Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} A David Berkowitz Son of SamSon of Hope by Stephen Cender Sinister Saturday: The odd story of David Berkowitz. Another story involving a serial killer, but this week we focus on one that was rumoured to be the fault of a posessed dog. Berkowitz's mugshots / Picture Credit: A& on YouTube. Who is David Berkowitz? David Berkowitz in an American serial-killer born in in 1953. He six people between 1976 and 1977. Berkowitz’s crimes led to one of the biggest City (NYC) manhunts in the city’s history, and caused a mass panic within the area as many citizens feared for their lives. The oddest part about this case is no doubt the reasoning Berkowitz gave for killing – he claimed he was being ordered to murder by a - possessed dog… Later on in the investigation into his crimes, Berkowitz became known as ‘Son of Sam’. This is because Berkowitz stated (after his arrest) that his neighbour Sam Carr was commanding him to kill, and communicating these orders through his demon-possessed Labrador, Harvey. Early life and military service. Berkowitz was adopted by a Jewish-American couple, Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz, when he was just days old. Berkowitz was very close with his mother, and when she passed away when he was a teenager, he found it very difficult to deal with. At 18 years old, Berkowitz enlisted in the U.S Army and served in – he turned out to be quite the skilled marksman. He finished his military service in 1974 and returned to NYC, where he obtained a job with the U.S Postal Service as a letter sorter. Berkowitz found an apartment in Yokers. However, neighbours and co-workers would say that he was a loner and kept himself to himself – hardly surprising since we are talking about a serial killer. The ‘Son of Sam’ appears. Berkowitz’s rampage began in 1976 when he attacked two teenage girls, Jody Valenti and Donna Lauria in . He shot at the girls who were sat in Valenti’s parked car – killing Lauria and injuring Valenti. Not long after his first kill, Berkowitz was at it again. He shot a couple, again in a parked car, resulting in massive injury to the man’s skull. Berkowitz also shot at another pair of teenage girls, this time while they were on their way home. One girl was unfortunately left paraplegic. Police had yet to connect these shootings together, not realising that they were related. Another attack occurred in 1977 in which Christine Freund and her fiancé were shot at – Christine was shot in the head twice, evidently this proved fatal. Berkowitz left a clue for the Police, seemingly unbeknown to him; he used the same .44 caliber gun in all the shootings. At this time, police now seemed to be connecting all the and were now facing the idea that they were tackling a serial killer. Berkowitz struck again when he murdered another young woman, this time on her way home from class. A month or so later, Berkowitz attacked another couple, Valentina Suriani and her partner Alexander Esau while in their car. This murder was different, however, as Berkowitz left a note, addressed to NYPD captain Joseph Borrelli – calling himself the Son of Sam for the first time. He left many letters at the scenes of his murders which led to widespread media coverage. This then instigated a panic among NYC citizens as everyone lived in fear of being Berkowitz’s next victim. Berkowitz’s last hit occurred in July of 1977 when he shot Stacy Moscowitz and Bobby Violante. Moskowitz was killed, and Violante was blinded in one eye and lost most of his vision in the other due to his injuries. The arrest of Berkowitz. Thankfully, during Berkowitz’s last hit there was a witness who saw something pertinent to the investigation. The witness saw a man fleeing from the scene in a car, a car with a parking ticket on it. Only a handful of tickets were handed out that day – one of them belonging to Berkowitz. On the 10th August 1977, Berkowitz was arrested. According to , Berkowitz said “Well, you’ve got me” while being taken into custody. Sentencing and demon-dog claim. After many psychological evaluations, due to his outlandish claim regarding a demon dog telling him to murder, Berkowitz was declared ‘competent’ to stand trial. The year following his arrest in 1978, Berkowitz pled guilty to all six killings and around 1500 fires he had set in and around NYC. He received 25-years-to-life for each murder. Berkowitz’s trial got a bit heated, as he attempted to jump out of the window of the seventh-floor courtroom after hearing the judge’s ruling. Since his arrest, Berkowitz has retracted his story about a possessed dog telling him to kill as per the order of his neighbour, Sam Carr. Berkowitz claimed that this was “all a hoax, a silly hoax” in a letter to his psychiatrist, Doctor David Abrahamsen. Berkowitz also made declarations that he had been part of a that aided him in carrying out the murders, and fellow members John and Michael Carr (Sam Carr’s sons) abetted him in this. During his time in prison, Berkowitz has been offered large amounts of money to share his story. Since then, however, nearly every state (including NYC) passed a law (sometimes known as ‘Son of Sam’ laws) that prevent convicted criminals from profiting financially from books, films or other enterprises relating to their crimes. Berkowitz himself has since turned Christian, and prefers to be called Son of Hope rather than Son of Sam, as seen in his book Son of Hope: The Prison Journals of David Berkowitz (2006) . This is even featured on a website run by his supporters. In both the book and on the website, Berkowitz provides an apology to the victims and their families. In prison, he continues to write journal essays on faith and repentance… Berkowitz is currently still serving his sentences at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill, NY. Written by Melissa, who you can follow on Twitter @melissajournal. A Serial Killer: David Berkowitz: Son of Sam/Son of Hope by Stephen Cender. Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. What can I do to prevent this in the future? If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. You may need to download version 2.0 now from the Chrome Web Store. Cloudflare Ray ID: 6591ed0b6bb50d46 • Your IP : 188.246.226.140 • Performance & security by Cloudflare. The Untold Truth Of Son Of Sam. David Berkowitz wasn't the most prolific serial killer, nor the most creative. And yet he managed to put almost every living person in into a state of sheer terror during the so-called "" in 1976. Killing people seemingly at random and sending insane letters to the police and the press, Berkowitz was initially labeled the .44 Caliber Killer by the press, referring to the gun he used. But when the police found a letter left near one of his victims in which Berkowitz called himself the Son of Sam — Sam apparently being an ancient spirit possessing the body of his neighbor's dog and commanding him to kill — Berkowitz had a new, terrifying name and persona. Sentenced to six consecutive life sentences totaling 547 years, Berkowitz has survived attempts to murder him in prison and remains among the living, though he'll likely never see the outside again. At the time, Son of Sam seemed to encapsulate the violent decline of large cities like New York, the sense that the center could not hold and that everything was spinning into chaos. But his legacy haunts us all today, whether we realize it or not. Here's the untold truth of Son of Sam. Son of Sam killed six people between 1976 and 1977. The 1970s are further in the past than they sometimes seem — it's been more than 40 years since Son of Sam terrorized New York City. The reason his name still inspires fear and unease is because of the atmosphere in New York at the time and the way he approached the business of serial murder. As noted by the , New York City in 1976 was in grim shape. It had seen 1,800 murders in 1975 alone, and economically, it was in shambles — the Daily News' infamous "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD" headline came in October of that year after the president stated he would veto any federal aid for the struggling city. And just a year later, the devastating blackout of 1977 would bring chaos to New York. David Berkowitz, a lonely, mentally unstable young man, lived alone in Yonkers. Delusional and violent, he was tormented by the urge to hurt people, especially women. Beginning in 1976, he began giving in to those urges and killed five women and one man (Donna Lauria, Christine Freund, Virginia Voskerichian, Valentina Suriani, Alexander Esau, and Stacy Moskowitz) over the course of 12 months. As Oxygen notes, the casually random attacks combined with the terrifying name "Son of Sam" sent the city into a panic. There was a sense that anyone could be shot to death, anywhere, at any time. Son of Sam had a type. David Berkowitz was one of those chatty serial killers who enjoyed spreading fear — and tormenting the police. During his year-long rampage, Berkowitz left rambling, deranged letters at the scenes of several of his crimes and sent letters to the police and to journalists, offering bizarre pronouncements and terrifying details. As the investigation stretched on for weeks and months without result, a real sense of panic settled on the city. As History.com notes, when one of Berkowitz's victims was killed when leaving a Queens disco, people stopped going out to restaurants and nightclubs, leaving them desolate and empty at the height of the disco craze. And as Esquire reports, when the fact that Berkowitz targeted young women with long, dark hair was publicized, it resulted in a spike in wig sales as women scrambled to avoid Son of Sam's preferred victim profile. When wigs weren't an option, many women opted to cut their hair or simply dye it in order to feel safe. The pressure to end the city's collective nightmare became so insistent that the New York Police Department launched what The New York Times describes as "the largest manhunt in New York City history up to that time." Son of Sam might not have acted alone. When David Berkowitz was arrested for the Son of Sam murders on August 10, 1977, it seemed very clear that these horrific crimes were the work on a single deranged individual. Berkowitz was found with the murder weapon in his possession, confessed to the crimes almost immediately, and offered zero alternative explanations to the evidence against him. But as Rolling Stone reports, some people don't think Berkowitz acted alone. Journalist Maury Terry published a book in 1987 that claimed Berkowitz was part of a larger cult — and that there were other "Sons of Sam" out there who were never caught. As New York Magazine explains, Terry believes Berkowitz suffered from crushing loneliness, and an invitation to take part in a ceremony with the Process Church of the Final Judgment — a satanic cult that Oxygen tells us had connections to Charles Manson — brought him into their clutches. Berkowitz supposedly leaned into the cult pretty hard, engaging in and animal sacrifice — and eventually committing murders on the cult's orders. What's really crazy about this theory is that there's some reason to believe