David Berkowitz's Apartment

Author: Jewls Krueger

For just over a year, David Berkowitz held New York City in a state of fear as the "Son of Sam," a gunman who shot young couples and women sitting in parked cars. The shootings took place across the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn, but Berkowitz went home each night to a small apartment in Yonkers. It was outside this building, on the night of August 10, 1977, that detectives finally caught him.

Son of Sam

Berkowitz killed six people and wounded seven others in a series of shootings between July 1976 and July 1977, using a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver. Because of the weapon, the press first called him the ".44 Caliber Killer." Most of his victims were young women, and several were sitting with dates in parked cars when he approached and opened fire.

The "Son of Sam" name came from a letter police found in April 1977 near the bodies of two victims in the Bronx. Addressed to NYPD Captain Joseph Borrelli, it was the first time the killer named himself, writing of a "father Sam" who "commands" him to kill. Berkowitz later said the name referred to Sam Carr, a Yonkers neighbor whose black Labrador he claimed was possessed by a demon that ordered the killings. Years afterward he admitted the demon story was a hoax.

The Arrest

The case broke not through the letters but through a parking ticket. After the final shooting, in Brooklyn on July 31, 1977, a witness recalled seeing an officer ticket a car parked near a fire hydrant close to the scene. When she came forward days later, detectives checked the tickets issued in the area that night. One traced back to Berkowitz's car, registered at his Yonkers address. A separate call to Yonkers police connected his name to Sam Carr and the wounded dog.

On August 10, 1977, detectives found Berkowitz's car parked outside his apartment building with a weapon visible inside. They searched it and found ammunition, maps of the crime scenes, and a threatening letter addressed to the Son of Sam task force. Rather than confront him in the building's narrow hallway, officers waited. When Berkowitz came out and got into the car, detectives approached with guns drawn. He offered no resistance and said, "Well, you got me." Asked who he was, he answered that he was Sam.

The Guilty Plea and Sentence

Berkowitz confessed to the shootings soon after his arrest and was found mentally competent to stand trial. He pleaded guilty in May 1978 and, the following month, was sentenced to 25 years to life for each murder, to be served consecutively. He first became eligible for parole in 2002 and has been denied every time, most recently at his twelfth board appearance in 2024.

Inside the Apartment

When police searched the seventh-floor apartment, unit 7E, they found it in disarray, with Satanic messages scrawled on the walls. Inside were diaries Berkowitz had kept for years, filled with notes on hundreds of fires he later admitted setting around the city. The media dubbed the unit "Satan's Lair," and it was gutted and renovated after the investigation closed.

The Apartment Today

The building sits on a hillside in Yonkers, a suburb just north of New York City, with upper floors that look out over the Hudson River. At the time of the murders it was known as Pine Hill Towers. Soon after the arrest, the owners changed the building's street number and later renamed the property, an effort to move past its connection to the case. It remains a private apartment building today, and its residents have no link to the crimes.

The building is still recognized by locals and by true crime visitors, and it draws camera crews on major anniversaries. If you visit, please stay on public sidewalks and roads, do not enter the building or its grounds, and be respectful of the people who live there. This is a private home to many families, not a public attraction.