by
Peggy Theo
Nineteen
Seventy Six and Nineteen Seventy Seven were an exciting time to be
young. The War in Vietnam had ended only three short years
before, fledgling video arcade games like PONG were just rearing their
electronic heads, movies like ROCKY and STARWARS were box office mega
hits and disco ruled the airwaves. I turned twenty-one in July
1976 and I lived on Long Island, just a stones throw from The
City.
Life
was grand! I had just finished my sophomore year in college with
a 3.5 average, I had a good summer job with the recreation department,
a steady boyfriend (now, my husband of twenty years) and Friday nights
were never boring. Parties and discos were abundant and the best
ones were over the county line in the boroughs of Queens and
Brooklyn. Little did anyone know at the time, during that hot
summer of A76", amid the Bicentennial celebrations and the Summer
Olympic Games in Montreal, that a monster was birthed. A
monster, who was at first tagged "The .44 Caliber
Killer" but later came to be known to the world as
"The Son-of-Sam".
What
warped part of the human psyche dictates a human being to become not
just a murder, but that terrifying breed called a serial killer?
Who was this person that was able to hold an entire city and adjacent
areas in a year long reign of terror?
An
innocent baby boy was born on June 1, 1953 into less than desirable
circumstances. He was the product of a thirteen year illicit
affair between Betty Falco, a married woman with a daughter, who's
husband had abandoned her years before, and Joseph Kleinman, a married
business man with children of his own. She named the child Richard and
listed her long gone husband, Tony, as the father, then gave him up
for adoption. Three days after his birth Nat and Pearl
Berkowitz, brought home their new son and named him David. They
were older than the average adopting couple, forty-three and
thirty-seven; a little late in the game to be taking on an
infant for the first
time.
Nat and Pearl were a Jewish couple and kept a Kosher household.
They celebrated the Sabbath every Friday night, went to Temple and
their son would eventually go to Hebrew School and celebrate his Bar
Mitzvah. They lived in a small one bedroom apartment in the Bronx,
where David shared the same bedroom with his adopted parents until he
was nine or ten years old. He distinctly remembers that
when his father wanted to have sex with his mother he would shine a
small flashlight in his face and ask if he was awake. He would
pretend to be asleep because he did not want to anger his
father. In an interview with Dr. Abrahamsen, one of the
psychiatrist's that examined Berkowitz after his arrest, Berkowitz
stated he didn't remember hearing sounds or seeing his parents
having sex, but he must have at the time. His future
sexual fantasies had a start in that room. According to
Berkowitz , he was belligerent and antagonistic towards his
father, but he was very close to his mother. His father didn't make
time for him because he was always busy with his store. David also
resented his father because of the physical closeness he had with his
mother. He did not like to share his mother with anyone and anything
that stood in the way of his mothers attention was fair game
for David's aggressions. He once slowly poisoned his mothers
parakeet to death with cleanser because she paid to much attention to
it. He also poisoned his mother's tropical fish for the same
reason. His parents just stopped buying tropical fish. They never
acknowledged David's actions, though, he is certain that they
suspected.
As
a child, David suffered from horrific nightmares, which his father
blamed on his very vivid imagination. His adopted parents never
looked into the deeper meaning of his nightmares which often dealt
with death and dying. Dr. Abrahamsen believed that nightmares are
always caused of conscious or unconscious fears. David was so
fascinated with death that he once stated in an interview that I do
love death. I've always loved it. I've wished for it, and
tried to understand it. Death is fascinating...its power, its
hold; it is wonderful. Abrahamsen,
believed that David's preoccupation with death goes back to his
adoption. Did David know of his adoption before he enlisted in the
Army? Some text state that he was ignorant of the fact until was
eighteen and other text state he knew he was adopted from the time he
was six or seven. According to his father, he was told when he
was three years old. This is significant, because it is believed in
some psychiatric circles that if a child is told about his adoption
when he is to young, the child becomes anxious and confused and does
not establish strong family relations and retreats into a fantasy
world. It seems that his adoption was never hidden from him,
but, he was led to believe that his biological mother died at birth,
and his broken hearted father gave him up for adoption because he
could not care for him on his own. The guilt of having killed
his birth mother plays an important part in his future actions.
Despite
an above average IQ of 118, David was not what you would call a good
student. He didn't like school and was disruptive and hard to
control. More than anything, he hated the separation from his
mother. He was chronically truant, which is an important early
indictor of criminal behavior.5 He would fake being sick
to stay home with his mother. I'd loved staying home.
