiated his original "demon" story, which was—and remained—a central focus of that book]. So please don't give him any info.
This was to be the last I'd hear from Berkowitz for almost a year. Once again, we were on our own. But the "we" no longer included Jim Mitteager, who bowed out of the investigation to obtain a full-time job to help support his family and to work settling the debt he incurred as the result of his arrest and trial.
In Minot, Gardner, Mike Knoop, Jeff Nies and Jack Graham remained active, and in New York, Santucci's probe continued. Our own informal force of "Pine Street Irregulars" kept checking new leads, and Detective Hank Cinotti prepared to face a Police Department trial. In March, Georgiana and I were married, nearly two years after that night we'd talked at the Suriani-Esau murder scene. After a nine-day wedding trip to New Orleans and Cancun, Mexico, it was back to the rigors of the .44 investigation.
Several aspects of the case had progressed markedly. In one instance, we obtained vital information about the yellow Volkswagen that fled the Stacy Moskowitz murder scene in Brooklyn. Several witnesses came forward after I published an article which revealed for the first time that a wild chase of that car had occurred after the shooting.
An attorney, an NYPD police officer and a restaurant employee all stated that Michael and John Carr had driven such a vehicle during the Son of Sam era. Their statements were forwarded to Santucci. Additionally, the Cassara family in New Rochelle, at whose home Berkowitz lived in early 1976 before his move to Pine Street, told us and Queens that while at their home Berkowitz had been driving a yellow or beige Volkswagen. Berkowitz had only his Ford Galaxie registered to him, so it was apparent he borrowed the VW.
A private investigator, Jordan Stevens, also stated that the yellow VW was driven by both John and Michael Carr, but that it wasn't registered in either of their names. Stevens obtained this information from yet another witness who knew John and Michael.
Stevens said the car was between "1970 and 1972 vintage" and "wasn't in great mechanical shape. The front bumper also hung down a bit." The NYPD officer, who reported he was "very familiar" with the car, said it was a 1971 model.
Santucci observed: "I think we can safely say that the VW was accessible to John and Michael Carr."
The Candlelight Inn employee who threw Michael Carr, Berkowitz and their friend Bobby out of the bar shortly before the sniper incident there in October 1976 also said: "The yellow VW was outside the place. And they used to talk about leaving the Inn and going over to Untermyer Park. They never said why—I can see why they didn't."
The fact that a yellow VW was available to the Carr brothers did not mean that either of them was driving it the night Stacy Moskowitz was killed and Robert Violante blinded. In fact, it would soon come to light that neither John nor Michael was the Brooklyn gunman.
At the same time, new evidence about other crimes peripherally linked to the Son of Sam case was uncovered. Specifically, the reports concerned violent acts in Westchester which Berkowitz first claimed to have committed alone. In the case of the firebombing of the Neto home in Yonkers, Sylvia Neto said she was awakened by voices just before the firebomb crashed into the front of their home in the pre-dawn hours of May 13, 1976. "I heard someone calling out, 'Come on, come on, hurry up, hurry up,'" she said. "It sounded like the one voice was calling the other one Eddie," she added. "But I'm not sure if it was Eddie."
The wounding of the Carr dog in daylight on April 27, 1977, was another act Berkowitz took sole credit for. But two witnesses said otherwise. One told Queens investigators that he saw the shooter, who was a blond-haired young man. Another witness was actually stopped near the scene by Yonkers police responding to the shooting call. That man, who was walking his dog, said a man carrying a rifle ran from the aqueduct and passed right by him. The witness said the shooter was tall, thin, and had straight, fairly long, blond hair. The reports of the two witnesses jibed, and the person each described was not David Berkowitz, who didn't remotely resemble the man seen by the witnesses.
From top to bottom, the Son of Sam case, as originally presented to the press and public, was in shambles.
But even as this new evidence was being accumulated privately, Hank Cinotti went on trial within the New York City Police Department. For months, I struggled with the notion of making some of Berkowitz's statements available to Cinotti's defense. But he demurred, saying that "the case itself is more important. Keep it all quiet."
I testified at the trial, as did Joe Basteri, who told the trial commissioner the true story of how Cinotti came to know of the North Dakota information about Carr and Reeve Rockman. Rick Pienciak, reporting for the Associated Press, obtained a quote from Deputy Chief Ed Dreher in which Dreher, ignorant of all the evidence which had been uncovered, said for posterity: "The Berkowitz case is closed. Berkowitz had no helper. I won't change that opinion. I don't think the department will."
Cinotti, who faced dismissal from the force and a loss of benefits, was merely fined thirty days of vacation time and placed on probation for a year. It was, effectively, a partial victory—for the moment. But after the media attention abated, Cinotti was removed from the detective ranks and assigned to a uniformed patrol in lower Manhattan's 1st Precinct. He remained there long enough to reach his twentieth year of service and retired from the force. All the while, he remained quietly involved in the investigation.
Even on his way out of the NYPD, the department challenged his final year's overtime pay, upon which police pensions are partially based. Once again, Cinotti had to fight for his cause. He won.
There were numerous issues to be dealt with in the probe. One of those concerned Arlis Perry. What did the North Dakota cult have to do with the murder of the young Christian newlywed in the church at Stanford University?
As Berkowitz wrote, the case was "very deep." And he rhetorically asked Lee Chase: "Who killed Arlis Perry, and why?" He knew those answers, but we didn't.
It was time to try to find out.
"Don't worry, because I didn't commit this crime," he wrote to Lee Chase in November 1979. "Nor was I present when it was done. Back in October '74 I was busy and at work as a piss-poor paid security guard. I was here in N.Y. But (and I say BUT) in my travels with different people in this area, I met someone who was involved in her death and spoke freely of the slaying—bragging. He knew many details, and I know that this guy, Manson #2, doesn't bull. I know he killed often, him and his 'crew' [cult]. This is what this new investigation was going to rest on. . . .
"You, as a natural detective, can't help at this time but notice the strange coincidence here. Many months ago I inquired about Arliss [s/c] Perry. If you'll note your [newspaper] clip, she hails from Bismarck. Bismarck is just south of Minot. Minot is the second focal point of this investigation, next to Yonkers and Westchester County. This is why I mentioned her to you as compared with the multitudes of other murders of young women. Why her? Simply because I knew beforehand where she once lived. Also, I knew it was a cult thing ... "
Berkowitz had told Santa Clara detectives Kahn and Beck that he met Manson II at a cult meeting in New York; he told Chase the same thing. I was at first thrown off by the Manson II statement, since it appeared to contradict Berkowitz in another way. He said the man and his cult killed often; and he also said Arlis was "hunted, stalked and slain. Followed to California." If that was so, and the answer to the murder, or the motive, lay in Bismarck, then where were Manson II and the cult doing all these other alleged killings? As Berkowitz himself wrote, North Dakota boasted an extremely low crime rate, and murder was a relatively rare occurrence there.
For quite some time, I was troubled by this problem. Then a source very close to Berkowitz straightened me out. The seeming contradiction was actually a clue, as was the name Manson II. For a moment, I will get ahead of the story to explain the significance of Manson II, as stated by the source, whom I will call Vinny. "Manson II wasn't from North Dakota," Vinny said. "He was from the L.A. area. That's where the Sam cult has its headquarters. The North Dakota branch wanted Arlis dead, and they called California for help. Manson II went north to Stanford to arrange it. At least one, maybe two people from Dakota came out to help. But it was Manson II's show to run. He was involved with the original Manson and the cult there in L.A. That's why Berkowitz used that name as a clue."
This information was so overwhelming it was at first hard to believe. But Vinny wasn't done.
"This guy was an occult superstar. They used him for the most important jobs. Berkowitz met him in New York because he was imported from the Coast to participate in the Son of Sam killings. He's the guy who shot Christine Freund in the Son of Sam case. And he was around for some of the others. He was back and forth. But he did Freund and was in New York for, I think, some of the later ones."
"Are you telling me a guy involved with Charlie Manson and the original cult in California arranged Arlis Perry's murder as a favor to North Dakota and then came to New York for Son of Sam?"
"That's exactly what I'm telling you," Vinny replied.
"Then why is Berkowitz trying to help solve the Perry case?"
"Because he believes Manson II was the guy who had the most to do with picking him to take the fall on Son of Sam. He hates this guy, and fears him."
"So he wants the Perry case broken for a personal reason?"
"He may have a conscience these days but he's got more on his mind than just trying to be a good citizen," Vinny said.
"And you got this from Berkowitz himself?"
"Directly, face to face."
According to Vinny's statement, the Sam cult was headquartered near Los Angeles (in Venice) and had branches in Bismarck, Minot, Houston and New York, at least. And these branches (and others, I'd later learn) shuttled killers and "contracts" back and forth.
If any of this statement was true—any of it—it would rank the entire case as one of the most significant criminal stories of all time—bigger than the Son of Sam case already was. Berkowitz, Manson and the Process and its cells set up around the United States—the network already in place. And then the splinter groups spinning off from the Process; among them the Chingons. And all of them linked as part of an underground web of murder.
How bizarre was this charge by Vinny, who said he was repeating Berkowitz's statements to the letter?
It should be remembered that Arlis Perry was murdered on the fifth anniversary of Manson's arrest—a day which was also the birthday of black magician Aleister Crowley, whom Berkowitz had already tagged as an inspiration for the cult. Further, Arlis Perry's death occurred during a period when elements of the Manson crowd were very active: Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme would attempt to murder President Gerald Ford in northern California some time after the Perry murder.
Berkowitz himself admittedly joined the cult in New York in 1975, just six years after Manson's arrest and less than a year after Arlis Perry's killing. And as for the Process/Chingon groups, it was already established that a network was in place. Process members, using the name "Process," and mingling with existing OTO factions, were seen openly in New York City as late as 1973. The time frame fit.
Moreover, it was already established that strong connections existed between the Minot and New York cults. All Vinny was doing was extending the pattern to Los Angeles and tying it together.
Vinny's comments were first made to me in 1982, more than two years after Berkowitz first wrote about Arlis Perry. Unknown to Vinny, his statements were consistent with what Berkowitz had said in 1979. Vinny and Berkowitz didn't meet until 1981, in prison. Berkowitz, in other words, told Vinny the same story he'd written about in 1979. The difference was a simple one: in his conversations with Vinny Berkowitz filled in details he only alluded to in 1979.
Santa Clara detective Ken Kahn publicly stated that he was convinced Berkowitz was telling the truth about the Perry case. "It's about the best information we've had," Kahn said. "I think it's a very significant lead. I put a lot of credibility behind it." Before that, Kahn explained, "we interviewed about two hundred and fifty potential suspects and it led us nowhere. .. . I believe [Berkowitz] knows what happened."
Berkowitz was very concerned with his credibility on the Perry case. It will be remembered that he didn't want to jeopardize his standing on the matter and thus requested that Lee Chase not send any items on the case to Santa Clara, or elsewhere, for just that reason. Another letter he wrote Chase during this period, mid-November 1979, further illustrates Berkowitz's mind-set.
If anything reaches this guy in Staten Island [Gilroy] or the Sheriff from N. Dakota on this case, then they'll laugh me out of sight. The investigation will close immediately on receipt of such a clipping. Obviously, they will say, "HOAX, SHAM, CON ARTIST."
If you recall, several months ago and long before you knew of this current [.44] investigation, seemingly out of the blue I asked about Arliss. . . . You wrote back asking me how I heard of this particular case since it was strictly a west coast news item. You acknowledged the fact that this didn't make it to the east coast, at least not in the New York City area. You are ABSOLUTELY correct! I never read about it in any New York area paper. Neither did I see it in a detective magazine. . . .
