SON OF SAM

An Eye Witness

Another development in the case occurred a couple of days after the Moskowitz-Violante shooting. Mrs. Cacilia Davis, an attractive middle-aged Austrian immigrant, reluctantly came forward with the claim that she had seen the man who shot the couple. Detective Joe Strano went to see her at her home on Bay 17th Street, a block from the scene of the shooting.

Davis told Strano that she came home in the early morning hours and had to walk her dog Snowball. She thought a man was following her. "...he looked like he was trying to hide behind a tree. But the tree was too small, too narrow. He stood out. He kept staring in my direction....Then he began walking in my direction, smiling a peculiar smile. It wasn't anything sinister, just a friendly kind of smile, almost."

When she got a closer look at him,she thought that he had a gun concealed in his hand. "I was frightened. I walked into my house and began to slip off Snowball's collar. Just then I heard pops, or something that sounded like firecrackers. They were kind of loud, but far off. I didn't think too much of it at the time.

"The next morning...there were crowds of people at Shore Road. It was then that I learned what happened the night before. Suddenly I realized that I must have seen the killer. I panicked, and I couldn't say anything....

"I would never forget his face until the day I die. It was frightening."