David Berkowitz: The Son of Sam
Permanent Damage
On the night of October 23, 1976, three months after the Lauria girl's senseless murder, 20-year-old Carl Denaro drank beer with his friends at a bar in Queens. In a few days he would be entering the Air Force for at least four years. He really wanted to live it up with his buddies since it would be a while before he saw them all again. Among his party was a girl, Rosemary Keenan, whom he knew from college.
The party broke up after 2:30 A.M and Carl drove Rosemary home. The couple parked near her home and talked. Suddenly, a man appeared outside the passenger side. He drew a gun and fired five times into the car, wounding Carl in the head. Terrified, Rosemary drove the car back to the bar from where friends rushed Carl to the hospital. There, surgeons replaced a part of his damaged skull with a metal plate. His injuries would haunt him for the rest of his life.
A little more than a month later, on the evening of November 26, 1976, 16-year-old Donna DeMasi and her 18-year-old friend Joanne Lomino were coming home from a movie late at night. The bus stopped close to Joanne's house. Joanne noticed a man standing nearby. She urged her friend to walk faster. He began following them.
"Do you know where..." he addressed them as though he was about to ask directions, but he never finished his sentence. Instead, he pulled a gun from beneath his jacket and fired at them. Both girls were hit. Then their assailant emptied his gun by firing at a house.
Hearing the girls' screams, Joanne's family rushed from their house to help the girls. When they reached the hospital, surgeons determined that Donna would be okay. The bullet had passed within a quarter inch of her spine and exited her body. Joanne was not so lucky. Her spine had been shattered by the bullet. She would live, but was now paraplegic.