This is the whole case in a nutshell. The fact that I didn't read about her or her murder is good evidence. . . .
Two weeks ago, I sent this guy, Gilroy, a four page typed letter. One and a half pages dealt with Mrs. Perry. Actually, there isn't too much more, if even this much, that I know about the case as far as facts go. I know who did it and why. But I'm not going to mention this to anyone—not give a name. I just discussed with him the case.
Here is the problem. Gilroy doesn't know that I have a news clipping on her. You sent it to me, remember? [It was a brief clip from a California paper devoid of any detail.] And this is the most important point, I questioned you first about Arliss—and to your surprise. You only sent this one clipping to me only after I mentioned her to you first. Now if you were to send a clipping to Gilroy or N. Dakota about her, then he'll (without a doubt) think that I'm giving him bum information. He'll think that I'm trying to lead him on a wild goose chase to get attention for another crime I'm trying to confess to. . . .
So please don't send anything on her case. This case is reserved for me. If he should get a bunch of Perry-related clippings at the same time that I'm writing him about her, then I'm screwed a hundredfold. . . . This guy is the attorney for Mitteager and Terry. These two were the ones who managed to get photos of me in Kings County. They believed about this Sam Carr business in the literal sense, if you know what I mean. Everyone else thought I was deranged. They didn't understand what I was trying to say. This whole investigation is here because of these three.
Gilroy is unknown to the public. He's never been in the papers in reference to this investigation or the SOS case. He's not after publicity. . . .
Being that Gilroy is thorough, I'm certain he is now checking the New York area newspapers to read about the Perry case. Haha! He'll never find it. This will surprise him and he will investigate this thing further. Gilroy knows that I had an abundance of clippings about killings. Next, he'll contact the Queens D.A. to ask him to look in my collection for the Perry articles. Hence, no articles are in my large collection on Arliss. [He meant, no articles on Arlis were in his collection.] Now, he will realize he is on to something. Understand? "How did Berkowitz know about this? I can't see how he heard of it. Maybe he isn't bullshitting."
So please don't send any photocopies to these two [Gilroy and Gardner]. . . . Let me remind you again that I contacted you first about this. But he won't know or believe this. Unfortunately, I don't know much more than was released in the newspapers (west coast). No, he will never believe I knew of the case before I read the clip you sent me.
Berkowitz did in fact query Lee Chase about the Perry case first—in a letter dated June 8, 1979. He asked Chase if she'd ever heard of the case and next hinted that Arlis Perry was a "true Christian"—a fact not included in the brief clip Chase then sent him the next week. In replying to Berkowitz, Chase asked how he could have heard of the case. Berkowitz answered with another tidbit that didn't appear in newspaper articles: "She sure was a skinny little thing." He later added: "She was so tiny." Both these assertions were true. "I gather the Arlis Perry murder has never been solved," he wrote before receiving the clip from Chase. He was right, of course. Also, before he received the short clipping, he spelled Arlis' first name correctly—with one s. But after getting the clip, which incorrectly added a second s, he abandoned his original accurate spelling and took up the erroneous one.
The Arlis Perry case, and Berkowitz's allegations, were primarily investigated by me, with assistance from Gardner and Jeff Nies. The Santa Clara police provided some help, as did Santucci. But Santa Clara investigators never returned to North Dakota to mount an investigation. Their reasoning was that the case was now old, but if Berkowitz gave up more information they'd be there to follow it through.
My first interest was in establishing just what knowledge Berkowitz had which he couldn't have possessed if he was lying.
1. Before seeing the brief news clipping Lee Chase sent him, he knew Arlis was a "teenaged" girl and that she was killed in a church at Stanford.
2. He knew from the outset that she was a "true Christian." The clip Chase later sent him didn't contain this information either.
3. He knew she was "tiny," "skinny" and "pretty," descriptions that were not published.
4. He spelled Arlis' first name correctly before adopting the incorrect spelling in the small clip he received.
5. He knew the case wasn't solved as of 1979. "I'd have known if it was solved," he wrote. [The lone clip Chase sent him was a short Associated Press item from two days after the murder. No photo of Arlis accompanied the piece, which was dated October 14, 1974.]
6. He knew Arlis liked to "frequently" take walks around the Stanford campus—an unpublished fact.
7. He accurately described the purple, scarlet and gold interior of the Stanford church at the time.
8. He knew the exact location of Arlis' stab wound, behind the ear. Some local San Jose area papers did write that Arlis was stabbed at the base of the neck or skull. Berkowitz was able to pinpoint the precise location, which had been withheld from the public.
9. He emphasized the hideous torture Arlis endured—indicating knowledge that went far beyond any newspaper account.
10. He knew that Arlis had an "interest" in cults. This was a nonpublished fact confirmed to me by several of her friends in Bismarck. Her curiosity was that of a Christian wanting to know about the "other side."
11. He knew that Bismarck's Mary College existed. Mary was a tiny school that neither we in New York nor the California police had ever heard of.
12. He connected Mary College to cult activity in Bismarck and to Arlis' death. It was firmly established that a satanic cult met in a wooded area right below Mary College during this period.
13. He alleged in his letter to Felix Gilroy that prominent, respected people were involved in the cult. Witnesses in Bismarck stated just that.
14. He saw a photo of Arlis that apparently was not published anywhere until 1981—seven years after her death and two years after he sent a photo of another girl out of prison saying that that girl looked just like Arlis. "Almost a twin sister," he wrote. He was right.
15. He said the murder was a cult killing and not a random sex crime. In Chapter I, unpublished details about Arlis' death and the position of her body, etc., appeared for the first time, along with the fact that Arlis' grave marker was stolen in Bismarck two weeks after her death, near Halloween; also that Santa Clara authorities heard from Bruce Perry's parents that Arlis may have attempted to convert members of a Bismarck cult to Christianity.
16. He wrote that the murder was planned and not random. In Chapter I, the confidential details about the law firm visitor appeared, along with other information which strongly suggested Arlis purposely went to the church the next night— the evening after her "intense" discussion with the law firm visitor. Arlis, it will be remembered, didn't tell her husband about the encounter at the firm.
17. If Berkowitz's known, named accomplice John Carr and his cult branch were nearby in Minot at this time, why wouldn't Berkowitz know confidential details about the Perry murder? Indeed, as he wrote to Lee Chase: "Why her? Simply because I knew beforehand where she once lived. Also, I knew it was a cult thing."
In the investigation of the Perry case, I personally conducted more than forty interviews with Bismarck area police and friends, family and associates of Arlis Perry. Numerous sources were interviewed several times. Jeff Nies and Lieutenant Terry Gardner also questioned several people, and Minot officer Mike Knoop provided logistics support. The Santa Clara Sheriff's Department, at the time of the killing, didn't interview any of Arlis' close friends in Bismarck—so convinced were they that the killer or killers were California psychopaths. Then, in 1979, despite their belief in Berkowitz's veracity, they sat tight—with the exception of fresh interviews of Arlis' parents, Bruce Perry and Bruce's parents. We, however, decided to act. Here is the picture which emerged.
In 1971-73, a northern California-based cult, which claimed it wasn't satanic, materialized in Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota, a small town with a population of 36,000. There were six representatives of this cult group in Bismarck. They wore black clerical garb, but adorned their necks with red collars and ribbons instead of religious white collars.
Members of this sect rented a home in Bismarck directly across the street from the residence of Arlis' grandmother. Arlis visited her grandmother regularly and may have contacted group members in that way.
At least two young women Arlis knew actually became involved in this cult. Arlis herself, according to two close associates, expressed an interest in learning about the group. One said he was "almost certain" Arlis attended one of the cult's meetings. These statements about Arlis' "interest" in learning about the occult—and numerous other comments which also detailed her innocent curiosity—confirmed Berkowitz's allegation.
At the time of the killing, the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department heard from Bruce Perry's parents that Arlis and a girlfriend had once gone "across the river to Mandan to try to convert some members of a satanic cult to Christianity." Girlfriends of Arlis told me that she did, indeed, visit a Mandan coffee shop where members of this group were recruiting from the numbers of students who socialized there. The coffee shop's owner eventually barred the cult members from his establishment. I spoke to that former owner, who is now a minister in Ohio, and he confirmed the story.
I then located one of the cult's members, who left the group and now resides in Kansas. He stated that while the group did try to recruit from that coffee shop, and did hold meetings in a rented home across the street from Arlis' grandmother's address, they weren't satanic. He did acknowledge, however, that his former cult espoused mysticism, astrology and the tarot. He also said that he'd encountered members of the Process in Chicago but that his group wasn't connected to the Process.
We remained unsure of this "non-satanic" claim, and have also considered the possibility that members of the Process or Chingon cults infiltrated the other group or falsely represented themselves in Bismarck as being members of it.
But there was another, definitely satanic cult operating in Bismarck during the 1972-76 time period, at least. Some sources, including police officers, say it is still active today.
Significantly, this secret group matched Berkowitz's statements exactly: it was holding its midnight meetings behind Mary College.
The cult's existence in a wooded area behind the school has been confirmed by at least ten people, including police officers, area residents, nuns who taught at Mary College and other Bismarck citizens who were involved in Christian activities. Importantly, the latter sources belonged to the same religious organizations as Arlis did—Young Life and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
One nun who taught at Mary told me: "My students knew all about it. They said the cult used to kill dogs back of here. .. . We have a large cross here at the graveyard and the devil worshippers used to creep up the hill to spit on our cross."
Berkowitz, in the satanic book he sent to Gardner in late 1979, underlined the following sentence: "They must be prepared to defile His image and spit upon the Cross."
A married couple who lived in a trailer home near the cult meeting site at Mary told me that they saw torches and heard chanting and that three of their pet dogs were abducted in the middle of the night and later found mutilated inside a circle of stones (a magic circle).
This couple also said that the only access to the cult meeting site was via the Mary campus itself. "The creek—Apple Creek —blocked access from the other direction. They were holding their rituals near an old shed in the woods. The only way to get there was by a trail that led down from the campus."
The cult also met at Hillside Cemetery, as well as behind a Catholic church and a Bismarck synagogue on infrequent occasions.
As mentioned, police and others knew of the Mary cult's existence, as did Arlis Perry. A friend from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes said: "She definitely knew about it. We discussed the cult several times at our FCA meetings."
Arlis' pastor, Rev. Don DeKok, said: "I knew about it, and I might well have mentioned it to her." DeKok offered another important observation: "Right at the time of Arlis' funeral here—either just before, that day or the next—one of my parishioners was awakened before dawn and saw a man wearing a black cape trying to break into the church."
Arlis' grave marker was stolen less than two weeks after this incident.
DeKok also said: "A friend of one of my parishioners went down to Mary and hid out on the hill one night to spy on the cult. I never found out who they were, but she said there were some well-known Bismarck citizens in attendance."
This provided another confirmation of Berkowitz's statements—about both the Mary group's existence and his assertion that prominent citizens belonged to it.
A further confirmation came from Mandan police sergeant Lamar Kruckenberg, who said: "In early '74 an undercover cop was brought to an indoor cult meeting in Bismarck by one of his informants. He was looking for drug activity—there was no suggestion of murder at this time, which was about seven months before Arlis' death. This cop told me the people there were wearing masks because there were supposed to be some respected Bismarck people among them." The undercover officer left the force several years later, and we were unable to locate him.
Closer to Arlis herself were two male acquaintances, both of whom were said to be occult adepts. A girlfriend of Arlis said of one: "He was always trying to invite us girls over to his basement for seances with black candles." Another friend of Arlis' recalled: "He carried a satanic bible around with him."
During the interviews, the names of several possible suspects emerged—including at least two successful Bismarck citizens said to be connected to the Mary cult.
