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David Richard Berkowitz pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life on each count for eight New York City shootings that killed six people and wounded seven from July 1976 to July 1977.

Berkowitz was born Richard David Falco on June 1, 1953, and was adopted the following year by Nathan Berkowitz and his wife Pearl. He learned at 14 that they were not his natural parents. He trained with an auxiliary police unit in 1970, served three years in the Army from 1971 and became a postal clerk in March 1977, by which time the shootings had been going on for eight months. He lived in Yonkers.

The attacks were tied to a .44 calibre revolver. On July 29, 1976, in the Bronx, Donna Lauria, 18, was shot dead in a parked car and Jody Valenti was wounded. On October 23, 1976, Carl Denaro, 20, was shot in the head and Rosemary Keenan, 18, was wounded; both lived. On November 27, 1976, in Queens, Joanne Lomino, 18, was shot and left paralysed and Donna DeMasi was wounded. On January 30, 1977, in Queens, Christine Freund, 26, was shot dead beside John Diel, who was wounded.

On March 8, 1977, in Queens, Virginia Voskerichian, 19, was shot dead while walking home. On April 17, 1977, in the Bronx, Valentina Suriani, 18, and Alexander Esau, 20, were shot dead in a car, and a letter left at the scene first used the name Son of Sam. Judy Placido, 17, and Salvatore Lupo, 20, were wounded on June 26, 1977, at Bayside in Queens. On July 31, 1977, at Bath Beach in Brooklyn, Stacy Moskowitz, 19, was killed and Robert Violante, 20, was partly blinded.

A parking ticket issued near the Moskowitz shooting was traced to Berkowitz, and threatening letters he had sent neighbours pointed the same way. He was arrested outside his Yonkers apartment on August 10, 1977, with the .44 in the car, and asked officers, "How come it took you so long?" Two psychiatrists initially found he could not assist his own defence, then reversed themselves in the spring of 1978. Justice Joseph R. Corso found him fit. The recorded interview was not part of that process and was made in prison decades later.

Berkowitz pleaded guilty and was never tried. On May 8, 1978, against his lawyers' advice to plead insanity, he pleaded guilty to six counts of second-degree murder plus attempted murder and assault. He entered pleas before Justice Corso in Brooklyn for the shooting of Moskowitz and Violante, before Justice William Kapelman for three Bronx murders, and before Justice Nicholas Tsoucalas for two murders and five attempted murders in Queens. On June 12, 1978, he received the maximum sentence of 25 years to life for each murder, plus 15- and 25-year terms for the other counts, imposed consecutively but merging for parole eligibility.

In July 1979, at Attica, another prisoner cut Berkowitz's throat. He survived, needed more than 50 stitches, never named the man and no one was charged. Berkowitz says he became a Christian in 1987, calls himself the Son of Hope and works as a clerk for the chaplain at Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Ulster County. Eligible for parole since 2002, he has been refused every time, most recently after his twelfth board appearance on May 14, 2024. He did not attend the next hearing, due in May 2026, saying he had "other things to do" that were "more meaningful." He is 73 and remains at Shawangunk.

What this recording is could not be established. It is not a police interview or court proceeding, but a professionally shot, high-definition, single-camera sit-down with Berkowitz in prison that runs 1 hour 49 minutes 8 seconds, with the interviewer off camera. Four seconds in, a caption reads DAVID BERKOWITZ, Formerly known as "The Son of Sam"; Berkowitz wears a New York State prison uniform with an identification tag, sits with a Bible and folder on the table, and reads from a typed statement headed Story of Tragedy & Triumph/Sorrow & Hope. There are no titles or credits, and the archived item lists no creator, date, licence or rights field. The production, interviewer, date and rights holder are unidentified. Because of its length, the recording is posted here in two parts, with the second continuing directly from the first.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.