David Berkowitz

David Richard Berkowitz was born out of wedlock in Brooklyn on June 1, 1953. His mother, a 25-year-old jewish divorcee, gave him up for adoption shortly after. According to psychiatrists who examined him many years later, the trauma of this rejection fostered in Berkowitz the violent, bizarre behaviour that would one day characterize his actions as the so-called "Son of Sam" Killer.

As a child and teenager, David was said to be difficult and erratic. Berkowitz was a prolific arsonist who kept a meticulous record of 1488 arson attacks. He also had above-average intelligence and desperately low self-esteem. A decent job with the U.S. Postal Service in the Bronx did nothing to improve his mental state. He became a loner, withdrawn and paranoid. In time, his low self-esteem mutated into an enduring hatred for women.

In November 1975, David took a month off work from his job as a postal worker, locked himself in his apartment, nailed blankets over the windows, got rid of all his furniture except a bare mattress and spent most of his time eating junk food and masturbating.
December 1975, Berkowitz's malice found expression in knife attacks against two separate women. Both victims surviving, he exchanges his knife for a powerful .44 calibre Bulldog revolver.

On the night of July 29, 1976, he used the .44 calibre Bulldog to shoot Donna Lauria in the neck, and Jady Valenti in the leg, as they sat in a parked car. Lauria was killed, and Valenti was seriously wounded. Berkowitz struck again on October 23, 1976. Attacking, as always, at night and again, the victims where in a parked car. A month later he shot two more people, Donna Demasi and Joanne Lomino as they were walking home from the cinema. It was eight weeks later before Berkowitz would attack and kill again. 26-year-old Christine Freund, was shot and killed while on a date with boyfriend John Diel.

Panic over the shootings gripped the New York City area. The search for the Killer involved hundreds of police and detectives, and eventually led to the formation of a multiunit task force led by Deputy Inspector Timothy J. Dowd. The pursuit of the ".44 calibre killer", as he was initially called, became the greatest manhunt in the city's history.

When finally apprehended, Berkowitz appeared totally unconcerned. When an officer asked him while being arrested "what have I got?" Berkowitz is said to have replied "you know". The officer then saying "no, I don't Know" "I'm Sam," Berkowitz gleamed. The pudgy, 24 year old postal worker was taken down to police headquarters, where he cheerfully confessed to all the Son of Sam shootings, starting with Donna Lauria and ending with Stacy Moskowitz. Not only was he totally co-operative, he also transpired to have an incredible memory. He described each shooting in minute detail, and left detectives in no doubt that he was indeed the sole culprit of the shootings.

Berkowitz was particularly anxious to explain his motive for the killings. He was, he said, acting on the orders of his neighbour, Sam Carr - hence his nom de plume 'Son of Sam'. These orders to kill were not, however, received directly from Carr, he explained, but were transmitted to him by Carr's demon dog, a black Labrador called Harvey, the same dog which Berkowitz had shot and wounded some months earlier.
August 23, 1977, David Berkowitz-Son of Sam-pleaded guilty to six counts of murder and eight counts of attempted murder. He never faced trial, but was sentenced to a total of 365 years in prison with no possibility of parole.

Rival groups of psychiatrists continued to argue the question of Berkowitz's sanity long after his imprisonment.