One young woman also said: "Right after the murder, a month or so later, I heard that the cult here contacted the California group and that's how it was done."
No one but Santucci, Sergeant Kahn in Santa Clara and I knew of this Berkowitz-Vinny allegation, which wasn't made until the early 1980s and was kept secret. Yet this woman volunteered that identical information to me in December 1985, saying that she heard it shortly after Arlis' death occurred in October 1974. Her statement was a powerful one.
When the interviews began, I told each contact that we were looking for a "bridge"—someone who would have had cult contacts but whom Arlis felt she could safely approach to satisfy her curiosity about the subject.
Arlis, the investigation clearly showed, was a sincere young Christian. We found no dark corners in her life. She lived at home, attended school and socialized with her religiously active friends. Shortly before her marriage, she worked in the dental office of Brace's father, Duncan Perry. Duncan Perry was the "prison dentist"; inmates from the nearby state penitentiary were brought to his office for treatment while Arlis was there. It remained possible that something which occurred in that setting could have offered a motive for her death.
But beyond that possibility, I wanted to establish the means by which this young girl from the "Right-Hand Path" could have learned about the "Left-Hand Path"—the cult scene at Mary. I reasoned that, since Satan cults don't advertise in newspapers or have open attendance at their midnight meetings, Arlis would have sought assistance from someone she thought she could trust—but someone she also knew was connected to the seamier side of Bismarck society.
I already knew that Arlis was aware of the cult's existence, but we had to discover that "bridge," beyond which, we hoped, lurked the motive for her murder.
At least three young men and two young women were identified as the result of this approach. Any one of them, the sources agreed, could have linked Arlis' world with that of the Mary cult. Since the investigation is open, I am not at liberty to discuss specifics concerning these people. But I can say that all were in positions which provided ready access to the Mary cult operation. This evaluation has been corroborated by the Queens DA's office and Sergeant Ken Kahn of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department.
In previously listed items concerning Berkowitz's knowledge of the Perry case, I referred to a photograph of another young woman which he sent out of prison saying it looked like Arlis' "twin." When I received this picture, I thought Berkowitz was hallucinating. It looked nothing at all like those of Arlis Perry I had seen. At the time of her death, the pictures which appeared in the media were two shots taken of her in high school. In each, she had straight blond hair, wore glasses and had no makeup on.
The picture Berkowitz likened to her, however, was that of a young woman who had carefully styled, curly hair and who was wearing makeup. Also, this woman wasn't wearing glasses. In no way did she resemble Arlis Perry. Berkowitz sent this photo on October 27, 1979.
Two years later, on October 24, 1981, the San Jose Mercury News published a photograph of Arlis Perry to accompany an article about Berkowitz's involvement in the case—portions of which I'd made public a month earlier. This photo of Arlis looked exactly like that of the woman Berkowitz likened to Arlis in 1979.
I was stunned. The newspaper said that the picture was the only one of Arlis in its file and that it was a wire service photo they apparently obtained for the 1981 story. "We must have ordered it from Bismarck," I was told. Bismarck.
Arlis' parents, sister and girlfriends studied the picture at my request. They identified Arlis, but said they'd never seen the photo before and couldn't remember her ever looking as she did in the picture. "Without the glasses, I'd say it was taken in her first [and only] year of college here," Arlis' mother said.
It was readily apparent Berkowitz had seen that picture. But where and how?
In the witchcraft book he mailed to Lieutenant Terry Gardner in October 1979, Berkowitz wrote of a satanic ceremony which involved "a detailed soliloquy directed at the . . . victim, describing her (Arliss Perry) annihilation." Here, he was clearly referring to the cult meeting in New York at which he said Manson II told of the Perry killing. Apparently, it was through this dialogue that Berkowitz learned many details, including the extreme tortures performed on her. It is my opinion that Manson II had this photograph of Arlis in his possession at the time and showed it to Berkowitz and others present.
If so, where did this "superstar" satanic killer get it?
Arlis, as the picture showed, was dressed and made up as if posing for a formal photo session. Her family, however, said the picture was not among those taken for her engagement announcement, her wedding, a prom or a similar event. Arlis' parents, and the Santa Clara detectives, also said no such photo session occurred during her brief time in California.
But since Arlis spent only six weeks of her life in California, and the San Jose newspaper said the picture apparently was obtained from Bismarck, the hunt was focused there. And it produced some results.
There was a young man in Bismarck who frequently followed Arlis around—taking pictures of her. Arlis was invited to his house to pose for photographs on several occasions. Some, taken there or elsewhere, she liked well enough to display in her room at home. On one occasion, Bruce Perry and this young man got into an argument when the man called Arlis and invited her to his house to pose. Bruce, in the presence of Arlis' parents, grabbed the phone and told the man to stop bothering Arlis.
But Bruce was away at Stanford during Arlis' freshman year at Bismarck Junior College—which was the time period in which her mother believed the mysterious photo probably was taken.
No evidence directly linking this man to the Mary cult has been uncovered, but several people said a close friend of his was very interested in occult practices. However, it is distinctly possible that a photo he'd taken of Arlis was somehow obtained from him and passed on to the killers for identification purposes. Then another print made from the same or a similar negative could have found its way into the files of the Associated Press or Bismarck Tribune, which shared the same building in Bismarck.
Regardless of whether this individual was actually the source of the enigmatic photograph, the picture itself is key to the Perry case. Another bizarre and frightening clue in the Arlis Perry case came from the hand of Arlis Perry herself. Arlis' own words offered dramatic testimony of the evident pre-planning involved in her murder. On September 27, 1974—fifteen days before her death—Arlis wrote a letter to her close friend Jenny in Bismarck. Jenny and other Dakota friends of Arlis were not interviewed by the California police.
In the letter to Jenny, Arlis wrote: "I had to laugh about your call to Bruce Perry. Mrs. Perry [Bruce's mother] made the same mistake. She called them, too. But the strange part of it is that his name is not only Bruce Perry but it is Bruce D. Perry, and not only that but it is Bruce Duncan Perry and he attends Stanford University, and he just got married this summer. One thing, his wife's name is not Arlis. Anyway, next time you get the urge to call, the number is . . . This time I guarantee you'll get the right Bruce Perry."
A question: was it plausible to believe that there were two Bruce Duncan Perrys studying at the same school, at the same time—both of whom had just been married?
There were not—but someone had taken out a phone in that name. And since Arlis was able to recite all that information, she almost certainly talked to that man.
Apparently, with the influx of students arriving for the fall semester, Arlis and Bruce had a considerable wait until their phone was installed. When Jenny and Bruce's mother tried to reach them, they spoke to an information operator who gave them the listing of the other Bruce D. Perry at Stanford. It would have been a university area exchange number, since both Jenny and Mrs. Perry would have told the operator that Bruce and Arlis were living on campus. "I asked for Bruce D. Perry at Stanford," Jenny recalled.
Both then called the other Bruce and were told they had reached a wrong number. Of course, this information reached Arlis, as noted in her letter. Arlis apparently then took the natural step of calling the other Bruce to tell him where she was living and to give him her phone number (after the unit was installed) so that if he received another wayward call he could give the caller Arlis' correct number.
But now the other Bruce—the false Bruce—would also possess Arlis' phone number and, almost certainly, her address. If he'd anticipated any difficulty finding her, his problem—via the fraudulent telephone listing—would have been covered in advance. Through this method, his victim could eventually find him—just as Jenny and Mrs. Perry did.
What was it Berkowitz wrote about Arlis? "Hunted, stalked and slain. Followed to California."
The phone listing of a nonexistent Bruce Duncan Perry was a vivid portrayal of the "hunted" allegation. And regarding the word "stalked," it will be remembered that Berkowitz knew the unreleased fact that Arlis frequently took long walks around the campus. In fact, she wrote her parents that Bruce was discouraging her from roaming the area alone.
But how did Berkowitz (and the killers) know of her walking habit? The answer would appear to be that Arlis was followed—stalked. Interestingly, her regular walks ceased by September 30, twelve days before her death, because on that day she began working full-time at a Palo Alto law firm.
For Berkowitz to have known she took long walks around the campus, the killers would have been following her before September 30, which meshes with the false phone listing being in place by mid-September.
I didn't learn of the fraudulent Bruce Duncan Perry until I interviewed Jenny in December 1985. Her husband, reading Arlis' long-stored letter, thought the telephone incident might be relevant, and Jenny sent me a copy of it. A subsequent check with Stanford University by both me and Sergeant Ken Kahn confirmed what we already knew was true: there was no other Bruce Perry at Stanford, let alone another Bruce Duncan Perry who'd just been married.
Another inquiry, this one with the telephone company, led nowhere—records that old weren't in existence. But we did learn that the other Bruce, whose published number the information operator had in September 1974, wasn't listed in the new area telephone book that was distributed several months later. In and out—the other Bruce was gone.
The plan, while ingenious—and chilling—was simple to enact. With an appropriate cash deposit and a false name, it wasn't difficult to obtain the listing. And why not? It is apparent that Arlis was "hunted" and "stalked" for several weeks.
The idea that Arlis Perry evidently spoke on the phone to one of her own killers is horrible to contemplate. But no other plausible explanation for this unsettling chain of events has surfaced—except for the possibility that the listing was obtained in a demonstration of sheer, macabre arrogance and omnipotence.
The existence of the phone listing, which wasn't discovered until late 1985, melded with other information I possessed since 1980, when a source of Minot reporter Jack Graham told me she had heard that the Perry killing involved "someone registering at Stanford under a false name." The lead was impossible to pursue then. But now, its import was established. The information was basically accurate, but it applied to a bogus phone listing, not an actual registration at the school. The source said she had picked up the story from the cult crowd in Minot.
Reviewing the Perry investigation results, Queens homicide bureau chief Herb Leifer said: "If Berkowitz was lying, none of this information could have been confirmed—it wouldn't even have existed. And far more information than he spoke about was uncovered. It looks like he knew that once you turned over that rock and started digging, you'd find what he always knew would be there."
If, after examining the broad scope of evidence and confirmations, one believes that Berkowitz was telling the truth, then one has decided that conclusive supporting evidence of a Son of Sam—and much larger—conspiracy has been uncovered.
Numerous questions about "motive" remain. Berkowitz wrote that one existed, and the entire idea of tracing her to the Coast and planning her slaying also demonstrated that a motive lurked somewhere.
She could have been killed simply because, as an ardent, vocal Christian, she was an automatic enemy of the cult. Its leaders may have ordered her death to provide underlings with an example of their power and prowess. But to have committed the crime in Bismarck—where murder was a rarity— would have been too obvious. The cult, whose existence was known, would have come under immediate suspicion, as would have a number of Arlis' acquaintances who had the means to "bridge" her world and that of the group.
But after Arlis reached California, the killing could be accomplished because, as did happen, the search for the murderer would be conducted there, not in Bismarck. When I interviewed Arlis' friends, I asked each the same question: "Pretend for a moment the killing occurred in Bismarck. Who would the suspects have been?"
Of course, the cult was immediately mentioned, as were Arlis' acquaintances who had contacts on both sides of Bismarck society.
Returning to the question of motive, Arlis also may have tried to convert to Christianity a cult member who later returned to the group and perhaps acknowledged that he (or she) told Arlis certain details the cult deemed confidential. It is also possible she inadvertently learned the identity of a respected citizen involved in the group.
A large amount of drug trafficking was occurring in Bismarck during this period and one does not have a satanic cult without drugs being in evidence. Somehow, in her explorations, Arlis may have stumbled across some knowledge of the group's drug operations.
There are at least two other possible motives, neither of which can be mentioned publicly. But as Berkowitz alleged, the investigation found that motives for Arlis' murder did indeed exist.
