THE ULTIMATE EVIL
An Investigation into a
Dangerous Satanic Cult
By Maury Terry
XX
An Investigation into a
Dangerous Satanic Cult
By Maury Terry
XX
From the Belly of the Beast
In July 1981 an apprehensive David Berkowitz was unexpectedly transferred from Attica to the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. Located in the northeast corner of the state near the Canadian border, the ancient gray behemoth was the most inaccessible prison in the system. Left behind at Attica, to John Santucci's chagrin, were valuable informants. But ahead at Dannemora were others, more than one of whom was eventually removed from that facility and separated from Berkowitz.
Frankly, the succession of moves was suspicious and would be noted as such by the district attorney's office and myself.
These prisoners, and one prime outside contact, provided important information about the case. All knew Berkowitz well. To each, Berkowitz revealed intimate details, particulars which overlapped and were repeated to us by the informants, who were with Berkowitz during time periods ranging from 1979 to 1985.
To protect these sources, who may someday be asked to testify in a court of law and whose lives may be in jeopardy, the information they provided will be attributed here to two composite characters, whom I will call Vinny and Danny. The real names and letters or statements from each of them are in the possession of the Queens district attorney, who developed two of them. Others were cultivated by me.
As the information contained common elements, the road to confirmations was a single one. This consistency enhanced the informants' credibility and that of Berkowitz, who, it turned out, was relating the same details he first described to us in 1979-80—but with one major difference. With his fellow prisoners, and others, he filled in blanks he'd left for us to decipher as clues. They said he was open with them for several reasons, one of which was his desire to explore the possibility of obtaining legal assistance for himself and protection for his family should he decide to step forward. He thought, in the case of at least two of the informants, that their attorneys might be willing to assist him, and so he briefed the inmates to elicit their opinions on what their lawyers might be able to do for him. He ultimately decided against pursuing the matter.
With both Berkowitz and the informants, it was a relatively simple, although time-consuming task to compare statements and letters written over a period of years to determine if their versions remained consistent. They did. And the written material was bolstered by more than a dozen visits I made to various prisons around the state, interviewing the sources personally on multiple occasions. Vinny and Danny were repeating the same stories in 1986 that they originally told between 1979 and 1985.
I personally spent many months fleshing out the allegations, and was assisted by the Greenburgh Police Department in Westchester, Yonkers' Lieutenant Mike Novotny, retired NYPD homicide detectives Joe Basteri and Hank Cinotti, and others who requested anonymity because of career considerations.
Information was then compared with that unearthed by the Queens investigators, and it meshed.
With that background, the stage is set.
In October 1981, with the Santucci interview now public, Berkowitz was aware the DA believed the conspiracy existed. He'd earlier told Vinny and Danny that both John and Michael Carr were in the cult and that John Carr, at least, was a triggerman.
He hadn't said whether or not Michael was a gunman, but did tell them that while he was already "drifting" toward satanism at the time, his chance meeting with Michael in the Bronx brought him into the group's clutches when Michael invited him to the party at the Barnes Avenue apartment building. Berkowitz had also revealed that the cult was larger than he thought we in New York were aware of.
Now, in mid-October, he told Vinny that the group planned a murder for Halloween.
Halloween was one of the major satanic holidays and, based on what Vinny heard, the killing would serve a dual purpose: a cult sacrifice and the elimination of yet another weak link. "It is to be an inside, housecleaning thing," Vinny wrote.
He said Berkowitz felt powerless to stop it. But how did Berkowitz know what the group was planning?
According to Vinny, outside contacts monitored Berkowitz and kept him apprised of the cult's activities. This statement has also been supported by independent information. Vinny was shocked to hear that a murder was planned. He wrote the following letter to a close friend, summarizing some of the details he learned:
If Santucci cares, you may share all of this with him.
I want you to give him all. Most of this means zip to me. But I can tell just reading it over that things are significant that I don't even realize myself. Time is critical. I'll take my chances. This is all true. It's true as I write it, as I see it. I'll try to be objective. The D.A. can take them for what they are worth.
I want no deals. No publicity. These sickies have a fetish. Their favorite mode of murder is gunshots. They blow people's heads off. I have a family. I also have a head and want to keep it.
Santucci does not have to play games with me. I fully expect he will dissect me and my motives. It's a price I have to pay. I'm not exactly eligible for sainthood. All I can do is shut up if some lunatic starts turning this into publicity.
My main concerns here are two things. That October 31 crime they planned, and giving as much as I safely can on the "Group." Because November 30 is the next date. Then New Year's. I am not psychic but already I've "predicted" 3 crimes.
Drugs are involved. I feel the real key to exposing the Group is through drug and porn connections. Illegal weapons are also, but not as good 'cause that's sporadic. And they already have arsenals. But they need steady supplies of drugs for their own "parties" and to make money. And remember, those who head this may not believe this crap about Satan. They believe in how people can be led and used. Used in a very effective way. Sickeningly effective.
They saw a good thing. I don't believe it was always this sophisticated. But they are expanding. And when you touch drugs and porn and call girl type operations and daughters of middle-class people at school, things get hot. 'Cause politicians may be involved. Or influential persons. So I'm scared, to put it mildly. If I get wind they blew someone's head off October 31, I may go catatonic.
Tell Santucci this is real. Screw my inhibitions. Look—whoever heads this isn't from the City. At least, he lives outside. I think Jersey or Long Island. At least, he has some sort of big place. A regular Hugh Hefner place for parties, kinky sex. And people come from all over. Most people there are upper middle class. This group has strong holds in a lot of ways. Besides "dedication" is "intimidation" or "guilt"—but fear is strongest. And Berkowitz' fear is real.
He said to me that if I said certain things he told me, he'd just deny it. Not maliciously—but these people blow heads off! Blackmail exists, also. Or people won't talk because they're co-conspirators.
Now listen, you know that coven book where they write their crimes? Can't you see, I'm positive their "Dragon" doesn't write his crimes. (I never asked.) But that book is "insurance." The members figure it's occult but that book is insurance against rats. This is not a nickel-and-dime group of people out for "kicks." Doctors and lawyers do not have to be so flamboyant. This group has got to offer something of substance. Something very "lucrative" for someone.
When was Donna Lauria shot? Cause DL has a special significance. This I verified. They cover certain "target crimes" by unrelated other crimes. To cloud the picture.
This is the type of Group that can move into an unknown area and win "converts" fast. Sex, drugs, homosexuality—many members educated and good looking. Fun parties. Big "mansions" of sex. They call them mansions. "In their Father's (Satan's) house are many mansions." Or "palaces"—sick people. They go for "retreats," too. I am not nuts. I will just say what I was told.
I have things which lead me to suspect they may have filmed (or videotaped) many of these crimes. I have more than a suspicion. They have certain killings on film.
That revelation alone will get me wasted. I'm destroying my notes. I must. Too dangerous.
They not only ransacked Berkowitz' place to make him look "mad," but he was supposed to "get caught" in a final act. No, I suspect different. He does also. He knows his days are numbered. That's why he came to me. He needs J.S. [John Santucci] 'cause dammit, this insane stuff is true.
Keep these things [coded notes compiled earlier]:
I went to see my fortune story behind the brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, 'cause I went to NYU [New York University] at that time. That night, I met my date in Washington Square Park. Tom, and Ronald, and David were there, too. We had some coke [cocaine] and a hamburger. We then saw a movie: "Frankenstein Meets Mickey Mouse" and "Rodan, the Flying Monster."
Narcoe and Ebee and Sissy Spacek and Rudi Kazooti were there.
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are my favorite stars. Next to James Camaro who is white but dresses like an Indian.
We were a regular jet set of the occult. Kennedy assassination taught that conspiracy theories are thought of as fairy tales. The insane act solo. . . .
On October 31, look for a kinky or bizarre assassination. Male(s) and female(s). Their heads shot off. . . . And they'll remove the evidence like when they ransacked Berkowitz' place. Or leave misleading clues like in 1977. Just keep this in mind if you stumble on something. A Halloween shooting. That will convince me.
Vinny's letter contained many confirmations of earlier, unpublished information Berkowitz had provided. Among them, of course, was the statement that affluent people were involved with the group. The following facts, in addition to those unearthed in Bismarck, North Dakota, supported that contention:
When Berkowitz was arrested, he possessed a list of telephone numbers, which were barely investigated by the NYPD.
No names accompanied these particular numbers, and the NYPD simply dialed them and wrote down notations such as "female answers" or "no answer." That was the extent of the Police Department's work. However, with the original paperwork in hand, I was able to enlist sources in the telephone company to identify the names behind the mysterious numbers. In light of what Vinny (and, earlier, Berkowitz) wrote about doctors and lawyers being connected to the cult, the results of the Berkowitz phone numbers search were intriguing.
One number was identified as that of an exclusive country club in Long Island's Hamptons area: the Montauk Golf and Racquet Club. Two other numbers werie listed to the Long Island summer residences of Yonkers doctors; these were not office numbers.
Another number was that of a private residence in East Hampton, another belonged to an unlisted telephone in West Babylon, Long Island, and a final number was listed to a private home on exclusive Shelter island, Long Island.
There was, simply, no legitimate reason for Yonkers postal clerk David Berkowitz to possess these telephone numbers. Moreover, he didn't list any names next to them.
Berkowitz also had the phone number of the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida—a facility owned and operated as a major training center by the Church of Scientology. This further cemented his relationship with middle-level Scientology official Michael Carr, at the least.
Regarding the rest of Vinny's letter, he said that—contrary to the official belief at the time—-some of the Son of Sam victims were chosen targets, and not randomly selected victims. Santucci had suspected this for some time, and his investigators had been seeking links between some of the victims.
Vinny named Donna Lauria, slain in the Bronx on July 29, 1976, as one of those deliberately selected for death. He further stated that some of the .44 shootings occurred at random to cover up the targeted incidents.
He also said that a major leader of the group lived in a large, freewheeling mansion in either New Jersey or Long Island; that the group was involved in drug, porno and call girl operations involving college age girls; that shipments of illegal weapons were sometimes part of the picture—and that at least one Son of Sam murder was filmed, or videotaped, by the group.
Without exception, these allegations were explosive, to put it mildly. They were also so complex and elaborate that we immediately suspected there was at least some truth to them.
In the coded section of Vinny's letter, he was, I later learned, describing the murder of Stacy Moskowitz and the blinding of Robert Violante. Some of the coded names were said to refer to participants in that attack—which was alleged to have been videotaped by the cult. As Vinny later wrote me:
"Videotapes. Snuff films. The killing of Stacy Moskowitz is on film. It draws a high price. The sick bastards. But this is 'business.' The whole Moskowitz killing was orchestrated. The whole 'capture' was. Analyze the events yourself. [Vinny didn't know Berkowitz had already revealed details of that operation to me.] You'll feel like a fool for ever having believed differently. Sickeningly, this whole nightmare is real. I have a good idea where the films and 'ritual book' [the log of coven crimes] are. But a premature leak could get them 'lost.'"
"Lost" was one thing; dead was another—as in murdered on Halloween. As Vinny later wrote: "I had two locations, Brooklyn Heights and the Village [Greenwich Village]. I didn't know which was to be the place, except it was to be one of them. Berkowitz didn't know either. And he didn't know it would be that guy. When I sent out that code, I didn't know that the guy who turned out to be the victim was among those names."
And why was he killed? "He was afraid he was going down on drug dealing. He was about to help the cops [Santucci]—to tell it all. And he was gonna make a copy of the videotape. And stills. They wasted him. It served a double purpose."
The dead man was, logically enough, a photographer. He was referred to twice in the coded Vinny letter. First as "Ronald." Next as "Sissy Spacek." His name: Ronald Sisman, and Vinny had written down his name two weeks before the murder, which occurred on the night of October 30, or shortly after midnight on Halloween, in Sisman's Manhattan brownstone at 207 West 22nd Street, on the fringe of Greenwich Village. Technically, the neighborhood was known as the Chelsea section.
In December, Vinny, not even realizing that he'd listed Sisman's name in October, wrote to the same friend to whom he'd sent the earlier letter. "The name, I believe, was Sisseck (sp?). A girl and he were shot. A coed from Massachusetts. Sisseck was [planning] a deal with the D.A. He was gonna produce the videotapes."
Vinny wrote that Berkowitz hadn't told him personally about the motive for Sisman's murder, but that a mutual prison associate had filled him in. Vinny later said to me:
"Berkowitz had told me about Sisseck, and he told me an inside job was in the works for Halloween. But he didn't say that Sisseck was the planned victim. I don't think he knew it. He was getting info from outside, but there was a lag sometimes. But he knew Sisseck before. He'd been to his brownstone with Michael Carr .. . He told me Sisseck was dealing, and that there was a party going on when they got there. He saw the chandelier. Berkowitz waited while Michael Carr got the stuff."
As a confirming note, the building was indeed a brownstone, and there was a chandelier on the premises, along with a hanging Tiffany lamp.
According to Vinny, Ronald Sisman had been at the scene of the Moskowitz-Violante shooting and may have videotaped the attack himself. If not, he assisted whoever operated the camera.
"It was either him or that guy 'Mickey' ["Mickey Mouse" in the coded letter]. I have no idea who he is. I also think Manson II might have assisted the filming, but I'm not sure."