My mother, thinking I was sick, would wait on me hand and
foot. Boy what a con artist I was. During his
school years he would lash out at authority by starting fires, petty
thievery, vandalizing property and hurting or killing animals.
He prided himself on never getting caught; that was the thrill, the
kicker. He'd steal small change and insignificant items from
friends and family for no reason and then throw the items he stole
away. It was the thrill of the act that drove him, not the
desire for the item. He was proud of the fact that he could lie
his way through any inquisition. He liked to torture small
animals and bugs. Then there were the fires. David was a
prolific writer and in his detailed diaries he admits to
starting over 2000 fires in the Queens-Brooklyn area. According
to Dr. Robert Simon, author of Bad Men Do What Good Men Dream, Afire
setting by a child is usually a symptomatic expression of sexual and
aggressive over stimulation. Fire often expresses the child's
hyperactive excitement and deep seated anger. The sight of fire is
thought to be sexually arousing in children and sexually immature
adults. His destructive and deviant behavior was never discovered
because he was secretive and a loner. Though he had a few friends
he was unable to establish any lasting relationships because no one
was more important to David, than David. He seldom, if
ever dated. Girls didn't find him attractive or interesting, but he
would fantacise about them. Whether it was running a magic
marker across a wall in school or setting cars on fire, it was done
alone. Per David,I did this by myself--no one else knew about
it. There was no motive. At a very early age his
criminality was well established, states Abrahamsen, He had
come to believe he was outside the his family, authority, the law,
outside of society itself.
David's
world drastically changed when he was fourteen years old. Just
two months after his Bar Mitzvah his mother, Pearl, died of breast
cancer. He felt abandoned, as he had not even been told
his mother was ill. His reaction to her death is a study in
opposites. On one hand he sobbed uncontrollably at his mother's
funeral and on the other he felt free, I was both happy and sad,
stated David in a conversation with Dr. Abrahamsen.
Mostly, his mother's death left him angry and rootless, but
unchained. His father was preoccupied with the store and his
relationship with his son deteriorated further. During this time
Berkowitz took up mountain climbing to fill a void in his life,
another solitary activity. To him mountain climbing was
like playing Russian Roulette with death, a suicide trip. One
misstep, one lose rock and you are history. In an
interview after his incarceration he described his infatuation with
mountain climbing as fantastic--that close walk with
death--challenging God and fate. Death and thoughts of suicide
were an all consuming force in David's life.
His
chronic truancy almost kept him from getting his high school diploma,
but in 1971 he graduated from Columbia High School with a 83.4
average. Not bad considering he cut half his classes. The
year before he graduated, he and Nat, moved to Co-Op City, a massive
apartment development that you can clearly see from the Cross-Bronx
Expressway (at least when its not to smoggy). There he became
both an auxiliary fireman and an auxiliary policeman. Six years
later, the people who knew him from this neighbor hood would describe
him as quiet and a loner. He had no close friends
and no one ever remembers seeing him with a girl.
In
1971 Nat married a woman named Julia. She had a twenty-five year
old daughter that David came to resent as a threat to his security.
She was smart, pretty and had lots of friends. That same year
David enlisted in the Army. By his own admission, he was
fanatically patriotic and wanted to die for a cause.12 He wanted
to be sent to Vietnam, but instead he was stationed in Korea. It
was there that he had his first sexual encounter and promptly caught
gonorrhea. He was transferred back to the states in 1973 and ended up
at Fort Knox, Kentucky. It's here that he, basically gave
up his Jewish faith and became heavily involved with a hell fire
and brimstone type church, where all the sermons were about
demons(!), sin, hell, eternal damnation. Outwardly, he
appeared to embrace his new found faith whole heartedly, except the
face that he showed the outside world was not the face he wore
inside. After his arrest he stated that he would never witness
for women because, Women--I blame them for everything. Everything
evil that's happened in this world--somehow goes back to them.
I hate them for messing up everything in the world. They
really screwed my life up good. He secretly hoped that
all the men would accept God so they would go to heaven, but not the
women. He didn't want any sluts in heaven. He was a
habitual masturbator and after spending hours preaching the word, he
would hurry back to his barracks to fulfill this need. He
had no need or use for a real woman. Besides blaming women for
all his problems and attitudes, David was angry at God and blamed him
for being born and personally disappointing him.
