Maury Terry, The Ultimate Evil Review

Overall Rating

Enjoyable and well written. Terry produces an indepth and well researched description of the Son Of Sam killings.

Terry takes his conspiracy theory wildly into the realms of fiction with his bizarre and at times surreal logic. This can become tedious and annoying after a couple of hundred pages of pure waffle.

Synopsis of Maury Terry, The Ultimate Evil:
"Did David Berkowitz, perpetrator of the infamous "Son of Sam Murders" act alone? Or rather was he a hit man for a dangerous satanic cult, the Process Church of the Final Judgment? When Berkowitz confessed to the murders in 1977, investigative reporter Maury Terry set out to collect the real facts and reveal the true evil mastermind behind these crimes - as well behind many other ritualistic homicides he attributes to the cult. In this chilling book, Maury Terry chronicles these murders in horrifying detail and recounts his investigation of the Berkowitz case - including his interviews with the killer from his jail cell, in which Berkowitz confirmed Terry's suspicions about this cult that still has an active underground following to this day".

Terry offers an interesting and novel look on the Son Of Sam killings that terrorized America. He delivers the notion that Berkowitz did not in fact act alone, rather, he was merely a scapegoat to divert the attention away from what was apparently 'really going on'. Terry's theory is that a nation wide Satanic cult, with connections in the highest and widest places is responsible. He even goes on to identify the cult as an apparent off shoot of the Process church. Connections are then swiftly made to involve many other murderous crimes, including the Tate-La Bianca murders. It could indeed be true that there is a conspiracy involved in the Son Of Sam killings, but Terry's outrageous reasoning and step-by-step fact making doesn't prove a thing. Here is an example of how he finds the hidden meaning in a letter sent by Berkowitz to a journalist:

(1) The letter contains the phrase "keep 'em digging".
(2) 'em' backwards is 'me'
(3) 'keep' backwards is 'peek'
(4) 'peek' could be translated as 'look for'
(5) 'digging' in the UK can mean 'home' (often shortened to 'digs')
(6) So putting it together it becomes 'look for me home'
(7) Therefore it contains a description of how to get to Berkowitz's home address.

It seems like the book is one of those cases where if you put enough time, effort and energy into searching for any possible clues, a thousand can be fabricated. But even more than that, Terry seems to even create evidence which he later announces is 'fact'. What a hero!

I have to admit that I did enjoy the book and I feel that it did open up many questions on the whole Son Of Sam murders. Terry has given a very in-depth and commendable insight into the life and crimes of Berkowitz, but the book does seem to then wander off into the realms of fantasy with Terry's wild accusations. This at first comes across as quite comical, but then after a couple of hundred pages dedicated to Terry's bizarre logic, it starts to get annoying and tedious.

I'd still recommend this book to anyone who is at all interested in the Son Of Sam killings, but (and this is a big but), I would seriously recommend that you don't take all of Terry's findings and reasoning as fact.