Sisman, thirty-five, was a Canadian native whom police described as a photographer, procurer and dope dealer. He and Elizabeth Platzman, twenty, a Long Island resident and a student at posh Smith College in Massachusetts, were both shot in the back of the head, execution style. Her hands were bound behind her with a cord; his weren't. The apartment, as Vinny also predicted, was totally ransacked.
Police established that the ransacking—at least most of it— occurred after the killings—that is, that sometime between the murders and the discovery of the bodies, the apartment was entered and torn apart.
As Vinny also wrote, and this was confirmed by the police, Sisman, a drug dealer, was paranoid about what he believed was an impending arrest on drug charges related to the sale of large amounts of cocaine. Police theorized that the killings were the result of a dope burn and that the killers may have been looking for a large amount of cash Sisman might have had in the brownstone.
However, as the police conceded a year later, the killings were unsolved, and if the word "tape" was substituted for "cash," the entire scenario fit perfectly.
"We've got a reentry here," I told Herb Leifer. "I think they came in the first time and Sisman told them the tape was in some bus locker or whatever. He thinks that's going to spare him, but they kill him anyway. Then they go to where the tape was supposed to be hidden—only it isn't there. So that's when they come back and tear the brownstone apart looking for it. Apparently, they got it.
"Sisman probably copied the thing for his own insurance before the original left his possession. And he probably then told somebody he thought he could trust that to get out of this feared drug bust, he'd give Santucci the tape in exchange for a ticket out of the country. Only he told the wrong person and was whacked before he could move."
"It seems to fit," Leifer said. "I'm just amazed that people inside that damned prison know all these details about a double murder that went down in Manhattan."
"I don't see how there could be anything but a pipeline," I answered.
Santucci's office viewed the Sisman-Platzman murders from a safe distance. They occurred in Manhattan, not in Queens, and no arrests were made.
"If Sisman was one of them, he can't help us now either," Santucci said. "That list keeps getting longer."
The district attorney wasn't offering a casual opinion. He knew that Vinny previously alleged that college girls were involved in the ring; and the murdered Elizabeth Platzman was an out-of-state student. He also knew about the Berkowitz phone numbers. And he was likewise aware that information which supported the shocking charge that the Moskowitz-Violante shooting was videotaped had been uncovered.
Specifically, in 1979, when Berkowitz was organizing "Operation Photo" with Lee Chase, he requested that a particular news clipping be sent to Lieutenant Gardner and Felix Gilroy. The article reported that the FBI was probing leads that a Philadelphia schoolteacher named Susan Reinert had been slain in a Black Mass ritual and the event recorded on film. Until Vinny's letter two years later, we had no idea why Berkowitz wanted that clipping sent out. Now the implication was clear.
Additionally, I delved into the Moskowitz case again, and a close scrutiny of the events surrounding the shooting revealed the following:
—Berkowitz told the police that Tommy Zaino and his date were the original targets but that "plans were changed" when Zaino pulled from beneath the streetlamp. Why? Why abandon Zaino because he pulled to a darker spot, which should have been more desirable? And why shoot Violante and Stacy, who then pulled into the same spot beneath the bright sodium streetlamp? The presence of a camera and optimum lighting conditions would answer those questions.
—In the same vein, why weren't Violante and Stacy attacked in the darkened park, where they'd gone to ride the swings shortly before the shots were fired? They passed right by the killer, who, as Violante stated, was leaning against the rest-room building. So why not shoot them at that time, rather than wait until they returned to the brightly illuminated car, which was in clear sight of witness Zaino as well? A camera's presence would also answer those questions.
—And why, as several witnesses reported and the composite sketches showed, was the killer wearing a wig that night? No evidence of wigs surfaced at any other .44 incident. An attempt to conceal one's features from a camera's eye would provide an answer to that question.
—Finally, if a camera was on the scene, where was it located? Mrs. Cacilia Davis, who was at the murder site five minutes before the shooting while walking her dog, told us in 1979 that, in addition to Violante's and Zaino's occupied autos, a Volkswagen "bus" (a van) was parked across the street and slightly behind the victims' car. The killer would pass directly in front of this van en route to the Violante auto. Although it was on the scene minutes before the attack, the van's existence wasn't noted in any police report. While this isn't proof the van contained camera equipment, it does provide a reasonable answer as to where such material may have been situated and why the van left the scene before the police arrived. And for the alleged macabre filming, the vantage point was an excellent one.
It is my personal opinion, based on the evidence and my familiarity with the sources and the case, that the videotape exists.
As for Sisman himself, an association between him and Michael Carr came as no surprise. Sisman was a photographer; Michael Carr, a photographer and illustrator. As the Carr family told Queens investigators in 1979, many of Michael's friends in business and on the Manhattan disco circuit, also traveled by Sisman, were professional photographers.
And on the subject of the videotape, it was clearly established that Sisman was friendly with a man who had a "thing" about bizarre videos—a man who lived in a sprawling mansion in Southampton, Long Island, which, curiously, was the site of Berkowitz's alleged mass-murder-in-a-disco plan. Somehow, all roads were now leading to Rome.
That man was mentioned in Vinny's coded letter as well. He was called both "Roy Rogers" and "Rodan the Flying Monster." Once again, as in the case of Sisman, Vinny had the name of one "Mr. Big"—although he didn't know it then. I wouldn't either, until the spring of 1982.
In November, the other source, Danny, ventured forth with his information, which was identical to Vinny's. He wrote:
Weapons were never carried in cars. They were always conveniently near locales. The weapon (and letter) so conveniently exposed in Sam's [Berkowitz's] car was a set-up. How anyone fell for it is beyond me. It was all planned. The [Son of Sam] letters were dictated. So was the log of arsons. Dr. David Abrahamsen [the court-appointed psychiatrist] almost stumbled on it. He once asked Sam how he "thought up the story."
Sam panicked. Not because it would show he was lying, but because he thought the cops had broken the whole plot. Breslin was used—made a fool out of. His ego played right into their hands. Everyone's did. Breslin, Craig Glassman, old man Carr. They could "rely" on these clowns. People like that are predictable. They [the group] could never have spread the lies as effectively as these unwitting "allies" did. The letters were a scam. They were dictated. Even Abrahamsen saw the one to Breslin was out-of-character for Sam.
They were "tests." The public was fed a little. All they [the cult] had to do was sit back and watch how the "glory hunters" (the "gory" hunters) wrote a script for them to build on.
The irony is that the "Children" [the internal name of the cult] really did not think up this whole elaborate fairy tale [the original version]. The "experts" did. Those who the public trusted. Those supposedly "above" the sensationalism. I could name them, but you know who they are. And each of them can sleep nights knowing that their egotistical greed kept the truth from being found out. And because of that, the list of innocent victims grew.
And it still grows. And there is still a cover-up. Ironic, months were spent trying to fit it all together. But once they got one confessor—no one seemed to really care to analyze "why" or "how."
There were 22 disciples. You got one. That left 21, if I'm not mistaken.
The one good that can come out of all this is that we recognize the weaknesses in our system and clean them up, so maybe these horrors can never happen again unchecked and on this scale.
Those were the written words of a convict. And Danny went further, into specifics:
The motive is drugs. I have all the details. Some [.44 shootings] were "hits." Pornography is also involved. Also: snuff films on videotape. And that, sir, is proof. This is not just "sick." It is big business. Someone has gotten rich off the bloodshed. And I can back up every single word. I'll give you facts. What you do with them will determine how much you get. You see, I don't trust you. I trust what Lincoln said. You can't make assholes out of the people forever. I think that's how he said it.
It's how / say it. The authorities are elected to protect, not to censor and cover up. Gannett [newspapers] is always bullshitting you care about the public's right to know.
Prove it. I've got my ass on the line. We have a deal to talk. And my writing this letter is a commitment. I'm risking my life. Does that maybe "challenge" you? Even if they waste me, you got a story.
The "Children" were very literally being raised to kill. [This was a reference to wall writing in Berkowitz's apartment: "My children I'm raising to be killers. Wait 'til they grow up."] For very real reasons. There is a "Black Master." Only, he is not an illusion. Dr. Abrahamsen also came close to this realization. Berkowitz feared Abrahamsen knew, that he figured it out. Check the ballistics reports. More than one weapon was used. They can't "argue" around that one.
Those conflicting composites do not prove eyewitnesses are worthless. Perhaps they prove the cop/D.A./political mentality is dangerously prejudiced. Sam was a "Squeaky Fromme"—nothing more glamorous than a patsy.
He laughed when he was apprehended. Sure, why not? It was orchestrated. Do you believe he actually transported guns like that? No. And the note, left out in the open, the visible gun. It was a set-up. The apartment was a set-up. Made to look like he was nuts.
They [the cult] didn't want a trial, nor an investigation. Things were getting hot, too many experts were involved. If the investigation continued, the truth would have been found out.
The truth. That elusive word we'd been chasing since August 1977 was now in sight. Danny proved he was close to Berkowitz by including a quote from a letter I had sent to the confessed .44 killer.
Later, in a personal interview, Danny amplified what he'd written. "I was told they bought more guns in Texas, at least, around the same time Sam was down there. . . . The cult never planned to have a '.44 killer.' The cops did that. Look at the composites. There were different people using different .44s early on. Then the cops come out with 'one guy and one gun.' The group laughed. That's when they decided to go along with the game. And they played it well—I mean they knew they could count on Breslin; that's why they used him. They sent him that letter with all sorts of clues in it and he creamed all over it. He was so thrilled that he got a fucking letter that he didn't even catch on to what they were really doing. You are not dealing with stupid people at the top of this," he said.
"What about the Borrelli letter and the hatred of Sam Carr and all that stuff that happened to him in Yonkers?" I asked.
"That was Michael Carr's idea. He hated his father so much that he wanted to torment the hell out of him. That's what all that was about. . . . And John Carr, Sam [Berkowitz] told me, also hated the old man because the father liked Michael more than him."
"So the term 'Son of Sam' began there?"
"Yeah, but it had another meaning, too, to the group. Something like 'Servants and Master'—SAM."
"Who did the Breslin letter?"
"It was a group effort. I think it was dictated by a woman. There were a lot of women in this; one was a leader." [Here, Danny was confirming information Berkowitz provided in 1979.]
"How big was this group?"
"In Westchester, there were those twenty-two, but with fringe people the number went higher. The 'Children' were the inner circle; twelve of them, I was told. That's who planned the Sam shootings."
According to Danny and Vinny, the cult originated in England. They didn't know the names "Process," "Chingon" or "OTO," but the English-origin information was enough to put it over the top. Both the Process and Aleister Crowley's OTO were rooted in England.
The group had a main headquarters in Venice, California, near Los Angeles, and both confirmed that Manson II was from L.A. and was involved in the Arlis Perry murder. He was also involved in at least one Son of Sam shooting, they said— that of Christine Freund.
Vinny's description of the cult's philosophy also matched that espoused by the original Process. He explained the theology in depth to a minister friend of his, who wrote:
The cult bases its theology on a strange mixture of apocalypses from Daniel, Revelation, II Esdras, II Adam and Eve, and the Gospel of the Essenes. Of particular interest is the timetable in Daniel and Beast of Revelation whose number is 666. According to Daniel, after a "time, two times, and half a time," there will be a "time of trouble such as has never been since there was a nation until that time."
The cult interprets this to be 2,300 years after the Book of Daniel was written, and we are now in that time of trouble.
According to Revelation, Satan was an angel who was cast out of heaven and bound on earth. Earth is his realm. God is supreme, and the worsnip of Christ is elevating a man to the position of deity. This is wrong. Satan is the one who should be worshipped on earth to hasten the coming day of the Lord. This day must be preceded by the time of trouble, the Armageddon of Revelation—and one goal of the cult is to help it along by promoting dissension, confusion, and holocaust. They look upon the destruction wrought by Hitler as a warm-up for what's coming— and they want to be in on the big event. They see their murders, etc., as a divine mission.
The reverend wrote that the marks of the cult, its signs, were "666," "HT" and "HH" for "Hitler" and the German SS lightning bolts. "All are marks of the beast, Satan-Hitler, whom they serve."
This information was confirmed by the fact that the initials "HH," never made public, were written on the back of the envelope in which Berkowitz enclosed one of the threatening letters he mailed to Sam Carr. We also possessed information contained in a 1977 police report in which an acquaintance of Berkowitz stated that Berkowitz "possessed and wore Nazi insignia." Of course, along with numerous other items—including at least two guns Vinny and Danny said Berkowitz owned—these articles were missing from his Yonkers apartment at the time of his arrest. One of the missing guns apparently was the .38 revolver Berkowitz showed to the sheet metal workers.
The reverend added that the Sam cult specialized in three types of crime:
All rapes, murders and arson jobs take place in the vicinity of coven meetings. In the last Son of Sam murder [the Moskowitz-Violante shooting], the coven members were assigned definite stations according to ritual significance in a nearby playground. Rapes are for the purpose of deflowering a virgin, which has special significance for Satan worshippers. Arson is a symbol of the great conflagration, or Armageddon, and murders are to spread confusion and to fulfill the prophecy in Daniel: "But the wicked shall do wickedly."
