Son of Sam 'didn't do it,' his pal tells shooting victim
Wendy Savino was at Valley Cottage Library in Rockland County Wednesday when Frank DeGennaro — who became friends with the heartless killer 30 years ago — confronted her and insisted Berkowitz did not shoot her, she told The Post.
'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 Post.
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8 Wendy Savino, 88, said she was confronted by a man who said he was David Berkowitz's friend at a library.
J.C. Rice
8 Savino said the confrontation happened at the Valley Cottage Library when she went to pick up a book.
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'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.''
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' 'David wants you to know he didn't do it,' ' she recalled him saying.
Savino was shot three times as she sat in her brand new silver Jaguar XJS on April 9, 1976, in the Bronx.
8 NYPD detectives last year said Savino was one of Berkowitz's victims when she was shot in 1976.
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She played dead when she realized the killer was still outside, but was shot twice more in the back. Bleeding profusely, she crawled down a street and into a restaurant.
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NYPD investigators determined last year that Savino was the first of the .44-caliber killer's victims — he killed six and wounded eight victims, most of them women — in a series of shocking crimes that paralyzed the Big Apple from 1976 to 1977. Berkowitz was never charged with shooting her because the statute of limitations had run out.
8 Wendy Savino, 88, was a mom of two young sons when she was shot five times while sitting in her Jaguar in the Bronx in 1976.
J.C. Rice
The mother-of-two sons lost an eye in the attack and went into hiding in England, where she is from.
After listening to DeGennaro boast about his friendship with Berkowitz, the terrified but quick-thinking Savino asked the man to write his name down so she could share it with her son, she said.
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She and her son, Jason Savino, immediately reported the incident to the Clarkstown Police Department, which took a report. The department didn't return a call seeking comment.
8 Frank DeGennaro said he's been friends with Berkowitz for 30 years and the two talk regularly.
Getting Lumped Up/ Youtube
'He had me backed into a corner,' she said. 'He's just talking and talking about the same thing. 'David's a really good person.''
But DeGennaro, who said he got a call from the cops asking about the incident but wasn't charged, told The Post he wasn't trying to scare her.
DeGennaro, a retired NYC school principal in the Bronx, became friends with the serial killer three decades ago after writing him a letter in prison, he said.
8 A new documentary about Berkowitz is coming out later this month.
AP
'David is my friend,' he said, explaining that the two bonded over their Christian faith.
DeGennaro said he lives in Clarkstown and goes to the library often. He was surpised to run into Savino, he said. He denied telling her that Berkowitz wanted to talk to her.
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'I realize now that it was probably the wrong thing to do, to even talk to her,' said DeGennaro, who was on a podcast days earlier voicing support for Berkowitz. 'This is getting blown out of proportion.'
8 Berkowitz, known as the 'Son of Sam' paralyzed the city during his killing spree.
New York Post
The confrontation erupted as Netflix prepares to release a new documentary about Berkowitz on July 30 called 'Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes' about a series of newly unearthed, recorded conversations with him.
8 Wendy Savino wasn't part of the NYPD's case against Berkowitz when he was arrested even though she told cops she thought he was the man who shot her.
J.C. Rice
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Berkowitz, 72, is serving 25 years to life in prison for six murders, and has been denied parole 12 times.
Savino was shaken by this week's encounter.
'I'm very nervous,' she said. 'I was always afraid someone would come to me and say 'I'll finish you off for David.''
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