David
was discharged from the Army in 1974 with no job, no girl friend and
no place to live. He moved in with Nat and Julia, but it
didn't work out. He felt threatened by Julia and resented her
daughter. In December of 1974, when Nat and Julia decided
to move to Florida, David began his search for his biological
family. In his own mind, his father had rejected him and he was
abandoned again.
He
joined the ALMA, The Adoptee's Liberty Movement Association.
Believing that his biological mother died at birth, he had intended to
search for his biological father, but was told at a meeting that
virtually all adoptees are told that their mothers had died. 17
He confronted Nat with this information and he admitted that his
mother hadn't died, she just couldn't take care of him. His
whole life he had carried around the guilt of killing his mother, only
to find out that it was all a fabrication. The search for his
mother became an all consuming passion. A copy of his
birth certificate gave him his birth name, Richard David Falco; his
mothers name, Bettie Falco; and his fathers name Tony Falco.
Like many adopted children, Berkowitz was searching for his perfect
fantasy family. It didn't quite work out that way.
He met his mother his mother in 1975. She didn't reject him
outright and they had a few discouraging meetings. It was not what
David expected. He was gravely disappointed by the reunion and what he
learned from his mother destroyed his fantasy world. First, he
found out that he had an older half-sister, Barbara, who was not put
up for adoption. Next he found out that he was illegitimate and
the man listed on his birth certificate wasn't even his father!
But the most injurious of all the findings was that he was given
up for adoption because he was not wanted by his mother or by her
lover, Joseph Kleinman....He was an accident, nothing more than a
mistake. This was the beginning of the end for Berkowitz and his
victims.
Now,
consider the following:
Berkowitz, was a white male of above average intelligence and
illegitimate by birth.
He was adopted by a couple that unintentionally skewed his
views on sex and family.
He felt guilty for killing his birth mother, only to find out her
death was a lie and his birth a mistake.
He was truant, destructive and hard to control as a child.
He'd lie, steal and abuse animals without remorse and was proud of the
fact he never got caught.
He was a self-centered loner, without close friends, male or female.
He was attracted to police work, and at one time was an auxiliary
police man.
He was a prolific fire starter.
He had a fascination with death and suicide.
He was a compulsive masturbator and sexually imature.
He blamed women for his problems and he held them in low esteem.
Most
of all he felt betrayed, abandoned or threatened by the closest or
most influential women in his life: Julia, his step-mother who took
his father from him; his step-sister who was in competition with
him; his half-sister Barbara, whom his biological mother
kept; his adopted mother Pearl, abandoning him at 14 with
her death and Betty Falco, his birth mother, who threw him away.
It
was only a matter of time before the human time bomb exploded....and
explode he did!
His
rage escalated. He set a fire on December 22nd and then on
December 24, 1975, in Co-Op City, just six months after his initial
meeting with Betty Falco, he attacked a fourteen year old girl with a
3 2 inch hunting knife. It was David's first attempt to kill and
he chose a small, younger, easily subdued (he thought) victim. To his
surprise, she fought him and screamed her head off. The
bloodiness of the attack terrified Berkowitz and made him sick.
States Berkowitz, I wasn't going to rape her or take her
money. I was only going to kill her. That's all.
He ran away and the girl lived. From then on, no more of that hands
on stuff for him!
Soon
after this incident he moved to Westchester County. His
apartment was in the attic of a private home owned by the Cassara
family. He left after three months over an argument with his
landlady about her dogs. At the time, Berkowitz was working as a
night watchman and her German Shepherds, which he detested,
barked continuously and kept him awake. In April 1996, he
moved to Yonkers into a tiny 7th floor, $233.00 a month hole in the
wall studio apartment. He had the same problem at this
apartment as at the last; barking, howling dogs.
Particularly problematic was a dog named Harvey, owned by a sixty-four
year old answering service owner named Sam Carr.
Berkowitz
fought his murderous urges for a while, but six months after his first
botched attempt at murder, he procured a .44-caliber Charter Arms
Bulldog hand gun, with the expressed purpose of murdering women.
A gun was more to his liking and would later distinguish him from
other serial killers who enjoyed getting down and dirty.