Before each coven meeting, Satan has to be appeased by the rape of a virgin [young girl], a holocaust [arson], or the ritual murder of a person or animal.
Berkowitz certainly informed Vinny of some deep, philosophical matters. But there was more. As the reverend reported:
There are about 1,000 persons in the cult, nationwide. In the east, a headquarters is in an abandoned church, privately owned, in [a New York area town]. A present and active member of the cult who is still committing crimes worked for [a Westchester automaker]. He is married to the daughter of one of the . . . executives.
John Carr and Mike Carr were in David Berkowitz' coven. Other murders by the cult: Arlis Perry; a girl in Santa Monica, California, late 1977; John Carr, North Dakota; Mike Carr, New York City." [Berkowitz told Vinny that both Carr brothers were murdered. Our analysis of their deaths had not been made public.]
A girl from Valhalla [Westchester County] stumbled onto a coven meeting [before Berkowitz's arrest]. She was raped and brutalized and told to keep it quiet. She did. One month later she died of a drug overdose. [Vinny also wrote that the cult committed a rape at the time of one of its meetings in Untermyer Park. Yonkers police confirmed that such an assault took place late at night near St. John's Hospital, which adjoined the park.]
So concluded the reverend's report on his pivotal meeting with Vinny. The synopsis was submitted to the Queens district attorney, and later to me, by the minister.
"I doubt anybody could be making this up," Herb Leifer said. "It's just too thorough and specific."
"If I was lying, I'd say John and Michael did it all with Berkowitz and that was that," I responded.
"Yeah," Leifer said. "They want the DA to have the information. These guys could testify as to what they were told, but unless Berkowitz himself or some other member backs it up on the stand we're in that hearsay evidence situation again. It's good stuff, but it still doesn't give us what we need to prosecute."
Leifer was correct, unfortunately. But in another sense, the case may have been growing too large for the Queens district attorney's office. The nationwide scope of the group and its origins were now clearly stated. Since neither Vinny nor Danny recognized the words "Process," "Chingon" or "OTO," I suspected Berkowitz hadn't mentioned them, although in his own letters he'd specifically referred to the Chingons.
To me, it was now apparent that whatever name the group used in New York, it had first sprung from the Satan slice of the original Process pie. There was no evidence available to demonstrate the parent Process was involved. But it will be recalled that Process members were free to worship either Jehovah, Lucifer or Satan. It was not difficult to see where this offshoot hung its hat, or how it had evolved.
In fact, Berkowitz would soon state that the Sam cult was a "violent offshoot" of Scientology. That remark specified that the original Process fostered the .44 group.
Cults, as many experts confirmed, changed names frequently as circumstances demanded. The actual name wasn't all that important—but the original theology and networking was.
As for the claim that approximately one thousand people nationwide belonged to the cult, this figure, while startling and ominous, was not incredible. Berkowitz, as far back as Marcy in 1978, had said he believed he was protecting "hundreds." And the original Process, with its cells in numerous American cities, stated as early as 1969 that two hundred people in the United States joined the movement. Additionally, the Process actively sought alliances with existing occult groups such as the Crowley-worshipping OTO. So, with expansion and recruitment since then, it was not beyond the realm of possibility that offshoot or related ranks increased their numbers by some seven or eight hundred across the country by 1977. And of course, the figure may have been somewhat exaggerated by those who provided it to Berkowitz.
Vinny and Danny also quoted Berkowitz as saying Charles Manson was a member of the cult. This, too, blended with everything we learned, or would learn, including Berkowitz's "offshoot of Scientology" remark. Author Ed Sanders and Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi both believed Manson was affiliated with the Process. In his book Helter Skelter, Bugliosi said that two Process members from Cambridge, Massachusetts, visited him to dissuade him from that belief. Those same two from the Process then called on Manson in prison— after which Manson stopped talking about the Process.
Prior to that, Bugliosi had privately asked Manson if he knew Robert DeGrimston (Moore), head of the Process. Manson said he'd met Moore. "You're looking at him," Manson said. "Moore and I are one and the same." Bugliosi believed Manson was saying that his ideas mirrored Moore's. We would find out considerably more than that.
Taking Bugliosi a step further, Sanders strongly suggested in The Family's hardcover editions that Manson belonged to a secret Process chapter in southern California. (Threatened legal action by the Process resulted in the removal of direct references to the cult from the American paperback editions. In England, after court action, there were no deletions from the book.)
Sanders was able to carry his investigation one level deeper than Bugliosi. But in a sense, both men were right. I didn't know it yet, but we'd soon begin our own exploration of the Manson-Process relationship.
Since the reverend assumed the important job of documenting the Sam cult's theology, I was able to focus on the crimes themselves. Cult members, the informants said, sometimes told rape victims: "Call Satan your father"; and they added that the group met, depending on cycles of the moon, on Thursdays. This allegation dovetailed with North Dakota reports that John Carr's group there also met on Thursdays.
Cult members were also said to bind themselves with a "symbolic cord" to indicate bondage to Satan just as he was bound to earth. Some victims (perhaps Elizabeth Plotzman) were also tied in this manner. The informants further alleged that some cult members were tattooed—sometimes beneath the upper lip—with one of the group's signs. Others, they said, had pierced ears, as did John and Michael Carr. The informants said Berkowitz's ear wasn't pierced, and they didn't know if he was tattooed. But they said not all members were thusly marked.
The rape allegations complemented the "John Wheaties, rapist and suffocator of young girls" alias; and we'd also earlier established that John Carr dated thirteen to fifteen year old girls in Minot. Further, the note Berkowitz left in his apartment referred to John as a "terrible rapist and child molestor." Now it was all coming together.
The group reasoned that Hitler was worthy of worship for several reasons. One of which, the informants said, was a numerology timetable in which each letter of the alphabet was assigned a number. Under this system, A equaled 100 and Z was matched with 125. The numbers which corresponded to the letters in Hitler's last name (107, 108, 119, 111, 104, 117) added to 666—the number of the great beast of the biblical book of Revelation. The devil's number.
At a dinner one night on City Island in the Bronx, Tom McCarthy and I discussed the new developments.
"Nothing surprises me anymore," he said. "I find it difficult to believe these sources could be dreaming all this stuff up. It can't really get more bizarre than it already is, right? We've got dead dogs and murder and a dead guy in North Dakota with 666 on his hand. What more do we need to get in Ripley's Believe It or Not?"
"Amen," I answered. "Nobody in the world knows about that writing on Carr's hand, and we get unsolicited word from the slam that 666 is one of their big signs and that they sometimes leave it at crime scenes."
I told McCarthy that I'd called the Westchester medical examiner on a hunch and learned that a young man named Anthony Varisco was slain in the recent past and had 666 tattooed in a triangular pattern on his hand—the same shape in which John Carr wrote "XXO" on the walls in Minot.
"Who the hell killed this Varisco?" McCarthy demanded.
"They said it was some squabble with a woman. It happened in Putnam, just over the Westchester border."
"So what does that mean to us?"
"It means we've got another local murder victim; this one with a damned 666 on him. Maybe he was tattooed under his lip, too, but he's in the ground now."
"Was this 666 thing on him made public?"
"No. And don't forget you've got that '78 Hirschmann case, where he was blasted just above the Putnam line and his wife knocked off in Queens. He had that Process-sounding 'Brother Tom' and swastika tattoo on him—and his name was Robert, not Tom."
"Yes," McCarthy replied. "Still unsolved, along with just about everything else connected to this mess. The only one we got was the Howard Weiss murder, and that involved his gay lover, at that. And this homo stuff is all over the Sam case."
"It's all bizarre," I said. "But not as bizarre as a lone lunatic claiming barking dogs told him to ice people. There were at least real motives: dope, porn, snuff films for big bucks."
"I guess so." McCarthy nodded. "Real motives for real crimes."
"Yeah, and how many wars were fought in the name of religion? To these people, at least the lower levels, this is some kind of perverted religion. Christ, and I thought the nuns in grammar school were bad."
"I'm not debating with you, for a change." McCarthy grinned. "It's just difficult to absorb it all sometimes."
"Hell yeah, but so was the idea of nine hundred idiots drinking poisoned Kool-Aid because Jim Jones told them to, but they did it. So was the idea that freaking Charlie Manson could hocus-pocus kids into butchering, but that happened, too. And San Francisco had those Zebra killings by that fucked-up band of Muslims who were shooting whitey at random to earn their 'death angel' wings. This isn't quite without precedent."
"That's all true," McCarthy agreed. "I'm just saying this thing keeps expanding and it's the most complicated case I've ever seen. It's like a goddamned maze."
"Don't feel bad," I said, laughing. "I started out thinking it was just Berkowitz and probably John Carr. I didn't ask for this either. But you can't just walk away from it."
"Ah, but don't you sometimes wish you could?" McCarthy asked, lowering his wineglass. "I know I do."
"You're not alone," I said. "And look at it, the NYPD had three hundred cops after Son of Sam. Now it's a much bigger case and we are sorely lacking in manpower. It stinks."
"That's why the DA is keeping focused on the Queens shootings," McCarthy explained. "After that, the rest may start to fall in place, or at least be worked on more. We don't like it any damn bit better than you do."
There was little else I could say. As McCarthy noted, the case was mushrooming. And in late December 1981 another crime would be added to the roster of those suspected of being connected to the group's operations.
As the year wound down, the football Giants made the playoffs for the first time since the 1963 championship game, which they lost to the Bears, 14-10. This time, they knocked off the Eagles in the wild-card game before losing to the 49ers in the semifinals. For me, a long-term season-ticket holder, it was a euphoric December as the once great franchise lumbered awake after an eighteen-year hibernation. Also that month, Paul Davis' wistful recording of "Cool Night" played as Christmas trees sparkled. At the same time, WOR-TV broadcast a special What's Happening, America? program which highlighted its major stories of the year. The three Son of Sam segments were condensed and featured prominently on the show.
Concurrently, we began wondering if yet another prison prediction would come true.
On November 27, Vinny had written:
Crimes continue. On October 31 was "something." I have details. I sent them out prior to then as insurance. But December 31 is the next date to watch out for. Publicity now would be rash, foolish, and lose a greater good. I want no publicity. None. And no "deals" with authorities. Is that enough to show you where I stand? My hope is to prevent any December 31 harm.
If people get killed and then you have an interest —forget it. If you permit more bloodshed before you have the courage to risk your own reputations, you'll never accomplish any good, anyway.
At this time, Vinny knew only that his information had been received; our face-to-face meetings and other contact had yet to occur. He wasn't aware that details he'd provided were being carefully scrutinized. The climate at Dannemora was too hot and the situation too precarious to permit any overt approaches to informants. Another prisoner, to whom Berkowitz had also spoken, had been removed from the cellblock and would be transferred from the facility. He'd been too openly occupied with the Berkowitz information, and it backfired on him. The other informants noted this and kept their roles secret.
John Santucci's office was cognizant of the December 31 warning, as were the Gannett newspapers' Mike Zuckerman and Yonkers' Lieutenant Mike Novotny. But we had no information as to what, if anything, would happen or where it would occur.
On November 30, a satanic holiday Vinny mentioned earlier, we'd noted several rapes and shootings—any one of which might have been cult-related. But we had nothing to work with; no way of knowing if any real connection existed. Now, on December 31, New Year's Eve, we waited and watched.
In the afternoon, I phoned Mike Novotny. "This is about the creepiest feeling I've ever had," I said. "Wondering if right now as we're talking somebody's about to get killed and others are plotting it while we sit here helpless."
Novotny managed a weak laugh. "I know what you mean. Happy New Year."
"Based on what he wrote, we should be looking for something bizarre involving a gun, and with head shots, if it's murder we're talking about. If it's rape or arson, that's something else," I suggested.
"With any luck, something will go down in our own backyard so we won't miss it," Novotny said. "If it's in the city, or somewhere else, we might not even hear about it. We can't possibly know everything that goes down in the metro area tonight. If it's gotta happen, I hope to hell it's around here."
The lieutenant's words were morbidly prophetic. Not four hours after our conversation, between six and seven P.M. forty-seven-year-old Joseph Carozza was shot to death on his forty-one-foot yacht, the Sarc, which was berthed at the Five Slip Yacht Club in New Rochelle—a city with multiple connections to the Son of Sam case.
Carozza, owner of a Bronx auto-body shop, was shot twice with a .38-caliber revolver. He was estranged from his wife, Patricia, a nurse, and had lived in the marina for six years.
A spokesman for the Westchester medical examiner's office said that Carozza, who was belowdecks, apparently began to climb a stairway to the main deck when he spotted his killer and tried to retreat below. One bullet was dug out of the stairway wall. Two others struck Carozza from behind: one in the back, the other in the head. December 31, gunshot, head, bizarre circumstances—the scenario was familiar.
Peter Zari, owner of the marina, told the Gannett newspapers: "To the best of my knowledge, he was never involved with anything underhanded. He's not that type of guy to get himself involved in a heavy—and this is a heavy."
The New York Daily News reported that an acquaintance of Carozza said that when word of the murder reached a New Year's party at a country club in the area at about nine o'clock that evening, a woman broke down hysterically and shouted: "I knew they were going to get him."
