Acting
May 31, 1953
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
David Berkowitz
Acting
Biography
David Berkowitz was born as Richard David Falco. His mother had him out of wedlock when she had an affair with a married real-estate 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 Carr's 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 "Sam's" and now the press had a new moniker - "Son of Sam". The last "S.o.S" 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.
Feature Films (10)
David Berkowitz terrorized New York City by killing six people and wounding seven others in seemingly random shootings from July 1976 to July 1977. In his first major TV interview in a decade and his only interview about the 40th anniversary of his arrest, Berkowitz -- who is serving six consecutive life sentences -- speaks out to CBS News correspondent Maurice DuBois about what led him to kill, his life before he turned into a murderer, and what his life is like in prison today.
Son of Sam: The Killer Speaks
The Son of Sam, David Berkowitz testimony of his involvement into the occult, his descent into cold-blooded murder, his arrest, and his surprising conversion to Christianity in his years in prison.
Son of Sam, Son of Hope
Images of moral panic, cult followings and the edges of madness from sex and death.
Hymns from the Abyss
This documentary about serial killers and FBI Behavioral Sciences profilers features interviews with Ed Kemper and Ted Bundy as well as crime victims and law enforcement officials. The film includes some dramatic recreations.
Murder: No Apparent Motive
A shocking serial murder case terrorized New York 40 years ago. Surviving victims, families of the deceased, and the detectives who worked on the case recount their stories.
Son of Sam: The Hunt for a Killer
Television & Series (5)
The Son of Sam case grew into a lifelong obsession for journalist Maury Terry, who became convinced that the murders were linked to a Satanic cult.
The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness
Encounter the Pearl Harbor attacks, the L.A. riots, the Son of Sam murders and Patty Hearst's kidnapping the way they unfolded on TVs and radios across America. We present these shocking events from the 20th century, not through traditional journalistic reportage, but in real-time, as they were covered by national and local news broadcasts. This footage, much of which has not been seen in decades, gives an intimacy and immediacy to stories we thought we knew but will now rediscover through a unique perspective.
The Lost Tapes
TWISTED takes an in-depth look at the world's most prolific serial killers through first-hand accounts and testaments of those closest to them, and attempts to answer the question: Was it nature or nurture?
Twisted
Born To Kill is a British true crime television series, made by Twofour Productions. Each episode is an in-depth look at the childhood, and formative years of serial killers., in an attempt to find out whether the individuals were born killers, or created by the environments they found themselves in.
Born to Kill?
Mixing present-day interviews with previously unheard recordings, this true-crime series examines serial killer David Berkowitz's mark on 1970s New York.
