DOCUDRAMAS BEND FACT TO TV : WHO’S THE HERO IN SON OF SAM CASE?

Is New York City Police Detective Ed Zigo the hero of the Son of Sam serial killer case? Or is it Detective John Falotico, the man who apprehended the killer, David Berkowitz, on Aug. 10, 1977?

That question has been raised about “Out of the Darkness,” which presents 23-year police veteran Zigo, played by Martin Sheen, as the “dedicated police officer who brought in Son of Sam” tonight at 9 on the “CBS Saturday Night Movie.”

Change the names, and it’s a question that could be asked of many a docudrama, that odd melding of fact and entertainment.

Sonny Grosso, producer of “Out of the Darkness” knows that firsthand. Grosso was the narcotics detective portrayed by Roy Scheider in the Oscar-winning film “The French Connection.” To hear Grosso tell it, it was he--not Eddie Egan (renamed Popeye Doyle and played by Gene Hackman)--who did most of the work cracking the case.

Now, the retired Falotico is accusing Grosso of that same kind of dramatic inequity.

“It is my contention that this program that is being aired is like a travesty of justice,” Falotico told The Times. “It’s a hoax played on the public because, as you know, in any major investigation no one person is a hero.”

Falotico claims that Zigo was his assistant on the case and “not the major investigator in this case.” Yet Falotico’s name is never mentioned in “Out of the Darkness.”

Grosso claims that “Out of the Darkness” is meant to present the Son of Sam case as seen through the eyes of one of its participants, in this case Zigo. What interested him more than the cracking of the case, he said, was how Zigo’s participation pulled him out of the depths to which he’d plunged after the death of his wife following open-heart surgery.

“That’s the only reason I’d done the story,” Grosso said by phone from his Toronto office, where he produces CBS’ late-night cop show “Night Heat.” “I didn’t dwell on the Son of Sam. It’s only a personal story. It’s a story about a guy who had it all and lost it all due to the death of his wife, and the kids and the religious background he had and his friends, and lo and behold he pulled it through.”

“Out of the Darkness” does in fact dwell on Son of Sam. Grosso also acknowledges that he graduated from the New York police academy with Zigo and knows him personally, which is one of the reasons he became interested in the man’s personal tale. Zigo is credited as an adviser on “Out of the Darkness.”

“I absolutely do as much checking (of facts) as I can do,” Grosso said.

Falotico believes that there wasn’t enough checking, and said he is considering filing a lawsuit against CBS Entertainment and the show’s producers.

Falotico is, in fact, a major player in Lawrence D. Klausner’s 1981 book “Son of Sam” (McGraw-Hill). In Klausner’s recounting of the case, Falotico, who had already been involved with the investigation, figured into its final stages primarily because he was the only detective available when a Brooklyn murder was called in. That happened to be Berkowitz’s latest and, as it turned out, his last.

Though Falotico interrogated one of the key witnesses, many other officers were involved in the investigation since its inception.

In the end, the docudrama itself could be the guilty party. “You have to ‘compositize’ like they did with Egan (in “French Connection”),” Grosso said, acknowledging that there were “lots of unsung heroes” never mentioned in “Out of the Darkness.”

“My family and I got a little annoyed with what happened to Eddie (Egan), but that’s the guy who Robin Moore zeroed in on,” Grosso added, referring to the author of the book on which the film “The French Connection” was based. “It’s unfortunate that everybody can’t get credit and be highlighted in the movie.”

If nothing else, Grosso’s effort suggests that time heals all wounds: Eddie Egan appears tonight as a guest star in “Out of the Darkness.”