The Ultimate Evil The Ultimate Evil The Truth about the Cult Murders: Son of Sam & Beyond Maury Terry Text copyright © 1987 by Maury Terry Introduction and Epilogue copyright © 1999 by Maury Terry This edition published by Barnes & Noble Digital, by arrangement with Maury Terry All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or repro- duced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher. 2001 Barnes & Noble Digital ISBN 1-4014-0066-3 For Robert and Joseph Terry; to those who were always there; and in memory of the innocent slain. contents introduction xi part 1 on terror's trail 1. satan at stanford 3 2. the gun of august 33 3. "knock on coffins" 66 4. her name was stacy 107 5. countdown: the final week 150 6. catch .44 187 7. confession 229 contents 8. "sam sleeps" 271 9. the process 311 10. into the maze 361 25. blood in the badlands 398 part 2 web of conspiracy: the dominoes fall 12. "hello from the gutters" 424 13. minot? why not? 463 14. a matter of murder 513 15. inside the biggest case 539 16. the most unlikely ally 598 17. "sam" speaks 642 18. "hunted, stalked and slain" 685 19. what's happening, america? 716 20. from the belly of the beast 753 vi contents 21. a coast-to-coast conspiracy 817 22. a call to copco 855 23. in death's valley 917 24. murder reigned in southern california 970 25. death mask 1010 epilogue 1058 about the author 1088 vii acknowledgments There are those without whom I might not have been able to sustain this investigation. Some, because of sensitive positions they occupy, cannot be named — but they have my appreciation for their professional insights and cooperation. Others to whom I am indebted are my family and friends, who listened and offered support when it mattered most. Among those friends are George Austin, Joe Walsh, Scott Hammon, Bob and Larry Siegel, Lee Carucci, George and Roger Young, Kyle and Nina (Betty) Rote, Pete Lebhar and the circle at Olliver's. Special thanks to the Queens District Attorney's Office, particularly John Santucci, Herb Leifer and Tom McCarthy; and to Gannett Westchester Newspapers — especially Joe Ungaro, Dave Hartley, Shennan Bodner and Tom Bartley. My appreciation is extended to former Lt. Terry Gardner and Det. Mike Knoop in Minot, North Dakota; and to Sgt. Ken Kahn in the Santa Clara, California, Sheriff's Department. viii acknowledgments I would also like to note the contributions of reporters Jeff Nies and Jack Graham of the Minot Daily News, and thank Marv and Jean Dykema and friends of Arlis Perry who assisted me in Bismarck. A singular acknowledgment to reporter Jim Mitteager, who was there at the beginning; and to reporter/author Marian Roach, who helped in the early years. My gratitude extends to retired NYPD detectives Joe Basteri and Hank Cinotti, to Lt. Mike Novotny and Lt. Marty Harding of the Yonkers Police, and to Lt. Don Starkey of the Yonkers Fire Department's arson squad. I would also like to note the assistance of police instructor Fred Patterson, who joined some stakeouts and incorporated my work into a seminar for law enforcement officers, and that of the late Joseph Pearlman, an exemplary private investigator. I also thank the Greenburgh, New York, Police Department, particularly Capt. Gerry Buckhout and Chief Don Singer. My added appreciation to Nassau County, New York, District Attorney Denis Dillon, the Connecticut State Police, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A special word of appreciation to people close to the Son of Sam case: Jerry and Neysa Moskowitz, Mike and Rose Lauria, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Suriani, Robert Violante, Cäcilia Davis, Tom Zaino, John Diel, Mrs. Nann Cassara, Steve Cassara and the Neto family. Singular gratitude is expressed to the West Coast investigators, including Ted Gunderson, Judy Hanson, ix acknowledgments Dee Brown and Dave Balsiger. Their assistance was extremely valuable. I am grateful to a woman who I will call Lee Chase, who was close to David Berkowitz and whose assistance was timely and informative. My thanks go to attorneys Felix Gilroy and Harry Lipsig, and to producer Frank Anthony and the staff of WOR-TV's "What's Happening, America" and "The War Within" programs. An acknowledgment to the work of reporters Mike Zuckerman and Ed Trapasso of Gannett, Newsday's Steve Wick, and author Ed Sanders. For assistance in the 1990s, I would like to thank the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Yonkers Police Department, and retired NYPD detec- tives Al Sheppard, Jim Tedaldi, Jim Rothstein and Richard Johnson. My appreciation for contributions in the '90s is also extended to: Barbara C., Dale Griffis, Sam Diego, Donald Ripp, Ray