Rich Zahradnik

April 17, 1977: Eighteen-year-old Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau, 20, were shot and killed at 3 a.m. sitting in a car in the Bronx near the Hutchinson River Parkway. Four bullets were fired into the car window. Ballistics linked the deaths to the .44-caliber killer, who had now murdered five and injured four. The couple were parked three blocks from the home of David Berkowitz’s first victim, Donna Lauria. Berkowitz left a letter at the scene for Captain Joseph Borrelli, then commander of the task force investigating the crimes. In it, Berkowitz wrote, “I am the ‘Son of Sam.’ I am a little brat.” It was his reference to that nickname.

–Brought to you by Lights Out Summer, set in 1977, out Oct. 1