His reason for wanting to kill, in his own words, I was determined
and in full agreement with myself that I must slay a woman for revenge
purposes and to get back at them for all the suffering (mental
suffering) they caused me. He didn't know his victims before
hand, pretty much any young female would do, though, he did have a
propensity for women with long dark hair. He didn't stalk his
victims, he stalked the neighborhood by familiarizing
himself with landmarks, streets, alleys and escape routes.
His
first victims were close to his childhood home in the Bronx, very
significant territory. On the night of July 29, 1976, Donna
Laurie and Jody Valenti were sitting in a double parked car, on an
open street, talking. Berkowitz walked up to the passenger side
of the car, held the .44-caliber Bulldog in one hand, (not the
double handed shooters stance sometimes reported) fired into
passenger side window, killing Donna Laurie and wounding Jody Valenti
in the thigh. Then he fled in a high adrenaline, frightened
panic. (Due to the assassination style of the killing,
police originally speculated that the incident, somehow, was gangland
related.) After his arrest he stated in an interview, I felt
happy. I felt some peace. That built up tension was
dissipated temporarily. I felt powerful and cunning, especially when I
put on my innocent look. He felt absolutely no remorse
over the killing. When asked why he chose this particular woman
he stated, I detested her because of what she represented. A
pretty girl, a threat to me and my masculinity and she was a child
of God, Gods creation. Have no doubt, David knew what
he was doing, I knew my gun could snuff someones life. I
developed such an obsession to do what I did, all the laws or promises
of the gas chamber couldn't get me to stop or turn back.
David got a taste of playing God, the power of life over death, and he
liked it.
Berkowitz
went out hunting every night with the intention of killing a
woman. He would later tell the police that when hunting proved
to be fruitless he would visit his previous crime scenes to relive the
joy and power of the moment and then go home to masturbate. He
even went so far as to visit Donna Lauria's grave. After a
three month hiatus, on October 23, 1976, Berkowitz struck again, this
time in Queens. He walked up to a red Volkswagen Bug where
Rosemary Keenan, the daughter of a NYC detective, and Carl DeNaro were
making out, (good trick in a V.W.) raised his gun to the
passenger side window and fired four shots. One bullet hit Carl DeNaro,
shattering his skull. DeNaro had long hair and was sitting in
the traditional girls side of the car. The other three shots
went wild, none striking Rosemary. He drove off in a blind panic
and in an anxious frenzy stopped at a White Castle (hamburger joint)
and pigged out. He was disgusted with himself
because his intended victim was the girl and he missed.
His
next two victims, Donna DeMasi and Joanne Lomino, were shot a month
later, on November 27th, while sitting on Joanne's front porch in
Bayside, Queens. Nervous and anxious, he walked straight up to
the porch, raise the .44-caliber Bulldog in one hand and fire at
the two girls. Donna was wounded in the neck. Joanne was
hit in the spine and paralyzed from the waist down.
During
his first three shootings, he was agitated and nervous. Part of
the reason for these feelings was his fear of being caught or
killed. The other reason, in his own words, When I was about
to commit my crimes, I was cognizant of finally being able to pass
that point, in which a human plays God. Sure I was
nervous. Why? Because I was about to commit the ultimate
of crimes taking another's life. This was a very traumatic
event. It was about this time that the police began to
realize that they had a problem on there hands. This was
definitely verified on January 30, 1977.
A
month after the New Year, in the Forest Hills section of Queens,
Berkowitz shot Christine Freund and John Diehl. Christine Freund died
within hours. This shooting was different though. First,
Berkowitz used two hands and the shooters stance for more
control. Secondly, and more importantly, he had no fear.
He, by his own admission, was becoming more cold blooded. He had
succeeded in justifying his crimes and had convinced himself that that
it was good to do it, necessary to do it and that the public wanted me
to do it. He wasn't far from the truth in that respect. The
media was in a frenzy and they named this unknown assailant the
.44-Caliber Killer. The FBI even coined a new term to describe his
actions--serial murderer. If you were a young adult female,
living in or around the city, you didn't go out after dark with out
some apprehension. An air of danger prevailed and soon it would get
worse.
