David Berkowitz: A Killer on a Mission

David Berkowitz when he was captured at age 24

Serial killers are the closest thing to what is considered a monster in the world today.  In an article by Biography.com, one of America's most well-known serial killers was a man named David Berkowitz. He was born to a poor mother and was eventually adopted by a Jewish-American family.  Supposedly, he was very smart but did not have any friends growing up.  He became a bully towards other children and was later devastated by his adoptive mother's death.  When he turned eighteen, Berkowitz joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in South Korea where he became very skilled at shooting.  After he served, he moved to New York City in Yonkers where he worked as a postal worker in 1974.  Two years later, he wrecked havoc in the city when he began his spree of murders.



During David Berkowitz's reign of terror over New York City, he killed six innocent people and injured many others in eight different shootings, according to the Discovery Channel.  The very first killing occurred on July 29, 1977 outside of Donna Lauria's home with her friend Jody in the Bronx.  In the New York Daily News that was originally published by James Duddy the day after the shooting, stated that Berkowitz approached the vehicle, shooting four bullets at the young women which killed Donna and wounded Jody in the thigh.  Since then, the attacks continued for over the span of a year, involving five more parked couples, two teenage girls, and a college student walking home from Columbia University as described by the Discovery Channel.  Five were killed in these shootings and during one of them, the killer left a note at the crime scene, addressing himself as the "Son of Sam." The final shooting occurred in Brooklyn on the anniversary of the first shooting where Berkowitz killed Stacy Moskowitz and injured her boyfriend Bobby Violante.

The picture published in the New York Daily News
following the shooting of the Columbia University student

As more and more shootings began to occur, the police started to see patterns among the crimes. Berkowitz method of operation, or modus operandi, always involved .44 caliber gun, says the Discovery Channel. He would typically strike after midnight in either the Bronx or Queens. Every shooting was usually against young women between the ages of seventeen to twenty and who had long, dark hair. The victims were either walking home or parked in a car with a companion. He would approach them and shoot several bullets, fleeing the scene undetected.


In the end, it was a parking ticket that led to the capture of David Berkowitz.  According to the Discovery Channel, a woman had been walking her dog the night of the final attack.  She saw a suspicious man at his car which had a parking ticket on it and she eventually reported it to the police when she found out it was not too far from the crime scene.  The NYPD was able to trace his car to where Berkowitz lived and investigators caught him getting into his vehicle. The Son of Sam was arrested on August 10, 1977, eleven days after his final attack.

When he was interrogated by detectives, they asked him why did he shoot and murder all those people.  He replied that he just had the urge to kill, according to the Discovery Channel.  Doctors diagnosed him as mentally ill because he claimed that he was ordered by a two-thousand-year-old dog, who possessed by a demon, to murder people.  Later, it was discovered that Berkowitz had been a member of Satanic cult which could have made him seem deranged.  This also could possibly lead to the conclusion that he was a mission oriented, as described by Peter Vronsky, since he specifically targeted dark haired women with their companions and he had no contact with the body of his victims.  On Biography.com it states that Berkowitz was sentenced to "25-years-to-life for each murder."

David Berkowitz is now an evangelical Christian

Today, David Berkowitz is still alive and is continuing his time in prison where he has converted to an evangelical Christian, calling himself "Son of Hope," says Biography.com.  He wrote a book called Son of Hope: The Prison Journal of David Berkowitz which includes apologies to those whom he had hurt and murdered.

References

David Berkowitz Biography.com. (2017). Biography.com website. Retrieved from

https://www.biography.com/people/david-berkowitz-9209372

Discovery channel deranged killers Son of Sam documentary. (2017, January 9). Retrieved

November 20, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el3D2-IsjcI&t=2430s

Duddy, J. (2017). Son of Sam fires four shots into double-parked car in the Bronx, killing one.

New York Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/son-sam-fired-shots-chatting-friends-bronx-
article-1.3351505

Vronsky, P. (n.d.). Serial killers: The method and madness of monsters. New York, NY:

Berkley Books.