For its part, the New Rochelle Police Department was stymied—another familiar tune. "We're mystified completely," a department spokesman told Gannett. "I don't know why this guy got blown away. There's no immediate motive."
Maybe not, which in itself said something to us.
Mike Zuckerman, who'd periodically worked with me on the Sam investigation since late 1980, delved into the Carozza killing for more than one reason. In addition to the dire warning about December 31, Mike Novotny and I immediately suspected Carozza might be linked to another suspect in the .44 case. Zuckerman's digging paid off. Searching through old files in a courthouse, he learned that Carozza once underwrote a business loan for the suspect—a man Novotny and I thought could be the "Wicked King Wicker"—the remaining Breslin letter alias.
Zuckerman's research established the link. It didn't prove the cult was involved in Carozza's murder, but it did conclusively demonstrate that Carozza, slain on Vinny's targeted December 31, was tied to a man previously suspected in the .44 case. As such, it was a significant discovery and almost certainly not a coincidence. The reason: if the group didn't commit the crime, who did?
Throughout the .44 probe, I remained in the background while local police investigated the several crimes I suspected were tied to the Sam matter. My reasons for this were simple: I didn't want to be considered a gadfly; and detectives often resent reporters intruding into what they regard as their exclusive domain.
Much later, when it was apparent New Rochelle's investigation was unsuccessful, I phoned the department and briefly outlined what we'd found, but the information wasn't made public.
The killing of Joseph Carozza remained unsolved.
With Carozza's death out of the headlines in a matter of days, I knew the time had come for meetings with Vinny and Danny. The information they'd provided, while good, was incomplete. It was certain they possessed more knowledge than that contained in the letters they'd written. Through a source, I was able to get a letter into Vinny. As we awaited his reply, the Son of Sam case would explode onto page one again. Berkowitz, silent so long, was about to speak.
His comments would be given in a sworn deposition taken by New York City attorney Harry Lipsig, a legend in Big Apple legal circles. The diminutive, white-haired and slender Lipsig was still, at eighty, a walking dynamo. Some dubbed him the "King of Torts"; I fondly regarded him as the "Mighty Mite." Harry's reputation grew with each case he handled. He counted among his clients a fair number of celebrities, including Roy Innis, head of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
Innis and I developed a working relationship during the Atlanta child murders investigation, when he'd asked me to assist CORE'S efforts to help solve that tragic series of slayings. Innis and his staff had unearthed troubling information which raised the distinct possibility that Wayne Williams, convicted of two of the killings, had acted in concert with others. CORE had developed a witness who said she was at one time part of the group.
The Georgia and federal authorities, not surprisingly, chose to disregard CORE'S information and, although Williams was found guilty of but two killings out of more than twenty, the books were wiped clean. The CORE witness, whom I interviewed, alleged that drugs and satanism were the motives for the murders. In Atlanta today, a number of interested parties are still probing the case.
In the Son of Sam case, Innis' lawyer, Harry Lipsig, represented two victims—Sal Lupo and Robert Violante—in a multimillion-dollar civil suit filed against the Berkowitz estate. Lipsig and I had spoken several times about the Moskowitz murder and the cult, and Harry was convinced Berkowitz acted in concert with others. Accordingly, he obtained a court order to depose the confessed .44 killer as part of the civil action.
Surprisingly, Berkowitz cooperated to an extent, amplifying somewhat what he'd told me earlier. But he remained evasive, and at no time did he touch on the specifics into which he'd delved with Vinny and Danny. Nonetheless, he remained consistent, and his statements, importantly, coincided with established evidence. The deposition was taken at Dannemora on January 19, 1982. What follows are relevant excerpts.
Berkowitz, typically, began by saying he didn't want to cooperate with Lipsig. "I do not choose to answer a lot of these questions because they hurt me," he said. "As to their [the victims'] health and well-being, I have never challenged the money, so-called monies that are in the estate. They are welcome to that. I have never tried to get it. They can have it. I pled guilty to those crimes and there is nothing more I can say."
Lipsig then pressed. "Do you remember injuring Robert Violante?"
"No comment."
"Do you have any relatives?"
"One, yes. My father. Let's leave him out of this."
"Don't you think you ought to do something so he would have some pride in you, since you are concerned about him, obviously? Won't you do that, please? We can fence this way for days, man. What is the good of it all? Do you mean that you are devoid of all human feeling for these poor devils you injured?"
"It's not a question of feeling."
"You are not helping them when you can. I made it clear to you. You know, you say one thing and do another. Do you like to be in that light?"
"Continue with the questions," Berkowitz answered, and proceeded to claim responsibility for the .44 shootings. But Lipsig wasn't buying the story.
"Do you remember a Virginia Voskerichian shot in the face as she was walking home?"
"Yes."
"Did you do that?"
"No comment."
"Well, did you discharge a bullet that struck her?"
He remained silent.
"Don't you want to answer that question?"
"I don't want to answer the question."
"Does it move you that you killed her?"
"I know she is dead. There is nothing I can do. I cannot answer these questions anymore."
Lipsig didn't back away. He instead talked about John and Michael Carr.
"Were they friends of yours?"
"No comment."
"Is there something with reference to them that you feel should not be told?"
"I would prefer not to say it without legal counsel."
"Do you know that they are both dead?"
"Yes."
"Do you realize that nothing can be done to them?"
"That's true, not to them directly."
"Well, to whom indirectly?"
"I would rather not say."
"Is it that there were other people involved besides Michael and John and yourself?"
"I would rather not say."
"But you are interested in protecting Michael and John—is that right?"
"Well, they have family."
"Did you get together with either Michael or John or both of them at some time before these acts of violence took place?"
"I cannot say, Mr. Lipsig."
Lipsig kept on, and Berkowitz kept dodging, saying he felt "a degree" of loyalty to the Carr brothers. Finally, he said:
"This is pointless. I can't say any more without legal counsel." (Berkowitz had approached Vinny and Danny to seek legal help, possibly from their attorneys. His responses here confirmed their statements—he had no lawyer.)
"Were you a member of a cult?" Lipsig asked.
". . . If you keep probing along these lines, I am going to have to refuse to answer any more questions until I have legal counsel."
"Would you like to have counsel represent you?"
"There is no attorney I can think of."
"Suppose you were given a list of names of lawyers that might be interested and willing to represent you. Would you consider such a list?"
"I may."
"Is it then that if you had the benefit of the advice of counsel and if counsel said that it was in your interest to disclose whatever activities there were on the part of Michael . . . or John Carr—you would be willing to discuss it after counsel might have so advised you? Is that right?"
"It is possible."
Lipsig then asked how long Berkowitz had been acquainted with the Carr brothers.
"A few years," he replied. Berkowitz then said he had "an idea" as to why John and Michael were dead, but that he wouldn't disclose it.
Lipsig then asked: "Are you in a position to clear them?"
"No."
"Is it then that you are worried about involving them? Frankly, is that it?"
"There is a lot more than that. I can't go into it."
"And when you say 'It's a lot more than that,' then involving them is one of the things you are concerned about—but it's a lot more than that. Am I correct?"
"Yes . . . Mr. Lipsig, I cannot go further along that line of questioning."
"Without the benefit of counsel—is that it?"
"Without a lot of things."
"Well, what else?"
"A strong drink."
After a break, Lipsig returned to pertinent matters. "You had some connection with the Church of Scientology, did you not?"
"It wasn't exactly that. But I can't go into it. I really can't."
"Were you connected in any way or an adherent or convert of the Church of Scientology?"
"No, not that way. It was an offshoot, fringe-type thing."
"Were John and Michael with the Church of Scientology?"
"Well, not really that church. But something along that line. A very devious group."
"Did this devious group have a name?"
"I can't disclose it."
"Roughly, how large would you say its membership was?"
"Twenty."
"Were they all residents of the New York metropolitan area?"
"No."
"Were they spread across the nation?"
"Yes."
"Did they meet on occasion?"
"Yes. But I really can't say more without legal counsel."
"Are you worried about involving people in the group, frankly?"
"I'm worried about my family, too. You know how treacherous some people can be. You don't have to dig it out from there."
"When you say you are worried about your family, who particularly in your family?"
"My father."
"How many of the cult would be in New York State, according to your best estimate?"
"Fifteen or so."
"Are they all males?"
"No."
"Could you give us roughly the percentage?"
"No, I couldn't."
"Would it be split pretty even?"
"Yes. Say approximately. I didn't say definite numbers."
"I take it very frankly . . . that since you have clothed this group in anonymity, that included in the group were Michael and John Carr?"
"Yes."
"Do you have any thought that either John or Michael Carr lost their life through the activities of a member of this group?"
"Yes. Definitely."
"Well, don't you think . . . that they should be brought to justice?"
"I don't know where they are."
"What motive could the members of the group have to kill John or Michael Carr? Knowledge of your activities?"
"Yes. Violence, fear and rage."
"Desire to accomplish their silence?"
"Yes. And just plain sickness—moral sickness."
"Were members dedicated to violence?"
"Yes, and depravity and everything else."
"And the depravity that you speak of would be of what nature?"
"Everything."
"Sex?"
"Yes. The opposite of everything that is good."
"Murder?"
"Yes. God gives life and they take it."
"Have they taken life other than what you have taken?"
"To my understanding, yes."
"How much of it in New York?"
"I cannot say . . . a lot of that occurred before I was there, as far as I know."
"Did they inspire the [.44] shootings?"
"I suppose they were my fault. I am responsible .. . I can't lay blame on anyone but myself."
"Do you know how many members are still alive?"
"Half."
"Was Sam Carr a member of the group?"
"No."
"But John and Michael were?"
"Yes. Could we sort of change the questioning?"
Lipsig then took up the matter of specific Son of Sam crime scenes. Regarding the Moskowitz-Violante shooting in Brooklyn, Berkowitz acknowledged the presence of the yellow Volkswagen.
"Did you know the person in that Volkswagen?"
"Well, I would rather not say."
"Bluntly, was it a member of the group?"
"I cannot say."
"Was any member of the group within the vicinity of these [.44] shootings?"
"Yes."
"How many members of the group were present at all of them?"
"I would say two or three—four."
"Did any of them designate victims?"
"Yes."
"Was it three or four at each incident?"
"Yes. Males and one female."
"Was the idea of a series of shootings planned?"
"Yes."
"Did you join in the planning?"
"Yes. . . . Mr. Lipsig, if this is going to be made to the press—"
". . . Was there any underlying name or type of identification that was used in selecting the victims . . . ?"
"I can't say."
"Was it you that left the letter for the police [the Borrelli letter at the Suriani-Esau murder scene]?"
"I would rather not say."
"Was it a member of the cult . . . ?"
"I would rather not say."
"Was the letter in your handwriting?"
"I would rather not say."
"It wasn't in your handwriting, was it?"
Berkowitz didn't answer.
"Was it?"
"I'd rather not say."
"You hesitated when I asked you whether it was in your handwriting . . ."
"Look, this is a matter for the police. This is a civil court hearing for the police."
"You don't want to be a lawyer in this examination, do you?" Lipsig asked humorously.
"I want to protect my family from harm and avoid adverse publicity, because that is not necessary."
"And the publicity you're concerned about . . . might make clear to the world that there were members of the cult involved and your worry is safety for your father, and possibly others from this group—is that it?"
"Well—"
"Is that it?"
"Yes."
"Did members of the group in their crimes use knives as well as guns?"
"Yes." (This confirmed Vinny and Danny's statements that group members had "ritual knives," as did Berkowitz.)
"Did somebody else pick the name 'Wicked King Wicker'?"
"Mr. Lipsig, let's—can we deal with your client, please?"
"If it weren't for the possibility of harm to your father, would you feel that the other members of the group should be brought to justice?"
"Yes."
"You have told us that there were three or four cult members present on each occasion. Did they cooperate in any way?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"I would rather not say. I didn't really want to talk about this from the beginning, you see. But you were very insistent. I would have preferred to say nothing, because I just can't talk —get into this anymore. .. . I meant to ask you, who was your other client besides Violante? You said you had two."
"Lupo," Lipsig answered. He then asked about the circumstances of that shooting near the Elephas disco. "Of the three or four present . . . how many of those are still alive?"
"I believe one."
"So John and Michael were of the [other] three present?"
"Not always." (This statement was supported by the evidence, since John Carr's travels to New York were dated.)
"When Lupo was selected?"
"I believe so. I can't recall." (If so, the remaining accomplice who was still alive was almost certainly the sandy-haired, husky man with a mustache who watched the shooting and drove from the scene in the same direction as the shooter. He was driving a yellowish compact-sized car with its lights extinguished.)
"Shouldn't the group be brought to justice in view of what you indicated was their depravity and their addiction to violence?"
"Yes, but—"
"And if your father were given protection, would you then disclose and help to bring to justice these creatures addicted to violence and depravity?"
"I would like that. I can't obligate myself now. I have no legal counsel."
"I take it that all of the prior references to being inspired by demons and so forth was just a cover to protect them?"
"Indirectly, I guess."
"Why did you suggest that the shootings were inspired by demons? Did you have them in mind—the members of the group—as demons?"
"That was the general idea. But the idea to make it look like it was the act of a deranged madman."
"Did you ever feel that your life is in danger here?"
"Yes."
"How do you counter that danger?"
"You don't. You just—there is no—you just—I can't say."
