When Son of Sam first struck on the morning of July 29, 1976, no one could expect that a serial killer was making his debut. Two young women, Donna Lauria, an eighteen-year-old brunette, and her nineteen-year-old friend Jody Valenti, were talking in Jody's car near the entrance of the Lauria's apartment building in the Bronx, New York City. As they were talking, a man came beside the car and pulled out a Charter Arms .44 Bulldog handgun from a paper bag; he squatted down and fired into the car five times. Shot in the neck, Donna died immediately. Jody, shot in the thigh, leaned on the horn while the man continued to pull the trigger, even though the chamber was empty (Klausner).
This act was just the beginning for David Berkowitz. Police could find no motive for the attack. Finally, they theorized that it night have been either a mob execution with mistaken victims or a lone psycho. …
