Monday, Jun. 05, 1978
Son of Sam Returns
Berkowitz rants in court
When David Berkowitz stood before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Joseph Corso three weeks ago, he admitted that he, acting as "Son of Sam," had terrorized New York City in a long series of killings with his .44-cal. revolver. The former mail clerk appeared so placid and reasonable that the judge agreed with a panel of psychiatrists and found him mentally competent to stand trial. Berkowitz then pleaded guilty to the murder of Stacy Moskowitz, 20, and to five more counts of second-degree murder. This flat and anticlimactic appearance in court was entirely free of the seemingly psychotic rantings that had filled Berkowitz's letters and earlier conversations with police.
Last week, as Berkowitz returned to court to be sentenced, it was Son of Sam's turn to put in an appearance. In a packed courtroom sat Stacy Moskowitz's mother and Robert Violante, Stacy's date the night of the murder, who is partly blind from the gunshot wounds he received. While the spectators waited for 1 1/2 hr., guards struggled to bring the killer into the courtroom; he scratched and bit them, trying to rush for a window. Finally, disheveled and handcuffed, he was pushed into the room. His face was flushed, his eyes bulging. Turning toward the spectators, he began a singsong chant.
"Stacy was a whore, Stacy was a whore," he sang. The spectators jumped to their feet.
"You animal! You animal!" screamed Mrs. Moskowitz.
Yelled Violante: "You should get killed, you creep!"
As guards rushed the struggling Berkowitz out of the room, he cried: "That's right! That's right! I'd kill her again! I'd kill them all again!"
The judge delayed sentencing until June 12 and ordered new psychiatric tests. Both legal and medical experts were left to ponder a fresh set of problems in the case. Among them: If Berkowitz was so deranged last week, had he been competent to plead guilty two weeks earlier? Another question: What had he meant last month when a court-appointed psychiatrist asked what he planned to do at the sentencing? "I know, but I'm not telling," he had replied. It sounded, thought some, as if he were planning his outrageous performance. "This will be the third psychiatric report," complained Bronx District Attorney Mario Merola. "Where will it go? Where will it end?"
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