Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Evil : The Truth about the Cult Murders: Son of Sam and Beyond

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I read this book several years ago and it chilled me to the bone, I can remember the things taking place in my hometown of Minot ND. Reading this book was frightening to me as I read and knew many of the people involved in this case. Maury Terry is right -- Berkowitz did not act alone. A must read for anyone interested in FACT not fiction.

Everybody knows that David Berkowitz is the Son of Sam and he is held responsible for the senseless murders and shootings in the summer of 1977. The author does an excellent job in bringing about the era as well as explaining the circumstances regarding all the victims. Apart from this book, I barely read the Son of Sam case since it didn't interest me as much as others. The author also tries to tie Son of Sam murders with a bizarre murder case at Stanford chapel in Palo Alto, California in 1974 involving a young wife from North Dakota whose husband was a student at the famed university. The book is a heavy read and there is a lot of information to sort out but the author does write clearly and well regarding the possible connections between satanic cults and the murders and deaths of so many others as well. I am one for conspiracies anyway so I am beginning to believe Maury Terry's argument that there is more than meets the eye.

I loved this book. I have read it twice and can't wait to read it again (now that it's back in print). The book logically takes you through the Son of Sam investigation. However, it then goes on to spin some wild, and yet believeable, conspiracies about who really committed these crimes and why. Everything else I've ever read on the Son of Sam pales in comparison to this. The amount of detail is incredible. You not only learn about Berkowitz (the supposed "lone gunman") but also all his crazy and possibly Satanic acquaintances. IF YOU LOVE TRUE CRIME, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK.

The appearance of this book - thick-as-a-brick, fiery cross cover (early paperback format), and perhaps even the title - might make the prospective reader think they are buying a scary fictional chiller in the mode of Stephen King or Dean Koontz. However with the greatest of respect to these two gentlemen, this book is even more frightening than anything they could conjure up from their dark and fertile imaginations. Maury Terry maintains - with much compelling evidence - that this book is all true. If this is indeed the case then forget fictional nightmares - the real stuff starts here.
This is a gripping and at times disturbing read - the image of shadowy Satanic hitmen slipping unassailed through various levels of American culture/subculture is particularly unsettling. The opening chapter detailing the horrific murder of newly-wed Christian evangelist Arlis Perry is truly bone-chilling. On a more prosaic level the case for there being more than one "Son of Sam" killer is expanded upon as if it were courtroom evidence presented by an expert witness. I highly recommend this book.

I was somewhat skeptical about the contents of the book when a friend lent me an older hardcover copy of this book. But it is very, very interesting and very engaging. I didn't know much about the Son of Sam murders, and you don't have to to enjoy this book. But now I'm very interested in the topic. A little wordy and it seems like the author may have taken some speculative liberties regarding the tiniest of details involving an incident, but I'm willing to look past that. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in true crime and/or murder mysteries. It's also a very scary read, which I appreciate.

I am not going to say a lot about this book. People give enough information in reviews to tell what it is about.
I spent considerable amount of time researching what is described in this book, looking at primary sources, newspaper articles, court documents, etc... and what I have found is more horrifying than words can describe.

Part of me is sorry I read this. It is interesting to me why this book is out of print and not being followed up on.

This book clearly demonstrates how we are misled and misinformed by the media and the powers that govern our very belief systems.

Whether or not this book is true, partly true, or wrong (i.e. David Berkowitz acted alone), this book is a fascinating read from the evidence point of view. A large part of the book involves recreating each of the Son of Sam murders based on eyewitness accounts and other evidence and showing how the timelines, descriptions and so forth do not support David Berkowitz acting alone. According to the author, the murders were part of a larger plan of a Satanic cult and Berkowitz had at least two, possibly more, people involved with him in carrying out the killings. The author makes a convincing case for at least two other persons committing some of the actual murders while Berkowitz acted as a lookout or was nowhere around. Unfortunately, the other two persons are both long dead, and between that and the unreliability of witness recollections, it seems like there's no definitive way to check up on this any time soon.

The book also skips around quite a bit and gets into various other murders committed by people with Satanic cult ties, including the murder of Arliss Perry in California and the Roy Radin "Cotton Club" murder (that has been covered in other books such as "Bad Company" by Steve Wick). On the plus side, this is a lot of interesting stuff to read. On the minus side, it gets kind of hard to tie all of this together into one vast conspiracy and it takes away from the main story about whether David Berkowitz acted alone. The sheer number of murder victims, victim families, witnesses, other suspects, investigators, etc. becomes pretty overwhelming to wade through. I would say the portions discussing each of the Son of Sam murders and the subsequent investigation are the most worthwhile; perhaps the rest should have been saved for Volume II. Conspiracy buffs who are tired of going over Lee Harvey Oswald with a fine-tooth comb should love this one though.

The law enforcement community should not let politics block a new invetigation of the case.The evidence is there and the families of the victims should have some closure.More importantly, the other killers involved must be brought to justice!

This book was so compelling I have thought about it for many years. I read it when it first came out in first printing. Have been looking for it for years,and have been unsuccessful. Now I will order it and read it again. This is the ultimate truth is stranger than fiction read. The powerful distracting the populace with horror we can not escape for the purpose of leading astray from a the truth send shivers down your spine.

This has got to be the absolute most frightening thing Ive ever read in my life . It is especially reccomended to those who have an interest in Son of Sam or true crime afficianados. It will scare the bejesus out of you once Terry pieces a cult's involvement in Son of Sam to the Manson family and several other murders. Also chilling is the thought of a snuff film of the shooting of final victim Stacy Moskowitz...and where it has gone...