David Berkowitz, Known as \"Son

David Berkowitz, known as "Son of Sam," is one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. He had a troubled life and he clearly had psychological problems, but his legacy is that of a cold blooded killer in New York City. This paper reflects on his biography and his life and crimes, and this paper offers some theories of criminality that are potentially linked to Berkowitz's behaviors.

The Literature on Berkowitz's Life and Crimes

David Berkowitz was born with the name Richard David Falco on the first of June in 1953 in New York City. His mother, Betty Falco, and her original husband were divorced but Betty Falco gave birth to a son with Joseph Klein, a married man who had an affair with Betty Falco. According to the World of Criminal Justice, Klein didn't want the child so he insisted that the son be given up for adoption and indeed the boy was adopted by a Jewish couple (Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz) in the Bronx. They reversed his middle and first names and he became David Berkowitz.

A lie early in Berkowitz's life got him started on the wrong foot; when Berkowitz was just 3 years old, Nathan and Pearl told him that in fact he was an adopted child but they falsified the reasons why he was adopted by saying his real mother died in childbirth. That was not a good idea because now the little boy carried around guilt that somehow he had caused his biological mother's death. By age 14, his adopted mother died from cancer, and when his adopted father re-married, Berkowitz joined the army. He earned an honorable discharge in 1974 after learning to be "proficient in shooting" (World of Criminal Justice).

Once out of the military service, the biography of David Berkowitz tells the story of a young man who was developing "mental and emotional problems"; he began "hearing voices" and when his adopted father admitted that he had lied to David, that he biological mother was in fact alive, he "…became obsessed with finding her, which he did in May 1975" (World of Criminal Justice). By this time (between 1974 and 1977) Berkowitz was setting fires (his journal entry later retrieved by police showed he had allegedly started 1,400 fires).

Apparently he was hearing voices telling him to kill people. After stabbing two women (both of whom lived) he bought a .44 caliber weapon in Texas in 1976 and began killing people in New York City on July 29. The Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology (EOP) explains that during his adolescence, in addition to the incidents mentioned earlier, Berkowitz was a bully and yet ironically he was a bully. The voices he said he heard were coming from "demons" -- and those demons were his neighbors, including their German shepherd dogs.

He shot and killed Donna Lauria on January 29, 1976, who was in a parked car with her boyfriend, and that would be his "trademark" style of homicide, the EOP points out. The literature on Berkowitz again and again reflects the fact that he wasn't interested in killing men, or in killing the boyfriends of the women he shot in parked cars -- or on the street.

On October 23, 1976, Berkowitz shot into a parked car again, this time only wounding the male (Carl Denaro, 19 years old) and not injuring the female (Rosemary Keenan); but on November 26 of that same year Berkowitz shot two women that were walking home from a movie (Donna DeMasi, 16, and Joanne Lomino, 18); both of them lived albeit Lomino was paralyzed from the waist down after the attack.

In January, 1977, another couple sitting in a parked car was shot; this time it was a couple that was engaged to be married. Christine Freund died from the injuries but her finance John Diel survived the assault.

The EOP reports that he killed Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau on April 17, 1977; they were sitting in a parked car and he left a letter that was signed "Son of Sam" (EOP, p. 1). In the bizarre letter, Berkowitz said his father Sam was a "blood-thirsty blood drinker" and noted that he was "…the monster -- Beelzebub' -- the chubby behemoth" (EOP, p. 1). One of the constants in research about Berkowitz is his letter writing. For beginners, he sent letters to his neighbors complaining that the dog was barking too often. On the 19th of April, 1977, he sent his second letter to the neighbors and on April 29 Berkowitz shot the dog -- and later the killing of that dog would help the police solve the crime spree.

After the killing of Suriani, police discovered a hand-written letter that was full of spelling errors, but it was clearly from Berkowitz. He wrote:

"I am deeply hurt by your calling me a wemon 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 to 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

I want to make love to the world. I love people. I don't belong on earth.

Return me to the 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, bank, ugh!! Yours in murder, Mr. Monster."

Summer of 1977 in New York

Jonathan Mahler writes in the New York Times that in the Summer of 1977 there was a lot going on in New York City, including tension between Yankee superstar Reggie Jackson and his manager Billy Martin. In addition, the Mets traded star pitcher Tom Seaver and the French were trying to get New York to accept the supersonic jet ("Concorde") into Kennedy Airport. And of course the Summer of 1977 was the Summer of Berkowitz's crime spree. Mahler writes about noted columnist Jimmy Breslin and his involvement with the Son of Sam. On March 9 in 1977 Breslin went to Forest Hills where Virginia Voskerichian had been killed the night before and there was speculation about a possible connection with another murder, because the body of Voskerichian was just 300 yards from another murder that happened a few months earlier (Mahler, 2002).

