David Berkowitz's reign of terror
David Richard Berkowitz, AKA Son of Sam was born on June 1st, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. His birth name was Richard David Falco. After his birth his mother abandoned him but he was soon adopted by a couple by the names of Pearl and Nathan Berkowitz who were hardware store retailers.
Pearl and Nathan really loved David and tried their best to raise him well. Growing up David was a very smart kid but that also made him uninterested in school. He didn't have many friends and always felt like he didn't fit in. So as time was passing, he was slowly becoming a wild child. He would steal things or lit things on fire and try to constantly get away with his bad deeds.
Things really took a turn in David's life when his adoptive mother, Pearl passed away. He was only 14 and really loved Pearl and he felt Pearl was the only one who cared about him and genuinely loved him. After a few years, Nathan ended up marrying another woman and that really made David angry. Things were tough in the household so at the age of 17 he ran away and joined the army, in 1971. He served in both Fort Knox and South Korea. But he was discharged from the army in 1974.
When he returned to New York, he decided to search for his biological mother. After meeting her he felt even worse than before. He felt as if the motherly figures in his life were always leaving him and maybe he wasn't good enough. Perhaps that's what led to his reign of terrors.
CRIME SPREE:
David began his crime spree in the mid 70's. He committed his first murder on the Christmas eve of 1975. He found 2 young girls, around the ages of 15, walking underneath the Co-op bridge. David was only 22 at the time, he didn't have much direction on how to kill someone, but he knew he wanted to. So he attacked the 2 girls with his hunting knife. He stabbed them as much as he could and then just ran away. Only one of them survived but was hospitalized. She tried to give her attackers' description but it was no use. The police couldn't find any trace of David.
But David wasn't done there. In July of 1976, he spotted 2 young women in a car of a parking lot. When one of them had opened the car door to leave, David ran towards her and shot her in the chest and she died immediately. When the other woman noticed that, she tried to run away but she got shot in her thighs. David knew he didn't have much time so he left her like that and ran away. She was able to escape but she didn't have much information on the attacker.
David found his next victims on October 23rd of the same year. A couple, Carl and Rosemary, were sitting in their car near the residential area of Flushing, Queens. All of a sudden they heard a gunshot that smashed the car window and had shot Carl in the head. Rosemary drove as fast as she could. Luckily they both survived despite many injuries.
Now this is where the police started putting two and two together. They noticed a pattern in these attacks. They noticed that the shell casings found on the crime scenes were identical. Also The attacker was most likely to target women with long dark hair. Which led to a lot of women in New York changing their hair at that time.
A month later David decided to strike again. He found 2 high school girls walking home from school. Joanne(18) and Donna(16). He asked them for directions and he was in a combat uniform. But then all of a sudden he pulled out a gun and started shooting them. He shot the girls once and fired several more gunshots on Joanne's front porch. However, both of the girls survived. Joanne was shot near her spine which led her to be rendered paraplegic. Donna was shot in the neck and thankfully she was fine.
In January of 1977, he attacked a newly engaged couple who were just sitting in their car. The man survived but unfortunately the woman had been shot twice and died that night. After this attack the police decided to release their theories to the press. Sketches of the alleged killer started circulating around. The media gave him the name "the 44 caliber killer".
On March 8th, the same year, David attacked a young girl named Virginia. She held up her books to protect herself, but regardless David shot and it pierced through the books and shot her in the head. She died right then and there. Also a few days later, David shot another couple and this time he was able to kill both of them. But interestingly enough, in this crime scene, the police found a handwritten letter from David. In this letter, David not only mocked the police for their inability to catch him but also told them about his desired nickname. He told them that he would very much like to be known as 'Son of Sam'.
Few months later in June, David decided to go after another couple, Sal and Judy. He shot them early in the morning in Bayside, Queens. On July 31st, David decided to strike again but in Brooklyn this time. He attacked a man and a woman by the name of Robert and Stacy, in their car. Robert lost one of his eyes and Stacy was shot in the head which led to instant death.
Now son of Sam was really getting away with it all. But soon things started going downhill for him, when one morning a woman saw him in her neighborhood. She stated that she saw him park his car then get out of his car with an object in his hand. She said that she had a really bad feeling about it so she ran and David tried to shoot her multiple times. But one piece of information she gave to the police was enough for them to find him. She told the police that his car had a parking ticket. So the police did their research and found the owner of the car.
On 9th August, 1977 David was finally arrested. At his arrest he said "Well you got me". Police found a ton of evidence from his car and house. It only took David 30 minutes to confess all of his crimes. But he said that the motive of his murder was, the neighbor's dog had asked him to commit all the murders. But psychiatrists had confirmed that David was mentally stable and was just looking to use the insanity plea to get away with it all.
Regardless, in 1978 David pleaded guilty to 6 killings and over 1500 fires. He received 25 years to life for each murder. Still to this day he's one of the most notorious serial killers in America.
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