The bridge where David Berkowitz attacked his first victim

This is the location where serial killer David Berkowitz stabbed his first victim.

The attack took place on this pedestrian bridge in the Bronx, New York.

The bridge in question connects Baychester Avenue in Co-op City with the service road on the northern side of the New England Thruway.

On the night of December 24th, 1975, Berkowitz left his apartment in the Bronx and drove to Co-op City with a 4.5-inch hunting knife, eager to kill his first victim.

In his mind, "the hunt was on."

During interviews, he claimed that he attacked two separate women.

Berkowitz said that he initially targeted an unidentified Hispanic woman who had left a grocery store on Co-op City Boulevard. However, when the knife failed to penetrate her coat, she turned around and began to scream at him.

Panicked, he fled northward until he reached the chain-link fence on Baychester Avenue. By that point, it was approximately 10.15 p.m.

While he was panting and trying to catch his breath, he noticed 13-year-old Michelle Forman walking towards the footbridge.

Determined to try again, he readied his knife and followed suit.

As Forman was walking over the New England Thruway, Berkowitz ran at her from behind and stabbed her six times.

Once again, the stabbing didn't go to plan, as Forman's heavy winter clothing provided a layer of protection against the knife. This came as a huge shock to Berkowitz. Instead of silently falling to the ground like people did in the movies, she turned around and started screaming.

Forman's reaction panicked him so much that he immediately ran away.

Following the ambush, Forman reportedly ran after Berkowitz and saw him fleeing in the direction of a nearby parking lot.

Although she did not see his face, she did notice that he was a heavy-set man who ran with a sluggish gait.

Forman made her way to her apartment building, where she collapsed. Not long after, a neighbor found her lying in a pool of blood.

Despite suffering a collapsed lung, the courageous teenager survived the attack and was discharged from the hospital one week later.

This was the first and last time that Berkowitz used a knife.

He later confessed that the attack had been a failure:

"I never heard anyone scream like that. I just kept stabbing and nothing would happen. I just ran off."

After realizing that using a knife wasn't as easy as he had envisioned, he decided to purchase a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver instead.

Roughly seven months later, "the Son of Sam" began a series of eight shootings that claimed the lives of six people and terrorized New York City.