![]() ![]() īerkowitz's adoptive mother died of breast cancer when he was 14 years old, : 18 and his home life became strained in later years, particularly because he disliked his adoptive father's second wife. He attended Public School #123 and Public School #77. His adoptive parents consulted at least one psychotherapist due to his misconduct, but his misbehavior never resulted in a legal intervention or serious mention in his school records. Neighbors and relatives would recall Berkowitz as difficult, spoiled, and a bully. Although of above-average intelligence, he lost interest in his education at an early age and became infatuated with petty larceny and starting fires. Journalist John Vincent Sanders wrote that Berkowitz's childhood was "somewhat troubled". They reversed the order of the boy's first and middle names and gave him their own surname, raising the young David Richard Berkowitz as their only child. : 16 The Jewish American couple were hardware store retailers of modest means, and childless in middle age. The infant Richard was adopted by Pearl and Nathan Berkowitz of the Bronx. : 76–9 After a marriage of less than four years, Falco left her for another woman. Prior to meeting Klineman, in 1936, she had married Tony Falco, an Italian American. Broder had grown up as part of an impoverished Jewish family and was working as a waitress. : 76, 81 Although her reasons for giving Richard away are unknown, : 81 writers have surmised that Klineman threatened to abandon her if she kept the baby and used his name. : 80 Broder had started a relationship three years previously with a married man named Joseph Klineman, who became Richard's biological father. : 73 Within a few days of his birth, his biological mother, Elizabeth "Betty" Broder, gave the child away. A new investigation of the murders began in 1996 but was suspended indefinitely after inconclusive findings.ĭavid Berkowitz was born Richard David Falco on June 1, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York. During the mid-1990s, Berkowitz, by then professing to be a converted evangelical Christian, amended his confession to claim that he had been a member of a violent Satanic cult that orchestrated the incidents as ritual murder. The statutes have remained in New York despite various legal challenges, and similar laws have been enacted in several other states. The New York State Legislature enacted new statutes, known popularly as " Son of Sam laws", designed to keep criminals from financially profiting from the publicity created by their crimes. Intense media coverage of the case lent a kind of celebrity status to Berkowitz, which many observers noted that he seemed to enjoy. In police investigations, Berkowitz was also implicated in many unsolved arsons in the city. He subsequently admitted that the dog-and-devil story was a hoax. After being found mentally competent to stand trial, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences in state prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. He confessed to all of them, and initially claimed to have been obeying the orders of a demon manifested in the form of a black dog belonging to his neighbor, "Sam". ![]() Berkowitz eluded the biggest police manhunt in the city's history while leaving letters that mocked the police and promised further crimes, which were highly publicized by the press.īerkowitz was arrested on August 10, 1977, and subsequently indicted for eight shootings. 44 Special caliber Bulldog revolver, he killed six people and wounded seven others by July 1977, terrorizing New Yorkers and gaining worldwide notoriety. Berkowitz grew up in New York City and served in the United States Army. ![]() ![]() 44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer who pleaded guilty to eight shootings that began in New York City on July 29, 1976. David Richard Berkowitz (born Richard David Falco, June 1, 1953), also known as the Son of Sam and the. ![]()
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