Villains Beginning With 'D'

David Richard Berkowitz
AKA Son of Sam

(June 1, 1953-)

David Richard Berkowitz, also known as the Son of Sam, is an American serial killer who killed six people and wounded several others in New York City between 1976 and 1977

Berkowitz was born Richard David Falco in Brooklyn, New York, to Betty Broder and Joseph Kleinman. Broder was married to Tony Falco and had a daughter with him. Later Betty had an affair with the married Kleinman. When she told Kleinman that she was pregnant, he wanted an abortion. However, Broder had the baby and listed Falco as the father.

A few days after his birth, he was adopted by Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz, a couple who reversed the order of the baby's first and middle names.

David's childhood was somewhat troubled. Although of above-average intelligence, he lost interest in learning at an early age and began an infatuation with petty larceny and pyromania. Berkowitz's tense relationship with his father became even more strained, and he disliked the woman Nathan later married. Berkowitz joined the U.S. Army in 1971, and was active until 1974. He managed to avoid service in the Vietnam War, instead serving in both the U.S. and South Korea. Afterward, he toyed with Christianity believing himself as born again.

In 1974 Berkowitz located his birth mother, Betty Falco. After only a few visits, she disclosed the details of his conception and birth, which greatly disturbed him. Subsequently, they fell out of contact with each other.

Berkowitz worked at several jobs, and was employed by the U.S. Postal Service at the time of his arrest.

Berkowitz first attacks on women occurred in late 1975, when he said he attacked two women with a knife on Christmas Eve. One alleged victim was never identified, the other victim, Michelle Forman, was hospitalized. Berkowitz was never charged with committing either crime. Not long after, Berkowitz moved to a home in Yonkers.

In the summer of 1976, a series of shootings began that would terrify New York and gain international press coverage. The perpetrator was dubbed "The .44 Caliber Killer", and "The .44 boy" after his weapon of choice.

In the evening of July 29, 1976, Donna Lauria, 18, and Jody Valenti, 19, were both shot as they sat inside a car parked on the street outside Lauria's apartment in the Bronx. Lauria was killed, but Valenti survived. As the two young women had been victims of an apparently random crime, the shooting earned little attention.

On October 23, 1976, there was another shooting, this time in Queens. Again, the victims were in a parked car. Carl Denaro, 19, was shot in the head and survived. His companion, Rosemary Keenan, was not injured.

A month later (November 26, 1976) Donna DeMasi, 16, and Joanne Lomino, 18, were walking home from a movie when both were shot in Queens. Both recovered; however, Joanne would remain paralyzed from the waist down.

The new year brought more shootings. On January 30, 1977, an engaged couple, Christine Freund, 26, and John Diel were shot where they sat together in a parked car. Diel survived, but Freund died of her injuries. Police determined the shooter had used an uncommon .44 caliber Charter Arms Bulldog revolver in this shooting. The police now suspected the shootings were all connected. Authorities also noted that the shootings targeted young women with long, brown hair and/or young couples parked in cars.

On March 8, 1977, college student Virginia Voskerichian, 19, was shot by a passerby as she walked in Queens, dying instantly. The bullet matched one from the July 29, 1976 shooting.

At a press conference on March 10, 1977, police announced that the same .44 caliber pistol had been used in several of the shootings. The Operation Omega task force, eventually comprising some 300 police officers, was charged with investigating the crimes under the direction of Deputy Inspector Timothy J. Dowd. Police speculated that the killer had a vendetta against women, perhaps due to chronic rejection.

Police made extensive efforts thousands of people were interviewed.

The killer struck again; Alexander Esau (20) and Valentina Suriani (18) were both killed in the Bronx, only a few blocks from the scene of the Lauria/Valenti shooting. On April 17, 1977, in the street near the victims, a hand-written letter was found by a police officer. It was addressed to the Captain Joseph Borrelli.

Riddled with spelling errors, the letter gave the shooter a new name: the Son of Sam.

In full, it read:

I am deeply hurt by your calling me a wemon(Woman) hater. I am not. But I am a monster. I am the "Son of Sam." I am a little brat. When father Sam gets drunk he gets mean. He beats his family. Sometimes he ties me up to the back of the house. Other times he locks me in the garage. Sam loves to drink blood. "Go out and kill," commands father Sam. Behind our house some rest. Mostly young -- raped and slaughtered -- their blood drained -- just bones now. Papa Sam keeps me locked in the attic too. I can't get out but I look out the attic window and watch the world go by. I feel like an outsider. I am on a different wavelength then everybody else -- programmed too kill. However, to stop me you must kill me. Attention all police: Shoot me first -- shoot to kill or else keep out of my way or you will die! Papa Sam is old now. He needs some blood to preserve his youth. He has had too many heart attacks. "Ugh, me hoot, it hurts, sonny boy." I miss my pretty princess most of all. She's resting in our ladies house. But I'll see her soon. I am the "Monster" -- "Beelzebub"-- the chubby behemouth. I love to hunt. Prowling the streets looking for fair game -- tasty meat. The wemon of Queens are prettyist of all. It must be the water they drink. I live for the hunt -- my life. Blood for papa. Mr. Borrelli, sir, I don't want to kill anymore. No sur, no more but I must, 'honour thy father.' I want to make love to the world. I love people. I don't belong on earth. Return me to yahoos. To the people of Queens, I love you. And I want to wish all of you a happy Easter. May God bless you in this life and in the next. And for now I say goodbye and goodnight. Police: Let me haunt you with these words: I'll be back! I'll be back! To be interpreted as - bang bang bang, bank, bang - ugh!! Yours in murder, Mr. Monster

Based on analysis of the letter, psychiatrists thought the shooter might have suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

On June 26, 1977, there was another shooting. Sal Lupo and Judy Placido (17) had left the Elephas discotheque in the Bayside section of Queens, but neither was injured seriously. The shooter fled, and Lupo ran to the Elephas for help.