it. Several people suspected to have been part of the cult died mysteriously shortly after Berkowitz's arrest, and even one of the district attorneys working the case in 1977 believed Berkowitz acted with partners. Some believe the police pushed the "lone gunman" theory because they feared the city was on the edge of total panic and wanted to close the case quickly. Son of Sam claimed his neighbor's dog ordered him to kill. Chances are no matter your age or background, you're familiar with the name "Son of Sam" and probably know to associate it with a terrifying serial killer. But why was a guy named David called Son of Sam? Trust us when we say the explanation will make you no less terrified. As New York Magazine explains, Berkowitz was initially called the .44 Caliber Killer by the press due to the ammunition he used in the killings. But when Berkowitz left a crazy, rambling letter behind with one of his victims in which he wrote in part, "I am a monster. I am the 'Son of Sam.' . Sam loves to drink blood. 'Go out and kill' commands father Sam," he received his new name. As Oxygen notes, things got even stranger when Berkowitz was arrested. In explaining the name, Berkowitz claimed that Sam was the name of a 6,000-year-old spirit possessing a neighbor's dog. Sam commanded him to kill, communicating through the dog. This explanation did not exactly make anyone feel better about David Berkowitz. But as The New York Times reports, Berkowitz later retracted the story and admitted he'd made it up. He claimed he was trying to ruin a deal his former lawyers were putting together for a book and film about his crimes, and in the hopes of convincing court-appointed psychiatrists that he was unfit to stand trial — which he almost succeeded in doing. Son of Sam was probably also a prolific arsonist. When you think of David Berkowitz and Son of Sam, you obviously think of a mentally disturbed serial killer who terrorized New York City for a year between 1976 and 1977. But Berkowitz was more than just a killer — he was a one-man wrecking crew apparently determined to destroy the city he called home. For years, someone had been setting fires in the Bronx in New York City — in untended brush, in abandoned cars, even in empty buildings. And according to the The New York Times, there's reason to believe the arsonist dubbed the "Phantom of the Bronx" was actually Berkowitz. When police arrested Berkowitz for the Son of Sam murders, they also searched his apartment and recovered several diaries that Berkowitz kept. The diaries were key pieces of evidence at his trial for the six murders he committed, but they also kept detailed records of fires he set, the weather conditions, and fire-box numbers. The diaries detail more than 1,400 fires Berkowitz is suspected of starting — and he may have been responsible for as many as 2,000 blazes before switching his energies to murder. Ironically, Berkowitz was at one point a volunteer fireman in New York City as well. The Army trained Son of Sam to use a gun. If you're going to go around shooting people, it's a good idea to get some training on how to use firearms. And there's no better place to get that training than in the United States military — which is exactly what David Berkowitz did. According to Britannica, six years before he killed his first victim, Berkowitz enlisted in the Army. The Washington Post reports that Berkowitz joined up on June 23, 1971, and served three years, including a one-year assignment in South Korea. His record is mixed. On the one hand, he qualified as a sharpshooter on the M-16 rifle and was described as an excellent marksman by superiors who had no way of knowing how he would apply those skills in the coming years. He also earned two awards — the National Defense Service Medal and the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. On the other hand, he was demoted to private first class while serving in South Korea when he did a poor job working with a convoy, though he was later promoted back to his previous rank, specialist 4. According to CBS News, he was given an honorable discharge in 1974. A cult has grown up around Son of Sam. David Berkowitz is clearly a man dealing with mental problems — according to History.com, Berkowitz was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, which surprised no one. That doesn't reduce the enormity of his crimes, but at least it offers a rational explanation for them. Since his incarceration, however, Berkowitz has changed. As Esquire reports, the serial killer has converted to Christianity and traded the name "Son of Sam" for "Son of Hope." Not only does he blame his crimes on his interest in the occult and his decision to serve Satan, but he ministers to his fellow inmates. The transformation is even more dramatic than you think. New York Magazine reports that Berkowitz believes he's literally battling Satan — and believes he has the advantage because he's so well-versed in Satan's tricks. He gives inspirational speeches to fellow prisoners in which he declares that he's "heaven-bound and shouting victory." In fact, Berkowitz has become a cult figure for certain Christians who view him as the ultimate proof that even the worst, most evil people can be saved. They believe God and Satan are literally fighting over Berkowitz's soul and regard him as a kind of apostle or modern prophet. They send him gifts and have established long-term relationships with him through the mail. Son of Sam changed the laws. It's clear that David Berkowitz was a lonely, unwell man. History.com reminds us he was officially diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, and his life before his killing spree is the story of a man with no friends and little social contact. So it's no surprise that Berkowitz loved the attention he received as the notorious Son of Sam — even if he had to enjoy it in secret. He reveled in the attention and did everything he could to make it last, sending letters that expertly churned the news cycle. This need for attention didn't end when he was arrested: Berkowitz gave interviews, and several publishers and newspapers had plans to pay exorbitant amounts for exclusive interviews or book deals. He was a hot property, and there was every reason to believe he would be amenable to those offers, since he continued to enjoy the attention from prison. Rolling Stone reports that the threat of Berkowitz getting rich from the murder of six innocent people prompted the New York State Legislature to pass the so-called . This law prohibited criminals from profiting from their crimes. As noted by Esquire, several other states have followed suit with similar laws, and it can all be traced back to Berkowitz. The tabloids made the legend. In many ways, Son of Sam was our first truly modern serial killer — certainly the Summer of Sam changed how the press treated criminals like him. As Rolling Stone details, the tabloid newspapers in New York City, the Daily News and the (recently purchased by Rupert Murdoch), engaged in a battle of sensationalism over the serial killer. Headlines screamed out every new development, and the newspapers battled for every scrap of new information — and drove some dangerous rumors through sloppy journalism. The papers received lots of horrified criticism — but they sold a lot of copies. Even after Berkowitz's arrest, the tabloids continued to milk the case in ways that had never been done before. Reporters were arrested breaking into Berkowitz's apartment, hoping to ransack it for story fodder. The New York Post published love letters a younger Berkowitz had written to an old girlfriend, framing them under the headline "How I Became a Mass Killer." In fact, the tabloid coverage of the murders elevated Berkowitz and, in some ways, made him the legend he is today instead of a violent footnote. The story irrevocably changed how the press approached sensational events like this. The investigation was poorly handled. It took the New York City Police Department (NYPD) a year to catch David Berkowitz. This wasn't because he was an evil genius. It was because the NYPD — the entire city, really — was in rough shape. As detailed by The New Yorker, 1975 had been a nearly disastrous year for New York City, a year in which it came about as close to bankruptcy as a city can get without actually collapsing. The city had to resort to some pretty severe measures to keep the lights on, including massive rounds of layoffs of city employees — including, as The Guardian notes, thousands of police officers. Battered by budget cuts and layoffs, the NYPD simply wasn't equipped to deal with a serial killer. As Time reports, many mistakes were made. The sketches of the killer the police prepared from survivors of Berkowitz's attacks were laughably bad and looked absolutely nothing like the killer. And Berkowitz's apparently random and casual manner of choosing his victims frustrated attempts to create a predictive profile. And while the tabloid newspapers made Son of Sam out to be a nightmarish force of evil, the sporadic nature of his crimes made him very difficult to catch. Son of Sam pretty much caught himself. With the underfunded and understaffed NYPD struggling and the whole city reeling in terror, it's conceivable that David Berkowitz could have gone on killing people for much longer. What ultimately stopped him was his own behavior. As noted by Time, he had a habit of harassing his neighbors, including writing threatening, anonymous letters which matched the tone and style of the letters Son of Sam sent to the newspapers. He even shot a neighbor's dog — using the same gun he used to murder his victims. It was almost as if Berkowitz was daring the universe to catch him. As noted by Britannica, all of this had made Berkowitz a person of interest in the investigation, but the police had no hard evidence. Dutifully, Berkowitz gave them some. When a woman who lived near the site of Berkowitz's final murder remembered seeing a car receiving a parking ticket shortly before the murder, the police checked Berkowitz's registration information against parking tickets — amazingly, he'd used his own car, a 1970 Ford Galaxie, to drive to and from his murders and hadn't even made any attempt to obscure his identity (with stolen license plates, for example). The police quickly moved to arrest him, and he confessed shortly after. David Berkowitz invented the Son of Sam legend. There's no doubt that David Berkowitz was pretty disturbed, and he initially seemed poised to use his mental state as an excuse. As History.com reports, Berkowitz entered an insanity plea at first, and he was examined by several court-appointed psychiatrists in an attempt to determine whether he was fit to stand trial or not. His story of being commanded to kill by an ancient spirit inhabiting a neighbor's dog — the infamous Sam — seemed to confirm he was pretty crazy. But when the trial officially began, Berkowitz changed his tune and pleaded guilty to all six murders. He admitted that he'd invented the Son of Sam business and seemed to have every intention of selling his story to publishers and filmmakers for huge sums. As noted by Psychology Today, psychiatric professionals today believe