David Richard Berkowitz (born Richard David Falco , June 1, 1953), also known as Son of Sam and .44 Caliber Killer , was an American serial killer who pleaded guilty to eight separate shooting attacks that began in New York City during the summer of 1976. The crime was committed with a.44 caliber Bulldog revolver. He killed six people and injured nine others in July 1977. As the number of casualties increased, Berkowitz avoided the largest police hunt in the history of New York City while leaving letters mocking police and promising further crimes, which were heavily publicized by press. The killings terrorize New Yorkers and achieve world reputation.
On the night of August 10, 1977, Berkowitz was taken into custody by a New York City police detective in front of his apartment building in Yonkers, and he was later charged with eight shooting incidents. He confessed to them all, and initially claimed to have obeyed the demonic command, manifested in the form of a dog, "Harvey", which belonged to his neighbor "Sam". Despite his explanation, Berkowitz was found mentally competent to stand trial. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and incarcerated in state prisons. He then admits the dog-and-satanic story is a hoax. In the course of further police investigations, Berkowitz is also involved in many unsolved burnings in the city.
The strong coverage of the case by the media gave Berkowitz some sort of celebrity status, and some observers noted that he seemed to enjoy it. In response, the New York State legislature enacted a new law, popularly known as "Son of Sam's law," designed to keep criminals from taking financial benefits from the publicity created by their crimes. Despite various amendments and legal challenges, the law remains law in New York, and similar laws have been enacted in several other countries.
Berkowitz has been imprisoned since his arrest and underwent six life sentences in a row. During the mid-1990s, he changed his confession to claim that he had become a member of the demonic Satanist sect who organized the incident as a ritual murder. He remains the only person ever charged with shooting. Although some law enforcement authorities have questioned whether Berkowitz's claims can be trusted, a new investigation into the killings began in 1996, but was suspended indefinitely after inconclusive findings.
Video David Berkowitz
Kehidupan awal
Berkowitz's mother, Elizabeth "Betty" Broder, grew up as part of a poor Jewish family and married Tony Falco, an Italian-American, in 1936. After marrying less than four years, Falco left her for another woman. About a decade later in 1950, Broder began a relationship with a married man named Joseph Klineman. Three years later she was pregnant with a child she chose to give her surname Falco - Richard David Falco was born on June 1, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York. Within days of his birth, he gave the boy away. Although the reason for doing so is unknown, the authors then have suspected that Klineman threatened to abandon him if he defended his baby and used his name.
The baby boy was adopted by Pearl and Nathan Berkowitz of the Bronx. The Jewish-American couple is a simple store retailer, and has no children in middle age. They reverse the order of the first and middle names of the child and give him their own surname, raising young David Richard Berkowitz as their only child.
Journalist John Vincent Sanders writes that Berkowitz's childhood "is rather problematic." Despite his above-average intelligence, he lost interest in learning at an early age and became infatuated with petty theft and early fires. Neighbors and families will remember Berkowitz as difficult, spoiled, and bully. Her adoptive parents consulted at least one psychotherapist because of her mistake, but her behavior never resulted in legal intervention or mentioned seriously in her school record. Mrs Berkowitz's mother died of breast cancer when she was fourteen, and her home life became tense during the later years, mainly because she did not like the wives of her adoptive fathers.
At the age of 17 in 1971, he joined the US Army and served in the United States and South Korea. After his honorable dismissal in 1974, he found his biological mother, Betty. After several visits, he reveals details of his illegitimate birth. The news was very annoying to Berkowitz, and he was very confused with the reluctant line of father figures. Forensic anthropologist Elliott Leyton describes Berkowitz's discovery of adoption and illegitimate birth as the "ultimate crisis" of his life, an enlightenment that destroys his sense of identity. Communication with his birth mother then ended, but for the time being he communicated with his stepbrother, Roslyn. He then had some non-professional work, and at the time of his arrest he worked as a mail sorter for the US Postal Service.
Maps David Berkowitz
Crime starts
During the mid-1970s, Berkowitz began committing violent crimes. He made the first assassination attempt by using a knife, then switched to a gun and started crime throughout the New York area in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. He is looking for young female victims. She is said to be most interested in women with long, dark, wavy hair. All but one crime site involves two victims; he cruelly performed some of his attacks while the women sat with his girlfriend in the parked car. He shows the eternal joy of his activities, often returning to his crime scenes.
Michelle Forman stabbed
Berkowitz claims that he made his first attack on Christmas Eve, 1975, when he used a hunting knife to stab two women. One person suspected of being a victim was never identified by the police, but the other was a teenager Michelle Forman, whose injuries were serious enough to be hospitalized. Berkowitz was not suspected of committing this crime, and soon after that he moved into an apartment in Yonkers, New York, just north of the New York City border.
