Lets look at the timeline of the Queens DA investigation as reported by Maury Terry. Screenshots are from the 1989/1999 editions of TUE but I'll provide page numbers from the 2021 Zeman edition because that version seems to be the one in the widest circulation at the moment.
John Santucci's name first appears in the Acknowledgements (not published in Zeman's edition) alongside Queens assistant DA Herb Leifer and Tom McCarthy who was Santucci's aide and press spokesman. No sign of Armienti, funny enough.
Next, he's quoted in the Introduction (lmao, also not published in the Zeman edition):
There is a myth in Son of Sam Land that nobody thought David Berkowitz had accomplices until Maury Terry somehow convinced them to go against the official, established narrative.
Yet it appears Santucci wanted a trial before Terry came along because he suspected something was amiss.
Consider the answer he gave to this question:
Full interview here (thanks to Dana DooDah for the clip!):
Back to TUE. Once again, Santucci reassures us he was not happy with the circumstances around the arrest of Berkowitz beginning the very night David was apprehended (page 116):
The apprehension of David Berkowitz allowed everyone a huge sigh of relief. One could almost forgive the authorities for declaring the case to be closed in a moment of sheer jubilation.
The problem is they stuck with it.
From page 297:
And then we have this on page 304:
I can appreciate the fact that the Son of Sam case boosted careers. Nabbing Berkowitz resulted in lots of promotions and pay raises (mostly well-earned). But did the lone gunman theory really mean that much? If so, why? If you can explain the position of NYPD, I'm all ears.
And if you guys don't think files started walking out on their own at this point...
Anyway, back to The Good Book. Pages 303 to 304:
In his role as a journalist, Maury had to be able to protect his sources. This is true for any journalist.
Yes, Maury wanted to see the case re-opened, he wanted to see prosecutions. Why do you think he wrote all of those newspaper articles? A junior high grudge that gets weirder and dumber every time it's retold?
Also, imagine you're Maury and you're listening to the tape of Armienti giving Roger Flood the biggest hint he can think of to describe a confidential source. You'd keep your cards close to your chest too.
Plus, how many leads were they entitled to from Maury? He was a journalist. They were law enforcement. They had way more means at their disposal to gather information- bigger budget, more manpower, etc.
Or they could have deputized Maury and just turned him loose to make arrests?From my last post:
"Throughout various taped conversations, there seems to be considerable interest in "Reeve Rockman". This is likely due to him having a place in Queens, according to TUE (more on this in a later post). The problem is that they never seem to place him in New York, only North Dakota. Were any of his New York associates interviewed? I would love to know."
So where's the "Rockman" interview?
Rockman had a place in New York. Queens, to be exact. Santucci and his
team's jurisdiction. Or maybe he was interviewed and that tape simply
can't be found, like so many other files?
Let's not forget, according to his sister, John "Wheaties" Carr was a real chick-magnet. Where are those interviews?
We have one interview with a New York associate of John Carr's (not counting the rest of the Carr family) - Lawrence Belillo, a childhood friend. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have interviews with JC's North Dakota friends, but what about New York friends?
I don't think Rockman was involved in SOS directly, but then again neither was Belillo and they made time for him, assuming Rock Man was never questioned.
Page 382:
Two of the shooters were from out of town, allegedly, and long gone. Two more suspected shooters were dead and one was in prison. That leaves two ladies - one of which left work early over an alleged family emergency the night Virginia Voskerichian was murdered.
The scene they were said to belong to was full of perverts, drug dealers, gun runners, pimps, scum of the earth in general. Yet nobody seems to have been leaned on, that we know of. This appears to be confirmed on page 326:
What does "too many cadidates" mean exactly? And why can't they be investigated?
And what about The Process? Well they were long gone, weren't they. They split town for greener pastures, Georgia, right before the Atlanta Child Murders began (poor guys, forever cursed to be the Forrest Gumps of bad shit happening).
So how would you guys have played this?
It seems to me that with the rest of the NYPD actively refusing support, Santucci was not about to risk one "i" being left undotted or one "t" uncrossed. It certainly didn't help that he didn't seem to have a strong team. Anyone from NYPD who pitched-in only had to look at the way Cinotti was hung out to dry to get the message.
And in the midst of it all, we find out this (pages 304-305):
Pretty pathetic indeed. And to this day it still happens. The smears never stopped, they spread from message boards to Twitter to YouTube and God knows where else.
If I'm on the side of the single shooter theory, and I'm watching this unfold in such a scuzzy fashion (not only smears but threats and intimidation) you better bet I would re-think my position.
The Queens DA investigation seems to have quietly closed out in 1983 with a whimper, to the relief of pedos, dog stranglers and participants across the boroughs and beyond.
From Buffalo News, June 27, 1983:
Personally, I'm still hung up on Armienti. At times, on the tapes, he seems engaged, as in the Tom Turkey interview. Other times he doesn't sound as focused. Did you say it? No? Good enough for me.
Leifer's "too many candidates" just doesn't sit right with me either. Isn't that a good problem to have when you are investigating a criminal conspiracy?
Find out where they live, talk to neighbors. Find out where they work, who they date, where they hang out...or don't! Just lean on Maury for leads.
And what was David Berkowitz up to this whole time? Funny you should ask, but we'll go over it next time.
To be continued...
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