Arlis did not appear to be fearful. Her letters from California revealed a young woman who was occupied with adjusting to her new life and interested in what was happening in her hometown. Her correspondence contained no concerns for her safety or indications that any noteworthy troubling matters were left behind in North Dakota. Combined with her serious discussion with the law firm visitor the day before she died, her failure to tell her husband about it, and her unflinching desire to walk to the church alone the next night, it appears that Arlis was set up by someone close to her—someone she didn't fear.
This evaluation was also based on a comment in Berkowitz's letter to Felix Gilroy, in which he said that identifying her hometown would solve the case. That statement strongly suggested that someone obvious, and close to Arlis, was involved.
The Bismarck cult assuredly had more than one leader. It is possible that one of them was a local educator because Berkowitz, in pointing to Mary College, also dropped several clues about "professors." Including teachers, people who relocated to the Bismarck area from Southern California in the early seventies would be worthy of scrutiny because the Bismarck cult would have needed contacts in Los Angeles to enlist that "headquarters" group in the murder plot, as alleged by Berkowitz and the prison informant.
Several such people did settle in Bismarck during those years. Two were young men who were said to have been involved in narcotics distribution and connected to three Bismarck men who spent considerable time on the Coast. The California natives lived in a rented "crash pad," known locally as the "hippie house," that was the scene of numerous drug parties in Bismarck. Curiously, the "hippie house" was said to have been located at the same address later occupied by the California cult group that recruited in Bismarck between 1971 and 1973—the house across the street from Arlis's grandmother's residence.
As two final notes, seven young men whom Arlis knew were identified as matching the general description of the law firm visitor. But since no police sketches of that man were drawn, it wasn't possible to show a rendering to Arlis's friends. Also, it was mentioned earlier that Arlis's jeans were placed with their legs positioned on her own, spread-eagle legs in a manner that resulted in a rough, diamond-shaped configuration. Though it isn't certain that was the intent, a study of Mary College yearbooks revealed that a diamond logo appeared on some official school sweaters.
The Arlis Perry murder investigation remains open.
next
As for my letter to Mr. Gardner which found its way into the newspapers, it wasn't so much that the letter became public. This really didn't bother me. . . . The thing that upset me was the nonsensical way that it was presented. I threw out the N.Y. Post article long ago but I remember those sensational headlines quite well. So this brings me to another important matter.
Maury, I can see by these clippings that you have quoted me often. But why do you keep quoting me? I mean, I'm supposed to be "deranged, crazy insane and a madman." Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Honestly, how do you expect people to believe you when you mention something I was sup- posed to have said.
Look, you cannot build a building without laying the foundation first. So if you are trying to use me as a source of facts and information, then you'll only be wasting everyone's time. Nobody will believe me or you because I have no credibility.
What does the public think when they see my name mentioned somewhere? What does the public (the ones you seem to be trying to convince) see when they view my picture or something. I'll tell you what they think. They think I'm just a crazy madman. What do they see? I'll tell you what they see. They see those odd scrawls on the wall of my apartment. They think and see in their own minds a sick madman who hears voices of destruction and hears barking dogs which tell him to kill.
Maury, the public will never, ever truly believe you no matter how well your evidence is presented. They will never believe you unless you could first convince the public that I was sane all along.
This is really the foundation of your arguments . The first question people want to know is one of insanity. If they think me insane, then what good will your articles be? Obviously, this question must be answered first before you begin any investigation in which you are trying to use my words as a reliable source.
Maury, I will tell you now and quite personally that all the things which people saw—the strange writing on the wall, the topsy-turvy apartment with the letters and books scattered about—the broken wall, etc. This, you see, was all by deliberate design. It was a deliberate act. It was set up this way as a means of feigning insanity.
But this is only part of the story. Yet, I will take the responsibility here and admit that I am in no way insane nor was I ever insane.
The broken wall of my apartment was only knocked in several days before I got arrested. I'm quite certain that any police detective will confirm to you that there were still numerous pieces of plaster chips on my rug below the hole.
As for the scrawls on the walls [bizarre ravings about Sam Carr and Craig Glassman], if I recall correctly they were done in red magic marker. But if you notice, all those markings were very much alike. Why? Because they were only written on the wall [at the same time] several days before my arrest.
The apartment was the same way in general. The books, magazines, pornographic literature, etc. was left scattered topsy-turvy about my floor only days before my arrest.
I never had very much furniture. But within a week before I was arrested I threw out the several good pieces I had. The furniture was loaded into a small van and deposited in front of the Salvation Army warehouse on Columbus Avenue (Route 22) in Mt. Vernon. Early one morning and a few hours be- fore the building opened, the furniture was placed near the front of the building.
All of this may seem unimportant to many and maybe unimportant to you. However, this clearly points to advance planning and, of course, sanity. Let me also add that no one from the public, police or prosecutor's office knows this. Even if the police found out, all they could do is shake their fists at me and laugh at my being clever. But, it wasn't all my idea and I'm certain you know this.
So, unless you could first convince the general public that I am a sane and rational person, then those articles you continue to write would amount to nothing. Everytime you quote me, everytime you say, "Berkowitz said this," "Berkowitz said that . . ." it would mean very little and have no credibility.
My recommendation would be to prove to the general public that I was always sane. How to do this, I don't really know. But surely this would be helpful to you. Furthermore, I would kindly ask you not to inform anybody (except your close associates) that we are corresponding. If you mention anything from the above, say it came from another source and not from me. This would be beneficial to both of us.
Sincerely,
David Berkowitz
It was a remarkable letter, and it was specific. There were numerous statements which could be confirmed from the details Berkowitz provided—and he knew it. But first, I wanted more information. Writing back in a word substitution code to elude the notice of the prison censors who opened his incoming mail, I asked Berkowitz some questions about the van rental and other matters. I also told him that we had accumulated a considerable amount of information we hadn't published. I let him know that I was aware of some of the difficulties he was enduring and that it had all finally narrowed down to him and me. He addressed that subject, too, in his reply:
Dear Maury,
I have your letter of January 19th in front of me now and I also have a receipt from the Correspondence Department, informing me that you are now on my mailing list.
But before we go any further, please let me explain a few things to you. I want to do this so that I don't get you too misled and so you don't get your hopes up.
Since I have been at Attica I have progressed quite well, both emotionally and physically. Things are much different now then [s/c] they were two years ago. Now I have a good job, friends, and I'm kept busy with plenty of projects. I type a great deal of the Web of Conspiracy inmates legal work briefs, appeals, etc. This is a twenty-four hour job. I also write other letters for my fellow prisoners since many of them cannot speak well on paper. Many haven't had the opportunities of a good education like those on the outside. So again, this keeps me busy.
Next, I am kept busy writing to the Governor and others in Albany with demands for the expansion of the Crime Victims Compensation Board and victims of violent crime in general. Perhaps I will let you read a copy of a lengthy letter I am sending to Hugh L. Carey [the governor of New York]. Just let me know if you want it.
For my views of this new investigation, I have mixed feelings. I can also say that I am guilty of these crimes. You see Maury, even if I could show you that I didn't do it all, I'd still be guilty of conspiracy in some of the cases. I'd even be guilty of second degree murder in others. So, regardless, I would still have a long prison term, but this doesn't bother me.
Next, I could safely tell you that one [cult] member, John Carr, is deceased. So this would leave me with only myself to share the guilt or proof of it. [Berkowitz didn't know we'd already zeroed in on Michael Carr and several other suspects. But by it- self, this statement said, for the first time, that John Carr was indeed an active, direct accomplice in the Son of Sam killings.] Besides, many others have vanished—scattered about all over the U.S.A. for all I know. So this leaves both you and me alone, once the dust clears.
Furthermore, I am not a stool pigeon and I cannot, no matter how heinous the crime, testify against another individual. Even if a given individual has wronged me, still, I must keep silent because this is the code—this is our code—the inmates of Attica.
I know this seems like something out of a gangster movie, but this place is my home now and I will live by the rules and by the oath. I've made many friends here (believe it or not) and I have no wish for them to lose faith in me.
Neither do I want to go back to court and go through this circus routine again. This was disgusting and stupid so I just refuse to even consider this.
As for your questions, I can tell you that the rent a van place is located in the Bronx. It is on the corner of [here Berkowitz gave the exact location]. A small van was rented and the price was almost one hundred dollars—fifty as a safety payment and thirty-eight dollars or thereabouts as the initial cost. Once the van was returned, the guy gave back the extra money. But I can't remember the exact prices. The van was rented for one day and then returned that [following] afternoon. Also, the owner, an average sized Italian fellow, but heavy set in the middle, said that we had to fill up the gas tank, too. It cost about six bucks to fill the tank back up. The station also carried large trucks, smaller size vans like the one rented and also, hitching trailers.
I'm sorry, but I don't know who was supposed to pull me through for that dog shelter job which I applied for. I was just supposed to fill out the application and turn it in. By the way, did all of the things I said check out—all the details?
Look, Maury, please don't knock yourself out over all this as it isn't worth it. What's done is done and it cannot be undone. So if you can't seem to go further, then I'll understand. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to matter anyhow.
Sincerely,
David Berkowitz
Attached to the letter was a map which provided step-by step directions to the Bronx gas station. I sent another letter off to Berkowitz and arranged a meeting with the Queens investigators. Just as Berkowitz's "animal shelter" letter was confirmed, so were pertinent details in these.
All the information provided by Berkowitz about the Bronx gas station—the types of vans rented, their prices, the deposit amount required, the tank-refill requirement and the description of the owner—was correct. There wasn't a single mistake or false claim.
As for the apartment itself and the furniture disposal, the following was learned by me and Santucci's probers:
• Berkowitz said all the wall writing was done in red. It was, and color photo enlargements showed the writing to be fresh, or not faded, and all of it appeared—from the style and other factors—to have been written at the same time. Moreover, a fair amount of the writing concerned Berkowitz's downstairs neighbor, Glassman, who hadn't even moved into the building until five months before the arrest. So it obviously wasn't written before then. Supporting that conclusion, and the entire scenario, was the fact that Queens investigators earlier interviewed a friend of Berkowitz's who told them he'd been invited to visit David "two or three weeks before the arrest." The friend had to postpone the visit—but no one believed Berkowitz would have invited him to the apartment if the walls were then in that condition and all the furni- ture was gone.
• Berkowitz said the hole in the apartment wall was made shortly before his arrest. The plaster chips were indeed still on the floor, as he said. And a neighbor, Edna Williams, whose apartment shared that common wall, said she heard the noise and noticed a resulting crack on her side of the wall "within a short time of the arrest, at about 5 A.M."
• Berkowitz said books, letters, etc., were left scattered about in a deliberate attempt to portray him as a lone, insane killer. Among the items were some bizarre notes claiming sole responsibility for the crimes. One note had been altered to backdate it six months. Berkowitz's personal address book also contained irrational listings such as "Sam's Secret Satanic Service," "FALN Secret Meeting Place" and "The Master." Those entries were haphazardly written in the first nine pages of an otherwise neat, correctly alphabetized address book, and were interspersed with previously written, orderly, routine entries. And the bizarre listings— and only those—were written with the same green felt marking pen. "They were all done at the same time," Herb Leifer stated. Additionally, the FALN, the Puerto Rican terrorist group, had not been in the headlines between February and August 1977. However, in the first week of August— at the same time Berkowitz said the setup occurred—the FALN was in the news after a major bombing incident. In other words, the FALN could well have been on the mind of someone writing that entry during the first week of August.
