David Berkowitz

David BerkowitzDuring the 1970’s David Berkowitz aka “The Son of Sam” was one of the most notorious serial killers in New York City. His offenses were the cause of the death of six people, and harm of seven others. His murders became renown because of the peculiar subject matter in the letters that he wrote the police and the media and his motives for relegating the assaults.

Berkowitz (born Richard David Falco) was conceived on June 1,1953 to a single mother whom immediately after giving birth gave him up for adoption. Nat and Pearl Berkowitz were the caring Jewish family whom adopted him as their son. During his childhood, he was numerously told that his biological mother had died while giving birth to him (Essene, 2000). In regards to his adoptive parents he had a fairly typical childhood; his parents cared for him very much. Yet, he was publicly awkward, and had little confidence. He also had recurrent ferocious incidents in which he would frequently throw temper tantrums. Therefore during Berkowitz’ adolescent years he was an outsider, whom had lack of outside social friends. And though he was an attractive young man, he possessed a violent behavior, and was a neighborhood bully (Bardsley 2001).

However, he adored his adoptive-mother very much, yet was frequently envious of her other obligations and lack of sole concentration towards him. In his early teens, Berkowitz was informed that his adoptive-mother had been battling breast cancer. Previously unaware, he felt deceived by his parents. His mother’s steady decline left him devastated, and her death in 1967 found him suddenly alone with his father (Bardsley 2001).Disturbing proceedings like Berkowitz losing his mother did a great deal to his growth in society due to the fact that he no longer had an encouraging consistent complete family. After his mother’s death, he worsened quickly, his grade-point-average began to suffer, and he began to alienate himself from the outside world. The descending coil peaked when Berkowitz’ father abandoned him to and moved with his new wife to Florida leaving him in New York City at the age 18. Generally, people who lack strong family background, have difficulty in the latter part of their life. Quickly after Berkowitz and his father’s departure he joined the Army where he was instantly known as an extremely accomplished marksman. While traveling in Korea he was said to have experienced his only sexual meeting, with a Korean Prostitute who left him with a Venereal disease. This concurrence appears to be the only relation Berkowitz ever had with a woman (Bardsley 2001).

Berkowitz suppressed his low self-esteem by habitual dishonesty and complacent behaviorisms. He was tremendously nervous with women but hid it through attacking them in his early twenties. More than a few non-fatal stabbing attacks boosted his courageousness. The path of violence appeared to be an accumulation of his denunciation from his father, his dissatisfaction with women, and the imaginative existence that he shaped and occasionally drifted of into. His affiliation with the Process church; a satanic society was the last straw. In a letter to his father Berkowitz stated, “People are developing a hatred for me. You wouldn’t believe how much people hate me.... I walk down the street and they spit and kick at me. The girls call me ugly and they bother me the most (Berkowitz).” This was the final known sign for help emitted by Berkowitz before he started a homicide extravaganza that ended up taking the lives of 6 young women, and injuring 7 others. His aims roughly were women, typically discovered in their cars with men.

The criminal justice system had never seen a person like Berkowitz. His slaughter splurge overwhelmed the country with fury and anxiety of community protection. It was extremely difficult for law enforcement to deal with Berkowitz at first because he was a deadly threat. However, he had no known criminal background before he committed these mass murders, which left enforcements frustrated. Among other unsuccessful ideas, police created traps with undercover officers posed as lovers parked in isolated areas,