Donna Lauria and Jody Valenti photographing
The first shooting attributed to Son of Sam occurred in the Pelham Bay area of ​​the Bronx. Around 1:10 am on July 29, 1976, Donna Lauria, 18, and her friend Jody Valenti, 19, sat at Oldsmobile Valenti, discussing their evening at Peachtree's, a New Rochelle disco. Lauria opened the car door to go and saw a man quickly approaching the car. Shocked and angry by the sudden appearance of the man, he said, "Now what is this..." The man pulls a gun out of the paper bag he is carrying and squats down. He tied his elbows on his knees, aimed his gun with both hands, and fired. Lauria was startled by a bullet that killed her instantly. Valenti was shot in his thigh, and the third bullet missed both women. The shooter turned and walked away quickly, without saying a word.
Valenti survived the injury and said that he did not recognize the killer. He describes him as a white male in his thirties with bright skin, about 5 feet (inches) (1.75 m) tall and weighing about 160 pounds (73 kg). Her hair is short, dark, and curly in "mod style." This description was repeated by Lauria's father, who claimed to have seen the same man sitting in a yellow compact car parked nearby. Neighbors provided a reassuring report to police that an unknown yellow compact car had been exploring the area for hours before the shootings.
Carl Denaro and Rosemary Keenan firing
On October 23, 1976, a similar shooting occurred in the remote residential area of ​​Flushing, Queens, next to Bowne Park. Carl Denaro, 20, and Rosemary Keenan, 18, were sitting in Ford Keenan's car when the window suddenly crumbled. "I feel the car exploded [ sic ]", Denaro said later. Keenan immediately started the car and drove off to ask for help. The frantic couple did not realize that someone had shot at them, even though Denaro was bleeding from a gunshot wound to his head. Keenan only suffered superficial wounds from broken glass, but Denaro eventually needed a metal plate to replace some of his skull. No casualties saw the attacker.
The police decided that the bullet planted in Keenan's car was.44 caliber, but the bullet was so damaged and defective that they thought it was unlikely they could be associated with a particular weapon.
Denaro has shoulder-length hair, and the police then speculate that the shooter had thought he was a girl. Keenan's father was a 20-year veteran police detective from the NYPD, causing intense investigations. However, like the shooting of Lauria-Valenti, there seems to be no motive for the shootings, and the police made little progress in the case. Many details of the Denaro-Keenan shootings are very similar to the Lauria-Valenti case, but the police initially did not associate them, partly because shootings took place in different areas and were investigated by different local police.
Donna DeMasi and Joanne Lomino photographing
Donna DeMasi, 16, and Joanne Lomino, 18, returned from the cinema shortly after midnight on November 27, 1976. They chatted on the veranda of Lomino's house in Bellerose, Queens, when a man dressed in military uniform apparently in his early 20s approached them and start asking directions.
In a high-pitched voice he said, "Can you tell me how to get..." but then quickly generate a revolver. He shot every victim once and, when they fell to the wounded ground, he fired several more times, hitting the apartment building before fleeing. A neighbor hears a gunshot, rushes out of the apartment building, and sees a blond man rushing by holding a gun in his left hand. DeMasi has been shot in the neck, but the wound is not life-threatening. Lomino was hit in the back and treated in a hospital in serious condition; he ends up being paralyzed.
Christine Freund and John Diel shoot
On the morning of January 30, 1977, Christine Freund, 26, and her fiance John Diel, 30, sat in Diel's car near LIRR Forest Hills station in Queens, preparing to go to the dance building after seeing the movie. Rocky . Three shots pierced the car at around 12:40 am. In panic, Diel went to ask for help. He suffered minor shallow injuries, but Freund was shot twice and died several hours later at the hospital. Both victims have seen their attacker (s).
The police made the first public acknowledgment that Freund-Diel's shooting was similar to the previous incident, and that the crime may be related. All the victims have been hit with.44 caliber bullets, and the shootings seem to target young women with long, dark hair. NYPD Sergeant Richard Conlon stated that police "lean on connections in all these cases." The composite sketch is released from the black-haired Lauria-Valenti shooter and the blond-haired shooter Lomino-DeMasi, and Conlon notes that the police are looking for some "suspects", not just one.
Virginia Voskerichian Photoshoot
Around 7:30 am. on March 8, 1977, Columbia University student Virginia Voskerichian, 19, was walking home from school when he was confronted by an armed man. He lives about a block away from where Christine Freund was shot. In desperation to defend himself, Voskerichian raised his textbook between himself and his killer, but the makeshift armor was pierced, the bullet stuck in his head and killed him.
Moments after the shooting, a neighborhood resident who had heard gunshots rounded a corner into the Voskerichian street. He almost collided with someone he described as a short, hoarse, 16 to 18-year-old boy and shaved clean, wearing a sweater and hat, running away from the scene. His neighbor said that the young man pulled the lid on his face and said, "Oh, Jesus!" as he ran. Other neighbors claimed to have seen "teenagers", as well as others who matched Berkowitz's description, wandered separately in the area about an hour before the shootings. Over the next few days, the media repeated the police claiming that this "fat teen" was a suspect. There were no direct witnesses to Voskerichian's murder.
Press and publicity
On March 10, 1977, a press conference, NYPD officials and New York Mayor Abraham Beame stated that the same Bulldog revolver had fired shots that killed Lauria and Voskerichian. But official documents were later disclosed, saying that police were very suspicious that the same 44 Bulldogs had been used in the shootings, but that the evidence was inexplicable.