• Berkowitz said that he never had very much good furniture, and what little he had was removed and dumped in front of the Salvation Army building on Columbus Avenue (Route 22) in Mount Vernon in the pre-dawn hours. From Berkowitz's own father, and others, Santucci's probers learned that David indeed had furniture at 35 Pine Street, including a couch, a large bureau, a dinette set, chairs and a large stereo speaker and tape recorder he purchased in Korea. All of these were gone from the apartment when police walked in on August 10, 1977.
• As for the claimed disposal site of the furniture, the Salvation Army warehouse was located in an isolated section of Mount Vernon, and on Columbus Avenue, as Berkowitz said. And that section of Columbus Avenue was also known as Route 22, just as Berkowitz stated. However, telephone directories listed only the Columbus Avenue address; that is, one had to have been there in order to know the details Berkowitz did. Moreover, Salvation Army officials confirmed that furniture was indeed occasionally left in front of the building overnight, as Berkowitz said his was. It didn't happen often—but it did happen.
• What was obvious about the scenario was that the loading and unloading of heavy furniture from a seventh-floor apartment was not a one-man job. Not that Berkowitz said it was: "It wasn't all my idea and I'm certain you know this," he wrote.
Santucci, Leifer, George Byrd, other Queens investigators and I all agreed Berkowitz was telling the truth about the Great Con-the-Cops Apartment Caper. All the details he provided were either confirmed outright or buttressed significantly by the investigation.
Tom McCarthy said: "Someone could try to nitpick individual items here and there on the Son of Sam case. But the total picture, all the evidence put together, is overwhelming. From the crime scenes, to North Dakota, to the confessions, to Untermyer Park and the Son of Sam letters—and now Berkowitz's own admissions, which are backed up all over the place."
"That's almost exactly the way Berkowitz put it four months ago," I said.
The evidence may have been mounting, but the list of suspects was reduced by one in late December, at the same time the Arlis Perry matter was opening up in North Dakota.
The newly deceased was Jerry Berg, a cult-connected friend of John Carr's whose name surfaced early in the Minot investigation of Carr's satanic associates. Berg, Carr, the now deceased Donny Boone, Phil Falcon, a person known as "the Wiz" and a young man named Larry Milenko* comprised the inner circle in Minot.
Jerry Berg, a short, stocky young man with curly blondish hair, was a native of Bismarck who moved to the Minot area in the mid-1970s to take some courses at Minot State College— where Carr, Falcon and some of the others also studied part- time. An accomplished outdoorsman, Berg had been on the wrestling team while at Bismarck Junior College, from which he graduated in 1972. He was three years older than Arlis Perry, who entered BJC in the fall of 1973.
On December 27, 1979, Berg and Milenko were chopping trees in a wooded area outside Minot. According to Milenko, the pair had separated and were about "an eighth mile" apart. Milenko said the sound of Berg's saw stopped and he then walked over to where Berg was working—and found him crushed to death beneath a large tree. Milenko, ever respectful, then put the body in his truck, drove it to a hospital, dropped it off—and left. He immediately hired a lawyer.
"Berg was an experienced woodsman; he'd been in that business," Gardner said. "It just seemed very strange to have something like this happen to him at all—let alone at the same time we're poking around about John Carr and Arlis Perry."
In searching through Berg's possessions, police found further evidence of his satanic interests. In a letter Berg hadn't yet mailed to two friends in North Carolina, he said he was having difficulties with his brother and was thinking of "putting a black magic curse on him." He also talked of looking up his black magic teacher, "Aquarius Hador," who was "now in Minneapolis. I'm sure he's as evil as he's ever been," Berg wrote. Ironically, he closed the letter by cautioning his friends to "be careful in the woods."
Larry Milenko would be heard from again. In late 1987, police would raid his home and arrest him on drug charges. Interestingly, this North Dakota woodsman would then retain the services of a high-priced Miami law firm to represent him in the case. It is also worth noting that the arresting officers in North Dakota observed that Milenko possessed a collection of occult books as well as hoods and capes, according to Minot Detective Mike Knoop.
Police were never able to prove that Berg's death was a murder. But the toll of violently dead now included four who were directly linked to Berkowitz or the Son of Sam case: Jerry Berg, John Carr, Michael Carr and Howard Weiss.
Additionally, the Yonkers mailman who committed suicide a month after Berkowitz's capture, Andrew Dupay, was strongly suspected of having been threatened by the group. And then there were the near-misses: sniper attacks on Gardner and on the police officer substituting for Wheat Carr's husband, John McCabe; and the incident in which Darlene Christiansen and Tom Taylor reported they were run off the road near Minot. There was no absolute proof that the latter incidents were related to the Son of Sam investigation, but strong indications were certainly present.
Another incident, which occurred less than two weeks before Berg's death, was also highly suspicious. This one happened in New York.
A letter I later received said: "Dear Maury Terry. Please look into this double killing. Carol was asking people about the O.T.O. a year prior to the murders. .. . I can't accept that the people responsible for this are still walking around free. I am afraid that the problem will not go away and that minds this unbalanced may perpetrate additional horrors. Forgive me for not signing my name. I haven't gotten over the fear."
The writer was apparently a woman friend of one Carol Marron, thirty-three, a Brooklyn resident. Marron was a secretary at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and designed clothing to supplement her income. For seven years, she lived with Howard Green, fifty-three, an abstract painter who drove a cab for his steady paycheck.
As the letter writer said, for more than a year Marron and Green had been delving into the occult. Their small basement apartment at 270 De Kalb Avenue was spiced with various items of satanic significance. Chances are excellent that this paraphernalia was purchased at a certain occult store located not far from their residence; a store that served more purposes than one for certain occult adepts.
In the early evening hours of Saturday, December 15, Marron and Green were spotted by an acquaintance on a subway train in Manhattan. The friend left the train at 59th Street, but Marron and Green kept going. The subway they were riding would carry them past Columbia University before continuing to the end of the line at the Bronx-Yonkers border.
Sometime later that night, Green and Marron returned to their Brooklyn apartment. The next time they were sighted was at 7 P.M. the following evening. They were lying next to each other off Route 80 in West Paterson, New Jersey, not far from New York City. Both were bludgeoned on their left sides, both had right eye wounds and both clutched clumps of hair in their fists—a satanic symbol. And there was one other similarity. Every drop of blood had been drained from the bodies of Carol Marron and Howard Green with a veterinarian's syringe.
"It was definitely a satanic murder," said NYPD Detective Jim Devereaux, who was assisting New Jersey police with the investigation. "And it wasn't a one-man job. In all my years in this business, I've never seen anything like this."
That was precisely the point.
"The only murderous satanic cult I know of in the New York area is the Son of Sam group," I told Devereaux. "But the NYPD won't admit it exists, so we're stymied. A vet's syringe is not a foreign object to people who deal with dogs, you know. If I get any more information that may help tie this in, I'll let you know."
It would be more than two years before that information came my way.
The Son of Sam probe was entering a new phase in the spring of 1980. A large store of information was accumulated during the preceding five months and before, including data provided by Berkowitz. It was time to sort it all through. Berkowitz himself had quieted down. He wrote me several routine letters in the spring of 1980, avoiding additional specifics. Each time, I responded by asking for relevant information. But it was apparent the earlier incidents had taken their toll, and he finally fell silent. Later, he wrote to say why:
I received two interesting letters today. One from you and another from Lee. Well, I suppose I owe both of you an apology. Really, this business with Pienciak and the investigation has been causing me all sorts of troubles.
The Queens District Attorney was, at one time, bugging my father. My dad was really scared because he sensed the intensity of the investigation and was also fearful for further embarrassment for his wife and himself. Don't forget what occurred after my arrest. Dozens of reporters flocked around him, tailed him to the local store, and camped out on his doorstep. Too, he was the subject of ridicule, hate mail, nasty phone calls, and terrible threats. So he is fearful of further publicity. Therefore, when the investigation turned to him .. . I just clammed up.
Next, the authorities were attempting to locate my step-sister, Ann, who lives out in California. She has had an awful life until recently. Somehow she has managed to . . . pull her life together. Of course she was fearful of the investigation because my father told her that the investigators inquired about her. So my dad again asked me to clam up, and there you have it.
Well, I'm glad that you paid Lee back [photocopying costs] and will soon be sending her her materials [occult literature]. Anyhow, both she and I are trying to pull ourselves together.
I had this big hassle with this guy Pienciak from the Associated Press. . . . [Berkowitz then described Pienciak's dealings with Lee Chase, etc., and mentioned that McGraw-Hill was planning to publish Lawrence Klausner's so-called official book on the case.]
The result of McGraw-Hill's success could mean further harm to my father, and more publicity as to my being a deranged madman.
Oh yes, this is important. If either you or anyone else receives a phone call from one Ira Jultak, please do not give him any information. He is my former defense attorney whom I fired quite awhile ago. I have heard that he has been seeking out information. Too, he is working with the author of the McGraw Hill book and is going to share in the profits. So he is out to silence me. He [also] attempted to do this a long time ago by trying to stop a press conference [where Berkowitz repudiated his original "demon" story, which was—and remained—a central focus of that book]. So please don't give him any info.
Sincerely,
David Berkowitz
This was to be the last I'd hear from Berkowitz for almost a year. Once again, we were on our own. But the "we" no longer included Jim Mitteager, who bowed out of the investigation to obtain a full-time job to help support his family and to work settling the debt he incurred as the result of his arrest and trial.
In Minot, Gardner, Mike Knoop, Jeff Nies and Jack Graham remained active, and in New York, Santucci's probe continued. Our own informal force of "Pine Street Irregulars" kept checking new leads, and Detective Hank Cinotti prepared to face a Police Department trial. In March, Georgiana and I were married, nearly two years after that night we'd talked at the Suriani-Esau murder scene. After a nine-day wedding trip to New Orleans and Cancun, Mexico, it was back to the rigors of the .44 investigation.
Several aspects of the case had progressed markedly. In one instance, we obtained vital information about the yellow Volkswagen that fled the Stacy Moskowitz murder scene in Brooklyn. Several witnesses came forward after I published an article which revealed for the first time that a wild chase of that car had occurred after the shooting.
An attorney, an NYPD police officer and a restaurant employee all stated that Michael and John Carr had driven such a vehicle during the Son of Sam era. Their statements were forwarded to Santucci. Additionally, the Cassara family in New Rochelle, at whose home Berkowitz lived in early 1976 before his move to Pine Street, told us and Queens that while at their home Berkowitz had been driving a yellow or beige Volkswagen. Berkowitz had only his Ford Galaxie registered to him, so it was apparent he borrowed the VW.
A private investigator, Jordan Stevens, also stated that the yellow VW was driven by both John and Michael Carr, but that it wasn't registered in either of their names. Stevens obtained this information from yet another witness who knew John and Michael.
Stevens said the car was between "1970 and 1972 vintage" and "wasn't in great mechanical shape. The front bumper also hung down a bit." The NYPD officer, who reported he was "very familiar" with the car, said it was a 1971 model.
Santucci observed: "I think we can safely say that the VW was accessible to John and Michael Carr."
The Candlelight Inn employee who threw Michael Carr, Berkowitz and their friend Bobby out of the bar shortly before the sniper incident there in October 1976 also said: "The yellow VW was outside the place. And they used to talk about leaving the Inn and going over to Untermyer Park. They never said why—I can see why they didn't."
The fact that a yellow VW was available to the Carr brothers did not mean that either of them was driving it the night Stacy Moskowitz was killed and Robert Violante blinded. In fact, it would soon come to light that neither John nor Michael was the Brooklyn gunman.
