The victims of the Son of Sam were fifteen young New Yorkers shot by David Berkowitz between April 1976 and July 1977, six of whom were killed and the rest wounded, several permanently. Most were in their late teens or early twenties, and most were sitting in parked cars in the Bronx, Queens, or Brooklyn when Berkowitz approached with a .44-caliber Charter Arms Bulldog revolver and opened fire. The NYPD added a fifteenth name to the list in 2024, nearly fifty years after the attacks began.
Wendy Savino, April 9, 1976
Savino was sitting in her car in a Bronx parking lot when a smiling, blue-eyed man walked up to her driver’s window and shot her five times. One bullet struck her chest, another passed through her arm and ricocheted off the dashboard into her right eye, a third entered her shoulder, punctured her windpipe, and lodged in her spine, and two more hit her in the back.1New York Post. Wendy Savino Reveals How She Survived Son of Sam She played dead until the gunman left, then crawled to a nearby restaurant. She spent two months in intensive care and permanently lost her right eye.
The NYPD officially classified Savino as Berkowitz’s first known victim in 2024, after a researcher found a composite sketch of her attacker inside the case file of Donna Lauria.2NBC News. Son of Sam Killer’s First Victim Recalls a Smiling Man and Then Gunfire Berkowitz denied the shooting when detectives interviewed him at Shawangunk Correctional Facility, but investigators noted inconsistencies in his account.3New York Post. Son of Sam Killer’s First Known Victim Wendy Savino Recalls Harrowing Experience The statute of limitations on attempted murder has expired, so he cannot be charged.
Donna Lauria and Jody Valenti, July 29, 1976
Just after 1:00 a.m., Lauria, 18, and Valenti, 19, were sitting in Valenti’s Oldsmobile outside 2860 Buhre Avenue in the Bronx after a night at a disco. A man with curly hair walked up and fired four shots through the passenger window. Lauria was struck in the neck and died instantly.4PIX11. Mother of Son of Sam’s First Victim Donna Lauria Shares Anguish on 40th Anniversary of Murder Valenti was shot in the thigh and survived. She later said it took her roughly six years before she could ride in a car at night again, and loud noises stayed difficult long after that.5People. Where Are the Survivors of David Berkowitz Attacks Now
Carl Denaro and Rosemary Keenan, October 23, 1976
Denaro, 20, and Keenan, 18, were sitting in Denaro’s parked car in Flushing, Queens, when gunfire shattered the windows. Keenan was cut by broken glass. Denaro was far more seriously injured: bullets destroyed part of his skull and surgeons replaced the missing bone with a metal plate. Police initially classified the shooting as drug-related, which Denaro later said made him feel “victimized twice: by the cops and when I was shot.”6People. Son of Sam Survivor Carl Denaro Interview Both survived.
Donna DeMasi and Joanne Lomino, November 27, 1976
Shortly after midnight, DeMasi, 17, and Lomino, 18, were standing on the porch of Lomino’s home in Bellerose, Queens, after returning from a movie. A man asked for directions, then opened fire.7New York Times. Profiles of Psychopath’s Victims DeMasi was shot once in the neck and recovered without lasting physical injury. Lomino was struck in the back; the bullet lodged in her spine and left her paralyzed from the waist down. She lived with depression and serious health complications tied to the paralysis, and her brother later said those complications contributed to her death.5People. Where Are the Survivors of David Berkowitz Attacks Now
Christine Freund and John Diel, January 30, 1977
Freund, 26, and her fiancé John Diel were shot while sitting in a parked car in Flushing. Freund was killed; Diel survived.8CBS News. Son of Sam Serial Killer David Berkowitz Victims and Timeline At 26, Freund was the oldest person Berkowitz killed.
Virginia Voskerichian, March 8, 1977
Voskerichian, a 20-year-old Barnard College sophomore, was shot and killed around 7:30 p.m. while walking home from the Continental Avenue subway station in Forest Hills Gardens, Queens. The attack happened near 4 Dartmouth Street, about a block from where Christine Freund had been killed six weeks earlier.9Queens Chronicle. Celebrating the Short Life of Virginia She was found with her books covering her face; the bullet had passed through them. She was the only one of Berkowitz’s victims attacked while alone rather than part of a couple.
Her family had immigrated from Bulgaria in 1968. She spoke five languages and worked part-time at a duty-free shop at JFK Airport. Her brother Deek, who identified her body, told a local paper the murder “blew everyone’s dreams away” and that the family never returned to normal.
Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau, April 17, 1977
Shortly after 3:00 a.m., Suriani, 18, and her boyfriend Esau, 20, were shot in a parked car near St. Theresa Avenue in the Bronx. Suriani was killed instantly. Esau was shot twice in the head and died later that night at Jacobi Hospital.10New York Daily News. Son of Sam Shoots and Kills Couple Sitting in Parked Car in the Bronx It was at this scene that the gunman left a handwritten note signed “Son of Sam” for the first time. Ballistics confirmed the weapon was the same .44 revolver used in the earlier attacks.11Biography.com. Son of Sam Murder Case Timeline
Judy Placido and Sal Lupo, June 26, 1977
Placido, 17, and Lupo, 20, were shot in a car outside a nightclub in Bayside, Queens. Placido was hit in the temple, shoulder, and back of the neck. Lupo was struck in the forearm. Both survived.5People. Where Are the Survivors of David Berkowitz Attacks Now Placido recovered physically but had panic attacks for decades afterward. She later became a legal assistant, married, and had a son. In a 1999 interview she said she held no hatred toward Berkowitz, describing him as “deranged.”
Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante, July 31, 1977
The final Son of Sam attack came around 2:50 a.m. in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn, the first time the gunman struck outside Queens and the Bronx. Moskowitz, a 19-year-old college student, and Violante, 20, were in a parked car near Shore Parkway. They had gone on the date partly because Brooklyn had been spared and because Moskowitz was blonde, while the earlier female victims had dark hair.12CBS News. Son of Sam Victims in Their Own Words
Both were shot in the head. One bullet grazed Moskowitz’s scalp; a second lodged in her neck. She suffered brain damage and died roughly 18 hours later. Surgeons removed the nearly intact slug from her neck, and ballistics matched it to the .44 Charter Arms Bulldog used in the earlier shootings, a key break in the investigation.13New York Times. .44 Killer Wounds 12th and 13th Victims Violante survived but lost his left eye and most of the sight in his right. He went on to work for the U.S. Postal Service for 35 years, a fact he and other survivors have noted with bitter irony, since Berkowitz was also a postal worker.
Where the Survivors Are Now
The physical toll on the survivors has been permanent for several of them. Carl Denaro carries a metal plate in his skull. Joanne Lomino spent the rest of her life paralyzed. Wendy Savino lost an eye. Robert Violante was left legally blind. Others who recovered physically, like Judy Placido and Jody Valenti, lived with anxiety and panic attacks for years. Violante has spoken about long stretches of fear in public and difficulty with dating after the attack.5People. Where Are the Survivors of David Berkowitz Attacks Now
Several survivors, including Denaro, Violante, and Savino, have spoken publicly over the years to keep the victims from being forgotten. Denaro has researched the case extensively and has questioned whether Berkowitz personally carried out every shooting, though NYPD investigators have maintained he was the sole gunman in the attacks he confessed to.6People. Son of Sam Survivor Carl Denaro Interview
What Happened to Berkowitz
Berkowitz was arrested outside his Yonkers apartment on August 10, 1977, ten days after the Moskowitz-Violante shooting. On May 8, 1978, he pleaded guilty to six murders and received six consecutive terms of 25 years to life.11Biography.com. Son of Sam Murder Case Timeline He has been held at Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Ulster County ever since.
He became eligible for parole in 2002 but has repeatedly declined to seek release.14People. Where Is David Berkowitz Now He was denied parole at his 12th hearing in May 2024.15CBS News. Son of Sam Denied Parole At his 13th scheduled hearing in May 2026, Berkowitz, then 72, did not attend, saying he was not seeking release.16New York Post. Son of Sam Killer David Berkowitz Predicts He’ll Go to Heaven
The Son of Sam Law
Berkowitz’s case prompted New York to pass the country’s first “Son of Sam” law in 1977. The original statute required any money a criminal earned from telling the story of their crimes to be turned over to the state Crime Victims Board, where it would be held in escrow for victims’ civil claims. The U.S. Supreme Court struck that version down unanimously in 1991 in Simon & Schuster, Inc. v. Members of New York State Crime Victims Board, holding that singling out income from expressive activity was an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech.17Justia. Simon and Schuster Inc. v. Members of New York State Crime Victims Board, 502 U.S. 105
New York rewrote the statute, which still exists as Executive Law § 632-a. The current version is broader: anyone contracting to pay a convicted person more than $10,000 in profits from a crime or in general funds must notify the state Office of Victim Services, and victims have three years to bring a civil action to recover damages from those funds.18FindLaw. NY Executive Law § 632-a Many other states have since adopted their own versions.