Berkowitz enjoyed the fame and the power he had to terrorize the city — and that he purposefully created the "Son of Sam" legend to promote himself. That doesn't mean he's sane — no one who did what Berkowitz is guilty of could be described as sane — but it does mean he knew what he was doing. He understood the consequences of his actions, and thus, he deserves to serve every year of his 547-year sentence. The Letters That Left New Yorkers Terrified of the 'Son of Sam' N ew Yorkers are marking a grim milestone on Thursday: 40 years since the serial killer David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz was arrested for terrorizing the city with his signature .44-caliber revolver in a crime spree that ran between the summer of 1976 — also known as the “Summer of Sam” — and into 1977. It left six dead and seven wounded. And while many killers might be expected to lay as low as possible, what particularly terrified city residents was the brazen way the Army vet and postal-service worker drew attention to himself. He wrote letters to police detectives and the acclaimed New York City tabloid columnist , including one that said he “can’t stop killing.” Four decades later, they still have the potential to scare: New Yorkers were desperately trying to make sense of his targets. “If terrorists might well pose a greater potential danger to more people, there was much more apprehension of the threat of random shots in the dark from the lone gunman,” as TIME described his reign of terror. “He has haunted lovers’ lanes, attacked couples coming from strobe-lighted discotheques, even opened fire at a pair of girls on a house porch and shot another as he passed her on a street.” Get our History Newsletter. Put today's news in context and see highlights from the archives. Thank you! Women flooded the police tip line, hitting up the call center with 100 calls an hour, TIME reported. A police official told the magazine, “Women are naming their husbands, their ex-boyfriends. People are calling in about their co-workers.” Women with long brown hair were advised to either get shorter haircuts, bleach their hair, or wear it in a ponytail when it was noticed that he was targeting women with a certain look, TIME reported in 1977. Parents also insisted their daughters have their dates at home, while some girls just decided to dress in baggy clothing or skip dating altogether until cops caught the killer. Police caught Berkowitz on Aug. 10, 1977, after finding a parking ticket that traced his getaway car to his home address. He was arrested right before his plans to terrorize a Hamptons nightclub and “go down in a blaze of glory.” He pled guilty in 1978. He later admitted that the nickname he gave himself in the letters, “Son of Sam,” was inspired by a dog that belonged to his neighbor Sam Carr, and his belief that the dog told him to kill. He later became a born-again Christian who re-named himself “Son of Hope.” Christian Today. You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. 'Son of Sam' serial killer who became Christian behind bars says his name is now 'Son of Hope' 'Son of Sam' David Berkowitz now wants to be known as the 'Son of Hope' The summer of 1976 to the following July of 1977 is a time many New Yorkers still haven't forgotten as it was the time that a serial killer was on the loose, picking off his victims with a shotgun or knife and taunting police with mocking letters as they hunted him down. That serial killer was 'Son of Sam,' a name that still sends chills down many New Yorkers' spines. Real name David Berkowitz, he was eventually caught after a massive manhunt but not before six people were dead and several others seriously injured. His victims were mostly young women and he was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty in May 1978. 'Son of Sam' was the nickname he gave himself as he claimed during his trial that a demon had spoken to him through his neighbor's dog called Sam and told him to carry out the murders. In a new interview with CBS News, Berkowitz said there was a 'battle going on inside of me' and that he thought he 'was doing something to appease the devil.' 'I'm sorry for it,' he said. Astonishingly, Berkowitz has told of a most amazing transformation behind bars from someone who walked 'in darkness' to a follower of Jesus Christ. At one time he might have revelled in his fame as a serial killer, but now he says he hates the name 'Son of Sam' and prefers to go by the name 'Son of Hope.' He looks back on his former self as exactly that - his old self before he became a born again Christian while serving his sentence in prison. 'As far as I'm concerned, that was not me,' Berkowitz said during the CBS News interview. 'That was not me. Even the name, I hate that name, I despise the name.' Asked what message he would give to his younger self if he could, he said he would tell him 'turn around before it's too late because destruction is coming. 'People will never understand where I come from, no matter how much I try to explain it,' he said. 'They wouldn't understand what it was like to walk in darkness.' Minister Roxanne Tauriello, who is one of Berkowitz's frequent visitors in prison, told People that he 'grieves' over what he did but at the same time 'does not want to get out of prison' because 'he knows he deserved to die and deserves to be exactly where he is.' Now Berkowitz just wants to warn young people who are 'on the road to destruction' to choose a different way. 'One of his ministries is to reach out to young people to show them the consequences of [their] actions,' said Tauriello.