At the same time, new evidence about other crimes peripherally linked to the Son of Sam case was uncovered. Specifically, the reports concerned violent acts in Westchester which Berkowitz first claimed to have committed alone. In the case of the firebombing of the Neto home in Yonkers, Sylvia Neto said she was awakened by voices just before the firebomb crashed into the front of their home in the pre-dawn hours of May 13, 1976. "I heard someone calling out, 'Come on, come on, hurry up, hurry up,'" she said. "It sounded like the one voice was calling the other one Eddie," she added. "But I'm not sure if it was Eddie."
The wounding of the Carr dog in daylight on April 27, 1977, was another act Berkowitz took sole credit for. But two witnesses said otherwise. One told Queens investigators that he saw the shooter, who was a blond-haired young man. Another witness was actually stopped near the scene by Yonkers police responding to the shooting call. That man, who was walking his dog, said a man carrying a rifle ran from the aqueduct and passed right by him. The witness said the shooter was tall, thin, and had straight, fairly long, blond hair. The reports of the two witnesses jibed, and the person each described was not David Berkowitz, who didn't remotely resemble the man seen by the witnesses.
From top to bottom, the Son of Sam case, as originally presented to the press and public, was in shambles.
But even as this new evidence was being accumulated privately, Hank Cinotti went on trial within the New York City Police Department. For months, I struggled with the notion of making some of Berkowitz's statements available to Cinotti's defense. But he demurred, saying that "the case itself is more important. Keep it all quiet."
I testified at the trial, as did Joe Basteri, who told the trial commissioner the true story of how Cinotti came to know of the North Dakota information about Carr and Reeve Rockman. Rick Pienciak, reporting for the Associated Press, obtained a quote from Deputy Chief Ed Dreher in which Dreher, ignorant of all the evidence which had been uncovered, said for posterity: "The Berkowitz case is closed. Berkowitz had no helper. I won't change that opinion. I don't think the department will."
Cinotti, who faced dismissal from the force and a loss of benefits, was merely fined thirty days of vacation time and placed on probation for a year. It was, effectively, a partial victory—for the moment. But after the media attention abated, Cinotti was removed from the detective ranks and assigned to a uniformed patrol in lower Manhattan's 1st Precinct. He remained there long enough to reach his twentieth year of service and retired from the force. All the while, he remained quietly involved in the investigation.
Even on his way out of the NYPD, the department challenged his final year's overtime pay, upon which police pensions are partially based. Once again, Cinotti had to fight for his cause. He won.
There were numerous issues to be dealt with in the probe. One of those concerned Arlis Perry. What did the North Dakota cult have to do with the murder of the young Christian newlywed in the church at Stanford University?
As Berkowitz wrote, the case was "very deep." And he rhetorically asked Lee Chase: "Who killed Arlis Perry, and why?" He knew those answers, but we didn't.
It was time to try to find out.
XVIII
"Hunted,
Stalked and Slain"
John Carr may have been dead, but his ghost haunted the
investigation of the murder of Arlis Perry. Berkowitz specifically said Carr wasn't involved in her death, but he did link
her killing to the North Dakota cult scene in this manner: "Don't worry, because I didn't commit this crime," he wrote to Lee Chase in November 1979. "Nor was I present when it was done. Back in October '74 I was busy and at work as a piss-poor paid security guard. I was here in N.Y. But (and I say BUT) in my travels with different people in this area, I met someone who was involved in her death and spoke freely of the slaying—bragging. He knew many details, and I know that this guy, Manson #2, doesn't bull. I know he killed often, him and his 'crew' [cult]. This is what this new investigation was going to rest on. . . .
"You, as a natural detective, can't help at this time but notice the strange coincidence here. Many months ago I inquired about Arliss [s/c] Perry. If you'll note your [newspaper] clip, she hails from Bismarck. Bismarck is just south of Minot. Minot is the second focal point of this investigation, next to Yonkers and Westchester County. This is why I mentioned her to you as compared with the multitudes of other murders of young women. Why her? Simply because I knew beforehand where she once lived. Also, I knew it was a cult thing ... "
Berkowitz had told Santa Clara detectives Kahn and Beck that he met Manson II at a cult meeting in New York; he told Chase the same thing. I was at first thrown off by the Manson II statement, since it appeared to contradict Berkowitz in another way. He said the man and his cult killed often; and he also said Arlis was "hunted, stalked and slain. Followed to California." If that was so, and the answer to the murder, or the motive, lay in Bismarck, then where were Manson II and the cult doing all these other alleged killings? As Berkowitz himself wrote, North Dakota boasted an extremely low crime rate, and murder was a relatively rare occurrence there.
For quite some time, I was troubled by this problem. Then a source very close to Berkowitz straightened me out. The seeming contradiction was actually a clue, as was the name Manson II. For a moment, I will get ahead of the story to explain the significance of Manson II, as stated by the source, whom I will call Vinny. "Manson II wasn't from North Dakota," Vinny said. "He was from the L.A. area. That's where the Sam cult has its headquarters. The North Dakota branch wanted Arlis dead, and they called California for help. Manson II went north to Stanford to arrange it. At least one, maybe two people from Dakota came out to help. But it was Manson II's show to run. He was involved with the original Manson and the cult there in L.A. That's why Berkowitz used that name as a clue."
This information was so overwhelming it was at first hard to believe. But Vinny wasn't done.
"This guy was an occult superstar. They used him for the most important jobs. Berkowitz met him in New York because he was imported from the Coast to participate in the Son of Sam killings. He's the guy who shot Christine Freund in the Son of Sam case. And he was around for some of the others. He was back and forth. But he did Freund and was in New York for, I think, some of the later ones."
"Are you telling me a guy involved with Charlie Manson and the original cult in California arranged Arlis Perry's murder as a favor to North Dakota and then came to New York for Son of Sam?"
"That's exactly what I'm telling you," Vinny replied.
"Then why is Berkowitz trying to help solve the Perry case?"
"Because he believes Manson II was the guy who had the most to do with picking him to take the fall on Son of Sam. He hates this guy, and fears him."
"So he wants the Perry case broken for a personal reason?"
"He may have a conscience these days but he's got more on his mind than just trying to be a good citizen," Vinny said.
"And you got this from Berkowitz himself?"
"Directly, face to face."
According to Vinny's statement, the Sam cult was headquartered near Los Angeles (in Venice) and had branches in Bismarck, Minot, Houston and New York, at least. And these branches (and others, I'd later learn) shuttled killers and "contracts" back and forth.
If any of this statement was true—any of it—it would rank the entire case as one of the most significant criminal stories of all time—bigger than the Son of Sam case already was. Berkowitz, Manson and the Process and its cells set up around the United States—the network already in place. And then the splinter groups spinning off from the Process; among them the Chingons. And all of them linked as part of an underground web of murder.
How bizarre was this charge by Vinny, who said he was repeating Berkowitz's statements to the letter?
It should be remembered that Arlis Perry was murdered on the fifth anniversary of Manson's arrest—a day which was also the birthday of black magician Aleister Crowley, whom Berkowitz had already tagged as an inspiration for the cult. Further, Arlis Perry's death occurred during a period when elements of the Manson crowd were very active: Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme would attempt to murder President Gerald Ford in northern California some time after the Perry murder.
Berkowitz himself admittedly joined the cult in New York in 1975, just six years after Manson's arrest and less than a year after Arlis Perry's killing. And as for the Process/Chingon groups, it was already established that a network was in place. Process members, using the name "Process," and mingling with existing OTO factions, were seen openly in New York City as late as 1973. The time frame fit.
Moreover, it was already established that strong connections existed between the Minot and New York cults. All Vinny was doing was extending the pattern to Los Angeles and tying it together.
Vinny's comments were first made to me in 1982, more than two years after Berkowitz first wrote about Arlis Perry. Unknown to Vinny, his statements were consistent with what Berkowitz had said in 1979. Vinny and Berkowitz didn't meet until 1981, in prison. Berkowitz, in other words, told Vinny the same story he'd written about in 1979. The difference was a simple one: in his conversations with Vinny Berkowitz filled in details he only alluded to in 1979.
⛓⛓⛓⛓⛓⛓⛓
The initial step was to try to learn if Berkowitz was telling
the truth about his knowledge of the Arlis Perry case. If he
was, that fact alone would once more demonstrate the existence of a Son of Sam conspiracy—via the "back door." That
is, how else would alleged lone killer Berkowitz know confidential details about the murder of a North Dakota girl in
Stanford, California—a murder which he insisted was committed by a satanic cult? And a branch of his cult, at that. Santa Clara detective Ken Kahn publicly stated that he was convinced Berkowitz was telling the truth about the Perry case. "It's about the best information we've had," Kahn said. "I think it's a very significant lead. I put a lot of credibility behind it." Before that, Kahn explained, "we interviewed about two hundred and fifty potential suspects and it led us nowhere. .. . I believe [Berkowitz] knows what happened."
Berkowitz was very concerned with his credibility on the Perry case. It will be remembered that he didn't want to jeopardize his standing on the matter and thus requested that Lee Chase not send any items on the case to Santa Clara, or elsewhere, for just that reason. Another letter he wrote Chase during this period, mid-November 1979, further illustrates Berkowitz's mind-set.
If anything reaches this guy in Staten Island [Gilroy] or the Sheriff from N. Dakota on this case, then they'll laugh me out of sight. The investigation will close immediately on receipt of such a clipping. Obviously, they will say, "HOAX, SHAM, CON ARTIST."
If you recall, several months ago and long before you knew of this current [.44] investigation, seemingly out of the blue I asked about Arliss. . . . You wrote back asking me how I heard of this particular case since it was strictly a west coast news item. You acknowledged the fact that this didn't make it to the east coast, at least not in the New York City area. You are ABSOLUTELY correct! I never read about it in any New York area paper. Neither did I see it in a detective magazine. . . .
This is the whole case in a nutshell. The fact that I didn't read about her or her murder is good evidence. . . .
Two weeks ago, I sent this guy, Gilroy, a four page typed letter. One and a half pages dealt with Mrs. Perry. Actually, there isn't too much more, if even this much, that I know about the case as far as facts go. I know who did it and why. But I'm not going to mention this to anyone—not give a name. I just discussed with him the case.
Here is the problem. Gilroy doesn't know that I have a news clipping on her. You sent it to me, remember? [It was a brief clip from a California paper devoid of any detail.] And this is the most important point, I questioned you first about Arliss—and to your surprise. You only sent this one clipping to me only after I mentioned her to you first. Now if you were to send a clipping to Gilroy or N. Dakota about her, then he'll (without a doubt) think that I'm giving him bum information. He'll think that I'm trying to lead him on a wild goose chase to get attention for another crime I'm trying to confess to. . . .
So please don't send anything on her case. This case is reserved for me. If he should get a bunch of Perry-related clippings at the same time that I'm writing him about her, then I'm screwed a hundredfold. . . . This guy is the attorney for Mitteager and Terry. These two were the ones who managed to get photos of me in Kings County. They believed about this Sam Carr business in the literal sense, if you know what I mean. Everyone else thought I was deranged. They didn't understand what I was trying to say. This whole investigation is here because of these three.
Gilroy is unknown to the public. He's never been in the papers in reference to this investigation or the SOS case. He's not after publicity. . . .
Being that Gilroy is thorough, I'm certain he is now checking the New York area newspapers to read about the Perry case. Haha! He'll never find it. This will surprise him and he will investigate this thing further. Gilroy knows that I had an abundance of clippings about killings. Next, he'll contact the Queens D.A. to ask him to look in my collection for the Perry articles. Hence, no articles are in my large collection on Arliss. [He meant, no articles on Arlis were in his collection.] Now, he will realize he is on to something. Understand? "How did Berkowitz know about this? I can't see how he heard of it. Maybe he isn't bullshitting."
