David Berkowitz, the .44 caliber killer

On Christmas Eve 1975, David Berkowitz was determined to kill. He had noticed a 14-year-old girl who was skating on the ice rink with her friends. When the young woman was on her way to her house, he approached her and stabbed her several times. However, thanks to the good fortune of wearing a strong and slippery coat, the victim managed to escape from it.

David had held back a rage inside him that was about to break out. That night a new serial killer had been born.

Childhood and adolescence

David Berkowitz was born on June 1, 1953 in New York (United States). His real name was Richard David Falco. His mother gave him up for adoption to the marriage formed by Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz, due to her second husband’s refusal to have more children.

Since he was little, he felt different from others. He was a shy child with a great capacity for lying. Furthermore, he was not a good student and had few social relationships. At only 14 years old, David would lose his adoptive mother, who died from cancer.

David Berkowitz’s personality was becoming more and more complex, to which were added feelings of loneliness and social rejection. When his adoptive father decides to get married four years after the death of his deceased wife, David will undergo an even more radical change in the way he is and behaves.

Enlistment in the army

David Berkowitz decides to enlist in the army, and he is assigned to Korea for three years, where he receives extensive military training and also becomes a professional marksman. In the year 1974 he will return, but nothing will be like before, what was once his home will have become something distant and strange for which he did not feel longing.

Due to arguments and bad relationship with his father, decides to become independent and move to his own apartment in another area of ​​the Bronx.

At that time decides to look for his biological parents, and manages to find his sister Rosalyn, and his mother. He will reunite with Rosalyn, but as time goes by, David will distance himself from her. During that time, he will commit the first attack.

The “Son of Sam”

When For the first time, he attacked a girl who was on her way home with a knife without achieving his intention to kill her. He realized that the encounter had been too physical for his liking. The next time it would be simpler: he would use a very specific revolver, a 44 caliber Bulldog.

David Berkowitz’s indiscriminate attacks

On July 29, 1976, he approached two girls, Donna and Jody, aged 18 and 19 respectively, who were saying goodbye on the street. She was carrying a brown paper bag and inside it was her revolver, she took it out and Without saying a word he shot them both. None survived.

The police considered the possibility that the mafia was behind the murder, since at that time in the northern Bronx area Italian families predominated and it was not unusual to find scores settled.

However, this first hypothesis was discarded and A first robotic portrait of David Berkowitz appeared in the media: white man, dark hair, normal complexion, between 25 and 32 years old and 1.80 m tall.

On October 23 he would perform again. Rosemary Keenan and Carl Denaro, ages 18 and 20, respectively, were sitting in her car when David Berkowitz approached them and shot them five times through the window.. The recoil of the weapon ruined his aim, so Carl suffered minor injuries and Rosemary did not suffer a single scratch.

On November 27, he approached Donna DeMasi and Joanne Lomino, two teenagers, ages 16 and 18, respectively, and the attack was similar. In this case, one of the shots pierced Donna’s neck, but it was not serious. On the other hand, one of Joanne’s shots pierced her spine and left her confined to a wheelchair for life. A neighbor saw how David fled and it was after this attack that they linked him to the first one he had committed..

The next would occur two months later, ending the life of 26-year-old Christine Freund. When the ballistics unit purchases the projectiles, They verified the coincidence: they all came from a 44 caliber Bulldog revolver.

Seeking attention

Finally, following the same modus operandi, he would end the life of Virginia Voskerichian, and also that of the couple formed by Valentina Suriani and Alexander Esau. In this last shooting, also He left a letter addressed to the person in charge of the case, Joe Borelli. It was his first contact with the police.

Between incoherent ramblings and with a feverish tone, The letter expressed his determination to continue killing. Furthermore, he mocked the police for their fruitless efforts to capture him.

It was not the only time he contacted the police, he continued to do so on many more occasions. In some of them he even expressed that he felt possessed by Satan.

A ticket on your windshield

On July 31, 1977, he committed his last murder. He approached a car that was parked near a park, inside was a couple. The shooting ended the lives of the couple formed by Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante.

That night there were witnesses who gave a more precise description of the murderer. Added to this was the description of Cecilia Davis, who would recognize him due to his bad behavior after seeing that he had a ticket on his windshield.

The police began to put the pieces together and compare the data with the evidence they already had from previous cases, and also with the sanctions that had been imposed on the day of the murder.

It worked. An officer had issued a ticket for license plate 561-XLB. The car was registered to a David Berkowitz. They already had a suspect.

Sentence

On August 10, 1977, he was arrested and soon confessed to his crimes. He blamed his neighbor’s dog for ordering him to do the acts he had committed. He also claimed to hear demonic voices inside him so that he would not stop and continue killing.

In 1978, An expert report was prepared detailing a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. The prosecution disputed the study and claimed that it was fully aware of its actions. In this way, David Berkowitz was sentenced to life in prison.

It wouldn’t be the last news from David Berkowitz. On July 10, 1979, An inmate attacked him and stabbed him with a razor from his throat to the back of his head.. He needed 56 stitches.

After that, He tried to reform himself through the Christian religion. Finally, we “saw him again” on television recently thanks to the series Mindhunter. Currently, he continues to serve his sentence.

Main image of David Berkowitz played by Oliver Copper in the Mindhunter series

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