Indeed the slugs from a .44 caliber handgun matched in both murders, Mahler continues, and the other murders that spring and summer all involved "…young women with shoulder-length brown hair" (p. 3). When the next victim was found with that same .44 slug in her body, a note was also found. It read: "I am the Son of Sam. I love to hunt. Prowling the streets looking for fair game -- tasty meat. The women of Queens are the prettyist" (Mahler, p. 3).

The next letter that was written by Berkowitz (June, 1977), was addressed to Breslin: "Hello from the gutters of NYC, which are filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood. Hello from the sewers of NYC which swallow up these delicacies when they are washed away by the sweeper trucks. Hello from the cracks in the sidewalks of NYC and from the ants that dwell in these cracks and feed in the dried blood of the dead that has settled into the cracks…Don't think because you haven't heard from me in a while that I went to sleep" (Mahler, p. 3). The publishers of the New York Daily News printed a portion of that letter in June, 1977.

Breslin (in his column, which Berkowitz said he read) urged Berkowitz to turn himself in. But of course Berkowitz did not turn himself in and instead he continued his killing spree. But a break for police came the day after Berkowitz shot Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante in the head in Brooklyn. That shooting took place on July 31, 1977, and while Violante was only blinded, Moskowitz died from the attack.

But a neighbor, Cecilia Davis, remembered seeing a man taking a parking ticket from the window of his Ford Galaxie (yellow) just minutes before the attack on Violante and Moskowitz. She notified police and the parking ticket (because Berkowitz had parked too close to a fire hydrant) was traced to Berkowitz. But the police were just thinking that Berkowitz might be a witness; however, when the Yonkers police searched that Galaxie belonging to Berkowitz, they found a rifle and a .44 caliber Bulldog pistol -- along with detailed maps of the crime scenes that Berkowitz had created with his lust for killing women.

"What took you so long?" Berkowitz is reported to have asked as the officers arrested him. In time during questioning, Berkowitz either played like he was mentally unbalanced -- which he of course was -- or was just rambling because he claimed that the dog he had killed was possessed by some kind of demon, and that the dog was demanding that Berkowitz go and do the killing. Other claims by Berkowitz included that he was a member of an occultist group

Breslin remembers the Kings County courtroom scene in Brooklyn on May 22, 1978, when Berkowitz was brought before the judge for sentencing. "This little ball of suet…he was in handcuffs chained around his middle and had a dozen guards. Now he detonated. From his fat, weak little body there came this eruption of power from a cave, a glacier, a swamp" (Breslin, 1993, 154). "He threw guards against the walls and trampled on them, and with a scream from the bottom of his stomach he rushed for the pale light of the window…they were able to drag him back, and more guards came…" (154). In the courtroom, Berkowitz charged Stacy Moskowitz's mother, "Stacy was a whore," he shouted. Stacy's mother screamed back, and "…for about 45 seconds David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, had everybody in hell with him" (Breslin, 154).

The Making of a Serial Killer - Theories

What theories are relevant to explain the behavior of Berkowitz? There are many theories and Dr. Berit Brogaard writes in the Superhuman Mind that psychopathy "…remains a mystery. We don't even have an answer to the question of whether psychopathy is a product of Mother Nature or a feature of upbringing." Brogaard references a study in Minnesota that showed that psychopathy is "…60% heritable," which means that the traits of a psychopath are more due to DNA than to the environment in which the person was raised (Brogaard, 2012).

Another study referenced by Brogaard took place in Madison, Wisconsin, at the University of Wisconsin. Brain scans revealed that "…psychopathy in criminals was associated with decreased connectivity between the amygdale," which is a part of the brain that processes "negative stimuli," and the "ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a cortical region in the front of the brain that interprets the response from the amygdale" (Brogaard, p. 1). When these two regions of the brain don't connect sufficiently, the necessarily processing of "negative stimuli in the amygdale does not translate into strongly felt negative emotions" (Brogaard, p. 1).

What does this mean for the psychopath? Brogaard explains that because negative emotions are not experienced by the killer, they don't feel "…nervous or embarrassed" when caught committing a crime, or doing something that is antisocial. These people with the above-mentioned lack of communication between key brain parts do feel physical pain when injured, but they do not suffer from sad or hurt emotions, Brogaard explains.

