Serial killers: ‘Son of Sam’ Part I

David Richard Berkowitz (born Richard David Falco, June 1, 1953)

Known also as the ‘Son of Sam’ and the ‘.44 Calibre Killer’, David Berkowitz is an American serial killer who pleaded guilty to eight separate shooting attacks that began in New York City during the summer of 1976. The crimes were perpetrated with a .44 calibre Bulldog revolver. He killed six people and wounded seven others by July 1977. As the number of victims increased, Berkowitz eluded the biggest police manhunt in the history of New York City while leaving letters that mocked the police and promised further crimes, which were highly publicised by the press. The killing spree terrorised New Yorkers and achieved worldwide notoriety.

On the night of August 10, 1977, Berkowitz was taken into custody by New York City police homicide detectives in front of his Yonkers apartment building, and he was subsequently indicted for eight shooting incidents. He confessed to all of them, and initially claimed to have been obeying the orders of a demon manifested in the form of a dog named ‘Harvey’ which belonged to his neighbour ‘Sam’. Despite his explanation, Berkowitz was found mentally competent to stand trial. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was incarcerated in state prison. He subsequently admitted that the dog-and-devil story was a hoax. In the course of further police investigations, Berkowitz was also implicated in many unsolved arson incidents in the city.

Intense coverage of the case by the media lent a kind of celebrity status to Berkowitz, and some observers noted that he seemed to enjoy it. In response, the New York State legislature enacted new legal statutes known popularly as ‘Son of Sam laws’, designed to keep criminals from profiting financially from the publicity created by their crimes. The statutes have remained law in New York in spite of various legal challenges, and similar laws have been enacted in several other states.

Berkowitz has been incarcerated since his arrest and is serving six consecutive life sentences. During the mid-1990s, he amended his confession to claim that he had been a member of a violent satanic cult which orchestrated the incidents as ritual murder. He remains the only person ever charged with the shootings, although some law enforcement authorities have questioned whether his claims are credible. A new investigation of the murders began in 1996 but was suspended indefinitely after inconclusive findings.

Early life

Berkowitz’s mother, Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Broder, grew up as part of an impoverished Jewish family and married Tony Falco, an Italian-American, in 1936. After a marriage of less than four years, Falco left her for another woman. About a decade later in 1950, Broder started a relationship with a married man named Joseph Klineman. Three years later she became pregnant with a child to whom she chose to give the surname Falco – Richard David Falco was born on June 1, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York. Within a few days of his birth, she gave the child away. Although her reasons for doing so are unknown, later writers have surmised that Klineman threatened to abandon her if she kept the baby and used his name.

The infant boy was adopted by Pearl and Nathan Berkowitz of the Bronx. The Jewish-American couple were hardware store retailers of modest means, and childless in middle age. They reversed the order of the boy’s first and middle names and gave him their own surname, raising young David Richard Berkowitz as their only child.

Journalist John Vincent Sanders wrote that Berkowitz’s childhood was ‘somewhat troubled’. Although of above-average intelligence, he lost interest in learning at an early age and became infatuated with petty larceny and starting fires. Neighbours and relatives would recall Berkowitz as difficult, spoiled, and a bully. His adoptive parents consulted at least one psychotherapist due to his misconduct, but his misbehaviour never resulted in a legal intervention or serious mention in his school records. Berkowitz’s adoptive mother died of breast cancer when he was fourteen years old, and his home life became strained during later years, particularly because he disliked his adoptive father’s second wife.

At the age of 17 in 1971, he joined the US Army and served in the United States and South Korea. After an honourable discharge in 1974, he located his birth mother, Betty. After a few visits, she disclosed the details of his illegitimate birth. The news greatly disturbed Berkowitz, and he was particularly distraught by the array of reluctant father figures. Forensic anthropologist Elliott Leyton described Berkowitz’s discovery of his adoption and illegitimate birth as the ‘primary crisis’ of his life, a revelation that shattered his sense of identity. His communication with his birth mother later lapsed, but for a time he remained in communication with his half-sister, Roslyn. He subsequently had several non-professional jobs, and at the time of his arrest he was working as a letter sorter for the US Postal Service.

In June 1976, a friend from the army purchased a .44 calibre Bulldog gun for Berkowitz.

Don’t miss ‘Son of Sam’ Part II: Crimes begin

Sourced from Wikipedia

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