Segal, Steve Segovia, Mark Ness, Bart Feder, Sarah Wallace and Wayne Darwen. My gratitude is also extended to those in the print and broadcast mediums who believed in the rele- vance of the investigation and offered information or followed through with reports on the work. And finally, an important acknowledgment to the many private citizens, and others, who either came for- ward with vital information or gave hours of their time when I sought their cooperation. It made a difference. x introduction As the clock inched past midnight into July 31, 1977, the great metropolis was in turmoil. A task force of three hundred cops — by itself larger than most American police departments — was hunting Son of Sam in one of the deadliest scenarios ever staged in the real-life theater of New York City. An expansive dragnet draped Queens and the Bronx, the preferred stalking grounds. They didn't think the menace would evade their porous net and invade Brooklyn. They were wrong. In the predawn hours of July 31, a young man sprayed four shots from a .44 Bulldog into a car parked in a Brooklyn lovers' lane, fatally wounding Stacy Moskowitz and partially blinding her date. It was the eighth and final attack, and it happened as our seaside analysis of the case continued forty miles east in Davis Park. That irony would remain with me always. Eleven nights later, a parking ticket he received near the Brooklyn scene finally led a befuddled NYPD to sub- urban Yonkers, New York, and the owner of that cited xi introduction Ford Galaxie. His name was David Berkowitz, and he was a stocky, twenty-four-year-old postal employee and army veteran who had patrolled the frozen demilitarized zone in Korea before returning to his native Bronx in 1974. Berkowitz, whom police never considered a sus- pect until a few hours before his fortuitous capture, went quietly. He eagerly confessed to being a lone marauder who had terrorized New York for thirteen agonizing months. The fact that his confession was fatally flawed was buried by the avalanche of eupho- ria and police promotions that followed. It mattered, too, that a New York City mayoral primary, in which the incumbent was lagging in the polls, was on the immediate horizon. It was time for the case to end and for the mayor's camp to garner credit. From the outset, I was skeptical of Berkowitz's claim of sole culpability, and those suspicions marked the beginning of a perilous investigative odyssey destined to continue for many years. During that time, I traveled from completely outside the case to a point where I was able to uncover the many hor- rific secrets hidden within its very core. The trail led from the hushed silence of a church in Palo Alto, California, to the mansions of Beverly Hills, and from the golden wheat fields of North Dakota to the posh decadence of Long Island's Hamptons and the squalor of a half-dozen prisons. This book, which chronicles that harrowing voy- age deep inside one of America's most infamous xii introduction cases, was first published in 1987. It was updated two years later and has now been brought into 1999 by virtue of this introduction and a comprehensive new epilogue. However, this is not a Son of Sam story. On the surface is the enigmatic David Berkowitz, but far below is an infinitely more frightening specter — a highly motivated and well-organized cult group whose various criminal enterprises included the .44 homicides. While using the trappings of the occult, the group's main goals were power, greed and terror- ism. It is the embodiment of organized evil, and it still stains America on the eve of the millennium. It has thrived because its tentacles ensnared a number of jaded allies whose influential positions enabled it to extend far beyond New York. So, more than anything else, this book is an exam- ination of a volatile consortium which evolved with the times, altered its face and constructed a facade which it burrowed into the 1990s American land- scape. But beneath the contemporary veneer, it remains what it always was: a well-connected criminal cabal which some authorities today regard as "active and dangerous" because they believe it is presently aligned with a number of incendiary U.S. hate groups, radical movements and militias. To understand why the Son of Sam and other related killings happened and how those ultimately the most responsible for them managed to continue xiii introduction their operations to the present day, it is perhaps ben- eficial to pose a few questions. Did the government deceive the public about Vietnam, Watergate and Iran-Contra? It did. Did the government fatally fumble the 1993 standoff at the Branch-Davidian compound in Waco, Texas? It did.