By C1 Staff
NEW YORK – The inmate who slashed the throat of David Berkowitz, better known as ‘Son of Sam,’ has been identified by a man who was a corrections officer on staff at the time of the attack.
The Daily Mail reports that James Conway identified William E. Hauser as the man who injured Berkowitz with a razor.
Berkowitz survived the attack, but was too afraid to name the culprit.
Hauser was serving time for beating a man to death with a rolling pin.
“[Hauser] did not get along well with his peers. He did not get along well with security staff. He was very abrasive,” Conway said.
A few days prior to the incident, officers had seen Hauser being handed something through a window while in the prison yard. A search, however, turned up nothing, according to Conway.
“It could have been the razor that slashed David Berkowitz. The guards frisked [Hauser], but they couldn’t find anything.”
Berkowitz’s throat was slashed outside of Hauser’s cell, Conway pointed out. The razor was never recovered.
“It was a pretty gaping wound. I think it would not have bothered Hauser if he had killed Berkowitz – ‘Hey, I’m the guy who took out the Son of Sam,’” Conway said.
Hauser was never charged in the attack and is up for parole next year for his most recent offence.
Berkowitz is serving six life sentences for his 1976 – 1977 killing spree in New York City. When he was first considered for parole in 2002, he wrote to New York Governor George Pataki asking that his hearing be denied. He stated that he deserved to be in prison.
He will next be considered for parole in 2016.