The crime was discussed by the local media almost daily. Circulation is increasing dramatically for the New York Post and the Daily News, newspapers with graphic crime reporting and commenting. Foreign media featured many reports, including newspaper front page articles like the Vatican L'Osservatore Romano , the Hebrew Maariv and Soviet
Continuing crime
Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani firing
At about 3:00 am on April 17, 1977, Alexander Esau, 20, and Valentina Suriani, 18, sat in a Suriani car near his home in the Bronx, just a few blocks from the set of Lauria-Valenti, when each shot twice. Suriani died at the scene, and Esau died in hospital hours later without being able to describe his attacker (s).
Police said the weapons used for the crime were similar to those they suspected in the previous shootings. During the days that followed, they repeated their theory that only one person was responsible for the killing.44. The fat teenager in the Voskerichian case is still seen as a witness, while the dark-haired man who shot Lauria and Valenti is considered a suspect.
Episode of crime
The letters of Son of Sam
Police found handwritten notes near the bodies of Esau and Suriani, most of which were written in the capital of the block with a few lowercase letters, and addressed to NYPD Captain Joseph Borrelli. With this letter, Berkowitz revealed the name "Son of Sam" for the first time. The previous press has dubbed the killer ".44 Caliber Killer" because of his weapon of choice. The letter was originally kept secret from the public, but some of it was disclosed to the press, and the name "Son of Sam" quickly replaced the old name.
The letter stated the murderer's determination to continue his work, and denounced the police for their futile attempts to capture him. In full, with a completely misspelled letter, it reads:
I am deeply hurt by you calling me a wemon haters. I do not. But I am a monster. I am "Son Sam." I am a little "kid". When Sam's father gets drunk he becomes evil. He defeated his family. Sometimes he tied me to the back of the house. The next time he locked me in the garage. Sam likes to drink blood. "Go and kill" orders Sam's dad. At the back of the house we rested. Most of the young - raped and slaughtered - their blood drained - just bones now. Papa Sam also keeps me locked in the attic. I can not go out but I look out the attic window and watch the world go by. I feel like an outsider. I have different wavelengths then others - programmed also kills. However, to stop me, you have to kill me. Attention all the cops: Shoot me first - shoot to kill or else. Stay away from my path or you will die! Papa Sam is old now. He needs blood to keep his youth. He has too many heart attacks. Too many heart attacks. "Ugh, I pretend I do not like sonny boys." I miss my beautiful daughter. She rested at our lady's house but I'll see her soon. I am the "Monster" - "Beelzebub" - "Chubby Behemouth." I love to hunt. Wandering the streets looking for a fair game - delicious meat. The wemon of Queens is all pretty z. I have to be the water they drink. I live to hunt - my life. Blood for daddy. Mr. Borrelli, sir, I do not want to kill anymore no sir, no longer but I have to, "honor your father." I want to make love with the world. I like people. I do not belong to Earth. Give me back to yahoo. To the people of Queens, I love you. And I would like to wish Easter the best of you all. May God bless you in this life and in the future and for now I say goodbye and good night. Police - Let me haunt you with these words; I will be back! I will be back! Interpreted as - bang, bang, bang, bank, bang - ugh !! Respectful in the murder of Mr. Monster
At that time, the police speculated that the letter writers might be familiar with Scottish English. The phrase "I like bad boys" is taken as a Scottish-accented "hearted" version, hurt , naughty boy "and the police also hypothesize that the shooter blamed the dark-haired nurse on the death of his father, because of the phrase "too many heart attacks", and the fact that Lauria is a medical technician and Valenti is studying to become a nurse.On July 28, New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin alluded to the words "wemon "and refers to the shooter who watched the world from his" attic window ".
Unusual killer attitudes toward the police and the media are under the spotlight. Psychologists observe that many serial killers get satisfaction by avoiding pursuers and observers. The feelings of media control, law enforcement, and even the entire population provide a source of social power for them. After consulting with several psychiatrists, the police released their psychological profile of the suspect on May 26, 1977. He was described as neurotic and possibly suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and believed himself to be the victim of a demon possession.
