A lady shot by “Son of Sam” killer David Berkowitz practically 60 years in the past discovered herself within the crosshairs once more this week when she was confronted by an acolyte of the serial killer who lectured her in regards to the assassin’s innocence.
Wendy Savino was at Valley Cottage Library in Rockland County Wednesday when Frank DeGennaro — who turned mates with the heartless killer 30 years in the past — confronted her and insisted Berkowitz didn’t shoot her, she informed The Put up.
“As I’m walking out, there’s a man just standing staring at me and he’s rather in my way,” Savino, 88, recalled to The Put up.
“So I try to walk around him and he says, ‘You’re Wendy Savino, aren’t you? Well I just want you to know David is very upset about what happened to you. David wants to talk to you.’”
“ ‘David wants you to know he didn’t do it,’ ” she recalled him saying.
Savino was shot 3 times as she sat in her model new silver Jaguar XJS on April 9, 1976, within the Bronx.
She performed lifeless when she realized the killer was nonetheless outdoors, however was shot twice extra within the again. Bleeding profusely, she crawled down a road and right into a restaurant.
NYPD investigators decided final 12 months that Savino was the primary of the .44-caliber killer’s victims — he killed six and wounded eight victims, most of them girls — in a collection of stunning crimes that paralyzed the Massive Apple from 1976 to 1977. Berkowitz was by no means charged with taking pictures her as a result of the statute of limitations had run out.
The mother-of-two sons misplaced an eye fixed within the assault and went into hiding in England, the place she is from.
After listening to DeGennaro boast about his friendship with Berkowitz, the terrified however quick-thinking Savino requested the person to write down his title down so she may share it along with her son, she stated.
She and her son, Jason Savino, instantly reported the incident to the Clarkstown Police Division, which took a report. The division didn’t return a name looking for remark.
“He had me backed into a corner,” she stated. “He’s just talking and talking about the same thing. ‘David’s a really good person.’”
However DeGennaro, who stated he received a name from the cops asking in regards to the incident however wasn’t charged, informed The Put up he wasn’t attempting to scare her.
DeGennaro, a retired NYC college principal within the Bronx, turned mates with the serial killer three a long time in the past after writing him a letter in jail, he stated.
“David is my friend,” he stated, explaining that the 2 bonded over their Christian religion.
DeGennaro stated he lives in Clarkstown and goes to the library typically. He was surpised to run into Savino, he stated. He denied telling her that Berkowitz wished to speak to her.
“I realize now that it was probably the wrong thing to do, to even talk to her,” stated DeGennaro, who was on a podcast days earlier voicing assist for Berkowitz. “This is getting blown out of proportion.”
The confrontation erupted as Netflix prepares to launch a brand new documentary about Berkowitz on July 30 known as “Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes” a few collection of newly unearthed, recorded conversations with him.
Berkowitz, 72, is serving 25 years to life in jail for six murders, and has been denied parole 12 instances.
Savino was shaken by this week’s encounter.
“I’m very nervous,” she stated. “I was always afraid someone would come to me and say ‘I’ll finish you off for David.’”
