Joseph Borrelli, veteran NYPD detective and Son of Sam sleuth, dead at 93

Veteran NYPD Det.Joseph Borrelli — the “Son of Sam” sleuth who put the Big Apple serial killer behind bars — died this week, The Post has learned.

He was 93.The Brooklyn-born former NYPD Chief of Detectives suffered a brief illness before he died Wednesday, surrounded by his family.Affectionately known by his loved ones as “JoBo,” Borrelli had an illustrious career with the NYPD that spanned nearly 40 years — and saw some of the biggest cases the city’s police force ever grappled with.Borrelli was at the forefront of the investigations into the 1988 assassination of police officer Edward Byrne, the 1993 kidnapping and recovery of tuxedo king Harvey Weinstein and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.He was also part of the probe into the 1986 Howard Beach racial attack, in which Michael Griffith a 23-year-old black man, was set upon by a group of white youths outside a pizza parlor and was fatally hit by a car while trying to escape.Perhaps the most memorable, however, was the Son of Sam case, which saw maniac David Berkowitz murder six people and wound seven others in a horrifying streak that spanned two summers between 1976 and 1977 — leaving the city in a constant state of fear.The first time Berkowitz revealed himself as the elusive killer was in a letter addressed to Borrelli — who was a captain at the time — that was left alongside the bodies of victims Alexander Esau, 20, and Valentina Suriani, 18, after they were killed in the Bronx on April 16, 1977.“Mr.Borrelli, sir, I dont want to kill anymore no sir, no more but I must, ‘honour thy father,'” Berkowitz’s letter read.“Police—Let me haunt you with these words; I’ll be back! I’ll be back! To be interrpreted as—bang, bang, bang, bank, bang—ugh!!”Berkowitz was arrested four months later — and the NYPD threw a boozy bash at police headquarters that night as their suspect sat handcuffed down the hall.Mayor Abe Beame lifted the no-liquor policy at One Police Plaza to ...