Letter for Jimmy Breslin
On May 30, 1977, Jimmy Breslin's columnist received a handwritten letter from someone claiming to be a.44 caliber shooter. The letter was stamped early on the same day in Englewood, New Jersey. Behind the envelope, neatly printed on four centered lines, are the words: Blood and Family - Darkness and Death - Absolute Damage -.44 . The letter in it reads:
Hello from ditch N.Y.C. which is full of dog feces, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood. Hello from ditch N.Y.C. who swallowed these delicacies while they were washed away by a sweeping truck. Hello from the gap on the sidewalk at N.Y.C. and from the ants that live in these cracks and eat the dried blood of the dead who have entered the cracks. J.B., I just gave you a line to let you know that I appreciate your interest in a recent and horrendous killing.44. I also want to let you know that I read your columns every day and I feel quite informative. Tell me Jim, what will you have for the twenty-ninth of July? You can forget me if you like because I do not care about publicity. But you must not forget Donna Lauria and you can not let people forget it too. She is a very, very sweet girl but Sam is a thirsty boy and she will not let me stop killing until she gets her blood. Mr. Breslin, sir, do not think so because you have not heard from me for a while that I sleep. No, more precisely, I'm still here. Like a spirit that roams at night. Thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest; want to please Sam. I love my job. Now, the vacancy has been filled. Maybe we'll meet face to face one day or maybe I'll be flown by the police by smoking.38's. Regardless, if I will be lucky enough to meet you, I will tell you all about Sam if you like and I will introduce you to him. His name was "horrible Sam." Do not know what my future will say farewell and I will see you at my next job. Or should I say you will see my work in the next job? Remember Ms. Lauria. thanks. In their blood and from the sewer "Sam's creation".44 Here are some names to help you. Direct them to the inspector for use by the NCIC: [sic] "Duke of Death" "The Ricked King Wicker" "Twenty Two Hell Students" "John 'Wheaties' - Rape and Young Girl Suffocator PS: Please tell all the detectives who work slaying to stay PS: [sic] JB, Please tell all the detectives who handled the case I wish them good luck. "Keep digging them, go ahead, think positively, lower your butt, knock the coffin, "After my arrest, I promise to buy everyone who works with new pair of shoes if I can earn money
Under "Son Sam" is a logo or sketch that incorporates several symbols. Author's question "What will you have for July 29th?" considered an unpleasant threat: July 29 will be the commemoration of the first.44 caliber photo shoot. Breslin told the police, who thought the letter might have come from someone who knew about the shootings. Breslin's letter is very sophisticated in its wording and presentation, especially when compared with the first letter written roughly, and the police suspect that it may be made in an art studio or similar professional location by someone with expertise in printing, calligraphy, or graphic design. The unusual writing caused the police to speculate that the killer was a comic artist, and they asked DC Comics staff members whether they recognized the writing. Reference "Evil King of Rattan" caused the police to arrange a personal examination of The Wicker Man, 1973 horror film.
The New York Daily News published a letter a week later (after agreeing with the police to withhold part of the text) and Breslin urged his killer to surrender. The dramatic article makes today's newspaper the highest selling edition of the Daily News to date - more than 1.1 million copies sold. Police received thousands of tips based on references in parts of published letters, all of which proved to be useless. All the shooting casualties to date have long black hairs, and thousands of New Yorkers get short cuts or brightly colored dyes, and beauty equipment stores have difficulty meeting the demand for wigs.
Sal Lupo and Judy Placido photographing
On June 26, 1977, there was another shooting. Sal Lupo, 20, and Judy Placido, 17, had left the Elephas discotheque in Bayside, Queens, and sat in a Lupo car parked around 3:00 when three shots exploded in the vehicle. Lupo was injured in his right arm, while Placido was shot in the right temple, shoulder and back of the neck, but both survivors wounded. Lupo told police that the young couple had been discussing Son of Sam's case just moments before the shooting.
Neither Lupo nor Placido had ever seen their attackers, but two witnesses reported a tall dark-haired man in casual clothes who had fled the area; one claimed to see him go by car and even gave a partial plate number. Another report describes a blond man with a whisker that rode from the scene in Chevy Nova without turning on the headlights. The police speculated that the dark-haired man was a shooter, and that the blond man had observed the crime.
Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante shoot
The first anniversary of the initial.44 caliber shooting was approaching, and the police established a fairly large net that emphasized past hunting in Queens and the Bronx. However, the last and final shooting of.44 occurred in Brooklyn.
On July 31, 1977, Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante, both 20 years old, were in a Violante car, parked under a streetlight near the city park in Bath Beach neighborhood. They kiss when a man approaches within three feet of the passenger side of Violante's car and fires four rounds into the car, hitting both victims on the head before he escapes into the park. Moskowitz died several hours later at the hospital. Violante survived, though he lost sight in one eye and maintained a very limited vision in the other.
The crime of Moskowitz-Violante produced more witnesses than any other Son of Sam murder; there was a direct eye witness who was not the intended victim. During the shooting, 19-year-old Tommy Zaino was parked with three dates in front of the Violante vehicle. Shortly before the shooting, Zaino caught a glimpse of the peripheral approach of the shooter and accidentally glanced at his rearview mirror just in time to see the real shooting. Zaino clearly sees the offender for a few seconds due to the bright street light and the full moon and then describes it as 25 to 30 years, with an average height - 5Ã, ft 7 in (1.70 m) to 5Ã, ft 9Ã, 1.75). Ã, m) - with shaggy hair that is dark or light brown. Zaino said that the shooter's hair "looks like a wig."
About a minute after the shooting, a woman sitting next to her boyfriend in his car on the other side of the city park saw a "white man [wearing] a bright short nylon wig" running from the park and entering a "small, colored bright "automatic, which speeds away quickly. "He looks like he just robbed the bank," said the woman, who wrote what she could see from the plate of the car. He can not specify the first two characters, but is sure that the other is 4-GUR or 4-GVR. Other witnesses included a woman who saw the speed of a light car from the park about 20 seconds after the shot, and at least two witnesses depicting a yellow Volkswagen driving fast from the neighborhood with its headlights dead. An environmentalist named Mary Lyons hears the shooting and calls from Violante, and glances at the window of his apartment to see a man who he positively identifies as Berkowitz, who walks casually away from crime Scenes because many are rushing towards a scene to provide help.