The police sketch of the "Son of Sam" juxtaposed with a mugshot of David Berkowitz. Police offered composite sketches, but due to conflicting reports of the killers looks, speculated that the killer was using an accomplice.

On May 30, 1977, columnist Jimmy Breslin of the New York Daily News received a hand-written letter from someone who claimed to be the .44 shooter. A week later, after consulting with police and agreeing to withhold portions of the letter, the Daily News published the letter. The letter read in part:

" Hello from the gutters of N.Y.C. which are filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood. Hello from the sewers of N.Y.C. which swallow up these delicacies when they are washed away by the sweeper trucks. Hello from the cracks in the sidewalks of N.Y.C. and from the ants that dwell in these cracks and feed in the dried blood of the dead that has settled into the cracks... "

The letter caused a panic in New York. Reports that the victims all had long dark hair resulted in thousands of women either dyeing their hair or cutting it short in order to lessen the likelihood that they would become targets.

On July 31, 1977, the shooter killed again, and police set up a sizable dragnet focusing on the shooter's hunting grounds of Queens and The Bronx. However, the shooter struck in Brooklyn: Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante were both shot in the head as they sat in a parked car. Moskowitz died, and Violante was blinded in one eye.

The evening of the Moskowitz and Violante shooting, Cecilia Davis, who lived near the crime scene, saw a man remove a parking ticket from his yellow Ford Galaxie (license plate 561 XLB) which had been parked too close to a fire hydrant. Davis saw this man only a few minutes before the shooting, and two days later, though fearing vengeance by 'Sam' she contacted police. Authorities determined that Berkowitz had been issued the parking ticket.

Thinking Berkowitz was now an important witness, an NYPD detective from Yonkers, a city 2 miles north of Manhattan, called and asked the police for some help tracking him down. Mike Novotny was a sergeant at the Yonkers Police Department. According to Novotny, the Yonkers police had their own suspicions about Berkowitz, in connection with other strange crimes in Yonkers, crimes they saw referenced in one of the Son of Sam letters.

When they investigated his car parked on the street outside his apartment, police found a rifle in the backseat. They searched the vehicle and found a .44 caliber Bulldog pistol, along with maps of the crime scenes and a letter to Sgt. Dowd of the Omega task force. When he emerged from the building hours later, Berkowitz was arrested outside his apartment on Pine Street in Yonkers, New York on August 10, 1977. His first words upon arrest were reported to be, "What took you so long?"

Police searched his apartment, and found it in disarray, with graffiti on the walls. They also found a diary wherein Berkowitz took credit for dozens of arsons throughout the New York area.

To the relief of police, Berkowitz quickly confessed to the shootings, and expressed an interest in pleading guilty in exchange for receiving life imprisonment rather than facing the death penalty. Berkowitz was questioned for about 30 minutes, and confessed to the "Son of Sam" killings.

During questioning, Berkowitz told a tale that seemed to demand an insanity defense: the "Sam" mentioned in the first letter was one Sam Carr, a former neighbor of Berkowitz. Berkowitz claimed that Carr's dog, Harvey, was possessed by an ancient demon, and that it issued commands to Berkowitz to kill. Berkowitz said he once tried to kill the dog, only to see his aim spoiled due to supernatural interference.

During his sentencing, Berkowitz repeatedly chanted "Stacy was a whore" at a quiet yet audible volume. He was referring, presumably, to Stacy Moskowitz, who died in the final .44 caliber shooting. His behavior caused an uproar, and the courtroom was adjourned. He was sentenced on June 12, 1978 to six life sentences in prison for the killings, making his maximum term 365 years to be served in Attica Correctional Facility.

Berkowitz also claimed to have been a Satanist at the time of the murders, and suggested that he did not act alone in the killings: he was part of an occult group that sacrificed animals to Satan and ran a child pornography racket. Though he never claimed to be innocent of murder, Berkowitz said his involvement in other crimes should see him imprisoned for the rest of his life. He said that he was not the lone "Son Of Sam" shooter, but one of the many shooters and look-out men. He named John "Wheaties" Carr as one of the shooters, as well as Carr's brother, Michael, whom he claimed to be the shooter in the Queens disco shooting, Sam being the name of their father. John Carr lived in a house behind that of Berkowitz, and owned the labrador retriever that Berkowitz had claimed to be a "high demon". John Carr was killed in February of 1978 in a shooting in North Dakota (ruled a suicide), and Michael Carr was killed in a traffic accident in October 1979 in Manhattan's West Side Highway. Although Berkowitz did mention other names of alleged cult members in some interviews, he said he could not reveal any more details because it would endanger his family.

In 1979, there was an attempt on Berkowitz's life. He refused to identify the person(s) who had cut his throat, but suggested that the act was directed by the cult he once belonged to. He bears a permanent scar down his left shoulder that took 52 stitches to close. He has since become a Christian.

 

 

SUMMARY

 

ARCH RIVAL :	Long dark haired women or couples parked up in cars.
STRENGTHS :	Managed to keep himself concealed from the police for a year before being caught.
WEAKNESSES :	He thought a neighbors pet dog was a demon ordering him to kill - hhhmmmm say no more ! ! I'm sure this guy had plenty of mental weaknesses.
WEAPONS :	Knife. A .44 Caliber Charter Arms Bulldog revolver.
QUOTE :

 

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