A woman who was shot by David Berkowitz almost 60 years ago recently had an unsettling encounter. Wendy Savino confronted by Frank DeGennaro, a man who has maintained a friendship with the infamous serial killer, at the Valley Cottage Library in Rockland County. He asserted that Berkowitz was not responsible for her injuries.
“As I was leaving, I noticed a guy blocking my path, just staring at me,” the 88-year-old Savino recounted.
“I tried to get around him, and he introduced himself, saying, ‘You’re Wendy Savino, right? I’m really sorry about what happened to you. David wants to tell you something.’
She responded, “David wants you to know he didn’t do that.”
Back in April 1976, Savino was shot three times while sitting in her car in the Bronx. When the gunman returned to shoot her two more times, she pretended to be dead and managed to crawl to a nearby restaurant for help.
Authorities have identified her as the first victim of the .44 caliber killer, a reign of terror that gripped New York City from 1976 to 1977. Savino was particularly affected by the incident, having two young sons at the time who also suffered emotionally from the attack.
After the unsettling conversation with DeGennaro, who bragged about his connection to Berkowitz, she asked him for his name so she could inform her son. Following the incident, Savino and her son reported the encounter to local police, but the department has not commented on the matter.
“He kept backing me into a corner, repeating how ‘David is a really nice guy,'” she said.
DeGennaro, a retired school principal, insists that he hadn’t meant to intimidate her. They initially became friends decades ago, after he had written to Berkowitz while he was incarcerated.
Speaking on a podcast, he reflected on the situation: “I now realize that even talking to her might have been inappropriate.”
As interest in Berkowitz grows, with a new Netflix documentary set to be released soon, tension over his legacy continues to swirl. Berkowitz, who has been imprisoned for over 25 years for multiple murders, has been denied parole numerous times.
Following this recent encounter, Savino expressed her ongoing fears. “I’m really anxious about it,” she admitted. “I’ve always worried that someone might come up to me and say, ‘I’ll finish you for David.’”