So please don't send any photocopies to these two [Gilroy and Gardner]. . . . Let me remind you again that I contacted you first about this. But he won't know or believe this. Unfortunately, I don't know much more than was released in the newspapers (west coast). No, he will never believe I knew of the case before I read the clip you sent me.
Berkowitz did in fact query Lee Chase about the Perry case first—in a letter dated June 8, 1979. He asked Chase if she'd ever heard of the case and next hinted that Arlis Perry was a "true Christian"—a fact not included in the brief clip Chase then sent him the next week. In replying to Berkowitz, Chase asked how he could have heard of the case. Berkowitz answered with another tidbit that didn't appear in newspaper articles: "She sure was a skinny little thing." He later added: "She was so tiny." Both these assertions were true. "I gather the Arlis Perry murder has never been solved," he wrote before receiving the clip from Chase. He was right, of course. Also, before he received the short clipping, he spelled Arlis' first name correctly—with one s. But after getting the clip, which incorrectly added a second s, he abandoned his original accurate spelling and took up the erroneous one.
The Arlis Perry case, and Berkowitz's allegations, were primarily investigated by me, with assistance from Gardner and Jeff Nies. The Santa Clara police provided some help, as did Santucci. But Santa Clara investigators never returned to North Dakota to mount an investigation. Their reasoning was that the case was now old, but if Berkowitz gave up more information they'd be there to follow it through.
My first interest was in establishing just what knowledge Berkowitz had which he couldn't have possessed if he was lying.
1. Before seeing the brief news clipping Lee Chase sent him, he knew Arlis was a "teenaged" girl and that she was killed in a church at Stanford.
2. He knew from the outset that she was a "true Christian." The clip Chase later sent him didn't contain this information either.
3. He knew she was "tiny," "skinny" and "pretty," descriptions that were not published.
4. He spelled Arlis' first name correctly before adopting the incorrect spelling in the small clip he received.
5. He knew the case wasn't solved as of 1979. "I'd have known if it was solved," he wrote. [The lone clip Chase sent him was a short Associated Press item from two days after the murder. No photo of Arlis accompanied the piece, which was dated October 14, 1974.]
6. He knew Arlis liked to "frequently" take walks around the Stanford campus—an unpublished fact.
7. He accurately described the purple, scarlet and gold interior of the Stanford church at the time.
8. He knew the exact location of Arlis' stab wound, behind the ear. Some local San Jose area papers did write that Arlis was stabbed at the base of the neck or skull. Berkowitz was able to pinpoint the precise location, which had been withheld from the public.
9. He emphasized the hideous torture Arlis endured—indicating knowledge that went far beyond any newspaper account.
10. He knew that Arlis had an "interest" in cults. This was a nonpublished fact confirmed to me by several of her friends in Bismarck. Her curiosity was that of a Christian wanting to know about the "other side."
11. He knew that Bismarck's Mary College existed. Mary was a tiny school that neither we in New York nor the California police had ever heard of.
12. He connected Mary College to cult activity in Bismarck and to Arlis' death. It was firmly established that a satanic cult met in a wooded area right below Mary College during this period.
13. He alleged in his letter to Felix Gilroy that prominent, respected people were involved in the cult. Witnesses in Bismarck stated just that.
14. He saw a photo of Arlis that apparently was not published anywhere until 1981—seven years after her death and two years after he sent a photo of another girl out of prison saying that that girl looked just like Arlis. "Almost a twin sister," he wrote. He was right.
15. He said the murder was a cult killing and not a random sex crime. In Chapter I, unpublished details about Arlis' death and the position of her body, etc., appeared for the first time, along with the fact that Arlis' grave marker was stolen in Bismarck two weeks after her death, near Halloween; also that Santa Clara authorities heard from Bruce Perry's parents that Arlis may have attempted to convert members of a Bismarck cult to Christianity.
16. He wrote that the murder was planned and not random. In Chapter I, the confidential details about the law firm visitor appeared, along with other information which strongly suggested Arlis purposely went to the church the next night— the evening after her "intense" discussion with the law firm visitor. Arlis, it will be remembered, didn't tell her husband about the encounter at the firm.
17. If Berkowitz's known, named accomplice John Carr and his cult branch were nearby in Minot at this time, why wouldn't Berkowitz know confidential details about the Perry murder? Indeed, as he wrote to Lee Chase: "Why her? Simply because I knew beforehand where she once lived. Also, I knew it was a cult thing."
In the investigation of the Perry case, I personally conducted more than forty interviews with Bismarck area police and friends, family and associates of Arlis Perry. Numerous sources were interviewed several times. Jeff Nies and Lieutenant Terry Gardner also questioned several people, and Minot officer Mike Knoop provided logistics support. The Santa Clara Sheriff's Department, at the time of the killing, didn't interview any of Arlis' close friends in Bismarck—so convinced were they that the killer or killers were California psychopaths. Then, in 1979, despite their belief in Berkowitz's veracity, they sat tight—with the exception of fresh interviews of Arlis' parents, Bruce Perry and Bruce's parents. We, however, decided to act. Here is the picture which emerged.
In 1971-73, a northern California-based cult, which claimed it wasn't satanic, materialized in Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota, a small town with a population of 36,000. There were six representatives of this cult group in Bismarck. They wore black clerical garb, but adorned their necks with red collars and ribbons instead of religious white collars.
Members of this sect rented a home in Bismarck directly across the street from the residence of Arlis' grandmother. Arlis visited her grandmother regularly and may have contacted group members in that way.
At least two young women Arlis knew actually became involved in this cult. Arlis herself, according to two close associates, expressed an interest in learning about the group. One said he was "almost certain" Arlis attended one of the cult's meetings. These statements about Arlis' "interest" in learning about the occult—and numerous other comments which also detailed her innocent curiosity—confirmed Berkowitz's allegation.
At the time of the killing, the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department heard from Bruce Perry's parents that Arlis and a girlfriend had once gone "across the river to Mandan to try to convert some members of a satanic cult to Christianity." Girlfriends of Arlis told me that she did, indeed, visit a Mandan coffee shop where members of this group were recruiting from the numbers of students who socialized there. The coffee shop's owner eventually barred the cult members from his establishment. I spoke to that former owner, who is now a minister in Ohio, and he confirmed the story.
I then located one of the cult's members, who left the group and now resides in Kansas. He stated that while the group did try to recruit from that coffee shop, and did hold meetings in a rented home across the street from Arlis' grandmother's address, they weren't satanic. He did acknowledge, however, that his former cult espoused mysticism, astrology and the tarot. He also said that he'd encountered members of the Process in Chicago but that his group wasn't connected to the Process.
We remained unsure of this "non-satanic" claim, and have also considered the possibility that members of the Process or Chingon cults infiltrated the other group or falsely represented themselves in Bismarck as being members of it.
But there was another, definitely satanic cult operating in Bismarck during the 1972-76 time period, at least. Some sources, including police officers, say it is still active today.
Significantly, this secret group matched Berkowitz's statements exactly: it was holding its midnight meetings behind Mary College.
The cult's existence in a wooded area behind the school has been confirmed by at least ten people, including police officers, area residents, nuns who taught at Mary College and other Bismarck citizens who were involved in Christian activities. Importantly, the latter sources belonged to the same religious organizations as Arlis did—Young Life and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
One nun who taught at Mary told me: "My students knew all about it. They said the cult used to kill dogs back of here. .. . We have a large cross here at the graveyard and the devil worshippers used to creep up the hill to spit on our cross."
Berkowitz, in the satanic book he sent to Gardner in late 1979, underlined the following sentence: "They must be prepared to defile His image and spit upon the Cross."
A married couple who lived in a trailer home near the cult meeting site at Mary told me that they saw torches and heard chanting and that three of their pet dogs were abducted in the middle of the night and later found mutilated inside a circle of stones (a magic circle).
This couple also said that the only access to the cult meeting site was via the Mary campus itself. "The creek—Apple Creek —blocked access from the other direction. They were holding their rituals near an old shed in the woods. The only way to get there was by a trail that led down from the campus."
The cult also met at Hillside Cemetery, as well as behind a Catholic church and a Bismarck synagogue on infrequent occasions.
As mentioned, police and others knew of the Mary cult's existence, as did Arlis Perry. A friend from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes said: "She definitely knew about it. We discussed the cult several times at our FCA meetings."
Arlis' pastor, Rev. Don DeKok, said: "I knew about it, and I might well have mentioned it to her." DeKok offered another important observation: "Right at the time of Arlis' funeral here—either just before, that day or the next—one of my parishioners was awakened before dawn and saw a man wearing a black cape trying to break into the church."
Arlis' grave marker was stolen less than two weeks after this incident.
DeKok also said: "A friend of one of my parishioners went down to Mary and hid out on the hill one night to spy on the cult. I never found out who they were, but she said there were some well-known Bismarck citizens in attendance."
This provided another confirmation of Berkowitz's statements—about both the Mary group's existence and his assertion that prominent citizens belonged to it.
A further confirmation came from Mandan police sergeant Lamar Kruckenberg, who said: "In early '74 an undercover cop was brought to an indoor cult meeting in Bismarck by one of his informants. He was looking for drug activity—there was no suggestion of murder at this time, which was about seven months before Arlis' death. This cop told me the people there were wearing masks because there were supposed to be some respected Bismarck people among them." The undercover officer left the force several years later, and we were unable to locate him.
Closer to Arlis herself were two male acquaintances, both of whom were said to be occult adepts. A girlfriend of Arlis said of one: "He was always trying to invite us girls over to his basement for seances with black candles." Another friend of Arlis' recalled: "He carried a satanic bible around with him."
During the interviews, the names of several possible suspects emerged—including at least two successful Bismarck citizens said to be connected to the Mary cult.
One young woman also said: "Right after the murder, a month or so later, I heard that the cult here contacted the California group and that's how it was done."
No one but Santucci, Sergeant Kahn in Santa Clara and I knew of this Berkowitz-Vinny allegation, which wasn't made until the early 1980s and was kept secret. Yet this woman volunteered that identical information to me in December 1985, saying that she heard it shortly after Arlis' death occurred in October 1974. Her statement was a powerful one.
When the interviews began, I told each contact that we were looking for a "bridge"—someone who would have had cult contacts but whom Arlis felt she could safely approach to satisfy her curiosity about the subject.
Arlis, the investigation clearly showed, was a sincere young Christian. We found no dark corners in her life. She lived at home, attended school and socialized with her religiously active friends. Shortly before her marriage, she worked in the dental office of Brace's father, Duncan Perry. Duncan Perry was the "prison dentist"; inmates from the nearby state penitentiary were brought to his office for treatment while Arlis was there. It remained possible that something which occurred in that setting could have offered a motive for her death.
But beyond that possibility, I wanted to establish the means by which this young girl from the "Right-Hand Path" could have learned about the "Left-Hand Path"—the cult scene at Mary. I reasoned that, since Satan cults don't advertise in newspapers or have open attendance at their midnight meetings, Arlis would have sought assistance from someone she thought she could trust—but someone she also knew was connected to the seamier side of Bismarck society.
I already knew that Arlis was aware of the cult's existence, but we had to discover that "bridge," beyond which, we hoped, lurked the motive for her murder.
At least three young men and two young women were identified as the result of this approach. Any one of them, the sources agreed, could have linked Arlis' world with that of the Mary cult. Since the investigation is open, I am not at liberty to discuss specifics concerning these people. But I can say that all were in positions which provided ready access to the Mary cult operation. This evaluation has been corroborated by the Queens DA's office and Sergeant Ken Kahn of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department.