In
March of 1977 Berkowitz started working for the post office as a zip
code checker. That same month, on the 8th, in the early evening, David
was prowling the streets for hours looking for another victim. He
found her within a block of spot that he had shot Christine Freund to
death. For no particular reason he chose Virginia Voskerichian,
a pretty, intelligent young lady of Armenian anscestory, who was
walking home from Bernard College. He walked up to her, crouched
and raised the .44-Caliber Bulldog in both hands. Virginia held
a large textbook in front of her face in self defense. David calmly
put the gun up to the book and shot through it, killing her.27
Later that evening he watched the news and gloated. The next day
he bought the New York Daily News, The NY Times and The Post and the
headlines screamed of his exploits. He was getting to know his
audience and he was getting bolder.
April
was a busy month for David. He started an anonymous letter
writing campaign against Sam Carr, threatening his life, because his
dog barked to much. Carr's daughter, Wheat, a civilian employee of the
Yonkers police department, also received threatening letters. He
accused Carr of tormenting him and ruining his life. A few
days later he shot Harvey, the dog, with a .22 pistol. Carr
reported the incident to the police. At first they figured it
was just another crazy, but later they would they would have
cause to reconsider this opinion.
On
the evening of April 16th 1977 David set a another fire.
The next night, right around the corner from his first shooting, David
shoots Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau while they are sitting in
a parked car. The murders were becoming more frequent. Berkowitz
considered this shooting to be his best job, not only because
both people died, but because he left his first carefully concocted Sam
note at the scene of the crime. The police would not release the
contents of the note, which was signed Mr. Monster, except to
say it was rambling, incoherent and ghoulish. He
professed not to hate women, and in the note left at the scene states,
I am deeply hurt by your calling me a wemanhater (sic.). I am
not. But I am a monster. I am the Son of Sam
I am a little brat David proceeded to write, in his
slanted longhand, that his father, Sam, keeps him locked in an
attic and programs him to kill. At this point, the police made
their first attempt at profiling the killer. Dr. Harvey
Schlossberg, a patrolman-turned-psychologist, stated He is
somebody who is looking for help. He is lonely and has no
friends. I see him in a cheap furnished room. He is
probably afraid of women. I don't know who rejected him--wife,
girlfriend, sister, mother--but now his fear has turned to rage.
Not so far off the mark. On April 29th, the New York Times
printed an appeal, by the police to the little brat, the Chubby
Behemoth. The police implored to the Son-of-Sam
to let them help him. They tried to second guess his reasons for
the killings and considered that perhaps Sam was an evil parent
or possibly Uncle Sam of the government.32 A task
force of 300 persons was formed. Berkowitz had his
audience...the whole country.
The
first week in June, a letter arrived at the New York Daily News
addressed to journalist, Jimmy Breslin. In part, it read, Hello
from the gutters of NYC which are filled with dog manure, vomit, stale
wine, urine and blood.....Hello from the cracks of the sidewalks in
NYC and the ants that dwell in these cracks and feed on the dried
blood of the dead that has settled in the cracks......Sam's a thirsty
lad and he won't let me stop killing until he gets his fill of blood.
Is it any wonder that the police figured they were after a madman.
Unbeknownst
to the NYC police, on June 7th, Berkowitz sent an anonymous
letter to a Westchester County auxiliary deputy sheriff named Craig
Glassman. He was to receive a total of four bizarre, threatening
letters. Glassman, a registered nurse and his wife, a
social worker, lived in a 6th floor apartment directly underneath
Berkowitzs'. He was singled out for David's special attention because
he played his television to loud and late into the night. In the
letters David proclaims Glassman as his master the commanding
force behind the killings and alluded to demons, satan and the streets
running red with blood at the judgement. At the time, Craig
Glassman was curious but not really bothered by the letter, but in
August that ambivalence would change to concern.
Meanwhile,
Sam Carr was still getting threatening letters, and in June would get
a phone call from a couple named Cassara. They became
concerned when they received a get well card signed by Sam and
Frances Carr. They didn't know anybody by that name and no one
in their family was sick. To clear up the mystery they contacted
Sam Carr. On closer inspection of the card, Carr realized that
the handwriting on the card matched the handwriting on the harassing
letters he'd been receiving. Carr voiced his suspicions to
the Cassara's about his oddball neighbor and his possible
connection to the strange mailings. The Cassara's were astounded
to discover that Carr's oddball was none other than David
Berkowitz, their one time tenant and dog hater. The two
families began to suspect that Berkowitz was guilty of a whole lot
more than just harassing letters and they contacted the police, but
nothing was done. Carr would eventually contact the police
again in July, when he saw a police sketch of a suspect that looked
like Berkowitz. This time his name was added to the list of people to
check out.
