Son of Sam Is Not Sleeping

Hello from the sewers... hello from the cracks in the sidewalks of N.Y.C., and from the ants that dwell in these cracks and feed on the dried blood that has settled into the cracks.

With that grotesque greeting, hand-printed in compulsively neat capital letters, a man who has killed five people in eleven months began a rambling and ghoulish letter to New York Daily News Columnist Jimmy Breslin. The writer, known by his mysterious signature Son of Sam, said he was "hungry" for more killings.

True to his word, the murderer struck again last week, creeping up behind a couple parked on a tree-shaded street near a disco-theque in the borough of Queens and firing four shots from his .44-caliber Charter Arms "Bulldog." Though Judy Placido, 17, and Salvatore Lupo, 20, his tenth and eleventh victims, were wounded, both miraculously survived. But the latest, and most publicized, attack tightened the grip of fear on neighborhoods in Queens and in The Bronx, where the bizarre, psychopathic killer has chosen his targets.

Despite an investigation that has grown to include more than 50 detectives, police at week's end had no solid clues to the identity of the so-called .44 Caliber Killer -- only reports from a few witnesses that he is a dark-haired white man in his late 20s or early 30s who fires his revolver while holding it in both hands, police style. Hunting for clues, experts have thoroughly analyzed his note to Breslin, plus another letter left at a murder scene filled with such violent and repulsive language that it has not been released to the public. Amid the vilifications contained in the second letter are hints that the writer is reasonably well educated and may have attended a Roman Catholic school.

Waiting for him to strike again, New Yorkers are grimly recalling the Boston Strangler and Jack the Ripper. Like those classic murderers, the Son of Sam seems intent on killing women. Most of his attacks have been on long haired brunettes, many of them sitting in parked cars at night with their boy friends. Two of the male victims were wearing shoulder-length brown hair, and police think that the killer may have mistaken them for females.

Terrified parents in the area are now insisting that their daughters wear their long hair up, bleach it, or have their dates at home. Some girls have decided not to date until the killer is caught, and others are adopting unusual evening wear: loose sweaters and large caps to disguise themselves as males. "I'm scared," said one Queens girl. "I used to kiss my boyfriend in front of the house, Now I run in."

Police have checked mental hospital records, tracked dozens of suspects for days, investigated many false confessions, and even talked to a few nervous wives who suspected they were married to the killer -- all to no avail. Law authorities have also had witnesses hypnotized to aid their recall of details, and have vainly asked astrologers to predict the next killing-- just on the chance that the murderer is himself a follower of astrology.

One detective assigned to the case had an inspiration when a man named Casablanca was arrested after brandishing a .44 in a holdup. Said the detective: "The first thing I thought of was Son of Sam--you know, the movie Casablanca and 'Play It Again, Sam.' But we checked thoroughly, and it wasn't him." On the Sam-Son theory, police searched the New York metropolitan area for people named Samson with criminal or psychiatric records and delved into the Bible's Book of Samuel to hunt for possible clues.

With a proper flair for publicity, the killer referred to himself enigmatically in the Breslin letter as "The Duke of Death," "The Wicked King Wicker," "The Twenty-Two Disciples of Hell" and "John Wheaties, Rapist and Suffocator of Young Girls." Police have done what they can with these terms, even reading the script of a movie made in Scotland, King Wicker, although the film has not yet been released to theaters in the U.S.

Most psychiatrists portray Son of Sam as a loner acting out murderous impulses implanted during his childhood. "He must have been terribly provoked by a woman," says Manhattan Psychiatrist Hyman Spotnitz. Because the killings were all at close range, Spotnitz concludes: "He wants the women he kills to see him. He's exhibiting himself."

Police Psychologist Harvey Schlossberg believes that the killer is a loser who has met or carefully observed his victims before shooting them. Says he: "Killing is almost a mating or ritual courting kind of behavior." One bit of psychological advice from the experts has helped change the direction of the investigation: psychopaths often lead quiet, well-behaved lives before they lose control. "In the beginning," Inspector Timothy Dowd told TIME, "I saw a weird guy prowling. Now I have a picture of a regular guy. He could be clean-cut, wear a tie, have a respectable job. We're into the area now where he could be anybody."

As the intensive search went on, Dowd issued a widely publicized appeal to the killer: "Please get in touch with me. You're not solving your problems. We'll give you all the help we can. We know that you are suffering pain and anguish and we understand that you are not in control of yourself."

In desperation, police plunged into a gargantuan task: trying to track down all of the 28,000 existing models of the .44 revolver used in the shootings. The fear is that the murderer will soon strike again, perhaps on the anniversary of his first shooting, July 29. Indeed, in his letter to Breslin, the .44 Caliber Killer had sounded an ominous warning: "Don't think that because you haven't heard from [me] for a while that I went to sleep. No, rather, I am still here. Like a spirit roaming the night ... I will see you at the next job. Or, should I say you will see my handiwork at the next job?"

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