In previously listed items concerning Berkowitz's knowledge of the Perry case, I referred to a photograph of another young woman which he sent out of prison saying it looked like Arlis' "twin." When I received this picture, I thought Berkowitz was hallucinating. It looked nothing at all like those of Arlis Perry I had seen. At the time of her death, the pictures which appeared in the media were two shots taken of her in high school. In each, she had straight blond hair, wore glasses and had no makeup on.
The picture Berkowitz likened to her, however, was that of a young woman who had carefully styled, curly hair and who was wearing makeup. Also, this woman wasn't wearing glasses. In no way did she resemble Arlis Perry. Berkowitz sent this photo on October 27, 1979.
Two years later, on October 24, 1981, the San Jose Mercury News published a photograph of Arlis Perry to accompany an article about Berkowitz's involvement in the case—portions of which I'd made public a month earlier. This photo of Arlis looked exactly like that of the woman Berkowitz likened to Arlis in 1979.
I was stunned. The newspaper said that the picture was the only one of Arlis in its file and that it was a wire service photo they apparently obtained for the 1981 story. "We must have ordered it from Bismarck," I was told. Bismarck.
Arlis' parents, sister and girlfriends studied the picture at my request. They identified Arlis, but said they'd never seen the photo before and couldn't remember her ever looking as she did in the picture. "Without the glasses, I'd say it was taken in her first [and only] year of college here," Arlis' mother said.
It was readily apparent Berkowitz had seen that picture. But where and how?
In the witchcraft book he mailed to Lieutenant Terry Gardner in October 1979, Berkowitz wrote of a satanic ceremony which involved "a detailed soliloquy directed at the . . . victim, describing her (Arliss Perry) annihilation." Here, he was clearly referring to the cult meeting in New York at which he said Manson II told of the Perry killing. Apparently, it was through this dialogue that Berkowitz learned many details, including the extreme tortures performed on her. It is my opinion that Manson II had this photograph of Arlis in his possession at the time and showed it to Berkowitz and others present.
If so, where did this "superstar" satanic killer get it?
Arlis, as the picture showed, was dressed and made up as if posing for a formal photo session. Her family, however, said the picture was not among those taken for her engagement announcement, her wedding, a prom or a similar event. Arlis' parents, and the Santa Clara detectives, also said no such photo session occurred during her brief time in California.
But since Arlis spent only six weeks of her life in California, and the San Jose newspaper said the picture apparently was obtained from Bismarck, the hunt was focused there. And it produced some results.
There was a young man in Bismarck who frequently followed Arlis around—taking pictures of her. Arlis was invited to his house to pose for photographs on several occasions. Some, taken there or elsewhere, she liked well enough to display in her room at home. On one occasion, Bruce Perry and this young man got into an argument when the man called Arlis and invited her to his house to pose. Bruce, in the presence of Arlis' parents, grabbed the phone and told the man to stop bothering Arlis.
But Bruce was away at Stanford during Arlis' freshman year at Bismarck Junior College—which was the time period in which her mother believed the mysterious photo probably was taken.
No evidence directly linking this man to the Mary cult has been uncovered, but several people said a close friend of his was very interested in occult practices. However, it is distinctly possible that a photo he'd taken of Arlis was somehow obtained from him and passed on to the killers for identification purposes. Then another print made from the same or a similar negative could have found its way into the files of the Associated Press or Bismarck Tribune, which shared the same building in Bismarck.
Regardless of whether this individual was actually the source of the enigmatic photograph, the picture itself is key to the Perry case. Another bizarre and frightening clue in the Arlis Perry case came from the hand of Arlis Perry herself. Arlis' own words offered dramatic testimony of the evident pre-planning involved in her murder. On September 27, 1974—fifteen days before her death—Arlis wrote a letter to her close friend Jenny in Bismarck. Jenny and other Dakota friends of Arlis were not interviewed by the California police.
In the letter to Jenny, Arlis wrote: "I had to laugh about your call to Bruce Perry. Mrs. Perry [Bruce's mother] made the same mistake. She called them, too. But the strange part of it is that his name is not only Bruce Perry but it is Bruce D. Perry, and not only that but it is Bruce Duncan Perry and he attends Stanford University, and he just got married this summer. One thing, his wife's name is not Arlis. Anyway, next time you get the urge to call, the number is . . . This time I guarantee you'll get the right Bruce Perry."
A question: was it plausible to believe that there were two Bruce Duncan Perrys studying at the same school, at the same time—both of whom had just been married?
There were not—but someone had taken out a phone in that name. And since Arlis was able to recite all that information, she almost certainly talked to that man.
Apparently, with the influx of students arriving for the fall semester, Arlis and Bruce had a considerable wait until their phone was installed. When Jenny and Bruce's mother tried to reach them, they spoke to an information operator who gave them the listing of the other Bruce D. Perry at Stanford. It would have been a university area exchange number, since both Jenny and Mrs. Perry would have told the operator that Bruce and Arlis were living on campus. "I asked for Bruce D. Perry at Stanford," Jenny recalled.
Both then called the other Bruce and were told they had reached a wrong number. Of course, this information reached Arlis, as noted in her letter. Arlis apparently then took the natural step of calling the other Bruce to tell him where she was living and to give him her phone number (after the unit was installed) so that if he received another wayward call he could give the caller Arlis' correct number.
But now the other Bruce—the false Bruce—would also possess Arlis' phone number and, almost certainly, her address. If he'd anticipated any difficulty finding her, his problem—via the fraudulent telephone listing—would have been covered in advance. Through this method, his victim could eventually find him—just as Jenny and Mrs. Perry did.
What was it Berkowitz wrote about Arlis? "Hunted, stalked and slain. Followed to California."
The phone listing of a nonexistent Bruce Duncan Perry was a vivid portrayal of the "hunted" allegation. And regarding the word "stalked," it will be remembered that Berkowitz knew the unreleased fact that Arlis frequently took long walks around the campus. In fact, she wrote her parents that Bruce was discouraging her from roaming the area alone.
But how did Berkowitz (and the killers) know of her walking habit? The answer would appear to be that Arlis was followed—stalked. Interestingly, her regular walks ceased by September 30, twelve days before her death, because on that day she began working full-time at a Palo Alto law firm.
For Berkowitz to have known she took long walks around the campus, the killers would have been following her before September 30, which meshes with the false phone listing being in place by mid-September.
I didn't learn of the fraudulent Bruce Duncan Perry until I interviewed Jenny in December 1985. Her husband, reading Arlis' long-stored letter, thought the telephone incident might be relevant, and Jenny sent me a copy of it. A subsequent check with Stanford University by both me and Sergeant Ken Kahn confirmed what we already knew was true: there was no other Bruce Perry at Stanford, let alone another Bruce Duncan Perry who'd just been married.
Another inquiry, this one with the telephone company, led nowhere—records that old weren't in existence. But we did learn that the other Bruce, whose published number the information operator had in September 1974, wasn't listed in the new area telephone book that was distributed several months later. In and out—the other Bruce was gone.
The plan, while ingenious—and chilling—was simple to enact. With an appropriate cash deposit and a false name, it wasn't difficult to obtain the listing. And why not? It is apparent that Arlis was "hunted" and "stalked" for several weeks.
The idea that Arlis Perry evidently spoke on the phone to one of her own killers is horrible to contemplate. But no other plausible explanation for this unsettling chain of events has surfaced—except for the possibility that the listing was obtained in a demonstration of sheer, macabre arrogance and omnipotence.
The existence of the phone listing, which wasn't discovered until late 1985, melded with other information I possessed since 1980, when a source of Minot reporter Jack Graham told me she had heard that the Perry killing involved "someone registering at Stanford under a false name." The lead was impossible to pursue then. But now, its import was established. The information was basically accurate, but it applied to a bogus phone listing, not an actual registration at the school. The source said she had picked up the story from the cult crowd in Minot.
Reviewing the Perry investigation results, Queens homicide bureau chief Herb Leifer said: "If Berkowitz was lying, none of this information could have been confirmed—it wouldn't even have existed. And far more information than he spoke about was uncovered. It looks like he knew that once you turned over that rock and started digging, you'd find what he always knew would be there."
If, after examining the broad scope of evidence and confirmations, one believes that Berkowitz was telling the truth, then one has decided that conclusive supporting evidence of a Son of Sam—and much larger—conspiracy has been uncovered.
Numerous questions about "motive" remain. Berkowitz wrote that one existed, and the entire idea of tracing her to the Coast and planning her slaying also demonstrated that a motive lurked somewhere.
She could have been killed simply because, as an ardent, vocal Christian, she was an automatic enemy of the cult. Its leaders may have ordered her death to provide underlings with an example of their power and prowess. But to have committed the crime in Bismarck—where murder was a rarity— would have been too obvious. The cult, whose existence was known, would have come under immediate suspicion, as would have a number of Arlis' acquaintances who had the means to "bridge" her world and that of the group.
But after Arlis reached California, the killing could be accomplished because, as did happen, the search for the murderer would be conducted there, not in Bismarck. When I interviewed Arlis' friends, I asked each the same question: "Pretend for a moment the killing occurred in Bismarck. Who would the suspects have been?"
Of course, the cult was immediately mentioned, as were Arlis' acquaintances who had contacts on both sides of Bismarck society.
Returning to the question of motive, Arlis also may have tried to convert to Christianity a cult member who later returned to the group and perhaps acknowledged that he (or she) told Arlis certain details the cult deemed confidential. It is also possible she inadvertently learned the identity of a respected citizen involved in the group.
A large amount of drug trafficking was occurring in Bismarck during this period and one does not have a satanic cult without drugs being in evidence. Somehow, in her explorations, Arlis may have stumbled across some knowledge of the group's drug operations.
There are at least two other possible motives, neither of which can be mentioned publicly. But as Berkowitz alleged, the investigation found that motives for Arlis' murder did indeed exist.
Arlis did not appear to be fearful. Her letters from California revealed a young woman who was occupied with adjusting to her new life and interested in what was happening in her hometown. Her correspondence contained no concerns for her safety or indications that any noteworthy troubling matters were left behind in North Dakota. Combined with her serious discussion with the law firm visitor the day before she died, her failure to tell her husband about it, and her unflinching desire to walk to the church alone the next night, it appears that Arlis was set up by someone close to her—someone she didn't fear.
This evaluation was also based on a comment in Berkowitz's letter to Felix Gilroy, in which he said that identifying her hometown would solve the case. That statement strongly suggested that someone obvious, and close to Arlis, was involved.
The Bismarck cult assuredly had more than one leader. It is possible that one of them was a local educator because Berkowitz, in pointing to Mary College, also dropped several clues about "professors." Including teachers, people who relocated to the Bismarck area from Southern California in the early seventies would be worthy of scrutiny because the Bismarck cult would have needed contacts in Los Angeles to enlist that "headquarters" group in the murder plot, as alleged by Berkowitz and the prison informant.
Several such people did settle in Bismarck during those years. Two were young men who were said to have been involved in narcotics distribution and connected to three Bismarck men who spent considerable time on the Coast. The California natives lived in a rented "crash pad," known locally as the "hippie house," that was the scene of numerous drug parties in Bismarck. Curiously, the "hippie house" was said to have been located at the same address later occupied by the California cult group that recruited in Bismarck between 1971 and 1973—the house across the street from Arlis's grandmother's residence.
As two final notes, seven young men whom Arlis knew were identified as matching the general description of the law firm visitor. But since no police sketches of that man were drawn, it wasn't possible to show a rendering to Arlis's friends. Also, it was mentioned earlier that Arlis's jeans were placed with their legs positioned on her own, spread-eagle legs in a manner that resulted in a rough, diamond-shaped configuration. Though it isn't certain that was the intent, a study of Mary College yearbooks revealed that a diamond logo appeared on some official school sweaters.
The Arlis Perry murder investigation remains open.
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