I am deeply hurt by your calling me a weman-hater. I am not. But I am a monster. I am the ‘son of Sam’. I am a little brat. When father Sam gets drunk he gets mean. He beats our family. Sometimes he ties me up to the back of the house. Other times he locks me in the garage. Sam loves to drink blood.…
Catalog
David Berkowitz
David Richard Berkowitz (born Richard David Falco; June 1, 1953), known also as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer who pled guilty to eight separate shooting attacks that began in New York City during the summer of 1976. The crimes were perpetrated with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver. He killed six people and wounded seven others by July 1977. As the number of victims increased, Berkowitz eluded the biggest police manhunt in the history of New York City while leaving letters that mocked the police and promised further crimes, which were highly publicized by the press. The killing spree terrorized New Yorkers and achieved worldwide notoriety. On the evening of August 10, 1977, Berkowitz was taken into custody by New York City police homicide detectives in front of his Yonkers apartment building, and he was subsequently indicted for eight shooting incidents. He confessed to all of them, and claimed to have been obeying the orders of a demon, manifested in the form of a dog, "Harvey", who belonged to his neighbor "Sam." Despite his explanation, Berkowitz was found mentally competent to stand trial. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was incarcerated in state prison. In the course of further police investigations, Berkowitz was also implicated in many unsolved arsons in the city. Intense coverage of the case by the media lent a kind of celebrity status to Berkowitz, and some observers noted that he seemed to enjoy i
And guys in here go through tremendous struggles inwardly. A lot of them, you know, play the macho role and keep things inside. But I know a lot of guys who cry on their pillow at night.
I feel that I'm totally Jewish. I was born a Jew, I feel I'm going to leave this world a Jew. I believe that Jesus is the Messiah of the Jews, and he loves the Jewish people.
I just felt I had no mind. I just felt something else was controlling, controlling me...
I just—at this time I had made a pact with the Devil, I had allowed this satanic thing to control me, and I felt these paranormal powers.
When I was growing up, I was so disruptive in school and had so many emotional problems, behavioral problems, that the school officials told my parents, you know, you're going to have to—to keep David in school, you're going to have to take him to a child psychologist. They made some kind of…
Yes, there were several times that at the beginning, when I first came to prison, I was very suicidal. And I saw no hope in living. I was disgusted with my life. I was angry at a lot of people. I felt betrayed, confused, and I saw no hope. So there were some times when I did try to commit suicide.
Yes, in 1979, another inmate—I guess to make a name for himself—tried to take my life. And he stuck me when I wasn't looking with a razor and opened up the whole side of my neck. And it was a miracle that I survived. When I went down to the prison infirmary, I walked down there on my own and I…
I wouldn't say I had a plan. I just felt driven. There was just so much in me that was driving me to destroy myself at the time.
God has given me a lot of strength and a lot of hope to make it and to endure and to survive. He has brought me—he's done some miracles in my life, and he's brought me through a lot of things that maybe others would not have survived.