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Travel restrictions and season season's up live. Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences.

We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects.

Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children.

This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. In 1976, New York City earned the ominous nickname, Fear City.

After years of violence and bloodshed, there were hundreds of murders occurring every year in the late 70s, many of which would remain unsolved.

Some of these murders, like the two we covered in our episode last week, are still unsolved to this very day.

But in the summer of 1976, two girls would be gunned down in their vehicle by an unknown assailant using a rare 44 caliber revolver.

And the killings would not stop there. For over a year, young people from around New York City would come face to face with a man referred to as the 44 caliber killer.

Or as you may know him, the son of Sam.

Many of these people would lose their lives, but luckily this case was solved. And it would go on to be one of the most notorious murder sprees in New York City's history.

This serial killer was methodical. He would taunt the newspapers and police officials in the city, giving himself nicknames like The Duke of Death, The Wicked King Wicker, John Witties, Rapist and Suffigator of Young Girls, and of course, The Son of Sam.

This killer was allegedly driven to kill by none other than Satan himself. And while this murder spree was classified as solved decades ago by the New York City Police Department, by the end of our story, will have you asking, was it really solved?

Or could more sons of Sam still be out there in the city? This is the story of the 44 caliber killer, The Son of Sam. I'm Courtney Shannon.

And I'm Colin Brown. In your listening to Murder in America.

Our story starts on July 29, 1976 in an apartment complex in the Bronx, New York. Outside in the parking lot sat 19 year old Jody Valente and 18 year old Donna Loria.

It was about 1 a.m. and the girls had just gotten back from a disco party like the true 1970s. And while they were sitting in Jody's 1975 old mobile talking about their night, they noticed Donna's parents pull into the parking lot.

They too lived in the complex and when they saw Donna, they told her that she needed to hurry and come back inside because she had worked the next morning.

Donna tells her parents, OK, OK, just give me a few more minutes. And just before her parents start making their way up the apartment stairs, they notice a car in the background.

It's a yellow compact size car that's parked about 20 yards behind Jody's old mobile. Normally that wouldn't raise any red flags, but something about the lone man that sat in the driver's seat didn't sit right with Donna's father.

...