The curved roof of a Volkswagon Beetle is likely what saved 20-year-old Carl Denaro’s life when a bullet ore through his head as he sat in the passenger seat of the parked car at 159th St. in Flushing in the early morning hours of Oct. 23, 1977. The bullet hit the car’s rain gutter, slowing down before hitting Denaro, who later required a steel plate in his skull. Police came to suspect that the shooter mistook Denaro for a girl because of his long hair–which was believed to be the source of Son of Sam’s fixations.
For the first time in 15 years Carl Denaro spoke about the time he was shot in the head back in 1976. Denaro recalls, ”I thought the car exploded.” Instead, a shooter had just emptied five .44 caliber rounds into the car, hitting Denaro in the back of the head. He was rushed to a hospital and surgery saved his life.
Police eventually determined that David Berkowitz was the one who shot him but now Denaro has serious doubts. He has done some of his own investigating in the years since he was shot and now he’s calling on police to re-open the Berkowitz case and prove it was all a conspiracy.
At the time police didn’t know who David Berkowitz was. Then a year later though, the infamous ‘Son of Sam’ serial killer was arrested and Berkowitz plead guilty to the killings and attempted murders which included Carl Denaro. Today, however, Denaro states, “I’d like to know who shot me”. When asked if he truly beleives Berkowitz didn’t pull the trigger Denaro replied, “I’m 99.9% sure it wasn’t him.”
Denaro says he has good reason to believe Berkowitz was not acting alone. He states, “I’ve run into up to 30 detectives that ‘off record’ will tell me they know other people were involved”. Denaro also remembers how detectives confiscated the Volkswagen he was shot in so they could conduct forensic testing. He says when police returned the car a couple of weeks later the car’s owner was cleaning it out and found a .44 caliber bullet that police somehow overlooked. That bullet was then turned over to the police department’s ballistics experts. Denaro cites this as a clear case of shoddy police work and he also believes officials rushed to close the investigation for political reasons. After Berkowitz’s arrest police officers and city officials were promoted and the press glorified them as the heroes who caught New York’s most infamous serial killer.
Denaro believes Satanic cult members were also part of the 'Son of Sam’ killings. Berkowitz himself contends his murderous rage was fueled by his involvement with a cult, “I really thought I was some kind of soldier in a Satanic army and we had determined to bring NYC to its knees.”
In the mid ’90’s Berkowitz admitted there were indeed others who also committed the murders. During an on-camera interview he claimed, “I did not pull the trigger at every single one of them.” Since then he has once again changed his story.
Denaro says this should convince police to revisit the investigation, ”I believe they should reopen the case because I think there are people who were involved who are still out there.”