David Berkowitz

David Berkowitz, aka Son of Sam and The .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer who was active for roughly a year between 1976 and 1977.

Background
David Richard Berkowitz was born the son of Betty Broder, who was having an affair with the married Joseph Kleinman. Broder herself was married to one Anthony Salvo at the time. Before David was even a week old, he was put up for adoption. He was placed in the care of hardware store owners Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz, who changed his name to David Richard Berkowitz in order gave him a normal upbringing. Being large for his age, David often felt different and unattractive. He was hyperactive, difficult for his adoptive parents to control and enjoyed playing baseball. Later, the Berkowitzes moved in order to get away from the changing neighbourhood they lived in, but Pearl died of breast cancer in the fall of 1967. After that, David began deteriorating, his average grades declining and his religious beliefs wavering. In 1971, he joined the U.S. Army and served in the U.S. and South Korea. He left it in 1974 and held down a number of blue-collar jobs. At one point, he was reunited with his birth mother and learned the details of his conception. Greatly disturbed by this knowledge, he eventually stopped seeing her, but remained in touch with his half-sister, Roslyn. At the time of his arrest, he was working for the U.S. Postal Service.

History
During the period of the summer of 1976 to the summer of 1977, Berkowitz is believed to have shot a total of 13 people, 6 of which died from their injuries. He also wrote two letters to the New York Police Department in which he described himself as a monster and taunted them for not being able to catch him. In both letters he referred to himself as "Son of Sam", which later became Berkowitz's official nickname. Shortly after the Moskowitz-Violante shooting, Cacilia Davis, a woman living near the crime scene saw Berkowitz remove a parking ticket from his car. Two days later, she came forward as a witness. He was later arrested on August 10, 1977 when coming out of his apartment. When the police looked through his apartment, they found Satanic graffiti on the walls and a diary in which he claimed responsibility for several arsons. During questioning, Berkowitz claimed the name "Son of Sam" referred to his former neighbour, Sam Carr, who owned a labrador which he claimed had instructed him to kill people. During the trial, he kept chanting at a low, but audible volume "Stacy was a whore", presumably referring to Stacy Moskowitz, his last murder victim. Berkowitz is currently serving time at the Sullivan Correctional Facility for his six murders as well as his attempted murders.

Modus Operandi
Berkowitz's weapon of choice was a .44 Special Charter Arms Bulldog revolver. It holds five rounds and is designed for close-quarter combat. Most of the shootings were blitz attacks, although he did sometimes use ruses to disguise his original intent, such as during the Lauria-Valenti shooting when he concealed the gun in a paper bag and the DeMasi-Lomino shooting when he approached them asking for directions. His victims varied in age, race and socio-economic class, but were usually couples in their late teens seated in cars. He would also masturbate at the crime scenes after the murders.

Profile
While he was still active, Berkowitz was profiled as being a paranoid schizophrenic believing himself to be the victim of demonic possession. He later admitted in an interview conducted by FBI veteran Robert Ressler in prison that he had pretended to be insane to get a lighter punishment and that he actually killed them out of resentment towards his mother and contempt for women in general. His M.O. suggests that he was highly disorganized, using blitz attacks and leaving victims alive.

Confirmed Victims

 * July 29 1976: Donna Lauria (killed) and Jody Valenti (survived)
 * November 26 1976: Donna DeMasi and Joanne Lomino (both survived)
 * January 30 1977: Christine Freund (killed) and John Diel (survived)
 * March 8 1977: Virginia Voskerichian (killed)
 * April 17 1977: Alexander Esau and Valentina Suriani (both killed)
 * June 26 1977: Sal Lupo and Judy Placido (both survived)
 * July 31 1977: Stacy Moskowitz (killed) and Robert Violante (survived)

Criminal Minds Comparison
Berkowitz may have been part of the inspiration for George Foyet as they both attacked couples in their cars and used .44 revolvers. The primary difference is that Berkowitz was clearly disorganized and attacked people in the city using blitz attacks while Foyet was highly organized and attacked people on empty highway roads after using some sort of ruse to get them to lower their guard. When the New York Terrorist Cell was believed to be a single serial shooter, their M.O. was compared to that of Berkowitz's in the sense that they both used firearms and attacked people at random.