On
June 16th, 1977 David set a fire at Ferry Point Park. Ten
days later gun shots rang out in the night. Son-of-Sam
struck again. He again chose Bayside, Queens to be the site of
his violence. Judy Placido and Salvatore Lupo are shot while
sitting in a parked car around the corner from a disco.
Fortunately, they both survived. Berkowitz was killing
people during a mayorality election and the police department was
under incredible pressure to find the shooter. They grasped at straws,
going so far as to exam a 1967 Jimmie Hendrix song that contained the
words Son of Sam. The New York Daily News and WABC-TV
offered a $10,000.00 reward for the arrest and conviction of the
murderer. The public, while afraid to go out at night, were eating
up anything dealing with the killer. In Central Park, vendors were
selling Son-of-Sam T-Shirts with the logo Son-of-Sam--Get
him before he gets you. David was in control and loved it.
Another
fire, and a week later another murder. It would turn out to be
his last. In the very early morning hours of July
31, 1977 he parked his car, a Ford Galaxy Sedan, in front of a fire
hydrant in Bath Beach section of Brooklyn. He watched from a
distance as a police officer ticketed his car and then he walked
toward a playground. The fact that he saw the police officer ticket
his car is significant because it showed that he knew he was getting
reckless and careless. In addition, he walked smack into a middle-aged
woman who was out walking her dog at 2:00 a.m. who got a really good
look at him. That parking ticket and the accidental encounter with the
dog walker were to be the focal points in his eventual
undoing. David, then walked to a playground, sat on a
swing and watched the couples make out. This was a change
of venue, as Berkowitz's last attacks were of the shoot
quickly and run like hell type, no more than twenty minutes from
the choosing of a victim and the act. His first choice of
victims abruptly drove off, so he had to chose again. David
watched Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante making out in the
playground for almost an hour. He would later admit he was
sexually aroused. After the couple returned to the car,
Berkowitz presented himself at the passenger side window, and fired
four shots from the .44 Caliber Bulldog. Stacy was
mortally wounded and Robert Violante, lived, but was blinded for
life. Then he put his gun in a plastic bag and ran like hell to
his car. The police went into high gear. A new
description, given by the dog walker and a couple in another car, was
released describing the killer as clean shaven, white male, 25 to
30 years old, 5'8" to 5'9" inches tall, 165 to 175 pounds,
dark almond-shaped eyes, dark wavy hair, a sensuous mouth, high
cheekbones A pretty close description of David Berkowitz.
August
saw David taking an unfulfilling trip to The Hamptons, on Long Island,
and stepping up his campaign of harassment against Craig
Glassman. On August 6th, he set a fire in the front of Glassman's
door and in it had thrown a handful of .22 Caliber bullets.
Glassman also received another letter, written in slanted
long-hand, which in part read upon your condemnation the
world shall rise in jubilation. The terrible wicked Craig is
dead, they will shout. Glassman contacted the Yonkers
police, who were already investigating Berkowitz for a possible
connection to other letters sent to area residents, including Sam
Carr's letters and the Cassara's get well card. Meanwhile
Brooklyn's finest started checking the recipient of every parking
ticket issued in the area on the morning of the attack.
Sometimes shear luck can be a powerful force. On August 9th
Brooklyn Police Detective James Justus contacted the Yonkers police
station to ask them to get in touch with a Mister David Berkowitz
about a parking ticket. As luck would have it, Sam Carr's
daughter, Wheat, was on phone duty that day and recognized Berkowitz's
name. She told the detective of her and her father's suspicions
and they acted immediately.
The
next morning, Glassman, still oblivious to Berkowitz's possible Son-of-Sam
association, decided to do some snooping on his own in
connection with the fire and the letters. What Glassman did not know
was that policemen from Yonkers, Westchester County and NYC, heavily
armed and with search warrant in hand, had surrounded the
building. He was approached by 10 policemen as he peered through
a window into David's car. Glassman did some fast explaining.
With that, the police proceeded to search David's car. On the
front seat there was a beige duffle bag with what appeared to be the
butt of a rifle sticking out. On the dash board there was
another letter, this one read Because Craig is Craig, so must the
streets be filled with Craig (death) and huge drops of lead poured
down upon her head until she was dead--Yet the cats still come out at
night and mate and the sparrows still sing in the morning.
Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's imaginative! Also
found in the car was a reference to the aborted Long Island attack and
plans for a mass murder at one of South Hamptons upscale
discotheques. If he had carried it out this plan, it would have
been a blood bath. When the police eventually enter David's apartment
they find the walls scrawled with strange poetry and references
to Sam Carr, his dog and Craig Glassman. At 10:00 a.m. Berkowitz left
his apartment building and entered his car. Police surround his
vehicle with guns drawn. The end was anticlimactic and he
surrendered without a struggle. His words upon his capture were Well,
you got me. How come it took you such a long time?
Under
heavy guard, manacled and chained, Berkowitz was escorted to the
Golden Street Station and booked for the murder of Stacy Moscowitz and
the attempted murder of Robert Violanti. When asked why he
killed, he told the police that Sam a 6000 year old man, who
was actually a fallen angel come to earth to destroy, and his
1000 year dog commanded him to do so. The big question....what
did the police have on their hands; a madman or a
bad man? Come one come all, the psychiatric circus was
about begin!
Outside
the courthouse, where he was being arraigned on murder and attempted
murder charges, a crowd chanted, Kill! Kill! Inside,
Berkowitz, with his court appointed attorneys, stood in front of Judge
Richard Brown while bail was denied. Judge Brown ordered David
to undergo psychiatric testing at Kings County Hospital because, A I
am under the opinion that this person may be an incapacitated
person--one who as a result of mental disease or defect, lacks the
capacity to understand the procedures against him or to assist in his
own defense. He will later be arraigned for two murders
and five attempted murders in Queens and two murders and one attempted
murder in the Bronx. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The
court appointed two psychiatrists, Dr. Daniel Schwartz and Dr. Richard
Weidenbachker, to examine Berkowitz. After examining the
letters, looking at photographs and spending a total of eleven hours
of interviewing David, the doctors decided that he was an
incapacitated person and would be unable to assist in his own
defense. Berkowitz was a master manipulator. He spoon fed them
exactly what they wanted to hear and they slurped it up like hungry
babies. Their Diagnosis: Paranoia. The 6000 year old demon and his
side-kick the 1000 year old talking dog story did the
trick! They didn't say that Berkowitz didn't understand what he
did was wrong, because he clearly did. They based the finding on
the fact that he repeatedly made it clear that the outcome of the case
was of little interest to him. At one point he stated, AIf
I go to court, I'll say, >If you lock the door and throw away the
key, I'd like that very much. This finding did not sit well with
Brooklyn's District Attorney Eugene Gold and he retained Dr.
David Abrahamsen, an authority on criminal behavior, to re-examine
Berkowitz. After thirty days of examination, he came to the
conclusion that David had basically talked himself into
believing in the demons, that he was lying to himself and that Athey
were a product of his conscious, deliberate thoughts; they came at his
beck and call. He was their creator rather than their subject.
His diagnosis greatly differed from the other Doctors: Psychopathic
personality with malingering concomitant paranoid and hysterical
traits with acting out.
On
October 20, 1977 Judge Starkey rejected the findings of the Kings
County staff psychiatrists and declared Berkowitz fit to stand
trial. A trial date was set for November 2nd but it was
considerably delayed by motions and more psychiatric
examination. By the time March 1978 rolled around Berkowitz had
begun to doubt the existence of the demons and the original two
psychiatrist reversed their opinion and found him, still paranoid, but
fit to stand trial. During the time he was being held for
trial, David professed to have found Christ and decided he would take
his punishment like a man.
A
second competency hearing was held in April and still he was declared
sane and a trial date was set. On May 8th 1978, in front of
three Supreme Court Justices--Joseph Corso, Brooklyn; Nicholas
Tsoucalas, Queens; and Milton Kapelman, Bronx--David Berkowitz
declared himself guilty of all the crimes.46 Sentencing was
scheduled for May 22, 1978 and it wouldn't go nearly as smoothly as
the trial.
On
May 22nd, while waiting to enter the court room Berkowitz went
berserk. Jimmy Breslin, a reporter for the New York Daily News and
recipient of some of David's bizarre letters, described the scene as
follows: AThis little ball of suet sat in a 7th floor office of the
chief court officer. He was in handcuffs chained around the
middle and had a dozen guards. Now he detonated. From this
fat, weak little body there came an eruption of power from a cave, a
glacier, a swamp. He threw guards against the walls and trampled
them, and with a scream from the bottom of his stomach he rushed for
the pale light of the window. At 11:20 Berkowitz, agitated
and upset, was dragged, chained and manacled into the court
room. He was chanting, loudly Stacy is a whore,
Stacy is a whore. I'll shoot them all. Mrs.