Immediately after 2:35, a man who was later given the pseudonym Alan Masters was driving through a crossing a few blocks from the park. The Masters was hardly hit by what he described as a yellow Volkswagen Beetle drove through an intersection with no headlamps switched on as the driver ignored the red light. Angered and alert, the Masters followed Volkswagen at high speed for several minutes before losing the vehicle. The master described the driver as a white man in his late 20s or early 30s, with a narrow, dark, long face, stray hair, a few days of dark mustache growing on his face, and wearing a blue jacket. The Masters is upset and he forgot to record the number of Volkswagen's plate, but he thinks it may be New Jersey rather than a New York plate. Violante met a very similar man, because he and Moskowitz were in the park shortly before they were shot. Violante described her as a "dirty-looking hippy" with a mustache, stiff hair on her forehead, dark eyes, and a denim jacket.
Thomas Scally declared that he was sitting at Alley Pond Park on Winchester Boulevard, in the Queens area, at dusk with a female friend when the yellow Volkswagen Beetle approached his car door to the door and was only three inches from his vehicle, which did not start the engine. Scally keeps the air gun under his seat and, as VW approaches his car, the VW driver meets with a gun pointing straight at him. At first, he looked like a black man, but he also appeared wearing stockings on his face. The VW driver quickly starts his car and shoots him back out of the parking lot. Scally chases the car to a point in Glen Oaks, Queens, where the driver jumps out and runs. He did not want to leave his female passenger to catch up, so he called Son of Sam Hot Line. Detective Richard Carroll of Sam's Duty Boys (and former Scally baseball coach) then told Scally that he had seen Son of Sam once. Glen Oaks was later revealed to be the home of a Berkowitz sister and close to the shooting locations of Donna DeMasi and Joanne Lomino.
The police were unaware of the Moscowitz-Violante shooting until around 02.50, and Dowd did not think it was another Son of Sam shoot until an officer at the scene reported that a large-caliber bullet had been used. Police set a series of roadblocks about an hour after the shootings, stopping hundreds of cars to question the driver and check the vehicle. During the interview, the Masters and others described Volkswagen who rode from the scene, and the police now suspect that the shooter owns or drives such a vehicle. In the days that followed, the police decided that there were more than 900 Volkswagens in New York or New Jersey, and they made plans to track each of these cars and their owners. Detective John Falotico was awakened at home and told to report to the 10th Homicide Division at the 60th Precinct office building on Coney Island. He was told that Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante were shot. Falotico was given two weeks to handle the case as an ordinary murder investigation; it is then assigned to a special Son of Sam task force.
Arrest at Yonkers
Suspicions and fetch
Locals Cacilia Davis was walking with his dog on the set of Moskowitz and Violante when he saw patrolman Michael Cataneo ticket the car parked near the fire hydrant. Moments after the traffic police left, a young man walked past him from the car area, and he seemed to study it with a certain interest. Davis was concerned that he was holding some sort of "dark object" in his hand. He ran to his house only to hear a shot behind him on the street. Davis remained silent about this experience for four days until he finally contacted the police, who had checked carefully every car that had been ticketed in the area that night.
Berkowitz 1970 The four-door yellow Ford Galaxie is one of the cars they investigate. Despite their conflicting claims, the police initially considered Berkowitz as a possible witness rather than a suspect. On August 9, 1977, NYPD detective James Justis called the Yonkers police to have them schedule an interview with Berkowitz. The Yonkers police officers who first took Justis's call were Wheat Carr, daughter of Sam Carr and sister of the sect of Berkowitz, John and Michael Carr alleged brothers.
Justis asks the Yonkers police to help track down Berkowitz. According to Mike Novotny - a sergeant in the Yonkers Police Department - Yonkers police have their own suspicions about Berkowitz in connection with another bizarre crime in Yonkers, a crime they see referring to one of Son of Sam's letters. To the surprise of the NYPD, they told the New York City detective that Berkowitz might be Son Sam.
The next day, August 10, 1977, police investigated Berkowitz's car parked on the street outside his apartment building on 35 Pine Street in Yonkers. They saw rifles in the backseats, looking for cars, and found backpacks containing ammunition, crime scene maps, and threat letters addressed to Superintendent Timothy Dowd of the Omega Task Force. The police decided to wait for Berkowitz to leave the apartment instead of risking violence in the narrow passage of the building; they are also waiting to get a search warrant for the apartment, worried that their search might be challenged in court. The initial search of the vehicle was based on the rifle seen in the backseat, although the possession of such rifles was legal in New York State and did not require any special permission. The warrant still had not arrived when Berkowitz came out of the apartment building around 10:00. and entered his car. Detective John Falotico approached the driver's side of the car. Falotico aimed his gun near the Berkowitz temple, while Detective Sgt. William Gardella directs his gun from the passenger side.
