Police Mobilize, but July 29 Comes And Goes With No Sign of .44 Killer

“What will you have for July 29?” demanded the Son of Sam in a letter last May.

It was a taunt – or warning – from a psychopath to remember the first anniversary of a year of terror, during which he had killed five persons and wounded six others with a .44-caliber Charter Arms Bulldog revolver, that mobilized hundreds of plainclothes men, uniformed and off-duty New York policemen for a 48-hour period that ended yesterday at dawn.

“That’s what makes it so frustrating. We have no theories. We have no leads. And that is just the truth.” Dowd

Throughout the evening and into the early morning hours the inspector managed to appear unruffled. He remained neatly dressed in his blue-cord suit and tightly knotted tie as his men – nearly all dressed in sports shirts and slacks or dungarees – continued to hunt.

A man waiting for half an hour in front of the 109th Precinct station was searched by a suspicious detective. The embarrassed policeman discovered that the man was just waiting for his wife to arrive at the corner bus stop. “Still, it could have been Sam. It would have been just like him to come right to our front door,” the detective insisted.

Excerpt from Howard Blum 07/31/77 New York Times