Moskowitz hurled back at him, You're an animal! and left the
court in tears. Berkowitz was thrashing around and bit one of
the guards. The court was in an uproar, bedlam ruled and
sentencing was rescheduled for June 12th. This time he was
tranquilized prior to sentencing and had been warned to behave
himself. He received 547 years, 25 to life on each count of 2nd
degree murder (in NY State 1st degree murder is reserved for cop
killers). He was sent to Attica, a prison in the Catskill
Mountains of New York, to serve out his sentence.
AFTER
THOUGHTS
In
February 1979 Berkowitz called a press conference at Attica and
announced that story about
SamCarr,
the dog and the demons were nothing more than a well developed.
thought out, hoax.
A
year and a half into his sentence a fellow inmate tried to kill him
with a razor. It didn't succeed but it did take 56 stitches to close
up the neck wound.
In 1981 it was reported on television that Berkowitz claims to have
part of a satanic cult and that there was more than one killer, a
story that Dr. Abrahamsen hotly disputes. In his interviews with
Berkowitz never once did he ever mention any kind of ritual group
killing. In addition, Berkowitz by nature was a loner, secretive
and even as a youth perpetrated his crimes alone. His later 1993
Inside Edition interview, purporting multiple shooters, let the world
know he is still around.
He
spends his days counseling troubled inmates, reading the bible
and preaching God's word. He has a Web Page called The Son of
Hope--A Testimony where he professes his faith and where, among
other things, claims to have been a victim of childhood possession.
He
is eligible for parole in the year 2003
Mother
of Satan
Old
Mother Hubbard
Sitting near the cubbard (sic)
with
a hand granade
under
the oatmeal.
Who
will you kill now
Daughter
of Satan?
In
the image of the
Virgin
Mary--pure and innocent
The
Great Impersonator--
Is
that you? Yes
How many have you decieved--(sic)
lured
to slaughter like a
fat
cow?
By
David Berkowitz
September
22, 1976
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Confessions of Son of Sam, David Abrahamsen MD, Columbia University
Press, New York, 1985
The
Psychoanalyst Quarterly, 1977, 46-2, pp.188-200, AThe Family Romance
Fantasies of Adopted Children,@ Herbert Wilder (footnoted in the book
Confessions of Son of Sam)
Bad
Men Do What Good Men Dream, Robert I Simon MD, Chapter 11, Internet
Site-NO TITLE http://www.appi.org/simonb.html
Mind
Hunter, Douglas,John & Olshaker,Mark, Simon & Shuster, New
York, 1995
New
York, April 19, 1993, Vol. 26, pp 151-153, ASon of Sam-25th
Anniversary,@ Jimmy Breslin
New
York Times, April 29, 1977, II p. 2:3, APolice Appeal to Killer of
Women to Seek Help,@ Molly Ivins
New
York Times, April 26, 1977, L+ p. 43, APolice Trying to Out-Psych The
.44 Killer,@ Molly Ivins
New
York Times, August 11, 1977, p. 1:4, ANeighbor Who Got Threat Letters
Was At Arrest Site,@ Ronald Smothers
New
York Times, August 10, 1977, p. B5, APolice Begin Distributing New
Drawing of .44-Killer,@ Leonard Buder
New
York Times, August 11, 1977, p. D17, APostal Worker Traced Through Car
Believed Used in Getaways,@ Robert D. McFadden
New
York Times, Aug. 12, 1977, p.A10, Sam Suspect, Heavily Guarded,
is Arraigned and Held for Testing,@ Robert D. McFadden
Pogo's
Killer Page....David Berkowitz, Internet Site
Son
of Sam to Son of Hope, Internet Site
Newsweek,
February 3, 1992, Vol. 119, Issue 5, pp. 50-51, "Silence of the
Wolves," David Kaplan
National
Review, January 23, 1995, Vol. 47, Issue 1, p. 34-41, "The Face
of Evil," Martin Olasky
I
want to Thank My Brain For Remembering Me--A Memoir, Breslin,Jimmy,
Little Brown and Company, Boston, 1996
Photo: Original purchased by The Crime Web
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