David Berkowitz

David Berkowitz was born as Richard David Falco His mother had him out of wedlock when she had an affair with a married realestate agent named Joseph Klineman Her husband Tony Falco had left her a few years before that His mother gave him up for adoption to Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz who named him David Berkowitz Chicago Being rejected by his birth mother caused David to develop an inferiority complex especially with women and thought he was unappealing to them He worked as a postman and a security guard In 1974 he heard voices in his head that ordered him to kill Berkowitz began to blame these voices on his neighbor Sam Carrs black Labrador that kept him up at night by its barking He would send hate letters to Carr and in April 1977 even shot and wounded the dog On July 29 1976 he killed his first official victim His modus operandi was to approach unsuspecting people late at night pull out a gun from a brown paper bag and shoot them at point blank range Most of his victims were couples necking in their cars or in a park late at night His female victims tended to be brunettes with long hair which caused a scare in parts of New York and had women blonding themselves and cutting their hair short to avoid being targeted Couples were also advised not to stay out late at night by the local authorities as the serial killings escalated They were all shot with a 44 caliber bulldog gun and hence his first nickname by the press 44 Caliber Killer Most crimes occurred in the boroughs of Bronx and Queens but other parts of the city felt the terror too The police task force for the case Operation Omega was formed Inside the car of one of the victims the police found a letter One was addressed to Cpt Joseph Borelli and another to NY columnist Jimmy Breslin June 1 1977 The killer identified himself as Sams and now the press had a new moniker Son of Sam The last SoS killing took place on July 31 1977 A witness had seen a young man David near the crime scene walking away with something tucked under his jacket He was observed removing a parking ticket from a yellow Ford Galaxie that had blocked a fire hydrant The police traced tickets in that area to Berkowitz address in Yonkers Inside the car they found a loaded 44 They waited for him and when he approached the car they arrested the pudgy unassuming postman He surrendered without a fight and confessed to being Son of Sam Though diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic he was found sane enough for trial On August 23 1977 he was sentenced to six life sentences