"You live with it—is that the answer?"
"Yes."
Lipsig then turned his attention to the group again.
"Did you have any interest in any of the female members?"
"Yes. There were a few nice ones, physically."
"Would I be intruding too much on your personal life if I asked you if they were available to you physically?"
"Yes. I really don't want to talk about it."
"Did you ever hear the name Arlis Perry?"
"Yes. But again, this is not—you are going across the state. You're going across the United States. Let's deal with this, please."
"Didn't that involve, or wasn't there a member of the group involved in that?"
"Yes, there was."
"Now that killing was of somebody out of the state, but it's part and parcel of the whole picture of the conduct of a particular group—isn't that so?"
"True."
"What was the general idea of the group? Was it some kind of devil cult or—"
"I'm sorry. I can't get into this. It's too much to talk about."
"And I take it you have a concern for human beings?"
"Yes."
"And don't you think that concern should carry with it the idea of eliminating anything such as this cult engaged in?"
"Yes."
"Did you wear one of their costumes?"
"It wasn't exactly a costume .. . I suppose a costume would be fitting, but I don't wish to discuss it."
"Included in it, was there a particular type of hat and a particular type of gown?"
"For some."
"Would the officers have a special type of garment?"
"Yes."
"And what was the chief officer called .. . his title?"
"There were several, but—"
"Of the approximately twenty in Westchester how many were officers?"
"Three."
"And one of the three was a woman—am I right?"
"Yes."
"The big chief was a man?"
"Mr. Lipsig, please."
"How often did they meet?"
"I can't say right now."
"You have written about a number of these things to people."
"Very vaguely. I suppose it was a mistake."
"Coming back to Arlis Perry . . . don't you feel that . . . whoever was responsible for that innocent human being should be brought to justice?"
"Well, yes. But I'm in no position to talk right now." (It will be remembered that Berkowitz wanted Manson II arrested.)
"If your father were given absolutely unequivocal protection that would give you peace of mind, would you then disclose and bring to justice these individuals who engaged in murder and—"
"I might."
Lipsig then ascertained from Berkowitz that the group was mainly composed of white-collar workers; that it practiced its own rituals and killed animals as well as human beings. He then asked:
"Don't you feel that it's unreasonable that you have been the one that has been given up as the sacrifice?"
"Well, it's more to it than that. I can't elaborate."
"Did the group have a particular community as its . . . main base?"
"Well there is, but I don't wish to say anything at this time regarding that."
"Was it in Yonkers?"
"In that vicinity."
"So that the officers were of that vicinity, obviously?"
"Yes."
"Was it the cult that sold you the idea of using the demons as a cover?"
"It could have been."
"Did you discuss the cult with any of the psychiatrists that interviewed you?"
"No."
"Did you avoid the subject with them?"
"Yes."
"Did you use the same gun every time or different times?"
"Just what is in my testimony in Queens—in the district attorneys' offices."
"I didn't hear you."
"Just what is in my testimony." (Berkowitz was hedging on the number of guns used.)
"What did you say there?"
"I was involved in this. I had the gun and I used it."
"Was it the same gun every time?"
"I fear getting into this. I know this is going to go to the media before it goes anywhere else and I don't want that. I don't need this. This type of publicity."
"So if it does, it's gone and it's finished. Someday it will come out. .. . Do you believe there is a possibility of their killing again when they feel safe?"
"This group, I can't say."
"Was there more than one group?"
"I have heard that there were others."
"Where did they get the animals they used in their rites?"
"I can't say."
"Would you say that you answered all my questions honestly?"
"To a degree. I mean, there are certain ones that I didn't wish to answer."
Lipsig then said: "I am convinced that you weren't the only person that injured this list of people involved in this case. Now, besides being present at the scenes and in the vague way you have indicated they were involved, didn't some of them at one time or another either supply a gun or themselves use a weapon with one or another of these victims?"
"It could be."
"Did the three or four that were present at each occasion always use more than one vehicle?"
"It was more than one."
"Besides the yellow Volkswagen, what other make vehicle?"
"Mine."
"And how many accomplices came with you to the Stacy Moskowitz-Robert Violante scene?"
"I believe it was three." (Vinny and Danny said there were more, if one counted the alleged camera setup.)
"How many were in your vehicle?"
"Two."
"And one in the Volkswagen?"
"Yes."
"Was that a male?"
"Yes."
"And was it a male or female in your car? My view of it was that it was a male."
"No comment."
"What weapon did that male have?"
"I don't know."
"Where did you get the bullets for your gun?" (Although Lipsig didn't know it then, the bullets in Berkowitz's possession when he was arrested were not those he purchased with his .44 in Houston, as he claimed in 1977.)
Berkowitz now answered Lipsig with silence.
"The gun you got in Texas. Where did you get the ammunition?"
"The ammunition was purchased with gun," Berkowitz finally said.
"There was enough ammunition for all these shootings in that one trip to Texas?"
"As far as I know, yes."
"And when you say as far as you know, then somebody else got that [other] ammunition, since it's something you're not sure of in your own knowledge, isn't that so?"
"Yes."
"And that person who got the ammunition—that ammunition was supplied to you not all at one time but at various times as needed, isn't that so?"
"Yes."
With that final statement, Berkowitz asked that the session be brought to a close. Lipsig had done an excellent job, but all the good was about to be nullified.
Outside the prison, Lipsig met Associated Press reporter Rick Pienciak and gave him carefully selected details of Berkowitz's statement. The information was sketchy, but the resultant publicity backfired. Berkowitz had specifically stated he didn't want his comments to reach the media, and he also said he would consider cooperating with Santucci's probe if his father was protected and he found a suitable lawyer.
Berkowitz was enraged that any of his comments ended up in the press. He filed a complaint against Lipsig with the Bar Association (later dismissed) and refused to talk further. The aftershock was even more distressing because Berkowitz, before the deposition, had written Lipsig indicating a respect for the attorney and a desire to see justice served.
The offending material was essentially that which I'd already published and broadcast previously, with the exception of Berkowitz's inclusion of women in the group (which I'd known) and his statement that three or four cult members were at each crime scene. Lipsig kept the newest details secret. But it wasn't what was released that enraged Berkowitz then— it was that anything was released.
Rick Pienciak, who'd tried to downplay the investigation since Berkowitz showed him the exit two years earlier, now had his own story to write, and he did so either unknowing or uncaring of the fuse he was helping to light. Pienciak was functioning as a reporter, which was his job, but there would seem to be times when tomorrow's headline might defer temporarily to a potentially greater good. Lipsig, too, had the opportunity to reveal nothing. But perhaps thinking the publicity would pressure Berkowitz to come forward, he chose otherwise. In any case, the news exploded, and in Queens, so did John Santucci's staff.
Executive assistant Tom Russo called me immediately. "Why the hell did this happen?" he demanded. "It's all over the front page of the Post, and God knows where else. This is going to drive Berkowitz right back into his hole. And there's nothing really new here in the papers; you put most of this out last year."
"Well, Gannett and WOR are putting it in perspective," I said. "But the rest of the media are just reading the AP wire. I don't know who did what, but Harry isn't averse to publicity and Pienciak's had the rag on for the case since he got the old Berkie boot."
"We can't do anything about him," Russo said. "But we've got to bring Harry on board. You know him—can you see if he'd be willing to come over for a meeting?"
"I'm sure Harry will come," I answered.
On January 25, six days after the deposition, Lipsig and I sat in the DA's office with Santucci and Russo, who'd recently joined the .44 investigation.
Santucci wasted no time in laying his cards on the table. "Nobody knows more about this case than Maury, myself and Herb Leifer, who can't join us today," he told Lipsig. "Anybody else you may have been talking to is uninformed. So I'm going to bring you up to date, and if you're willing, we'd like you to assist us from here on. Berkowitz has consistently refused to see me—but you saw him and you may have the opportunity to do so again," the DA explained.
"I will file the papers immediately," Lipsig said, and described his session with Berkowitz. "I'd known about this cult, but Berkowitz impressed me with his intelligent, matter-of-fact demeanor. He was sincere, and I'm convinced he was telling the truth. The man is sound as a dollar."
"We know," Santucci responded, and then told Lipsig about the difficulties he'd encountered with the NYPD on the investigation—calling some of the department's top brass "obstructionist." He also mentioned his suspicion that certain prison transfers might have been motivated by a desire to isolate Berkowitz from informants.
"This is outrageous," Lipsig angrily said. "I thought the DA's office was all-powerful."
"Not in this case, it isn't," Santucci replied. "I have suspicions, Harry, but no proof. And as far as the PD is concerned, they need to obtain permission from above before they give us any Berkowitz material we need."
"Everywhere you look there are roadblocks, Harry," I explained. "And based on what I've been hearing from my sources, there's big money somewhere in this picture. Drug money, at least. And power and connected people. I'm just saying what I hear, that's all."
"I'll tell you," Lipsig answered. "When I examined him last week he was fearful, looking about to watch the guards who were at the ends of the room. He wanted to see who was listening in, and he asked me to lower my voice a number of times. He was in obvious fear for his safety. He was concerned about the changing guard shift—you'll see that in the transcript. He said his 'safe' time ended when the shift changed."
"Every time something hits the papers on this case, I get a little apprehensive," Santucci said. "Too many unusual occurrences have transpired. It's just a simple advisement, Harry."
"How many suspects do you have?" Lipsig asked.
"On the streets or in the cemetery? There are two categories," I answered, forcing a smile.
"About seven or eight still alive," Santucci responded. "But I don't have enough to arrest any of them. We need inside corroboration."
"Berkowitz said he might be willing to cooperate," said Lipsig. "If I get the approval to go back up, I'll take Maury with me and if Berkowitz gives the go-ahead, I'll call you immediately."
"That's all we can ask," Tom Russo said.
In December of 1982, I accompanied Lipsig and Mark Manus, a member of his firm, on a return trip to Dannemora. While I waited outside so as not to tip off my presence there, Berkowitz sat stone-still in a conference room and refused to answer questions for several hours. Lipsig, frustrated, then attempted to elicit a reaction from Berkowitz by mentioning names of people he knew were not connected to the conspiracy. He succeeded. Berkowitz erupted in anger.
"He stood up, pounded the table and started cursing out the boss for trying to drag his friends into the case," Manus said. "He was furious. He was leaning over the table and shouting— for a minute I was afraid he was coming right over the table. That's how angry he was. He then stalked out of the room."
"We were getting nowhere," Lipsig said. "Any reaction was better than none at all at that point. The only thing he said all day was that his accomplices would get theirs in time, and that he had to live his life in prison and justice would catch up to them eventually even without his help."
Lipsig also wrote to Governor Hugh Carey and the Bronx and Brooklyn district attorneys urging a full-scale, coordinated investigation. "I was ignored," he said.
The Bronx posturing was typical of Mario Merola's stance throughout the investigation. In Brooklyn, Eugene Gold was gone. The new DA, Elizabeth Holtzman, had distinguished herself as a U.S. representative during the Watergate hearings, but she knew nothing about the Son of Sam case.
Sources told me that members of Gold's old guard, particularly a ranking assistant named Dale Campbell, failed to recommend that she investigate the case. Campbell, transcripts showed, was in attendance on the night in August 1977 when Berkowitz originally confessed to the Moskowitz-Violante shooting.
No one was to know how Holtzman—an avowed adherent of ferreting out suspected Nazi war criminals in the United States—would have reacted if told that Moskowitz and Violante were allegedly struck down by a cult of Hitler-worshipping Satanists who were said to have set up housekeeping in Brooklyn Heights—barely a stone's throw from her office.
next
A Coast-to-Coast Conspiracy
"Who did the Breslin letter?"
"It was a group effort. I think it was dictated by a woman. There were a lot of women in this; one was a leader." [Here, Danny was confirming information Berkowitz provided in 1979.]
"How big was this group?"
"In Westchester, there were those twenty-two, but with fringe people the number went higher. The 'Children' were the inner circle; twelve of them, I was told. That's who planned the Sam shootings."
According to Danny and Vinny, the cult originated in England. They didn't know the names "Process," "Chingon" or "OTO," but the English-origin information was enough to put it over the top. Both the Process and Aleister Crowley's OTO were rooted in England.
The group had a main headquarters in Venice, California, near Los Angeles, and both confirmed that Manson II was from L.A. and was involved in the Arlis Perry murder. He was also involved in at least one Son of Sam shooting, they said— that of Christine Freund.
Vinny's description of the cult's philosophy also matched that espoused by the original Process. He explained the theology in depth to a minister friend of his, who wrote:
The cult bases its theology on a strange mixture of apocalypses from Daniel, Revelation, II Esdras, II Adam and Eve, and the Gospel of the Essenes. Of particular interest is the timetable in Daniel and Beast of Revelation whose number is 666. According to Daniel, after a "time, two times, and half a time," there will be a "time of trouble such as has never been since there was a nation until that time."
The cult interprets this to be 2,300 years after the Book of Daniel was written, and we are now in that time of trouble.
