The parking ticket that cracked the Son of Sam case — and the mother who still waits

The ticket sat on a car near the scene of the final shooting.

The final shooting, on July 31, 1977, killed a young woman and wounded her companion in Brooklyn.

Witnesses described a man matching David Berkowitz's description.

Police traced the car to Berkowitz.

They arrested him on August 10, 1977, outside his Yonkers apartment.

The exact content of that parking ticket — the location, the time, the violation — is not specified in the source.

It is a small piece of paper.

It is also the break.

Not because of any grand detective work.

But because a routine citation pointed to a name.

A name that led to a postal worker who confessed.

The shooting that night was not the first.

It was the last.

Six people were dead by then, and seven wounded.

The killer had taunted police with letters, signing as "Son of Sam."

Ballistics had linked the attacks to a .44-caliber revolver.

Still, the trail had gone cold.

Then the ticket.

Then the witnesses.

Then the arrest.

What did the witnesses say they saw?

A man matching the description.

What did the ticket say?

The record does not establish the details.

What did it prove?

That a car was there.

That the car belonged to Berkowitz.

That was enough.

THE SHOOTINGS

Between July 1976 and July 1977, a series of shootings in New York City left six people dead and seven wounded.

The attacker targeted young couples in parked cars and lone women.

The weapon was a .44-caliber revolver.

The first attack occurred on July 29, 1976, in the Bronx.

It killed Donna Lauria and wounded Jody Valenti.

Donna Lauria was twenty years old.

Her father, Michael Lauria, would speak publicly about the case for decades.

Later attacks came in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.

The pattern held: parked cars, couples, a lone woman walking.

The killer wrote letters to police and to a newspaper columnist.

He signed them "Son of Sam."

The taunting letters gave the case a name.

They did not give police a suspect.

The exact dates and locations of each attack beyond the first and last are not detailed in the source.

Ballistics linked the shootings to a single .44-caliber revolver.

That was the thread police had.

That, and the letters.