Essay on David Berkowitz ”Son of Sam”

The background and small bio of David Berkowitz

 

American serial killer David Richard Berkowitz (born name: Richard David Falco, also known as the Son of Sam) was born on June 1, 1953, in Brooklyn, NY, USA.  David Berkowitz is considered to be one of the most famous US maniacs. He differs from many of his “colleagues” in that he committed the murders exclusively by means of a gun that is not typical of maniacs, and none of his victims were raped or dismembered.

As it was mentioned above, David Berkowitz was born on June 1, 1953 in Brooklyn. His mother, Betty Broder has been unfaithful to her husband, Italian-American Tony Falco with a married man, Joseph Kleinman, who gave her a condition for future meetings: to get rid of the child. Within a week of his birthday David became an adopted son of Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz who gave him their surname. David grew up in a warmth and understanding atmosphere. “He had a normal childhood in the Bronx with no clear warning signs of what was yet to come. Perhaps the most significant factor in his life was that he was a loner. His parents weren’t particularly socially oriented and neither was David” (Bardsley 18). In addition to this information, it is possible to add that he could not make a close relationship with the opposite sex.

Since childhood, he began to suffer from pyromania: set fire to more than 200 landfills and unoccupied buildings in New York City. At the same time he masturbated. David’s adoptive mother Pearl Berkowitz died from cancer when he was 14 years old. It was a real tragedy for David. In 1969 he and his stepfather moved in another part of New York – the Bronx. Nathan Berkowitz married a second time, but David did not like that. In June 1971 he enlisted in the army. But, contrary to his will, he was not sent to Vietnam, but to Korea. There, David lost his innocence and contracted gonorrhea, tried drugs and switched from Judaism to Christianity, which even preached. After serving three years in the army, David returned to his stepfather, who condemned him for the rejection of Judaism. Soon David began to live on his own. He decided to find his biological parents: made inquiries in the official office and found his native mother, who lived in Long Island. At the first meeting, both were overwhelmed by the stormy emotions, and soon David became a frequent guest at his mother’s house. In addition, he often visited his sister Roslyn and her family. Since February 1974, David lived in New Rochelle. Soon he moved out of his apartment and went to live in the town of Yonkers, where he settled on Pine Street and found work at the New York Post Office.



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