Criminal Profile of David Berkowitz Luke Bowen

Background David Berkowitz was born Richard David Falco on June 1, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. His mother, Betty Broder, grew up in an poor Jewish family and his father, Tony Falco, an Italian-American Catholic. They separated before Berkowitz's birth. However, Falco isn’t really his father. His mom Broder had an affair with a married real estate agent, named Joseph Kleinman. She became pregnant and Kleinman threatened to abandon her if she told anyone about the baby. She listed the baby as Falco’s son. Kleinman was his true father. He was adopted by Pearl and Nathan Berkowitz, a Jewish-American couple. They reversed the order of his first and middle name, added their last name and David Richard Berkowitz came to be.

Background (cont.) David’s early child life was somewhat troubled. He was referred to as difficult, spoiled and a bully. At one point he was consulted by a therapists. At 14, Berkowitz's adoptive mother died of breast cancer. Life became hard because he disliked his adoptive father's second wife. In 1971, he joined the US Army and served in the United States and South Korea at only the age of 18 In 1974, he was honorably discharged. He relocated his birth mother, Betty Falco and discovered the details of his birth, which greatly disturbed him It was said that this is what changed his life forever because now he had a sense of lost identity. He later held quite a few blue collar jobs, and at the time of his arrest he was working as for the U.S. Postal Service

Crimes and Sentences It was in the mid 1970’s when his life of crime began. His first crime was a murder attempt with a knife against Michelle Forman. However he was never charged or convicted of this. After this attempt with the knife, he decided to switch to a gun for it would be more effective.

Crimes and sentences most recently Murder of Donna Lauria Attempted Murder of Jody Valenti-wounded Attempted Murder of Carl Denaro-wounded Attempted Murder of Rosemary Keenan-unwounded Attempted Murder of Donna DeMasi-wounded Attempted Murder of Joanne Lomino-wounded Murder of Christine Freund Attempted Murder of John Diel-unwounded Murder of Virginia Voskerichian Murder of Valentina Suriani Murder of Alexander Esau Attempted Murder of Salvatore Lupo-wounded Attempted Murder of Judy Placido-wounded Attempted Murder of Bobby Violante-wounded Murder of Stacy Moskowitz These crimes are the crimes he is most known for as the character we all know as the Son of Sam. He was convicted for 6 accounts of 2nd degree murder and 9 accounts of 2nd degree attempted murder. However, from all these convictions, David was sentenced to 6 life terms.

Evidence of the crime Berkowitz had quite a bit of evidence against him most of it being forensic. The police used the letters he had sent to them and compared it to his handwriting. Of course it was a match. There was a parking ticket given to Berkowitz’s car on the night of one of the murders only 1 street away from the scene. At his arrest they found in his car a .44 caliber revolver. It was taken into custody and matched to all the crimes connected tot the Son of Sam and many others. Finally, with his arrest, Berkowitz confessed to all the crimes that he was being charged with.

Quotes “I didn’t want to hurt them. I only wanted to kill them.” “ I am a monster. I am the Son of Sam. I love to hunt.”

Cultural References This is the most recent depiction of the killings of David Berkowitz. The film was made in 2008. It focuses on the satanic and cult like ideals of David in his urges to kill. There are some other examples such as the Summer of Sam from 1999 and many more.

Sociological Theory The Sociological Theory of Deviance that best represents my criminal and his deviant behavior is the Differential-Association Theory. This theory is when peoples behavior is largely determined by the company they keep. David Berkowitz was directly affected by those who surrounded him and they are what led him to his path of destruction. David did not have the greatest influence as a child. At birth, David was adopted into the Berkowitz family for they could not conceive a child of their own so David was their only child. They spoiled him, many described him growing up to be difficult and a bully as well. When he was given everything he wanted it gave him the mindset that whenever he wanted something he could get it. He was above-intelligence but lost an interest in school and learning early. In this point, since he didn’t like school and never payed attention and began to look for things to occupy his time, illegal things. He began to misbehave but nothing to the point where there was legal intervention or a record on file. Soon his adoptive mother died and since the adoptive father did not like him, David began his search for his real mom. When he found her he learned of his illegitimate birth. This greatly disturbed him because now the man he believed to be his father was not even his father but it was another man. It was even more troubling to hear his real father was dead. Now David at this point isn’t surrounded by anyone who truly cares for him he is on his own. All in all David was surrounded by many who had little to few values and was taught that he could get anything he wanted to receive. When he didn’t enjoy school anymore he began doing things with the wrong type of people to occupy his time and they influenced him greatly. Also as he grew up less and less people began to care for him so by the time he was 18 he was on his own.

Criminal Terms Convicted-to be guilty of a criminal offense by the verdict of a jury or decision of a judge in court. Murder-killing of one human by another Attempted Murder-attempted killing of one human by another. 2nd degree murder and attempted murder- an intentional killing or attempt to kill that is not planned Forensic-the application of scientific methods to the investigation of crime.