Netflix has released another documentary covering one of the most infamous serial killers in history.
Adding to their various serial killer documentaries about Fred and Rose West, Ted Bundy, and Jeffrey Dahmer, the streamer has now released Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes.
‘The Son of Sam’, aka David Berkowitz, was a serial killer in New York in the 70s who murdered six people. This spawned a state-wide manhunt that eventually led to Berkowitz’s capture.
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Now, 47 years after his capture, Netflix has released previously secret interrogation tapes in which The Son of Sam killer spoke to a journalist from prison.
Berkowitz was arrested in 1977 and in 1978 was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences for his crimes.
He would walk up to random people, some in cars and some on the street, and fire on them with .44 revolver, initially earning him the name ‘The .44 killer’.
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The serial killer later got the name ‘The Son of Sam’ as that was the pen name he used to sign off letters he sent to journalists and left for police at the scenes of his crimes.
He initially told authorities that he had carried out the killings on the orders of a dog named Sam, which he believed was the physical manifestation of the devil.
He would later, in the 1990s, claim that he had lied and had actually carried out the killings as a ritual due to his place within a ‘satanic cult’.
The Netflix documentary features a number of tapes from 1980, two years after he was essentially sentenced to die in prison.
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Berkowitz was interviewed in prison by a journalist, Jack Jones, whose tapes were recently uncovered.
Within the tapes the Son of Sam told Jones that he had made up the story about a black dog in order to sow confusion and try and avoid capture.
The documentary’s director, Joe Berlinger, said in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum: “These rare tapes reveal unnerving insights into his psyche, shedding light on the intricate details of the case and the pervasive fear that gripped the city.”
Jones revealed in the opening to the show that he interviewed the killer after receiving a personal letter from Berkowitz.
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The veteran reporter stated that, though he has interviewed a number of murderers, the Son of Sam was a ‘different beast’, comparing him to a modern-day Jack the Ripper.
In the tapes shown in the opening to the first episode Berkowitz says that, though people may hate him, he ‘hopes they are open minded’.
Berkowitz is alive to this day continuing to service his prison sentence for the horrific random killings he carried out.
Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes is available to stream on Netflix now.
Topics: Netflix, True Crime, New York, TV and Film, TV, Documentaries
Michael Slavin