David Berkowitz

David Berkowitz, or the Son of Sam, created mayhem in New York when he killed multiple woman with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver. He did so in the time period of a little over a year and was caught and confessed in 1977. Ever since he has been serving his time in a penitentiary and has devoted himself to God. Yet, what drove him to this? Why did a young man with no major childhood problems become a vicious killer? Here we will use Giannangelo’s Diathesis/Stress Model of Serial Killing to try to explain David’s behaviour and his crimes. David Berkowitz was born in New York as Richard David Falco, but was renamed and raised by a middle class couple, Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz, who adopted him when he was very young. They had no prior children, and so, David grew up as an only child. His birth mother, Betty Falco, was persuaded to give David up when her husband left her, and her lover threatened to leave…

Background Information David Berkowitz was born on June 1, 1953 as Richard David Falco. Berkowitz’s parents were Betty Broder and Joseph Kleinman. Betty Broder was married to Tony Falco at the time the baby was born. When Tony Falco abandoned her, she had an affair with Joseph Kleinman. Becoming pregnant shortly after, Betty Broder was told by Tony Falco to get rid of the baby. She did not and she even listed Tony Falco as the father. Shortly after the birth, Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz adopted…

How to Profile a Serial Killer David Berkowitz was an infamous serial killer of the 1970s. He is also known as the “Son of Sam.” Berkowitz was a sociopathic, satanic serial killer. Serial killers must commit two or more murders in repeated incidents. He received commands from Satan to target single women and couples. Although he was adopted at birth, he believes he killed his mother and is carrying out these deeds by Satan as a punishment for killing his mother. David Berkowitz acted alone…

that fact that people were so afraid of him hurting someone else that they would do whatever he said. The Zodiac killer is responsible for at least 5 killings in the San Francisco area and there could certainly be more. In 2004 a representative of the San Francisco police department said that the Zodiac case had been placed in an inactive status, which basically means that since there was no evidence linking anyone to the case the killer got away with his crimes. There had been a vast amount of…

individual from obtaining high levels of aggression (Hernandez et al., 2015). This gene originates in the X chromosome. Low levels of MAOA make it hard for an individual to resist inflicting physical and psychological damage to another, while individuals with high MAOA allows the individual to stop. One commonly known serial killer that has been related to the nature side is David Berkowitz, better known as the Son of Sam. David was raised in a loving and supported environment provided by his…

Serial Killers: Born or Bred to Kill? Criminals like Charles Manson can attribute their sadistic nature from a childhood of neglect and abuse, whereas serial killers like David Berkowitz – who grew up in a healthy, supportive family – have no justifiable reason for their actions, other than their own desire to kill. Unfortunately, both types of men infamously manifested their destinies into become the human incarnation of the Grim Reaper himself. There have been numerous studies conducted in…

cases siblings. Harold Schechter, an author of numerous true crime literature, explained how a victim of child abuse can turn into a serial killer: “Having been tortured by his earliest caretakers he will, in later life, seek to inflict torture on others, partly as a way of taking revenge, partly because he has been so psychologically warped by his experiences that he can only feel pleasure by inflicting pain-and, in the most extreme cases, only feel alive when he is causing death” (251).…

David Berkowitz, also known as the Son of Sam, is a serial killer who is well known for terrorizing young couples of New York. He began his series of shootings in the summer of 1976, and by July 1977 he had killed six victims and wounded seven others. Berkowitz followed a way of doing things, also known as a modus operandi (M.O.), by leaving bizarre letters at crime scenes which mocked the police and promised further crimes. His M.O. was what eventually led to him being captured and convicted of…

The word snuffles is synonymous with the action of sniffling and snivelling, meaning the sharp intake of breath or mucous which results in an audible sound. This word is supposedly not a commonly known English word, and is often replaced by its more common synonym “sniffling”. Originating from the Dutch word “snuffelen”, the word originally meant “to sniff about, pry”, which is similar to its modern day definition. To be more specific, the modern day definition of the term snuffling refers…

There have certainly been cases where nature does not seem to play a role. There was a case, named David Berkowitz. He was a polite individual, and by appearances, his environment had appeared to be “normal”. It has been said that there are no warning signs of any serial killer tendencies found within Berkowitz and that his parents were great parents. However, people in his neighborhood had noticed that Berkowitz would eventually garner into a person who would release streaks of violence. Many…