According to Revelation, Satan was an angel who was cast out of heaven and bound on earth. Earth is his realm. God is supreme, and the worsnip of Christ is elevating a man to the position of deity. This is wrong. Satan is the one who should be worshipped on earth to hasten the coming day of the Lord. This day must be preceded by the time of trouble, the Armageddon of Revelation—and one goal of the cult is to help it along by promoting dissension, confusion, and holocaust. They look upon the destruction wrought by Hitler as a warm-up for what's coming— and they want to be in on the big event. They see their murders, etc., as a divine mission.
The reverend wrote that the marks of the cult, its signs, were "666," "HT" and "HH" for "Hitler" and the German SS lightning bolts. "All are marks of the beast, Satan-Hitler, whom they serve."
This information was confirmed by the fact that the initials "HH," never made public, were written on the back of the envelope in which Berkowitz enclosed one of the threatening letters he mailed to Sam Carr. We also possessed information contained in a 1977 police report in which an acquaintance of Berkowitz stated that Berkowitz "possessed and wore Nazi insignia." Of course, along with numerous other items—including at least two guns Vinny and Danny said Berkowitz owned—these articles were missing from his Yonkers apartment at the time of his arrest. One of the missing guns apparently was the .38 revolver Berkowitz showed to the sheet metal workers.
The reverend added that the Sam cult specialized in three types of crime:
All rapes, murders and arson jobs take place in the vicinity of coven meetings. In the last Son of Sam murder [the Moskowitz-Violante shooting], the coven members were assigned definite stations according to ritual significance in a nearby playground. Rapes are for the purpose of deflowering a virgin, which has special significance for Satan worshippers. Arson is a symbol of the great conflagration, or Armageddon, and murders are to spread confusion and to fulfill the prophecy in Daniel: "But the wicked shall do wickedly."
Before each coven meeting, Satan has to be appeased by the rape of a virgin [young girl], a holocaust [arson], or the ritual murder of a person or animal.
Berkowitz certainly informed Vinny of some deep, philosophical matters. But there was more. As the reverend reported:
There are about 1,000 persons in the cult, nationwide. In the east, a headquarters is in an abandoned church, privately owned, in [a New York area town]. A present and active member of the cult who is still committing crimes worked for [a Westchester automaker]. He is married to the daughter of one of the . . . executives.
John Carr and Mike Carr were in David Berkowitz' coven. Other murders by the cult: Arlis Perry; a girl in Santa Monica, California, late 1977; John Carr, North Dakota; Mike Carr, New York City." [Berkowitz told Vinny that both Carr brothers were murdered. Our analysis of their deaths had not been made public.]
A girl from Valhalla [Westchester County] stumbled onto a coven meeting [before Berkowitz's arrest]. She was raped and brutalized and told to keep it quiet. She did. One month later she died of a drug overdose. [Vinny also wrote that the cult committed a rape at the time of one of its meetings in Untermyer Park. Yonkers police confirmed that such an assault took place late at night near St. John's Hospital, which adjoined the park.]
So concluded the reverend's report on his pivotal meeting with Vinny. The synopsis was submitted to the Queens district attorney, and later to me, by the minister.
"I doubt anybody could be making this up," Herb Leifer said. "It's just too thorough and specific."
"If I was lying, I'd say John and Michael did it all with Berkowitz and that was that," I responded.
"Yeah," Leifer said. "They want the DA to have the information. These guys could testify as to what they were told, but unless Berkowitz himself or some other member backs it up on the stand we're in that hearsay evidence situation again. It's good stuff, but it still doesn't give us what we need to prosecute."
Leifer was correct, unfortunately. But in another sense, the case may have been growing too large for the Queens district attorney's office. The nationwide scope of the group and its origins were now clearly stated. Since neither Vinny nor Danny recognized the words "Process," "Chingon" or "OTO," I suspected Berkowitz hadn't mentioned them, although in his own letters he'd specifically referred to the Chingons.
To me, it was now apparent that whatever name the group used in New York, it had first sprung from the Satan slice of the original Process pie. There was no evidence available to demonstrate the parent Process was involved. But it will be recalled that Process members were free to worship either Jehovah, Lucifer or Satan. It was not difficult to see where this offshoot hung its hat, or how it had evolved.
In fact, Berkowitz would soon state that the Sam cult was a "violent offshoot" of Scientology. That remark specified that the original Process fostered the .44 group.
Cults, as many experts confirmed, changed names frequently as circumstances demanded. The actual name wasn't all that important—but the original theology and networking was.
As for the claim that approximately one thousand people nationwide belonged to the cult, this figure, while startling and ominous, was not incredible. Berkowitz, as far back as Marcy in 1978, had said he believed he was protecting "hundreds." And the original Process, with its cells in numerous American cities, stated as early as 1969 that two hundred people in the United States joined the movement. Additionally, the Process actively sought alliances with existing occult groups such as the Crowley-worshipping OTO. So, with expansion and recruitment since then, it was not beyond the realm of possibility that offshoot or related ranks increased their numbers by some seven or eight hundred across the country by 1977. And of course, the figure may have been somewhat exaggerated by those who provided it to Berkowitz.
Vinny and Danny also quoted Berkowitz as saying Charles Manson was a member of the cult. This, too, blended with everything we learned, or would learn, including Berkowitz's "offshoot of Scientology" remark. Author Ed Sanders and Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi both believed Manson was affiliated with the Process. In his book Helter Skelter, Bugliosi said that two Process members from Cambridge, Massachusetts, visited him to dissuade him from that belief. Those same two from the Process then called on Manson in prison— after which Manson stopped talking about the Process.
Prior to that, Bugliosi had privately asked Manson if he knew Robert DeGrimston (Moore), head of the Process. Manson said he'd met Moore. "You're looking at him," Manson said. "Moore and I are one and the same." Bugliosi believed Manson was saying that his ideas mirrored Moore's. We would find out considerably more than that.
Taking Bugliosi a step further, Sanders strongly suggested in The Family's hardcover editions that Manson belonged to a secret Process chapter in southern California. (Threatened legal action by the Process resulted in the removal of direct references to the cult from the American paperback editions. In England, after court action, there were no deletions from the book.)
Sanders was able to carry his investigation one level deeper than Bugliosi. But in a sense, both men were right. I didn't know it yet, but we'd soon begin our own exploration of the Manson-Process relationship.
Since the reverend assumed the important job of documenting the Sam cult's theology, I was able to focus on the crimes themselves. Cult members, the informants said, sometimes told rape victims: "Call Satan your father"; and they added that the group met, depending on cycles of the moon, on Thursdays. This allegation dovetailed with North Dakota reports that John Carr's group there also met on Thursdays.
Cult members were also said to bind themselves with a "symbolic cord" to indicate bondage to Satan just as he was bound to earth. Some victims (perhaps Elizabeth Plotzman) were also tied in this manner. The informants further alleged that some cult members were tattooed—sometimes beneath the upper lip—with one of the group's signs. Others, they said, had pierced ears, as did John and Michael Carr. The informants said Berkowitz's ear wasn't pierced, and they didn't know if he was tattooed. But they said not all members were thusly marked.
The rape allegations complemented the "John Wheaties, rapist and suffocator of young girls" alias; and we'd also earlier established that John Carr dated thirteen to fifteen year old girls in Minot. Further, the note Berkowitz left in his apartment referred to John as a "terrible rapist and child molestor." Now it was all coming together.
The group reasoned that Hitler was worthy of worship for several reasons. One of which, the informants said, was a numerology timetable in which each letter of the alphabet was assigned a number. Under this system, A equaled 100 and Z was matched with 125. The numbers which corresponded to the letters in Hitler's last name (107, 108, 119, 111, 104, 117) added to 666—the number of the great beast of the biblical book of Revelation. The devil's number.
At a dinner one night on City Island in the Bronx, Tom McCarthy and I discussed the new developments.
"Nothing surprises me anymore," he said. "I find it difficult to believe these sources could be dreaming all this stuff up. It can't really get more bizarre than it already is, right? We've got dead dogs and murder and a dead guy in North Dakota with 666 on his hand. What more do we need to get in Ripley's Believe It or Not?"
"Amen," I answered. "Nobody in the world knows about that writing on Carr's hand, and we get unsolicited word from the slam that 666 is one of their big signs and that they sometimes leave it at crime scenes."
I told McCarthy that I'd called the Westchester medical examiner on a hunch and learned that a young man named Anthony Varisco was slain in the recent past and had 666 tattooed in a triangular pattern on his hand—the same shape in which John Carr wrote "XXO" on the walls in Minot.
"Who the hell killed this Varisco?" McCarthy demanded.
"They said it was some squabble with a woman. It happened in Putnam, just over the Westchester border."
"So what does that mean to us?"
"It means we've got another local murder victim; this one with a damned 666 on him. Maybe he was tattooed under his lip, too, but he's in the ground now."
"Was this 666 thing on him made public?"
"No. And don't forget you've got that '78 Hirschmann case, where he was blasted just above the Putnam line and his wife knocked off in Queens. He had that Process-sounding 'Brother Tom' and swastika tattoo on him—and his name was Robert, not Tom."
"Yes," McCarthy replied. "Still unsolved, along with just about everything else connected to this mess. The only one we got was the Howard Weiss murder, and that involved his gay lover, at that. And this homo stuff is all over the Sam case."
"It's all bizarre," I said. "But not as bizarre as a lone lunatic claiming barking dogs told him to ice people. There were at least real motives: dope, porn, snuff films for big bucks."
"I guess so." McCarthy nodded. "Real motives for real crimes."
"Yeah, and how many wars were fought in the name of religion? To these people, at least the lower levels, this is some kind of perverted religion. Christ, and I thought the nuns in grammar school were bad."
"I'm not debating with you, for a change." McCarthy grinned. "It's just difficult to absorb it all sometimes."
"Hell yeah, but so was the idea of nine hundred idiots drinking poisoned Kool-Aid because Jim Jones told them to, but they did it. So was the idea that freaking Charlie Manson could hocus-pocus kids into butchering, but that happened, too. And San Francisco had those Zebra killings by that fucked-up band of Muslims who were shooting whitey at random to earn their 'death angel' wings. This isn't quite without precedent."
"That's all true," McCarthy agreed. "I'm just saying this thing keeps expanding and it's the most complicated case I've ever seen. It's like a goddamned maze."
"Don't feel bad," I said, laughing. "I started out thinking it was just Berkowitz and probably John Carr. I didn't ask for this either. But you can't just walk away from it."
"Ah, but don't you sometimes wish you could?" McCarthy asked, lowering his wineglass. "I know I do."
"You're not alone," I said. "And look at it, the NYPD had three hundred cops after Son of Sam. Now it's a much bigger case and we are sorely lacking in manpower. It stinks."
"That's why the DA is keeping focused on the Queens shootings," McCarthy explained. "After that, the rest may start to fall in place, or at least be worked on more. We don't like it any damn bit better than you do."
There was little else I could say. As McCarthy noted, the case was mushrooming. And in late December 1981 another crime would be added to the roster of those suspected of being connected to the group's operations.
* * *
As the year wound down, the football Giants made the playoffs for the first time since the 1963 championship game, which they lost to the Bears, 14-10. This time, they knocked off the Eagles in the wild-card game before losing to the 49ers in the semifinals. For me, a long-term season-ticket holder, it was a euphoric December as the once great franchise lumbered awake after an eighteen-year hibernation. Also that month, Paul Davis' wistful recording of "Cool Night" played as Christmas trees sparkled. At the same time, WOR-TV broadcast a special What's Happening, America? program which highlighted its major stories of the year. The three Son of Sam segments were condensed and featured prominently on the show.
Concurrently, we began wondering if yet another prison prediction would come true.
On November 27, Vinny had written:
Crimes continue. On October 31 was "something." I have details. I sent them out prior to then as insurance. But December 31 is the next date to watch out for. Publicity now would be rash, foolish, and lose a greater good. I want no publicity. None. And no "deals" with authorities. Is that enough to show you where I stand? My hope is to prevent any December 31 harm.
If people get killed and then you have an interest —forget it. If you permit more bloodshed before you have the courage to risk your own reputations, you'll never accomplish any good, anyway.
At this time, Vinny knew only that his information had been received; our face-to-face meetings and other contact had yet to occur. He wasn't aware that details he'd provided were being carefully scrutinized. The climate at Dannemora was too hot and the situation too precarious to permit any overt approaches to informants. Another prisoner, to whom Berkowitz had also spoken, had been removed from the cellblock and would be transferred from the facility. He'd been too openly occupied with the Berkowitz information, and it backfired on him. The other informants noted this and kept their roles secret.
John Santucci's office was cognizant of the December 31 warning, as were the Gannett newspapers' Mike Zuckerman and Yonkers' Lieutenant Mike Novotny. But we had no information as to what, if anything, would happen or where it would occur.
On November 30, a satanic holiday Vinny mentioned earlier, we'd noted several rapes and shootings—any one of which might have been cult-related. But we had nothing to work with; no way of knowing if any real connection existed. Now, on December 31, New Year's Eve, we waited and watched.
In the afternoon, I phoned Mike Novotny. "This is about the creepiest feeling I've ever had," I said. "Wondering if right now as we're talking somebody's about to get killed and others are plotting it while we sit here helpless."
Novotny managed a weak laugh. "I know what you mean. Happy New Year."
"Based on what he wrote, we should be looking for something bizarre involving a gun, and with head shots, if it's murder we're talking about. If it's rape or arson, that's something else," I suggested.
