David Berkowitz: The Son of Sam
Connecting the Dots
In the meantime, things seemed to be popping all over. Officer Chamberlain of the Yonkers PD responded to a call about a suspected arson at Berkowitz's apartment house at 35 Pine Street. The call had been made by Craig Glassman, a male nurse and part-time sheriff's deputy. (Glassman had been the fellow descibed in Berkowitz's letter as one of a group of demons along with the Cassaras and the Carrs.)
Glassman explained what happened: "I smelled the smoke and ran to the door. When I opened it the fire was almost out... It probably never got hot enough to set the bullets off." He showed Chamberlain the .22 caliber bullets that had been put into the fire outside his door."
notes left by Berkowitz
Then Glassman showed them the squirrelly letters he had received from Berkowitz, who lived just above him. The handwriting looked identical to the letters that the Carrs had received.
That same afternoon, Sam Carr, still upset over the shooting of his dog and what he saw as non-action by the police, independently pursued the matter with the Omega Task Force. He drove down to the police station where the task force was headquartered.
Not much happened when Sam Carr related his story of the shootings of the dogs, the weird letters, the eccentric David Berkowitz. The task force had been inundated for many months with leads by people who spoke as passionately as Sam Carr. They put the information in a folder of level two priorities and forgot about it — for a little while.
The fact was, despite the subsequent excuses, Sam Carr had just handed them the name of the killer and they sat on it.