Episode
SUMMER OF FEAR, Part 3: The 1977 New York City Blackout — 25 Hours of Darkness, 1,600 Stores Looted, and Son of Sam Still Out There
- Published
- Jul 22, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1173
- Processing state
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Summary
In Part 3 of the five-part series Summer of Fear, the killer gets a stage. In late May 1977, a handwritten letter arrives at the New York Daily News addressed to columnist Jimmy Breslin, and when the paper prints it, the name Son of Sam belongs to eight million people. Women across New York cut off their long dark hair by the tens of thousands. The discos empty. Rupert Murdoch's New York Post and the Daily News go to war over a serial killer and sell papers by the million. In Bayside, Queens, seventeen-year-old Judy Placido is sitting in a parked car with twenty-year-old Salvatore Lupo, talking about Son of Sam, when the window blows in — both survive, and Judy will not speak publicly about it for twenty-two years. Then, at 8:37 on the evening of Wednesday, July 13, 1977, lightning strikes a Con Edison substation on the Hudson, and the largest city in America goes dark for twenty-five hours: 1,616 stores damaged, more than a thousand fires, and the largest mass arrest in New York City history. Garret Fisher on the summer the newspapers discovered that terror sells, the night a city tore itself apart in the dark, and why nothing that happened during the blackout belongs to the man in Yonkers. Part 3 of 5.This series discusses gun violence and the deaths of young people. If you're struggling, you can reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the U.S. by calling or texting 988. Join our new FB groups page here. Take the poll! Join the Daily Crime & Justice community on social media! We're building a passionate group of true crime enthusiasts who love diving deep into the most shocking cases in America. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching "Daily Crime & Justice" on either platform. You'll get exclusive behind-the-scenes content, breaking news updates on…