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Carl Denaro lives with a metal plate in the back of his head, a macabre memento, police say, from “Son of Sam” serial killer David Berkowitz. Berkowitz terrified the Big Apple in 1976 and 1977 in a sadistic shooting spree that claimed six lives and critically wounded seven others. The schlubby civil servant confessed to pulling the trigger of his .44-caliber Bulldog revolver on the orders of a demonic dog. However, Denaro claims in a new book — co-authored with Brian Whitney — that his shooter was not the “Son of Sam,” but a mysterious “occult priestess” named “Big Breasted...

Our star movie columnist Kathy Shaidle is off this week, so your humble host has to fill in. Among the casualties of this lost summer is the summer blockbuster: for the first time since the mid-seventies, when Steven Spielberg and George Lucas seized the season for sharks and space aliens, the season has passed blockbuster-free. On the other hand, summer-in-the-city-wise, we seem back to the Seventies of Death Wish, of looting and random violence, and no law and order to be found. It isn't really a return to Death Wish New York, of course: the wholesale demographic transformation of American...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- The "Son of Sam" serial killer who terrorized New York City 40 years ago is in the hospital. New York state prison officials said Tuesday that 64-year-old David Berkowitz was transferred to a hospital from the upstate maximum-security prison where he is serving a life sentence. Officials would not comment on why he was in the hospital, but the New York Post and the Times-Union of Albany reported that he was transferred to undergo heart surgery.

Back in 1977, New York City was gripped by a fear unlike any other I have witnessed, except, of course, during the aftermath of 9/11. It was a reign of terror that saw six people murdered and seven others wounded. Most of those who were attacked were young women. The conventional wisdom was that the killer was looking for ladies with long, dark hair, causing many women to cut their hair short. The attacks began in 1975, but it wasn’t until the summer of 1976 that women started being shot to death, execution style. By then, we learned that the...

.....I wrote a play about politics (November, Barrymore Theater, Broadway, some seats still available). And as part of the "writing process," as I believe it's called, I started thinking about politics. This comment is not actually as jejune as it might seem. Porgy and Bess is a buncha good songs but has nothing to do with race relations, which is the flag of convenience under which it sailed. But my play, it turned out, was actually about politics, which is to say, about the polemic between persons of two opposing views. The argument in my play is between a president...

"Son of Sam" serial killer David Berkowitz has been denied parole for the third time, with the state parole board citing concerns for public safety in refusing to release the gunman who terrorized New York City in the 1970s. The decision followed a hearing that the 53-year-old Berkowitz, imprisoned since 1978, refused to attend. The board noted his prison programming "appears commendable" while his disciplinary record the past two years contained only one report. He will be eligible for parole again in two years. "Your instant offenses obviously displayed a cold disregard for innocent human life, and the public safety...

Judge tells lawyer to hold Son of Sam killer's property for now NEW YORK (AP) _ Items that belonged to David Berkowitz, the imprisoned Son of Sam killer who terrorized New York for 13 months in the 1970s, were assigned to a lawyer for safekeeping on Monday until a judge decides who owns them now. Berkowitz, serving six 25-years-to-life sentences for killing six people and wounding seven others in 1976 and 1977, said in a lawsuit that he loaned the documents, letters, photos and other items to his former lawyer Hugo R. Harmatz and now wants them back. Harmatz has...

<p>ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) --  David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" killer who terrorized New York City during the sweltering summer of 1977, was denied his first chance at parole on Tuesday after 25 years behind bars.</p> <p>The two-member parole board said Berkowitz showed "limited understanding of the motivation" for his crimes. The board called his crimes "atrocious" and noted Berkowitz recently wrote to Gov. George Pataki saying he deserved to be in prison for the rest of his life.</p>

State Senate approves new 'Son of Sam' law By Don Thompson ASSOCIATED PRESSJune 21, 2002 SACRAMENTO - The Senate yesterday approved a new version of the "Son of Sam" law struck down by the state Supreme Court in February, sending it to the Assembly. The bill attempts to sidestep the high court's ruling that California's previous ban on felons' profiting from their criminal actions with books or movies is a violation of their free speech rights. Those profits would have gone to the victims instead, under the 1983 law. The new legislation allows victims to sue criminals for monetary damages...