A paper bag containing a.44-caliber Bulldog revolver of a type identified in a ballistic test was found next to Berkowitz in the car. As described in Son of Sam (1981) by Lawrence D. Klausner, Detective Falotico recalled a large and inexplicable smile on his face:
"Now that I catch you," Detective Falotico said to the suspect, "who am I got?"
"You know," the man said in what the detective remembered was a soft, almost sweet voice.
"No, I did not, you tell me."
The man turned and said, "I'm Sam."
"Kamu Sam, Sam?"
"Sam. David Berkowitz."
The alternative version claims that Berkowitz's first words are reported, "Well, you got me. Why did you need a long time?" Detective John Falotico is officially credited by the New York City Police Department as an officer who arrested Son of Sam.
Police ransacked the 7-E Apartment and found it a mess, with Satan's graffiti on the wall. They also found the diary he kept since he was twenty-one-three of the nearly full-fledged stenographers in which Berkowitz carefully noted the hundreds of burnings he claimed to have installed throughout New York City. Some sources allege that this number may be more than 1,400. Soon after Berkowitz's arrest, the building's address was changed from 35 Pine Street to 42 Pine Street in an attempt to end its fame. After the arrest, Berkowitz was briefly detained at a Yonkers police station before being transported directly to the 60th Police Station on Coney Island, where the detectives' task force was located. At about 1:00 pm, Mayor Abraham Beame arrived to see the suspect in person. After a brief and wordless encounter, he announced to the media: "People in New York City can be quiet because of the fact that the police have arrested a man they believe to be Son of Sam."
Confession
Berkowitz was interrogated for about thirty minutes on the morning of August 11, 1977. He quickly acknowledged the shooting and expressed an interest in pleading guilty. During the interrogation, Berkowitz claims that his neighbor's dog is one of the reasons why he killed, stating that the dog demanded the blood of beautiful young girls. He says that the "Sam" mentioned in the first letter is his former neighbor, Sam Carr. Berkowitz claims that Labrador's black retriever Carr is owned by an ancient demon and issued an unbearable command that Berkowitz had to kill people.
A few weeks after his arrest and admission, Berkowitz was allowed to communicate with the press. In a letter to the New York Post dated September 19, 1977, Berkowitz mentioned his original story of demon possession but was closed with a warning that some investigators had interpreted as criminal footprints: "There are other Children outside hopefully, God helps the world. " Sentence
Three separate mental health checks determined that Berkowitz was competent to stand trial. Even so, defense lawyers advised Berkowitz to insert a plea of ​​not guilty by reason of insanity, but Berkowitz refused. He looked calm in court on May 8, 1978, as he pleaded guilty to all shootings.
On his sentence two weeks later, Berkowitz caused an uproar as he tried to jump out of the seventh floor window of the courtroom. After he was arrested, he repeatedly shouted "Stacy is a whore" and shouted, "I'll kill him again, I'll kill them all again." The court orders another psychiatric examination before the sentence can proceed. During the evaluation, Berkowitz drew a sketch of an imprisoned man surrounded by multiple walls; at the bottom he writes, "I'm not well, not good at all". Nevertheless, Berkowitz was again deemed competent to stand trial.
On June 12, 1978, Berkowitz was sentenced to 25 years of life imprisonment for every murder, to be served in sequence. He was instructed to serve at the Attica Correctional Facility, New York supermax prison. Despite the objection of the prosecutor, the guilty plea of ​​Berkowitz made it eligible for conditional release within 25 years.
Retraction of claiming claims
Berkowitz stated at a press conference during February 1979 that the previous claim of demon possession was a hoax. Berkowitz stated in a series of meetings with David Abrahamsen's special court-appointed psychiatrist that he had long contemplated murder for revenge in a world he felt had rejected and hurt him. Berkowitz claims he feels very angry because of his lack of success with women, and thus chooses attractive young women as victims.
Prison life
After his arrest, Berkowitz was initially locked up in a psychiatric ward at Kings County Hospital where the staff reported that he looked very unaffected by his new surroundings. On the day after his sentence, he was taken first to Sing Sing prison and then to the Clinton State Penitentiary for psychiatric and physical examination. Two more months were spent at the New York Center for Psychiatry Center in Marcy before he entered the Attica jail. Berkowitz served about a decade in Attica until he was transferred (c 1990) to the Sullivan Prison Facility in Fallsburg, New York, where he stayed for many years until he was transferred to the Shawangunk Prison Facility. Berkowitz describes life in Attica as a "nightmare". In 1979, there was Berkowitz's life effort in which the left side of his neck was cut from front to back, resulting in wounds requiring more than fifty stitches to close. Berkowitz refused to identify the attacker, and he only claimed that he was grateful for the attack - it brought a sense of justice or, in Berkowitz's own words, "the punishment I deserve."
Conversion to the born-again Christian
In 1987, Berkowitz became an evangelical Christian in prison. According to his personal testimony, his moment of repentance occurred after reading Psalm 34: 6 of the Bible given to him by fellow inmates. He says he is no longer referred to as "Son of Sam" but "Son of Hope".
Parole hearings
Prior to her first parole trial in 2002, Berkowitz sent a letter to New York Governor George Pataki requesting to be canceled. He wrote, "To be honest, I believe that I am worthy of imprisonment for the rest of my life, I, with God's help, have long come to agree with my situation and I have accepted my punishment." Officials at the Sullivan facility should deny the case.
