E. Zigo, 84; caught 'Son of Sam' killer

NEW YORK - Edward Zigo, 84, the New York detective who cracked the notorious Son of Sam case in the 1970s by acting on a hunch about a parking ticket and arrested killer David Berkowitz, died Saturday of cancer at his home in Lynbrook, N.Y.

His wife, Eileen Brunelli-Zigo, said Tuesday: "I have to tell you. He was a man in every sense of the word. Strong. Brave. Kind."

Mr. Zigo retired from the NYPD in 1982, and his career became the stuff of legend. His family recalls tales of his detective work with awe and pride. He parlayed his knowledge into a second career working on TV and film projects about the story and other crime tales. He even had bit parts in some movies.

It all started back in the sweltering summer of 1977.

Over 13 months in 1976 and 1977, the self-proclaimed Son of Sam had taken responsibility for a string of handgun assaults that left seven young people dead and seven others critically wounded. Mr. Zigo had a hunch that a small-potatoes lead would point him to the killer.

Clues were meager and a city was on edge, so Mr. Zigo decided to question a young man named David Berkowitz, whose car, with an out-of-city registration, had been ticketed for parking illegally in Brooklyn the night of the last shooting.

"According to Ed, he walked in and said, 'Hi, David. I'm Detective Zigo,' " his family recounted. "And Berkowitz said, 'Hi, Ed. I'm the Son of Sam.' "

In an interview with the Associated Press in the 1980s, Mr. Zigo said that when he finally confronted Berkowitz, he wasn't at all what he expected. "He was this little schlub of a kid, as nice and soft-spoken as could be," he recalled.

Berkowitz was convicted in 1978, when he was 24. He said he was ordered to kill by a demon that had possessed his neighbor's dog. He remains in prison.

That was Mr. Zigo's most well-known case, but his family has a trove of others. Like the time he dressed up as an old woman to help find a robber preying on the elderly. Or the time he solved a triple homicide by questioning an unlikely witness: a 5-year-old girl.