Post by marionumber1 on May 26, 2021 11:52:42 GMT -6
I think you probably are alone here in taking the hardline position that David Berkowitz acted alone and had no real connection with the Carrs. There was enough evidence to convince the Queens DA that the case involved more people than Berkowitz, and I doubt he and his office would have taken that seriously if it was just fabrications by Berkowitz and Maury Terry. Putting away a serial killer, as they appeared to have done in the eyes of the public, was the path to glory; unsettling that conclusion and making enemies of the brass in the process is the path to just the opposite. As for the letters, the author evidently knew about John Carr's nickname ("John Wheaties") and his pedophilia ("rapist and suffocater of young girls"); and given that Sam Carr was described as being abusive, the mentions of beatings and being locked in the garage could easily apply to the sons too (p.844 of the 1999 edition of TUE):
The North Dakota investigation might have had a lot of hearsay, but there was certainly a lot of "hearsay" confirming that John Carr knew Berkowitz before there was any particular reason for people to fabricate such a story. Plus Carr was seen in North Dakota with "Reeve Rockman", who had been independently been brought up in New York as having a leading role in the cult.
Nevertheless, I will say that I sometimes wonder if the cult story is at least partially a smokescreen for something else. In particular, the idea of Berkowitz being just a low-ranking member who happened to get drawn into the cult troubles me, in light of his Army background (as an alleged LSD experimentation subject) and his provocative security guard job at IBI (a company that Professor Horan discusses as tied into drug trafficking). I also think back to Mae Brussell's early suspicion that Sam Carr, Craig Glassman, Jack Cassara, and Billy Dan Parker (Berkowitz's Army buddy who got him a .44 down in Houston shortly before the murders) were Berkowitz's handlers, and how all of them make very little appearance in Terry's version of events. Was Berkowitz downplaying his own importance in the murder group, and maybe distracting from some of the more pertinent whos and whys of the cult's operations? I wouldn't be surprised. But does that mean he acted alone? No way, in my opinion.
But to return to the Vinny-Danny information about the Son of Sam operation in New York: the allegation that John and Michael Carr's disdain for their father, Sam, sparked incidents of violence against him and inspired his inclusion as an object of hatred in the Borrelli letter was essentially confirmed by an ex-boyfriend of their sister, Wheat — and by Wheat herself.
The boyfriend told me: "The brothers hated the old man. I knew each of them somewhat when I was dating Micki [Wheat's nickname]. I was told Sam used to severely punish them and even locked them in closets and things like that."
In a recorded interview with Santucci's probers, Wheat simply said: "O.K., there was a lot of bad feeling between both John and Michael and my father."
The boyfriend told me: "The brothers hated the old man. I knew each of them somewhat when I was dating Micki [Wheat's nickname]. I was told Sam used to severely punish them and even locked them in closets and things like that."
In a recorded interview with Santucci's probers, Wheat simply said: "O.K., there was a lot of bad feeling between both John and Michael and my father."
The North Dakota investigation might have had a lot of hearsay, but there was certainly a lot of "hearsay" confirming that John Carr knew Berkowitz before there was any particular reason for people to fabricate such a story. Plus Carr was seen in North Dakota with "Reeve Rockman", who had been independently been brought up in New York as having a leading role in the cult.
Nevertheless, I will say that I sometimes wonder if the cult story is at least partially a smokescreen for something else. In particular, the idea of Berkowitz being just a low-ranking member who happened to get drawn into the cult troubles me, in light of his Army background (as an alleged LSD experimentation subject) and his provocative security guard job at IBI (a company that Professor Horan discusses as tied into drug trafficking). I also think back to Mae Brussell's early suspicion that Sam Carr, Craig Glassman, Jack Cassara, and Billy Dan Parker (Berkowitz's Army buddy who got him a .44 down in Houston shortly before the murders) were Berkowitz's handlers, and how all of them make very little appearance in Terry's version of events. Was Berkowitz downplaying his own importance in the murder group, and maybe distracting from some of the more pertinent whos and whys of the cult's operations? I wouldn't be surprised. But does that mean he acted alone? No way, in my opinion.
