Maury Terry, The Ultimate Evil Review

Overall Rating

The Ultimate Evil by Maury Terry shows without a doubt and with considerable support from facts, police, DA's and eye witnesses, that David Berkowitz was not the only person involved in the planning and execution of the Son of Sam murders. Some of the 'nationwide Satanic cult' conspiracy angles can seem a little hard to swallow, but this is a fantastic book for anyone interested in the Son of Sam shootings. It is incomprehensible to me how the NYPD could ignore such blatant contradictions in Berkowitz' confessions, not interview key eye witnesses, and fudge the facts to support what they wanted, despite the errors.

Just the Moskowitz-Violante shooting alone should convince anyone that Berkowitz didn't do the shootings alone. Eye-witness accounts place Berkowitz at least 5 minutes from the site, as well as driving his Ford Galaxie that evening when the shooting occurred. The shooter was not dressed, nor looked like Berkowitz, and jumped into a yellow VW car that was driven by someone else. This puts at least 3 people involved in this shooting.

Terry, through exhaustive investigative reporting links the Son of Sam murders to a local cult that Berkowitz belonged to. Unlike many other books I have read riding the 'satanic cult' hype, this book lays out clearly by many sources such as police, reporters, civilians and informants, that such a cult did exist and that the ties to Son of Sam are numerous.

This is a fabulous book and one that should put the whole 'Berkowitz did all the shootings alone because he is a megalomaniac' theory to bed for good.