Why is Brogaard's theory not likely to fit into Berkowitz's case? As to Brogaard's view of psychopaths, he claims they do not have "hallucinations or delusions" and do not "…hear the voices of strangers in their heads or hold elaborate false theories about the world." If the literature is correct vis-a-vis Berkowitz's behaviors, Brogaard is wrong because Berkowitz said on more than one occasion that he was hearing things and he believed (or pretended to believe) that the neighbor's dog was a demon and was speaking to him.

Freudian Theory: In the book, the Age of Sex Crime (by professor Jane Caputi) the author quotes a psychotherapist that was making reference to Berkowitz: "When Berkowitz assumed the position he did, he was not simply shooting the women. He was symbolically copulating with them, fucking them if you will" (Caputi, 1987). When Berkowitz wrote in one of his twisted letters that he "…only shoot[s] pretty girls," a psychotherapist during a police conference on Berkowitz explained this to the press: "Gentlemen. Every time he shoots his gun, he's ejaculating" (Caputi, 134). This theory may not apply because while there may have been some deep psychological issues regarding women in his life (and there were female issues vis-a-vis his biological mother) he did not sexually molest any of the women he attacked.

Labeling Theory: this theory would seem to have a good fit with the Berkowitz case. The labeling theory analyses how a person's "self-concept" affects his decision to go out and commit criminal offenses. Berkowitz's self-image / self-concept were not a positive in his life. Studies show that crime and deviance result from "…the interaction of offenders and those who respond to social violations…and to the nature of categorization (or labeling) that is used to identify some individuals as criminal" and others as people who abide by the law (Flood, et al., 2007). In other words, one individual can label another a certain thing, and that power to simply give a person a label is considered a key to labeling theory. A boy's self-concept is formed when the boy acts out certain "socially accepted masculine roles," Flood writes (88). From acting out those roles, the boy is in essence defining himself; and if he is a bully, as Berkowitz apparently was, he will get that label. And moreover, he may accept that label and "…actually engage in the criminal behaviors that society is attempting to abate" (Flood, 88).

Ashley Crossman writes about W.I. Thomas in About.com (a subsidiary of the New York Times); regarding the labeling theory, Thomas said that "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences" (Crossman, 2013). One could argue that Berkowitz defined situations as real (notwithstanding that they were the imaginations of a demented person) and hence, he believed them to be real, making the labeling theory applicable to Berkowitz. Meanwhile the police labeled Berkowitz as a killer, so he certainly carried out that role to extremes. "The deviant individual….likely accepts that...he is deviant" and acts in a way to fulfill the expectations of that label" (Crossman, p. 1).

In some respects then, Berkowitz either labeled himself early on in his psychopathy or read the newspaper stories about his killings and bought into the label that police put on him. The city's newspapers were "…trumpeting each attack… as he terrorized New Yorkers as no lone criminal has even done (no one is safe from son of sam, said a Post headline at the time) (Fishman, 2006). In Fishman's essay in New York Magazine the journalist quotes from a letter Berkowitz wrote while in prison, which tends to corroborate the view that he accepted and cherished his label. "I may, one day, evolve into a humanoid or demon in a more complete state," he wrote; three of the four court-appointed psychiatrists found Berkowitz unfit to stand trial because he was mentally unbalanced. But a fourth psychiatrist, Dr. David Abrahamsen, disagreed and believed Berkowitz was quite sane and yet "profoundly troubled" (Fishman, p. 7). Indeed Berkowitz wrote to Abrahamsen saying "I guess you see me as I really am -- an animal and unhuman" (Fishman, p. 7).

Conflict Theory: Flood explains that the conflict theory is based on the writings of Karl Marx: the cause of crime is due to the "…conflict that stems from the inequalities produced by capitalist society" (89). The Criminology Department at Florida State University explains on a website that conflict theory is based on "social and economic forces" that operate in society. There are the rich and powerful, and the poor and others out of the power structure; in one of his letters to police, Berkowitz wrote that "I feel like an outsider. I am on a different wavelength then everybody else -- programmed to kill." By this he could be thinking that his socioeconomic level was in conflict with the power structure of society. In fact Berkowitz egged the police on, he taunted them, perhaps placing himself socially at odds with the "moral standards" that the criminal justice system attempts to impose on society. While this theory has some merit in the Berkowitz case, the labeling theory would appear to have more legitimacy vis-a-vis theories of criminality.