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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 28 July 2017
‘Son of Sam’ film brings to life New York 40 years ago

By DAVID BAUDER out on the streets to inter- How do you tie people to-
AP Television Writer view New Yorkers about gether to a crime when
NEW YORK (AP) — Geraldo how they were coping. As there’s no tie?”
Rivera dates the low point such, “The Lost Tapes” of- Eventually, mundane po-
in modern New York City fers a rich portrait of what lice work cracked the case.
history to Aug. 9, 1977. the city was like that sum- When a witness reported a
That was the day before mer 40 years ago. It isn’t strange man on the street
police arrested David pretty. The city was grubby, near the final shooting, po-
Berkowitz, the serial killer crime-ridden and scared, lice checked traffic tickets
who called himself “Son in the midst of a hot and that had been issued in
of Sam.” He terrorized the sticky stretch that included the area and traced them
city for a year with late- a blackout-induced night to Berkowitz’s car and Yon-
night shootings, killing six of lawlessness. kers, New York, home. After
and wounding seven, and “1977 was an awful, awful his arrest, there were more
primarily targeted young year in New York City,” said newspapers sold in the city
women sitting in cars. Rivera, who appears as a than there had been af-
The time is vividly brought studly ABC News reporter in ter President John F. Ken-
to life in the Smithsonian the documentary, painted nedy’s assassination, said
Channel documentary, into a pair of jeans. “It was Lawrence Klausner, author
“The Lost Tapes: Son of a year of the blackout, it of “Son of Sam.”
Sam,” premiering Sunday was a year the city seemed In this Aug. 11, 1977 file photo, serial killer David Berkowitz, Berkowitz remains in an
at 9 p.m. EDT. The Investi- totally dysfunctional, com- known as “Son of Sam,” arrives at Brooklyn Courthouse in New upstate New York prison,
gation Discovery network is ing apart at the seams.” York. reportedly a born-again
airing its own retrospective Fanned by news reports, Associated Press Christian. Producer Jen-
on the crime spree that airs and Berkowitz’s own odd- that was so irrational. His Detective work was dif- nings said the story crafted
Aug. 5. Producer Tom Jen- ball letters sent to newspa- victims were people that ficult because the crimes through the news reports
nings has made similarly per columnist Jimmy Breslin, everyone could relate to seemed random, with few takes viewers back into
styled documentaries on the “Sam” saga whipped and everyone was subse- building blocks of com- time better than any of the
Pearl Harbor, the assassi- up fear among young peo- quently fearful that they monality. Many undercov- other documentaries he’s
nations of John F. Kennedy ple at a usually carefree could be next.” er officers worked all night done. Interviews with the
and Martin Luther King and stage in their lives. Many Berkowitz, he said, was the on the streets, hoping to thick-accented residents
the 1994 Los Angeles police turned down dates or par- Joker in Gotham City. catch the shooter in the recall a “New Yawk” mid-
riots. The idea is to trace the ties to stay home. Since The New York City Po- act. dle class that has shrunk
story through news reports the killer appeared to fa- lice Department formed “The city became a victim considerably in 40 years.
shown at the time, trading vor women with long, dark a 200-person task force and the police became a “The New Yorkers them-
in retrospective for a “you hair, women across the city to solve the crime. It was victim,” Clark said. “We’d selves became an impor-
are there” feel. cut or died their hair. deeply personal for po- go home and our wives tant voice in this — the
Since police were largely “You wouldn’t let your kids lice, said Bill Clark, a former and neighbors would say, frustration, the fear they
flummoxed until the end, go out,” Rivera recalled. “It city homicide detective ‘you’re detectives, why felt and the elation when it
news producers sent crews was the kind of crime spree who was on the task force. didn’t you catch the guy?’ was solved,” he said.q

Hillary Clinton calling new

book ‘What Happened’

By HILLEL ITALIE ence in last year’s election takes you inside the intense
AP National Writer and its threat to democra- personal experience of
NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary cy. In public remarks since becoming the first woman
Clinton is calling her new last fall, the Democrat has nominated for president by
book “What Happened” cited Russia as a factor in a major party in an elec-
and promising unprec- her defeat to her Republi- tion marked by rage, sex-
edented candor as she can opponent, along with ism, exhilarating highs and
remembers her stunning a letter sent by then-FBI Di- infuriating lows, stranger-
defeat last year to Donald rector James Comey less than-fiction twists, Russian
Trump. “In the past, for rea- than two weeks before the interference, and an op-
sons I try to explain, I’ve of- election. ponent who broke all the In this Sept. 21, 2016, file photo, Democratic presidential can-
ten felt I had to be careful Comey’s letter, sent to rules,” according to Simon didate Hillary Clinton pauses as she speak during a campaign
in public, like I was up on a Congress on Oct. 28, said & Schuster. “In these pag- stop at the Frontline Outreach Center in Orlando, Fla.
wire without a net,” Clinton the FBI “learned of the ex- es, she describes what it Associated Press
writes in the introduction, istence of emails that ap- was like to run against Don- since first announced, in loss has already been the
according to publisher Si- pear to be pertinent to ald Trump, the mistakes she February. It was originally subject of the best-selling
mon & Schuster. “Now I’m the investigation” into the made, how she has coped billed as a book of essays “Shattered,” a highly criti-
letting my guard down.” private email server that with a shocking and dev- that would “tell stories from cal book by Jonathan Al-
Simon & Schuster told The Clinton used as secretary astating loss, and how her life, up to and including len and Amie Parnes,
Associated Press on Thurs- of state. Days later, Comey she found the strength to her experiences in the 2016 and a more sympathetic
day that Clinton’s book will wrote that the FBI did not pick herself back up after- presidential campaign,” as account, Susan Bordo’s
be a highly personal work find anything new. wards.” “What Happened” opposed to a memoir cen- “The Destruction of Hillary
that also is a “cautionary “Now free from the con- is scheduled to come out
tale” about Russian interfer- straints of running, Hillary Sept. 12 and has evolved tered on the race. Clinton’s Clinton.”q