Son of Sam

David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz terrified the public when he killed eight people with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver in eight separate shooting attacks between 1976 and 1977 in New York City. He was finally only caught when police, following a lead from a witness, discovered that his car had received a parking ticket for parking near a fire hydrant near one of the murder scenes on the night of the murder. When he was arrested he claimed that his neighbor’s dog “Harvey” ordered him to kill people. In 2002, he sent a letter to the then New York State Governor George Pataki asking that his parole hearing be canceled stating “In all honesty, I believe that I deserve to be in prison for the rest of my life.”