"With any luck, something will go down in our own backyard so we won't miss it," Novotny said. "If it's in the city, or somewhere else, we might not even hear about it. We can't possibly know everything that goes down in the metro area tonight. If it's gotta happen, I hope to hell it's around here."
The lieutenant's words were morbidly prophetic. Not four hours after our conversation, between six and seven P.M. forty-seven-year-old Joseph Carozza was shot to death on his forty-one-foot yacht, the Sarc, which was berthed at the Five Slip Yacht Club in New Rochelle—a city with multiple connections to the Son of Sam case.
Carozza, owner of a Bronx auto-body shop, was shot twice with a .38-caliber revolver. He was estranged from his wife, Patricia, a nurse, and had lived in the marina for six years.
A spokesman for the Westchester medical examiner's office said that Carozza, who was belowdecks, apparently began to climb a stairway to the main deck when he spotted his killer and tried to retreat below. One bullet was dug out of the stairway wall. Two others struck Carozza from behind: one in the back, the other in the head. December 31, gunshot, head, bizarre circumstances—the scenario was familiar.
Peter Zari, owner of the marina, told the Gannett newspapers: "To the best of my knowledge, he was never involved with anything underhanded. He's not that type of guy to get himself involved in a heavy—and this is a heavy."
The New York Daily News reported that an acquaintance of Carozza said that when word of the murder reached a New Year's party at a country club in the area at about nine o'clock that evening, a woman broke down hysterically and shouted: "I knew they were going to get him."
For its part, the New Rochelle Police Department was stymied—another familiar tune. "We're mystified completely," a department spokesman told Gannett. "I don't know why this guy got blown away. There's no immediate motive."
Maybe not, which in itself said something to us.
Mike Zuckerman, who'd periodically worked with me on the Sam investigation since late 1980, delved into the Carozza killing for more than one reason. In addition to the dire warning about December 31, Mike Novotny and I immediately suspected Carozza might be linked to another suspect in the .44 case. Zuckerman's digging paid off. Searching through old files in a courthouse, he learned that Carozza once underwrote a business loan for the suspect—a man Novotny and I thought could be the "Wicked King Wicker"—the remaining Breslin letter alias.
Zuckerman's research established the link. It didn't prove the cult was involved in Carozza's murder, but it did conclusively demonstrate that Carozza, slain on Vinny's targeted December 31, was tied to a man previously suspected in the .44 case. As such, it was a significant discovery and almost certainly not a coincidence. The reason: if the group didn't commit the crime, who did?
Throughout the .44 probe, I remained in the background while local police investigated the several crimes I suspected were tied to the Sam matter. My reasons for this were simple: I didn't want to be considered a gadfly; and detectives often resent reporters intruding into what they regard as their exclusive domain.
Much later, when it was apparent New Rochelle's investigation was unsuccessful, I phoned the department and briefly outlined what we'd found, but the information wasn't made public.
The killing of Joseph Carozza remained unsolved.
With Carozza's death out of the headlines in a matter of days, I knew the time had come for meetings with Vinny and Danny. The information they'd provided, while good, was incomplete. It was certain they possessed more knowledge than that contained in the letters they'd written. Through a source, I was able to get a letter into Vinny. As we awaited his reply, the Son of Sam case would explode onto page one again. Berkowitz, silent so long, was about to speak.
His comments would be given in a sworn deposition taken by New York City attorney Harry Lipsig, a legend in Big Apple legal circles. The diminutive, white-haired and slender Lipsig was still, at eighty, a walking dynamo. Some dubbed him the "King of Torts"; I fondly regarded him as the "Mighty Mite." Harry's reputation grew with each case he handled. He counted among his clients a fair number of celebrities, including Roy Innis, head of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
Innis and I developed a working relationship during the Atlanta child murders investigation, when he'd asked me to assist CORE'S efforts to help solve that tragic series of slayings. Innis and his staff had unearthed troubling information which raised the distinct possibility that Wayne Williams, convicted of two of the killings, had acted in concert with others. CORE had developed a witness who said she was at one time part of the group.
The Georgia and federal authorities, not surprisingly, chose to disregard CORE'S information and, although Williams was found guilty of but two killings out of more than twenty, the books were wiped clean. The CORE witness, whom I interviewed, alleged that drugs and satanism were the motives for the murders. In Atlanta today, a number of interested parties are still probing the case.
In the Son of Sam case, Innis' lawyer, Harry Lipsig, represented two victims—Sal Lupo and Robert Violante—in a multimillion-dollar civil suit filed against the Berkowitz estate. Lipsig and I had spoken several times about the Moskowitz murder and the cult, and Harry was convinced Berkowitz acted in concert with others. Accordingly, he obtained a court order to depose the confessed .44 killer as part of the civil action.
Surprisingly, Berkowitz cooperated to an extent, amplifying somewhat what he'd told me earlier. But he remained evasive, and at no time did he touch on the specifics into which he'd delved with Vinny and Danny. Nonetheless, he remained consistent, and his statements, importantly, coincided with established evidence. The deposition was taken at Dannemora on January 19, 1982. What follows are relevant excerpts.
Berkowitz, typically, began by saying he didn't want to cooperate with Lipsig. "I do not choose to answer a lot of these questions because they hurt me," he said. "As to their [the victims'] health and well-being, I have never challenged the money, so-called monies that are in the estate. They are welcome to that. I have never tried to get it. They can have it. I pled guilty to those crimes and there is nothing more I can say."
Lipsig then pressed. "Do you remember injuring Robert Violante?"
"No comment."
"Do you have any relatives?"
"One, yes. My father. Let's leave him out of this."
"Don't you think you ought to do something so he would have some pride in you, since you are concerned about him, obviously? Won't you do that, please? We can fence this way for days, man. What is the good of it all? Do you mean that you are devoid of all human feeling for these poor devils you injured?"
"It's not a question of feeling."
"You are not helping them when you can. I made it clear to you. You know, you say one thing and do another. Do you like to be in that light?"
"Continue with the questions," Berkowitz answered, and proceeded to claim responsibility for the .44 shootings. But Lipsig wasn't buying the story.
"Do you remember a Virginia Voskerichian shot in the face as she was walking home?"
"Yes."
"Did you do that?"
"No comment."
"Well, did you discharge a bullet that struck her?"
He remained silent.
"Don't you want to answer that question?"
"I don't want to answer the question."
"Does it move you that you killed her?"
"I know she is dead. There is nothing I can do. I cannot answer these questions anymore."
Lipsig didn't back away. He instead talked about John and Michael Carr.
"Were they friends of yours?"
"No comment."
"Is there something with reference to them that you feel should not be told?"
"I would prefer not to say it without legal counsel."
"Do you know that they are both dead?"
"Yes."
"Do you realize that nothing can be done to them?"
"That's true, not to them directly."
"Well, to whom indirectly?"
"I would rather not say."
"Is it that there were other people involved besides Michael and John and yourself?"
"I would rather not say."
"But you are interested in protecting Michael and John—is that right?"
"Well, they have family."
"Did you get together with either Michael or John or both of them at some time before these acts of violence took place?"
"I cannot say, Mr. Lipsig."
Lipsig kept on, and Berkowitz kept dodging, saying he felt "a degree" of loyalty to the Carr brothers. Finally, he said:
"This is pointless. I can't say any more without legal counsel." (Berkowitz had approached Vinny and Danny to seek legal help, possibly from their attorneys. His responses here confirmed their statements—he had no lawyer.)
"Were you a member of a cult?" Lipsig asked.
". . . If you keep probing along these lines, I am going to have to refuse to answer any more questions until I have legal counsel."
"Would you like to have counsel represent you?"
"There is no attorney I can think of."
"Suppose you were given a list of names of lawyers that might be interested and willing to represent you. Would you consider such a list?"
"I may."
"Is it then that if you had the benefit of the advice of counsel and if counsel said that it was in your interest to disclose whatever activities there were on the part of Michael . . . or John Carr—you would be willing to discuss it after counsel might have so advised you? Is that right?"
"It is possible."
Lipsig then asked how long Berkowitz had been acquainted with the Carr brothers.
"A few years," he replied. Berkowitz then said he had "an idea" as to why John and Michael were dead, but that he wouldn't disclose it.
Lipsig then asked: "Are you in a position to clear them?"
"No."
"Is it then that you are worried about involving them? Frankly, is that it?"
"There is a lot more than that. I can't go into it."
"And when you say 'It's a lot more than that,' then involving them is one of the things you are concerned about—but it's a lot more than that. Am I correct?"
"Yes . . . Mr. Lipsig, I cannot go further along that line of questioning."
"Without the benefit of counsel—is that it?"
"Without a lot of things."
"Well, what else?"
"A strong drink."
After a break, Lipsig returned to pertinent matters. "You had some connection with the Church of Scientology, did you not?"
"It wasn't exactly that. But I can't go into it. I really can't."
"Were you connected in any way or an adherent or convert of the Church of Scientology?"
"No, not that way. It was an offshoot, fringe-type thing."
"Were John and Michael with the Church of Scientology?"
"Well, not really that church. But something along that line. A very devious group."
"Did this devious group have a name?"
"I can't disclose it."
"Roughly, how large would you say its membership was?"
"Twenty."
"Were they all residents of the New York metropolitan area?"
"No."
"Were they spread across the nation?"
"Yes."
"Did they meet on occasion?"
"Yes. But I really can't say more without legal counsel."
"Are you worried about involving people in the group, frankly?"
"I'm worried about my family, too. You know how treacherous some people can be. You don't have to dig it out from there."
"When you say you are worried about your family, who particularly in your family?"
"My father."
"How many of the cult would be in New York State, according to your best estimate?"
"Fifteen or so."
"Are they all males?"
"No."
"Could you give us roughly the percentage?"
"No, I couldn't."
"Would it be split pretty even?"
"Yes. Say approximately. I didn't say definite numbers."
"I take it very frankly . . . that since you have clothed this group in anonymity, that included in the group were Michael and John Carr?"
"Yes."
"Do you have any thought that either John or Michael Carr lost their life through the activities of a member of this group?"
"Yes. Definitely."
"Well, don't you think . . . that they should be brought to justice?"
"I don't know where they are."
"What motive could the members of the group have to kill John or Michael Carr? Knowledge of your activities?"
"Yes. Violence, fear and rage."
"Desire to accomplish their silence?"
"Yes. And just plain sickness—moral sickness."
"Were members dedicated to violence?"
"Yes, and depravity and everything else."
"And the depravity that you speak of would be of what nature?"
"Everything."
"Sex?"
"Yes. The opposite of everything that is good."
"Murder?"
"Yes. God gives life and they take it."
"Have they taken life other than what you have taken?"
"To my understanding, yes."
"How much of it in New York?"
"I cannot say . . . a lot of that occurred before I was there, as far as I know."
"Did they inspire the [.44] shootings?"
"I suppose they were my fault. I am responsible .. . I can't lay blame on anyone but myself."
"Do you know how many members are still alive?"
"Half."
"Was Sam Carr a member of the group?"
"No."
"But John and Michael were?"
"Yes. Could we sort of change the questioning?"
Lipsig then took up the matter of specific Son of Sam crime scenes. Regarding the Moskowitz-Violante shooting in Brooklyn, Berkowitz acknowledged the presence of the yellow Volkswagen.
"Did you know the person in that Volkswagen?"
"Well, I would rather not say."
"Bluntly, was it a member of the group?"
"I cannot say."
"Was any member of the group within the vicinity of these [.44] shootings?"
"Yes."
"How many members of the group were present at all of them?"
"I would say two or three—four."
"Did any of them designate victims?"
"Yes."
"Was it three or four at each incident?"
"Yes. Males and one female."
"Was the idea of a series of shootings planned?"
"Yes."
"Did you join in the planning?"
"Yes. . . . Mr. Lipsig, if this is going to be made to the press—"
". . . Was there any underlying name or type of identification that was used in selecting the victims . . . ?"
"I can't say."
"Was it you that left the letter for the police [the Borrelli letter at the Suriani-Esau murder scene]?"
"I would rather not say."
"Was it a member of the cult . . . ?"
"I would rather not say."
"Was the letter in your handwriting?"
"I would rather not say."
"It wasn't in your handwriting, was it?"
Berkowitz didn't answer.
"Was it?"
"I'd rather not say."
"You hesitated when I asked you whether it was in your handwriting . . ."
"Look, this is a matter for the police. This is a civil court hearing for the police."
"You don't want to be a lawyer in this examination, do you?" Lipsig asked humorously.
"I want to protect my family from harm and avoid adverse publicity, because that is not necessary."
"And the publicity you're concerned about . . . might make clear to the world that there were members of the cult involved and your worry is safety for your father, and possibly others from this group—is that it?"
"Well—"
"Is that it?"
"Yes."
"Did members of the group in their crimes use knives as well as guns?"
"Yes." (This confirmed Vinny and Danny's statements that group members had "ritual knives," as did Berkowitz.)
"Did somebody else pick the name 'Wicked King Wicker'?"
"Mr. Lipsig, let's—can we deal with your client, please?"
"If it weren't for the possibility of harm to your father, would you feel that the other members of the group should be brought to justice?"
"Yes."