Berkowitz is entitled to a parole hearing every two years as mandated by state law, but he consistently refuses to ask for his release, occasionally skipping trial. In a 2016 hearing in Shawangunk, Berkowitz stated that while parole "is unrealistic," he feels he has mended himself behind bars, adding: "I feel I'm not at risk, anything." His lawyer, Mark Heller, notes that prison staff regard Berkowitz as an "exemplary prisoner", but the commissioner has once again refused parole.
Other activities
Immediately after his imprisonment, Berkowitz invited Malachi Martin, an exorcist, to help him write an autobiography, but the offer was not accepted. In recent years, Berkowitz developed his memoirs with the help of evangelical Christians. Her statement was released as an interview video, Son of Hope , in 1998, with a more extensive work released in book form, titled Son of Hope: The Prison Journals of David Berkowitz 2006). Berkowitz receives no royalties or profits from the sale of his works. He continues to write essays on faith and repentance for Christian sites. His official website is administered on behalf of church groups, as he is not authorized to access computers. Berkowitz remains involved with the prison ministry, and regularly advises the troubled prisoners. While at the Sullivan facility, he pursued his education and graduated with honors from Sullivan Community College.
During June 2005, Berkowitz sued one of his previous lawyers for misuse of a large number of letters, photographs and other personal items. Hugo Harmatz, a New Jersey lawyer, has represented Berkowitz in a previous legal effort to prevent the National Enquirer from buying one of his letters. Harmatz then published his own collection of letters and memorabilia - Dear David (2005) - which he obtained from Berkowitz during their consultations. Berkowitz declared that he would only drop the lawsuit if the lawyer signed all the money he made to the victim's family. In October 2006, Berkowitz and Harmatz left the court, with Harmatz agreeing to return the disputed items and donate a portion of the profits of his book to the New York State Crimes Victim.
Devil's evil claim
In 1979, Berkowitz sent a book about witchcraft to the police in North Dakota. He has underlined some parts and written some marginal notes, including the phrase: "Arliss [sic] Perry, Hunted, Stalked and Killed Followed to California Stanford University." The reference is to Arlis Perry, the newly married 19-year-old North Dakota who had been murdered at Stanford on October 12, 1974. His death, and his notorious cruel persecution in a Christian chapel on campus, is a widely reported case.. Berkowitz mentions Perry's attacks in other letters, indicating that he knows the details of the perpetrator himself. Investigators â € <â € After his admission to the Sullivan prison, Berkowitz began claiming he had joined the demon sect in the spring of 1975. In 1993, Berkowitz made this claim known when he announced to the press that he had only killed three Son of Sam victims. : Donna Lauria, Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani. In his revised version, Berkowitz said that other shooters were involved and that he fired the rifle only on the first attack (Lauria and Valenti) and the sixth (Esau and Suriani). He said that he and several other cult members were involved in every incident by plotting events, providing early surveillance of the victims, and acting as scouts and drivers at the scene. Berkowitz states that he can not divulge the names of most of his minions without putting his family directly in danger. Among his unnamed compatriots Berkowitz was a female cult member who he claimed fired at Denaro and Keenan, both of whom survived, Berkowitz said, because the accused handker was unfamiliar with the powerful retreat of the Bulldog.44. Berkowitz stated that "at least five" members of the cult were on the set of Freund-Diel, but the real shooter was a prominent sect who had been imported from outside New York with an unspecified motif - a member of the sect he identified with just his nickname " Manson II ". Another unnamed man was a gunman in the case of Moskowitz-Violante, a male cult member who arrived from North Dakota for the event, also without explanation. Berkowitz mentions two members of the cult: John and Michael Carr. The two men were the sons of Sam Carr's dog owners and they lived on Warburton Avenue nearby. These two other "Sam sons" have long been dead: John Carr was killed by a suicide shooting in North Dakota during 1978, and Michael Carr had been in a fatal car accident in 1979. Berkowitz claims that the real culprit of DeMasi-Lomino's shooting was John Carr, and he added that a Yonkers police officer, also a cult member, was involved in this crime. He claims that Michael Carr fired a shot at Lupo and Placido. Case reopened
Journalist John Hockenberry insists that, regardless of the devil's cult claims, many officials doubt the single-shooter theory, writes, "what most do not know about the Son of Sam's case is that from the beginning, not everyone bought the idea that Berkowitz acted alone." John Santucci, Queens District Attorney at the time of the murder, and police investigator Mike Novotny both expressed their belief that Berkowitz had accomplices. NYPD Officer Richard Johnson, involved in the initial investigation, argued that unresolved discrepancies in statements by surviving witnesses and survivors showed Berkowitz not acting alone: ​​"Why are there three [suspects] of cars, five different [suspect] descriptions, the altitude different, different shapes, different sizes of actors? There are others there. "
Other figures have voiced their beliefs in Satanic cults theory including Donna Lauria's father, and Carl Denaro who expressed his opinion that "more than one person was involved" but admitted he could not prove the theory of the cult. Denaro's conclusion lies in his criticism of Berkowitz's statement to the police as "completely wrong." John Diel's musings are that he physically rammed Berkowitz outside the Wine Gallery restaurant while he and Christine Freund went and walked to his car where the shootings took place; Berkowitz, on the other hand, told police he passed a few meters of Diel and Freund just before they entered the car. Diel argued that he and Freund had passed no one on the way to the car and further that the placement of parked cars by the side of the road would make it impossible for Berkowitz to smuggle them within minutes of meeting outside the restaurant and shooting in the car. Diel is thus the reason he was shot by someone other than Berkowitz.
