A retired detective is urging the New York Police Department to re-examine a decades-old murder case, arguing it could be the earliest known killing by the infamous 'Son of Sam' serial killer, David Berkowitz.
A Chilling Cold Case from 1970
The case centres on the murder of 16-year-old Margaret Inglesia in the Bronx. On October 18, 1970, around 2 a.m., Inglesia was walking home from a party when she was gunned down on East 169th Street. A witness report stated she was shot once in the front and twice in the back as she lay dying.
Her killing was the only fatal incident in a series of six sniper attacks on the same block over a two-month period that year. Despite the violence, no arrests were ever made, and the case grew cold.
Striking Similarities to a Notorious Spree
Retired Yonkers police detective Mike Lorenzo, whose father worked on the original Berkowitz investigation, now believes Inglesia's murder bears the hallmarks of the later Son of Sam killings. "This is a case that needs to be reexamined," Lorenzo told The New York Post. "This was Son of Sam before Son of Sam."
Lorenzo, who retired in 2008, is working with Son of Sam expert Manny Grossman to petition the NYPD. They point to several compelling factors. From June 1970 to June 1971, a 17-year-old David Berkowitz worked at his father's business, Melrose Hardware, located roughly a mile from the scene of the sniper attacks.
Furthermore, evidence seized after Berkowitz's 1977 arrest included 100-yard shooting targets found in his home. "Why would he have 100-yard targets? He's not a hunter," Lorenzo pointed out, suggesting Berkowitz may have been honing long-distance skills before his close-range .44-caliber revolver attacks that terrorised New York between July 1976 and August 1977.
Weighing the Evidence and Differences
The theory is not without its discrepancies. The confirmed Son of Sam shootings were at close range with a .44-caliber revolver, often targeting people in cars. The Bronx sniper used a .22-caliber rifle. However, Lorenzo argues the location and predatory nature of the attack are telling.
"It wasn't right next door to the father's shop but it wasn't 20 miles away or in another borough and it fits his M.O.," he said. "It's the same thing as the Son of Sam killings but just a different kind of gun. Shooting into a car is sniping too."
Grossman and Lorenzo have previously helped identify a previously unknown Berkowitz victim, Wendy Savino, who survived a 1976 shooting. Their work lends credibility to their call for a fresh look at the Inglesia case. "This is a major case that's been forgotten," Grossman said. "There's a perp out there and we think it's Berkowitz."
Now 72, David Berkowitz remains incarcerated at Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Ulster County, having been convicted of six murders. The push to reopen the 1970 case raises a haunting question: did the reign of terror attributed to the Son of Sam actually begin years earlier than officially recorded?