"You have told us that there were three or four cult members present on each occasion. Did they cooperate in any way?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"I would rather not say. I didn't really want to talk about this from the beginning, you see. But you were very insistent. I would have preferred to say nothing, because I just can't talk —get into this anymore. .. . I meant to ask you, who was your other client besides Violante? You said you had two."
"Lupo," Lipsig answered. He then asked about the circumstances of that shooting near the Elephas disco. "Of the three or four present . . . how many of those are still alive?"
"I believe one."
"So John and Michael were of the [other] three present?"
"Not always." (This statement was supported by the evidence, since John Carr's travels to New York were dated.)
"When Lupo was selected?"
"I believe so. I can't recall." (If so, the remaining accomplice who was still alive was almost certainly the sandy-haired, husky man with a mustache who watched the shooting and drove from the scene in the same direction as the shooter. He was driving a yellowish compact-sized car with its lights extinguished.)
"Shouldn't the group be brought to justice in view of what you indicated was their depravity and their addiction to violence?"
"Yes, but—"
"And if your father were given protection, would you then disclose and help to bring to justice these creatures addicted to violence and depravity?"
"I would like that. I can't obligate myself now. I have no legal counsel."
"I take it that all of the prior references to being inspired by demons and so forth was just a cover to protect them?"
"Indirectly, I guess."
"Why did you suggest that the shootings were inspired by demons? Did you have them in mind—the members of the group—as demons?"
"That was the general idea. But the idea to make it look like it was the act of a deranged madman."
"Did you ever feel that your life is in danger here?"
"Yes."
"How do you counter that danger?"
"You don't. You just—there is no—you just—I can't say."
"You live with it—is that the answer?"
"Yes."
Lipsig then turned his attention to the group again.
"Did you have any interest in any of the female members?"
"Yes. There were a few nice ones, physically."
"Would I be intruding too much on your personal life if I asked you if they were available to you physically?"
"Yes. I really don't want to talk about it."
"Did you ever hear the name Arlis Perry?"
"Yes. But again, this is not—you are going across the state. You're going across the United States. Let's deal with this, please."
"Didn't that involve, or wasn't there a member of the group involved in that?"
"Yes, there was."
"Now that killing was of somebody out of the state, but it's part and parcel of the whole picture of the conduct of a particular group—isn't that so?"
"True."
"What was the general idea of the group? Was it some kind of devil cult or—"
"I'm sorry. I can't get into this. It's too much to talk about."
"And I take it you have a concern for human beings?"
"Yes."
"And don't you think that concern should carry with it the idea of eliminating anything such as this cult engaged in?"
"Yes."
"Did you wear one of their costumes?"
"It wasn't exactly a costume .. . I suppose a costume would be fitting, but I don't wish to discuss it."
"Included in it, was there a particular type of hat and a particular type of gown?"
"For some."
"Would the officers have a special type of garment?"
"Yes."
"And what was the chief officer called .. . his title?"
"There were several, but—"
"Of the approximately twenty in Westchester how many were officers?"
"Three."
"And one of the three was a woman—am I right?"
"Yes."
"The big chief was a man?"
"Mr. Lipsig, please."
"How often did they meet?"
"I can't say right now."
"You have written about a number of these things to people."
"Very vaguely. I suppose it was a mistake."
"Coming back to Arlis Perry . . . don't you feel that . . . whoever was responsible for that innocent human being should be brought to justice?"
"Well, yes. But I'm in no position to talk right now." (It will be remembered that Berkowitz wanted Manson II arrested.)
"If your father were given absolutely unequivocal protection that would give you peace of mind, would you then disclose and bring to justice these individuals who engaged in murder and—"
"I might."
Lipsig then ascertained from Berkowitz that the group was mainly composed of white-collar workers; that it practiced its own rituals and killed animals as well as human beings. He then asked:
"Don't you feel that it's unreasonable that you have been the one that has been given up as the sacrifice?"
"Well, it's more to it than that. I can't elaborate."
"Did the group have a particular community as its . . . main base?"
"Well there is, but I don't wish to say anything at this time regarding that."
"Was it in Yonkers?"
"In that vicinity."
"So that the officers were of that vicinity, obviously?"
"Yes."
"Was it the cult that sold you the idea of using the demons as a cover?"
"It could have been."
"Did you discuss the cult with any of the psychiatrists that interviewed you?"
"No."
"Did you avoid the subject with them?"
"Yes."
"Did you use the same gun every time or different times?"
"Just what is in my testimony in Queens—in the district attorneys' offices."
"I didn't hear you."
"Just what is in my testimony." (Berkowitz was hedging on the number of guns used.)
"What did you say there?"
"I was involved in this. I had the gun and I used it."
"Was it the same gun every time?"
"I fear getting into this. I know this is going to go to the media before it goes anywhere else and I don't want that. I don't need this. This type of publicity."
"So if it does, it's gone and it's finished. Someday it will come out. .. . Do you believe there is a possibility of their killing again when they feel safe?"
"This group, I can't say."
"Was there more than one group?"
"I have heard that there were others."
"Where did they get the animals they used in their rites?"
"I can't say."
"Would you say that you answered all my questions honestly?"
"To a degree. I mean, there are certain ones that I didn't wish to answer."
Lipsig then said: "I am convinced that you weren't the only person that injured this list of people involved in this case. Now, besides being present at the scenes and in the vague way you have indicated they were involved, didn't some of them at one time or another either supply a gun or themselves use a weapon with one or another of these victims?"
"It could be."
"Did the three or four that were present at each occasion always use more than one vehicle?"
"It was more than one."
"Besides the yellow Volkswagen, what other make vehicle?"
"Mine."
"And how many accomplices came with you to the Stacy Moskowitz-Robert Violante scene?"
"I believe it was three." (Vinny and Danny said there were more, if one counted the alleged camera setup.)
"How many were in your vehicle?"
"Two."
"And one in the Volkswagen?"
"Yes."
"Was that a male?"
"Yes."
"And was it a male or female in your car? My view of it was that it was a male."
"No comment."
"What weapon did that male have?"
"I don't know."
"Where did you get the bullets for your gun?" (Although Lipsig didn't know it then, the bullets in Berkowitz's possession when he was arrested were not those he purchased with his .44 in Houston, as he claimed in 1977.)
Berkowitz now answered Lipsig with silence.
"The gun you got in Texas. Where did you get the ammunition?"
"The ammunition was purchased with gun," Berkowitz finally said.
"There was enough ammunition for all these shootings in that one trip to Texas?"
"As far as I know, yes."
"And when you say as far as you know, then somebody else got that [other] ammunition, since it's something you're not sure of in your own knowledge, isn't that so?"
"Yes."
"And that person who got the ammunition—that ammunition was supplied to you not all at one time but at various times as needed, isn't that so?"
"Yes."
With that final statement, Berkowitz asked that the session be brought to a close. Lipsig had done an excellent job, but all the good was about to be nullified.
Outside the prison, Lipsig met Associated Press reporter Rick Pienciak and gave him carefully selected details of Berkowitz's statement. The information was sketchy, but the resultant publicity backfired. Berkowitz had specifically stated he didn't want his comments to reach the media, and he also said he would consider cooperating with Santucci's probe if his father was protected and he found a suitable lawyer.
Berkowitz was enraged that any of his comments ended up in the press. He filed a complaint against Lipsig with the Bar Association (later dismissed) and refused to talk further. The aftershock was even more distressing because Berkowitz, before the deposition, had written Lipsig indicating a respect for the attorney and a desire to see justice served.
The offending material was essentially that which I'd already published and broadcast previously, with the exception of Berkowitz's inclusion of women in the group (which I'd known) and his statement that three or four cult members were at each crime scene. Lipsig kept the newest details secret. But it wasn't what was released that enraged Berkowitz then— it was that anything was released.
Rick Pienciak, who'd tried to downplay the investigation since Berkowitz showed him the exit two years earlier, now had his own story to write, and he did so either unknowing or uncaring of the fuse he was helping to light. Pienciak was functioning as a reporter, which was his job, but there would seem to be times when tomorrow's headline might defer temporarily to a potentially greater good. Lipsig, too, had the opportunity to reveal nothing. But perhaps thinking the publicity would pressure Berkowitz to come forward, he chose otherwise. In any case, the news exploded, and in Queens, so did John Santucci's staff.
Executive assistant Tom Russo called me immediately. "Why the hell did this happen?" he demanded. "It's all over the front page of the Post, and God knows where else. This is going to drive Berkowitz right back into his hole. And there's nothing really new here in the papers; you put most of this out last year."
"Well, Gannett and WOR are putting it in perspective," I said. "But the rest of the media are just reading the AP wire. I don't know who did what, but Harry isn't averse to publicity and Pienciak's had the rag on for the case since he got the old Berkie boot."
"We can't do anything about him," Russo said. "But we've got to bring Harry on board. You know him—can you see if he'd be willing to come over for a meeting?"
"I'm sure Harry will come," I answered.
On January 25, six days after the deposition, Lipsig and I sat in the DA's office with Santucci and Russo, who'd recently joined the .44 investigation.
Santucci wasted no time in laying his cards on the table. "Nobody knows more about this case than Maury, myself and Herb Leifer, who can't join us today," he told Lipsig. "Anybody else you may have been talking to is uninformed. So I'm going to bring you up to date, and if you're willing, we'd like you to assist us from here on. Berkowitz has consistently refused to see me—but you saw him and you may have the opportunity to do so again," the DA explained.
"I will file the papers immediately," Lipsig said, and described his session with Berkowitz. "I'd known about this cult, but Berkowitz impressed me with his intelligent, matter-of-fact demeanor. He was sincere, and I'm convinced he was telling the truth. The man is sound as a dollar."
"We know," Santucci responded, and then told Lipsig about the difficulties he'd encountered with the NYPD on the investigation—calling some of the department's top brass "obstructionist." He also mentioned his suspicion that certain prison transfers might have been motivated by a desire to isolate Berkowitz from informants.
"This is outrageous," Lipsig angrily said. "I thought the DA's office was all-powerful."
"Not in this case, it isn't," Santucci replied. "I have suspicions, Harry, but no proof. And as far as the PD is concerned, they need to obtain permission from above before they give us any Berkowitz material we need."
"Everywhere you look there are roadblocks, Harry," I explained. "And based on what I've been hearing from my sources, there's big money somewhere in this picture. Drug money, at least. And power and connected people. I'm just saying what I hear, that's all."
"I'll tell you," Lipsig answered. "When I examined him last week he was fearful, looking about to watch the guards who were at the ends of the room. He wanted to see who was listening in, and he asked me to lower my voice a number of times. He was in obvious fear for his safety. He was concerned about the changing guard shift—you'll see that in the transcript. He said his 'safe' time ended when the shift changed."
"Every time something hits the papers on this case, I get a little apprehensive," Santucci said. "Too many unusual occurrences have transpired. It's just a simple advisement, Harry."
"How many suspects do you have?" Lipsig asked.
"On the streets or in the cemetery? There are two categories," I answered, forcing a smile.
"About seven or eight still alive," Santucci responded. "But I don't have enough to arrest any of them. We need inside corroboration."
"Berkowitz said he might be willing to cooperate," said Lipsig. "If I get the approval to go back up, I'll take Maury with me and if Berkowitz gives the go-ahead, I'll call you immediately."
"That's all we can ask," Tom Russo said.
In December of 1982, I accompanied Lipsig and Mark Manus, a member of his firm, on a return trip to Dannemora. While I waited outside so as not to tip off my presence there, Berkowitz sat stone-still in a conference room and refused to answer questions for several hours. Lipsig, frustrated, then attempted to elicit a reaction from Berkowitz by mentioning names of people he knew were not connected to the conspiracy. He succeeded. Berkowitz erupted in anger.
"He stood up, pounded the table and started cursing out the boss for trying to drag his friends into the case," Manus said. "He was furious. He was leaning over the table and shouting— for a minute I was afraid he was coming right over the table. That's how angry he was. He then stalked out of the room."
"We were getting nowhere," Lipsig said. "Any reaction was better than none at all at that point. The only thing he said all day was that his accomplices would get theirs in time, and that he had to live his life in prison and justice would catch up to them eventually even without his help."
Lipsig also wrote to Governor Hugh Carey and the Bronx and Brooklyn district attorneys urging a full-scale, coordinated investigation. "I was ignored," he said.
The Bronx posturing was typical of Mario Merola's stance throughout the investigation. In Brooklyn, Eugene Gold was gone. The new DA, Elizabeth Holtzman, had distinguished herself as a U.S. representative during the Watergate hearings, but she knew nothing about the Son of Sam case.
Sources told me that members of Gold's old guard, particularly a ranking assistant named Dale Campbell, failed to recommend that she investigate the case. Campbell, transcripts showed, was in attendance on the night in August 1977 when Berkowitz originally confessed to the Moskowitz-Violante shooting.
No one was to know how Holtzman—an avowed adherent of ferreting out suspected Nazi war criminals in the United States—would have reacted if told that Moskowitz and Violante were allegedly struck down by a cult of Hitler-worshipping Satanists who were said to have set up housekeeping in Brooklyn Heights—barely a stone's throw from her office.
next
A Coast-to-Coast Conspiracy
No comments:
Post a Comment