The Hockenberry report itself was broadcast by network news and was given much exposure by Dateline NBC (2004). In it, he discusses another journalist, Maury Terry, who began investigating the shooting of Son of Sam before Berkowitz was arrested. Terry published a series of investigative articles in Gannett's newspaper in 1979 that challenged the official explanation of an armed man.
Rejected by police at the time, Terry's article was widely read and discussed; they were then collected in book form as The Ultimate Evil (1987; second edition expanded 1999). Much of it was driven by reports of minions and satanic cults, the Son of Sam case was reopened by Yonkers police during 1996, but no new charges were filed. Due to a lack of findings, the investigation was ultimately suspended but kept open.
Skeptic
Berkowitz's claim was dismissed by many people. Breslin rejected his account of the demonic demons, stating that "when they talked to David Berkowitz that night, he remembered it all step by step, that man had 1,000 percent of his memory and that's it, he was the man and there was no one else to see."
Skeptics include former FBI profiler John E. Douglas, who spent hours interviewing Berkowitz. He stated that he believes Berkowitz acted alone and was a "introverted loner, unable to engage in group activities." Harvey Schlossberg, a NYPD psychologist, stated in Against The Law, a documentary about the Son of Sam case, that he believed that Satan's evil claim was merely a fantasy that Berkowitz devised to free himself. of evil. In his book Hunting Humans (2001), Elliott Leyton argues that "recent journalistic efforts to shorten - or even refuse - Berkowitz's errors do not have any credibility."
The case at Yonkers was never put before the jury, nor Berkowitz had ever testified of Satan's cults claim under oath or had cross-examined his version of the events in the trial.
Legacy
Decades after his arrest, the name "Son of Sam" remains widely recognized as a famous serial killer. Many manifestations in popular culture have helped to perpetuate this notoriety, while Berkowitz himself continues to express remorse on Christian sites.
Neysa Moskowitz, who had not previously concealed his hatred of Berkowitz, wrote to him shortly before his own death in 2006, forgiving him for killing his daughter, Stacy.
Legal impact
After rampant speculation about a publisher offering Berkowitz a huge sum of money for his story, the New York State Legislature quickly passed a new law preventing convicted criminals (and their families) from obtaining financial benefits from books, films or other companies linked to stories about their crimes. The US Supreme Court overthrew the so-called "Son of Sam's law" for violating the First Amendment's right to express in 1991 Simon & amp; Schuster, Inc. v. Crime Victims Board, but New York produced a revised version of the constitutionally revised law the following year. Similar laws have been enacted in 41 states and at the federal level.
In popular culture
Jimmy Breslin, in collaboration with writer Dick Schaap, published a new story about the murder, .44 (1978), less than a year after Berkowitz's arrest. The fictional plot tells the exploits of the Berkowitz-based character dubbed "Bernard Rosenfeld". Outside North America, the book was renamed to Son of Sam . Young adult 2016 Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina was arranged in New York during 1977, and described how the fear of becoming one of Son of Sam's victims affected the daily lives of people.
Lee Spike's drama Summer of Sam was released in 1999 with actor Michael Badalucco in the role of Son of Sam. The film illustrates the growing tensions in the Bronx environment during the shootings, and the Berkowitz section is largely symbolic. As a minor character in the manuscript, it functions "mostly as a raging metaphor for Lee's view of the seventies as a period of immense excess". Berkowitz is reportedly distracted by the so-called exploitation of "the ugliness of the past". Other film portrayals of Berkowitz include the DVD release of Ulli Lommel Son of Sam (2008) and the CBS television film Out of the Darkness (1985). Son of Sam's character plays a significant minor role in The Bronx Is Burning miniseries (2007).
Son of Sam has been popular (and incorrectly) associated with the contemporary song "Psycho Killer" (1977) by Talking Heads. The compositions are more directly inspired by events including "Son of Sam" (1978) by The Dead Boys, "Son of Sam" by Chain Gang, and "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" (1989) by Beastie Boys. Guitarist Scott Putesky used the stage name "Daisy Berkowitz" while playing with Marilyn Manson in the 1990s, and the band's song Son of Man clearly described Berkowitz; several other rock musicians set up a complete ensemble called Son of Sam during the year 2000. The Berkowitz cartoon composite and the breakfast icons of Toucan Sam cereals are featured in the rock comedy video of Green JellÃÆ'¿ Cereal Killer (1992) under the name "Toucan Son of Sam ", but was later removed under the threat of a copyright suit by Kellogg Company.
See also
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
- Get up and Shine, official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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